Sony's 1.80 PS3 firmware enables 1080p upscaling for games and movies

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 best part: it's out tomorrow.

[Via PS3Fanboy]

[paloooz @ May 23rd 2007 11:20AM]

Upscaling for games? I thought their claim to fame was that their games run at 1920x1080. Why would they need to be upscaled?

[oneofmany @ May 23rd 2007 11:00PM]

dude you're an idiot. Exactly what PS2 game runs at that resolution?

I think this update ( if it really works as promised ) alone is worth forking $600 bucks for a ps3. You get an upscaling dvd player with dolby output plus it's also a blue-ray player and you can also play games on it ... this right there is the center of my entertainment system and if it was bold I would like it to have my babies as well :D

[Fatima @ May 23rd 2007 11:21AM]

Waits for the xbots to rip this up...
or are they too busy with their RROD?

[BarryBee @ May 23rd 2007 11:29AM]

Finally a reason to give a crap about my $600 blu-ray playing paper weight. Way to go Sony, these are the type of updates we should've been seeing. Keep'em coming.

[SuicideNinja @ May 24th 2007 12:16PM]

"Waits for the xbots to rip this up...
or are they too busy with their RROD?"

Well, yeah, just like the PS2's have been dead from 12 versions of DRE. Why pretend that Sony hasn't had their own muck of hardware?

Anyway, it's about time. I still need rumble support (I refuse to play Shadow of the Colossus without it), so the PS3 is still worthless as a BC unit to me. Essentially...the PS3 is just a movie machine at this point...giving the Samsung upscaling DVD player to the parents because of this news. Since their Bravia doesn't handle SD signals very well.

Want to upscale your DVD's? Sit further back from the television. Same effect. After 20 ft or so, there's no discernable difference in Blu-ray anyway, even on a big screen.

[joe @ May 23rd 2007 6:11PM]

Xbots that is funny and I am one.

[Fatima @ May 23rd 2007 11:21AM]

Ps1 games............upscaled to 1080p along with DVD movies.

[paloooz @ May 23rd 2007 11:25AM]

Guess that's what happens what I don't RTFA.

[Art Guy @ May 23rd 2007 11:22AM]

Still no upscaling of PS3 games??? That's what the system really needed, not that other crap.

[BadVermin @ May 23rd 2007 11:23AM]

Still no upscaling of PS3 games??? That's what the system really
needed, not that other crap.

[Seamus Bartlett @ May 23rd 2007 11:31AM]

it's tough news that the update comes out...tomorrow? if you're that a.d.d. that a one day wait has you climbing the walls, you should probably hey look a bird i wonder what's on tv time for videogames!111!1!

[James Sullivan @ May 23rd 2007 11:43AM]

"it's tough news that the update comes out...tomorrow? if you're that a.d.d. that a one day wait has you climbing the walls, you should probably hey look a bird i wonder what's on tv time for videogames!111!1!"

I was thinking the same thing...

[Rick Lyon @ May 23rd 2007 11:59AM]

About time. At least I can play some games, PS2 games, now because there sure as hell aren't enough PS3 games out yet to even qualify that there are PS3 games out.

Tempted to ebay my PS3 and get an Xbox...I just don't like M$ very much.

[Jshw @ May 23rd 2007 11:54AM]

And why the weird double post from different people???!

[Mark @ May 23rd 2007 12:05PM]

What's the point of this? Don't most HDTVs upscale anyway?

[Andir3.0 @ May 23rd 2007 12:52PM]

Some do, some don't.

[Teddy Brennan @ May 24th 2007 5:14PM]

No. No they do not.

[KevinJ @ May 27th 2007 10:12AM]

NO most LCD in fact do not upconvert. I notice a lot of people using upconvert and upscale interchangably which I believe they are not the same. All LCDs do upscale. Upconvert means taking a image and enhancing it frame by frame to make it into a 1920x1080 image. Upscaling means the image is just enlarged. In the end a low resolution 640x480 image upconverted will never be a true HD image but will look better than one simple blown up in size by upscaling.

[ATT @ May 23rd 2007 12:16PM]

i hope it's not just upscaling alone i hope sony work with nvidia to apply some AA+AF those 2 things along will do wonders for any game make PS1&PS2 games look like xbox 1 when playing 480p mode

i remember playing resident evil 1 and 2 PC and turning my video card settings to max made it look great same thing can be said about GTA-vice city PC you add some AA and AF looks kick ass.

Xbox 360 = lame duck console ;)

[alphaman @ May 23rd 2007 12:19PM]

I don't believe this! Upscaling low-res video games is their idea of an upgrade? Hello, is anyone awake at Sony? I want the lousy 720p games upscaled so I can play them on my 1080i set! Now they're downscaled/de-rezzed to 480p instead! I mean, sure, MotoStorm still looks okay at 480p, but I paid for hi def!

PlayStation games at 1080p? You gotta be freakin' kidding me...

Now, being able to view multimedia from a DLNA/UPnP PC? Now THAT's cool stuff! I've got half a TB on my PC full of pics, video, and music that I'll now be able to view without having to copy to a portable disk and then copy to the PS3!! Yay!

[fuzz54 @ May 23rd 2007 12:52PM]

For gamers with resolution upscaling and downscaling problems here's some advice: Don't wait for Sony. Go out and buy an image processor from DVDO for $600 to $1000 (check ebay). They upscale, downscale, and resize aspect ratio on component, svideo, and HDMI inputs as needed to any resolution. The DVDO upscaling blows any HDTV's native upscaler out of the water. And you can bring the image processor with you when you move on to another HDTV. It's pricey, but I consider it a good investment considering how much I pay for a TV, game system, audio system, games, etc... And no, I'm not a DVDO rep.

[colin @ May 23rd 2007 12:31PM]

Here's a novel upgrade idea Engadget. It's called using bullet points - makes lists more readable :)

[pvcleave @ May 23rd 2007 12:44PM]

This may seem like a dumb question, but what is a "DLNA-enabled media center PC" I have the PC, how do I make it DLNA enabled?

[Teddy Brennan @ May 24th 2007 5:15PM]

Easy. An explanation of DNLA is available here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Living_Network_Alliance

To set it up, look here: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/knowledgecenter/howto/mp11/sharemedia.aspx

[Anthony @ May 23rd 2007 12:50PM]

why do all the sites say we have to wait till 24th May like its next year. Its tomorrow numb nuts

[Steve @ May 23rd 2007 12:56PM]

I prefer to play games and watch movies at their native resolution, not this upscaling crap. This only confuses people and when people watch DVD movies, they think that's HD because it's in 1080p which logically it's NOT!!! I hope Sony allows this as an option or don't do this at all... upscaling it nothing more then just pure marketing gimmick to get people all hyped up about seeing their 480p movies in 1080p which isn't a different other then the image might look more solid but exact same pixels and resolution.

[Hardcore @ May 23rd 2007 1:39PM]

I've never seen a bigger bunch of whiny bitches in my entire life.

[Adam Wroblaski @ May 23rd 2007 1:48PM]

I have the same question as pvcleave, what the crap is DLNA enabled media center pc. I'm guessing this is just some "branding" thing that lets someone know they're buying a computer with all the right components (kinda like Intel Centrino was), not necessarily that it has any proprietary hardware or software associated with it. Does anyone know more about this?

[wirelessdeo @ May 23rd 2007 2:09PM]

Hope this helps with what DLNA is. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DLNA

[Jon @ May 23rd 2007 3:22PM]

When will the PS3 be able to stream video from PC ???? Mine just kinda sits there waiting for a good Blu ray disc to come , cause we all know there are no games other then the 3 we already played 150 times

[Brent @ May 23rd 2007 3:39PM]

Right now, if you have a DLNA-enabled media center PC:

"Additionally, owners can now view multimedia stored on a DLNA-enabled media center PC"

Additionally, Orb supports PS3 currently, although I'm not sure in what capacity.

I do agree that we need more games, though. I probably play more PS2 games on my PS3 than PS3 games (although it is nice that PS2 games can be bought on the cheap these days).

[dave @ May 23rd 2007 3:36PM]

about time....ive actually held out upgrading my dvd player, oppo 1080p=$220, in hopes that ps3 would eventually upscale dvds. I have to ask what this dlna garbage is though, probably need a sony vaio pc to stream...never understood why ps3 couldnt stream before, they have some catching up to my xbox360 that now does h264 and wmv and i think a couple other mpg codecs

[Jeff @ May 23rd 2007 3:46PM]

"I prefer to play games and watch movies at their native resolution, not this upscaling crap"

If you have an HDTV, you're upscaling regardless. You can't watch anything at its "native resolution" unless you have a 1920x1080 or 1280x720 digital panel, in which case you can watch HDTV at those resolutions natively... but nothing else.

All HDTV's have a native resolution, even CRT's, which are usually 1080i/480p (CRT's usually have two different native resolutions, one for HD and one for SD). Anything that gets fed into them that isn't that native res is going to be scaled to it. Otherwise you'd be watching all your content in various differently-sized boxes. Watch SD television on a 1080p LCD that doesn't scale and it'll be in a tiny little box in the middle of the screen. Watch 1080i HDTV on a 720p set that doesn't scale and you'd be losing about 50% of the picture.

So you may as well get off your high horse.

[True_Darknight @ May 23rd 2007 3:47PM]

so in other words....
XBX 360 owners are running out of stuff to say the PS3 doesn't do. How great is that!!

P.S. I got both systems so the better for me

[Jitty @ May 23rd 2007 6:54PM]

Wow, this is an excellent example of how no matter what sony does, haters will not be happy... I bet if sony comes out with upscaling ps3 games haters will start whining like babies about some other nit-pick... Never happy until the ps3 100% perfect...

[John Branca @ May 23rd 2007 4:36PM]

"When will the PS3 be able to stream video from PC ???? Mine just kinda sits there waiting for a good Blu ray disc to come , cause we all know there are no games other then the 3 we already played 150 times"

I swear people need to learn how to READ.

[Steve @ May 23rd 2007 4:40PM]

@Jeff
You're not understanding me right. I have a HDTV that goes up to 1080p natively. When I watch DVDs, I prefer to watch them in 480p, upconverting to 720p or 1080p makes no difference for me. The way the PS3 has it setup right now, it picks the resolution that the game/movie are made in so that way you know what resolution it's in. Now by having everything upcoverted to 1080p, it only confuses people what they're actually seeing, by keeping it the way it is now, people will know what resolution they're actually watching it at. get it??

[zargon @ May 23rd 2007 4:55PM]

@Steve

No, you are not understanding Jeff right.

Every TV has its own native resolution, which is the only resolution that the TV can display. Anything that is not the TV native resolution is either not displayed at all (older HDTVs) or the TV scales it to its native resolution.

Like Jeff said, CRT's usually have native resolutions of 1080i and 480p. While any digital display (LCD, LCoS, plasma, DLP, OLED, SED, etc...) can only display one and only one native resolution since it is a fixed pixel display. These digital displays come in either 720p or 1080p and like their CRT counter parts, scale everything to that one native resolution.

Jeff's point is that, even though your source may be outputting its material at its native resolution. Unless that resolution is the same as your TVs native resolution, the TV will scale it so it is and in turn display it. That means that it gets scaled anyways. It just comes down to what scales it, the source or the TV or if you are hardcore, a video processor/scaler.

[AdAstrum @ May 23rd 2007 4:58PM]

Don't you find the troll posts above quite amusing? Yesterday they were decrying the lack os upscaling on PS3, now that its announced they are wining that they like the native resoution better ... pathertic would be a word to describe that.
No one is forcing you to scale - prefer native - watch it, prefer to scale it up, do it. More freedom, more options to play with. Scaling can be applied to all games, not just old PSOne titles.
For movie watchers, DVD upscaling will be added along with 1080p24fps support. Nice!
This firmware has a lot to offer to both gamers and Blu-Ray watchers. Good job Sony, you were listening to us!

[myscrnnm @ May 23rd 2007 5:06PM]

Yes! Just what I've been waiting for! Can't wait to start accessing my videos via the Internet with my PSP. Now just add LocationFree to the PlayStation 3 and it's perfect.

[Steve @ May 23rd 2007 5:17PM]

@AdAstrum
"For movie watchers, DVD upscaling will be added along with 1080p24fps support. Nice!"

Where did you hear the movies will be at 24fps? if this is true, this would be sweet!

[Galley @ May 23rd 2007 11:10PM]

There is a screen capture at PS3fanboy.com that shows 1080P 24hz as an option.

[blessedswine @ May 23rd 2007 11:39PM]

i was able to download 1.8 at 11:30 Eastern Time took a while to get but its sweet.

[Ben @ May 24th 2007 12:40AM]

Hopefully they will FINALLY be able to DOWNSCALE 1080p Blueray to 720p. That's the killer feature for me, and the thing that makes the PS3 *useless* for Blueray viewing. Since it won't go to 720p, and can't produce 1080i over component (and who the heck wants flickery 1080i anyway), 720p is a critial lack. Paying $30 to watch a Blueray disk in 480p can be replaced with paying $10 to watch one on a progressive scan standard DVD player with very little quality difference, if any. When they fix the 720p problem, I'll become a fan. Until then, its a game machine, one that cost too much.

[Laurens Holst @ May 24th 2007 3:44AM]

Ben, they will, according to the AVS review, quote:

"According to the videophiles over on AVS, the PS3 is now the premier BD and DVD player with the 1.80 firmware.

* Excellent/Amazing 1080p upscaling of DVDs
* For those with 720p only sets it now does 720P downscaling for BD along with upscaling for DVD
* 1080p24 support (film is native 24 fps, no more 3:2 pulldown)
* Blacker-than-Black (BTB) and Whiter-than-White (WTW) support with (full range/limited) the BTB has been confirmed by DVE
* HQV DVD test and the PS3 1.80 firmware passes ALL tests!! Cadence, interlacing, artifacting, you name it, it passed!!!

Go see page 163 (and on) in the AVS " One-and-Only PS3 as Blu-Ray Player Thread" for more details."

See the second point for downscaling to 720p for Blu-ray discs.


~Grauw

[Villan @ May 24th 2007 11:18AM]

"* 1080p24 support (film is native 24 fps, no more 3:2 pulldown)"

For me, THAT is the most important feature. But it's also worth noting that you need a display that's capable of showing 1080p/24 and right now they are still pretty thin on the ground.

[michaelmakro @ May 24th 2007 6:50PM]

has anyody really looked and listened to the improvements. Well I have. The upscaling of DVD on a HD set really rocks. There is more perceived detail and more vibrant colours. The sound streamed to my Suround sound system is fantastic! Thanks Sony. I paid through the nose (UK) but now at least the PS3 is looking much better value.

[Stefan @ May 25th 2007 2:04AM]

im just really confused as to why they didnt throw in ps3 upscaling in there... as long as theyre already upscaling every other possible thing. the problem is i only have an old hd tv that only has 480i/p and 1080i... so any games that are in 720(unfortunately most of them) get bumped down.

[John @ May 25th 2007 8:06AM]

Has anyone else run into problems downloading the new update? I get error messages whenever I try. 80029994, anyone? What the heck am I supposed to do with that?

[matt @ May 26th 2007 4:46AM]

I have the same problem as stefan I have a 1080i panasonic rear projector set that doesn't have hdmi but does have component inputs. It would be good if it would upscale to 1080i on component terminals not just HDMI