One of the strongest aspects that the PlayStation 3 has over its competitors the ability to play Blu-ray titles; the next generation media format backed by Sony Corp. This is essentially enough to consider the PS3 as a fully capable Blu-ray player, which already accounts for 2 million of the 2.7 million Blu-ray units sold to date.
Furthermore, Sony aims to ensure that the machine continues to perform as a strong Blu-ray player as well as a gaming console by releasing the firmware update, Profile 1.1. This new update adds support for next-gen Blu-ray playback features such as picture-in-picture playback, which for 2 separate viewing windows, one where the director could be talking while in the other, the film playing. The other features range into step categories like support for downloadable content.
This move will allow the PS3 to keep up with the latest Blu-ray hardware as the most recent and expensive Blu-ray players already come equipped with Profile 1.1. The updated is planned for release later this month.
Source: CVG

1st finally!!!!!.......... Thats a cool update but blu-ray only makes a difference in picture, sound, etc if u have a HDTV. if not there is no reason to run out and buy a blu-ray player if u don't have one
@ DARKBLADE1
Tell us something new.
Blu-ray has already won the war. Blu-ray is selling more both players and discs. Blu-ray has more advertising. More movies. More supporters. HD-DVD is history.
That's cool that they're releasing this firmware update, but when are we getting DivX support, that is a more pressing matter in my mind.
Forget first comment its all about the last one which is me!!!!!!!
This firmware update would be nice but I don't have an HDTV yet.
get one Yuk-Yuk! now im last...
Now this is good news
Yeah dont really care, i bought ps3 to play games, give me ingame messaging and voice chat. Stop fooling around with all this other crap sony! Do a freckin poll, we bought it for games, now put your energy into that!
This is good news, anything that makes the PS3 a better machine is a plus in my books. And Blu Ray films do look sooooooo good on my 1080P samsung. If you have a PS3 you gotta go out and get a FULL HD TV.........Its superb!
i hope it will include more then just a blu-ray update. here's hoping for a suprise.
please add DTS-hd and DTS-Master for sound.
What kind of new DRM will this update include?
Blu-ray can still look good and limited HD on a regular CRT-tv. i watch the Last Samurai with my 27" and it looked much freakin better than dvd. of course it does look a lot better on an HDTV. might only have a 19in samsung LCD, but it gets 1080i and looks sweet.
yaaaaawwwwnn this is boring. With the last but one firmware update causing problems with gaming lets hope they don't f**k it up for watching movies as well. Still I don't see the point of this update who gives a rats a55 about director commentry anyway.
psn id: gingo... this is great picture on picture playback will be awesome and is really needed to make it a brillient blu ray player
That's a nice added bonus, this way you can't regret getting a PS3 as a dedicated BD player...sounds like it'll be up to date with higher spec and new units outthere!
nice, ive yet to buy a bluray disc, but it's because im waiting to get a hdtv. Once i get a new hdtv ill be buying lots of blurays.
Yea, this is good progress for Sony. Blu-ray is going to be the future formate for all movies and adding this to the ps3 will make that much better and a step ahead of all the other machines.
that is good news
Get it fcking right, PSU. There are nearly 6 million PS3's sold right now, therefore, the PS3 accounts for nearly 6 million of the Blu ray players sold to date. If you are talking of JUST North America, then please, specify.
And please, leeman, get the fck off. Now. Nobody listens to you, we've all seen your other posts, you're just a dumb fck Xbot. You're saying that you can't see the difference just because HD DVD is getting it's as.s handed to it. Got to fcking 360 fanboy or something, cas this is PLAYSTATION UNIVERSE and you're not goona get ANYONE to agree with you, even if your life WAS worth a fck, which it sure as helI isn't.
If you cant see the differnece between an upscaled DVD and a native 1080p Bluray movie than you either have your PS3 hooked up wrong or you need to invest in some glasses.
the level of clairty in comparison between a Bluray and a plain of DVD are staggering. Sure you can always have DVDs play on a nice big tv but there's graininess and artifacts from the upscaling, yeah it's suvivable but when you see a true 1080p picture, it's crystal clear down to the last pixel.
To you guys crapping on this news, seriously, shut the f[]ck up. Just because it's taking a long time to get ingame XMB out the door (and yes you can shut up about that too because they've already been working on it.) that dosent mean they have to hold back every other feature update in the time being. If they can improve the PS3 in other ways while we're waiting for that then heck yes, be my guest, I'll take a free upgrade that increases the value of the system by 100 bucks easily!
leeman99 i dont know what kind of 1080p tv your running or if you think your running full HD and still have the stock AV cables that came wilth your sony but i just watched a blueray on my new 46inch Sony LCD with a HDMI cable and the difference is night and day i dont know if i can ever discrase my eyes by watching a standard DVD again!
@leeman99... your HD problem has three possible solutions:
1) Does your video cable have a yellow end on it? Yeah, that's not HD. Go buy an HDMI cable.
2) You bought the cheapest TV you could find at Wal-Mart. Take it back and get a TV with a name you recognize (Sony perhaps?).
3) You are going blind. Have someone drive you to the nearest optometrist immediately.
If you've tried all three and still don't see a difference, there's just no helping you. Take everything back and hook up your grandma's old black and white General Electric TV. Its probably sitting right next to you in the basement, have a look.
for those who are concern about Divx on the ps3 please just know that while the this feature is already out on the 360, is not fully certified like it is said to be on the ps3 for example, this means that the ps3 will be able to not only PLAY files but STORE them as well. on the other hand the 360 can only STREAM PLAY divx files from a non internal source ( CD, DVD external HDD, media center pc,mac ect. you CAN'T STORE divx on the 360's HDD. i just wanted to point this out to all of you here, just remember microsoft is really strict while sony isnt as much. wheater divx have an impact on blu ray sales or not is unknown at this point but lets just hope not.
Im sorry Enacku but i freakin love the fact that my PS3 is also a Blu Ray player. I use it ALOT
IF YOU OWN A PS3 AND WENT AND BAUGHT A BLU-RAY PLAYER. YOU STUPID. THIS IS THE TWENTY FIRST CENTURY NOT 1900. SO MOST COMPUTING DEVICES ARE NOW INTEGRATED WITH OTHER FEATURES BECAUSE THEY CAN BE. IT REALLY IS WASTE THESE DAYS TO CREATE A COMPUTER ENTERTAINMENT SYSTEM AND NOT BE ABLE TO DO MORE THAN ONE THING. COMPUTERS ARE BUILT TO MULTITASK. SO THANK YOU SONY FOR DEVELOPING THE PS3 TO WHICH HAS BECOME THE CHEAP BLU-RAY PLAYER AND REASONBLY PRICED GAMING SYSTEM, UNLIKE YOUR OPPONENT WHO HASE BECOME A CHEAP DVD THATS RIGHT I SAID IT CHEEEAAAAPPP LAST GEN DVD PLAYER AND REASONABLE GAMING SYSTEM. PHEW.
P.S. BLU-RAY VIDEOS ON A 1080P TV IS THE REALL DEAL. I GOT ME A BRAVIA FOR A SWEET DEAL NO TURNING BACK. 1080P 2MIL MORE RES THAN 1080i LOOK IT UP. MOTION ENHANCER IS ANOTHER NICE FEATURE.
I'm hoping this will add the DivX codec in it as well.
I reckon it will, plus profile 1.1 or 2? Blu-ray will be great.
@leeman99, thats your opinion and your entitled to it. The rest of us seem to disagree. Live with it. Maybe you've been playing on line for so long your eyesight has gone bad. Don't let peoples comments get to ya. Chill out.
What a total waste of time.
Half the Bluray players cant be upgraded so Sony in their infinated dumb-dom has split the user base into incompatible have / havenots.
As for PS3 owners - Who cares anyway? Sony please worry about getting us some proper games please....games. Focus on games.
As for Leeman99 - Not only do I agree with your statement but I'll go one further.
I watch DVD upscaled on an Oppo and in my opinion the difference is so miniscule that for most flicks - IE: 98% of all movies - it aint worth paying more for Bluray. Its not like you get any more realism out of it - you might get to see some actors make up a little better - umm... so what?
Yes my PS3 can play these movies but I need it for games and its not worth stressing my plastic Bluray drive in my expensive PS3 all for the sake of watching movies. ....
Before anyone thinks of slagging me out as if I'm the only one who thinks this way, let me remind you of two facts: (1) the number of BD movie sales is not proportionate to the PS3 user base (so hardly any PS3 users buy BD movies). (2) The total number of DVD owners who have so far decided not to purchased Bluray out number you 500 million to 1. It's hardly a priority for the majority of us...
Wow leeman, you are incredibly stupid...Digital download service? Don't make me laugh, I have an internet faster than 96% of all other internets in the world, and you couldn't fcking PAY me to download a movie. In HD, a movie is fcking 40-50 Gigs, that would take a whole fcking day just to download, then you have to delete it when you're done just because harddrives can't store 1,000,000,000,000 Gb of data. M$ has it all fcked up.
And @The Cleaner - Do you even realize that most people were satisfied with VHS when DVD came along? O wait, you weren't even fcking born then, so you wouldn't know anything about that. But you see, after the general population starting using DVD's, it's now our standard media format. Same thing for Blu ray, everyone who uses it is absolutely blown away. After PS3 slaughters the 360 and we have that many Blu ray players in everyones homes, it will also become the standard for media format here in the world. And btw, DVD Upscaled can actually look WORSE than just normal DVD. Get your sht right. You are now complaining that Blu ray looks too good and you can see makeup and stuff? Come on, now, you're really stretching to defend your piece of crap dvd collection.
Lithgow is a cheap coal town in my part of the world. Mostly uneducated people live there - incapable of debate; they replace grammar with bad language. You know the type...
The type that knows what the fck they're talking about? That type? Get your sht right, then we'll talk.
Another uppercut to the chin of HD DVD!