Stupid PS3 Question(s)

[crimsondynamics]

My copy of Disgaea 3, not released in Australia til well into 2009 but given to me 3 months ago, tells me there is no region coding for games. For DVDs, yes, again personal experience (a DVD of Oceans 13 I bought in Spain won't work). For Blu-Rays, last I heard, only Disney actually make region locked discs.

Older, original models have full backwards compatability with the entire Ps2 and Ps1 library, with upscaled graphics. Newer models have full Ps1 backwards compatability, but the Ps2 backwards compatability was removed to reduce the price. Sony are both working on a new way to reintroduce backwards compatability with the Ps2 library, and releasing more of its back catalogue over the PsN.

Blu-ray does have region encoding, albeit much simpler than DVD region encoding. Whereas DVD has 10 specified region codes (counting "all regions" and "region 0-8" as well), Blu-ray only has region codes A, B and C.

PS3 consoles are not region-encoded for PS3 games, but if the PS3 does detect a region encoding on a DVD or Blu-ray disc, it will enforce the region lock.

When I first got my PS3 I wanted it more as a Blu-ray player / DVD scaler and one of its attractive features was it being "region free". Only later I found out that half my DVD collection wouldn't even play and I would have to manually decrypt the DVD and burn it on a dual-layer DVD before if I wanted to play it on the PS3. Since doing that for 300+ movies is way too much of a hassle, I have to keep my DVD player hooked up as well.

 

[shatnershaman]

Newer models have full Ps1 backwards compatability, but the Ps2 backwards compatability was removed to reduce the price.

I thought it was to make sure people were buying PS3 games since it justs emulates the PS2 with software.

http://news.softpedia.com/news/80GB-PS3-Backward-Compatibility-Issues-Gone-65065.shtml

You should find the answers to your questions above,Internet, or the PS3 Manual.

 

[Kermi]

I thought it was to make sure people were buying PS3 games since it justs emulates the PS2 with software.

It doesn't though. At least, mine doesn't.

 

[crimsondynamics]

I thought it was to make sure people were buying PS3 games since it justs emulates the PS2 with software.

It doesn't though. At least, mine doesn't.

It depends on which version you have. The 20GB and 60GB versions come with the actual Emotion Engine silicon inside the PS3 while the 80GB BC uses software emulation.

 

[cleverlymadeup]

*Is the PS3 region-free or region-locked? For example, if I wanted a game that was only released in Europe could I import & play it if I wanted?

movie yes, games no, as was said lots

[quote
*I have heard that hardware upgrade is possible; where can I go to learn more about this?
[/quote]

as soon to be ex-president bush would say, from the googles

I've heard you can install Linux on the PS3, if that's the case couldn't you run Linux and Bleem (or it's PS2 equivalent) and do it that?

yes you can install linux on the ps3, you can actually get a ps2 version of linux as well

 

[Kermi]

It depends on which version you have. The 20GB and 60GB versions come with the actual Emotion Engine silicon inside the PS3 while the 80GB BC uses software emulation.

For some reason software emulation ceased with the models that went into production this year (which makes no fucking sense - isn't software emulation a matter of downloading some files? Why remove that option?).

Since I bought the most recent model of 80gig PS3, I don't have that option.

 

[shatnershaman]

For some reason software emulation ceased with the models that went into production this year (which makes no fucking sense - isn't software emulation a matter of downloading some files? Why remove that option?).

The conspiracy theory is to increase PS3 game sales. The official response is its "unnecessary".

 

[Bulletinmybrain]

For some reason software emulation ceased with the models that went into production this year (which makes no fucking sense - isn't software emulation a matter of downloading some files? Why remove that option?).

The conspiracy theory is to increase PS3 game sales. The official response is its "unnecessary".

Or PS2 console sales.

 

[crimsondynamics]

It depends on which version you have. The 20GB and 60GB versions come with the actual Emotion Engine silicon inside the PS3 while the 80GB BC uses software emulation.

For some reason software emulation ceased with the models that went into production this year (which makes no fucking sense - isn't software emulation a matter of downloading some files? Why remove that option?).

Since I bought the most recent model of 80gig PS3, I don't have that option.

You're right - I should've stated that older 80GB models had the option. You basically have the same model I have - the 40GB version, but with a beefier hard drive.

Sony upgrades the hard drives because the economies of scale eventually will have 80GB hard drives cheaper than 40GB ones. As an example, the cheapest 40GB 2.5' SATA HDD I can find on pricegrabber is USD35 but I can find 80GB HDDs for USD31.

Since Sony is trying to make money off the console, they are shaving every cent they can. This means larger hard drives (which in fact are cheaper), and of course eliminating the PS2 hardware BC.

What I don't understand is why would they nick software emulation (unless it's to get users to purchase PS3 games since they no longer can play PS2 titles on their new console)? The software is there, it's developed by Sony - it's not like they have to pay any sort of royalty to themselves, right?

Finally, I think it's interesting to note there are no 40GB PS3s on offer in pricegrabber.com. I don't keep up with the PS3 hardware much anymore, since I already have one, but I assume it's being phased out, if it hasn't been already.

 

[shatnershaman]

For some reason software emulation ceased with the models that went into production this year (which makes no fucking sense - isn't software emulation a matter of downloading some files? Why remove that option?).

The conspiracy theory is to increase PS3 game sales.

Key phrase there is "conspiracy theory".

Your right. Let's go with the official "BC is useless" although its costs nothing more to them since its software emulation...

 

[Radelaide]

If thats the case then they were "competitive" when they cost $800. They did not drop it on a whim, they dropped it to bring the price down.

It's not the point. They could have dropped the price anyway. But they didn't. They removed something that they boasted about doing. It was a competitive console when they were ALL backwards compatible. They've given the Wii and xbox (to some point) the edge because their consoles come with backwards compatibility.

 

[crimsondynamics]

I know this is totally out of the topic but I heard of a guy that modified gears of war to fit in the PS3.I wonder if thats possible.

I found this, and it seems pretty straightforward:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3pJrYQnG0Q

Spoiler

Please don't hurt me!

 

[Vortigar]

Installing Linux on the machine is possible but it's not all that. Your linux system would only be able to run on the main core of the cell processor, delivering not all that much power (400Mhz? 256MB? unsure).

To tap into the rest of the processors would require software written especially with that in mind (nobody I know of has done that yet). Running emulation on such a slow system with a full-blown OS running in the background is not going to fly I'm afraid, well, SNES and Genesis stuff would be possible.

There's people who've gotten NES games to run off of the harddrive loaded through the standard XMB apparently, but I haven't tried it myself. I don't like messing around with my console for stuff I could easily put on my pc.