Jun Hey everyone, you told us you wanted to hear about updates a few days in advance, so here’s a quick heads up that we have a PS3 firmware update in the works. [UPDATE: it's available today]
Firmware 1.82 is an update that enables the playback of AVC High Profile (H.264/MPEG-4) files. As most of you know, these are high quality files that you’ll now be able to play on your PS3. Hopefully this update is moving us closer to the audio playback features many of you commented about in my post the other week. We’re continuing to evaluate and improve things across the board, including PS2 software compatibility. Thanks for all of your support and feedback, keep it coming!
(Average: 4.29 out of 5)
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+ ziggyd24 on June 27th, 2007 at 12:02 am said:
Im liking these updates but what about that rumoured 2.0? I know it will come be it just cant come soon enough.
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+ Scrotus on June 27th, 2007 at 12:25 am said:
The PS3 already allows in game sound tracks. The developers aren’t using the option. I think it would be cooler tho if you could listen to music while surfing the internet and looking at pics. Why can’t I watch videos on gametrailers? As someone mentioned before, I look forward to the updates. Its very exciting to see what the Sony people come up with. KILLZONE 2 !?
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+ Dean DXB on June 27th, 2007 at 12:32 am said:
Eric,
Many, many thanks for passing on news of the new firmware release to us. This is exactly the type of news, information and communication we have been seeking from Sony.
I do hope you and your team feel that regularly updating this blog is a worthwhile endeavour; it is really helping to build a better relationship between the consumers and Sony. Please keep up the great work. (By the way, it would be nice if Jack could be the first to post about E3 and have the rest of the team chime in on different aspects of the event. We like hearing from Jack!)
Can I submit a firmware wishlist?
- I’ll echo many other sentiments: streaming and playback of a wider variety of files and formats. xvid/divx encoded .avi files; .avi files with AC3 Audio; subtitle support; support for .mkv wrappers (of h.264 encoded files) etc.. Basically, if we can play a file through Video Lan Player on our PCs we would really like to be able to do the same on the PS3. If you can do this (and implement well) you will corner the market for media extenders and cement the PS3s role in the living rooms of many.
- Amendments to the PS Store: can the left and right triggers be mapped to “back” and “forward” respectively? Whenever I add something to my cart I cannot continue browsing from where I left off, I have to go right back to the start. With the amount of game packs to download for Ridge Racer this is tedious, to say the least. Being able to hit the left trigger and go back to the page I was viewing before my cart would be very helpful.
- Deleting files: I’ve been browsing photos from CF cards on the PS3. Sometimes there are many photos which I do not want to keep. To use the PS3 to delete one file the navigation > select > delete > confirm process takes something like 7 or 8 button presses. Try doing this for more than a handful of files! Can you please get this down to 3 button presses?
- Clock: a clock on the XMB screen would be nice but please include an option to hide the clock if you decide to implement this in a future update.
Lastly, a bit of advice for anyone out there thinking of upgrading the PS3 hard drive:
- be careful with the screws; they are, at least on my PAL version, over-tightened and tend to round off if you are not careful unscrewing them.
- not all laptop drives are created equal. If you are thinking about whacking in that 200Gb+ drive you’ve got your eye on, do some research. I bought a 250Gb Fujitsu drive and it will not fit – it is too fat!
Thanks for listening.
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+ Swift on June 27th, 2007 at 12:33 am said:
Definitely taking advantage of that
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+ drummin7jeff on June 27th, 2007 at 12:40 am said:
wow, ton of posts, i wonder if they’ll read them all.
awesome with the update, i was wondering when this next one would be coming.
of course everyone wants in-game xmb for messaging and music. i was just thinking it would be cool to have the messaging/music stuff come up if you tap the ps button once, and the shutdown/controller/quit game stuff when you tap the button 2 times.
yes i want a clock too when you hit the ps button.
and a better spot for the notifications for buddies, i barely see the one’s at the top right corner, and when i do, they cover up my radar in resistance. maybe top middle.
and i think only ONE person mentioned this one, but an update for the flash player would be nice in the internet browser.
i think i’m done for now. thanks for reading my random thoughts.
one thing about the custom sountracks. i love game music. if that was implemented, i would probably only use it my second time through the game. and i would DEFINATELY use in in the GT games…. i have dreamt about it in GT5
ok…i’m done.
psn: drummin7jeff
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+ EvoAnubis on June 27th, 2007 at 12:41 am said:
You know, I think it’s cool that you guys are listening to us. No, this update doesn’t have the in game XMB that we all want, but you’re aware that’s what we want. Good show.
One thing I figured would be cool (you guys let me know what you think) is if the PS3 made a noise of some kind when a message was recieved (disabled during a game, natch). I’m always missing messages because my PS3 is playing music or something while I’m in another room and I don’t see the pop-up on the screen. Just a little idea, but i think it’d be cool.
What do you guys think?
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+ kodoque on June 27th, 2007 at 12:42 am said:
can you please make a way to charge sixaxis controllers while the ps3 is in standby?
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+ Siggy on June 27th, 2007 at 12:47 am said:
@Thomas_ : I read and I totally agree with you. I uploaded a lot of pics and they are so horribly disorganized. We need to make our own folders.
Can you guys make a full-HD video(s) explaining all of the PS3′s features and make it available on the PSN to download (for free). I want to know my PS3′s full potential.
This one is a new request. Will there be an update where I can use my PS3 controller to play PSP games on my PSP or my HDTV? I love my PSP but the controls are horribly designed. My control pad hand always hurts after a few minutes of play.
I love the firmware updates but I’m still waiting for the big one with all (or some) of our wishes fulfilled. You know what I’m talking about.
Much appreciated, Sony
PS: Will there ever be an update that would allow me to start my car? LOL
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+ thatdidnthurt on June 27th, 2007 at 12:48 am said:
Guess I feel like an echo here but divx or xvid support would be awesome. Even if I had to pay a few $$ to help with the licensing I would be willing to pay for it (but not too much, I did pay a lot for my system that I have 1 whole ps3 game (not psn) I play on it.
Anyway, not trying to be negative – I am very stoked that you all are trying to put information out there in a good and honest way. I am sure I am not the only one that would be stoked if you started a podcast – I would definitely download it as long as it isn’t really dry (Sony Online podcast is a good example) and doesn’t feel completely restricted by corporate crap.
Anyway – thanks for the blog and the continued communication, it is very much appreciated.
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+ roadclimber on June 27th, 2007 at 12:51 am said:
@SCROTUS
not sure if this is what you mean but you CAN listen to music while browsing or checking pictures… just hit the ps button after you start your music and .. do whatever :)
Thanks for the news about the upgrade! I’m happy to see the console developing.. I’d love to be able to jump forward to September to see everything that’ll be implemented by then but.. i can be patient.
Now.. off to play Darkness
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+ supermad64 on June 27th, 2007 at 12:56 am said:
i agree with kodoque, being able to charge the six axis controller while in standby mode would be the ideal update. What other chance do we have to charge our controllers than when we are not playing?
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+ keisukeMamoru86 on June 27th, 2007 at 1:03 am said:
Thank you for the firmware announcement. Like everyone else, I also have a few things I wanna throw at you guys:
- in-game XMB: According to recent interviews, this is dependent on whether or not game developers decide to include it in their games. You should make it a requirement to take advantage of the feature, and urge them to release patches that enable it :)
- DivX/XviD support: I don’t think implementing this would be hard. It is one of the most widely used formats nowadays, and many people are more comfortable using DivX converters vs. MP4 converters.
- enhanced internet browser: how about teaming up with the Mozilla Firefox team? Internet explorer has been given tough competition from them. I’m sure they could make a pretty nice PS3 version browser. At least fix MySpace comment posting?
Thanks again for the heads up on the update. The xbots boasted about how the PS3 only used Main profile and not High profile. No longer :)
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+ west on June 27th, 2007 at 1:04 am said:
@EvoAnubis I also agree with some type of a sound notification when ever we get a message. Its like being on AOL or Yahoo messenger and not having any sound notification when some one IMs you. We definitely need sound notifications for stuff like a new message, update available for a game we have, new items in store, and most important a firmware update sound or something. Would be nice if we could customize it to one of our own sounds.
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+ Scrotus on June 27th, 2007 at 1:07 am said:
Wow. roadclimber you’re right where have I been? I’ve been messin around with the xmb. Listening to music while watching slideshow and surfing internet. When did that happen? Still can’t watch movies on gametrailers.com. I can’t wait to see what these guys come up with next. Its like Christmas every week or so.
KILLZONE 2 !?
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+ Kinan on June 27th, 2007 at 1:07 am said:
Thank you very much for update, Eric, extending support to High Profile is much appreciated. Recent updates improved media performance of PS3 greatly, but to really replace my home PC few more things needs to be done.
I hope you understand this as well as many here and working on adding support for divx and xvid codecs and avi and mkv containers. I dont think that there will be many objections if, due to licensing issues (since these codecs are not industrial standarts) you need to charge a small fee (up to 5$ should be widely accepted) through PS Store, but this option would be really welcomed by PS community.
On the related note, i’d like to ask you to either to optimize official PS site for viewing on PS3, or update PS3 browser to support all the features of the site. I was kinda disappointed yesterday, when I navigated to page of Eye of Judgment game and was not able to view nor download its trailer. Moreover, when I downloaded the trailer (mp4) to my PC and tried to watch it on PS3, I got unsupported type error.
Was kinda unexpected from official Playstation site and PS3 game :)
Anyhow, keep up a good work and thanks for the news once more.
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+ kackyyy on June 27th, 2007 at 1:08 am said:
Please support playback 720p MPEG4 SP Movie File(SANYO Xacti HD1).
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+ mu5afir on June 27th, 2007 at 1:08 am said:
When are you all going to fix the web browser for the Ps3? It’s super slow, even the Wii browser is better.
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+ johnxmzzhang on June 27th, 2007 at 1:10 am said:
I love the heads up, it shows that Sony is rely trying to get in touch with the consumers. I see that a lot of people have already commented about the adition of ingame xmb I think that as a adition to that we should be able to access a screenshot or ingame videocapture option inside the xmb. Just a though. Thanks for updating us through this blog :)
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+ supermad64 on June 27th, 2007 at 1:11 am said:
You know what confuses me. the PS3 has wireless technology, blue tooth and what not. so why cant i connect to my wireless printer? Why do i have to have a usb printer? it would be nice to have that option.
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+ Scrotus on June 27th, 2007 at 1:12 am said:
A while ago I read an interview with someone from Sony saying that later this year blu-ray movies will come with a portable version on the disc. Is this somthing being worked on. That would save me a lot of trouble of converting formats for my psp.
KILLZONE 2 !?
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+ VenomX on June 27th, 2007 at 1:14 am said:
I love how sony is listening to us it really shows that you guys care. But leaving the custom soundtracks to the Devs was a bad idea….LOL theres not one single PS3 game with custom soundtrack! I say you guys make it mandatory for custom soundtracks to be in every ps3 game like the XBox 360 is doing. Heck if they can get custom soundtracks even while playing OLD xbox 1 games we should have it too! 4,000 people also want custom soundtracks in every game too! Motorstorm music is badd! Give us a better custom soundtrack!
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+ schade_chr on June 27th, 2007 at 1:18 am said:
Supercool – now we just need an RSS reader that can also work as screensaver and a podcast client.
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+ kjeldsen on June 27th, 2007 at 1:21 am said:
Very nice.’
I will throw in some of my wishes since it´s Xmas everyday in Sony land.
Support for .TS files, both h.264 and MPEG2 format. As long as i can record it on my PC i would love to be able to watch it on my giant Screen.. No i don´t have my PC in the same room as my PS3, i´m an adult :-)
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+ tragedy on June 27th, 2007 at 1:27 am said:
Hope for Guitar Hero finaly works…
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+ DarkKing on June 27th, 2007 at 1:42 am said:
No Ingame XMB, No photos in game, no music in game, no friends in game all together, no wallpapers, only an “option” for devs to implement ingame xmb or shall I say: the friends list ONLY? Sony. You honestly suck my balls you newbs.
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+ moshakirby on June 27th, 2007 at 1:46 am said:
Lets get Soul Calibur 2 & 3 working on the EU version please
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+ CreativeWriter on June 27th, 2007 at 1:52 am said:
Some things I’d like to see: I’d like keyboard shortcuts that match up to the R3 and L3 buttons. It’s annoying to keep the sixaxis on when I’m surfing the net with a keyboard so I can zoom in and out. Maybe there are key combinations that corrispond to sixaxis buttons (Home button, too), but I can’t figure them out. There could be some kind of keymapping ability to make it more convenient.
I’d also like the PS3 to tell me what resolution it’s displaying in a little pop-up box before a movie or game. My TV doesn’t tell me, and I’m always suspicious that it’s running 480 instead of 720 or 1080i. An option to switch on the fly would be cool, especially when deciding how best to set PS2 games.
Extend the number of characters allowed when using the on-screen keyboard. Several times when posting I’ve bumped up against the character-limit. I’d also like it if our “comment” section above our PSN names could be extended beyond 21 characters. I’d call what we’ve got now a “shout-out” more than a comment, since I can’t write much in 21 characters. I’ve taken to running words together to try to fit my comments into the small space.
Finally, I’d like a spellcheck for the on-screen keyboard–that or let me install one on the browser. I’ve come to rely on spellchecks to make sure I don’t look like a buffoon online. Thanks for your time!
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+ Sephiroth_VII on June 27th, 2007 at 2:00 am said:
It’s great that you’re focusing on upgrading the A/V capabilities of the PS3, keep it up!!!!
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+ dbarrade on June 27th, 2007 at 2:02 am said:
If you do custom sound tracks, please let us choose playlists and then also let us assign playlists to sections in game:
For example Gran Turismo: Menu Playlist, Racing Playlist and Replay Playlist
I like the way in game soundtracks reflect the in game action, so custom in game playlists should do the same
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+ bobtheduck on June 27th, 2007 at 2:09 am said:
Let’s get .mov, divx, and xvid support. Xvid is open source, so that should be easy. I hope we get all that stuff that DarkKing said, only without the hatred. Sony needs to start to FORCE devs to do ingame XMB and things like that…
Oh, and get on your game and get
1. support for multi-disc games
2. Some gosh darned multi disc PS1 games for download! Final Fantasy 7! Chrono Cross! Metal Gear Solid! Thank you.
181
+ nagus69 on June 27th, 2007 at 2:12 am said:
Hi,
just one thing : please add the option to force 24p support, not just auto detect. Many problems with auto detect with hdmi switches and av recievers and even TVs that support 24p but the PS3 won’t recognize it.
Thanks for listening
182
+ Megalith on June 27th, 2007 at 2:15 am said:
Can I get multichannel audio support for H.264/.MP4 or what.
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+ Mr_Pickle on June 27th, 2007 at 2:16 am said:
I’d like to see support for MPEG transport stream’s (TS, TP, or MPEG-TS) which is the file format my DVICO High Definition TV Tuner card uses to record TV programs. Would be great if I could just put the mpeg or ts file striaght on the external harddrive and watch it on the big screen with my ps3.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MPEG_transport_stream
Divx and Xvid avi support would also be great as well
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+ Juginabi on June 27th, 2007 at 2:18 am said:
Great news! I hope we can get support for various containers also.
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+ nitsua78 on June 27th, 2007 at 2:42 am said:
Keep those firmware updates coming.
One feature I’d like to see is support for mp4/m4a/aac audio playback. I have moved onto the m4a format for storing all of my CD collection on my PC (currently around 17GB worth of music, and that’s around 40% of my CD collection). It’s disappointing that I’m restricted to my computer when listening to something, and since H.264/MPEG-4 is the video half, I would assume adding mp4/m4a/aac audio support would not be too difficult.
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+ kjeldsen on June 27th, 2007 at 2:45 am said:
Regarding DiVX or XVID.
Yes nice formats but not really something i would kill for since it´s usually used for low res stuff and pirate copies of movies.
Quicktime is not easy since it´s just a container with a wealth of different formats. Wouldn´t want to waste time on that just yet.
WMV, keep it on the PC within the Microsoft world, no need to infest the outside world :-)
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+ Gotenks_GB on June 27th, 2007 at 3:22 am said:
Great update guys and thanks for keeping us in the loop! The PS3 has come far since launch! i look forward to future updates!! :)
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+ Vash63 on June 27th, 2007 at 3:26 am said:
Great, I’ve been wanting this and confused about its absence (You already had AVC Main Profile, seemed weird to not have High Profile). Anyway, two more features and this can be my main video playback box, instead of my PC:
1. Matroska support (A free standard, should be cheap to add even if not a high priority).
2. Advanced SubStation Alpha subtitle support (Pretty subs!). Doesn’t have to be fully implemented, I wouldn’t really expect that, but at least able to display would be great.
As far as audio, OGG and FLAC support would be awesome, and both of those are free as well so that should also be easy.
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+ LDub on June 27th, 2007 at 3:29 am said:
Great work guys, the blog and your continued support of the community is outstanding. If I could make a suggestion, it would be to provide us with a list of what we would like to see in future updates. Once again, thanks for listening to the community.
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+ MUCKRAKER on June 27th, 2007 at 3:32 am said:
First off, Thank you SONY! Keep up the good work. We love updates. However, I have yet to be able to use the streaming functions you added with a recent firmware update due to compatibilty issues with LINKSYS routers. Now I realise this problem may be with Linksys and not with SONY but I just hope someone is spear-heading this issue. It needs to be resolved. I’m not able to use one of the great feature sets of the PS3.
Like most of us I’m really excited about what’s to come this fall and beyond. Give the gamers what they want and we’ll give you the market share you need to win this console war for three consecutive console generations! In addition I can see that helping in the currrent BD/HD-DVD battle. You want to win that too, right?
Perhaps it’s also time to discontinue the PS2. Yes, folks I love mine too but these gamers need to be gently pushed into moving to the next platform that way we may all benefit from the games and money pushed more accutely in one direction. With several AAA titles coming Q4/07and Q1/08 now is the time!
I am hugely excited about where things are heading this fall and into the Beyond.
Keep the good stuff coming. You’re SONY after all!
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+ awheaten on June 27th, 2007 at 3:33 am said:
AVIs, please make a codec update that plays back AVIs. We don’t need to go in to why it would be nice to add the codec (did someone say file sharing). AVCs are close but playing back AVI would be a big step in helping the DLNA capability.
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+ MUCKRAKER on June 27th, 2007 at 3:35 am said:
RE: POST #200
…And I’d like to add.
If you’re having a problem with Linksys Routers fellow fans….PIPE UP. This is where we get heard.
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+ Fantatier on June 27th, 2007 at 3:47 am said:
sweet
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+ ominae on June 27th, 2007 at 3:49 am said:
Bump for the 1080p24 “FORCE” option! :)
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+ Kraken on June 27th, 2007 at 3:51 am said:
Cool. Thanks for the heads up!
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+ Zta on June 27th, 2007 at 3:52 am said:
Please fix the weird bug in the on-screen-keyboard where pressing Play (which should do Enter and return back) most of the time inserts an unwanted space before returning. Thanks in advance ;)
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+ Fantatier on June 27th, 2007 at 3:54 am said:
when is an official Sony PS3 keyboard and Mouse combo going to be released?
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+ kjeldsen on June 27th, 2007 at 3:54 am said:
#201 Avi´s requires way to many Codecs to be implemented to actually work :-(
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+ Juginabi on June 27th, 2007 at 4:00 am said:
AVI is just a container. It can contain virtually any codec invented so to support “AVI” you want support for every codec on the planet! :)
Just my two cents.
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+ salamagd on June 27th, 2007 at 4:18 am said:
Another vote for adding 1080p24 force support as soon as possible!