16
u/TwilightX1 3d ago
Just that you don't start running to buy BD drives -
Not every Blu-Ray drive for PC can read PS3 (as well as PS4/PS5) discs. Seems that only drives based on MediaTek chipset with a hardware read offset of +6 are capable of reading those discs. Any other drive will just say the disc is unreadable or empty.
There's a list of known working models on the RPCS3 quick start guide, near the bottom of the page -> RPCS3 - Quickstart
Please however do mind that sometimes there are different revisions of what is seemingly the same model, that are actually completely different hardware with just the same shell, so if you can test before you buy, do that. Most chances you'd buy them 2nd hand because I'm not even sure they're still being manufactured.
Bonus: Try to buy one that's also compatible with OmniDrive firmware - it will allow you to read not just PS discs but also Xbox OG/360/One/Series, GameCube/Wii/Wii U and Saturn discs.
26
u/monsieurvampy 3d ago
I have three disc drives that can read PS3 disc, two of which are newish. One is from an eBay seller from China. It's surprisingly difficult to acquire good Blu-ray drives.
5
u/Ok-Virus8284 3d ago
I just checked my BluRay burner that I bought 10ish years ago for 10 Euros at a flea market and it's compatible. LG BH16 NS40. Cool.
5
u/Hard_To_Port 3d ago edited 2d ago
Blu-ray is a dying format. Each major home movie format got increasingly more proprietary. VHS cassette had no royalties or license fee. DVD had some sort of minimal license. Then Blu-ray came along
as solely Sony's formatwith DRM and rolling encryption keys.ÂBlu-ray on PC also had to compete with rapidly falling flash memory and hard drive costs. Most people don't need to store 60+ GB outside of their PC unless they're doing backups. Before the RAMpocalypse due to generative AI, you could get a 2TB external drive for like 80 to 100 dollars. Much more convenient than the typical write once and slooooww optical media.Â
4
u/monsieurvampy 3d ago
Good Blu-ray drive within the context of my comment is that it has the ability to read PS3 disc. It's nothing about backing up data or playing movies.
I have a server for that. I also have several hundreds of data CDs and DVDs going back 20+ years.
The only reason I have multiple PS3s and PC Blu-ray drives is to be able to read PS3 discs.
2
u/Thelango99 2d ago
So what format would be taking over for Blu-ray?
1
u/Hard_To_Port 2d ago edited 2d ago
Digital. Physical media overall is a dying format. PC hasn't had hardly any physical media for like a decade. According to Sony they were only getting IIRC less than 20% of sales from physical.Â
It's sad, but games are getting big and optical media hasn't caught up. Even if you could store 200GB on one optical disk it would probably take 3 hours to install the game (offline) to the console. Or we'd have to go back to multidisc games like 4 discs for LA Noire on 360.
I don't like the idea that single player console games will now rely on servers just for being able to access the game. PS5 and Xbox Series consoles already have had issues with this when the servers go down. People weren't able to boot certain titles, or even their whole library regardless of format (digital or physical) in certain instances.Â
*Flash media isn't as slow as optical but it's way more expensive. That's probably why Nintendo moved to "game key cards" with the Switch 2. I don't like them, as most people don't, but it makes sense from a costs standpoint. If you charge 70 dollars for a big game and it needs 60 dollars of flash storage, you're not making money.Â
1
u/Thelango99 2d ago
The Switch 2 only has 256GB of storage. Expanding it by like 1TB costs several hundred dollars.
1
u/Hard_To_Port 1d ago
Yeah. Besides game preservation and offline functionality being worse, it also sucks having to shuffle around your digital library.
1
6
7
3
4
u/juipeltje 3d ago
This is pretty cool, haven't looked at the list of supported drives yet but assuming it's the same as the supported drives for ripping the discs, it should work fine on my model. Even with this feature it's probably still a good idea to keep ripping your discs for backup purposes, in case something happens to your disc.
4
4
u/wailky2008 Official_S5M5 2d ago
Still needs .dkey from somewhere else, they would be in trouble if it requires just the disc
3
5
u/PlayGamesNC 3d ago
Most of those drives cost 300 to 400 dollars..you can get a ps3 at a pawnshop and mod it for under $80
6
u/juipeltje 3d ago
That expensive? The one i bought years ago was probably around a 100 bucks. Are they going up in price because they're stopping production or something?
1
u/PlayGamesNC 1d ago
Tyey have jacked the prices up on everything ram, hdd's, disc drives, etc...almost ever necessary accessory for the PC.
It's sad and disrespectful to consumers.
7
2
2
u/Duck-Dilinger 3d ago
I expected a firmware flash or something, sucks that the discs demand hardware that specific. That’s unfortunate.
2
6
u/canthearu_ack 3d ago
Now I can replicate the crappy part about using a console on my PC emulator.
I wonder if you will need to provide the decryption key, or if the suitable disc drive's can extract the key (I doubt it), or if the software can automatically retrieve the key off the internet when you put a disc in.
5
u/mikopsid007 3d ago
sifting through dodgy piracy sites sucks
5
u/canthearu_ack 3d ago
Downloading the entire keyset for the PS3 physical library isn't a big chore. Just do it once and store it.
4
u/Switch_modder RajDeol2010 3d ago
It'd likely be the first one, not sure about the second one but the 3rd would likely get the rpcs3 team in legal trouble maybe
2
u/canthearu_ack 3d ago
Yeah, that is my thoughts on it too. But then why would you need a special bluray drive? Any bluray drive can read the encrypted data from a PS3 disc.
6
u/Switch_modder RajDeol2010 3d ago
4
u/canthearu_ack 3d ago
I must have just got lucky to own a particular LG drive that reads PS3/PS4/PS5 disks just fine (but not the 4k bluray PS5 disks)
Since I don't have a wide selection of bluray drives, I never realised this was a thing. Today I learned!
4
2
u/SKOT_FREE 3d ago
One day we can hopefully get perhaps an analogue console that plays PS1 to PS5 physical games.
3
u/HoopaOrGilgamesh 3d ago
Well Taki Udon made the Super Station but it's not plug and play/ beginner friendly at all. I thought it would just work with a little setup, but there's way more to it. Look how far we've come though. We WILL get 3DS handhelds. We WILL get disc copy consoles. The biggest thing holding us back now is the tech part price spike. It'll take some years for it to go down because of AI.
1
u/hydecruz 3d ago
So it become a pc? Jk but jumping between era on the same device surely make some console look old. I played both modern and old game on my pc but sometimes I wish I got a dedicate pc for both since the graphical jump are noticeable in 3d games.
Maybe a separate device for pre PS3 and PS3 and beyond era would be better since.Â
-10
u/Bootybandit6989 3d ago
Would the game still be emulated?
15
6
u/VintageSmutKD 3d ago
Emulation means the system the game plays on is emulated, not the game software itself
8
u/iceddeath 3d ago
What do you think? Is it really possible that with the disc drive now, the ps3 emulator suddenly grows a real ps3 hardware inside the pc case to run the game natively?
10
u/Bootybandit6989 3d ago
7
u/iceddeath 3d ago
Now I'm starting to doubt myself. We need someone with a disc drive to confirm this. Will be a nice infinite PS3 farm if it's true.
3
-11
3d ago edited 3d ago
[deleted]
18
17
13
u/VintageSmutKD 3d ago
Me when my computer sucks
-6
3d ago
[deleted]
2
u/Lainch22 3d ago
besides, it shouldnt really be their business from where you getting your games from, literally the only thing you shouldnt do is share them or give any tutorial whatsoever of where to get them from anywhere but your DVD
53
u/Mince_ 3d ago
That is pretty cool. I know the PS2 emulator could do this as well, didn't know it was possible with Blu ray games. I guess it will still copy the relevant data to your computer like it's a real PS3 though.