It looks like the arrival of firmware 2.53 is imminent, according to the
official PlayStation website. The site, which is clearly written by someone a few days in the future, states that "an update to the PS3™ system software was released on November 26, 2008. You can use this update to upgrade your system software to version 2.53." Nice to know, but what does it do? The website doesn't give much of a clue, except that "the Internet browser now supports full-screen mode for Adobe® Flash® Player content."
A nice feature, but we're hoping there's a little more substance to make the update worthwhile. No doubt we'll hear official word from the PlayStation Blog about it before it hits.
[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
{ Nov 25th 2008 at 12:05PM } 
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
reakt @ Nov 25th 2008 12:13PM
In before someone asks if it has the open Home beta included!
FeaturePreacher @ Nov 25th 2008 12:14PM
I hope it will bring in-game access to music as a system wide feature along with multiple data album editing. Most likely it won't since this is too much for the fragile ps3 to handle.
JohnHype @ Nov 25th 2008 12:43PM
PS3 doesn't have XMB in game music because Microsoft has a patent on that (game by game is a different story). Not that it matters, anytime it's not done on a game by game basis on Xbox the volume level is impossible to get right and it plays over cut scenes. Might as well just turn on your boombox.
OneMale @ Nov 25th 2008 12:54PM
Wrong Buckko. Sony can do that, and it's already implemented, but it relies on two things.
Firstly, games spend alot of time and money developing music to their games so they are a little resistant to go back to older games and add this feature.
Secondly, Sony hasn't enforced this like it has trophies. Custom soundtracks are at the whim of the game developers themselves.
Don't make such sensationalized accusations without being well informed first child.
FeaturePreacher @ Nov 25th 2008 1:15PM
@JohnnyHype
Does Microsoft have a patent on in-game screenshots? Is that the reason why this isn't a system wide feature on the ps3 even though the 360 can't even do this? Hopefully Sony will address their memory issues with the in-game xmb so features like this can become system wide.
@OneMale
What's stopping Sony from enforcing this past a certain date as was done with trophies? Do they know how much this is wanted as a feature? Those game makers sure do spend a lot of time on making music for their games, but somehow all 360 games have in-game access to music. I guess Microsoft must be doling out the cheese to these impoverished developers then?
FeaturePreacher @ Nov 25th 2008 1:24PM
@JohnnyHype
I don't mind if the music I choose to listen to plays over cutscenes. Since you mind, you don't have to use it. Give people options, you know, kind of like they did with ps2 backward compatability;)
@OneMale
You shouldn't make such uninformed statements about whether or not developers can afford to have custom soundtracks or not due to how much money is spent on their own soundtracks. I'm guessing this money excuse would be the same thing said to try and excuse Sony before they wised up and made trophies mandatory.
j.howlett @ Nov 25th 2008 1:52PM
they waited to make trophies mandatory so this years big games could release with the competition.
FeaturePreacher @ Nov 25th 2008 2:31PM
@j.howlett
What are those big name multiplatform titles?
Laurens Holst @ Nov 26th 2008 6:45AM
Go away, troll.
FeaturePreacher @ Nov 26th 2008 2:39PM
@Laurens Holst
You go away doormat. You'll love anything Sony does so your opinion is not needed since it can be easily be predicted.
Erik @ Nov 25th 2008 12:14PM
Was hoping to hear something about Home in this update. Eh...
DrunkMiffy @ Nov 25th 2008 12:17PM
Hope the damn on screen keyboard gets fixed tbh..
Tom @ Nov 25th 2008 12:17PM
Won't Home's release be marked by a major version change? Like 3.0 or something? Actually, I have no idea but I just figured it would.
The Aggie CEO @ Nov 25th 2008 1:22PM
3.0???
nah...... thats 6 months off at our current rate.....not even close to 2.6 yet.....if anything it would be in 2.6........that is unless of course its a separate download as it is now with the beta
Tom @ Nov 25th 2008 2:11PM
Er but they don't have to go all the way to 2.10... I mean it can go from 2.5 to 3.0 if the dev wants it to. Not saying it will, mind.
navsimpson @ Nov 25th 2008 12:17PM
I think the full-screen feature for Flash is aimed at the U.S. - now that the 360 has Netflix streaming, with this, the PS3 has full screen Hulu streaming.
HAAS599 @ Nov 25th 2008 1:47PM
PS3 can also stream Netflix using PlayOn media server software.
required @ Nov 25th 2008 2:12PM
PlayOn is in no way a Netflix on PS3 solution.
sracer @ Nov 25th 2008 2:13PM
Yep, that's what it sounds like to me too. There may be other implications of fullscreen flash support that will become obvious when it is released. Right now I use the browser's zoom capabilities to get hulu video to display fullscreen. Native support for hulu's fullscreen feature will be nice.
Jerses @ Nov 25th 2008 12:27PM
Flash Full screen? whats that? youtube can fullscreen every video there. Guess we will have to wait for it to come out and see what that full screen is all about.
I think a bigger cache is more usefull.
@Erik
Me too, 1 month 5 days for the year to end and we still dont have home. Does anyone know when the extended extended closed beta will end?
Mo @ Nov 25th 2008 12:38PM
I got my home!! last friday in fact from SCEE... which of course means it will be released any day now. FYI home is pretty cool, but not very due to the fact that my people are not on it. i.e., you're not missing much unless all your peeps are on there already.
nathan @ Nov 25th 2008 12:30PM
@ Jerses
You know that youtube uses Flash video, right?
Jerses @ Nov 25th 2008 12:35PM
Yeah i know but whats the diference between the standar flash player we have right now and the "full-screen mode for Adobe® Flash® Player". Because in youtube if you put full screen it full screen-it ..so whats the big diference?
Will it make porn streaming not to pixelated or what?
Tim Parsons @ Nov 25th 2008 12:38PM
LOL
Tim Parsons @ Nov 25th 2008 12:30PM
Cool, but the download is still for 2.52, guess it'll go live tonight.
Resistance 2 went to version 1.30 today also
Tim Parsons @ Nov 25th 2008 12:42PM
Holy youtube went widescreen when did this happen. Last time i was on youtube which was Saturday it was still the normal sized 4:3 even widescreen aside ti's gotten a size upgrade. Too bad the quality still needs improving
PACMAN_07 @ Nov 25th 2008 9:07PM
it will work 4 all website for full screen
aaronp @ Nov 25th 2008 12:48PM
LOL @ all the people thinking HOME will come in a firmware update LOL
Tim Parsons @ Nov 25th 2008 12:57PM
lol yeah. Home was enabled via Firmware update over a year ago. There's no connection.
It's merely a download
Jerses @ Nov 25th 2008 1:09PM
i think it will. I dont think sony will drop this as an optional downloable game. It will be part of the sony xmb so you cant delete it :)
Paul Brown @ Nov 26th 2008 9:15PM
DUH, it obviously will have something to do with Sony's upcoming thumb pad controller attachment.
RidgeRich79 @ Nov 25th 2008 1:00PM
Hope this update helps flash support. Hulu stoped working on my PS3. Hope this fixes it.
Arda82 @ Nov 25th 2008 1:01PM
Screw this.. another update with no feature and we will be forced to download it to play online. If there are some security updates and else than i am ok with this update. but if its just full screen player then screw it. I hope 2.53 wont be a requirement to play online... Blow me Tera Patrick.
Aaron @ Nov 25th 2008 1:06PM
I really hope Sony can come up with a way to incrementally updating the PS3 so we don't have to download a 130+ MB image every time. It will also relieve network traffic on PSN and make for a lot of happy PS3 users who have to sit through a meaningless update process before they can play online.
Mo @ Nov 25th 2008 1:41PM
since its mandatory to update, they should do auto updates like windows
where it can download it all, and maybe just ask if you want to install it now or not.
tehferret @ Nov 25th 2008 1:06PM
For some reason, when on youtube I get no video, this seems to have happened when youtube went widescreen. Anyone know why this is, and hopefully the update will fix it
Fane @ Nov 25th 2008 6:46PM
In my experience (music videos BTW), some videos (esp. ones from companies rather than people) which used to work now don't, but others still work. I figured it had to do with Flash 10 being used for those videos, but that was just a guess.
rgoff31 @ Nov 25th 2008 1:23PM
* New for 2.53: The Internet browser now supports full-screen mode for Adobe® Flash® Player content.*
Sounds pretty cool to me.
NickyD @ Nov 25th 2008 1:26PM
Part of me really hopes Sony will someday add more codec support... like... MKV support. Because it's really a horrible pain to downgrade the quality of an MKV video to an AVI. We've got an HD machine, we should be able to use the best (debatably) HD container format, right?
Who knows.
reyes @ Nov 25th 2008 1:50PM
Seriously. I got my PS3 and was all eager to watch some 1080p Batman Begins. Only the movie was in MKV format so the PS3 couldn't play it. Then I tried to get around this by installing Linux and watching the video there... and let's just say that no matter what I do, I will never ever get those two days of my life back.
NickyD @ Nov 25th 2008 3:59PM
Yeah, I know what you mean. I've heard there's a way to use Linux to play it, using TSMuxer or something, but I've already tried so many things, I'm just dandy with the downgraded AVI conversion I've finally gotten a grip on.
Like you said, the only victim here is our precious time.
jEDijOE @ Nov 26th 2008 6:08AM
NickyD/Reyes
You need to use TSmuxerGUI to convert the .MKV to a .M2TS. The PS3 can read those and it can even read the DD5.1 sound as well. All it does is take the elementary streams (H264 video/AC3 sound) and puts them into a wrapper that the PS3 can understand. There's no actual conversion so the process only takes a few seconds and does not downgrade the quality.
NickyD @ Nov 26th 2008 10:25AM
JediJoe -- excellent tip. I'll give that a shot this weekend after I indulge in lots of holiday foods/drinks. I generally have to embed subtitles in the file anyway, since most MKV containers keep the subtitles separate from the video.
If TSMuxerGUI fails at that, I don't think it'll be too much of an issue to demux, embed the subs in the video file, and then remux. Either way, much better than the hoops I jump through now. Thanks!
danne @ Dec 1st 2008 10:56AM
I use mkv2vob to make my mkv-files playable on the PS3, takes a minute or so to remux a 720p movie. But yeah, it would be nice to play them without remuxing the container.
Saffie @ Nov 25th 2008 1:31PM
Can you watch South Park Studios clips full screen now?
Bryan @ Nov 25th 2008 1:44PM
Good to hear they are continuously coming out with updates. The last one was a shady update as well, coming late in the evening with no warning.
Vcize @ Nov 25th 2008 1:54PM
There had better be something more to this update.
How about a firmware update to make firmware updates faster? Either that, or quit releasing them so damned often and save them up until there's something worthwhile in them.
Morbo- (PSN: ummfada) @ Nov 25th 2008 2:00PM
It's me Morbo from the year 3008, and we still don't have PlayStation®HOME in the future.
Morbo: “Morbo can’t understand his TelePrompTer. He forgot how you say that letter that looks like a man with a hat.”
Linda: “It’s a T, it goes tah.”
Morbo: “Hello little man. I WILL DESTROY YOU!”
Fry: “Man, even the news-monster is acting strange!”
stargateheaven @ Nov 25th 2008 2:28PM
Wow you must be only like 5 seconds in the future.. Home is VERY CLOSE
guillemot @ Nov 25th 2008 2:43PM
Another update?
my god...