Some good news for PS3 owners

[abarron]

Originally Posted by VaultMan

Now all I need is a PS3!

Same here

[JM28Cardiff]

Well I know some people have updated this morning, but I just tried and cannot update. My system says I am all up to date, but I am on 1.7. The sony "helpline" said 1.8 isnt avaiable yet, even though I know people have updated! Im wondering if its been removed due to problems, or perhaps Im just unlucky!

[Bullseye]

Originally Posted by Zurbaran1

I am currently at 1.70 but it doesn't matter. You never have to upgrade the earlier firmwares first. Here is the link, it doesn't look as if 1.80 is up yet: http://www.us.playstation.com/ps3/network/updates

Cheers Ralph. Just upgraded to 1.70. Will get 1.80 when its up.

[JM28Cardiff]

I had to download the update on my PC and transfer it by USB stick. Only had a very quick fiddle with the new options, but the upscaling on normal DVD's looks better on my 360 over vga I reckon (my tv is not a 1080p job though).

[Zurbaran1]

Originally Posted by Bullseye

Cheers Ralph. Just upgraded to 1.70. Will get 1.80 when its up.

It's up.

[Bullseye]

Burning it onto a CD.

[JM28Cardiff]

Well ive changed my mind on the upscaling a bit, some films look better than others. Lord of the Rings looked good, whereas heat looked very grainy and noisy. Guess your tv plays a part too, but Im not sure that I wouldnt prefer watching ordinary dvds on a CRT.

[Bullseye]

You might find this interesting reading.

Originally Posted by jon s

I posted some of this on other postings, but i think it may be informative enough for its own thread....

Regarding the 1.8 update, this is what I noticed:

1. Upscaling works thru HDMI and works great! If your display can show true 1080P, watching high bit rate standard DVDs is a revelation. Watching Pixar's "The Incredibles" in 1080P is truly a visual feast, with fine detail that is close to HD, more like 720P in clarity. Unfortunately, bad transfers shows it's faults with it's higher compression artifacts more visible than before.

The source DVD plays a very important role in upscaling DVDs. DVDs with high bit-rates (i.e. less compression) of 7-8 Mb/sec appears a lot more detailed than DVDs with lower bit-rates of 3-5Mb/sec.

If you watch Pixar's "The Incredibles" upscaled, the picture quality is impressive, nearly equaling high def. OTOH, watching the recent "King Kong" movie which is nearly 3 hours on one disc, results in a mediocre image, no matter what you do. You can only extract so much information from a movie, and if the DVD does not have the info, well.... you can't get anything from nothing. Same with Casino, the movie runs nearly three hours, so you will not see much improvement.

Remember that all the "special features", DTS and foreign language soundtracks all results in less space for the movie itself which means higher compression and less info in the movie. usually movies under 100 minutes or DVDs with no special features or added tracks will look better when upscaled.

Sony's so-called SuperBit titles may not be improved over their standard titles as they usually add DTS soundtracks which can take away several hundred megabytes of space on the disk. This depends if the original DVD had a lot of special features which may have taken more space than the DTS soundtrack would.

2. The PS3 now passes ALL the Silicon Optix HQV STandard DVD tests. Previously, the PS3 was terrible. It had failed all the HQV tests, but now it passes all the cadence, detail, interlacing and text scrolling tests. The racing car scene locks in immediately with no moire effects. The fluttering flag shows no jagged artifacts on the edges. The rotating bar tests show no problems with interlacing.

Playing Joe Kane's Digital Video Essentials also shows that the upscaling features on the PS3 does an impressive job in the demo video.

3. Not mentioned but available is 1080P at 24Hz (Blu-Ray only) for displays that can accept the signal. Previously, the PS3 only supported 60Hz which introduced a judder when scenes showed any horizontal panning. This is due to the fact that movies are filmed at 24Hz and converting to 60Hz does not result in an even cadence (i.e. 24 fps cannot be converted to 60Hz evenly).

You should leave the 1080P24 setting to auto. Let the PS3 determine if the display can handle the 24Hz.

4. The PS3 runs hotter!! Previously, my PS3 ran pretty quiet. After the upgrade, the units' fans now run louder than before. Obviously, all these new features are making the cell processors work harder, so it's generating more heat.

5. The PS3 now has the option to display a wider dynamic range of the gray scale. It was said that the PS3 had a crushed white issue (the image would lose detail in whites) and selecting the wider range expands the upper end to eliminate this problem. Some posters also noted that the PS3 also can pass below black now on pluge patterns (but my display does not so I cannot verify). This means the PS3 should now be able to display the proper range from white to black without losing information.

Overall, the v1.8 firmware is must have if you plan to watch DVDs on the PS3. The PS3 now outperforms my Denon 3930CI DVD player with the Reon processor which is no small feat. The details at 1080P from standard DVDs are so much better, it really can look hi-def with good DVDs. At 720P, the image is much improved over 480P but it really must be seen at 1080P as it shows an improvement even over 720P. I have a Marantz VP12S3 720P projector and the improvments are definitely noticeable. I have also seen the updated PS3 connected to a JVC RS-1 1080P projector (which is probably the best front projector currently out with a contrast ratio of 15,000:1 without resorting to any dynamic iris like all other projectors). With the RS-1 at 1080P, the PS3 really shines with standard DVDs. Watching the SuperBit "The Fifth Element", Pixar's "The Incredibles" will make you think you are watching high def. The only failings is that standard DVDs do not have the same color quality has Blu-Ray. But watching DVDs on the PS3 is a revelation.

[JM28Cardiff]

Interesting, techy stuff!

[Zurbaran1]

Originally Posted by JM28Cardiff

Interesting, techy stuff!

I don't know much about that techy stuff but I did upgrade to 1.80 and upconverted DVDs look great. Good enough for my eyes anyway. And I haven't noticed my PS3 running much hotter.