PS3; HDMI problems...?

Wertz

http://www.tgdaily.com/2006/03/24/gdc2006_ps3_no_hdmi/

Given that the console is being touted as HD-everything and that we're so close to full production runs, this doesn't bode well.

Of course, we were interested in why Sony did not run the units with HDMI. There may be an obvious explanation, but we received some surprising answers from Sony's staff. First, we were told that it isn't easy to get a hold of HDMI-equipped TVs. We found this to be very strange, because after all we were at the Sony booth and all the television sets had HDMI inputs. On the second try, we were told that the reason for not using HDMI was that Sony did not have any HDMI cables and that "they are difficult to find". Matt Butrovich, a former intern with Tom's Hardware and who walked the show floor with us, offered the staff to use one of the HDMI cables he actually had in his car and connect the PS3 with the TVs. Sony officials turned down the offer and we were left without seeing the demos in HD.

That's pretty worrying in itself, even if there is a good reason....why make idiots of themselves instead of telling it how it is?

In the end, we do not know the real reason of avoiding HDMI in the GDC demonstrations. But it certainly highlighted that Sony has still work to do - not only to finalize the AACS spec, but also to accelerate the availability to HDMI 1.3 and to educate customers that they only can run HD video and audio if they have a HDMI 1.3 capable TV.

Yeah, great...so we maybe have to upgrade to what will undoubtedly be the latest (and most costly) models of TV to enjoy all that the PS3 is touting as standard? It's one thing forking out ~€550 for a console, quite another shelling out twice that for a TV capable of utilising the signal. Sound I could care less about....HD graphics/video I do care about.

Maybe there's a better reason for all of this, but I don't like the smoke and mirrors aproach.

LookingFor

That's a load of baloney.

First off, you can get HD from the av-multi-out via component. I hear lots of 360 owners are enjoying HD via component! If you look at any of the vids of the tech demos at their booth, it's quite clear that they're running in HD.

Second, the HDMI spec is fully backwards compatible. You can plug a HDMI 1.3 PS3 into a HDMI 1.1 (or whatever) TV, and you'll still get a HD picture. You might not get the fancy new lossless audio codecs that are exclusive to HDMI 1.3, at least not over the HDMI cable, but you can always use the digital-audio-out for that if you want (I think).

GrumPy

LookingFor wrote:

That's a load of baloney.

First off, you can get HD from the av-multi-out via component. I hear lots of 360 owners are enjoying HD via component! If you look at any of the vids of the tech demos at their booth, it's quite clear that they're running in HD.

Second, the HDMI spec is fully backwards compatible. You can plug a HDMI 1.3 PS3 into a HDMI 1.1 (or whatever) TV, and you'll still get a HD picture. You might not get the fancy new lossless audio codecs that are exclusive to HDMI 1.3, at least not over the HDMI cable, but you can always use the digital-audio-out for that if you want (I think).

I think the whole point of the OP was the fact sonys reluctance to use HDMI, which maybe because the ps3's video output hasnt been fully finished parhaps? who knows.

LookingFor

Irish GrumPy wrote:

I think the whole point of the OP was the fact sonys reluctance to use HDMI, which maybe because the ps3's video output hasnt been fully finished parhaps? who knows.

The conclusions the writer was stretching for are a little out of reach, that's my point. He seems slightly unaware of certain facts (like HD can be done via component over multi-av-out, and HDMI is backwards compatible, even down to DVI, or HDCP-compliant DVI to be more certain anyway).

I've no idea why Sony wasn't using HDMI cables at GDC, they did use them before at CES.

Wertz

LookingFor wrote:

The conclusions the writer was stretching for are a little out of reach, that's my point. He seems slightly unaware of certain facts (like HD can be done via component over multi-av-out, and HDMI is backwards compatible, even down to DVI, or HDCP-compliant DVI to be more certain anyway).

I've no idea why Sony wasn't using HDMI cables at GDC,

they did use them before at CES.

I know perfectly well that HD can be done over component. I wasn't aware that HDMI is backward compatible...but since sony weren't trying to use the newer o/p into the older port, says to me that it's at least causing them problems.

The thing I don't get is that apparently a machine that was initially promised for production/release umm...now, still hasn't been catwalked in a full working release version, yet we're told that they intend to sell 6 million of these in Q4 of 06/Q1 of 07?
The unwillingness of the display booth staff to answer straight questions simply add to that disbelief. I think the bluray problems may be a diversion away from deeper issues.

projectmayhem

is 1.3 the standard that sony was on about a few months ago? it was one of the things kutaragi said he was holding out on, because he wanted ps3 to be "future-proof".

anyway, i hope you all realise the people at booths don't always work for sony. they're models hired to spout crap to the media and look good doing it

Ciaran500

LookingFor wrote:

The conclusions the writer was stretching for are a little out of reach, that's my point. He seems slightly unaware of certain facts (like HD can be done via component over multi-av-out, and HDMI is backwards compatible, even down to DVI, or HDCP-compliant DVI to be more certain anyway).

But can the PS3 do HD from component or have they limited it to HDMI?

LookingFor wrote:

I've no idea why Sony wasn't using HDMI cables at GDC, they did use them before at CES.

Source?

LookingFor

Ciaran500 wrote:

But can the PS3 do HD from component or have they limited it to HDMI?

No, there's full AV multi-out support (analog) which includes component.

The only case in which full HD resolution will be limited to HDMI (of HDCP-compliant DVI) is for Blu-ray movies that the studios choose to limit in such a fashion - with those, you'll 'only' get about 50% more resolution than DVD, on component. But then a lot of studios are apparently not going to be doing this (Sony Pictures has said publically it won't).

Ciaran500 wrote:

Source?

There were photos going around during CES of the PS3 Blu-ray playback demo, that showed the back of the TV with HDMI cables plugged in. I can't find them right now, but I'm sure if you look around you'll see them. Would you doubt it?