Hi, everyone, I’m excited about this new blog so I can talk with you about all the cool things we’re doing with the PLAYSTATION®Network. To start, we recently released PS3 firmware update 1.80, which is packed with features that we know many of you have been asking for. You can read the specifics of the upgrade here. That’s one of the best things about PS3 – it’s constantly being updated with new features. With 1.80, you can now upscale PlayStation® and PlayStation®2 games and DVD movies, up to 1080p if your TV supports it. You home theater buffs are probably all over this upgrade already, but if you don’t have an HDTV just yet, check out what upscaling does for God of War II and Shadow of the Colossus – games that were already gorgeous-looking to begin with – in these comparison screens.
Firmware 1.80 also added DLNA media server capability for streaming photos/music/videos from your PC to PS3, and I want to make sure that everyone knows how simple setup is. This feature works with many programs and devices; for this example, we’ll use a PC with Windows Media Player 11. All you need to do is:
* On your PC, enable “Media Sharing” on Windows Media Player 11 and allow sharing with the PS3 (it may be labeled as an “unknown device”).
* On your PS3, turn on “Media Server Connection” under Network Settings. PS3 will automatically search for media servers on the same home network, or you can scan for them manually.
Your PC and media files will pop up under the Photo/Music/Video XMB icons.
Need more info? Go here, here, and here.
The other big upgrade we’re thrilled about is Remote Play via wireless Internet. You’ve been hearing us talk about PS3-PSP interoperability for a long time, and this is a great step forward on that front. With the DLNA feature, you can access your PC’s media files remotely on your PSP, so you’re not limited to what’s on your PS3’s hard drive. Here’s a cool tip: if you’re not home on Thursdays when the PLAYSTATION®Store is updated with new content, get a head start by going to your closest Wi-Fi hotspot, turn on Remote Play on your PSP, and access the PLAYSTATION Store to download the latest games, demos, trailers, and more. Using background downloading, you can easily queue loads of content quickly. You will need to leave your PS3 on and in Remote Play, but we hear you loud and clear about wanting to power on or off PS3 remotely.
On that note, we’re always evaluating ways to enhance your PS3 experience, so now’s your opportunity to have your voice heard! Submit your number one most wanted addition to the PS3’s feature set here. We’ll post a list of the top 10 suggestions next week.
Eric Lempel
Director of Operations for PlayStation Network
Yeah, thanks big time for the 1.80 update, I have a lot of friends who thought I may have been a bit, say, premature in investing in the PS3, but with every update, it pays off huge.
Yes 1.80 is nice, any reason I can have a custom wallpaper yet?
mac users (and windows people to) the most current and active DNLA server app developer is TwonkyMedia.com.
the ps3 connectivity is in beta but if you worm your way around the forums you will find it. and it is working great! it is so awsome to have access to every piece of entertainment media on my ps3 .. so much so that i went out and got 2 more ps3s (one to replace an appleTV and coming from a hardcore line up for the iPhone guy .. thats huge)
Learn how to use these new features they will change your living room (and game room, and bedroom ;) forever.
1.80 Update Rocks! When can we expect support for our I Tunes library?
Hey guys, I’m very pleased with the upgrades for the most part. I have followed the directions, I see the “unknown device” and my playstation is able to see my media server. My problem comes with the video sharing. 2 questions, 1: What video formats are supported? (subquestion will you guys open up WMV, XVID, DIVX and others?). and 2: My playstation can SEE of my videos but says that it is unable to connect to the media server. What’s up with that. Great job otherwise tho guys. Look foreward to hearing your answer.
Jim
I agree with #1, thank you very much for this update. I was looking forward to upscaling and Remote Play via the net, and was hoping for UPnP media streaming.
I hope you take suggestions
-Custom soundtracks (including while in the store) (Including playlist generation/saving)
-Remove the need to press the home button when you play a PS1/PS2 game
-More video codecs!
-The ability to act as a webserver for PSP to upload and download videos/photos/music over the net
-To act as a wifi hotspot for PSPs while in the XMB
-Stream DVDs and BRDs to PSP (come on, they let linux have access to bluray) And what happened to that whole thing about bluray movies coming with lores copies for portable devices? Please let PS3 copy those to PSP when they become available
-Remote play enabled in more games, especially downloadable ones
-Convert movies to PSP, like PSX did
-Standbye/sleep mode, and charge controllers while in this mode. Or at least hibernation
-RSS feed and LocationFree clients
-Cross game chat and invitations via in-game XMB
-custom theme(color) and background
-Reboot to OtherOS, listed on the shutdown menu, at least while in the XMB
-Enable copy/delete multiple, subfolders and sorting/grouping for movies and PS1/PS2 memory cards
-The ability to rip PS1 games to PSP
-The ability to use PSP+Chotto/GoCam as a webcam
-Access to network attached USB printers.
-A clipboard
how about more ps1 title for ps3 god damn it. i have been waiting forever for a good release even since update 1.70 and 1.80
Wow, I find it really awesome that you have created this Blog, and as a customer I appreciate the fact that you are willing to listen to your customers, unlike certain other companies. I also enjoy the fact that you support this claim of listening to us when you say this,
“You will need to leave your PS3 on and in Remote Play, but we hear you loud and clear about wanting to power on or off PS3 remotely.”
I look forward to that ability! :)
Wow, good job Sony!
I would suggest that u guys try to fix the upscaling on the games to high def as even though u successfully upscaled it…..it made it more blurry to see…and hopefully i would like to see some upscaling for all the ps3 games to 1080p but not like how the ps/ps2 games ended up being blurry….i also suggest a movie download store for the playstation store….and thats pretty much what i can think of…….thanks for all ur updates…..i appreciate it
Fan-freakintastic update. Love the ps1/2 upscaling (SoTC and RE:4 are… wow!). All I need now is the ability to play ALL my PS3 games at 1080 (need the ability to scale 720p to 1080i!) and I’m set. It’s kinda sad to have SoTC look better than any PS3 game on my system…
Love the media sharing and DVD upscaling too! keep it up guys!
-Foo
in game xmb for all games and unified buddy list for all games for in game chatting and game invies
Thanks for the update! Now when can we have our background pics and online pics changed?
Love the 1.80 update. I have been transferring a bunch of songs from my computer to my PS3 with ease.
One problem though is that unless I have media sharing disabled, I get logged off very frequently. I know hitting disable isn’t a real big deal, but a fix in the next update would be cool.
1.8 was a shock in good way thanks for that update, I’m currently using all the functions. 1.80 = a lot of added value in my book
Number one most wanted upgrade seems to be, from what I gather from the PS forums, in game XMB acess.
Harrison! get blogging!
Love the 1.80 firmware!
I’m a Sony fanboy, I must admitt it, got my PS3 since January 31st (I live in latinamerica) and with every update you guys pull out I get more excited about the future of the PS3.
Now with my suggestions for a future update:
1. Custom soundtracks for our games please!!
2. Custom wallpapers
3. Access to the XMB through our games, it is really annoying to keep saving our games and going back to the dashboard just to look for a new message.
Keep up the good work!
Firmware 1.80 is brilliant! Hope you keep improving it, since it seems a little bit unfinished now.
How about adding the HQ4x filter? (http://www.hiend3d.com/hq4x.html) or Kreed’s pretty much imfamous 2xSai filter? (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2xSaI) since I’m sure everyone would appreciate it!
Thanks for putting this blog up as well!
yes, thank you so much for the update and upconversion! so much better on my eyes!
Awesome firmware update! I finally got my new HDTV and I love my PS3 even more. I was gonna suggest some new features for future updates, but the other guys beat me to it. They’re all great suggestions, but I think Sony should implement most of them as soon as possible. Unfortunately, PS3 sales aren’t so hot right now. The updates may help show what other features the PS3 is capable of. Keep up the good work and thanks for the new blog.
I’m exited that I can now clear the space my DVD player was using. With this update I no longer have a need for it.
However, as great as having DVD and PS1/2 games upscale, it is not as great as being able to play PS3 games in 1080.
I have a CRT TV that does only 480i/p and 1080i. It is frustrating having to play PS3 games in 480p when my PS2 games play in 1080i.
I hope you guys address this issue soon so that I can get the best experience out of my PS3.
Thank you.
Yes, Harrison, start blogging!!!
Thank you Sony! I’m believing in you guys to continue bringing good stuff to the table.
Everything that was said at #6 plus:
– An in-XMB help option which describes what every major function/setting actually does. I know there is an online manual, but I think most people don’t bother with it and feel confused about what does what.
Now we just need the ability to upscale PS3 games.
I can’t wait to be able to turn my PS3 on and off through Remote Play. I am glad you guys are listening. Love the upscaling of the PS2 games. Finally, FFXI looks alot better from the first time I played it on the PS3 back in November. Also I love the downscaling on the BD movies to 720p. My 720p HDTV is lovin’ it.
The Playstation3 is an amazing piece of hardware equipment, and I definitely will be following any associated news with it closely. Ever since hearing about that bogus 2.0 update, which I honestly would not be expecting for a while unless informed sooner, I have been thinking how crucial that; in game xmg access is to the gaming aspect of the console, allowing users to listent to custom soundtracks in the game, as well as the ability to put up a wallpaper or atleast change the background color of the xbm interface. And the ability to also convert a movie to a psp readable file on the PS3 would be some snazzy stuff as well. But there is virtually nothing to really complain about seeing as this machine does nearly everything else. Sony, Woot Woot.
In-game XMB access!
I would like to be able to pause a game and access out-of-game content (videos, pictures, music, web browser, downloads, chat, etc.) and then return to the game.
The PS3 is simply amazing! Even more, before firmware 1.8 I was not interested in PSP, after it I went and bought a PSP mainly because of the potentiall I see between these two. The Media Center functionality is great, I can’t believe it is so flawless and easy to configure.
Hopefully we will continue getting more cool functionalities and great games from you guys! We only have to wait and be patient.
Keep up the excellent work!!!!
i would like in game XMB so we can play music and talk to freinds without having to quit the game, the olny feature that matters to me at the moment.
hey guys! when will you release software to allow recording videos on my ps3 through the PSEye? (I know that will come in some games but I would like to do this from the interface directly without any games involved)
Also the ps3 can detect all the media content on my laptop but it cant play the wmv, divX, and mp4 video files. When will these video formats be supported?
For DVD’s this update is INSANE. It literally breaths life into older dvd’s. What I would have loved and maybe this has already been thought of is doubling the ‘internal’ resolution of PSX and PS2 games ‘then’ scaling to the appropriate resolutions. Don’t even have to add anti aliasing but would have to use a bi-linear filter. That would be insane you would hear praise for years.
I like everything in the update.
I am unhappy, however, that while I can now play ps2 games in HD on my HDTV, I still can not play the majority of my PS3 games in HD on my HDTV. Specificaly I would like to see Sony increase software sales by providing the ability for 720p games to upscale to 1080i on tvs that only accept the higher of the 2 HD resolutions (mainly CRT HDTVs) – see this thread as an illustration of how much support is out there for this fix and also to see how many sales royalties are being lost on every HD game that does not play in HD on all HDTVs.
Many Thanks
http://boardsus.playstation.com/playstation/board/message?board.id=ps3&thread.id=1543693
Also please provide stable support for the majority of bluetooth headsets. For example: prior to firmware 1.6 my (and all others’) Motorola H500 headset worked great with no need to re -pair the connection everytime we turn on the PS3, the opposite is true for the H850.
See here for more info on the Bluetooth headset issues people are having
http://boardsus.playstation.com/playstation/board/message?board.id=ps3&thread.id=898874&view=by_date_ascending&page=1
all in all keep up the great work
Just wanted to make sure that you’re aware that there is an issue with the 1.8 update and Linksys WRT54G routers. If you try to enable media sharing you lose your network connection via the PS3. As long as I keep media sharing disabled on the PS3 my PSN connection is stable.
The continued updates have really prevented me from having buyer’s remorse with my PS3. We all know how much potential the PS3 has and the updates are working to make that potential a reality. I also never thought of getting a PSP, but with the updated and the announced v2 of the PSP, I think it’s time to take the plunge.
I also want more audio/video codecs! Anyone else hate the user interface of the PS Store? It’s hard to scroll through pages, and it takes too damn many clicks to do anything. After all those clicks…I STILL have to click some more to install the demo I just downloaded? C’mon.
What I’d like to see…
#1 In-game XMB
#2 In-game XMB
#3 In-game XMB
#4 In-game XMB
#5 In-game XMB
#6 Custom soundtracks
#7 Custom wallpaper
#8 DivX/Xvid support
#9 Unified buddy list
#10 Everything else in the rumored 2.0 update :)
oh yeah the RGB Full feature is great!
However, after whatching a bluray, dvd, or playing a PS2 or PS1 game, the settings revert to limited, while still showing on the display options as being set to Full,
the function stays when playing and exiting PS3 games
For more info: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=851873&highlight=rgb
In-game access to XMB messaging and chat.
I recently discovered the chat option and now my friends get together and chat before we log in to Resistance for clan nights. The chat host should migrate to another person in case the person who started it needs to leave. As it is now, it just kicks everybody out. Could you expand the number of people who can chat and let us stream our music to others too? The only other thing missing for chat is that I can’t access my media server stuff unless I leave the chat and come back in. This kind of functionality makes me really excited for HOME already. How about a beta invite? ;)
Backwards compatibility for GH controllers!!! Then I can finally get rid of my PS2.
Custom soundtracks would be nice too.
Now that I got the big stuff in my wishlist out of the way, the upscaling/smoothing options are awesome. I’ve recently started another play-through of Final Fantasy 8 and it looks tons better without all the jaggies, which reminds me. When you put a CD into your PS3, you can have it look up the artist/track information, how come that doesn’t happen when you put in a PS1 or PS2 game. It would be cool if it would show that I’m playing Final Fantasy 8 to my friends.
720p is the native resolution of my TV and the PS3 does a much better job of scaling than my TV does. Blu-Rays, DVDs, PS games – all look a lot better. This update is very much appreciated! Kudos to your FW guys.
Are you planning on keeping up with the monthly FW updates? There’s been one the 4th Wednesday of every month since February. That rumored FW 2.0 looks awesome. is any of that coming?
Sorry this is long :/
Comments 33 and 35 sum up what I wanted to say.
1. Scale 720p to 1080i and I will buy a lot more PS3 games.
2. Please fix the 1.8 update so that I do not lose my connection when I enable media sharing.
Oh and .avi, .wmv, or .divx support would be super!
@CarterTheGuest: That uPNP server I plugged has iTunes library support .. works awesomely ;)
you know what i was thinking as i read the comments? what is the official stance on Codec support .. you know because XVID/DIVX has been around for QUITE a while and i am surpised to not see it supported in teh ps3 .. but on cheaper media appliances like its supported. is there an official policy or stance?
I so loved this update, its made me go back and reply a lot of my old PS2 games. The FW updates I am always looking forward too.
Now if only the weekly PSN updates were as good. ;)
Upscale? I laugh at this… The update merely allowed us to stretch the picture over a proper resolution. I’ve got black bars all aorund my screen now when I play Ps1 and Ps games. It didn’t use to be like that… I hope there is another update coming along to fix this problem. The only way I can play in HD and make it look like it is upscaled is upscale setting but this makes a little box in the middle of my screen. It’s very anoying.
Excellent update but the media streaming feature needs a lot better video support. As of right now it’s basically useless because no files are supported.
The other problem I have with streaming video is the PS3 seems to fit the image to my screen, loosing the aspect ratio and in some cases reducing image clarity because of it. I mean if there is a user solution I’m not aware of someone please let me know. Being able to stream video files off my network is a big plus and I really want to work without any major issues.
There are variety of other things I would like to see in future updates such as the ability to use the PS button to pull up the media bar while i’m playing a game. Having a more robust online profile that allows other users to see what games I have in my collection, etc etc. I’m sure many of those ideas are coming with Home so I’ll refrain from writing about them until then.
I love the upscaling but i have been noticing alot of problems with the Linksys Routers. I have a Linksys Router also and cant do the media sharing and I would love to!
I love the ps3 and the updates I would love it if we could rent movies and buy songs via the playstation network thanks for a great system
@gamesblow and chainblast:
Quick upscaling FAQ:
You will want to set the option for the PS/PS2 upscaler to “normal” If you set it to full screen and are playing a game that doesn’t support wide screen, it will stretch the image so everything on the screen will look fat. It would be nice if they allowed you to change this option from in-game so you could adjust it if your game supports it but you are better off just leaving it on normal.
Most PS/PS2 games that do have a wide screen mode aren’t “real” wide screen as in they don’t add any additional detail on the sides. They just compress the image so when your TV blows it up again, it looks normal.
To others: there is a smoothing option that pretty much eliminates jaggies but takes away some edge detail. If you want a cleanly upscaled image like the 360 does, leave smoothing off.
nice to hear about this im from ireland i hope to hear more i would like this home to come out soon keep up the good work sony
The 1,80 update is great I can use my PSP to look at content on my PSP, wusic gametrailers talk to my buddies werever I am in the wolrd…Great stuff.
Also my PS3 is my mediacentre for to stream music movies and pictures directly from by PC to the PS3 and my Television…I LOVE IT!!!
[URL=www.ps3tags.com][IMG]http://www.ps3tags.com/tag.php/DooM/tag.png[/IMG][/URL]
greatings from the netherlands