Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Ask PS3 Fanboy: Volume 18

Ask PS3 Fanboy: Volume 18

And, we're back! Missed us? We missed you -- and all your questions, too. You know what that means. Yep, we're going straight into them. Send us some questions!

Keep checking back every weekend -- we'll be sure to answer all intelligent, fun, and relevant questions that you may have. If you haven't asked us anything yet ... why haven't you? Send an e-mail to majed @ ps3fanboy.com with the subject "Ask PS3 Fanboy." We'd like to stress, if your e-mail doesn't include that subject heading, your question will not be answered. If you've got PSP-related questions, be sure to ask them on Ask PSP Fanboy.

Ask PS3 Fanboy: Volume 18



Lalithra F. asks: I just got a PS3, and brought it back to school with me. I don't have a TV here, but I do have a second display with DVI and (I think) VGA ports. I wanted to get an adapter to use this display to play the PS3. Do you have any suggestions? I found some good looking ones that go from HDMI to DVI, but then I don't know what to do about the sound. I have speakers, but I guess I'd need another... adapter?
PS3F answers: First, make sure that your monitor is equipped with HDCP. Without this, certain games like Prince of Persia with not work. Once done, you can move on to your audio problem. All right, for sound you can do two things: go with your original in-the-box AV cables (red and white for audio only) or go with "Digital Out (optical)," which is a TOSLink cable. Anyway, you should have ports for any one of these things somewhere on your monitor. Once you've got everything connected you need to go into your PS3 to Settings->Sound Settings->Audio Output Settings and then make the changes so your PS3 will recognize that it should stream audio through the other cable. You should be all set after that.

Lalithra F. asks: Someone made a second user account for no reason (when logging in to the PS3), and I want to get rid of it. How do I do that?
PS3F answers: Simply log-in as the account you wish to remove. Then, while the icon is still on that user, tap the triangle button. Drop down to the "delete" tab, and proceed to purge your system of unwanted user accounts.

Ask PS3 Fanboy: Volume 18



David S. asks: Has anyone confirmed or denied the use of vehicles in Killzone 2?
PS3F answers: Taken from Andrew's extremely informative Killzone 2 FAQ on Joystiq: "What kinds of vehicles will you be able to control? Not many. You can ride a tank in the first level, if you so desire. However, the following five levels do not feature any vehicle combat whatsoever. We hear there's some kind of exoskeleton in the latter part of the game, though ..." Make sure you read up on the whole thing for even more Killzone goodness.

Wendy F. asks: We bought a PS3 system on EBay about 3 weeks ago and it worked great. Now all of a sudden it won't read any discs. The discs we are trying worked previously and now not even the disc icon will come up on the screen. We have tried blowing out the debris (if any inside it) and to no avail. We would appreciate any suggestions or ideas on what else to do. The only service I can find is mailing off somewhere.
PS3F answers: Have you tried every disc possible? Including CDs, DVDs and Blu-ray games and movies? Also is everything else working? Say like, are downloaded PSN games, videos, etc working fine? If so, then the problem seems to be localized to the optical lens. You'll definitely want Sony to check that out for you. So if mailing is your only option, you've got no choice but to do it if you want to find out what is truly wrong with your system. Sorry to say, but we can't help you further with this. There are no shortcut answers when it comes to defectiveness in hardware.

Craig L. asks: If PS3 games are truly region free, why are they still labeled PAL and NTSC? Does this have any bearing on which PS3 you put the game into or what TV it is displayed on?
PS3F answers: Craig, therein lays the problem. PS3 games are not "labeled" as such both in the figurative and literal sense. Check those boxes, you won't find any mention of PAL, NTSC, and (heaven forbid) SECAM. These colorization systems don't mean anything in HD standards, and thankfully Blu-ray games have not been region-locked. If you hear people refer to it, it really is only a matter of tradition (or an old habit) of naming a particular region -- because it's familiar -- rather than there being this current divide.