Some Playstation 3 questions (not gaming related)

[pbirkett]

Hi all,

I am possibly considering a Playstation 3 in the future, it will be the first games console i have ever bought, i've always done gaming on PCs but i got disillusioned with that business of upgrading all of the time for half a dozen good titles a year.

The main reason for the possible PS3 purchase is because the machine has the Blu-ray capability.

I had also thought about a HTPC but thats a lot more expensive, and basically, as long as it can do what I hope it can do, the PS3 should be sufficient.

1. I presume the PS3 has an HDMI out to connect it to my plasma?
2. I also presume it upscales SD-DVDs? If so, how good a job does it do?
3. How loud is the unit (i.e. cooling fans etc)? I can tolerate a low level white noise, but nothing too noisy.
4. I've heard it can browse the web. Is the unit capable of playing videos from on-demand services such as BBC iPlayer & 4-on-demand ? What about Youtube, streetfire, PHTV etc?
5. My mates quite frequently offer me HD quality movies they downloaded from the net (presumably DivX or something similar). Would the PS3 be able to play these?

OK, and on a game related note, can you use a keyboard and mouse for first person shooters on the PS3? I hate playing that genre with a pad, and its my favourite genre alongside driving games...

[Plotloss]

1. Yes
2. Yes - remarkably good, set one up last week for a customer, I was pleasantly suprised
3. Quite quite, loss noisy than an Xbox
4. There is a browser, dunno about the other bits
5. Dunno about HD downloads specifically but you can stream media to it or play it from locally attached usb keys/HDD etc

I must get around to getting one.

[sstein]

I don't think the PS3 plays DivX, I can't seem to get it to play downloaded tv shows which I think are DivX. Stuff like Family Guy, How I met your mother etc.

They work if I convert them to mpg first.

-

Stuart

[sstein]

TVersity is pretty easy to set up to stream media from the PC to PS3.

-

Stuart

[paul26982]

download linux on the ps3, all info you need is here, ps3-hacks.com

[Olf]

Might want to have a look at this write up I did a while back.

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...

[paul26982]

heres an update bout new firmare, one of you questions is answered here

Hi again everyone. Here’s a quick preview of the next PLAYSTATION 3 system software update coming up in the next few days. Firmware v2.20, introduces a number of features to further enhance your PLAYSTATION 3 as the hub of your entertainment center.

Most notably, the update enables the PS3 to support Blu-ray Disc Profile 2.0, also known as BD-Live. You can connect now to the Internet while playing discs that support BD-Live to obtain additional content and special features. These features vary from disc to disc, and will keep your BD discs fresh with new content and in some cases exclusive content only accessible to owners of BD-Live enabled discs. On April 8th Sony Pictures Home Entertainment will release The 6th Day and Walk Hard on Blu-ray; these titles will be among the first to take advantage of BD-Live. With this update, the PLAYSTATION 3 becomes the first Blu-ray player on the market with BD-Live functionality.

Here are some of the other new features/enhancements that will be included in Firmware v2.20:

* The ability to copy PS3 Music and Photo playlists to a PSP system. We introduced the ability to create Music and Photo playlists on the PS3 in firmware update v2.0. Now you can easily export your playlists to your PSP.
* You can now play DivX and WMV format files that are over 2 GB.
* Resume Play - begin playing a DVD or BD disc from the point where you previously stopped it, even if you eject the disc and insert a different movie or game.
* Use your PSP as a remote control to play back your music files on your PS3 without turning on your TV.
* The Internet browser now displays some web pages faster. In addition [Save Target] has been added as an option under file. This option lets you save a file that is linked to a web page to your PS3 hard drive or storage media.

There are a few other tweaks and upgrades included in v2.20 - we’ll provide more specifics as the update is about to go live.

i got this email from playstation blog

[pbirkett]

Thanks for the replies, it seems like the PS3 would do at least some of what I want... a bit of a shame it appears as though it would not do the iplayer / on-demand stuff, but that wouldnt neccesarily be a deal killer. Although I am not much into games these days, the thoughts of a few decent driving games do appeal. Anyone confirm then whether you can do the FPS thing with a mouse and keyboard?

[paul26982]

whats fps, if you mean use a mouse n keyboard then yes

[Mr_Yogi]

fps is First Person Shooter, think Doom/ Quake/ Unreal Tournament.

As for Mouse and Keyboard the PS3 does support them but AFAIK the only game to enable them as controllers is UT3, which even has separate servers for standard controllers and any controllers (including keyboard+mouse).

[pbirkett]

Mr_Yogi said:

fps is First Person Shooter, think Doom/ Quake/ Unreal Tournament.

As for Mouse and Keyboard the PS3 does support them but AFAIK the only game to enable them as controllers is UT3, which even has separate servers for standard controllers and any controllers (including keyboard+mouse).

Its a shame that UT3 is the only game to support keyboard and mouse - I havent looked into it but can imagine there must surely be a few decent FPS games for the PS3 now. Although i always remember the Unreal series being good on the PC...

Not surprised they have different servers for pad versus any controller... a good player on KB+Mouse would destroy anyone on a gamepad.

[Thudd]

HD Downloads are mostly in Matroska format these days - neither X360 nor PS3 play this.

I bought a PS3 last week, and:

1) It's silent
2) DVD upscaling is very very impressive and it plays back in 5.1 and DTS
3) I've not tried it, but apparently divx and xvid playback varies between USB sticks, external USB HDD's, CD and DVD. Worth experimenting if you're into that.

What I have noticed is that there are very few decent games or BluRay disks at present.

Highlights for me so far are Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, GTHD, Portal (off Half Life2 Orange Box), Ratchet & Clank.
The upscaling is really very very good tho - it's stopped me using my £1k (tho admittedly 9yr old) Prog Scan Sony DVD player.
X360 upscaling is awful. But I think it works better for DivX playback off USB HDD.

Roll on Dualshock3 and GT5. Prologue out on Friday

[escargot]

paul26982 said:

download linux on the ps3, all info you need is here, ps3-hacks.com

I've seen loads of people on various forums say this, none of whom actually give any reason as to why it's beneficial to do so?

[paul26982]

if you too lazy to remove yourself from the ps3 and want to use your pc, go to ps3-hacks.com great site for owners

[beakr]

Thudd said:

1) It's silent

I'd agree with this mostly, except every now and then the fans get a-going and you can hear it - but it's not really louder than a typical PC with the fans spinning.

Edited by beakr on Tuesday 25th March 14:17

[mantra]

beakr said:

Thudd said:

1) It's silent

I'd agree with this mostly, except every now and then the fans get a-going and you can hear it - but it's not really louder than a typical PC with the fans spinning.

Edited by beakr on Tuesday 25th March 14:17

its silent

not mentioned, youtube is fine and also they are constantly updating and increasing functionality of Ps3 - if it doesnt do something today then it would be no surprise if ps3 was capable quite soon. Also as they are +1M Ps3s in UK surely BBC iplayer can only be a matter of time.

[Thudd]

iPlayer would be wonderful.

A browser is sorely lacking from the 360 - apparently Microsoft don't want to be sued for kids looking at grot through their console

[paul26982]

think the dash board ect is extremely poor compared to the ps3's, i like the hole package especially the interface etc, were i look at the 360 and just see that all you can do is put a disc in, if you know what i mean

[Thudd]

paul26982 said:

think the dash board ect is extremely poor compared to the ps3's, i like the hole package especially the interface etc, were i look at the 360 and just see that all you can do is put a disc in, if you know what i mean

Not really, no.

Only difference is that the X360 presents you with tabs instead of menus. And XBox Live works well.

I use my Xbox360 as a media player with a large USB drive full of divx hanging off the back and a media remote.

I'm using the PS3 as a DVD Player as it upscales nicely.


Not sure what "the hole package" is. Gay porn?

[pbirkett]

Update:

I've just bought one! I couldnt resist the temptation to get the PS3 now that Prologue is out, so I popped down to my local shopping centre and picked the PS3 Prologue pack up for £280, and I got a game called "Darkness" for £15 which looked really good when I was reading a review of it.

Just doing the system update now. So far it has been relatively easy to set up, save for not being able to find the system update option straight away.

I also got myself 3 Blu-Ray movies. It'll be the first time i've seen my Panny PX70 42" plasma actually running anything in hi def.