To go with my new display (that I am still waiting on) I purchased a PS3. I was in a rush to get this since to get the five free blue ray movie deal your receipt has to state that you purchased it by Jan 31. Also, you can save $100 by putting it on a Sony credit card. So this weekend I submitted the application for the credit card which is supposed to arrive within two weeks. When the card arrives I will return the PS3 and repurchase it on the Sony card and save $100. It seems that they are now discontinuing the 80Gb version of the PS3. They are no longer going to have backwards compatibility. I had a hard time finding one of these at the local stores but I did finally. Anyone else interested in all of these deals and backwards compatibility should get one before Thursday.

I hooked up and started messing around with the PS3 last night and had a few questions.

1. Is it a good idea to purchase the extended warranty with the PS3, or is it reliable enough to now worry about?

2. My Pioneer will accept 24fps (at 72Hz using a 3:3 pulldown) and the PS3 will output a 24fps 1080p signal. What about standard def dvd's -- are these 24 fps and will these also be outputted as such?

3. I know that if you go online with your computer without a firewall and a good anti-virus software then you can pick up a virus within a few minutes. Is is a good idea to go online and upgrade the firmware and do other things with the PS3, or should I just download them to a disc?

- Nick

I would definitely keep your firmware up to date on your ps3, but I don't think it matters how you go about getting the update.

I forgot to put another question that I had.

4. Is there any way to get my saved game data from the ps1 and ps2 memory cards onto the ps3? I am about 10 hours into a ps2 game and it would be nice if I didn't have to start over.

- Nick

Standard def dvd's won't be outputted at 24fps since the video is regular NTSC (or PAL).

About your memory cards, I'm not sure since I have a 40GB and no backward compatibility but I thought there were PS2 memory card readers on the 80GB ps3? I think there's also a USB memory card reader accessory that can be bought.

So far the Ps3 has proven to be pretty good machine .. No real reason to buy extended warrenty.. Not sure about upscaleing of regular movies.. They do look great through ps3 though ... I had to by a ps2 memory card reader to transfer things to the ps3(80 gig).. Try to borrow one if you can because once your done moving info the card reader is prety much useless.. Do the update for the firmware either through the internet connection or download it to a usb mem stick and instal it that way.. As far as i know there is no virus protection available yet so surfing the net could be dangerous.. Just be carefull and don't go to sites that might be suspect for viruses.... Hope this helps..

Avdude..

Regular DVDs can be upscaled. The question was whether the PS3 would do 1080p24 on DVDs which it won't since the 24fps feature depends on the encoding on the disk (only blu-rays and HD-DVDs have the data included for 180p24).
About viruses I wouldn't worry about it since the ps3 isn't capable of running windows executables so there's no threat as of yet.

I am not a ps3 guy so unfortunately I can't answer your questions.

However, if you play heavenly sword please let me know if you like it. It is one of the games on the ps3 I have seen that look pretty neat.

Heavenly Sword is a good game, It is kinda short though, about 7 hours.