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Wii With DVD Playback Coming in 2007?
Posted by Michael Cardiff Categories: Hardware, Nintendo, Rumors, Wii,
Nintendo, ever the master of shooting itself in the foot, has quite possibly found the worst time to unveil some of their future plans for the Wii. Originally, way back in 2005 Nintendo stated that the Wii would have DVD playback, and the fans rejoiced - this was a much-lauded departure from Nintendo’s strategy with the Gamecube of focusing ONLY on gaming. After a long silence, Nintendo confirmed earlier this year that the Wii would NOT in fact have DVD playback. The reason given was that this would help to lower the cost of the console for consumers and ultimately wouldn’t make much of a difference, given that DVD player penetration is already quite high, worldwide.
Now comes the curious news… just today (barely a week before launch) Sonic Solutions announced that they had been tapped by Nintendo to create a DVD-playback solution for the Wii. The announcement stated that the Sonic Solutions will be working on a software-based playback method that will be released with an updated Wii console sometime in 2007. First of all, there’s the question of firmware updating - given that Nintendo has engineered a relatively flexible, updatable OS for the Wii, why hasn’t Nintendo thought about figuring out a way to implement this software on the current Wii console via a software update? Can the current Wii not handle this amount of processing? And second, REALLY REALLY bad timing Nintendo… are you trying to convince anyone that might be wavering on whether or not to pick up a Wii to wait until 2007? The current news really doesn’t make any sense at all - we can only hope that Nintendo will clarify all this and hopefully tell us that our circa 2006 Wiis will eventually be DVD-compatible.
The full announcement can be found after the jump.
Click to continue reading Wii With DVD Playback Coming in 2007?
Read More 
| Sonic Solutions Press Center
Gallery: Wii With DVD Playback Coming in 2007?
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Japanese PS3 Backward Compatibility Issues Online
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Hardware, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3,
Sony has posted a backwards compatibility database for the Japanese Playstation 3 online, and IGN has checked for issues with some of the major titles. According to IGN, most of the titles checked report “Currently, there have been no reports of major problems during play.” Given that there are thousands of titles in the database, it is unlikely that Sony has been able to test every single game thoroughly at this point, so compatibility issues may still surface later.
Also, IGN reports that many titles in the database with issues have been fixed as of the System 1.10 update, indicating that the emulation system is software based, not based on PS2 hardware inclusions as rumored earlier. Most of the issues IGN highlighted are problems with background music or movie sound playing back incorrectly. While annoying, this wouldn’t be a major issue. However, titles like Gran Turismo 4 and Silent Hill appear to be subject to occasional freezes, and some titles lose game save data.
Some of the issues appear to be hardware based. Some of Konami’s titles have problems with the microphone, and there are issues with games that allow gamers to access previous Playstation 1 save data. Other issues seem to be related to the differing hardware support in the PS3 as well. HD-based games are also not compatible, though a future software update promises to fix these. Hopefully, Sony will place the US compatibility list online soon. While a number of titles appear to have issues, at least right now it seems like the Playstation 3 will offer greater backward compatibility support than the Xbox 360.
Read More | IGN
Gallery: Japanese PS3 Backward Compatibility Issues Online
Japanese site PC Watch was able to procure a 60 GB Playstation 3, and immediately set about tearing the console apart to expose its guts. PC Watch tore the console down the motherboard, so gamers can see the CPU and the RSX along with the large cooling system and heat pipe that are supposed to make the system run quietly.
Read More | PC Watch Japan
Gallery: Playstation 3 Guts Exposed
Sony Won’t Commit To March 2007 European Launch Date
Posted by Michael Cardiff Categories: Hardware, PlayStation 3, Release Dates, Rumors,
You can’t blame Sony’s Phil Harrison - after talking up the PS3 so much and promising console numbers and release dates that never materialized, he’s got to start being a little more cautious. But I think his current statements shed some light on just how dire Sony’s production problems are:
Appearing in this month’s official Playstation magazine, Harrison states:
On asking if the PS3 will definitely be out in March in Europe…
“Given that all of our previous statements about launching in Europe simultaneously with the US and Japan turned out not to be the case, I would not like to make any definitive statements on that. It’s not my job to comment on hardware supply issues other than to say some very smart people are working very hard to catch up. In fact, the ramp up is already starting to happen in supply and output, just obviously too late for us to have launched in Europe at the same times as the US.”
So Sony, what you’re telling us is that Sony might not even meet its thrice-delayed launch date in Europe?? Can you tell us anything definitive about the European console? Is it ever going to make it to Europe? From our ends, it sounds like you’re just barely making your production quotas and hedging your bets. Please, tell us we’re wrong.
Read More | ThreeSpeech.com
Gallery: Sony Won’t Commit To March 2007 European Launch Date
PS3 System Software Update Available At Launch
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Hardware, PlayStation 3,
A report from 1up indicates that Sony will have a software update for the Playstation 3 available at launch day in Japan. According to 1up, the update unlocks Playstation Network services for the console, and a future updates for both the Playstation 3 and the PSP will enable some security features and Playstation 3 and PSP interaction. When the later update hits, PSP users will be able to download PSP games from the Playstation Store via the PS3 and transfer them to the PSP and the “remote play” feature will be enabled. While consumers may be surprised to have to apply a system update out of the box, PSP users should be used to this by now and this generally appears to be part of Sony’s strategy as they slowly add features and usability to the console over its lifetime.
Read More | 1up
Gallery: PS3 System Software Update Available At Launch
Microsoft’s HD Space Solution: Buy Another Hard Drive
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Hardware, Xbox 360, Xbox Live Marketplace,
With Microsoft’s announcement of downloadable high definition movies and television, some concerns were raised over the relatively small size of the 20 GB hard drive available. After formatting the drive and including Microsoft’s default installation, the drive winds up with around 13 GB free. Many have suggested that this announcement indicates a larger hard drive in the Xbox 360’s future. Indeed, this is one of the rumors that won’t seem to die. However, when GamersReports talked to Aaron Greenberg, the Xbox Group Product Marketing manager, he offered a different solution: transfer your Xbox Live Account to a memory unit, and buy another hard drive. Most gamers with the Premium Xbox 360 probably haven’t bought a memory card, so getting the ability to store more downloadable content ends up costing the gamer upwards of $100.
Read More | GamersReports
Gallery: Microsoft’s HD Space Solution: Buy Another Hard Drive
PS3s Demo Stations Arrive at Target
Posted by Michael Cardiff Categories: Hardware, PlayStation 3, Rumors, Screenshots,
Destructoid is among the first sites to notice that a major retailer, Target in this case, is starting to setup their PS3 demo units. If you’re lucky, the Target in your area has a PS3 demo station just waiting to be played. Destructoid noticed some issues though - specifically that the locked down controllers made it harder to test out the functionality of Sony’s SIXAXIS. Also, you won’t be able to put your grimy little mits all over the console itself - it should be interesting to see how pretty the console looks with fingerprints all over its shiny face.
Still, this might be your first chance to check out the shiny new graphics made possible by the Cell processor and compare it to the Xbox 360.
Read More | Destructoid
Gallery: PS3s Demo Stations Arrive at Target
Microsoft HD DVD Player: 4.7 Million Lines Of Code
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Hardware, Xbox 360,
Microsoft’s Xbox Team has offered up a little insight into the development effort that went behind the launch of the HD DVD player. 4.7 million lines of code seems a bit much, but knowing that all of the audio and video codecs had to be developed in software puts this complexity into context. According the the Xbox Team, all of the following had to be implemented in software for the HD DVD to play back discs.
- Video Codecs: H.264, MPEG-2, VC1
- Audio Codecs: Dolby Digital+, DTS, TrueHD, LPCM, MPEG
- HDi: The HD DVD runtime engine.
- GDI: Drawing stuff like menus
- AACS: Cryptography/DRM stuff
- MF: Audio/Video pipeline
According to the team, the HD DVD decoding software utilizes all six Xbox 360 hardware threads to play back video, possibly pushing the console harder than any other software title besides Gears of War. While one can appreciate the effort that Microsoft has made in bringing the HD DVD player to market, one also has to note the all of the additional complications that next generation video formats seem to hold for the average consumer.
Read More | Xbox Team
Gallery: Microsoft HD DVD Player: 4.7 Million Lines Of Code
More Reason To Drool Over The Optimus Keyboard
Posted by Michael Cardiff Categories: Accessories, First Person Shooters, Hardware, PC, Rumors,
You all remember the Optimus, right - that keyboard where every key’s a little screen that would make FPS gaming oh-so-much sexier? Well, if it ever makes it out in to the wild, it sounds like it’s going to be amazingly sweet. Slashgear notes some interesting tidbits from Optimus’ livejournal:
... the 103 will appear to whatever computer it’s plugged into as a mass-storage device. That means it shows up as a drive volume in Explorer, needs no drivers and, best of all, can store all of the custom layouts you slavishly create on-board. Got two PCs you want to use it with? No problem, the layouts come with it.
Of course, the issue of price is still up in the air - how much can I expect to spend on a keyboard that’s got nearly as many pixels as a 15 inch monitor, and more bells-n-whistles to boot? Similarly, it doesn’t bode well that the Optimus website recently changed the release date of the keyboard from “Late 2006” to “Concept”. Sigh….we need to get SOMEONE to build this thing. Hey Dell - don’t you think you’d be able to charge quite the pretty penny if you bought these folks out and started bundlying the Optimus with your Alienware PC’s?
Read More | Slashgear
Gallery: More Reason To Drool Over The Optimus Keyboard
Microsoft Deploys DVD Version Checking In Fall Update
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Hardware, Mods/Hacks, Xbox 360,
While Microsoft has apparently fixed their installer so that users can feel free to install the Fall Update, firmware hacker Commodore4eva has dug into the update to determine why users with hacked consoles are having issues. His determination is that Microsoft has implemented a combination DVD device and firmware version check in the kernel, possible as an attempt to block hackers. The implementation, according to Commodore4eva, stores a stock factory drive and version code on the Xbox 360 and will compare this version against the current version in the drive. Because some of the hacked firmware versions are based on older versions than what Microsoft believes to be current, these drives will fail the check and give an E66 error.
Read More | Xbox-Scene
Gallery: Microsoft Deploys DVD Version Checking In Fall Update
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