PS3 Firmware Upgrade 1.81 Coming Tomorrow

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Just a quick update: we’ll be making available firmware upgrade 1.81 tomorrow which will fix a few small issues some of you have noticed. Most notably is the RGB Full setting which a few of you wrote in about. In 1.80 we added an option to the XMB under settings allowing you to choose between RGB Full and Limited. Basically if you are connecting your PS3 to your TV using an HDMI cable, and if your TV supports RGB full range, the picture quality may be improved when this option is set to Full. Some of you pointed out that the Full setting would sometimes revert back to Limited and 1.81 will address this issue. Please keep in mind that this setting is only effective when the PS3 is connected to a TV using an HDMI cable. You can download the update tomorrow from PlayStation.com [update: the upgrade is now available, you can download it here] or through your System Update option on the PS3 XMB.

We’re continually evaluating and improving PS2 software compatibility too. Where we can, we’ll look to share similar updates like this on our blog moving forward. Thanks for your ongoing feedback and support!

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403 Comments

  • My concern is PSN Store it is a joke, my patients as well as many others is really wearing out!!! Thanks for the info on the update.

  • thanks for the heads up……ill support u guys all the way cause im lookin forward to e3 and all the surprises u’ve got for us

  • This blog is the best!!!!
    I even check it at school!!

  • Thanks for keeping us updated! Awesome news!

    The updates just get better and better. :)

  • Nice.

    Also VERY nice to release the update trough here and let us know.

    But, as a few people said, please try to gave us some feedback about the features we suggested.

    But still, I read that you are thinking about commenting the top ten features every week so I will just wait till Friday.

    I didn’t read wrong, did I?

  • nice good job sony this blog is gonna be a tremendous help to the ps3’s success

  • Sweet Sony! Thanks for fixing these small problems quick.

  • another pointless update. when are we going to get something good?? i have to wait a week for a god damn movie trailer why can’t you guys update psn every day??

  • support to play .avi videos

    need this now. DLNA media Server is cool and all but useless without avi playback

  • yay, hope the new XBR5 can access the PS3’s XMB. Thanks for fixing the problem

  • @ 47 Gravatar Digi Smalls

    You are complaining about updates? :-S Least they don’t freeze your system like the other guys. ;)

  • This is great. Thanks for the quick fix. You guys are awesome. Loving the blog.

  • Mr. Lempel, can you please post about firmware 2.0’s rumored features?

  • Thanks for finally telling us about all updates.
    Keep up the good work PlayStation Blog!

    P.S. WILL BLOG FOR FREE

  • sectionz:

    I find it laughable that a giant multi-national corporation with more money than the entire GDP of small countries is unable to throw together a decent competitor to XBL Marketplace in the span of 8 months.

    This is especially pathetic considering the amount of content that Sony Corp. owns as a whole.

    SCE can’t get Sony Pictures or Sony BMG to cooperate? Go cry to Stringer. Make the big man FORCE the other divisions to fall in line because arguing accomplishes nothing when there is ample money to be made.

    This would be at maximum a two weeks job.

    In regards to your other comments, you don’t know anything about me so step off. ;)

  • Love the blog and hopefully love the fix

  • Great your last firmware update 1.80 took away my headset,my ability to go online with ps2 games and stuck me with media sharing that wont work and a NAT3 . And you come back with this 1.81 update and not a bit of the mess you made with 1.80 is dealt with exept dvd upscaling? And still your costomer sappoert hasnt returned me emails to help my with these issues! I swear if the next update after 1.81 dousnt address my problems or your costomer sapport doesnt get back to me by then im a cut my losses and you all can buy my ps3 on ebay or in a pawn shop.
    The best thing SONY has done in the last month was make this blog site,and im glad you gave us the heads up on 1.81 but for real sombody there needs to grab the ball and run with it already.
    Your very loyal very unhappy customer….B0T

  • You guys need to put up more demos!!!

  • @61

    i’m still mad the PS3 came out a year later than “the other guys” and are still catching up to what they had at launch. in 2005.

    yes, you’re right, it’s easy to tell which company is the hardware company and which is the software company.

  • Sounds great. I’m looking forward to the new update and keep em’ coming!

  • Update appreciated.

    On a side note, I want the SNK games Japan recently had put up on their store. The more 2-D fighting games I can get the better.

  • Finally somewhere I can trust with all the Playstation info. Thanks alot Sony!!!

  • Hope you guys put more PLAYABLE CONTENT more than trailers.

  • Come on man; where’s my XMB access in-game? Why can’t I yet play my own music while I’m playing a game?

  • Thanks for fixing the RPG full bug….what a great feature!!

    Now about that PSN store and the lack of updates……..

  • Was the Motorola H350 bluetooth headset fix a part of this? As always, thanks for the info.

  • Not what we expected, but I guess it is better than nothing. Keep the updates coming Sony.

    []^XO

  • #59 – Totally seconded.

    Can’t believe I let this one slip my mind. The ability to stream content to the PS3 is great, but PLEASE add support for additional formats, seeing as the vast majority of videos available online tend to be either WMV, MOV, or AVI. Video streaming is useful, but not when it only works with an insignificant fraction of my content.

  • Sony should be able to but up at least 5 new songs and 2 new movies every week as far as games go at least one demo a week would be nice but when you don’t have any games to put in you could always put a couple of old ps1 games in i understand its not as simple as people might think but for Sony it shouldn’t be to hard to get done quick and shut up those who keep complaining about the store’s lack of content

  • Just give Sony some time and the PSN will expand and grow. It will have to, if they want to compete with XBL or VC. But you guys have to admint the PSN it is alot better than the ps2’s nonexistent network.

    []^XO

  • I think the PSN is better with unscheduled updates for media and even games/game demos if it is possible. People would check it out more often, server load would even be more spread out. The element of surprise is very powerful and users would not face a certain amount of disappointment every week if something doesn’t make it. Hoping ‘any second now’ for a cool thing in the store is far more positive than ‘maybe in 7 days it will come’. As long as the updates are steady I think it would have a much greater impact in pleasing people.

  • the PS3 is turning into a big joke. the updates to the PSN are laughable. Motorstorm and Resistance, the only games worth playing, both have updates that have been delayed multipule times. what is up??

    i have been a Sony supporter from the PS1, but this is rediculous. can i send you my PS3 and get a refund? i will buy it back in 2008 when you hopefully have your crap together. im tired of the waiting game….its getting really old. this is the worst launch of any system, and Sony deserves all the bad press it gets. if it wasnt for Insomniac and Resistance, my PS3 system would have been on Ebay already. Sony, get it together and with a quickness!

  • I have my ps3 connected through HDMI. When i turn on ps2 upscaling, the audio goes all crazy when i boot up the game. When i unplug then replug the hdmi cable, the audio is ok. This is only when i have upscaling enabled. Anybody else have this problem. Will this update help with that? I replaced the cord and tv so those arent the problem.

  • Thanks for the progress. Im looking forward to the next update after this one.

  • good news, but when im going to see really good releases on the ps network come on sony we need good stuff

  • even tho i do not have a ps3. I think it is great that you guys are doing this blog.

  • @haldalish

    You can watch avi’s i your PS3 using a Media Server which supports transcoding on the fly.

    Add me = blizzard182 and I will tell you which one.

    It is free. And it works on most of the video formats. Just a couple don’t work like FLVs and some WMVs.

    Everyone is welcome to add me and I will tell you how. You are not confined to use WMP which sucks as a Media Server

  • I agree with Nismobeach (Post #37) in the fact that I expected there to be some type of music and video downloading service by now. I’m been looking for it since the PSP launched. I mean that would be the perfect match. I really hope someone at Sony is reading these comments, and hope some of these request are coming it the future. I’m tired of certain people downing the PS3/PSN and the lack of certain features.

    http://www.next-gen.biz/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=5968&Itemid=2

    But it’s the truth. The ability to access your friends list and see when someone comes online while in a game would add alot to online gaming on PS3. Also it’s strange that we don’t have VOD yet cause like Nismobeach said “You own” these companies and like the Microsoft guy said “I’m somewhat surprised that Sony hasn’t done that considering they have that stuff in-house.”

    Don’t get me wrong I’m a big fan on Sony products (all areas), and I’m sure that things will pick up for the system and the network. Just hoping you are actually hear us (and them) and are working on thing.

    Thanks for delivering all the products I love

  • Thanks for the update. Im glad we have a place to come now and be notifyed about whats going on with the ps3 and psn. The playsation experience just gets better and better.

    Now.. all we need is the EU PSN SHOP UPDATING! please!.. pllllllease.

    I am dying to buy some more games :(

  • I’m not sure where to say this, but lately, to put it nicely, the PLAYSTATION Store updates have been lacking. Every Thursday, only trailers and videos are released. We are lucky to get one demo a month. Please work on adding more content to the PS Store.

    P.S.- Why every Thursday and not something new everyday?

  • yeah I’m loving this blog and its getting a lot of attention all of the news as well

  • Nice, but will the in-game XMB access be featured in this update? That is the real question! CMON Sony, this feature was shown at GDC 2006! Atleast use your informative blog to tell us if we should expect it anytime soon.

  • Thanks SCE, I really needed a permanent option for Full RGB more than anything from 1.80. It feels like you guys are really listening to us when we chime in and you guys fix this so fast.

  • Wow, I’m loving the blog more each passing day. I remember the days when I have to guess what the updates were. I can really use this option now, I didn’t even know it improved the quality of the screen. While I’m at it, I seem to be have connection problems with the streaming option. Every time the PS3 searches for my computer I get kicked out the network (I use a Linksys router). I noticed a few players were experiencing the same issues.

    This page has been saved as my browser home page for my VAIO, PS3, and PSP. Keep up the good work.

  • As so many people have said sony should have more media then Msoft So where is it i think sony is trying to keep the server limited to a few things until home is realeased I think they have a much better system in mind then what we have right know i think they want movies and songs sold thru home were they can get people to see ads. tthis is how i think they intend to make there money thru forceing beutiful HD ads on us in home so they are limiting the store to the Games and the crappy video stuff

  • Sony has a big dilemma offering HD movie rentals through PSN.

    it would diminish the justification for Blu-ray while at the same time validating MS’s approach.

  • self.confessed.cynic

    @ Blizzard182

    …or you could post a couple of web links.

    I’ve commented on this in the compatibility blog, but…

    What everyone’s currently complaining about is pretty much Sony’s Marketplace equivalent – not their actual competition for XBL.

    Home is what will compete with XBL, and I wouldn’t be surprised if Sony is redirecting an epic amount of effort towards getting it up and running. Once it IS up, they will redirect that effort towards expanding their current online services.

    For those of you who don’t know what Playstation Home is / will be like, check out these links:

    http://au.gamespot.com/ps3/puzzle/playstationhome/media.html?om_act=convert&om_clk=tabs&tag=tabs;videos

    http://au.gamespot.com/ps3/puzzle/playstationhome/news.html

    On Sony having other subdivisions, please keep in mind their current situation. The father of the playstation had to fall upon his own sword for how the PS3 is going, and they are loosing money every day. The president of SCE is not all powerful, he cannot force other divisions to give him content.

    If anything, Sony’s gaming sector doing so badly is crippling their ability to barter for content from other divisions, and until they pick up, don’t expect significant changes to what they’re currently offering when it comes to music and movie downloads. Later on, however – if the PS3 starts performing as it should – you may well be pleased.

    When it comes to demos, they are at their developer’s whim – and the same goes for PS1 games.

    Currently, Sony’s online service hangs in the balance of Home – if it takes off as much as they (and I) think it will, everything will be for the better.

    In any case, please be productive with posts, no one needs sarcasm and flaming, although everyone realises that the current situation does indeed get people very frustrated.

    Living in Australia, we were hit by as big a delay as anyone, and on top of that we have to pay $999.95 AUD (about 800 USD) for the console. However, given that Sony takes a loss from the $600 US price tag, so I don’t blame them.

    In general, have patience, wait for E3 – everyone else is. They have some catching up to do, and if GDC is anything to go by – they’ll do it.

  • Kratos_ate_Snake

    Please give us XMB access from anywhere, we need this feature. Is so annoying when you get a message from a friend and you have no choice but to ignore him/her because you are too into a quest in Oblivion.

    Also please do your best to put out more content on the PS store, specially demos. Got to try before I buy ;-)

    Other than that, keep up the good work and thanks for the new update.

  • Good stuff, glad to see patches. Will we be informed as such about actual full updates?

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