PS3 3D update now available

[leroyjr1]

Title says it all.

[grif32]

As announced last week (see Blu-ray.com, September 16), new firmware version 3.50 is now available for the PlayStation 3, which enables support for the Blu-ray 3D specification on all incarnations of the PS3 console. However, Sony Computer Entertainment has confirmed that DTS-HD and Dolby TrueHD won't be supported on the PS3 during 3D Blu-ray playback.

Thus, when playing back a 3D BD with a DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack, the PS3 will output DTS. When playing back a 3D BD with a Dolby TrueHD soundtrack, the PS3 will output Dolby Digital. This affects both PCM output and bitstreaming (available on slim consoles only).

As previously reported (see Blu-ray.com, September 14), BD-Java on the PS3 is also limited when playing back 3D BD content.

Joshua Wingfield, Blu-ray.com news contributor and moderator of the 3D subforum, posted an early hands-on report and informed: "I can confirm that with the Ps3 3.50 firmware update it only puts the audio out as DTS standard (lossy) in the bitstream mode. Also the menus on Coraline are flattened to 2D. Subtitles still show up in 3D mode, and so do menus. The image just flattens. Standard DTS is output by bitstream and linear PCM works as well but it still shows it as lossy DTS in the info bar on the PS3. So for now 3D on the PS3...full 1080p to each eye, but no HD audio and no 3D on menu screens or pop up menus.

[cheddar]

It would be interesting to know where the bottleneck is on this 2006 tech blu-ray player. They've obviously been using the general processing power of the game console to make up for the lack of specific chips, etc. when doing firmware upgrades to boost blu-ray playback capabilities.

The lack of BD-Java would seem to indicate we're finally running up against a processor limitation as something had to go to free up the machine to process 1080p 3D.

But I wonder if the lack of lossless is related to less bandwidth over HDMI 1.3. If it's possible to have 1080p 3D over HDMI 1.3 (appears so with the ps3), it would be nice if 3D dedicated players would make it an option (even without lossless) for those of us with 1.3 in our walls...

Anyhoo, if the 3D format doesn't die out, looks like there are some pretty compelling reasons now to go to a dedicated player over the ps3 if you want to watch 3D movies.

[B Run]

I thought 3D was only supported through HDMI 1.4?

[cheddar]

The ps3 only has a version of HDMI 1.3. So there must be enough bandwidth to handle 3D, but maybe not all the other bandwidth intensive options that share the cable at the same time.

[B Run]

Gotcha. Just got a "3D Ready" tv which means another winding expensive road haha. Good to know I don't need new cables, just downloaded the update about an hour ago.

[polktiger]

Maybe 1.3 vs 1.4 is different with cable as opposed to the port on the device. But, reading the description of HDMI 1.4 vs 1.3 as it relates to HDMI cables on the Bluejeans Cable website, it does not appear there is really much of a difference in the two with respect to bandwidth as a 1.4 spec HDMI cable appears to really just have the capability for return path info and ethernet via HDMI. Basically, they were saying a 1.3 cable will work for 1.4 applications except for ethernet and return path data. That makes me think the issue is not bandwidth on 1.3 HDMI on the PS3.

This may just be Sony racing to get 3d capable out there since it is the flavor of the month and to help sell 3d TVs (recognizing that loss of HD audio is not going to be an issue for most customers, which are HTiB types anyway.) My guess is that later firmware will enable to HD audio as well.

[cheddar]

Maybe 1.3 vs 1.4 is different with cable as opposed to the port on the device. But, reading the description of HDMI 1.4 vs 1.3 as it relates to HDMI cables on the Bluejeans Cable website, it does not appear there is really much of a difference in the two with respect to bandwidth as a 1.4 spec HDMI cable appears to really just have the capability for return path info and ethernet via HDMI. Basically, they were saying a 1.3 cable will work for 1.4 applications except for ethernet and return path data. That makes me think the issue is not bandwidth on 1.3 HDMI on the PS3.

This may just be Sony racing to get 3d capable out there since it is the flavor of the month and to help sell 3d TVs (recognizing that loss of HD audio is not going to be an issue for most customers, which are HTiB types anyway.) My guess is that later firmware will enable to HD audio as well.

It may be that some or maybe even most HDMI 1.3 cables would have no problem with the 3D bandwidth requirements of 1.4 over short cable runs. But that doesn't mean they could just ignore the difference in specs that both the cables and hardware (hdmi 1.3 chip etc.) have from the old standard. My guess would be that the bottleneck would be somewhere deeper in the hardware chain than a simple cable anyways. The older ps3s can't even bitstream lossless because the 1.3 chips that could handle it were only just released when the ps3 went into mass production. And that's not something they could fix with a firmware upgrade. They actually had to change the hardware in the slim.

[cheddar]

Also, for those of us with in wall cable, we usually have much longer runs. And these can be tricky to get good signal through even with hdmi 1.3 equipment. I've had to swap out the 3 ft or so of connecting cable to the wall before because it lost so much signal that the signal cut out. But swapping out that 3 ft of cable (that worked fine before I put the in-wall length in the loop) for a better quality one cleared it up.