I had a quick play with the service last night, watching the latest episode of Good Game on the big screen. First and foremost, I have to say that the video quality looked pretty good, even on the 50 inches of my plasma. There was no lag, no judder, and while it was far from being high-definition, it was more than just watchable.

The downside, from my very brief time playing with it, is that it doesn’t look like the UI has been customised for use through either a television or PS3 at all. The service goes full-screen automatically, but to actually navigate through the iView portal, it’s just like navigating through a webpage using the PS3’s internet browser.

Which is painful.

Seriously, scrolling through a list of shows requires you to navigate the browsing arrow to the scroll bar on the side, press and hold the X button, and then press down, like you’re dragging the scroll bar with a mouse. Tipster Sean tells us that you can’t use the PS3’s Bluetooth remote control to navigate it all all.

When Sony announced the iView partnership, I expected a dedicated app with customised controls for the PS3, not a version of the web browser that automatically scales to fill your HDTV. I’ll use this again – the actual video quality was really good – but it won’t replace my TV’s tuner any time soon.

You’ll be able to share game trophy and progress info, plus PlayStation store purchases on your Facebook news feed, and deeper integration is expected down the road.

Firmware 3.10 also includes:

• The Photo category on the XMB has been revamped to make it easier to see more of your photos stored on the PS3.
• The PSN Friends List has been modified based on feedback we received after update 3.00. Additionally, you can now choose a colour for your PSN ID on the XMB.

[PR NewsWire and Sony via Kotaku]

“Avatars displayed to a user, in response to user gestures in the real world, e.g. in response to manipulation of a game controller or other such expedient [PlayStation Eye or wand-based motion control?—Ed], may toss tomatoes that stick to the actor’s face or bounce off the actor’s face and roll along a table that appears in the movie or television show.”

The virtual avatars would be overlaid just like Joel Robinson’s silhouette in Mystery Science Theatre 3000. In fact, the patent application actually mentions the cult US comedy series.

“The avatar of the audience member 39a is now out of its seat, has rushed up to the actor in the scene, and has kicked the actor in the behind while the target is still displayed. The first participant to accomplish this may be awarded points…The kicked individual may be displaced or the portion of the body that is kicked may respond. Key to this aspect of the invention is modelling the physics and the interaction of the impacting object, e.g. the duck and the underlying object, e.g. the water, in a way that is realistic. Known game technology techniques can be used to accomplish this modelling.”

Sony’s patent also mentions the possibility of overlaying advertising like Nike and Coca-Cola logos. Come to think of it, being able to throw tomatoes at ads might actually get me to stop skipping them. At least until the novelty wears off. Either way, crazy stuff, no? [USPTO via Silicon Era via Kotaku]

The update is actually pretty cool, as far as such things go, peppering status updates with Trophy information, purchases, and other in-game data that the developers can choose to include. It’s a pretty minor update, really, but also includes better photo browsing and, um, different coloured PlayStation Network profiles. Sweet, I guess. [Kotaku]

OK, the last one isn’t super interesting, but the Facebook feature would be nice. Looks like Sony caught on before we had the chance to confirm the pics ourselves, but ScrawlFX says it found the them here, here and here. [ScrawlFX via Kotaku]

The tale of Netflix on the PS3 is sad: Sony’s solution is only now shipping after sitting pretty on the Xbox for more than a year, and to add insult to injury, it comes on a disc. Thankfully, it’s slick.

The interface is technically new in that it’s visually catered to the PS3, but it should look familiar to anyone who’s used a Blu-ray player or connected TV with a Netflix widget. This means it’s pretty basic: so far as I can tell there are just “Instant Queue” and “Recently Watched” tabs, with none of the additional — though admittedly kind of useless — category views Xbox users are used to, and video navigation is unchanged with the same visual timeline taking care of FF and RW funtions. One thing Xbox users aren’t used to, though, is not having to pay for the privilege: Netflix-subscribed PS3 owners can just order a free disc and be done with it; Xbox owner need to have a paid Live subscription as well. (Ballmer’s gotta eat, right?)

In any case, the experience is smooth from start to finish, with a fast-loading interface and the same near-instant streaming you get on any other platform. It’s just a shame you need a disc — until this is part of the PS3 firmware, it’ll feel more like a hack than a new feature. [Engadget]

The demo will be the first time that a game and movie have shipped on the same Blu-ray disc, although my box set copy of the original Star Wars trilogy has a demo of Battlefront for the original Xbox on it.

As a bonus on the disc, this is pretty sweet, so long as you use your PS3 as your Blu-ray player. Of course, it almost certainly won’t be available for Australia, so this post is more of a tease than anything else. And on the upside, you’ll probably be able to download the God of War demo anyway by the time the movie is released.

[Video Business – Thanks Mark!]