Category: PS3
PS3 HDD Upgrade
Ran out of disk space on my 40GB PS3 last week, so I took a bit of time last night to swap out the hard drive. One of the great things about the PS3 is that it uses a standard 2.5″ notebook drive, as opposed to a proprietary setup. I had replaced the stock 120GB drive in my Macbook a while back with a 250GB model, so I decided to put the leftover drive to use. The process was easy, with the actual hard drive swap taking about 10 minutes. Of course, doing a full backup of the data on the PS3 took about an hour, but I just let that run while Jordan and I cooked dinner.
CNET Asia has good step-by-step instructions here. The PS3 backup utility mentioned in the instructions is a bit buried in the XMB interface; here’s the path: Settings >???????? ????? ???????? System Settings > Backup Utility.
After installing the new drive I ran a restore off the backup, and I was up and running again with a bit more headroom for game demos, GT TV downloads, SingStar songs, and TV episodes that I’m making my way through. Finally, I put the old 40GB drive into a portable enclosure for quick data transfers between the office and home.
GT Academy
So top European players of Gran Turismo 5 Prologue can now compete in the newly-launched GT Academy for the opportunity to race cars in real life. It appears that the racers will be culled from online time trial races, and then head-to-head national competitions. The fastest three drivers from each country then get to go to GT Academy and train to get their official racing licenses, with the ultimate goal of racing in a 24-hour endurance race in Dubai next year. I wonder if this GT Academy idea points the way towards even more real-life extensions of video games. What’s next — actual military trailing for top Call of Duty players?
Pioneer Shiro-Kuro
For those of you who simply have to have your tv match with your AppleTV or Ceramic White PS3, a Pioneer Kuro with a white bezel. UK only, apparently.
Catching Up
Lots of stuff on the burner. Finishing a big project at work, so I’ve been quiet on this space for a bit longer than I anticipated.
Evan brought me along to see the Kings/Rangers game last week, which proves what a great guy he is – burning one of his season-ticket shares on a last-place west-coast team is a lot to ask, and going into the game I hoped that the Kings would just do me a solid and at least make things interesting. Somehow they managed to sneak away with a 4-2 win, with Frolov playing a whale of a game against the surprisingly sluggish Rangers. Sean Avery was running around early in the game, perhaps trying to show up the Kings for trading him exactly a year ago. It was great to see the kids like Kopitar and Boyle score. Given how horribly the Kings’ season has gone this year, at least there’s plenty of young talent to look forward to.
Visited Mom in fair Belchertown, MA a few weekends ago. My (newly-engaged) brother and his fiancée Kristen made the trip out from Boston and joined me for a weekend of skating on the backyard rink. Check the recent flickr stuff for a few shots of us out on the ice. Dad expanded things to 60 by 40 feet this year, and it was nice to fly around and build up speed out there. However, all that work didn’t save me from getting laid out multiple times in the Sled Dogs’ last game, a 5-3 loss to the Hotshots.
Other recent distractions: a new Pioneer flat panel. After five years, my trusty Samsung CRT HDTV will be getting a new home with Joseph and Kristen. I will say that the Samsung is no slouch compared to the new panel, proving once again that it’s hard to beat CRTs for picture quality. That said, having the extra screen real estate is nice. Bluray discs and upscaled DVDs from the PS3 look fantastic – I have a feeling I’ll be loading up the Netflix queue again. The Pioneer also came just in time for new episodes of LOST. I’m not listening to the haters – last year’s finale got me back on the Oceanic 815 bandwagon and so far things haven’t disappointed.
I’m also playing Uncharted, and I’ve switched over to Nullriver’s MediaLink software to pipe my music, photos, and videos from my Mac to the PS3.
Somewhere in there I also upgraded to Leopard, which I’ll pay a compliment by saying that it hasn’t gotten in my way at all.
Nyko Blue Wave Remote
One of the more curious omissions from the PS3 is an infrared receiver. The controllers work via Bluetooth, as does the more conventional remote control for media playback that Sony sells separately. Unfortunately, most universal remotes (including mine) use IR or RF, so I resigned myself to picking up the Sony remote so that Jordan and I could control DVD/Blu-ray playback without using the Sixaxis. Thankfully I checked a few online forums, and someone mentioned the Nyko Blue Wave remote, which operates via IR.
I received the remote in the mail a few days ago, spent ten minutes teaching my universal remote the buttons, and just like that my one-remote household is preserved…with one small exception. Because the Nyko IR receiver plugs into one of the PS3 USB slots, and those slots don’t have power when the PS3 is off, I still have to turn on the machine with one of the Sixaxis controllers before I can use my universal remote. Not a big deal, but a small annoyance that makes me question what Sony was thinking – if they’re touting the PS3 as a high-end piece of consumer electronics, why ignore the fact that most universal remotes use IR?
