Ok, so this is easily the most frustrating feature of the ps3 for me.  I have been downloading the update of v 2.70 now for about 20 minutes and I am 51% complete.  These updates on the ps3 take FOREVER!.  Not only does i take forever to download, but then it takes forever to install as well.

When I download to the NXE for the xbox it was a gig download and it took maybe 4 or 5 minutes.  Most of the time, xbox updates only take about 10 seconds to download and install. 

So here is my question.  Why does it take so long for the sony ps3 to do the exact same thing?  Is it a bandwidth issue or something to do with the hardware or software?  I just don't understand why it takes so long.  It frustrates me! :(

I agree, demos are the worst for me I think, it take slike 8 hours to get a demo then another 30 mins to instal it, lol.

Dont know, i dont have any speed issues, as i only use a couple of minutes per update.

Since this varies _a lot_ from user to user, I think the only reasonable explanation is that some PSN servers are really overloaded.
I am lucky because my PS3 downloads in the range of 300-400k per second, but it seems to depend strongly on geographical location.

It's much quicker it you download the update through the Playstation site and transfer it over via a portable storage medium.

I don't know, but I used to have horrendous download times from PSN, too. It's been really decent for a few months now, though.

Microsoft uses a service that puts servers into your local Internet Providers rackspace. These servers cache on demand whatever the most requested downloads are from microsoft. Microsoft (and others) pays this company big money to provide them the best download speeds. The internet providers get these servers at no cost to them, they allow these to be installed on their network to minimize the costs of going across someone else's network to grab the data you want at any given time. When a user requests this content, the content is streamed at near full speed of the users network connection. When a user requests data that's not on one of these servers from a company that doesn't pay "company's name removed" for their services the Internet providers will decrease your bandwidth to the material you want to save costs.

Sony and Nintendo do not pay this company for bandwidth (yet).

As for why Microsofts installs are faster, this is mostly due to the way that Microsoft writes their code.  Microsoft puts the updates into folders which can be swapped on the fly by changing config files.  Sony uses a very archaic way to update their system.  Hopefully they'll adopt a better way to update their firmware.

that might make sense.  I live in America and I have a strong internet connection.  12mb ps, so I don't think it is my internet.  You would think Sony would invest more in having more servers in America.

they really should then.  it's hard to apreciate sony's downloadable stuff when there is such a glaring difference between the download speeds.

Because you get what you pay (or don't pay) for.