Sony had sent out documents to Gamestop, which were later winding up in the hands of the staff at Kotaku that indicated that Sony was disabling HD content from component cables. The memo had said “The ‘K’ systems will come with an AV cable, however, if you want to play a game or watch a movie in high definition you must use an HDMI cable”, however, the report is not that accurate.
Ars Technica contacted Sony for clarification for this, and they were told straight from the source “The new CECH-3000 series PS3 requires HDMI only for BD movie output in HD, in compliance with AACS standards. PS3 continues to support component output for HD gaming and streaming content.”
In short, the HDMI cables will be needed for high-definition video, not gaming. Confusion about technology is quite common when it comes to setting things up, and misinformation can spread like wildfire before the truth can actually get out.
AACS, Advanced Access Content System is a DRM standard that states that HD video resolutions are limited to HDMI and DVI cables that can support HDCP. That’s it in a nutshell if you don’t know what it is. It’s to stop piracy and all that but like most DRM, harms the end-user while pirates laugh and push it aside. How it works is rather controversial and angers a good handful of people.
The error was likely caused by someone getting his facts wrong, misreading, or simply saying “I’m not sure but I better err on the side of caution”, either way, you only have to worry about fancy cables if you plan to use the PS3 as a Blu-ray player. In order to play Blu-ray, Sony is required to do this, so don’t hate on them for it.
Just another example of companies telling us what we can and cannot do with things that we have paid for, something you all already know my stance on.
