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Sony's 1.80 PS3 firmware enables 1080p upscaling for games and movies
Filed under: Gaming, HDTV, Home Entertainment

Hot on the heels of an 80GB Korean-bound (and US, too?) PlayStation 3 comes news that Sony is planning on seriously upping the abilities of the PS3 with a forthcoming firmware update. Compared to minor changes that have occurred in the past, this one looks to be fairly substantial, so we'll cut to the chase and give you the skinny. First off, firmware v1.80 will enable "upscaling of PlayStation / PlayStation 2 games and DVD movies up to a full 1080p when viewed on a compatible HDTV set." Of course, that "up to" bit frightens us a bit, but we'll take any progress we can get. Moving on, PSP users will enjoy Remote Play on their PSP across the internet, which will allow them to "access their PS3 anywhere in the world where a broadband internet connection is available." Additionally, owners can now view multimedia stored on a DLNA-enabled media center PC "seamlessly," and there will even be an option to print images stored on the console's HDD or inserted media to a "selection of Epson printers." The tough news, however, is that this attractive update won't be available until May 24th, so go dig up that original Twisted Metal disc in the meantime so you're ready to rock when the time comes.

[Via PS3Fanboy]

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Author: Darren Murph
Category: 1.801080pdlnaepsoneuropefirmwareinternetmedia centerMediaCentermultimediaplaystationplaystation 2playstation 3Playstation2Playstation3ps2ps3psonerefreshremote playRemotePlaysonyupcovertupcovertingupdateupscaling
Publish Date: Wed, 23 May 2007 11:16:00 EST
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Source: Engadget
Description: Engadget

This is interesting. At it's simplest level, I guess it just makes lower res games fit correctly on an HD telly - but I wonder what else it can do?

Obviously pre-rendered and compressed (to 720) stuff like the Final Fantasy cut scenes will still appear disappointing, but things that are actually rendered in real time by the game engine? Guess that depends whether the PS/PS2 functionality can take advantage of it, or if this is just a post-processing module entirely in the PS3 display drivers.

The PS2 has something called pixel-smoothing on PS titles, but the last time I tried one I had a telly that could do that anyway, so only really noticed improved CD load times. I'm guessing this does something similar - just increases the size and "antialiases" the jaggedy bits using the extra pixels, but it would be nice to see it in action.

FatherJack wrote: I'm guessing this does something similar - just increases the size and "antialiases" the jaggedy bits using the extra pixels, but it would be nice to see it in action.

This

Software 'upscaling' is a bit iffy at the moment, you can purchase a dedicated hardware upscaler, for the likes of watching DVD's on a HDTV without it looking poo but the software based ones aren't too spesh at the moment

FatherJack wrote:...or if this is just a post-processing module entirely in the PS3 display drivers.

Which I seem to recall is how the xbox360 does it. I strongly suspect this will be how the PS3 does it, too, because the framerate hit going from 1280x720 to 1920x1080 would be too much otherwise.