New to Blu? Buy a PS3: the most featured BD hardware available... - Page 24

Originally Posted by Phil Carter

Yeah, I think "Underworld" is next on my list of pickups for games, either that one or "Motor Storm: Pacific Rift". Both of them look damned cool and lots of fun.

Originally Posted by Phil Carter

I did some hunting yesterday too. Apparently one can FORCE PoP to 1080p by turning off all other resolutions in the PS3's display settings. Seems kind of foolish to me, particularly when the native res is (as you said) 720p. Still looks good, though.

Originally Posted by Phil Carter

I have a Samsung PN50A650 1080p native plasma set. It starts out at 1080p resolution when running the standard Playstation menu, for example, but switches back to 720p resolution when the game starts. Not that big a deal, really, now that I know the game's own native res is 720p.

Originally Posted by Nicholas Martin

Of course, losing those features is a tiny price to pay compared to the risk of losing the entire console's capabilities.

Originally Posted by Jari K

I'm not fully following you. Where´s the "risk"? I just said that I did the update and I´m sure you´ll find loads of similar people in several other forums (try e.g. official PS-forums).

Originally Posted by Man-Fai Wong

Did v2.53 somehow kill internet capabilities? I'm still running v2.3, and whatever basic internet capabilities (eg. BD-Live, basic web browsing w/out Flash) along w/ all BD playback (as far as I can tell) still work fine for me. No real interest in downloading stuff off PSN yet, which is partly why many of these updates don't interest me much.

Originally Posted by Nicholas Martin

Actually, I'm saying that based entirely on the official Playstation.com forums. Update 2.53 screwed a lot of PS3s up and there are a LOT of complaints about it there. As for 2.60, so far there aren't any major complaints about it aside from the downloading time because of heavy update traffic on the server. I'm saying I'm not sure I want to risk it since things are just fine with mine, except for the internet.

Originally Posted by CraigF

Totally OT, but PS3-related: is there any good reason why the PS3 couldn't have a nice little internet radio interface?

I suppose the obvious reason is Sony wouldn't make any money on it, but they have the photo viewer things and I wouldn't think a convenient IR front end would be much more difficult...just one little added-value feature now that the PS3 is a somewhat expensive BDP if that's your main intention for it. (I know there are apps in Linux, but on the "Sony" side would be more convenient.)

Originally Posted by Jari K

**Changing the hard drive, pt.1**

Okay, first part of the project is done. New 320GB "Western Digital Scorpio" (2.5" SATA-300 5400rpm) hard drive is now installed to my PS3.

1) First I used "Backup Utility" ( PS3™ | Backup Utility ) from the PS3 menu and moved (approx) 40gb worth of stuff to the external USB 2.0 hard drive (which was already formatted to "FAT 32", which should be the case). This took over an hour.

2) After that (just in case), I moved all my "game save" files to the memory stick. You don´t want to lose those..

3) Then the actual hard drive install. Everything was easy to the point where we needed to remove those four little screws from the sides of the "rack" (is it called caddy?) where the "original" hard drive is. At least in my unit, they were so tight, that my screwdriver(s) just didn´t do the trick. NOTE: If they´re really tight (like in my case), you can damage the screws with your screwdriver and it´s hard to screw them back (so if the screwdriver you are using is slipping, stop using it - don´t use "force"). So, we used a proper Leatherman and pliers in that. You (eeeasy) rotate the screws out one at the time.

Don´t worry, this is the hardest part (and perhaps not that hard with all units).

4) Then you just slide the new hard drive into the rail kit (same way as the old one), put those screws back in and place the rail kit back to the PS3 (remember the last screw before the plastic cover). And you´re done.

5) Now you put the HDMI/component cable back and turn the power back on. PS3 will ask you to "format" the hard drive. You click "yes". This is very fast and you´re back to PS3 menu (I guess some of that basic stuff is stored to the flash memory or something, since my user account was still there etc).

I also went to the "System Settings" => "System Information" to check the "new" hard disk capacity ("A portion of the hard disk capacity is reserved for use in connection with system administration, maintenance, and additional options").

6) Since I read, that it´s best to do "full format" with the new hard drives, I went back to the menu and chose "Format Utility" and then "full format". Bad news: It says, that it takes over 18 hours (yes, 18, not even 8..), so it´ll take some time before I can start bringing the stuff back to my PS3..

(to be continued...)

edit: One visual guide also here:
** How-To Guide to Upgrading Your Hard Drive ** Updated 12/1 - PLAYSTATION®3 Media - PlayStation.com Forums

**Changing the hard drive, pt.2**

7) When the new hard drive (in PS3) has been fully formatted, then you hook up your external USB hard drive again and choose "Backup Utility" from the PS3 menu. Now you choose "Restore" and click "yes". It´ll now fully restore the stuff from the "old" PS3 hard drive back to the new one (this will again take some time if you have plenty of stuff).

Best part: Everything will be back; games, saves, photos, MP3s, settings, user accounts, passwords, etc. So yes: Also GAMES will be back (no need to DL those again). To me it looked 100% identical to the old hard drive.

Originally Posted by Jari K

PS3 firmware v2.70 now available:

PS3 Firmware (v2.70) Update - PlayStation.Blog

*Text Chat feature - that enables you to communicate online with your PlayStation Network friends. Now, you’ll be able to chat with up to 15 online friends using the Wireless Keypad, on-screen keyboard, or other compatible keyboard peripherals. Not only can you chat with your friends instantly, but you can also access Text Chat while playing PS3 games and even participate in up to three chat rooms at once.

*Friends list on the XMB (XrossMediaBar)
-Sort your friends via their online status
-Attach larger files to the messages you send to your friends (file size will increase from 1MB to 3MB)

*Video delivery service on PlayStation Store
-Video files you’ve purchased from the PlayStation Store can be backed up to an external storage device and then restored to PS3’s internal hard drive for playback – so you can clear up space on your hard drive and then restore the video anytime in the future
-Videos you’ve purchased for PSP (PlayStation Portable) system can now be transferred to PS3 for playback

Originally Posted by ralphPerez

Besides the internet option, that is all the new update right?

Originally Posted by Nicholas Martin

^^If you mean irritating because it meant that there was no way to use any kind of upmix for listening (all channel stereo, pro-logic, Neo:6, or other DSP, etc) then I hear ya.