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PS3 GUI Takes Page From PSP Book 76

Posted by Zonk from the what-you'll-be-using-for-the-next-ten-years dept.
sdmonroe writes "As the PS3 launch approaches, the first glimpses of the console's new interface have started to hit the web. The interface borrows many features from the PSP GUI which got such broad acclaim, and includes simple drop down menus for accessing important settings like video resolution, audio output, and management of your virtual friends. Customizability and configurability are also some of the features gamers can expect."
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PS3 GUI Takes Page From PSP Book More

PS3 GUI Takes Page From PSP Book

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  • Not Bad (Score:2, Insightful)

    by coop247 ( 974899 )
    I do like the PSP menu, its very clean, intuitive and easy. The only problem is the music/mp3 playback, that completely sucks on the PSP, you can't scroll around while listening to a song. Since there is a hard drive on the PS3, wonder if you can copy music onto it and set up playlists, that would be decent.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by demon ( 1039 )
      You can certainly pop out of a song play to scroll around; press the HOME button, and the current song will continue playing. If you go out to the top level menu and go into VIDEO, GAME, SYSTEM or something like that, however, or attempt to delete a song or something, the music will stop, though.

  • Me being cynical (Score:4, Funny)

    by UbuntuDupe ( 970646 ) on Tuesday August 22, 2006 @08:55AM (#15955014) Journal
    "The interface borrows many features from the PSP GUI which got such broad acclaim, and includes simple drop down menus for accessing important settings like video resolution, audio output, and management of your virtual friends. Customizability and configurability are also some of the features gamers can expect."

    Can I guess with confidence that at least some of these (imho obvious) gui features are patented, if not by Sony, someone about to hit the motherlode by suing them?

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by thatguywhoiam ( 524290 )
      Can I guess with confidence that at least some of these (imho obvious) gui features are patented, if not by Sony, someone about to hit the motherlode by suing them?

      .... No. Not with confidence.

    • Re: (Score:2, Funny)

      by ifrag ( 984323 )

      This is groundbreaking new interface stuff here. Drop down menus with settings? Massive innovation going on here!

      As far as that patent, I'd think it would be hard to establish original and non-obvious invention at this point?

  • XMB (Score:5, Informative)

    by earbenT ( 992594 ) on Tuesday August 22, 2006 @08:56AM (#15955019)
    It's called the Cross Media Bar (XMB) interface, and it actually debuted on the ill-fated PSX (PS2+DVR combo) in 2003. It's since become Sony's standard UI for multimedia products such as the PSP, PS3 and even some higher-end TVs.

  • Another good PS3 interface video... (Score:3, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 22, 2006 @08:58AM (#15955036)
    If you hadn't seen it referenced from the google video link in the article. The google link in the article had a basic interface demonstration. This one has more infor on the picture browser, music and movie player, and (apparently) integrated web browser.

    http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-724701762 1735985253&hl=en [slashdot.org]
    • What the heck? I hadn't heard about the web browser. I figured that any web browsing functionality would be supplied from within LInux.

      Interesting how it does multiple windows, woudln't be surprised to find out that it's netfront code....again.

  • Old news. (Score:2, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Looks very similar to what was shown at the beginning of June http://youtube.com/watch?v=UpKwRHxSzoY [youtube.com]

  • Very...PSP... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by the-stringbean ( 884738 ) on Tuesday August 22, 2006 @09:00AM (#15955053)
    Well it's certainly like the PSP interface. Which is good and bad. It means that it's going to be pretty easy to use but it seems a bit underwelming considering the power of the PS3, especially if it's true that one of the Cell SPUs are dedicated to running the GUI...

    The pop up menu during games seems a poor to me - white icons on a screen without a frame or background? I can see that being an issue with some games.

    • The pop up menu during games seems a poor to me - white icons on a screen without a frame or background? I can see that being an issue with some games.

      It's more of a difference rendering tat always keeps contrast with whatever game you have running.

      Although the menu seems a bit simple, that also means it will still render well without affect game performance underneath (if a game is running). A demo shown at E3 shows more eye candy in the background as well so it'll not look too plain when in action.
  • In the sea of negative reactions to the PS3 this is one of the few positive ones I've seen (well atleast on slashdot) I'm both happy that this has happened, but I'm still completely underwhelmed about the PS3. I know I'll end up owning all three consoles, but with Ken Kutaragi personally telling me I'm too poor to enjoy video games I can't help but feel that PS3 will be the last.

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by UbuntuDupe ( 970646 )
      "It's not what they say, it's what they don't say."

      It's "good news" that, of ALL the gui layouts out there, Sony picked a good one? Wow, tough task there. That kinda reminds me of people who say "He speaks so well" to refer to someone for whom they can't think of a substantive praise, forgetting that the same comment is used frequently to describe the progress of a mentally retarded individual in therapy.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Phisbut ( 761268 )
        That kinda reminds me of people who say "He speaks so well" to refer to someone for whom they can't think of a substantive praise, forgetting that the same comment is used frequently to describe the progress of a mentally retarded individual in therapy.

        Or the classic "She has a nice personality..."

        • I always like to follow that line with the other classic: "and she doesn't sweat much, for a fat girl..."
  • More and more we'll see new videogames converging into multimedia devices or even computers. Probably in one or two years Sony and Nintendo will be doing more media devices with more processing power and storage devices such as a hard disk inside a video game. I wonder when am I going to see a computer that can be fully integrated into the whole media system of a house. This shouldn't be far away for companies like Sony and Apple.

  • Crossbar is brilliant (Score:4, Insightful)

    by thatguywhoiam ( 524290 ) on Tuesday August 22, 2006 @09:05AM (#15955086)
    One of the best things about the PSP is that 'crossbar' interface. Its extremely fast and easy to use.

    One thing I liked in the video: showing a picture of the output plugs is pretty smart - this will really help out those who wouldn't know a DVI from an HDMI from a component cable.

    I gotta wonder if that interface is running in some kind of HD mode; that text would not be readable on a standard-def 27" TV. Way to small. I imagine the font scales with the display mode.


    • this will really help out those who wouldn't know a DVI from an HDMI from a component cable.

      I doubt anyone plunking down $600+ for the PS3 is NOT going to know what those inputs are :)

  • Its sad when Sony implementing a half-decent menu design is news.

    Dont get me wrong, the gui seems very clean and usable, but theres nothing in there you wouldn't expect.

    I do have one question though; will it be able play games automatically without going through the GUI? Because tapping "Animal Crossing DS" is one thing, but scrolling through a bunch of menus seems like it would throw up a mental barrier to play.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by grumbel ( 592662 )
      My guess would be that it launches the game directly, like the PSP, since you can after all quit the game at any time to go back to the menu without reboot, there isn't really much reason to not do so.

      • Hibernate (Score:5, Interesting)

        by fistfullast33l ( 819270 ) on Tuesday August 22, 2006 @09:53AM (#15955448) Homepage Journal
        What I'd really like to see is the PSP's "game-state-save" functionality translate to the PS3. The ability to turn off the console and let it go into a type of hibernate mode without using any battery is arguably the best feature of the handheld. You can just keep switching it on and off and lose very little time waiting for it to come back up. I don't know if the DS does it, but I guarantee you if it doesn't it will soon. Very handy when you're on the go and can only play a few minutes at a time.

        The one downside to the universal GUI of the PSP is the save functionality. Many of the games would design their own save game functionality only to have the PSP save game come up after confirming the save in the game. So you'd effectively be saving the game twice in one shot. It's quite annoying if you ask me. More of a developer problem than Sony's, but something that needs to be worked on.

        • Re:Hibernate (Score:4, Informative)

          by Vlastyn ( 61832 ) on Tuesday August 22, 2006 @10:12AM (#15955584) Homepage
          The DS does this as well- Was happily surprised to discover it. The thing is, game consoles these days are "always on" anyway- in power save mode, waiting for a signal from the remote to turn it on and wasting electricity. Seems like a natural evolution of sorts to have it actually offer some additional feature while it's in this state.

          • Re: (Score:1)

            by Dorceon ( 928997 )
            Actually I've played a DS game where closing the DS and putting it in sleep mode (at least momentarily) was required to proceed in the game. Someone in the game says, "close the lid," and you try poking the on-screen lid and it doesn't work, and then the lightbulb goes off in your head and you close the DS itself.
    • I'm betting it'll work like the Xbox 360 dashboard:

      * When you put in a game disk, the dashboard will immediately load the game.

      * When you turn on the console with a game inserted, the dashboard will immediately load the game, but there is a preference in the menus to turn this behavior off. (Handy if you play a lot of Xbox Live Arcade games.)

      * There is a easy-to-find (software) button in the interface that can be used to run whatever media is in the drive.

      * There is a (hardware) button on the controller to
  • Zonk posted something positive about the ps3? Isnt this one of the signs of the apocalypse?

    The interface looks nice, the one positive about the psp so far for me is that the menu's are simple to navigate and fairly customizable. For the ps3 to have a shot at being the media hub it needs a menu that is not only pleasant to look at but easy to use with the remote as well as the controller, this looks to fit the bill nicely.
    • "Zonk posted something positive about the ps3? Isnt this one of the signs of the apocalypse?"

      No, it's a sign that there was something mildly positive to write about on the PS3. I hate to break it to you, but Zonk's 'anti-PS3' campaign is happening throughout the web. It's not something of his invention.

  • Seems to confirm 1080p over component (Score:4, Interesting)

    by SuperKendall ( 25149 ) on Tuesday August 22, 2006 @09:18AM (#15955191)
    Note that near the end of the video they scroll to select video output, and choose component - from there they are given a list of choices that looks like:

    480p
    1080i
    720p
    1080p

    It's rather hard to read as the resolution of the video is low.

    Now this is a dev but it shows that the PS3 at least can support this, some people seem confused and think you need HDMI for 1080p support.
    • It looked a lot like HDMI appeared in the menus too. Or did I misunderstand ? Possibly these (dev) menus don't match up with the real hardware.

  • Ahhhh!!! Why does everyone keep saying that?! They showed off a much more robust version of the interface at E3! Three months ago! Am I the only one that remembers? With a quick search of "PS3 interface" YouTube pulls it right up as the first result [youtube.com]!

    It should also be pointed out that the link in the story above is showing off the dev kit's interface, and is almost surely not what we will see in our homes in November.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by JebJoya ( 997050 )
      Well, it kind of is - they specifically say that it is the first direct feed of the GUI that has been OKayed by sony, so obviously better quality than filming the screen with a digital camera. Although, has to be said that the cruddy digcam vid 3 months ago was more informative than this one to me... bit boring :( Jeb

  • Why Do We Care? (Score:1, Troll)

    by Rydia ( 556444 )
    Sure, a nice GUI is geeky and nice, but really, what's the point? The online service will have its own interface for each game, most likely. DVDs and BRDs have fixed resolutions, and I can't think of anyone that would be messing with that stuff, anyway. Most everyone has an ipod+dock or computer with their MP3s.

    To paraphrase a rather successful political campaign, "It's the games, stupid."
    • The online service will have its own interface for each game, most likely.

      What makes you think that? The whole deal with being able to access buddy lists and the like via these common menus would be to hook up in games.

      I'm sure each game will have some degree of further customization (possibly setting up games as an example) but some base level of online support is embedded in these menus as the demonstration shows.

      This isn't meant to be like the PS2 where each game is totally on its own providing services
  • The XMB (cross media bar) did not originate with the PSP, contrary to what some people seem to think; the PSX (not the original PlayStation, but the Japan-only Playstation 2/DVR crossover device) was the first device to actually feature it, and it's also been used in some of Sony's higher end TV sets as their menu system.
  • Having a PSP, I'm rather disenchanted with the GUI. It strikes me as a bad case of too elegant design. While the buttons make sense and are rather consistent, I find them counter intuitive and keep cancelling out menu choices. Mainly a problem of too few buttons.

  • I own a PSP and I think the 2D menu system is a great idea (left and right change catagories, up and down choose specific options). It looks cool and saves you keystokes.

    What I don't understand is why Sony can't make something a little more flashy with that same concept in mind. If I'm spending $600 dollars on a console to go with my new sound system and HDTV, I want a menu system I can ogle at.

    • The base PS3 for gamers and those wanting to watch Blu-Ray movies is $500, you do not need the $600 model unless you'd like to be able to load pictures from your camera on the thing. It's more the "basic home computer" model.

      As for a bit more visual appeal in the iterface, check out the E3 video links posted elesewhere undre this story. That was a later version of the same interface, and has a nice but subtle line of flowing plasma like effects behind the menu. Also of course they said you could customiz
  • I'm really not that impressed with this GUI, because I was honestly expecting a little more from a $600 gaming system. Sure, it works fine for the PSP, but I expected it to have a little more flare...you know...flex that PS3 hardware muscle a little bit. What's the point of all that raw power if all you do with it is some half assed little menu of icons. They should probably take a page out of Microsoft's book and get something going like the XBOX 360 Dashboard. I'm not a big XBOX fan, but it looks grea
    • Surely they could have this, bar, but perhaps something like the dock in OSX too? Christ, with one core disabled by default due to low yields, and then they have one whole cored dedicated to ....that bar? Wheres the sex Sony? Just no junk like the PS2 menus, how they had the cross sort of thing floating around, in blurred out or sharp detail.
  • And it even encorporates real battles from japanese history such as the giant crab!!

    RIIIIDGE RACER!!!

    Sony E3 Press Conference [gamespot.com]

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