Sparkles Aren’t All Bad
Some good news about the sparkles, well from the BBC anyway.Published 08/09/2009 at 18:30 by cc_star
I’m sure that most people know I don’t hold the the recent firmware update in high regard, in fact I’m extremely annoyed that Sony saw the need to change the once sleek UI into something altogether not so nice. Seemingly focusing on the users whom are still to update to a HDTV by increasing the size of everything, forsaking the early adopters who in all probability, are more likely to have a HDTV and find the new icons not so clean, crisp and sleek as before. Further to this Sony should be applauded for trying to get more users to the regularly visit the PSN Store, but as regular downloader of content I’d prefer the option to disable the new icons which clutter my menus. It must be obvious to more people than just me, that a toggle option, both for the larger display and the new icons would be the most suitable option. Oh, and don’t get me started on the grey boxes, if they’re for a forthcoming feature then perhaps wouldn’t they be better launched when it’s finished.
Its not all bad news however at least as far as UK users are concerned, as the newly added TV option with its iPlayer shortcut is proving very popular, how popular you ask? Well according to the BBC’s Anthony Rose in less than a week the PS3 accounted for a massive 10% of iPlayer traffic overtaking the Mac (8.5%) in the process. Anthony goes on to talk about the work the BBC have done in making the iPlayer suitable for viewing on a large screen, with enhanced resolution and all sorts of other techie stuff which they’ve implemented to take advantage of the hardware acceleration in full screen mode which Sony made possible with 3.0
Handily for customers who are experiencing problems, and maybe waiting on a post on the EU blog for help, support, advice or just any announcement at all, Rose also includes quite a few tips to help users overcome some of teething problems, including the tip to disable the screensaver which causes the screen to dim after twenty minutes by default. Anyone got any more Firmware 3.0 goodness, let us know in the comments below.
Source: bbc.co.uk
Comments
Please note that all comments are the opinion of the individual author and not TheSixthAxis.
Topgearsam | 08/09/2009 18:33
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3.0 wasnt all bad then
mynameisblair | 08/09/2009 18:34
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Nice, I hardly use the iPlayer as I’ve got PlayTV, but if I completely miss something, it will be handy.
Doddsy | 08/09/2009 18:34
Totally Oscar Mike
712 TSA Points | Member since: Jul 2009
Hmmm….
BBC iPlayer is still pixelly and a bit laggy on my 19″
Hardly imporved for large screens >_<
colossalblue | 08/09/2009 18:36
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A tiny bit blurry and doesn’t cope well with fast movement (what streamed video does?) but other than that it’s absolutely fine on my 37″ 1080p LG.
Maybe your internet connection doesn’t like it?
GamerRiley | 08/09/2009 18:48
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I too have a 37″ 1080p Lg, who’d have thought it. I would say the picture quality is pretty good, especially when I move from my games playing chair, (about 3′ away from the tv), to the settee. (About 3m away)
Gamoc | 08/09/2009 19:09
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Well, it’s absolutely fine on my 19″ in my room and I watched Would I Lie to You and We Are Klang on it downstairs on our 46″ (or thereabouts) tv in 1080i and it looked good. In fact, it looked positively great, especially for streaming video.
It’s most likely your internet connection.
wedgehog | 08/09/2009 19:11
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I seems much improved to me, still could be better though.
CAN ANYONE CONFIRM WETHER YOU CAN NOW USE THE BLU-RAY REMOTE CONTROL WITH iPLAYER?
cc_star | 08/09/2009 19:12
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If you change it to controller 1 (from 7) you can use it with Vidzone, so it may work here
Cadabena | 08/09/2009 19:13
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It’s via the web, so I’d say no.
wedgehog | 08/09/2009 19:33
Friendly
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OK, thanks. Just wanted to check before I try and teach family to use a controler.
Gamoc | 09/09/2009 01:16
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It works fine as long as you don’t want to pause a video. You’ll have to use the controller for that.
jimmy-google | 09/09/2009 00:14
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Worked fine on my dads 42″ samsung plasma. It was actually clearer than the standard sky picture he receives. The navigation has also greatly been improved – so much so you don’t really need a remote.
illogicology | 08/09/2009 18:35
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I posted this in the forums but you did ask, 3.0 has stopped my fan revving up while upscaling DVDs. It used to barely last 5 minutes before kicking in, now I make it all the way through my films without full blast fan. The upscaling seems to look better too but that could just be my imagination, I have no way to compare.
cc_star | 08/09/2009 18:38
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Perhaps its something to do with this hardware accelerating whilst in full screen mode that BBC have very kindly let us know about… errr thanks Sony
Withnail | 08/09/2009 21:09
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lolwat? It’s Flash that has been hardware accelerated. DVD upscaling doesn’t use Flash.
tinytim01 | 08/09/2009 18:35
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just change youe themes and font will change and i was happy with 3.0,,had some nice touch’s,,like mic echo remover cod plays a bit better if everyones using it
gurglesletch | 09/09/2009 01:41
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What echo remover? i ca still hear my echo when i’m playing
CaptainMurdo | 08/09/2009 18:38
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I’ve used it and it worked pretty smoothly. An option do download a show would be nice, even if it expired.
colossalblue | 08/09/2009 18:38
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I know the iPlayer thing is just a link to the website and I know it would have been extra awesome with awesome sauce if they’d made it a fully fledged app which downloaded video but I still really like it. I hardly ever used iPlayer before but since 3.0 I’ve watched a few things that I’d forgotten to PlayTV and tonight I intend looking for that Stephen Fry nature thing that was on at the weekend.
So yeah, you can keep your Early Learning Centre icons and your huge grey boxes 3.0 but thanks for the iPlayer. And the sparkles
berto54 | 08/09/2009 18:41
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mmmm awesome sauce…
gclarkey | 08/09/2009 19:48
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downloading the shows would be nice, but is it really all that necessary if you can skip forward while streaming?
I don’t have a TV (I use a monitor with a hdmi input for ps3), and what would be great is if I could stream live TV over iPlayer, not just watch shows that have already aired. I know I can do this at ps3iplayer.com but sometimes it is runs really slow.
I do realise i have lots of other options, PlayTV, watch on my PC, buy a TV… but this solution would work great for me and I wish it was available!
iNsAnE_gAmInG | 08/09/2009 19:54
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That’s exactly what I’m desperate for, to be able to download the shows directly to my PS3. I was kinda expecting it when i first loaded up iPlayer to be honest. Does iPlayer have HD shows yet?
I might just wait for PlayTV HD.
TRiLoGY | 08/09/2009 18:42
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hmm, i’ve been watching the iPlayer on my PS3 before 3.0 and have not really noticed any differences with Hardware acceleration added with 3.0.
gclarkey | 08/09/2009 19:39
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i concur
ShovellyJoe | 08/09/2009 18:44
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On my 32″ Panasonic the full-screen iPlayer window looks like a good quality standard-definition image, which is a pretty good achievement in my view, usually with video streams like that you get those squares appearing where the image hasn’t quite caught up with itself.
Bilbo_bobbins | 09/09/2009 11:00
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mine isn’t as good than you say. I think it looks a bit pixelated when I stream it, I think it depends on the programme though. No where near HD viewing though. How comes they stopped the HD ones? I am sure you used to watch HD shows before?
GamerRiley | 08/09/2009 18:50
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Let me download content from the iplayer to my PS3 and then this would be an amazing addition. At the moment it’s great, but only during the day when I can stream programmes and not have to wait for the video to buffer. (crap internet)
Gamoc | 08/09/2009 19:12
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I do find the iPlayer button mildly convenient, but I used iPlayer anyway and it only saves 2 clicks of a button. I do love the iPlayer interface itself, though, it’s actually useable with just the Sony BD Remote, which is great. I can’t pause without the actual controller, though.
Other than that, I’m not too keen the sparkles, I hate the extra large font and icons and I completely despise those pissing grey boxes.
iNsAnE_gAmInG | 08/09/2009 19:25
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The sparkles are ok and iPlayer is also ok on PS3. I’ve used it about twice since the shortcut was added to the XMB, I just wish it was an intergrated program like Vidzone rather than a web browser page.
AG2297 | 08/09/2009 19:28
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I do not have the “TV” icon on my XMB and no link to the iPlayer which really sucks! I have a 60 gb (refurbished after YLOD) version of the PS3 and have tried every suggestion i have come across to try and get it but it still will not appear. Have Sony given an explanation for this? Do i have to have a different XMB to everyone else just because im an early adopter? It might not seem the biggest thing in the world but its a big deal to me missing an entire icon off the XMB, especially as i use the iPlayer it would be nice to have that shortcut.
Manorhowze | 08/09/2009 19:30
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If your UK based it should show up. It didnt for me and I had to load a game and then quit game straight away and then it appeared. I dunno why but it worked for me.
AG2297 | 08/09/2009 20:41
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yes im UK based and yeh ive tried that but didnt work for me and ive changed themes. thanks for the advice though.
BAGPUS | 09/09/2009 13:50
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Mine didn’t appear initially, however I got it to appear by loading a game then accessing the in-game xmb and it was there, once I’d used it once it was in the xmb all the time (in-game and just after boot-up).
hannes_truce | 08/09/2009 19:46
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Since 3.0 I’ve been using the iplayer a lot more. I just forgot it was there before tbh.
Deathbrin | 08/09/2009 19:55
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Would you please stop with the “it was made for SD screens” thing, it was already annoying the first few times. PS3 on SD was always clear and optimised, while in HD i really appreciate the bigger size. If your font isn’t set to Sharp (while mine usually is though, tbh), you should see that it’s actually rounded and nice, not like if it would be extra pixelated.
The point of multiple Store icons was actually an easy access to Video Store in Americas. Can’t really justify the Game icon, though in the US Store it gives quick access to Pulse and QORE, if you want just that. Maybe the Japanese one found a more rational use. The only bad kinda thing i see in it that it limits downloads, a user can click on the flashy stuff, but not visiting the Store itself, can miss something cool or important.
About the missing PLAYSTATION3 at the start of every game, i think there is a point. (The sparkles fading out kind of give that jingle feeling, by the way.) So, here’s a crap game that sucks on PS3 and people would gladly use it for platform wars posts. A player running the game sees a PLAYSTATION3 jingle. So, the crap associates with PLAYSTATION3. Cutting the jingle out avoids that. However, in AAA titles and exclusives there is always Sony Computer Entertainment around with lots of self-praising. So, here goes – for the sake of the brand loyalty.
What else was there? The gray boxes… Well, they’re questionable. They kind of add to the structure of the interface like the info box. They separate the thing and make it 100 percent readable. The gray colour was probably used so it mixes well with bright colours (looks very well on my Lime green), and, as it have been mentioned, with dynamic theme(s).
By the way, anyone know how to set up Remote Play on a cell, and what phones are compatible? The on-screen thing doesn’t make any sense to me.
Oh, and, typing from the phone sucks. Really. While 3.0 compared to that is relatively good. I myself see it as a part of PS3 brand re-launching and am surprised how fresh it feels.
P.S. Had a problem when DS3 battery went out while playing Infamous. The left stick refused to work correctly after charging. Vibration turned off/on helped. No idea if it has anything to do with the new firmware.
jimmy-google | 09/09/2009 00:12
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just one phone – Sony Ericsson Aino which is out first in the UK in early October.
Gamoc | 09/09/2009 01:14
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‘About the missing PLAYSTATION3 at the start of every game, i think there is a point. (The sparkles fading out kind of give that jingle feeling, by the way.) So, here’s a crap game that sucks on PS3 and people would gladly use it for platform wars posts. A player running the game sees a PLAYSTATION3 jingle. So, the crap associates with PLAYSTATION3. Cutting the jingle out avoids that. However, in AAA titles and exclusives there is always Sony Computer Entertainment around with lots of self-praising. So, here goes – for the sake of the brand loyalty.’
That is just a botched psychological explanation. Completely wrong – the fact that you’re on a PS3 is all you need to ‘associate’ the game with PS3, but that’s not why it was removed, it was because of the miniature save in time and because they wanted that to mean games, but with things like Vidzone appearing, the Playstation 3 logo flashing up wouldn’t make sense*.
And yes, we’re not making it up when we say the larger fonts are to help SD displays, it’s exactly the reason why.
The gray boxes look completely out of place. Even the infobox thing is transparent, it blends in with the rest of the XMB, the gray boxes are ugly and stick out all the more for it.
*I don’t buy this explanation either, but it’s what they’re giving and it’s definitely closer to to the truth than yours is. PlayTV has never had the Playstation 3 thing when it’s loading up, for example, so I am quite curious as to why they removed it from everything.
Bilbo_bobbins | 09/09/2009 11:06
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I have seen no saving in speed in starting a game without the playstation logo. Not sure about others, it still takes just as long it just hasn’t got the logo. Grey boxes I like IMO, I think they make is easier to read text on backgrounds. The font/icon sizes I don’t understand, they are hardly any bigger on my HD tv?