BLACKHORNS BH-MUL03501 HDMI TO HDMI CABLE
HDMI To HDMI Digital Cable for PS3/XBOX 360 Elite & all Consumer Electronics or PC products with HDMI port.
PS3 relevant product information
1)Play games from any country
It's true. Unlike PSone or PS2 you can now buy games from anywhere in the world and play them on your UK PS3 - there's no region encoding. We recommend going for American games though because they'll be in English... Note: This only applies to PS3 games - foreign PSone and PS2 games still won't work on your UK PS3.
2) Play movies from any country
In the mag recently, we said Blu-ray discs are region-free. And some are - but region-locking turns out to be at a publisher's discretion. We've had some discs work fine, but others - like, for instance, Rocky Balboa - just don't. Stick with UK discs, that's our advice. For more, see here
3) Wake your PS3 up by remote control
Here's a cool trick. Shut down your PS3 but keep the power switch on the back set to 'on', and your PS3 will sap next to no power but be sat ready and waiting for you - the red light on the front shows that it's still there. Now turn on a pad (by pressing the PS button) and your PS3 will spark up ready to link with it.
4) The secret video reset
Taken your PS3 round your mate's house? Or simply moved from living room to bedroom? Unable to see your PS3's picture because you can't change your TV-settings? Simple fix: Shut down your PS3 then restart by pressing and holding the power button. This will reset your PS3 to its most basic 480p graphics mode so you'll be able to see enough to choose RGB SCART, component, HDMI or whatever from here.
5) Install another operating system
Yes, turn your PS3 into a fully featured Linux-based computer. Full instructions later this week...
6) See how much charge is on your pad
Never be caught short again. Press and hold the PS button on any joypad. The an on-screen indicator will appear, showing your pad's charge as a small battery. A full battery pic means a fully-charged pad.
7) Broadcast to your PSP
On your PSP go to Settings, then Network Settings. Infrastructure Mode, New Connection, Enter Manual. Go to SSID can call this new connection something obvious - like 'PS3'. Go to the WLAN Security Setting and edit the SPA-PSK (AES) setting. Enter the WPA key - this is an eight letter password to identify your PS3. On the PS3, go to Settings, Network Settings, Remote Play Connection Settings. Enter the same SSID name (ie, 'PS3') and enter the same WPA key (i.e. 'password'). Almost done. Go to Network on your PS3, choose Remote Play. It'll start looking for your PSP. Pick up your PSP and go to Network and select Remote Play on your PSP. Your PS3's menus will now appear on your PS3's screen. Drive around with the PSP D-pad.
8) Get game saves off the internet
Stuck on a game? Chances are someone out there has already beaten that boss for you and saved their game afterwards. Google 'PS3 game saves'. There are hundreds of finished and half finished game saves all over the internet. Download the save you want - it'll come in a 'PS3' folder that you can lift onto a USB stick and put into your PS3. Go to the Game menu, choose your stick and the game save you downloaded should be right there. Press Triangle to copy it to your hard drive.
9) Make free video phone calls
You will need a USB headset (like the one you use for PS2 SOCOM) and an EyeToy camera. Plug in both via USB then go to your Friends menu. Choose a friend (you do have one, right) and press Triangle. Choose Start New Chat and type a message. Something like 'Videochat?' should do the trick. Now, providing they're in front of their powered-up PS3 (perhaps you could text them to tell them to be in position?) then they'll see your message and be given the option to accept your videochat. Now, provided they too have a camera and headset, two windows will open showing yourself (so you can make sure you're looking your best) and your mate. Best of all you can hit Triangle again and invite more people to join your chat - up to a maximum of six. And the cost? Not a bean above your usual broadband connection charges.
10) Browse multiple Internet windows
Open the browser (go to Network) and surf to a page you want. Now open up the menu with a press of Triangle and choose Open In New Window. Enter another URL and then do the same again. Keep going until you've got six windows open. Now press L3 (done by clicking down the left stick. You're now in multi-page mode. Move the left stick to flick through the web pages as though they were bits of paper, then click L3 again to zoom in.
11) Download music and pics (and save them on your hard drive)
Simple, this. Just click on the file you want and - provided that it's in a format recognised by PS3 it'll be downloaded and stored in the right place on your PS3. MP3 files go into your Music folder and images go into Photos. Watch out for any file compressed as a zip file though. Your PS3 can't unzip and won't know what to do with them - it's uncompressed files only here.
12) Upgrade your hard drive
We took the drive out of our PS3 and found it to be a Seagate Momentus 5400rpm 60Gb 2.5inch SATA drive. We swapped ours out effortlessly for a Seagate Momentus 120Gb 2.5inch SATA drive and it worked perfectly. Remove the cover flap on the bottom of your PS3 with a fingernail. Undo the blue screw and slide the drive over to the right and out of your PS3. Undo the four screws on the 'caddy' and remove the old drive. Put your new drive in the caddy (it should be exactly the same size, of course) and re-do the four screws. Slot it back in and slide to the left to make the connections. Re-do the blue screw, pop the cover back on and restart your PS3. Say 'yes' the message on screen and voila - new super-size hard-drive. (Go to Settings, System Settings, System Information to check.
13) Play any video format on PS3
Download PSPvideo9 to your PC. It's available for free from www.pspvideo9.com. Use the program to convert your AVIs, MOVs, DivX and WMA files to MP4 format. You can even convert VOB files (which you'll find in the Video TS folder on your DVDs). Now make a folder on a USB stick called 'PS3' and inside that one make a folder called 'VIDEO'. Drag your new MP4 files to this folder and put the stick in your PS3. Head to the Movie folder on your PS3 and select the stick. You'll see your (formerly banned) files there ready for playback.
14) Store all your stuff
Want to back up your data? Perhaps in readiness for a spot of Linux (see later). Head to Settings, Backup Utility. Your PS3 will now try and find devices connected to your PS3, to use as a back up location. Any cards inserted in slots (USB sticks, Compact Flash, MS Pro Duo or SD card) will be found. Likewise any external hard drives plugged into USB.
Forget about backing up movies and game downloads - they're enormous and you can always download them again - unless you've got an external USB hard drive plugged in there.
15) Share your downloads
You can download anything you've bought from the store to five PlayStation 3's. This is useful if you've got more than one PS3 (of course) and also if you've wiped your hard-drive and don't fancy paying for the same download twice... However, you can also choose to share your download with your mates. The PlayStation Store logs how many times each download has been downloaded by each user. On your mate's PS3 Create New User and log onto the store with your ID. You'll now be able to go to your download and see that you've already downloaded whatever it was that you paid for. You can now download it again, using another of your downloads and giving it to your mate for free. Or a small optional charge...
16) Have a light show
Select a music track from your Music menu then press Triangle to bring up the control panel. Choose the second icon in on the top row and press Cross (it looks like a planet - two interlocking loops). This will full-frame the 'music visualizer'. Sit nice and close to the screen and chill out to the lava-lamp grooves...
17) Customise your slide shows
During a photo slide-show move the right stick on the Sixaxis to zoom in on images and to alter the speed of the playback.
18) Hack any password
Using a PS3 that has been locked out of internet access or movie playback? Go to System, System Settings and choose Restore Default Settings. This will reset all settings, including setting the password back to '0000' (four zeroes).
19) Manage your online cash
Go to Friends and choose Account Management to see all your downloads so far and be given the option to add more funds to your online wallet - useful if you're using your parents credit card rather than having a wallet-less account of your own registered...
20) Force PS3 to show your stuff
Put your photos in a folder called 'PICTURE' or your videos in a folder called 'VIDEO' or simply *force* your PS3 to look at your files on your stick regardless of what you called them or where you put them. Insert your stick and go to the menu option you want (Photos, Music, whatever). Press Triangle to bring up a menu and choose Display All. This will show every file on the stick. It even works for a plugged-in iPod, though the multi-folder structure you'll reveal is a bit baffling. Still, your songs are in there if you've got the patience to find them.
21) Get your PS3 game saves onto your PS3
There's only one thing for it: The official Sony PS3 Memory Card Adapter. Plug this small box into your PS3 and you can then plug your cards into it and copy the saves on board across. Phew - you don't have to replay that 100 hours of San Andreas... The $15-to-$22 price tag seems steep but once you've copied over your card(s) you'll never need it again, meaning that you can sell it on. Why not club together with your mates and buy one.
22) Change your album art
When you import a music CD your PS3 automatically pulls down the album art and stores it with the tracks. Occasionally it gets it wrong, however, or it may simply not be able to find the art of your hipper, less commercial tracks. This is easily fixed however. Download a pic of the art you need as a jpg on your PC and put it onto a stick (in a folder called PICTURE, ideally). Copy it to your Photo menu (press Triangle). Now go to Music and select the album folder with the offending art. Press Triangle and select Information. Go to the Photo menu and select your new picture. Bingo.
