Sony: 'No plans' to address PSP-3000 screen interlacing

Though the controversial recall of the PlayStation 3 platformer Little Big Planet hogged headlines this week, another Sony-related controversy was also percolating. It has to do with the PSP-3000, the just-released redesign of the increasingly popular PSP handheld.

The second hardware revision in as many years, the PSP-3000's main selling point is an improved LCD screen that offers more vivid images than its predecessor, the PSP-2000. As can be seen in GameSpot Hardware's hands-on evaluation, the new portable has a wider contrast, broader color range, and a brighter screen, all with the same battery life.

Unfortunately, the souped-up graphics appear to have a bit of an Achilles heel. According to an increasing number of reports on both the official PlayStation forums and PlayStation-centric sites such as PSP Fanboy, the new screen has visible scan lines interlacing the image horizontally. One OPF poster even whipped up a side-by side comparison of the issue (pictured), which some critics had hoped could be remedied via a firmware update of some kind.

After surfacing last week, the PSP-3000 complaints have reached a mass critical enough to draw a response by Sony--a response those suffering from interlacing issues won't be too happy about. "On some occasions, scan lines may appear on scenes where brightness changes drastically, due to the hardware features of the new LCD device on PSP-3000," Sony Computer Entertainment America reps told PSP Fanboy. "Installed with this new LCD device, [the] PSP-3000 offers more natural and vibrant colors on its screen, but the scan lines have come out to be more visible as a result of improving response time to alleviate the afterimages on [the] PSP-3000. Since this is due to hardware specification, there are no plans for a system software update concerning this issue."