"No plans" to fix PSP-3000 scan lines

By Robert Purchese Published 22 October, 2008

Result of a better screen, says Sony.

Sony has "no plans" to address the horizontal scan lines appearing on PSP-3000 screens.

"On some occasions, scan lines may appear on scenes where brightness changes drastically, due to the hardware features of the new LCD device on PSP-3000," says Sony US in a statement on Joystiq.

"Installed with this new LCD device, PSP-3000 offers more natural and vibrant colours on its screen, but the scan lines have come out to be more visible as a result of improving response time to alleviate the afterimages on PSP-3000.

"Since this is due to hardware specification, there are no plans for a system software update concerning this issue," adds the statement.

The PSP-3000, released here last Friday, also features a built-in microphone, a better power cable (yes this is important), and slightly firmer and more pronounced buttons.

We know all this because we picked the new hardware apart for our curious readers recently. The summary: quite good actually, but not dramatic enough to immediately ditch your PSP Slim & Lite for.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (41) Latest comment 3 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Cadence #1 3 years ago

    Fascinating

  • Beano #2 3 years ago

    /hugs PSP-2000

  • Tiel #3 3 years ago

    Probably wouldn't have upgraded from my original psp anyway, but definitely won't now. The main reason to upgrade would have been the omproved screen, and things like this just bug me. The ghosting on the original still irks.

    Sony make great TV's so you'd think a tiny little portable screen wouldn't be beyond them.

  • penhalion #4 3 years ago

    I love the irony here. They improved the screen so now the actual hardware issue shows up better. Not what they meant to do me thinks!

  • keyboardmonkey #5 3 years ago

    The main reason to upgrade would have been the improved screen

    Yes to get rid of the dead pixels on the original which was also a hardware problem which sony was not willing to rectify.

    Can Sony not bring out a PSP Fat & Heavy that works properly, better battery life etc... then concentrate on the shrinking it down, slim and lite business.

  • canIdoyabombsforya #6 3 years ago

    "Sony make great TV's so you'd think a tiny little portable screen wouldn't be beyond them"

    LOL Sony havn't made 'great' TVs since the mid to late 1980s. The Trinitrons of the 90s were either flawed or so so and they survived on name alone. The panels in todays Sony flat screens are shared with Samsung etc.

    Edit: Come to think of it, since Sony got found out in the TV market, didn't they get Sharp to make the first PSP screens?
    Edited by 1 at 22/10/08 @ 11:10

  • SeesThroughAll #7 3 years ago

    Yeah, they buy the PSP screens from someone else.

    Every revision just makes the PSP cheaper for them assemble, without any gain in hardware quality for the consumer. Meh.

  • Arwin #8 3 years ago

    It's clear that the screens are better, if these scanlines were always there and only now show up. ;)

    Interesting also that the newer iPhone 3Gs have the exact same 'problem'.

  • septimus #9 3 years ago

    Has anyone commenting that it sucks actually used a 3000 yet?

    I didn't notice the scan lines playing SF Alpha 3 or Crisis Core when I had a go with one. Maybe I didn't have it at full brightness, it really didn't need to be.

    Not sure if I'm getting one as it would just be mainly for linking to the PS3.... it's an expensive remote. Still waiting for my Open Pandora delivery :(

  • Apostle #10 3 years ago

    Improved it soo much it's made it worse! Brilliant.

  • pinhead #11 3 years ago

    "LOL Sony havn't made 'great' TVs since the mid to late 1980s."

    Correct in that LCD and Plasma panels are acutally manufactured by very few people due to the economics of it all, then sourced to a variety of electronics players to build their own tv's. It is how they apply their own processing, coatings etc that make the differences in TVs today.

    Sony LCD TVs are in a bit of a resurgence at the moment according to the home entertainment review mags (check out the recent what hifi 2008 awards), so your statement is a little bit misleading.

    Personally I prefer my Plasma.

  • penhalion #12 3 years ago

    @Arwin

    Yep even the new IPhones have scanline issues. Just goes to show how cheap the hardware we are charged 100s of pounds for actually is. So when a manufacturer genuinely makes a breakthrough, it shows all the other cheap components up for what they really are.
    Edited by 1 at 22/10/08 @ 11:26

  • BBIAJ #13 3 years ago

    Does anyone know why the American PSP-3000 (specifically the Ratchet & Clank Silver bundle), appears to still come with the old 2-piece AC adapter?

  • riz23 #14 3 years ago

    As previous commentators have said, they have made the screen so good, you can see how bad things are. That's priceless!

  • thejeek #15 3 years ago

    In the early 80s I had use of my dad's Sinclair ZX81 and a 9" black and white Sony TV. This combination cost considerably more than the PSP-3000. It had 1k of memory and a 1MHz CPU that spent 80% of it's time just displaying an image on the screen in lo res black and white. The PSP has, what? 65 thousand times as much memory and over 1 million times the CPU grunt, much higher res graphics in full color and it fits in your pocket. Exactly what are people bitching about here?
    Edited by 1 at 22/10/08 @ 11:49

  • SeesThroughAll #16 3 years ago

    You forgot to mention that the early 80's happened over 20 years ago... ;)

  • riz23 #17 3 years ago

    and i don't think people are 'bitching' more like commenting on the absurdity of corporate spin.

  • thejeek #18 3 years ago

    "You forgot to mention that the early 80's happened over 20 years ago... ;) "

    Just wanted to put some perspective on it - consumer electronics and gaming is just full of hugely powerful stuff that we all take for granted - what I meant was: is the PSP-3000 screen really that bad considered in context?

  • thejeek #19 3 years ago

    "and i don't think people are 'bitching' more like commenting on the absurdity of corporate spin."

    True - I didn't intend a poke at any previous posters. I meant the bitching that provoked Sony's response.

    The PSP might not be everyone's cup of tea but I think it's a bit odd to attack the engineering.

  • dr_faulk #20 3 years ago

    "It's not a bug, it's a feature!!!"

  • RESIDENT_nEVILe #21 3 years ago

    It's sooo good, it's baaaad!

  • miiiguel #22 3 years ago

    "Yes to get rid of the dead pixels on the original which was also a hardware problem which sony was not willing to rectify."
    True. Got a day one, realy jumping up and down like a 15 year old, then... bam! dead pixels ahoy!
    Sony said to me, they couldn't do any thing. Shit happens...

    edit: ... alot, as it hapen, twice, and thrice.
    Edited by 1 at 22/10/08 @ 12:29

  • Doctor_What #23 3 years ago

    "LOL Sony havn't made 'great' TVs since the mid to late 1980s."

    After spending a couple of months looking for a TV in my price range, comparing as many reviews as possible, I found that the recent 40" Sony Bravia got the highest scores consistently. They had a dip in scores with the models a couple of years ago, but at the moment they make some of the most highly rated. To get anything better you need to spend £600+ more according to the reviews. So... Well done on the auto-Sony-bashing, but you're not backed up by the facts.

  • Darren #24 3 years ago

    With all these hardware revisions I'm glad I decided to wait until the PSP drops below £100 before I buy one. I mean I have a PS3 and I would eventually like a PSP but I'm happy to wait for the price to drop as the hardware is likely to be much improved over the original one by the time I do. And the game's will be cheaper too.

  • Darren #25 3 years ago

    @Doctor_What - I sold my buggy Samsung HDTV which required a firmware fix to address the 60Hz "tearing" issue from two years ago and bought a Sony HDTV. I've never been happier, it is simply the best HDTV I've come across and I've seen a few as family and friends own different ones and I've been asked to appraise them all. IMO Sony *do* make the best TVs but they do tend to be more expensive than the competition.

  • DrDamn #26 3 years ago

    @canIdoyabombsforya There is more to a TV picture than the panel. As someone else has pointed out already Sony LCD TV have consistently scored very highly in reviews and its a strong area of their business.

  • peterfll #27 3 years ago

    Actually Sony's TVs have been highly acclaimed, both from the specialist press and owners, since the advent of the Bravia range. Whilst the actual LCD screens are manufactured on a shared production line, the actual technology employed to power the engine is obviously unique to each manufacturer, hence you can't say the screens that come off the end of the line end up being identical in performance. That's a bit like saying any PC's that share the same processor are identical.

    Despite all of that, didn't Sharp actually manufacture the original PSP screens? It was ironic.

  • DanC89 #28 3 years ago

    I doubt I'll ever willingly change my Japanese PSP-1000 :) 3 and a half years now.

  • JonFE #29 3 years ago

    It's not a bug - it's a feature ;-)

  • MilkYMoO #30 3 years ago

    Hugs his Lynx.

  • sfried #31 3 years ago

    Leave to Sony to turn a defect into a feature.

  • dsf #32 3 years ago

    Can't say as I've noticed the problem on my 3000. Maybe it doesn't happen in Everybody's Golf...

  • grandmaster Verified Director, Digital Foundry #33 3 years ago

    The picture on UK:R looks pretty damning: [link url=http://www.ukresistance.co.uk/pics5/psp3000-shit-scre en.jpg
    ]http://ww w.ukresistance.co.uk/pics5/psp3...[/link]

    Looks as though the screen is interlaced!

  • canIdoyabombsforya #34 3 years ago

    "After spending a couple of months looking for a TV in my price range, comparing as many reviews as possible, I found that the recent 40" Sony Bravia got the highest scores consistently. They had a dip in scores with the models a couple of years ago, but at the moment they make some of the most highly rated. To get anything better you need to spend £600+ more according to the reviews. So... Well done on the auto-Sony-bashing, but you're not backed up by the facts. "

    So they've done well with a few models in 2008. But until this year, Samsung,Sharp, Philips and mainly Panasonic have dominated the reviews of LCDs and Plasmas. Before using statements like 'Sony make great TVs' I'd rather wait til next seasons offerings from Panasonic and Sharp. Sony made the very best Tvs by far in the 70s and 80s, like Volkswagen they are still living off the past (and charging for it) .
    To be fair to Sony, as per VW, other manufactures caught them up, and throughout the late 90s early 2000's overtook them.

    Pansonic, JVC, Sharp make great TVs, Sony seem to be getting there finally, albeit not by making there own screens.

  • GamesConnoisseur #35 3 years ago

    I noticed the scanlines pretty easy when watching playtv remotely on PSP in my bed, it was more obvious during fast moving scenes with bright colours! I did thought it was perhaps a faulty PSP, not too sure if I should be so relieved that it is actually a feature of PSP-3000!

    I bought this as I had few dead pixels on my old fat PSP, the irritants of the remote PlayTV disconnecting after 5 mins x5 times plus scanlines was enough for me to pack it away in the bedside drawer and pulled out fat PSP to finish watching the programme.

    Though i expect the disconnection problem to be corrected after I refine my network, but wondered as never had the need for fat PSP?

  • Tyedyed #36 3 years ago

    Ukresistance is a joke website you know.

  • bad09 #37 3 years ago

    All I know is I replaced my bricked PSP - doh! Upgraded my girlfriends fat PSP and made sure we both had 2000 models. a useless silly mic, less battery and these scan lines (I can't say I've seen them myself as I have not used a 3000) - plus no CF yet (sorry Sony PSN is poo and not going back to UMD!!) meant an early birthday present for me and early sale of my girlfriends fat PSP!

  • grandmaster Verified Director, Digital Foundry #38 3 years ago

    The UK:R pic is extracted from a thread on the Official PlayStation US forum. This one: http://bo ardsus.playstation.com/playstat...

  • Tyedyed #39 3 years ago

    Yeh ive noticed the same pic on other websites now. Considering plenty of websites have had there hands on, and reviewed, the psp 3000 I doubt its really as bad as that picture suggests. At least I bloody hope not, I was looking to upgrade from my PSP fat and its ghosting screen.

  • bonker #40 3 years ago

    "Installed with this new LCD device, PSP-3000 offers more natural and vibrant colours on its screen, but the scan lines have come out to be more visible as a result of improving response time to alleviate the afterimages on PSP-3000."

    For 'new', read cheaper ...

  • Roddy100 #41 3 years ago

    I'm still more than happy with my fat one.

    ...oh! And my original 2005 launch model PSP!