PS3 101: New user's guide to the PS3 (ask questions here -- TMK is on duty)

Well my wife suprised me 2day by buying me a PS3 from walmart.com , the 40gb model with spider-man 3!!! Im stoked about it but i was gonna try and find a 80gb model when i come home at the end of the month for R&R. Ive been told the 40gb model doesnt support BC for PS2 games , is this true??? That was one of the reasons for buying the 80gb model , and the bigger HD , but ive been told you can replace any of the HD's with one thats for a laptop?? If this is true then if you replaced your 80gb HD with a bigger one wont you lose BC?? Im just trying to get the full PS3 experince and BC , still wish the 40gb model had the memory card slots too. Anyways any help would be appreciated thanxs in advance
 
[quote name='ninjalunchbox79']Well my wife suprised me 2day by buying me a PS3 from walmart.com , the 40gb model with spider-man 3!!! Im stoked about it but i was gonna try and find a 80gb model when i come home at the end of the month for R&R. Ive been told the 40gb model doesnt support BC for PS2 games , is this true??? That was one of the reasons for buying the 80gb model , and the bigger HD , but ive been told you can replace any of the HD's with one thats for a laptop?? If this is true then if you replaced your 80gb HD with a bigger one wont you lose BC?? Im just trying to get the full PS3 experince and BC , still wish the 40gb model had the memory card slots too. Anyways any help would be appreciated thanxs in advance[/QUOTE]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Playstation_3#Retail_configurations
 
[quote name='ninjalunchbox79']So what im gathering from the Wiki is that the 40gb model that my wife bought for me is not BC with PS2 games???[/quote]

Correct. Only the 80gb, 60gb and 20gb are BC with PS2 games if you can find those models.
 
[quote name='Warner1281']If the battery works like any other rechargeable battery, you're better off waiting until the controller dies/almost dies before recharging. For some scientific reason, if you recharge batteries continuously, they lose their ability to hold a charge for long periods of time sooner than if you let them die before recharging. That being said, I don't know if the controllers work like typical rechargable batteries AND even if they do, I still continuously charge my controllers since I don't feel like having my controller die on me 10 minutes into a game because I had to wait for it to die before I started charging (I only have 1 controller).[/quote]

The batteries in the sixaxis are Lithium Ion, like in your cell phone or laptop. The best way to get them to last is to keep them as close to fully charged as possible. This is why, unlike NiCd and NiMH batteries that are shipped (nearly) empty, Lion batteries are always shipped at least half charged.

Charge them whenever it's convenient for you--after every gaming session if you like. Whatever you do, don't wait until the controller shuts itself off to charge them. Repeated deep discharges are bad for any battery (though occasional ones are necessary for niCd and NiMH), but particularly bad for Lion.
 
I filled a flashdrive with songs, videos, and pictures. I then plugged it in to the PS3 and it was able to read the mp3s, but it wouldn't show the videos or pictures. Do the videos need to be in specific format?
 
[quote name='geko29']The batteries in the sixaxis are Lithium Ion, like in your cell phone or laptop. The best way to get them to last is to keep them as close to fully charged as possible. This is why, unlike NiCd and NiMH batteries that are shipped (nearly) empty, Lion batteries are always shipped at least half charged.

Charge them whenever it's convenient for you--after every gaming session if you like. Whatever you do, don't wait until the controller shuts itself off to charge them. Repeated deep discharges are bad for any battery (though occasional ones are necessary for niCd and NiMH), but particularly bad for Lion.[/quote]Oh wow, thanks for the info.
Didn't know the Lithium Ion batter types had different properties.
 
[quote name='D_Icon']I filled a flashdrive with songs, videos, and pictures. I then plugged it in to the PS3 and it was able to read the mp3s, but it wouldn't show the videos or pictures. Do the videos need to be in specific format?[/quote]


I'm assuming you moved it to the right icon on the XMB to view the pics and vids right?
Click to expand...

Go to the device and press triangle>show all? Give it a shot at least.
 
finally got my PS3 guys, been messing with it for the past 4 hours.. haha giving it a good test run since it was used. Anyway, it was damn near new, purchased a refurb'd unit from a guy and he just sold it right when he got it back from SONY.. nothing was on the HDD and everything was in original packaging from sony. awesome deal.

btw the 80gb I got runs pretty hot, well the air around it at least. even more so than my 360 lol
 
[quote name='aznguyen316']finally got my PS3 guys, been messing with it for the past 4 hours.. haha giving it a good test run since it was used. Anyway, it was damn near new, purchased a refurb'd unit from a guy and he just sold it right when he got it back from SONY.. nothing was on the HDD and everything was in original packaging from sony. awesome deal.

btw the 80gb I got runs pretty hot, well the air around it at least. even more so than my 360 lol[/quote]

Which is weird, since PS3s rarely fail and 360s break all the time. The PS3 is like an engine exhaust but I'm just glad it's much quieter than the 360.
 
Can't you use the memory card adapter, just like you do when moving saves from PS2->PS3? I'm 99.9% sure you can copy in either direction.
 
[quote name='geko29']Can't you use the memory card adapter, just like you do when moving saves from PS2->PS3? I'm 99.9% sure you can copy in either direction.[/QUOTE]

I will try in the morning, gotta goto work. I hope it works.
 
[quote name='aznguyen316']finally got my PS3 guys, been messing with it for the past 4 hours.. haha giving it a good test run since it was used. Anyway, it was damn near new, purchased a refurb'd unit from a guy and he just sold it right when he got it back from SONY.. nothing was on the HDD and everything was in original packaging from sony. awesome deal.

btw the 80gb I got runs pretty hot, well the air around it at least. even more so than my 360 lol[/quote]

Which is weird, since PS3s rarely fail and 360s break all the time. The PS3 is like an engine exhaust but I'm just glad it's much quieter than the 360.
Click to expand...

It should be hot on the side where the fans blow all the hot air out. That's good, it means the fans are doing their job. It will normally run pretty warm too.

Unlike the 360, the PS3 keeps the heat outside the system, not inside. ;)
 
[quote name='geko29']Can't you use the memory card adapter, just like you do when moving saves from PS2->PS3? I'm 99.9% sure you can copy in either direction.[/quote]From what I understand it did not copy back to a card at first, but a system update made it possible so it should work just fine unless your system doesn't have that update.
 
[quote name='jdawgg76']From what I understand it did not copy back to a card at first, but a system update made it possible so it should work just fine unless your system doesn't have that update.[/QUOTE]

It does work, I just got done transfering it. Plugged the card into my ps2 and it works. Thanks for the help.
 
[quote name='primetime']It should be hot on the side where the fans blow all the hot air out. That's good, it means the fans are doing their job. It will normally run pretty warm too.

Unlike the 360, the PS3 keeps the heat outside the system, not inside. ;)[/quote]
Which is weird considering how many holes the 360 has on its sides, like the PS3.
 
[quote name='FriskyTanuki']Which is weird considering how many holes the 360 has on its sides, like the PS3.[/quote]

It isn't weird, the 360 was rushed to market to gain early market share. It didn't go through proper testing before being mass produced.
 
[quote name='dmes65']It does work, I just got done transfering it. Plugged the card into my ps2 and it works. Thanks for the help.[/QUOTE]Hmm, interested to see someone from an area of Indiana I heard of.

Early last year, we could only copy from memory card to HDD, not the other way around to a PS2 memory card. Also, it's nice because you can use a USB flash to copy the data saves to a computer HDD or something so you can back them up (just in case anything happens).
 
lol didn't want to stir up some 360 vs debate.. just saying it was really warm around it.. ooh well yeah I'm in the process of making the switch, got a buyer on my elite coming next week so I'm straight. I'm sure I'll have plenty more questions.

1) is there a HDD browser? like an explorer to check out what's on the HDD all in one area via folders or can I only view different files from their appropriate category, ex. photos, vids, game saves.

2) can you have a custom avatar for the PSN? The stock ones all kind of suck.. can you even d/l any from the store?

so far I'm liking the PS3, I feel there is far better integration w/ the 360's dash but the XMB is pretty cool..
 
[quote name='aznguyen316']lol didn't want to stir up some 360 vs debate.. just saying it was really warm around it.. ooh well yeah I'm in the process of making the switch, got a buyer on my elite coming next week so I'm straight. I'm sure I'll have plenty more questions.

1) is there a HDD browser? like an explorer to check out what's on the HDD all in one area via folders or can I only view different files from their appropriate category, ex. photos, vids, game saves.

2) can you have a custom avatar for the PSN? The stock ones all kind of suck.. can you even d/l any from the store?

so far I'm liking the PS3, I feel there is far better integration w/ the 360's dash but the XMB is pretty cool..[/quote]

I have both systems and love both, but the shortcomings of each are pretty objective.

1. Nope, kind of lame, but nope. It's as you describe.

2. As far as I know, nope. It's as you describe.

I personally don't need an in-game dash or XMB, since I like game music and if I don't, I have music coming from elsewhere. What I would like though is in-game chat to be a standard function, not a luxury that is in some games and not in others.
 
[quote name='aznguyen316']finally got my PS3 guys, been messing with it for the past 4 hours.. haha giving it a good test run since it was used. Anyway, it was damn near new, purchased a refurb'd unit from a guy and he just sold it right when he got it back from SONY.. nothing was on the HDD and everything was in original packaging from sony. awesome deal.

btw the 80gb I got runs pretty hot, well the air around it at least. even more so than my 360 lol[/QUOTE]

[quote name='espy605']Which is weird, since PS3s rarely fail and 360s break all the time. The PS3 is like an engine exhaust but I'm just glad it's much quieter than the 360.[/QUOTE]

[quote name='primetime']It should be hot on the side where the fans blow all the hot air out. That's good, it means the fans are doing their job. It will normally run pretty warm too.

Unlike the 360, the PS3 keeps the heat outside the system, not inside. ;)[/QUOTE]

:lol: Yeah, that's exactly what I was thinking. It's cooler because it doesn't actually vent the heat.

[quote name='espy605']It isn't weird, the 360 was rushed to market to gain early market share. It didn't go through proper testing before being mass produced.[/QUOTE]

Yeah, but what's weird about that is they've now had 2 1/2 years to fix it, and it sounds like even the Falcons have a much higher failure rate than normal hardware. You'd think they'd have fixed it by mid 2006 at the latest. If you look at the GPU heatsync on the thing now, it's a CRAZY design. It basically has a heat pipe to shunt heat from the GPU off to an an area of the system with more room where they stick a second heat sync for it. Crazy design.
 
[quote name='primetime']Go to the device and press triangle>show all? Give it a shot at least.[/quote]


Hey thanks, that worked. I didn't know about that.
 
Dunno if anything been said but I heard with home there will be a trophy that requires you to be on 100 peoples friend list. That means they'd have to be on yours too. Sounds like the friend list is getting upped to 100 then. Not 100% sure but just heard about the trophy.
 
I don't have any friends w/ PS3's lol so how in depth is the friends list? Is it anything like the 360? View what they're playing, doing etc? Look into profile information and stuff.
 
I haven't seen what the 360's is like, but it sounds similar to what the PS3 friend list is like.

You see their avatar, their comment which comes up in a caption bubble. You can see what game they are playing, and you go view their profile which has brief info if any at all.
 
[quote name='Wolfpup']:lol: Yeah, that's exactly what I was thinking. It's cooler because it doesn't actually vent the heat.



Yeah, but what's weird about that is they've now had 2 1/2 years to fix it, and it sounds like even the Falcons have a much higher failure rate than normal hardware. You'd think they'd have fixed it by mid 2006 at the latest. If you look at the GPU heatsync on the thing now, it's a CRAZY design. It basically has a heat pipe to shunt heat from the GPU off to an an area of the system with more room where they stick a second heat sync for it. Crazy design.[/quote]

It looks like part of a Star Trek model kit was used to build it.
 
[quote name='aznguyen316']I don't have any friends w/ PS3's lol so how in depth is the friends list? Is it anything like the 360? View what they're playing, doing etc? Look into profile information and stuff.[/QUOTE]Definitely not as in-depth because it's more general. There's just a short about me section (most people leave it blank), your PSN name, and the languages you speak in your profile. It does tell you what game you are playing under your name, but it doesn't go into depth of exactly what you are doing in the game (Just says "TOY HOME", as an example). Oh course there's a message above everyones name that can be freely changed (a lot like a motto on XBL).

Don't worry about lacking friends with a PS3, because you'll make several PS3 friends if you stick close to our CAG PSN community. ;)

I do have to apologize to the 50+ people I removed since I get tons of friend requests at CAG and another forum (limit is only 50).
 
Is it normal for a system update to take 2 hours? I played online yesterday, but before playing I had to update the system to version 2.17. That took about two hours is that normal? I have AT&T DSL internet.
 
[quote name='D_Icon']Is it normal for a system update to take 2 hours? I played online yesterday, but before playing I had to update the system to version 2.17. That took about two hours is that normal? I have AT&T DSL internet.[/QUOTE]It's suppose to take 5-15 minutes to do, but if your internet is slow, log onto a slow server, and/or bad time, it may take a while. The download servers have been slowing down over time (they were pretty fast over the summer up until around November, but now it's starting to slow down, probably because of more PS3 owners).
 
[quote name='D_Icon']Is it normal for a system update to take 2 hours? I played online yesterday, but before playing I had to update the system to version 2.17. That took about two hours is that normal? I have AT&T DSL internet.[/quote]

next time if you know there's an update.. get it online from sony onto a flash drive and update via that way. d/l's much faster via computer etc. my opinion.

my question: what game out on the PS3 now is actually worth the $59.99 price tag? I don't usually pay full price for games but I have a special circumstance where I have a giftcard to use and would like to get my first PS3 game lol.

I enjoy FPS and RPGs mostly and simply great games. I should also add I have CoD4 and Oblivion on the 360..
 
[quote name='aznguyen316']next time if you know there's an update.. get it online from sony onto a flash drive and update via that way. d/l's much faster via computer etc. my opinion.

my question: what game out on the PS3 now is actually worth the $59.99 price tag? I don't usually pay full price for games but I have a special circumstance where I have a giftcard to use and would like to get my first PS3 game lol.

I enjoy FPS and RPGs mostly and simply great games. I should also add I have CoD4 and Oblivion on the 360..[/quote]I had the same decision to make as I just got my PS3, too and I got Resistance (didn't hurt it was 40 at Target that week). For me it was a choice between that, Uncharted and maybe Motorstorm, but I figured I'd get a great deal on that much sooner than the other two.
 
[quote name='jdawgg76']I had the same decision to make as I just got my PS3, too and I got Resistance (didn't hurt it was 40 at Target that week). For me it was a choice between that, Uncharted and maybe Motorstorm, but I figured I'd get a great deal on that much sooner than the other two.[/quote]

Good call on resistance, also when you can i HIGHLY suggest uncharted,rachet and clank, and Folklore. AlsoI suggest the Stranglehold Collector's Edition ,because it has John Woo 's Hard Boiled, and its $40 on amazon or cheaper if you get it used from a seller
 
[quote name='xeno']Good call on resistance, also when you can i HIGHLY suggest uncharted,rachet and clank, and Folklore. AlsoI suggest the Stranglehold Collector's Edition ,because it has John Woo 's Hard Boiled, and its $40 on amazon or cheaper if you get it used from a seller[/quote]Thanks, it was really hard to decide between RFOM and Uncharted as I wanted Uncharted a little more, but the true CAG in me won out. I've never been that interested in R&C, but everyone says it's so good I might have to check it out sometime, I actually already got Folklore (and Ninja Gaiden) clearanced at Target for 15 as well as Untold Legends for 3 at Frys. I already got Stranglehold on 360 from Target, too ;) If any PS3 gamers here don't look at the Target thread, they're starting to clearance PS3 games like those two mentioned and F1, MLB 2007, Jericho and a couple others I think. I haven't even played RFOM that much since I've got CoD4 and haven't even gone online partially because I keep getting DNS errors bc the PS3 and my PCs have a conflict. Gotta sit down and figure that one out.
 
[quote name='aznguyen316']
my question: what game out on the PS3 now is actually worth the $59.99 price tag? I don't usually pay full price for games but I have a special circumstance where I have a giftcard to use and would like to get my first PS3 game lol.
[/quote]
The Warhawk bundle...
 
[quote name='mguiddy']The Warhawk bundle...[/quote]

is there a demo available? I should've grabbed this when it was $40 at target.. heard some good things, but I'm not really into airplane games
 
[quote name='aznguyen316']is there a demo available? I should've grabbed this when it was $40 at target.. heard some good things, but I'm not really into airplane games[/quote]
No demo. It isn't an airplane game like say Ace Combat is. It's an online only third person shooter with vehicles. 90% of the time you don't need to fly, there are a few maps that basically require flying and some servers feature dogfight games, which are flying only. I've heard it compared to the Battlefield games.
It was my first PS3 game and if it were my only, I'd be plenty satisfied with it.
 
[quote name='mguiddy']No demo. It isn't an airplane game like say Ace Combat is. It's an online only third person shooter with vehicles. 90% of the time you don't need to fly. I've heard it compared to the Battlefield games.
It was my first PS3 game and if it were my only, I'd be plenty satisfied with it.[/quote]

I see, so.. are there plenty of people online still?
 
[quote name='aznguyen316']I see, so.. are there plenty of people online still?[/quote]
Yep. And there are weekly CAG clan nights.

Also if you don't want/need the headset, Warhawk is available to download from PSN for $40 (I think), though the download version has the limitation of being attached to the PSN ID that downloaded it (again, I think).
 
Well I did jump to PS3 (40gb) from 360. I was already a PSP fanboy of sorts so it was an easy transition. Now I just need games. I only have MLB 08 The Show (which kicks ass). I'm offloading some 360 games on Goozex and picking up PS3 stuff in return. I'm very excited. I'll be searching here for what's worthwhile in the PS Store for downloading.

RC
 
[quote name='mguiddy']Yep. And there are weekly CAG clan nights.

Also if you don't want/need the headset, Warhawk is available to download from PSN for $40 (I think), though the download version has the limitation of being attached to the PSN ID that downloaded it (again, I think).[/QUOTE]

Do you know if it's less restrictive than Microsoft's DRM? Like more like Steam where you can actually run it on a second (or 30th) Playstation 3 if you "activate" it or whatever one time, and then you can play it offline? (Personally I'm not buying downloadable content unless it works like that-I don't want to be restricted to being online or only having 5 activations or whatever if I get a second PS3.)
 
[quote name='Wolfpup']Do you know if it's less restrictive than Microsoft's DRM? Like more like Steam where you can actually run it on a second (or 30th) Playstation 3 if you "activate" it or whatever one time, and then you can play it offline? (Personally I'm not buying downloadable content unless it works like that-I don't want to be restricted to being online or only having 5 activations or whatever if I get a second PS3.)[/quote]
I'm pretty sure the Warhawk download works just like every other PSN game, that is to say once you buy it you get 5 downloads. There is a way to share PSN games but I don't know what the restrictions are, as I've never done it. Look in the PSN Gamesharing thread(s) or wait and hopefully someone more experienced with gamesharing will pop in here.
 
If I connect a PS3 via HDMI, will I be able to output audio via a optical cable? I don't have an HDMI receiver so I need to be able to do that.
 
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