AfterDawn: News

Sony says more AV features are coming for PS3

Izumi Kawanishi and Kanehide, two of Sony's technical officers, recently made comments that they believe there is room for a 30 to 40% improvement in the PlayStation 3 as an AV unit. They believe the improvement can occur in future firmware updates.

The pair also concluded that the upgrades would not have an adverse effect on fan noise, and even implied that there was a possibility of a fan-less model in the future.



"So far, we are not worried too much since we have plenty of processing power left even at peak usage," AV development boss Kanehide said.

Platform development boss Kawanishi agreed: "Nothing yet comes close to the load that Folding@Home applies. And I can see the possibility of a fan-less PS3 in the future, just like there was for the PS2."

Recent firmware updates have added upscaling support for PS1 and PS2 games as well as remote-play.

Finally, the pair added that future firmware updates would be mainly based on what consumers wanted, "The scary thing about the PS3 is that we can continue to add updates as long as there is space on the HDD," concluded Kawanishi. "We won't stop though, since adding new functionality is a lot of fun. We really enjoy getting feedback from the customers, and finding things we really hadn't thought of."

Source:
GI.biz

Written by: Andre Yoskowitz @ 20 Jun 2007 16:10

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• 22 comments

• JorDogg

  anybody know how to give feedback on firmware?

  20.6.2007 16:19 #1

• nrk4594

  Still not updating and holding out hope for "hello world".
  

  
  

  20.6.2007 16:42 #2

• Jlhfit

  a fanless model.... WTF?!! do they really want to pay for someones home burning down... I think I may have to break out the ole shot gun house, play a "fanless" ps3 for bout 16 hours straight and see if my house burns down.....

  20.6.2007 16:55 #3

• Andrew691

  Originally posted by Jlhfit:a fanless model.... WTF?!! do they really want to pay for someones home burning down... I think I may have to break out the ole shot gun house, play a "fanless" ps3 for bout 16 hours straight and see if my house burns down.....It would have something like liquid cooling, the thing gets bloody hot enough even with fans. I know Sony have made some stupid choices in their past but they arent stupid enough to remove the cooling system completely.
  
  But what could they add AV feature wise to the PS3? other than more playable formats?

  20.6.2007 17:13 #4

• gozilla

  make it play DivX!!

  20.6.2007 17:55 #5

• Jlhfit

  DivX would be nice.... I gave mine redbull... it has wings...

  20.6.2007 18:04 #6

• Iguana775

  More and more I'm starting to like the potential of the PS3. with the 360 having some major cooling issues and the 3 red rings of death, the PS3 is becoming more appealing. I would just have to wait till the price was reasonable. if it gets down to $400, i'd have to really consider one.

  20.6.2007 19:57 #7

• windsong

  Maybe they could concentrate more on..you know..actually making great GAMES first?
  
  Grandia IV anyone? Dark Cloud 3? Thunder Force, etc etc

  20.6.2007 21:42 #8

• rainofire

  My PS3 can go on 4 a week without overheating, and it does F@H continuously. Burning down houses, yea right, I'm would be more worried about my 360 (I have 3 broken down one's due 2 lack of quality).

  20.6.2007 22:56 #9

• Zoolook2

  Quote:Originally posted by Jlhfit:a fanless model.... WTF?!! do they really want to pay for someones home burning down... I think I may have to break out the ole shot gun house, play a "fanless" ps3 for bout 16 hours straight and see if my house burns down.....It would have something like liquid cooling, the thing gets bloody hot enough even with fans. I know Sony have made some stupid choices in their past but they arent stupid enough to remove the cooling system completely.
  
  But what could they add AV feature wise to the PS3? other than more playable formats?They won't need liquid cooling or any other exotic cooling after a die-shrink. The cell is up for a dieshrink and I bet the graphics core die-shrink has already taped out. Will make it a lot cheaper to produce as well.

  21.6.2007 01:37 #10

• ZippyDSM

  Zoolook2
  
  even pipe cooling wont cut it,they need a active cooling system because it puts out to much heat,even the WII has it and tis a last gen system for the most part..there is no way the PS3 is goign to go non active cooling unless they double the size...
  
  Luqiud cooling is not that exotic,the DC had it.
  ===============================================
  
  the 360 just got a heatsink/fan revamp and the new CPU/GPU are coming so the 360 is improving even after 1 milloin disserved ...
  
  =============================================
  
  the PS3 has mad potential but the suits have rammed it into the shoreline and want to charge the towboats a fee to get back out into the water....sure the 360 is takign water but it floats......the WII is scary its like a fast hover boat circling around them at 1/4 the size of the liner class 360 and PS3 LOL its maddness!

  21.6.2007 05:15 #11

• brettussd

  Quote:But what could they add AV feature wise to the PS3? other than more playable formats?I would love to see the option of changing the 1080i/p refresh rate, between 50/60hz. I have a PAL HDTV that only supports 1080i if it is PAL (50hz), but my PS3 only outputs NTSC (60hz). And I have a PAL version of the PS3!!! :(
  
  I got Linux to output 1080i at 50hz no problem, so the PS3 is physically capable of it. Hopefully Sony rectify this in a (not too distant) future firmware upgrade.

  21.6.2007 05:27 #12

• ZippyDSM

  Quote:[quote]But what could they add AV feature wise to the PS3? other than more playable formats?I would love to see the option of changing the 1080i/p refresh rate, between 50/60hz. I have a PAL HDTV that only supports 1080i if it is PAL (50hz), but my PS3 only outputs NTSC (60hz). And it's a PAL version of the PS3!!!
  
  Sony really annoy me sometimes.[/quote]they try to hard to "protect" the PAL market.

  21.6.2007 05:29 #13

• brettussd

  Quote:they try to hard to "protect" the PAL market.What do you mean by this?

  21.6.2007 05:34 #14

• ZippyDSM

  Quote:[quote]they try to hard to "protect" the PAL market.What do you mean by this?[/quote]well they should have from the start had 1 unit thats 60/50 Ntsc/pal compatible instead of charging a extra 200 for a limited "pal" version.
  
  they try to hard to protect their sales in regions and screw over the costumers while they are at it.

  21.6.2007 05:45 #15

• Dobyx

  Infrared! Infrared! Infrared! Infrared! Infrared!
  
  If Sony wants to see the PS3 more as an "A/V" peace then they have to put Infrared control in it.
  
  This is not rocket science guy's, seriously! if this machine is to be integrated into a home theatre it will need to have IR codes available so they can be learned into a dedicated remote control. Who wants to have to pick up the gamming controller to navigate around a DVD menu?
  It doesn’t matter if it plays back Blu-ray DivX, XviD, H.264, WMA, DVD, DVDR, DVDRW, Jpeg, whiteray, pinkray MyPeg, YourPeg, or any other kind of freekin format what good does it do if it’s a pain in the rear quarters to use it. Either design it right in the first place to do this or just make it play video games only, and bring the price down to please those who bitch about the price.

  21.6.2007 09:47 #16

• DC5R

  Well they already have a dedicated remote control for the PS3 at least here in Japan, instead of using the controller, though I don't see what is so difficult about using the controller, it's wireless and very easy to navigate with IMO. So you could always go that route or find somebody that has one and shoot the infrared into your multi-remote to learn it. Maybe somebody else will figure out the coding and post it online one day.

  21.6.2007 10:15 #17

• eatsushi

  Originally posted by Dobyx:Infrared! Infrared! Infrared! Infrared! Infrared!
  There's already a solution for using IR on the PS3:
  
  http://www.amazon.com/Blu-Wave-Remote-for-PS3/dp/B000R5H7KE/
  
  and also:
  
  http://www.remotecentral.com/articles/ps3-ir-remote.htm
  http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=817142

  21.6.2007 10:40 #18

• Dobyx

  I don’t know about the Japanese models but the North American ones do not have Infrared, just Bluetooth. Even though the controller is wireless and it can navigate the DVD menu’s it can’t learn other IR commands from say a TV or projector’s remote, it certainly can’t perform any macro sequences.
  
  When Sony (Izumi Kawanishi and Kanehide) says the PS-3 can be an “A/V” (Audio Video) device with 30% to 40% more firmware capabilities they have to understand the basic requirements. In an A/V system one should not have 7 remotes on the coffee table with a notepad next to them describing to the other family members how to watch TV or a movie i.e.
  
  1) Pick up TV remote and hit power.
  2) Pick up PS-3 game controller and push the “X” button.
  3) Pick up the receiver remote push the “Power” button.
  4) Pick up the TV remote again push the “input button 3 times
  5) Blah
  6) Blah
  7) Blah
  
  A person with an integrated “A/V” system should be able to pick up ONE remote and hit ONE button. For this to happen the remote has to be able to perform a series of macros and emitting IR into all the other A/V system’s components. The problem is that every A/V component in the world (except the Sony PS-3) uses Infrared, which can be learned into a remote like this yet Sony decides to not include a very simple IR receiver inside the PS-3. What is the cost of an IR receiver at manufacturing?
  Lets say 87 cents… maybe. Yet if they had the foresight to do this the unit would already be considered an A/V device.

  21.6.2007 12:20 #19

• Dobyx

  This is of course a very valid solution and thank you to those third party solutions to pick up the ball where Sony dropped it. I still think that Sony should have included this very simple feature. I love the look of there game console it is very sleek and cool looking unit. It's a shame to have a block of IR Interface hanging off the side of it... but this will do the job!
  

  Dobyx The Dog

  21.6.2007 12:29 #20

• borhan9

  I still like it with a fan due to the fact i dont want my future console to over heat. Therefore i dont want to use my warranty if i use common sense first and not buy a bad product.

  21.6.2007 21:29 #21

• NHS2008

  Are they gone mad or what?
  Quote: We really enjoy getting feedback from the customers
  Hahahahaha!!!
  I wonder who r those customers?
  
  Quote:And I can see the possibility of a fan-less PS3 in the future, just like there was for the PS2.
  Thats a good way to get double profit!
  I wonder if they are talking about cooling fans or us!!!

  22.6.2007 00:38 #22