Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Monday, 24 March 2008 17:49
Opinion and Analysis
Page 1 of 2
Previewed at CES in Las Vegas is the ability for the PS3 to take
Blu-ray movies, convert them to standard definition and let PSP owners
watch them on-the-go, in a function known as ‘Portable Copy’.
The new features keep on coming for the PS3 with every new firmware update, something that must be making PS3 owners very happy indeed.
QJ.net has not only uncovered new features for the upcoming PS3 Firmware 2.20, but has
unveiled that this is the firmware version that will finally let PS3 owners make a legal copy of their Blu-ray movies to their PSP, transferred to and stored on the Memory Stick removable media any PSP can use.
It’s called “Portable Copy” and enhances the value of both the PS3 and the PSP, and does it without needing consumers to use their computers to rip Blu-ray movies to PC and then convert them.
Whether this feature will also work with DVDs is unknown, but at least converting DVDs to PSP is something that most relatively computer savvy PSP and computer owners will have no great trouble doing with either free or paid software on the Internet, even if it isn’t exactly legal.
QJ.net also revealed some of firmware 2.20’s other
new features.
To start with, firmware 2.20 upgrades the PS3’s Blu-ray capabilities to ‘Blu-ray Profile 2.0’, which enables BD-LIVE content. Soon, Sony and other movie studios will release Blu-ray discs with BD-LIVE content, which is content sourced from the Internet, be it extra scenes, bonus scenes, shorts and trailers, extra language subtitles, ringtones for phones and other content that may, or may not, be of interest to movie watchers, but at least the choice is offered.
QJ.net also says there will be “Interactive movie-based games that pit players sitting in the same room, or across the world and online, against each other.”
Quite how advanced those games will be, seeing as they’re supposed to work on regular BD-LIVE Blu-ray Profile 2.0 equipped Blu-ray players is yet to be seen, although there’s always the possibility that more advanced PS3 compatible mini games could be created, not that that possibility has been spoken of to my knowledge.
What other new features will firmware 2.20 enable? Please read onto page 2.
