Social Question

xTheDreamer's avatar

Brand new PS3 won't play any games, what's the issue?

Asked by xTheDreamer (897points) July 31st, 2010

I got a new PS3 about 2 days ago, my mom brought it back from Hong Kong. The PS3 would turn on, you’d see the home screen/menus perfectly. No problems there, until I put the games in, the screen would flicker, flinch, shake so bad that you can hardly read or see anything.

What’s the problem here? Is the PS3 broken? D: I hope not.

Observing members: 0 Composing members: 0

13 Answers

Russell_D_SpacePoet's avatar

If you live in the states it may be that the ps3 is not set up for your region.

Ivan's avatar

PS3’s will only play games with the proper region code. Since you bought it in Asia, it’s most likely that it only plays game with the PAL region code.

HungryGuy's avatar

It’s most likely a censorship issue. Games, like movies, are encoded to play only in certain regions, so as to maximixe the profits of film and game companies. Your games are encoded for whatever country you’re in, but your PS3 thinks you’re in Hong Kong, and won’t play the games. There’s usually hacks to get around these things, but they involve installing “mod chips” and other hardware modifications.

Of course, you could get the Hong Kong versions of your games (and there are some cool games available in Asia that aren’t available in the west), but you had better know how to read Chinese to play them…

Randy's avatar

Yup, like already stated, you can’t play North American games on an Asian PS3. You can’t even trade it off to most game stores. You’re kinda screwed unless you know Chinese or the games you play have the option to change the language. Of course you have to be able to read the Chinese to get to the options menu to change it.

xTheDreamer's avatar

@Randy @Ivan @HungryGuy I forgot to say that my mom has also bought the games from Hong Kong, so I think I’m good there right? But it still won’t play it correctly, it keeps having the flickering, flinch & shake issue.

jerv's avatar

Different TV interface; it’s sending the wrong signal (PAL) to work on a US TV (NTSC).

xTheDreamer's avatar

@jerv Well how do you change it then? Or you can’t change the PAL to NTSC.

xTheDreamer's avatar

Can it also be the voltage issue? Because in Hong Kong they uses 220V & we use 110V, if it’s so can we convert 110V to 220V or some sort. Such solution for it?

Ivan's avatar

Hmm, if it were a voltage issue, the machine probably wouldn’t turn on at all (or worse). It might have something to do with the TV, but honestly I’m not sure.

By the way, his PS3 won’t only play games from Hong Kong, it will most likely play any PAL game. So he could buy games from Australia, which would be in English. Don’t quote me on that though.

xTheDreamer's avatar

@Ivan I guess you’re right about the TV, since I sent an email to them & they said the PS3 is from Asia they use PAL while US TV uses NTSC. But a friend of mine said if I use an hdmi cable on an HD TV they games would play since the HD resolution is universal?

jerv's avatar

HDMI is HDMI no matter where you are so that should work.

Ivan's avatar

It’s worth a try. Don’t spend too much on the HDMI cable though.

xTheDreamer's avatar

Alright thanks, I’ll try it out. If it does not work like this then D: this is not cool.

Answer this question

Login

or

Join

to answer.
Your answer will be saved while you login or join.

Have a question? Ask Fluther!

What do you know more about?
or
Knowledge Networking @ Fluther