Sony has confirmed that a firmware update, version 2.20, to release in late March, will upgrade the PS3's Blu-ray movie playback capabilities to the new Profile 2.0 standard.

What does this gobbledygook mean? The biggest new feature of Profile 2.0 is BD-Live, which adds interactive features such as downloadable video content, ringtones, games and more to Blu-ray film discs.

The first films with BD-Live features are scheduled for release next month. BD-Live titles apparently give you access to "a variety of downloadable content, including bonus scenes, shorts, trailers, subtitles, ringtones that can be sent to mobile phones, images, and more."

Sony says you can also look forward to playing "interactive movie-based games [that] can pit players who are sitting in the same room, or are across the world and online, against each other."

The update will also add the ability to easily transfer music and photo media to be passed directly back and forth between the PS3 and PSP.

Here's a checklist of other features to be added in firmware 2.20 which, on the not-so-positive side, doesn't contain in-game messaging:

    * "Resume play" will enable PS3 to start playing a BD and DVD video at the point it was stopped, even if the disc had been removed.

    * "Audio Output Device" will be a new Remote Play setting, enabling PSP to serve as a remote control for music played through PS3.

    * PS3's Internet browser will be enhanced: Video files directly linked from a Web page will be able to be streamed, and the browser's view speed will be improved.

    * DivX and WMV format videos that are larger than 2GB will be playable.

    * "Mosquito Noise Reduction" will be added as an AV setting in the control panel of the DVD/BD player for improved movie playback.

Courtesy of CVG.

Mar 20, 2008