Re: Toshiba's new SUPER UP-CONVERSION

Hey, I remember TVs like that! I'll bet John does too!!

Quote:
Isn't this INCORRECT? To date, the vast majority of PS3 sold worldwide are 60gb and 80gb models, which -are- compatible with almost every PS2 disc (to my knowledge). It's the newly released 40gb model that has the compatibility with PS2 removed (to my knowledge).

You are correct LH. And since the 80GB PS3 does software emulation of PS2 games, theoretically even the 40GB PS3 could be upgraded with a firmware in the future to do the same.

I stand corrected on PS2 compatibility on the PS3's, but I seriously doubt if Sony will ever release firmware that would allow the 40g player to play PS2 games since removing software PS2 emulation was done for the specific purpose of not allowing people to play PS2 games on it since users were not buying enough PS3 games.

Yeah, I use my 60GB PS3 for Blu-ray movies/concerts primarily, and don't own (yet) even a single PS3 game. But I have purchased 4 different PS2 titles, all of which are collections of many classic 'arcade' games of the past - Capcom Collection, Atari Classics etc - and all 4 play perfectly in my PS3. The one old arcade game I really love playing is called COMMANDO (from one of the Capcom sets).

-JIMI (the Voodoo Child)

Quote:
but I seriously doubt if Sony will ever release firmware that would allow the 40g player to play PS2 games since removing software PS2 emulation was done for the specific purpose of not allowing people to play PS2 games on it since users were not buying enough PS3 games.

That's not the (main) reason why Sony took out software emulation from the 40GB version. They did it because if they would have left software emulation in than that would have given less of an incentive for people to go out and buy the more expensive 80GB version. Imagine paying a $100 more for a system that only has a stlightly bigger hard drive and a few extra USB ports and a memory card reader. Most people don't care about SACD support, so that was a non-issue.

FYI... 5/30/08 Update



> Toshiba plans to release Super-Upconversion DVD player "by the end of the year"

~ Toshiba 'gets high resolution' from current DVDs ~

The Yomiuri Shimbun - By the end of the year, Toshiba Corp. plans to release a DVD player capable of producing high-resolution images from regular DVDs, company sources said Thursday.

The planned release of a model compatible with the current DVD format signifies an effort by the major electronic manufacturer to recover from a humiliating setback suffered in March after announcing its decision to withdraw from its HD DVD business, the sources said.

Toshiba's withdrawal meant its defeat by a group of electronics makers, including Sony Corp., striving to promote the Blu-ray DVD format.

Standard DVD format is capable of playing a 350,000-pixel resolution. Blu-ray and other next-generation DVD formats have a resolution of about 2 million pixels, about six times greater than the current format.

Toshiba's new technology has been made possible by developing a large integrated circuit that can instantly convert images produced in the current format into high-resolution images.

This technology makes it possible to reproduce high-quality images comparable to Blu-ray video from current standard DVDs. Toshiba President Atsutoshi Nishida said his company will not market DVD players that are compatible with Blu-ray.

Instead, Toshiba intends to compete with the Blu-ray camp by selling DVD players fitted with LSIs at lower prices than those of Blu-ray models.

To achieve this goal, Toshiba will advertise its new player as a device with which consumers can enjoy a broader array of content than is available in the Blu-ray format, the sources said.

Toshiba's withdrawal decision in March marked the end of a six-year competition between the HD DVD and Blu-ray camps. Each was seeking to make its format the global standard.

_____________
-JIMI McLovin (the Voodoo Child)