The PS3 Media Server development team
announced a few hours ago, July 18th, the immediate availability for
download of the PS3 Media Server 1.60.0 application, bringing assorted
bug fixes and general improvements.
The most important
feature of PS3 Media Server 1.60.0 is that it is now distributable as
.deb installers for the Ubuntu 12.04 LTS (Precise Pangolin) operating
system, supporting both 32-bit and 64-bit architectures.
PS3
Media Server 1.60 also adds support for TX3G (MPEG-4 Timed Text)
subtitles, PGS (Blu-ray) subtitles, and VobSub (DVD) subtitles in MP4
container, as well as support for WebM videos downloaded from YouTube.
Moreover,
it provides better handling of embedded ASS/SSA subtitles styling, new
Sony SMP-N100 renderer, and FFmpeg video player is now enable for all
platforms.
Last but not least, the Catalan and Simplified Chinese
translations have been updated, and the CBRVideoBitrate value has been
optimized for Panasonic TVs.
The PS3 Media Server development team has
announced a few hours ago, June 26th, the immediate availability for
download of the PS3 Media Server 1.54.0 application, bringing assorted
bug fixes and general improvements.
PS3 Media Server
1.54.0 brings the LPCM transcoding option for all audio channels,
support for DTS HD-MA 7.1, support for Dolby TrueHD 7.1, DirecTV HR
series support, LG's Smart TV Upgrader support, Yamaha RX-V671 support,
OPPO BDP-93 and OPPO BDP-83 support.
This release of PS3 Media
Server also fixes the resetting cache issue, the 2.0 384 kbits AC3 PS3
audio bug, and the overscan compensation bug.
Last but not
least, the Czech language translation was updated again, and the buffer
is now displayed in megabytes instead of bytes.
Three and a half weeks after Sony first pulled the plug on all PS3 and PSP online services, players are (slowly) starting to get back in the game.
In a rare late Saturday night post on the Playstation Blog, Sony confirmed that parts of the Playstation Network are now up and running in targeted parts of the US.
In order to get back online, users will first need to download a new PS3 firmware update. Among other things, this update requires that users change their password as a security precaution, and also no doubt implements new protective features behind the scenes.
Sony also introduced new password requirements - passwords must now be at least eight characters long, contain both numbers and letters, and cannot use the same character three times in a row.
The initial rollout of service restoration includes the entire Eastern seaboard as well as the state of California. Sony says PSN access will come to the rest of the country in phased installments. Also, this restoration of service only applies to multiplayer online gaming. Other services, like the Playstation Store, remain offline.
Over the span of the last 21 days, all regularly scheduled posts on Sony's official Playstation Blog - which is usually updated with several daily posts from publishers discussing their latest Playstation titles - were canceled to focus on coverage of the outage. The company's senior director of corporate communications and social media Patrick Seybold has been the only one posting messages since April 22, with the exception of an explanation from Sony's Eric Lempel about the new firmware update. Seybold has put up 17 blog posts to keep gamers, publishers, and spectators in the loop, but his post on Saturday night was the first that brought good news.
Far and away, this is the longest that PSN services have been completely suspended, and neither Xbox Live nor the Wii's online gaming services have ever been disrupted nearly this long. On April 21, Sony informed users "it may be a full day or two before we’re able to get the service completely back up and running." It ended up being 23 days.
During that time, the issue went from a minor annoyance to a corporate scandal to a catastrophic multi-million-dollar cluster**** that will go down in the annals of gaming history.
As a small token of its appreciation for users' patience, Sony has offered free enrollment into an identity theft protection program, and promises to give away a handful of premium downloadable products and services to all registered PSN customers.
For the latest information about where PSN access has been restored, Sony has made a continuously updated map available here.
The huge, long-running outage to the Playstation Network may be coming to an end.
But the damage control is only just beginning. After cutting off its users for more than a week, Sony is now ready to start rolling out restoration to the PSN, following an attack that compromised user security and private data.
"The company has implemented a variety of new security measures to provide greater protection of personal information. SNEI and its third-party experts have conducted extensive tests to verify the security strength of the PlayStation Network and Qriocity services," Sony wrote in a statement.
As part of the initial restoration, users can now play online PS3 games, access the console's Music Unlimited streaming music service, log onto Playstation Home, see their friend list, and engage in text and video chats.
Still unavailable is the Playstation Store, which is significant. The reason the digital download store is still not accessible is likely because there is still concern that the hackers who compromised PSN access have access to credit card data from anyone who has ever made a purchase on the Playstation Store.
Nevertheless, it seems like Sony has sealed off the back-door access obtained by hackers, and to thank users for their patience, Sony is going to offer a "Welcome Back" promotion, offering some free content:
* Each territory will be offering selected PlayStation entertainment content for free download. Specific details of this content will be announced in each region soon. * All existing PlayStation Network customers will be provided with 30 days free membership in the PlayStation Plus premium service. Current members of PlayStation Plus will receive 30 days free service. * Music Unlimited powered by Qriocity subscribers (in countries where the service is available) will receive 30 days free service.
