PS3 Firmware 1.80 announced - Upscaling and Remote Play

[V1N]

if your going to get a HDMI av amp, wait for one that supports 1080p/24. As mr Latte found out, his amp doesnt so he can either have amazing surround sound (uncompressed PCM) and juddery 25fps or perfect 24fps but regular DD/DTS.


its worth waiting for an AV amp that can do both

That's quite true.

Though it being a new Sony amp, supporting Bluray audio etc, I'd hope it would do that too. Worth double checking before making any purchase though, good point!

V1N.

 

[Kappa]

I think it'll upscale to the maximum res selected in your PS3 display settings.

You'll need to have the latest update installed, and have upscaling enabled in your display settings... or press triangle during DVD playback, and go to, I think it's "image quality" or something, and select from the scaling options, which are, if memory serves, off/double/normal/fullscreen.

V1N.

aha cheers, I have a 26" Sony S series, and i took off 1080i as I thought there would be no point (im right by doing this arent i?) and just have 576p and 720p enabled. Will have a go at looking at those options later. cheers dude

 

[zealot]

Surely that isnt right.

I believe its nothing to do with the discs, though your right very few standalone players support the 1080 24 output. The reason because as of only recently very few displays supported this video mode.

The reason mine hasnt been working, i now know why, as im routing into my amp and the amp only outputs in 50/60Hz. Id have to connect directly to the projector but then im outta luck if i want that juicey PCM audio, damn...

Guess id need some form of HDMI duplicator to send the audio to the amp but the video to the projector, however a lot of people will have the same problem and chances are their is very few AV amps in the UK that support 1080/24 output at the moment for video routing.

As for old games i was quite impressed with how well GT4 Prolouge looks.

Have you tried the cable swap trick yet. ps3 straight to projector once projector has a lock on the signal then swap the cable back through to the amp.

 

[Daytrader]

dam paid over £2000 for my yamaha amp years back, also remember to get benefit of un compressed PCM audio you really need some decent speakers especailly for rear's as they need to be full bandwidth for sure, just my centre speaker cost £500+, and rears over £700, need a few more sets of them really if i was to buy new amp i liked the DSP-Z9 but waiting for new model now.

 

[FrankJH]

dam paid over £2000 for my yamaha amp years back, also remember to get benefit of un compressed PCM audio you really need some decent speakers especailly for rear's as they need to be full bandwidth for sure, just my centre speaker cost £500+, and rears over £700, need a few more sets of them really if i was to buy new amp i liked the DSP-Z9 but waiting for new model now.

While it stands to reason that full height full bandwidth speakers will benefit - high bandwidth pcm is easily noticable (especially on a good soundtrack) with 5 bookshelf speakers compared to standard DD or DTS

Even with moderate speakers its like night and day

 

[Daytrader]

While it stands to reason that full height full bandwidth speakers will benefit - high bandwidth pcm is easily noticable (especially on a good soundtrack) with 5 bookshelf speakers compared to standard DD or DTS

Even with moderate speakers its like night and day

interesting, thats good as a lot of people just buy these all in one packages that have thouse sort of speakers.

 

[FrankJH]

interesting, thats good as a lot of people just buy these all in one packages that have thouse sort of speakers.

Hold on - all in one systems are really limited, and to get the new sound formats you either need analogue connections or hdmi connections (unlikely in the all in one packages)

I have a seperates package of 5 speakers + REL Storm along with a seperate amp (Pioneer AX4is) and HD-E1 and PS3 and the general sound from the five speakers is mightily impressive compared to standard DD/DTS

 

[Inazuma]

Firmware 1.80 has been great so far Many PS1/2 games are now playable, including MGS3. One of the best additions sneakily added in is the RGB Full option. When I first got my PS3, colours in games like RFOM and COD3 seemed washed out; now with the new feature the colours are much better. You do have to turn your TV brightness up a little though or blacks become "blacker than black". Also there is a bug that reverts the option back to 'Limited' after playing PS1/2 games or DVDs, so you need to set it back manually every time.

The upscaling and 'smoothing' options were very unexpected, but very welcome After some messing around I think the best option (for my 40" at least), is 720p (instead of 1080i, though go with 1080p if you have the option) with upscaling on Full and smoothing on. Some games don't have a widescreen option so some may prefer to set their TV display to 4:3 aspect when playing them.

 

[Andybtsn]

Nooooooooooooooo!

Don't show me, mustn't spend money! Mustn't spend money!

Actually, when I do get one, I'll get one which can handle HDMI, so I can use it for video and audio switching, and get rid of my aging Joytech scart box, which is what I use for multiple optical switching at the moment.

V1N.

How do the wireless work on that?

 

[V1N]

How do the wireless work on that?

Sorry, I don't follow.

I have, at the moment, a Joytech Control Centre II, with all my non-HD connections running through it. It also has a few optical inputs, which I use, as my amp only has one optical input, so I have the PS3 optical running through that, even though the video is going direct to the TV via HDMI.

It has no wireless options, unless you count the IR remote
I have a wireless access point connected to a router for wireless... though the Joytech does also have (wired) LAN passthrough.

V1N.

 

[Sumanji]

Slightly OT but is the PS3 DVD player region free? And if not is there anyway to make it region free (i.e. using Linux)?

Cheers,

Suman

 

[msmalls74]

Firmware 1.80 has been great so far Many PS1/2 games are now playable, including MGS3. One of the best additions sneakily added in is the RGB Full option. When I first got my PS3, colours in games like RFOM and COD3 seemed washed out; now with the new feature the colours are much better. You do have to turn your TV brightness up a little though or blacks become "blacker than black". Also there is a bug that reverts the option back to 'Limited' after playing PS1/2 games or DVDs, so you need to set it back manually every time.

.

I saw this article on the games***k website (thought id better * out dont want nearly naughty word)
here have been a number of features added in the PS3's 1.80 firmware update; many of which have been overlooked. The PS3 now supports Super-White and x.v.Color output, playing Blu-ray movies at 24Hz, and now an RGB Full Range option is enabled for those with HDTV's that support it. This latter option increases the range of colours in PS3 playback, making both films and movies have a much wider range of colour. Continue to see the results for when RGB Full Range is enabled, and how to see if your TV supports it.

If [Full] is set when using a TV that supports RGB full range (only over HDMI), the picture quality of the game or video may be improved, increasing the colour spectrum from 16 to 235, to 0 to 255. Not all HDTV's will support this, however, but if your television does then blacks will look blacker than ever and see some details which may have been missing before.
Thus, the results are noticable and can bring a new colour depth to your experiences with the PS3. However, it is not optimal for all televisions and can distort colours. This means you will have to experiment with your HDTV's brightness and contrast settings. Nonetheless, how can you discover whether your HDTV supports this new RGB Full option?

Here is a test to find out (credit goes to andrewfree of neogaf):

First, save this image, and put it on your PS3 via a memory card or some other method:

http://sr-388.net/images/patterns/Brightness.jpg

With the option set to limited, adjust the brightness control on your TV until you can see most/all of the boxes. There are 12 boxes there, but you might not be able to see them all. You should hopefully be able to see at least 9/10 of them.

Now switch it over to Full range. Can you still see all the boxes? It's very likely that you will only see a full black screen now if you're using a HDTV rather than a DVI monitor.

If you can turn up the brightness control and see the same number of boxes again, then it seems your display does support the full range. If it stays black, or you can't see as many boxes as before, your TV does not support the full range option and you should be using limited.

I tried it and mine does support it, makes it look less wahed out in some games.

 

[V1N]

Thanks for that. That's brilliant.

Tried the picture on my PC, and saw 11 boxes.

Loaded it into my PS3, and already had full full RGB selected, and saw three boxes.

Had a play with the settings, and turned the brightness from 55 up to 70, and can see most of them. This did have the effect of making the black less, erm, black... but was compensated for using the advanced contrast setting, making the black black again, whilst retaining the boxes on the screen.

I'll have another play later, as the sun is streaming in here at the moment, which isn't helping anything, but I was hoping for a kind of testcard to set the PS3 and screen up. Hopefully there'll be a bluray out soon with the THX setup screen, ala Star Wars DVDs.

V1N.

EDIT, was about to close the curtains and try again, loaded the pic and can see all 12 boxes, so can probably get away with turning the brightness down a bit again and that's before the curtains are shut

Actually, once I turned the brightness up to 70 so I could see all the boxes clearly, I was able to turn it down to 60 again and still see all the boxes on the screen. Quite funny though, from the 55 it was before, each notch up made more boxes appear on the screen.

Thanks again, I really appreciate that. Was wanting something to set my TV up with. Seems upping the brightness by 5 has brought all the boxes in, so should be better calibrated now.

 

[james.miller]

what tv do you have V1n?

edit: stupid question, its in your sig. v1n that sounds like youve got it set up all wrong

on my 40w, i run a backlight of 7 and contrast at max. my brightness is at 42 and i can see all the boxes. do you have some of the advanced settings enabled? they can mess with the picture

 

[V1N]

what tv do you have V1n?

edit: stupid question, its in your sig. v1n that sounds like youve got it set up all wrong

on my 40w, i run a backlight of 7 and contrast at max. my brightness is at 42 and i can see all the boxes. do you have some of the advanced settings enabled? they can mess with the picture

I do have the contrast enhance on. It's also very sunny today.
I'll have another play later. At the moment my backlight is 8, contrast 85, and brightness 60. Can see the boxes, and the black is black.

Ah, actually, the black corrector is on medium, the contrast enhancer is medium, gamma low, clear white low, and I use wide colour space, medium live colour.

It's still quite new, so haven't really had a real play with setting up the PS3 side of it yet...but will turn off the advanced settings later, and just use the standard brightness and contrast settings, and see what it looks like.

Thanks for your input though, I'd been waiting for some kind of test card to get it set up properly.

V1N.

 

[james.miller]

the easiest way to set *** brightness up is display blank screen that should be black. with the contrast up full, keep turning the brightness down untill the screen doesnt get any 'blacker'. that's your ideal point right there.

the backlight setting is a bit harder. turning it up makes things brighter but at the expensense of the dark stuff. i found on my set, 7-8 works best, but really just experiment with it

ive had mine since the beginning of the year and there are quite a few others with a 40w now, so if you need any advice just shout. or make a thread, one of the two

 

[V1N]

Decided to have a fiddle now.

Turned all the advanced settings off.

With brightness at 42 and contrast on max, with full RGB enabled, I see no boxes lol


Brightness at 44, I see one box in the bottom right, and as I turned it up, more boxes appear, until all are visible at 62. At 61 I get 11, the final notch up to 62 brings them all in.

Interestingly, leaving the brightness on 62, I turned the contrast down... and it makes no difference, until I go from 1 to min, which makes one box dissapear.
Reminds me of my old Wega CRT, when it was switched to RGB mode, it wouldn't let you alter contrast settings.

So, with brightness at 61, turning the black corrector to low brings all the boxes into show.

Turning on the adv contrast enhances makes the black blacker, whilst still being able to see all boxes.

Various gamma settings make the brighter boxes even brighter, with little/no effect on the dimmer ones.

Clearwhite does nothing in that image that I can see.

V1N.

EDIT: OK, I like how I've got it looking, so gave it a "real world" test... not just staring at a black screen with some boxes on. Just tried a few HD trailers, seeing as they were on the HD handy... it does look better. I can quite clearly see extra detail now... so I'm pleased.

 

[V1N]

the easiest way to set *** brightness up is display blank screen that should be black. with the contrast up full, keep turning the brightness down untill the screen doesnt get any 'blacker'. that's your ideal point right there.

the backlight setting is a bit harder. turning it up makes things brighter but at the expensense of the dark stuff. i found on my set, 7-8 works best, but really just experiment with it

ive had mine since the beginning of the year and there are quite a few others with a 40w now, so if you need any advice just shout. or make a thread, one of the two

Thanks. Setting it up in the method you described was pretty much what I did when I first got it. It just needed a bit of tweaking now with the full RGB selected on the PS3. Basically just had to turn the brightness up by 5-6 points. The backlight is the thing. I've turned it to 7 now, but to be honest, with the amount of light in here at the moment, I can turn the backlight off and it doesn't make much difference. I did try the light sensor when I first got the telly, but during the first evening I wondered why it looked so poor, turned that off, and left it off ever since.

Still, nice to know of some users of the same telly, for tips... but I'm quite happy, for now I spent most of the initial set up time sorting out my SD boxes, to get them looking as good as possible

Fantastic telly by the way

V1N.

 

[Dutch Guy]

I do have the contrast enhance on. It's also very sunny today.
I'll have another play later. At the moment my backlight is 8, contrast 85, and brightness 60. Can see the boxes, and the black is black.

Ah, actually, the black corrector is on medium, the contrast enhancer is medium, gamma low, clear white low, and I use wide colour space, medium live colour.

It's still quite new, so haven't really had a real play with setting up the PS3 side of it yet...but will turn off the advanced settings later, and just use the standard brightness and contrast settings, and see what it looks like.

Thanks for your input though, I'd been waiting for some kind of test card to get it set up properly.

V1N.

Regarding the 40W2000 settings, have a look at this thread: http://www.avforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=412249

I think all the advanced stuff needs to be off, Contrast on max, sharpness on minimum, backlight low (3 or 4) and much more settings.

 

[V1N]

Regarding the 40W2000 settings, have a look at this thread: http://www.avforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=412249

I think all the advanced stuff needs to be off, Contrast on max, sharpness on minimum, backlight low (3 or 4) and much more settings.

Thanks, just had a quick flick through.

Many differing opinions, especially for people who seem to like that Sharpness... I think it makes everything look cack.

Some people did prefer the brightness at 40, and some around 60.
For me, with full RGB enabled on the PS3, I need it at 60 to see all the boxes.
I have it set to 50 for other sources.

But yeah, most things, such as noise reduction, and sharpness are all off. My preference is the black enhancement to low, and gamma to low as well, but we're all different.

Still strikes me as odd that I can't see any boxes in the low 40s when other people can... not with full RGB enabled anyway.

I'll play with the backlight this evening, and try it a notch or two lower.

V1N.

EDIT: Just looked at that forum again, but flicked to the end. Seems I have similar setup to you now, except I need the brightness higher in order to see all those boxes in the brightness.jpg picture. My backlight is also on 7 at the mo, but I'll set that this evening when it's dark.