Did anyone else try this out?

Apparently if you press start while switching on the console it enables HD-DVD playback?

"Sony has, as expected, officially released a tweaked version of its troubled PlayStation 3 firmware version 2.40."

Troubled.. What to justify that James? How can you use the term "troubled", when you actually don't know how many units were affected. Most straw polls, show it to be less than 1 in 500... (and even then, the Xbot noise is likely to be a factor).

If you use the term "troubled" for this, I think it's only fair that ever article you write that refers to Xbox360 use the term also, and with a 30-40% failure rate, that truely is "troubled"...

Anyone else remember a time when journelism used to be unbiased? Nowadays it's full of idiots creating sensationlising articles in a lame attempt to get web hits, and this advertising revenue..

We'll all be rushing to test that for them.

I suppose they expect n00bs who don't read t'internet to do the beta this time.

Paris, 'coz even she'll wait a week and see what happens.

Yes, my ps3 was fine with 2.40. Do I need to do another update to play cod4?

Why would I want HD DVD playback? Thats a dead format...

"... complaints from numerous gamers"

Numerous? Do you know something we don't?

It's so much easier to write bitchy comments than writing a balanced, more factually acurate piece.

"Sony HD ate my Bluray" anyone?

Hehehe, funny how you were all for The Reg. when it was posting nothing but pro-Sony, anti-MS articles but now they've added a bit of balance you're suddenly crying.

Not that I disagree, The Reg. is a bit of a joke nowadays, but don't feel that they're focussing just on your poor dear Sony's latest failing, the ratio of 360 to PS3 trolling by The Reg is definitely still more favourable for the PS3.

Realising they can't compete with other sites on good journalism due to their comically bad staff like Andrew Orlowski this is how the reg gets their hits now - by relying on flamebait.

If it wasn't troubled, why did they yank it and release a (hopefully) fixed version? I'm really curious to know.

This has nothing to do with the 360 - no one's saying that doesn't have it's own problems.

http://search.reghardware.co.uk/?q=red+ring+of+death&x=0&y=0

Anyone else remember a time when comments used to be unbiased? Nowadays it's full of fanboys creating sensationalist posts in a lame attempt to stir up a flame war.

i had np with 2.4 and don't know anyone who had any probs..

It didn't effect me, nor any of the people I know, nor did I see anyone on any of the PS3 forums that I frequent complain about it, either!

Sounds like the reporting is the bigger problem.

Oh well, downloaded and installed the new patch last night...

Nobody including myself are saying there wasn't an issue with it, but it's clear the number of people actually suffering from this is miniscule.

The problem is, with the Xbox hardware being so bad, Xbox owners have their guns loaded and ready to fire at Sony for the slightest thing.

In the real world, this would be a non-issue, infact I don't recall El-Reg reporting that Lite-On releaded flakey firmware that toasted DVD-Recorders about a year back, but because this is Sony and PS3, it's fair game it seems.

Even more laughable, is this "troubled" firmware did not actually brick the console to a unusable state, unlike the faulty 360 dashboard update ( http://www.xbox360fanboy.com/2006/11/01/update-brick-your-360-speak-up/ ) The PS3 problem is workaroundable. You can borrow a spare 2.5in SATA drive, pop it in, boot up, update firmware to 2.41 and then pop the original drive back in. A hassle yes, but all your gamesaves will be intact.

Waaaaaah you don't love the PS3 but you should.

I am troubled.

Guess what? There never was such a time, you're mistaken.

For any values of X or Y, save for trivial solutions such as X="the

year" and Y=1994.

The nice thing about 2.41 is that you can kick off the update

and walk away. Previous updates required interaction between

download and installation, which was a major PITA.

"The PS3 problem is workaroundable. You can borrow a spare 2.5in SATA drive, pop it in, boot up, update firmware to 2.41 and then pop the original drive back in. A hassle yes, but all your gamesaves will be intact."

Hardly a workaround, you're assuming that average joe who thought they'd bought a simple console would know how to do this and have the equipment to do it.

It is unacceptable and it is a bigger issue than you'd like to admit. You just can't because you're blinded by your Sony love.

Want to show us how you know the scale of the problem?

NeoGaf polls which are usually free of fanbois show 600:1 ratio of people not having any problems at all. Assuming that only a small percentage of people got the update before it was pulled, I would be suprised if the number of affected people is any more than a few thousand, at most.

Sony have already said you can send your PS3 back for free repair, I simply demonstated a method of saving you the hassle of that. In the unlilely event you had the problem, it's your choice what method you use..

At least Sony admit their problems, the firmware was pulled as soon as there was a hint of problems (aside from the usual Xbot noise), how long did Microsoft lie and try to bury the 360's problems? They are sill burying the fact that even the latest Xbox's are still faulty... If I had to trust either Sony or Microsoft, it would be Sony by a mile.

Microsoft have never attempted to "bury" any of the 360's problems. You just can't get over anything can you?

"Microsoft have never attempted to "bury" any of the 360's problems.

that's pretty laughable. They want 18months pretending there were no problems with the 360...

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/microsoft-comes-under-fire-from-bbcs-watchdog-show

"Microsoft has now told the BBC that "most people with an Xbox 360 have an outstanding experience, and there is no systemic issue". They say each incident is unique and is looked at on a case by case basis"