PS3, PSP firmware updated

Sony is making full use of its first "connected console," the PlayStation 3, by issuing firmware updates left and right. Late last night, the PS3 got its latest patch--this one updating the console's system to version 1.30.

PS3 owners were simply notified of the patch by connecting to the PlayStation Network, not from any announcement from Sony, much like the last patch. And, also like the previous patch, PS3 owners weren't informed of what the patch does.

Though Sony hasn't released information on the patch, several gamers have put their two cents in on the details of the update. Scouring message boards on the official PlayStation 3 site, v1.30 reportedly changes how the PS3 outputs its video to HDTVs.

GameSpot editors tested an updated console and found that the console will now output the highest resolution a gamers' monitor supports, regardless of what resolution the gamer prefers. For example, games that output natively at 1080p running on a monitor that supports a maximum of 1080i will automatically be displayed at 1080i, not 720p as the gamer may prefer. Before updating to v1.30, the PS3 gave preference to 720p over 1080i.

In the previous example, disabling 1080i support to get native 1080p games to play at 720p works fine but has an unwanted side effect. Disabling 1080i results in Blu-ray movies downscaling to 480p, as the PS3 does not yet support Blu-ray playback in 720p. While this isn't a problem for gamers with 1080p monitors, it does cause a bit of a predicament for those with HDTVs that don't support the high resolution.

The other major addition is a hard-drive backup utility to transfer data from removable media to the console's hard drive.

The PlayStation Portable was also updated, bumping up to version 3.02. No information was given on the nature of this patch, but it appears to be only "security improvements" (that is, anti-homebrew countermeasures).