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.

Sony just announced at E3 that Playstation Network users now have the ability to rent and purchase moves and TV shows. Like, immediately -- the service is getting flipped on tonight. It's not just Sony content, either: Fox, MGM, Lions Gate, Warner, Disney, Paramount, Turner, and something called Funimation are signed up from the get-go. Video will be available in both SD and HD, and TV pricing starts at $1.99. Movie purchases will run $9.99 - $14.99, while rentals will be $2.99 - $5.99. What's more, the content is "portable," meaning that videos downloaded on your PS3 can be watched on multiple PSPs. It doesn't look like movies can be purchased in HD, but downloads are progressive so content starts playing a minute after you hit begin the download.

PSN users will also get a single persistent sign-on across every device that can access the network: PS3, PSP, PC. It's not clear whether those aliases will carry over into games themselves or if friends lists will start working across devices as well, however. The integration is scheduled to happen for this fall, though, so you might want to go and grab your handle of choice relatively soon.

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're not entirely sure how large the market for this peculiar PlayStation 3 add-on actually is, but the Mad Catz cooling fan / 3-port HDMI switch has just been reviewed by the kids over at IGN. Essentially, this thing snaps on and bulks up your PS3, adding in a noisy, likely ineffective duo of fans while providing a trio of HDMI / Toslink optical digital audio inputs. For all intents and purposes, the device performed just like any other HDMI system selector, with no noticeable degradation and full support for HDCP / 1080p. Furthermore, you'll find a bundled remote that can control DVD and Blu-ray playback on your console, and there's even a few cables thrown in to make you believe this thing is really worth the $79.99 asking price. According to this writeup, it's not a bad deal for those in need, but be sure to read the article in full before doing the deed.

Now that the big three have been out for quite some time (though securing the white one is still somewhat problematic, we hear), we figured it was a good time to throw this question out for folks finally looking to make their pick and snag a console:

"I've got a satisfactory HDTV now that I enjoy HD programming and Blu-ray movies on, but I'm getting the itch to pick up a console as well. Obviously, the only two out there that can really support HD gaming are the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, though I'm not ruling the Wii out completely. I know the PS3 would seem a no-brainer if I didn't already have a BD player, but removing that from the equation, which is likely to suit the HD lover best?"

Drop those gamepads and get over here -- this fellow needs some advice! Does the gameplay on Nintendo's unit trump the woefully underpowered hardware? Is the Xbox 360 superior to the PS3 graphically? Sound off however you'd like, just keep the fanboy comments to yourself.

Got a burning question that you'd love to toss out for Engadget HD (or its readers) to take a look at? Tired of Google's blank stares when you ask for real-world experiences? Hit us up at ask at engadgethd dawt com and keep an eye on this space -- your inquiry could be next.

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]