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iPhone and PS3 to talk to each other in Blu-ray Disc movies

As wonderful as Logitech’s Harmony universal remotes are, there’s still one major piece of media entertainment equipment that it still cannot command: the PlayStation 3. Enter the iPhone, which will soon be able to interface with Sony’s console.

Blu-ray Disc solutions provider Netblender will announce later this week a new SDK for iPhone developers which will expand the features of movie playback on the PS3. One immediate benefit is that the iPhone will be able to act as a wireless remote for the PlayStation 3, perhaps robbing away several sales of Sony’s multimedia remote.

Denny Breitenfeld, the CTO of NetBlender, explained to Gizmodo that the upcoming software will be able to do much more than play, pause and track. “It's a technology that is built into our professional Blu-Ray authoring tool that will allow studios, independent movie companies to enable BD Touch features. These features send data in two directions from the Disc to the iPhone and vice versa. Video, Audio, text, and player commands can be sent,” he said. “So right now it seems everyone likes the "remote control" idea. However the player can control the iPhone as well.”

While movie studios may not program special Blu-ray Disc movie features specifically for PlayStation 3 users, the possibility exists for special iPhone interoperability, such as the display of Internet Movie Database information.

“One idea is to automatically pull up [IMDB] of the movie you are watching right on your Iphone or send the movie information a movie database on your phone. The ideas are only limited to what people want and will use,” added Breitenfeld.

Other functions could be for the iPhone to record and track your movie collection and playback habits. Another feature, first revealed by Sony for the PSP, is the potential for portable copies for playback on the iPhone or iPod Touch.

Sony first discussed this feature at CES 2008, but hasn’t yet set a firm date on the rollout of the technology.

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who cares
By omnicronx on 4/9/2008 9:11:21 AM , Rating: 2
Who cares? Sony made the GIANT blunder of not including an RF receiver on the PS3. After all they are selling the thing as a media center first, game console second.

My point here is you still need more than one remote, since chances are all your other devices are controlled via RF, so why go through the trouble of using a crappy iphone touch screen?

Ill stick with my ps3 remote for 30 dollars thanks.




RE: who cares
By Vertigo101 on 4/9/2008 9:14:03 AM , Rating: 2
You mean IR, not RF.


RE: who cares
By uhgotnegum on 4/9/2008 9:17:27 AM , Rating: 2
eh...RF is better, in my opinion (e.g., no line of sight, etc.), but IR has higher supply w/ remotes.

He(She?) probably did mean RF, though.


RE: who cares
By omnicronx on 4/9/2008 9:31:50 AM , Rating: 2
I did ;)... early in the morning


RE: who cares
By Flunk on 4/9/2008 12:12:41 PM , Rating: 1
Then you fail, as Bluetooth is an RF protocol. The Playstation 3 is RF only, if you had meant IR this would have made more sense.


RE: who cares
By deeznuts on 4/9/2008 12:59:23 PM , Rating: 5
Burn! Anyways, Sony decided to leave IR off their PS3. Fine. Why doesn't anyone put BT on their remote? Remember, the remotes are universal, Sony never said the PS3 will work with all remotes. IT's the remote's company's job to make their remote work with components.

I am no CE expert, is it that hard to implement BT into a remote?


RE: who cares
By Blight AC on 4/10/2008 8:16:20 AM , Rating: 2
Not hard, expensive. Look at BlueTooth Keyboard/Mouse combo's compared to the plain jane wireless ones.


RE: who cares
By GreenyMP on 4/11/2008 11:44:51 AM , Rating: 2
The PS3 remote is only $25. So it really can't be that expensive. I guess compared to a $8 Wal-mart universal it could be considered expensive.

It would be cool to see other devices (especially higher end devices) incorporate bluetooth control. Then you could eventually do more stuff like automatically mute or pause during phone calls, automatically power up or start music when someone enters the room (with their paired phone), and other totally non-essential cool features like that. Plus you could have a hardware closet with no line of sight.

Why don't we have these things?


RE: who cares
By MultiCore on 4/9/2008 9:49:50 AM , Rating: 1
The only bluetooth remote I've seen is the one that Sony sells for the PS3. Everyone with a Harmony or similar macro remote is completely left out in the cold. Sony completely screwed a lot of people who bought the PS3 primarily as a Blu-Ray player plus bonus games console.


RE: who cares
By theapparition on 4/9/2008 10:36:38 AM , Rating: 2
There is no standard protocol for RF like there is IR, e.g. You can't buy any universal remote with "universal" RF. Any RF universal remote uses a propriatary RF to communicate with a base station which then relays IR commands.

So, Omni definately meant IR.


RE: who cares
By Master Kenobi (blog) on 4/9/2008 9:19:27 AM , Rating: 1
I never quite understood why they didnt just put an RF port on the PS3. The rough cost would have been only a dollar or two. I don't get it.


RE: who cares
By MagnumMan on 4/9/2008 9:22:44 AM , Rating: 3
When you are losing money on every box you sell, it's hard to justify adding anything else to it. They certainly could have added it when destroying PS2 compatibility (taking out the PS2 emulator to save money) - one of the worst mistakes I can remember.


RE: who cares
By omnicronx on 4/9/2008 9:34:53 AM , Rating: 2
quote:
When you are losing money on every box you sell, it's hard to justify adding anything else to it.
That makes sense, if you were selling your console primarily as a gaming console, this was not Sony's intention. I don't see how you can tout that you are the all mighty entertainment console, when you do no have a simple piece of equipment that is in almost every consumer electronic in your living room..


RE: who cares
By Carl B on 4/9/2008 1:23:19 PM , Rating: 3
You can tout it because you are mightier than all of the other entertainment options in your capabilities, with or without the IR. That is afterall why folk want to be using their harmony's with this thing to begin with, is it not?

The folk whining about IR and the PS3 are the same lot that were claiming they would never use the PS3 for the purposes (A/V) which they are now clamoring to do. To say nothing that the 'gaming console second' argument is a total strawman to begin with. (Guess what, more PS3 games have been sold than Blu-rays)

Get over it, it doesn't have IR. Go buy a Panasonic and stop railing.


RE: who cares
By Reclaimer77 on 4/10/2008 7:50:41 PM , Rating: 2
quote:
When you are losing money on every box you sell, it's hard to justify adding anything else to it. They certainly could have added it when destroying PS2 compatibility (taking out the PS2 emulator to save money) - one of the worst mistakes I can remember.


Uhh its costs about 20 times more for them to use Blue Tooth instead of an IR setup. So I'm not sure how much costs savings is going on.

I'm sure the yuppies who already own an I-phone and a PS3 are jazzed, but yeah I agree with the OP. Who cares. Besides, the I-phone is a POS.


RE: who cares
By Vertigo101 on 4/9/2008 9:46:55 AM , Rating: 2
The PS3 has at least 2 different RF communication radios, and no IR.


RE: who cares
By deeznuts on 4/9/2008 1:00:53 PM , Rating: 1
You mean IR.


RE: who cares
By Master Kenobi (blog) on 4/10/2008 7:55:44 AM , Rating: 2
Right. IR. Need more coffee. :(


RE: who cares
By TimTheEnchanter25 on 4/9/2008 10:18:33 AM , Rating: 4
You could also argue that Logitech is making a huge mistake by not adding bluetooth to one of their remotes. I love the Harmony remote that I have now, but I buy buy a new one tomorrow if they added bluetooth. It's not like Logitech doesn't know how to use Bluetooth.

You can also get one of these things: http://ir2bt.com/

You tell your remote that it is controlling a PS2. The remote sends an IR command to the device and it sends the correct PS3 bluetooth command to the PS3.

But, for $55 I can live with using the PS3 controller till logitech gets off their ass.


RE: who cares
By theapparition on 4/9/2008 10:37:56 AM , Rating: 2
That's a nifty little device. Was wondering how long it would take before someone came up with a solution. One of the reasons I never bought a PS3 to begin with.


RE: who cares
By AlphaVirus on 4/9/2008 10:42:46 AM , Rating: 3
quote:
One of the reasons I never bought a PS3 to begin with.

Bec