Great news, although not officially confirmed, Eurogamer is reporting that firmware v2.50 will bring Flash 9 support to the PS3.
If true, it has yet to be seen just how complete the implementation will be, but considering how closed Macromedia/Adobe have kept Flash since version 7 (the current implementation in the PS3 browser was written by Sony themselves) this suggests that Adobe have been involved this time, which should (fingers-crossed) mean a full implementation.
What does this mean for PS3 iPlayer? Well bbc.co.uk/iplayer still won’t work unless the PS3’s JavaScript implementation has been fixed, but this should mean we can return to using the BBC’s full-featured embedded Flash media player, and along with it, support for the codecs used in the lower bit-rate streams. The result should mean much better quality video (on par with the PC), fewer problems on slower connections and being able to buffer the video content whilst paused (a limitation of Flash 7).
As soon as the firmware hits, I’ll get straight to work making any required changes.
Update: And it’s (semi-)official – ThreeSpeech states that from v2.50, “Flash 9 content becomes supported on the Internet Browser.”
According to the SCEA website in the news and press section, there is no mention about flash 9. If its true why dont SCEA tell the same story as SCEE?
This improves the browser 100%. LONG overdue! Love to know the Adobe connection as it all happened very quietly. Let’s hope Java (Ajax?) has also been improved.
All confirmed – Flash 9 included, and the firmware is availabel to download now..
looking forward to the improved effect on ps3iplayer…
iplayer gives ‘you need to enable JavaScript’ error on the new firmware, and bizarrely enough if I visit http://www.ps3iplayer.com I just get your blog. Then again, it does say ‘?problem=location’ in the URL so it could be that it’s not recognising I’m in the UK.
Hi Alex,
Just looked up your IP. It looks like it’s in a newly allocated block so is missing from the GeoIP service I’m using. I’ve added the block to those I recognise as being from the UK, so hopefully http://www.ps3iplayer.com should work for you now.
Hi Chris
I’m getting the same as Alex with the ‘?problem=location’ issue – looks like I’ve got an unlucky IP address too.
Any chance of checking that out?
Hi Deej,
Give that a go now…
Hi Chris
Thanks for the quick reply.
I can get to the PS3iPlayer site now thanks, but all dozen or so programmes I’ve tried say ‘Sorry not available on PS3′. Hmmmm.
Try deleting the browser cache – you might have an old copy of the Flash media player cached.
Hi Chris, thanks for adding my IP. Having the same problem as Deej tho, and have tried clearing the cache to no avail
Does the normal iPlayer site work for you on a PC? Also, can you send a link of one of the programmes that isn’t working (sometimes really recent programmes don’t have a compatible encode available yet)?
Edit: Scratch that. Fingers crossed, I think I’ve tracked down and fixed what’s happening.
Chris,
Just tried on the new firmware works great. Is their plans to run the iPlayer app in PS3? Could this be done.
Excellent work my friend!
Mark
Hi Chris
Thanks for trying but like Alex still no joy. Normal iPlayer site is working fine on my PC. I’ve tried Click from the 11th Oct, Little Britain USA Ep.2, Silent Witness s12:Terror p1 and Postman Pat – A Wobbly Piano (!)(all normal quality) amongst others. Just get the same ‘not available on PS3 message’. UK 40Gb PS3 btw but with 160Gb drive installed.
Very odd considering plenty of others seem to have no problems at all.
Strange – as far as I can see everyone experiencing problems has the same ISP (which happens to be my ISP too.)
I will keep digging around to see what could possibly be blocking it. Sorry guys!
Just to let you know Chris, it’s working now. Great stuff, thanks.
Wonderful work, thank you so much. Quick question – I’ve noticed that BBC3/4 and News now have a live stream (maybe this has been around for a while – not sure). This didn’t seem to work on my PS3 when I checked this evening – any thoughts?
Cheers again.
Andrew.
Hi Andrew
Thanks, I wasn’t aware there were any live streams on iPlayer. I’ll take a look at trying to get them to work.
Excellent work on the player, however recently I cannot play a show as a parental lock feature prevents me doing anything=all I can do is press cancel as the /I am over 16/ button is unresponsve-am I being a spaz or is it a bug?
Cheers
Paul
Hi Paul,
I’ve not come across that one for a while, but it used to be a bug in the old version, so it may have been re-introduced when I rewrote the site a couple of weeks back. I’ll take a look to see what’s happening.
Thanks for looking, if its any help Im running firmware 2.5 on a Jap PS3 *80gb.
Cheers
Paul
A brilliant job with the player, thanks for all the hard work you’ve put in. I’m having the same problem as paul, I can’t play anything as I get stuck on the parental lock. I’ve got a 60g UK PS3 running 2.50. Also any chance of an optional URL to run the site in its original mode as although I like the new layout the original one lets you see more information at a glance and was consequently better for random browsing.
Thanks for this brilliant service… I have been using this now for several weeks – but in the last few days it has stopped playing. I can get onto the site but when I choose a programme – the area of the screen that normally plays the video – remains black. It doesn’t even show the ’sixaxis’ picture. Any Thoughts? – thanks in advance
Hi Mark,
Try now – that should be fixed (again!)
Cheers,
Chris
Sorted! – Many Thanks
Hi
The site sounds great unfortunately I have the same issue that Mark had back in october.
“I can get onto the site but when I choose a programme – the area of the screen that normally plays the video – remains black. It doesn’t even show the ’sixaxis’ picture.”
Cheers
Dan
Hi Dan,
Yeah – sorry about that, there’s been quite a few changes again on the official iPlayer and I haven’t found the time needed to fix PS3iPlayer – I’ll try this weekend.
Cheers,
Chris