Today Sony released an excellent new firmware upgrade!
* The PS3 can now upscale your DVDs up to 1080p resolution.
* Also for people with 720p native sets (like myself) can playback Blu-ray movies at 720p.
* PS/PS2 games can also be upscaled to 1080p resolution.
* Then they have added the ability to use the Remote Play with a PSP over the internet and some DNLA streaming features for media which I haven't checked out yet.
After going through a few of my DVDs I must say that the upscaling feature does an absolutely fantastic job! Just watched a few scenes from The Incredibles and it looked exactly that. If you were to watch the movie at HD resolution you would definitely be able to see more texture detail in the wider shots but, wow, the image is so unbelievably sharp and the colors are vastly improved. I also was watching X-Men 3 when my roommate came home and he said, "Ah you finally caved in and bought it on Blu-ray". When I told him it was my DVD copy he was floored. I have seen the Blu-ray version and it does look better but boy Sony really nailed this update.
My friend has a Oppo DV-981HD and that is the best looking upscaling DVD player I have seen in action and while it is better than the PS3's image quality, the PS3 still gets pretty close. For a gaming console's video playback capability I give it 5 out of 5 stars.
I'm telling you, these internet connected next gen system across the board never cease to amaze me how they can update and upgrade all these features simply through the internet with minimal hassle. Not only that, these companies really seem to be listening to the users feedback and requests. I was just thinking earlier how the 360 has improved feature wise throughout its lifecycle. They improved the somewhat mediocre DVD playback across the board and then offered upscaling capability through VGA, numerous dashboard updates including the Video Marketplace (which is a fantastic idea, although I never really use it), backwards compatibility improvements, and last but not least the HD DVD audio update which was an exponential improvement in the audio quality, especially the dynamic range.
Then you have the PS3 with these current updates which seriously make me very happy putting life back into my DVD collection. Not only that, right after the PS3 was released it had some serious scaling issues with PS2 games which produced extremely sub par image quality with jagged edges covering the screen, to being able to scale games up to 1080p resolution.
Good times.
Oh yeah, can't forget the Wii, got the browser update, I can vote channel (or whatever) and they are adding more virtual console games all the time. All three companies are delivering without a doubt. Competition is good. (Yeah Nintendo is taking smaller steps but you gotta love them.)
Man, between this update on the PS3 and the audio update on the HD DVD addon for the 360 I am one happy camper. Never really thought consoles could make such great movie players. (Especially happy about the PS3 improvements since it is practically nothing but a video player for me.)
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