Philip

I recently downloaded the new 1.8 firmware for the PS3 to check out the new touted upscaling features for games and DVDs. Unfortunately for some reason, they decided upscaling for copyright DVDs requires HDMI however copyright free DVDs can be scaled up over component. (I can see an immediate rush of people either getting HDMI or simply reburning copyright to copyright free DVDs). Let’s think about this - why would anyone copy an upscaled DVD over analog connections in the first place when you can simply copy the source material then upscale it however you like later on? It makes little sense, similar to copying a HD movie over a raw uncompressed HDCP cracked connection if you can get a perfect copy of the original source instead.

That aside, so far it’s looking promising so I imagine GameOS and GNU/Linux could make the PS3 the preferred media platform. With upscaling for your media and the ability to integrate new upscaling techniques and postprocessing techniques as required gives it a much better position in the home theatre if it’s able to throw massive amounts of processing to clean up your source material as you see fit.

Gaming wise I showed Nick and Jim Okami upscaled then not upscaled. There is a large difference between standard NTSC and the dramatically better rendering of the graphics at HD, most of the aliasing disappears (with a few exceptions on textures and edges of objects), so it bodes well for further enhancements. Nick was sceptical at first, but I presume his threat of tearing his own eyes out after seeing it not upscaled means he can appreciate the difference now. Naysayers and competing fanboys immediately bashed the update for not upscaling PS3 games (ie, those locked at 720p) but looks like that’d happen no matter what anyhow.

Check out some pictures the ever vigilant Koreans have done at PlayPS3 of Final Fantasy XII and Shadow of the Colossus. Looking good so far!