Free HDTV with your PS3?
By David Cassel
Want to watch the last Pirates of the Caribbean movie in high-definition? Now any DVD can be played back as a high-definition movie on your PS3. (Sort of…) And the PS3 will now perform the same trick when playing old PlayStation and PlayStation 2 games. If Sony can’t sell enough consoles with their current lineup of PS3 games, maybe they can entice buyers with their upscaled version of high-definition video!
It all started Thursday, when Sony began letting users install the latest PS3 software update. The upscaled playback may require an HDMI cable (and for movies, an HDMI compatible TV!) but the high-def game conversion can be accomplished with just an AV cable. It converts the playback of both DVDs and PlayStation games into a high-definition, 1920 x 1080 progressive scan.
Calling the new picture “vibrant,” Sony touted the update as a way to exploit the growing demand for high-definition video. “As adoption of HDTVs continues to surge, we know that consumers are hungry for content,” a Sony marketing Vice President said, “and this latest firmware update leverages the PS3’s technology to deliver a high definition-quality experience using the entertainment media already in your collection.”
Next week a firmware update will also enable a “Remote Play” feature. PSP users will then be able to access any music, video, or photo on their PSP hard drive anywhere they can find a Wi-Fi internet connection — including the 7,000 T-Mobile HotSpot locations.
It’s nice to see the high definition features extended retroactively to older PlayStation games. But with the high-definition playback, Sony is sending consumers another message
That the PS3 can do more than just play games.
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Tips N4G
May 25th, 2007
I find it stunning how informed the numskulls that write the articles here are…
“Now any DVD can be played back as a high-definition movie on your PS3.”
Now that’s not true is it? talk about misleading people. Whilst a DVD will look much better than before (and exceeding $1500 upscaling DVD players), it’s no substitute for proper HD content.
Pirates of the Caribbean, of course is available only on Blu-Ray, and is proper HD.. Not pretend HD…
Still I wouldn’t expect a “news” article written by a load of Xbot fanboys to know the difference….
May 25th, 2007
I have to agree wholeheartedly with Mark. I ran across this article in a google news search, and boy am I shocked at the sheer number of incorrect and misleading statements that this one article contains.
“Now any DVD can be played back as a high-definition movie on your PS3″ is just wrong. It will format the picture to better fit the screen, and upconvert the display of the movie to attempt to clean up the picture a bit, but this doesn’t really make it high-definition.
“The upscaled playback may require an HDMI cable (and for movies, an HDMI compatible TV!)” …..This makes no sense! How could you play games through the HDMI connection if your TV isnt HDMI compatible??? Also, it isn’t “may require” it definitely requires HDMI connection for playing movies, and games require a component cable (not just any A/v cable).
Next, your statements about remote play leave out the most important part, which is the fact that you need to have a PSP, and the firmware that enables this being released next week is for the PSP, not the PS3. The whole idea is that with your PSP on the go, you can still access your movies, music and photos from your PS3 hard drive (but not PS3 games).
I think this was the first and last article I will read from gamer.blorge
May 25th, 2007
It’s not true HD… I own a PS3 and just updated the firmware. I must admit, it does make things look better… But FAR from true HD quality. Upscaling does not equal HD.
June 10th, 2007
But at least it’s region free - so we can enjoy upscaled DVDs from wherever we choose to buy them!
December 4th, 2007
It looks pretty good to me when upscaled.
January 22nd, 2008
yep sure does
February 24th, 2008
yeh the upscaling is really good
its a great feature