The Secret Vita Port Is A Communication Cable ?

It seems that after all this time being kept a secret, the PS Vita's secret port, which is placed beside the Game Cartridge port is a simple communication port.

The port was revealed by avid console collector Robert Sebo, he also states that many cables out there are compatible, such as the cable for the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FT1 camera.

Now of course Sony have not confirmed this, but the possibility of it being genuine is quite high.

[8BitBang]

everyone should go out and buy one of these cables

[minimur12]

if they existed.

EDIT:
An interview with a Sony engineer who worked on the Vit was asked to explain what the port is, it is indeed communication, for output to TV much like Vita TV does.

http://hackinformer.com/201...

[breakpad]

damn that console ..so many capabilities and still so unexploited ..its sad to see an honest try from Sony and the best handheld on the markket to be overshadowed by 3DS lame gimmick console

[rainslacker]

Isn't this the port we see them using when they show off the Vita games at places like E3 or Gamescon? I always assumed it was some sort of comms port. I wouldn't be surprised if for displaying on TV it actually required another device that is probably included in the dev kit.

I never thought this was a secret. I remember reading about it when I worked with PSMobile. As I recall, a Sony engineer there said it was mostly for debugging, and possible future accessory expansion. Many consoles had expansion ports of some sort, which were usually just proprietary serial ports.

The Vita TV, to my knowledge has the hardware inside to convert the image to an HDMI TV signal. It's just a standard HDMI port, and not a specialized serial port.

[plmkoh]

The question is what will that achieve, I have one of those Panasonic cables, but it's just a glorified proprietary USB cable.

[rainslacker]

Even USB is just another form of serial cable. Serial cables have been around for over 50 years now. The protocols used to transport the data over those cables is what makes the actual standard. Otherwise, it's just a transmit, receive, and grounding cables more often than not. Anything else just makes it a specialized serial cable.

[KryptoniteTail]

They should have just released a remodel Vita that hooks up to TV instead of making PS TV. Bad call. We could have used the Vita as a controller.

Also, can we not use Vita as PSTV remote? Why not? Then we wouldnt need to patch up Gravity Rush or any games to work with DS3, we could just pkay usig Vita controller.

Stupid decision but hey, PSTV still cool. I think I went a bit off topic.

[Zjet]

Agreed,

I love my PSTV's and Vitas ( yes multiple ) i love being able to play vita games and PSP games on the tv without using a component cable to my psp or vita, as well as having a comfortable controller ( a comfort grip on your portables only go so far )

the problem i have with Vita and especially Vita TV is the annoyance with compatibility, you have games for instance Medal of Honor heroes, if you get it off the Aus/NZ ps store it dosent work on vita or vita tv....yet you get it off the USA store and it does....?

Star Wars Renegade Squadron....now finally works on your vita and vita tv from the USA store, but not from the EU or Aus/NZ store?

why do you do this sony just make all vita games compatible.....all psp games compatible and all PS1 games compatible...its not a case of them not being able to work...last year the lock on this was down for a day and i luckily managed to get a ton of uncompatible games onto my vita quickly...

I agree with Kryptonite why not have the vita as a controller? i could then put any vita game in it and play through the vita tv ( reverse remote play ) and play it on the TV, id love to play Uncharted Golden Abyss and Resistance Burning Skies on my TV Sony.

[aquaticDonut]

I wasn't aware that this was a secret. Did literally no one know what it was for? What kind of moronic company doesn't tell customers about something like that.

[MegaRay]

Sony? They hate Vita, and I hate them for that.

[rainslacker]

Up until last gen almost every console had some sort of port that was never explained to the public. PS2 had it's hard drive expansion bay, PS1 had that port on the back left side. Genesis had the port on the back that eventually led to the SegaCD. PSP had an "expansion port" on top, which to my knowledge only ever got a camera attachment. So on and so forth. Sometimes those ports went unused. These things are more often than just just expansion ports, either for planned or things unknown for the future.

Nowadays, companies can just use USB though, as it's sufficient enough to handle high speed serial data transfer at bus speeds.

[Agent_hitman]

Maybe it's a port to open a portal to PS world. We should ask Sony for permission then. /s

[jujubee88]

ikr, well, now we know the USO (unidentified slotting object).

[teflontactics]

Well it IS a modified USB connector, so I don't know why anyone would think it was for anything but plugging in cables/accessories - you know, like it's labelled as in the manual (look for the words "accessory port").

[rainslacker]

LOL. it's like people have never had a console before last gen. This stuff used to be so common, and was always used for some sort of accessory or expansion. Last gen they just migrated to USB, likely for cost reasons.