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April 4th, 2008, 19:34 Posted By: wraggster
Killer Dr3w is a self-described ‘mature 30-year old gamer’ and contributor to Three Speech that many of you already know. His Killer Dr3w blog is his place to speak his mind so if you enjoy this get over there and take a look. Over to Dr3w…
Over the last few months the most requested feature for the XMB has got to be in-game messaging and custom sound tracks. It’s got to the point where I haven’t even seen any other feature requested for months. I thought I would throw my Top-10 users’ XMB feature requests out there to get a healthy discussion on other things that the XMB and the PS3 needs.
I am sure that a few of these feature requests are going to be made redundant when Home and in-game XMB does eventually come out, but I am also pretty sure some of these features are for will still be outstanding this time next year…
1) Better handling of headsets
Imagine the scenario, if you will. You’re kicking ass in Warhawk. Your clan is winning, but it’s a close match. The blue team has some good players on it but due to your excellent teamwork the lead is yours. Then the zone you’re guarding gets rushed, a tank stays in the distance and a jeep with three ground troops charges at you. You call for the help of your buddies but your Bluetooth headset is flat! Nooo! No fear, you still have your PlayStation Eye, you plug it in – and then realise that before it’s going to be recognised by the PS3 you’re going to have to quit the game, go to the accessory settings, change the default input device from the Bluetooth headset to the USB one and then re-load. Yes. You lost the zone; your clan lost the game.
If the PS3 could use the last connected device as the default audio input then you might have been able to call in support. Alternatively it could give the user the option to change the default audio devices in the controller I-D screen.
2) A better way of displaying any waiting messages
I can’t tell you how many times I have received a message on my PS3 and have had it sat there for some time. Two easy fixes for this. Number one: show a simple email icon when you press the PS button on the screen that shows you the controller charge. Number two: show an animated email icon on the XMB when you’re not in-game or in movie. Why not flash the controller charge icons on the SIXAXIS in a specific order, or flash the PS3’s power button from blue to green every ten seconds? Choices, choices…
3) Fix USB devices
Why are USB devices treated as second-class devices? I appreciate that you shouldn’t be able to download DRM’d games, music or video to your external hard disk, but why can’t I create an animated preview icon for my movies? Why are my albums all sorted incorrectly when they are stored on my external hard disk? Why is almost everything messed up when using an external hard disk?
4) Quicker media access
After a few weeks of owning a PS3 I realised how I can really make use of it. I started using it to hold all my CD’s, podcasts etc… The only problem is, once you have more than around 20 or 30 albums on it, it takes quite a while for all of them to show up.
On the movie side, things are much worse. A folder with around 40 or 50 movies in can take quite a few minutes to actually list all the files in the XMB. The movies seem to show up in chronological order, so if you have 30 episodes of the 1Up Show on your PS3 and you want to watch the latest one, you’re going to have to wait.
Things get much, much, worse when you’re using a USB hard disk too. So let’s tie this feature in with the above one and fix it all in one go.
5) DNLA server
I liked the PS3 so much as a media device I bought a second one, but now I have to keep both of them manually sync’d with my music and videos. Yes, the PS3 can act as a DNLA client, but I don’t want a PC server in my house sharing out my media; I want my PS3 as my media device. It makes sense to me to have my PS3 in the living room as my central media device where all my movies, photos and music is stored. This then acts as a DNLA Server for my other PS3.
6) Pre-loading of PSN network games
Okay, this one is not specifically to do with the XMB, but it’s still a great feature. Steam offers the ability for users to download games they have pre-ordered and activate them on the day of release. No downloading on release day - just launch the game and play.
This would be awesome for the PSN. Imagine pre-ordering Warhawk or GT5: Prologue knowing that it’s ready to play on the day of release, rather than knowing you’re going to have to wait hours for it to download.
While you’re at it - why not let us pre-load our firmware updates too?
7) More integration of the PSP
Being able to use your PSP in remote play mode is pretty cool, but I want to be able to use my PSP for other things too, almost like an extended media controller. I want to be able to browse the music on my PS3, choose tracks, create playlists, fast forward videos, all using the media on my PS3.
A cool example of how this could work is with movies. The PS3 doesn’t have an LCD display like a standard DVD or Blu-ray player. I want all the information (such as title, track, duration, bit rate and sound configuration) shown on my PSP while I watch the movie on my HDTV. I also want to be able to press X to pause the movie, or the control pad to skip channels.
8) Greater codec and container support
Sony shocked quite a few people when they announced XviD/DivX support a few months ago. After testing it I can say it works excellently. My only complaint is that it’s very hard to get digital movies with 5.1 sound on the PS3. It can be done, but not easily.
Sony should keep challenging its rivals by adding as many codecs and containers (Matroska support anyone?) as they can get their hands on; making the PS3 the best choice for all digital media.
9) RSS feeds
It looks like Sony are going to get around to this anyway, but I hope that one day I can quickly look at the current news on Three Speech, while downloading a bunch of 1UP Yours podcasts to my PSP and watching The 1UP Show without the need of a computer.
10) Media folders
I want to be able to create a folder called ‘Podcasts’ on my hard drive, and in that folder create a folder called ‘Insomniac Full Mood Podcasts’ and have all my podcasts stored there. Give the users the choice of how they store their media, allow folder creation for movies, games, music and photos. Right now, the ways you can organise your media is far too limited…
Well, that’s it. Almost all of the above features are related to the XMB and won’t be magically fixed by having in-game XMB access. I think its generally accepted that Sony have got the message, “we want in game XMB access”, and I am sure they are working on that. Now, lets think of other features and fixes that will help make the PS3 the best console it can be.
http://threespeech.com/blog/?p=983
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