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These chips are currently used in budget DVD players and it is thought that Sony is thinking of upgrading their US and UK PS2 machines.

The Japanese PS2's were released with software decoding rather than a dedicated hardware playback solution. This meant that users had to mess around with utility drivers in their machine and also suffered a loss in playback quality. There were many complaints that the machine's DVD playback was indeed inferior to many budget DVD players.

A Sony spokesman said, "Hardware decoding will make it easier for customers to play DVDs on the PlayStation. Users will simply pop a DVD into the drive."

The current pre-order scheme for the PS2 has been very popular and it looks as if all the machines due to be released on 24 November will sell out in the UK. A second batch of the units are expected early next year but it is not known whether these stocks will be available off the shelf or via another pre-order scheme.