Though we suspect this is totally normal judging by the fact that not all HD flicks available via Apple TV have 5.1 Dolby Digital surround sound, it is a wee bit disappointing. One particular tipster wrote in to express his frustration with Sony's recently launched PlayStation Video Store, noting that his HD movie rental featured only stereo sound. When contacting Sony on the matter, a Store specialist informed him that no refunds were allowed and there was no way to determine how audio was packaged prior to downloading. So yeah, if multi-channel audio is paramount, you may want to think twice about emptying your wallet in the PS Store.

So much for early 2008 or even July for that matter. Sony's David Reeves now confirms that PlayTV -- the €99 PS3 TV tuner / DVR add-on -- will hit the UK on September 10th. The service will then march onto the continent before completing the European rollout in December -- Australia and New Zealand get theirs in January or February. Notably, the service will in fact record television in the background without interrupting your regularly scheduled gaming regimen thanks to the recent 2.41 firmware PS3 update. Phew, for a moment we felt threatened by a lack of manufactured distractions.

[Via gamesindustry.biz]

Those of you who didn't stay up late last night and check out the new PlayStation Store on your own now have nowhere to go. Stuck inside your cube with no early lunch, no way to slip out at 3:00 -- nada. Thankfully, the crew over at PS3 Fanboy has the goods to satisfy your appetite until you get home. Tap the read link for a gallery of hands-on shots, and chime in below with your likes / dislikes once you've had a chance to meander around yourself.

The long delay until Sony launched its video download service (actually more like a few hours), is over. HD and SD rentals, and SD purchases from an assortment of movie studios is now available in the Playstation Store by selecting the video button at the top left. Need to know what's available in your region but aren't near your PS3? Check out the website for a list of what awaits.

[Via PS3 Fanboy]

If you've stumbled upon the perfect solution for archiving your DVD collection and streaming it via a DLNA server (you know, like the PlayStation 3), this week's Ask Engadget question is just begging for your input. Head on over and give those two pennies a toss!

The latest PlayStation 3 2.4x firmware update added more than just the long-awaited in-game XMB access. Upscaling from Blu-ray discs is now supported, allowing the system to deinterlace 1080i to 1080p on its own, if you have a homemade BDAV formatted disc recorded in less-than-full HD. Retail Blu-ray flicks are BDMV formatted, so for certain discs not in 1080p (mostly concerts), they'll still be played only in their native resolution. Also included is upscaling, frame noise reduction and block noise reduction for video played off the PS3 HDD or external storage media, and DTS-ES and DTS 96/24 compatibility on Blu-ray discs. AVSForum posters are also reporting some DTS-HD 7.1 discs now map to their speakers properly, but as we've seen, your experience may vary.

Read - PS3 2.41 System Update
Read - PS3 Firmware 2.4x- Master Thread

Buried under predictions that 2012 will bring dominance for Blu-ray over DVD and breaking news that the PS3 just may have had a hand in winning the format war the Entertainment Merchant's Association 2008 Annual Report on the Home Entertainment Industry holds survey results showing 87% of PS3 owners reported they watch Blu-ray movies on their console. That's a stark contrast to last year's NPD survey indicating 60% of owners didn't even know it played them. We don't know what's behind the jump, be it better marketing/consumer education, or something wrong with how one the surveys were conducted. You can mull that one over during the fast money round while also peeping results that say 22% of HDTV owners think they're watching HD programming, but in fact are not -- not like we haven't heard that before.

[Via PS3 Fanboy]

Gamers stuck with an older HDTV that doesn't support 720p input can cheer for the upcoming Burnout: Paradise "Cagney" update, which adds (among other things) 1080i output support for the PlayStation 3 version. Dismissively referring to such sets "almost HD", Simon Phipps of Criterion dropped the details on the free update due July 10 that also adds improved SD rendering on the PS3 and support for custom soundtracks. It'd be nicer if that slick 2.40 update added Xbox 360-style scaling for all games so developers didn't to expend the effort, but from the sounds of things it's not high on Sony's list of priorities.

[Via PS3 Fanboy]

Ok, we know the PlayStation 3 is getting a movie download service this year - but apparently much work remains to be done. Variety checked into the situation and sees the number of movie studios signed on at present stands at exactly one: Sony Pictures. Never fear, because being late to the party could benefit Sony as it negotiates deals with other studios similar to the ones already in place for Xbox Live Video Marketplace and iTunes. Also on board is the possibility of transferring flicks to PSP, although that and any other features that expand on the functionality already seen on other services could slow down a deal. We're torn, while having another competitor in digital downloads (and another way to enjoy movies on our PS3) as soon as possible sounds good, we might be willing to wait if it means Sony's leverage can swing more features (or at least some leeway to the DRM currently in place on other services).

[Via PS3 Fanboy]

Sony just released a rambling update to it corporate strategy through fiscal year 2010. An interesting read for fans and competitors alike as Sony lays bare initiatives intent on moving Sony from recovery to the "leading global provider of networked consumer electronics and entertainment." Most notable in the near-term however, is word from Kazuo Hirai, chieftain of Sony Computer Entertainment, that Sony will make a movie download service available to US PlayStation 3 owners this summer -- Japan and Europe at later dates with details coming "next month," presumably at E3. Moreover, Sony expects its gaming business to achieve profitability by March 2009, the end of the current fiscal year. Of course, we already knew that Sony was prepped to deliver full-length TV shows and movies sometime in 2008 via its North American PLAYSTATION Network. But summer, eh? Judging by the increased molecular agitation of sidewalk effluence, we'd say that Sony's season of movie downloads is already upon us.

Read -- 2010 plan
Read -- US summer launch

It may be tough to remember back, but when Sony's PlayStation 3 launched well above the price of its two rivals, many were immediately turned off. Reviewers everywhere panned the system for being too pricey, forcing Blu-ray upon the unsuspecting public, and being quite limited in home theater applications. Fast forward to today, and everything has changed. BD is the sole next-gen format, Sony has slashed the price, and its internal components have enabled it to keep up with the Profile changes while standalone decks get left in the proverbial dust. The folks over at ArsTechnica took the time to sit back down with the PS3 now that the tables have turned, and unsurprisingly, they found a lot more to like this 'go round. For HD aficionados in particular, the console is simply hard to ignore, as it still stands as the "most affordable fully-featured HD disc player on the market." Check out the full re-review below to see if Sony's latest console really is your best bet.

[Via BLORGE]

Given that $100 at Wal-mart is essentially as good as cash, we can only imagine how titillating this offer may seem for Blu-ray holdouts. Announced today, the mega-retailer will be offering a $100 gift card with the purchase of any Blu-ray player from June 8th through 14th -- and yes, Sony's PlayStation 3 is included. In case this wasn't enough to maybe-possibly get the general public to actually pay attention to the format, Wally World will also sell "select" BD titles for $15 starting on the 8th. Since the format war ended earlier this year, we've seen report after report proclaiming that Blu-ray adoption just wasn't taking off here in America, but with a theoretical net price now close to $200 (albeit for a few days only), we can certainly see the masses taking notice at long last.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

We knew native 1080p gaming wouldn't necessarily be the standard this console generation, but especially in light of Sony's "HD era doesn't start until we're on the market" comments, things are getting a bit ridiculous. PS3-exclusive Haze is the latest to slide in underneath the 720p bar, with sharp eyed pixel counters finding a mere 1024x576 resolution in the demo on PSN, anumber confirmed by the game's creative lead after it was originally denied on the U.S. Playstation blog. Haze is hardly the first game to do this, with GTA IV on the PS3, Call of Duty 4 on Xbox 360 and PS3 and Halo 3 on Xbox 360 all using upscaling to deliver extra effects over pixels, but someday we'd like to have our cake and eat it too. Of course, judging by early reviews, how many pixels are present might not have saved lackluster gameplay.

[Via PS3 Fanboy]

Amazingly, prerelease estimates of a $400 million first week for the latest edition of Grand Theft Auto turned out to be low, with publisher Take-Two trumpeting a 6 million unit, $500 million debut. GTA in HD isn't without controversy however, with reports of overscan issues on older HDTVs (we've experienced it, with the last number or letter in mission descriptions sometimes running off the screen), and the PlayStation 3 version of the game not quite meeting our 720p expectations (although some say differences in textures and lighting more than make up for it). Being "only" 640p didn't stop previous record holder Halo 3, and looking at the numbers it appears Rockstar has made the right moves as well, although we're sure some will wait for the inevitable PC version to run the game in as high a resolution as possible.

[Via Joystiq]

One step forward, two steps back. Just days ago we found that Blu-ray sales as a whole were up over 300-percent year-over-year from Q1 2007, but new data from NPD has found that sales of BD players -- Sony's PlayStation 3 notwithstanding -- sunk a staggering 40-percent from January to February in the US. Furthermore, sales only grew 2-percent from February to March. Of course, these figures tie in nicely with ABI Research's take that Blu-ray wouldn't "dominate" the market until players broke the magical $200 price point (and included Profile 2.0), and it also makes sense that the PS3 would lead the sector until 2013 if things continue at this rate. According to NPD's Ross Rubin, an "overwhelming majority [of surveyed consumers] said they weren't investing in a new next-generation player because their old DVD player worked well and next-gen players were too expensive." That pretty much sums it up, now doesn't it?

[Image courtesy of kev]