PS3 Firmware Upgrade 1.81 Coming Tomorrow

keisukeMamoru86  |  June 15th, 2007 at 2:41 pm

Here I am, clamoring for in-game XMB again. I know you hear us Sony, and I hope you will address the idea soon.

Good job on the patch though. It doesn’t affect me right now, since I don’t own an HDTV, but good to see you’re covering all the bases

JimmyHACK  |  June 15th, 2007 at 2:46 pm

Full RGB from 1.80 has been working flawlessly..

Makes Warhawk beta and the Uncharted trailer look so much better.. never had the problem of it resetting to default, but i guess for those with the problem this is good news..

I am all about XMB in game … pretty please.. messages in game are needed… After that XMB custom wallpapers are all i need until Home

solidsnake  |  June 15th, 2007 at 3:05 pm

On hte next update can we get custom playlists in game

slerch666  |  June 15th, 2007 at 3:09 pm

Since you brought up PS2 games, how about giving those of us who own a Japanese PS2 and legit Japanese PS2 games a break? Let us play our legit PS2 games region free like we do the PS3 games (Gundam Musou, or Dynasty Warriors: Gundam as it will be dubbed in the US upon release, kicks all sorts of booty)!

And support for region free PS1 games would be nice too.

You could allow PAL games to be played, but only after users check a box that says you know some UK/PAL formatted games won’t work properly on NTSC only TVs (and may not work on some HD TVs as well).

Thanks.

lyfestory  |  June 15th, 2007 at 3:12 pm

wondering when we might see a change in the background of the XMB main screens? or allowing music to be playing while browsing other content or downloading or whatnot..?? and are any games currently able to utilize uploaded music if you want to listen to your music while playing a game…?? certain games beg for this more than others, like Madden or NFS:Carbon, or definitely Ridge Racer.. that soundtrack got very repetitive, very quickly.. just thoughts would like to see addressed in possible future updates..
but thanks for the great Blog and the firmware updates..

Castor  |  June 15th, 2007 at 4:06 pm

I feel sorry for whoever has to sift through the constant repitition on this blog to see if there is any new content. I just spent the last hour looking through a few of the topics on the blog and it seems like there are a couple hundred first graders whining to thier parents about not getting the new toy they saw on tv right this minute. Some things take time. Keep bringing us new content and information as fast you can Sony. Can’t wait for the Summer lineup to get here for a couple of new games. Oblivion is almost done and hopefully the new map packs for Resistance will tide me over until Lair comes out.

Neo_X  |  June 15th, 2007 at 4:56 pm

IN GAME XMB Listen to your fans maybe not all but most people wan’t it

Braveheart07  |  June 15th, 2007 at 5:59 pm

Ps3 will be a great machine given time i used to be a big xbox fan but i knew ps3 would be better eventually.

Chromax  |  June 15th, 2007 at 6:00 pm

I never had a problem with it before but guess the update can’t hurt.

Digi Smalls  |  June 15th, 2007 at 6:33 pm

Lemonade,

i did explain how bad the update process is, earlier on this thread.

having to find the USB cable, plug it in, download, read a EULA, then install just for an update like this is absolutely unnecessary.

XBL updates are practically automatic, take literally seconds even for major updates, and you don’t even have to bat an eye.

cflex7  |  June 15th, 2007 at 6:47 pm

keep up the updates they are getting better every time!

054519  |  June 15th, 2007 at 7:49 pm

I want:
In game XMB
In game messaging, i sure hate qutiing my game to read new messages
Wallpaper feature

Pentagen  |  June 15th, 2007 at 8:09 pm

This firmware update seems to have a bug that, seemingly at random, prevents music in Guilty Gear X2 (PS2 game) from playing from time to time. This didn’t happen in 1.80 and earlier firmware versions.

Sony, please fix this in the next update.

omegasyde  |  June 15th, 2007 at 8:39 pm

Cross Media bar while in games with all the functions.
Go to emotion engine ps2 software emulation, cut 2 usb ports, red rid of wi-fi, 20 gig HDD, No media card slots.=$400 System. Congrats Microsoft will have their pants down with that one.

curtis_bland  |  June 15th, 2007 at 9:38 pm

Okay. Is it just my console or are we no longer able to turn on our PS3’s by pressing the Playstaion button on our sixaxis controllers now?

I LOVED that feature…tell me it isn’t so.

Let me know if it works for anyone after the 1.81 update please!

Darkpitiless  |  June 15th, 2007 at 10:32 pm

well it still work with me, maybe u have a problem with ur sixaxis .

Irish Ninja  |  June 16th, 2007 at 12:35 am

+1 in the “eagerly awaiting 2.0″ camp.

how is wanting the features there not “thinking for myself”? We all want in-game XMB access. the options to change the wallpaper, play my own music in-game etc are awesome…just hoping we get everything lined up before Home drops.

roadclimber  |  June 16th, 2007 at 1:35 am

A weird little question but one i’m curious about…not sure where to post it..

When does overheating become an issue with the Ps3? i have a 360 so you can understand i’d be concerned about crashing and potentially damaging my system..

Initially i picked up the system in December so i wasn’t concerned about how hot it could get but since it’s summer now…

I’m looking into synching my ps3 with my psp and testing out the remote access of music and films but leaving it on for long stretches concerns me. As an aside, I’d also love to leave it running on Folding At Home while i’m at work but have been hesitant for the same reason.

What does Sony recommend? I’ve tried overnight 8 hr periods without a problem.

chase  |  June 16th, 2007 at 1:56 am

Dragons Lair Blu-Ray does anybody know if this game is out or coming out

mytelex22  |  June 16th, 2007 at 2:26 am

^^^ Wishful thinking! I’d love to have all those old Don Bluth games on Blu-ray… Space ace series, Dragons lair, Braindead 13… ahhh! classics

Darkpitiless  |  June 16th, 2007 at 3:53 am

for the ones who thinks that ps3 can’t make it to the full XMB access through game because it physicly cant u check this out and then tell my ps3 cant do it :

PowerPC-base Core @3.2GHz
1 VMX vector unit per core
512KB L2 cache
7 x SPE @3.2GHz
7 x 128b 128 SIMD GPRs
7 x 256KB SRAM for SPE
* 1 of 8 SPEs reserved for redundancy total floating point performance: 218 GFLOPS
GPU: RSX @550MHz

ps3 is powerful as a modern pc it can even be used as a pc it just has the ultimate performance BUT i dunno what r they delaying using the full performance for!!.

frunkis  |  June 16th, 2007 at 4:14 am

Only beefs I got right now are:

1)AVI SUPPORT PLEEEEEEASE!!!
2)Make the Playstation Store a bit less depressing.
3)AVI SUPPORT PLEEEEEEASE!!!

Tackle that and you’ll never hear another complaint out of me.

O&A PARTY ROCK!

Kaze88  |  June 16th, 2007 at 5:22 am

thx for the update, keep it coming =D

cardiac_cat  |  June 16th, 2007 at 7:13 am

Alright sounds good, keep em coming. Now we just need more PSN content.

stagattovii  |  June 16th, 2007 at 8:03 am

i just want the next firmware to allow me to play my own music from my ps3 harddrive in place of the game’s music. Similar to how xbox does. also when can we customize our backgrounds? o.O

ahh bisto  |  June 16th, 2007 at 8:53 am

ive got to say that i am not happy at all with my ps3, its been a month since i even turned the peice of [DELETED] on. im gutted that i was stupid enough to trade my xbox, 12 games, wireless headset, 2 pads and 180 pound for a ps3. sony at the moment THE 360 BEATS THE PS3 HANDSDOWN ON EVERYTHING. i cant imagine your gonna sell too many more until you start giving us at least half the stuff the xbox live users get and one more thing why do us guys in europe always get deleyed with everything you ever promise us? im seriously concidering going back to a 360 if things dont get better soon.

bambu  |  June 16th, 2007 at 9:02 am

First and foremost, to all my PS3 Brothers and Sisters, i send you all a shout for helping us make PS3 a name for the other guys to be worried about, and for your undying love and respect of this system. I for one agree with most that the XMB access from in game and customizable soundtracks would bring our games to the next level. I dream of being able to play the next madden while listening to some system of a down. I also look forward to meeting many of you on home and having some fun. I wish we would stop all this internal bickering, it makes the competition laugh at us. I know many of us have been more than patient , but i know that it will be worth it once all the improvements to our network and the PS store are implemented. As a PS loyalist (PS1,PS2,PSP,PS3) it feels weird having to play catch-up, but i have no doubt that we will prevail!!!!!!! Thank you SCEA and please hear our gripes and concerns and fix them so we can enjoy the PS3 to the fullest.

ahh bisto  |  June 16th, 2007 at 9:10 am

@eric lempel, things have got to get better man.

i want to be able to have fun on my ps3, i dont want the web browser to be the only thing i ever use on it i have a pc for that!

i want to play against and talk to anyone and everyone, i want to invite my mates without having to quit the game, i want to send friend invites and messages to people with quiting the game too.

i want to play my own music whilst gaming, i want the psn to contain stuff worth downloading… not super rub a dub!

i want to be able to do all these things whilst playing a game that is actually worth playing because seriously the game choice on the ps3 is poor.

i want you to stop lying to us guys in europe about release dates and such, we always have to put up with delays, why dont you just tell us the real release date in the first place so we dont get our hopes up just to be disapointed.

im not askin for much, all i have to do is turn on a xbox 360 and i have all these things, at the rate you guys at sony are going it will be christmas before i turn my ps3 on again!!

Alcahest  |  June 16th, 2007 at 10:25 am

!IMPORTANT!

While the FULL RGB option now “sticks” in the XMB, PS2 games video output is still forced to YUV.

Basically with 1.81, everything (XMB, PS1, PS3 and BD/DVD movies) can be displayed in RGB (when BD/DVD is set to RGB too, of course) except PS2 games that are still output as YUV with no options to alter that.

This is annoying because I calibrated my tv for RGB FULL. The image is much more contrasted, it frankly has never looked this good but as soon as I run a PS2 game, the brightness is way too high and so the image washed out.

Also it is annoying not to have the Upscale ratio type selection in the PS menu when playing PS2 games. Are we supposed to alter the setting every time in the XMB according to the game we want to play? Annoying. The option would be much better directly accessible from the PS menu.

So to sum-up, Sony please:
- Make an option to change the PS2 games video output to RGB.
- Add an option in the PS menu of PS2 games to alter the Upscale image ratio setting (like DVD movies have it)

Thanks!

AccessThePS3  |  June 16th, 2007 at 12:07 pm

Yea but this update obiesly have a problem.
I cant anymore connect to internet(PSN)!!!!!
WHY?

AccessThePS3  |  June 16th, 2007 at 12:35 pm

I have the new update…1.81v!

System Settings—->System Imformation—->
System Software Version 1.81
IP Address…
…
…

onimirage  |  June 16th, 2007 at 3:34 pm

WOW lots of negative comments.
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But anyway patch 1.81 for myself seems to have fixed PS3 games running in Full RGB and if I turn off the PS3 then turn it back on it still works
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But when I launch a PS2 or PS1 game it reverts it to limited and my screen having been adjusted to RGB full is completely washed out and over bright.
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My network issues have been fixed though nice job on that.

swooft  |  June 16th, 2007 at 4:30 pm

when are we gonna get voice messaging capabilities. Im kinda sick of having to type everything out on the onscreen keyboard. Im not tryin to be negative or anything, but voice messaging is a basic feature on xbox live, why cant we get the same.

krazykris  |  June 16th, 2007 at 6:39 pm

Yes!! Finally I dont have to keep changing back to RGB on restart, good work Sony coders.

PS..I LOVE THIS PLAYSTATION BLOG!

It’s about time we the consumers had some sort of online customer relation with Sony.

Zinacef  |  June 16th, 2007 at 8:01 pm

Awesome! Thanks for the update guys.

dumbdrinker  |  June 16th, 2007 at 9:47 pm

i wanna be able to voice chat in game to a friend on my friends list, cause call of duty 3 have no mic support, this would be how we communicate, so dumb, but its a start.
i think call of duty 3 is the best game on ps3 so far, but’s that’s just’s me’s son.
ill give rainbow and graw a try.
i did play oblivion and liked it, but its not an online game, which is cool, but no online rowdy chat with other users, the game can get boring, unless they bring out background music, so i can play some mc hammer and get hype on my horse.

stennex  |  June 17th, 2007 at 12:41 am

Has anyone experienced not being able to retrieve their online id.For example you might have fully formatted your PS3 and when you try to sign up back to your online account you face a problems such as not being able to get back your online username.

I had bought my own PS3 so my brother could keep his. My account was the main account at the time. So i decided to backup my stuff and delete everything.

I created an account for him on his box. On my box i tried signing in to my account and to my surprise i couldnt get back my original online name or the money i had placed in the wallet.

Does anyone out there have a similar problem?

P.S. Be careful of PS3 network for now its not like the xbox where your user id represents your account.

RexWolf  |  June 17th, 2007 at 12:56 am

it’s been said a million times, so let me make it one million and one:

wallpapers
xmb in-game

thanks

Thomas_  |  June 17th, 2007 at 4:39 am

Hi!

I have seen some improvements in the PS3 operating System recently. But in my view there is a long way to go to become a real all-in-one Multimedia System. Here a some points:

- DTS CD does not work, only static noise
- Lots of the old MPEG1/VCD files don’t work
- MP3 DVD (original!) does not work
- The handling is sometimes to complex, try playing MP3 music while watching your fotos
I now many people who don’t work with it, simply because they don’t now how. You have to press the option-button alle the time. Why not showing the available options when the focus is on an object?
- The browser is difficult to handle and below standard. Try entering a long URL or browsing complex websites . Sorry but you have to compete with Firefox.
- Where is the email client?
- Working with fotos is easier with 1.8 but why is it no possible to create my own folders? E.G. my vacation jpgs are now mixed with other fotos because they were all taken in june.
- The printer option is a nice feature, but why do you release it with only a handful of Epson printers? 100 printer models from the 5 big manufacturers would be good.
- A screenshot utility would be great.
- The store is a nice feature. But why is it not possible to move the cursor from top of the screen to bottom by moving up, so the cursor reappears on the bottom. It takes very long to cross these windows with scrollbars. Why don`t you have a trailer for every available Blu-Ray in the store?

I hope that someone reads this

ahh bisto  |  June 17th, 2007 at 8:13 am

yes the RGB thingy is sorted, brilliant….

all we need now is at least one decent game!!

at least we MIGHT be able to access the xmb without quiting game by the time it takes for a game worth playing to be released…. i wish i still had my xbox

ahh bisto  |  June 17th, 2007 at 8:19 am

will it be safe for me to leave my ps3 in the garage for a few month until it is worth playing on? usualy i wouldnt mind just having it sit in the living room next to the tv but lets be honest…. its ugly as hell!!

ahh bisto  |  June 17th, 2007 at 8:21 am

does it not tell you something that people would rather spend time in here [DELETED] about how crap their ps3 is rather than just playing it??

ahh bisto  |  June 17th, 2007 at 8:26 am

says alot when we would rather spend time in here talking about how disapointing the ps3 is rather than just playing it!!!! good one sony!