UPDATE: The Firmware 1.90 update is available now; I’ve also included an update below that addresses some of your comments here.
Firmware 1.90 brings with it several new features, many of which readers of this blog have requested – I’m happy to report.
Customization is one new feature: you can now personalize the wallpaper on your XMB with a photo. This was one of the top three requests we received via the blog’s contact form. When viewing a photo, simply bring up the options screen by pressing the triangle button and selecting “set as wallpaper” from the options displayed. Additionally, you can now change the order of the games displayed under the game icon on the XMB.
Another new feature focuses on added communication elements: When you’re sending messages to friends on PLAYSTATION Network, you can now use emoticons. We’ve added a bunch of emoticons that can be easily accessed from the virtual keyboard. Also, another cool addition is, when an avatar is displayed during voice/video chat, the avatar will move in response to audio.
Finally, on the more technical side, you can now play AVCHD videos saved on a Memory Stick or digital video camera, and we’ve added the ability to upscale audio CD output from your PS3. Now, there are two requirements for this feature: the device you’re outputting to must support a sampling frequency of 88.2 kHz or 176.4 kHz, and your PS3 must be connected to that device with an HDMI cable or digital optical cable.
Oh, and one more thing: you can now eject discs using your controller by selecting “Eject Disc” in the options menu after you push the PS button.
Several other minor options will be included in 1.90 including a few new display options that will allow you to adjust your display while playing PlayStation, PlayStation2 and Blu-ray movies.
We’re working on additional features for our next update that will incorporate more of your feedback, so as always thanks for all of your support, and please keep those suggestions coming!
[UPDATE]
The link on the SCEA website is now live, you can get the full info on firmware 1.90 here. Also, I noticed a lot of your comments were directly related to accessing XMB features in-game. We understand this is something you want and we are working on it. For the sake of keeping all the comments below on topic, please understand that we hear this request and are working toward a solution. When I have some more info to share on this, know that I will do so here on this blog.Now, with all of that said, thanks for the feedback. I decided to address some of the consistent comments in the body of this post instead of within the comments. One thing you have noticed is that under sorting your games, when you sort by creation date, it sorts by the date you downloaded the content. Sorting videos is done by the date that the videos were added to your hard drive. You can also ‘go-to’ a specific time in any of the videos on your HDD, by hitting triangle and then selecting the specific time from the clock at the bottom.
Something a few of you have noticed as well is that you don’t need to have the SIXAXIS controller connected to PS3 through the USB cable anymore to complete the update, which I know is something some of you were asking for.
@dexter48
The processors help out with the games alot….ram doesn’t entirely matter that much…as long as the processors do their job…and since IBM did most of the work….you should be happy :P
Please disable HDCP protection to play!
Keep it enabled for Blu-Ray only.
@Punumbra
It’s different but when I ran 3D Mark 2006 It was obvious that even to fastest CPU ever (currently : Cell) is useless to render 3D games and effects without the GPU.
“I heard that 64MB of RAM was directly allocated constantly to run the OS, is it true?
If so, it’s way to much ! That would mean PS3 has only less than 200MB of RAM to run games.”
I thought that the cpu had 256mb dedicated memory and the gpu also had its own 256mb of dedicated memory and that the cpu and gpu could borrow memory from each other when needed. Could someone verify this?
Wow, the AVCHD playback is great news. I’m looking forward to playback my HDTV recordings with AC3 sound.
Maybe you could address another problem in one of the forthcoming firmware upgrades:
It would be nice if you could add 48p output capability in addition to 24p. That way, current high-end Sony TVs such as XBR2/XBR3/X2000 could playback bluray discs without the 3:2 pulldown judder effect.
Thanks for your continuous efforts! Let’s make the PS3 the best game console, bluray disc player, and networked media player!!!
This is Great news Thank you Sony Hopefully next big firware update we get xmb access :-) thanks tho sony NOw my ps3 is looking superior
@zbam
Yeah thats true
And 256 or those are way faster. I can not remember the actual name. It was something with X
Dual video out please hdmi and component.
in game XMB please
and custom sound tracks for PS1,PS2,PS3
and open beta for Home for all people posting lol
so when exactly are we getting it? I hope it’s tonight like around 11:00 pm EST
One more question :
If you take a look at Floding@Home PS3’s FAQ it says PS3 is more than 10 times more powerful than an “average” ¨PC, what is this average PC ?
Midnight i beleieve.
Thanx for another great update.
For the future I would really like the following option as it is a much overlooked option for playing movies on a lot of devices:
– positioning subtitles.
A lot of times the subtitles are on an akward position, like part in black bars and part in active screen, this is very annoying when watching on a beamer (or for me even on a regular TV, especially if I have to zoom in because of a letterbox version (4:3 1.85/2.35:1)), just being able to move the subs up or down would be enough. (it would be even great to also have an option to resize the subs (bigger/smaller)..
and ofcourse the other much asked for option is to be able to play most AVI’s (divx/xvid/etc), even the cheapest dvdplayers can play them these days..
and let’s not forget even more PS1/2 games playable (but you guys are doing a better and better job each time you release a new firmware, so I wouldn’t even be suprised if a few firmware later every PS1/2 game is working correctly)
Also i thought i’d address this but…when i’m on the web browser on a site…e.g. Playstation Blog….when i tried to sign up or log in…it crashed the internet and stayed on continuous loading….the internet needs a sort of option to say that this request will cost too much physical memory….rather then crashing my ps3 so i have to turn it off and on again.
Thanks!
@Christonian
Yes!! How about giving up Home for all Blog registered Users?
That would be sweet.
Can I get some voting? Who thinks Sony should do this?
That’ll do pig, that’ll do.
When is the firmware update coming for the music being able to be played in-game?
Finally we have custom wallpaper!
hey is there anyway that you guys at Sony could come out with an upgrade that will allow us to listen to our music that is stored on the HDD while we play our games? I play Madden all the time and really wish that i could just play the music in a playlist on the HDD and listen to that instead of the the worn out tracks on Madden.
lol, we’ll probably get it late tonight, just when i’ll be in the middle of a movie (blu-ray)
Just dropping the usual “we want in-game XMB” or at least “in-game Music” request. I figured if we bug you enough you guys will notice :)
Nice work on the firmware though, I just wish we could all get it at once, Japan already got theirs.
Most Wanted:
– in-game XMB
– date and time visible
– web browser more compatible/functionality
Thank You Sony!! Keep up the support and give us in-game XMB, in-game music access lol.
atleast tell us when we get the update a number of sites have confirmed it that europe will get it on the 24th so why do we haft to wait plz tell us when it comes out atleast.
@Loucifer and Ahh bisto
Grow up. You gain nothing cursing.
@To All
You have to check this…
http://threespeech.com/blog/?p=506
Regarding the question about the bundle in Europe..
That almost gets me a heart attack…
Is that good enough Blizzard or do you want another??
What is this crap? Ive waited this long for another update and still no divx or xvid. Jesus Christ. I cant believe that all of these piddly little updates are in the top 3 or 10 or whatever, and better video codecs is not. I could care less about changing my xmb background. Will we ever be able to play all of our videos without crappy dlna or converting them? Seriously, how can this thing be advertised as a home media center, when it has nowheres near the capability. Im sick of my wife asking me “Honey when are we going to be able to quit using the old xbox, and use that expensive PS3 you just bought?”. So far, i haven’t been able to justify the purchase. Help me out here Sony.
@Blizzard182
You’ve got to understand one thing : Sony looses at lot of money on every PS3 that’s why they are so reluctant at reducing PS3’s price.
@Dexter48
Yeah, but still it kind of shocks you.
Nevermind, old subject…moving on..
Glad to hear it! Thank you!
Adding full XviD codec support is a must. Also please don’t forget another open spec codec, designed for audio compression. I have a big library of tunes compressed with FLAC, would love to access them directly from my media server!
Thanks in advance!
@FasuXe I understand your point but stop insulting Sony by saying they’re making crap!
Take it easy.
Great update, keep em coming Sony!!! Here is what I want to see in the next few updates
1)XMB in-game (like everyone else)
2)DivX support
3)Flash player support
4)Quicktime support
5)Upgraded Web Browser – so that everything works as it does on a PC. 2 many times i get the ‘ran out of memory’ error message even when i only have 1 window open. e.g. try viewing gamespot.com, you cant even get the home page to display!!! Also needs to be speeded up.
6)How about a feature that automatically turns off your ps3 after it has finished downloading content (you can select the option when pressing the Home button)
7)More connectivity with the psp. e.g. turning on your ps3 remotely via your psp.
8)Custom soundtracks
If i can think of anymore i will let u know!!!
so when is it going to come out to download??
@loucifer, glad you see where im coming from man, sometimes i feel like im posting on a blog where people come to look at the ps logo and toss themselves off… i like the ps3 as much as the next man but if there is something not right or somthing that we want then we have got to ask for it, doesnt make me a bad person for saying what i want.
@Dexter48 If you understand my point then stop defending the crappy update. I paid too much for something falsely advertised as a media center, which it obviously is not. I mean , do they not hear people b*tching about it? I can live without some of the insignificant updates that have come out lately, but when i pay $600 and it doesnt even play divx or xvid …. That’s crap! And its gonna stay $600 crap until it does.
289 posts still no comment from sony go figure.
@ahh bisto
Pointless post.
Suggestions I have are..
1. in-game XMB
2. custom music
3. video conferencing between PS3 and computer programs
4. Video attachments or the ability to record from webcam to file.
5. XMB like store layout (current layout is not fluid and feels like browsing a slow webpage)
@dexter48, pointless post.
(your turn)
Programming is a art, do you thing that the Leonardo De vinci painted mona lisa in one week, most likely it took him a month or more. Programming of certain things can talk longer then others. I think Sony and the programmers have been doing a great job of software updates. Try to write your own C program and see how long it take to write, debug and get it working without a flaw. Just keep asking for the functions and I am sure Sony will try to implement if it is possible and legal.
Great news. This is an excellent update – well done. My top-three items I’d love to see:
1) Improved navigation when listing MP3s. If you have a lot of songs, and you want to play “ZZ Top” it can take a l-o-n-g time to scroll all the way through. Assigning a couple of buttons to “next letter” and “previous letter” so you can simply jump A – B – C would make things much faster & easier.
2) Better 1080i support (across the board – games, videos, etc).
3) Get rid of the star (*) character at the end of every filename when displaying files from a media server. (It’s unnecessary & distracting.) (By the way, using TVersity with a PS3 is wonderful. What a great combination.)
@FasuXe
I’m telling you there are better way to say it.
There is a huge difference between :
What the [DELETED] is that damn update ?
And
Could you please implement a few things so that PS3 can really be a multimedia platform ?
oh and more connectivity between all the other sony products (EG:Cell phone, video camera drivers, etc.)
I want what #286 Alfatech is ordering.
Thanks for the update!
@ahh bisto
do what i do (most of the time) and post what you want to post, when you want to post it to whoever @Sony you want to post it to…theres always gonna be some hotshot 13yr old internet gangsta telling you that you need to grow up or get a life or even stop saying stuff like you said…such is life
ahh bistro, it wasn’t the post, it was the way you said it with swear words, which wasn’t needed.
Some of you really need to learn how to receive something, and be grateful for it. Those complaining about why we haven’t been able to get in game XMB access through a firmware update need to be patient. I am pretty sure that by now, Sony realizes that one of the most wanted features is that. Why keep posting it again and again..? I don’t know, to me its just a waste of space on this blog. This update came out of no where, the least you could do is be thankful that they even came out with one. I hope this trend does not continue. Everytime an update comes out, people keep posting what they want. Obviously, that will come in existence over time. These features aren’t a “must have”, but sure do spice up the flavor of the PS3. Games to me is a must have. These features I know will come sooner or later,thats why I don’t worry. And for those annoyed by how long you have to scroll down to get to the bottom of the page to leave a comment, blame those who keep posting the same requests which Sony knows by now…
-Peace-
@jlocker
You’re absolutly right about programming in C/C++ it takes a lot more time to develop things that’d work fine. Actually I can’t stand C/C++ programming!
But after all this is the job of engineers that must be quite good at programming in C++.
Also the end user doesn’t have to worry about how a software was developped.
THANK YOU SONY!
I KNOW YOU ALL THERE AT SONY ARE DOING EVERYTHING POSSIBLE TO PROMPLY DELIVER THE BEST IN GAMES, UPDATES AND ONLINE SERVICES TO PROVIDE US WITH THE HIGHEST QUALITY GAMEPLAY EXPERIENCE TECHNOLOGY HAS TO OFFER!!!
KEEP UP YHE GOOD WORK!
PSN ID:GAME-HERO
who is ahh bistro?