PS3 gains HD camera video playback

Sony PS3 is slowly evolving into a machine that only does everything. Sony has announced that the "Filmy" application can now be downloaded by console owners for a mere $5. Filmy lets PS3 owners watch AVCHD videos--better known as the coding standard found in Sony's high-definition cameras--on their consoles

The Filmy application boasts a handful of features beyond its core video-viewer. The coolest of these features is Earth View, a Life with PlayStation-like feature that lets users tag videos using GPS data collected by Sony's video cameras. Thumbnails from the videos are then displayed on a globe in the location in which they were shot.

Filmy also offers a range of search and organization options, including ones that interact with the Earth View function. The application also includes a feature called Digest Play, which is designed to provide an automatically detected highlight reel of videos based on Sony cameras' Face Detection and Smile Shutter technology.

Sounds like a very interesting app for budding filmmakers, the only thing I am wondering would you pay $5 for Filmy?

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Sony's PS3 PSN Creeping From Red to Black

Microsoft's X-Box Live is a radically different experience from Sony's PSN, first off LIVE is a little more complex and filled with bright vibrant colors.  Sony's PSN is fairly simple with little flair(you can spruce things up with Dynamic Themes).  One of the biggest difference's Sony has used to it's advantage is the fact that the PSN online service is free.  While over there at Redmond, you have to pay as much as $60.00 per year for LIVE on X-box 360.

Microsoft X-box LIVE has been a very successful and profitable venture for Microsoft.  Besides making a shit storm of cash on micro-transactions they have about 40 million people forking over $50-60.00 per year to play against friends and chat.   Sony on the other hand has to pay a price for paradise.  Being that the PSN is free Sony's only source for income came from  micro-transactions and now the newly introduced PSN+($50.00 per month for exclusive beta testing, discount on games and avatars)

Sony Computer Entertainment President Kaz Hirai recently spoke to Reuters Japan about the current state of the PSN, and he’s optimistic about the future of the service.

According to the report, PSN sales during the 2009 fiscal year added up to 36 billion yen (approx. $434.3 million USD). That number “nearly doubled” in 2010. However, Hirai said “we’re aiming to enter the black during the 2011 fiscal year.” Furthermore, he projected that PSN sales would reach 300 billion yen ($3.6 billion) in the 2012 fiscal year. He cited the number of registered PSN accounts (60 million as of November) as evidence of the service’s growth.

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Toshiba TV uses PS3 chip Cell

Toshiba will soon put on sale in Japan the first television based on the powerful Cell multimedia processor, the same chip that's used in the PlayStation 3 (PS3). The Cell Regza TV boasts several advanced features including the ability to simultaneously record eight high-definition channels.

The TV represents more than the culmination of four years of research and development. No other company has yet talked about putting such powerful processing inside a TV and Toshiba is betting that the functions enabled by the inclusion of the Cell give it an edge in an increasingly competitive marketplace.

The 55-inch TV will go on sale in Japan in early December and will cost around ¥1 million [m] (£7,000). Toshiba expects to sell about 1,000 of the TVs per month when it first launches in Japan. It will first arrive in the US sometime in 2010, with a European release set to happen after that, but no other details on international availability were announced.

The Cell chip was developed by Toshiba, IBM and Sony and each chip contains a single Power PC core and eight co-processors. Together the chips make heavy-duty processing of video a breeze. Compared to one of Toshiba's current TVs the Cell Regza has 143 times the arithmetic processing capacity.

The simultaneous recording function uses two-thirds of the space on an internal 3TB hard-disk drive to provide, when run continuously, the last 26 hours of television on-demand from eight channels. Alternatively it can be switched to record fewer channels at different times to result in a longer overall library of programmes. For example, if set just to record during primetime then up to a week's programming can be stored.

The eight channels corresponds to the number of terrestrial TV stations available in metropolitan areas of Japan.

The remaining terabyte of disk space can be used to record desired programmes and keep them for longer than the simultaneous recording function allows.

Other visual tricks are also capable with the TV, such as the ability to have eight TV channels displayed on the screen at the same time. By keeping each of the TV tuners set to a different channel it's also possible to quickly step up and down through digital channels without the delay that is now common on most digital sets.

The hard-disk, Cell chip and most of the other intelligence and processing systems for the set are included in an external box, which is roughly the size of a a Blu-ray Disc player of a few years ago.

The TV is being unveiled to the public at Ceatec, Japan's biggest electronics show that kicks off on Tuesday near Tokyo. At the exhibition Toshiba is also talking about future directions for the technology including the use of the Cell chip to power a 3D television and a version with a 4k x 2k screen, which has four times as many pixels as current high-def TVs.

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Telcast T56 PMP promises full 1080p output

Looking for a PMP that outputs full 1080p video? It looks like China's Telcast could be about to swoop in and beat some of the bigger players to the punch, however, at least if its new T56 PMP actually delivers as promised. While it's 5-inch screen doesn't make it as portable as some may like, it does indeed supposedly boast full 1080p output from its HDMI port, or a standard 800 x 600 resolution on the screen itself.

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