The $499 Grudge Match: PS3 vs the A2 (DING!) (1 Viewer)

[MarekM]

thanx for info,
but it's somewhere official that you can be FORCED to buy any GAMES ??????

hhm they can do that or what ?

let them try to force me hehe

Marek

 

[Cees Alons]

Stores who do that won't sell you the PS3.
I don't know how forceful that is, in your case....


Cees

 

[Michael TLV]

Greetings

Like opening up a bucket of chicken and taking only the drumstick out ... sorry ... that is not an option.

The Drumstick only items are all gone.

Regards

 

[MarekM]

hehe Cees you want to come here to check our stores ? maybe some will have PS3s before march 2007

 

[ppltd]

I happened to have my TV on at lunch today and finally saw my first PS3 commercial. What's up with a crying baby doll in an empty room expect for a PS3. Sony should fire their ad company.

 

[Frank@N]

Anyone have a link regarding the rumor that the 60GB unit will ship with an HDMI cable?

I pre-ordered the $499 unit, but an HDMI cable would have made the $600 unit more worth it.

Also, I'm not planning on buying any new games.

 

[ppltd]

Just checked 3 on-line sources, and none listed an HDMI cable. Sounds like a faulty rumor.

 

[Frank@N]

After considerable thought, I decided to cancel my Gamestop preorder for the PS3.

I'm a regular, level-headed guy with limited funds and high expectations for what $600-$700 should buy.

My decision was based on largely disappointing news regarding the system over the past month:

- PS3 processor slowed from 3.2ghz to 2.8ghz due to heat issues. Sony's hardware reputation has been called into question in recent years. The odds of first-wave PS3s having heat or mechanical problems seems high.

- PS3 main memory (256MB) is half that of the 360 (512MB), leading Gears of War developer to be skeptical about the potential for porting the game to the PS3. This may lead to a repeat of the PS2/Xbox situation where games on the Microsoft system are frequently better.

- PS3 Blu-ray drive is only half as fast as the 360's DVD drive, leading to the need for many PS3 games to be installed on the HDD for realistic load times. RR7 is reported to be a 4-5GB install. Give the amount of PS3 HDD space available, I don't believe this is a viable game plan.

- Sony's announcement that the PS3 will not upconvert anything (PS1/PS2/DVD). This news comes as a surprise to those who thought the PS3 would be the hub of their home theater/entertainment center. The Toshiba A1 and the 360 will both upconvert DVDs.

- The added cost of purchasing an HD cable for the PS3. The Toshiba A1 comes with a free HDMI cable and I believe the 360 comes with a component cable. Sony could have done better than ship with a yellow video plug.

- The added cost of a PS3 remote. Other Blu-ray/HD DVD players ship with a remote and I believe the 360 HD DVD drive will also ship with a remote. For $500-$600, Sony could have packed-in a movie remote.

- The PS3 movie pack-in will be a 25GB screener copy of Talladega Nights, not the unrated 50GB version which will be sold in stores. The Toshiba A1 ships with a mail-in offer for three HD DVD movies and the 360 HD DVD drive ships with the HD DVD retail version of King Kong (no bait and switch here).

I briefly considered holding the system for sale, but I have no desire to profiteer on a piece of electronics that I wouldn't even want for the money. Selling the system on the street could also potentially lead to physical injury, bounced checks, and counterfeit currency.

I may reconsider the PS3 in the event of future system/feature updates, hardware refinement, price drops, and developer optimizations.

 

[PeterTHX]

The PS3 ships with a component cable.

 

[Cory S.]

Peter,

What do you think? Will the PS3 be a great Blu-Ray player or just an average Blu-Ray player? I'm of the opinion that the player can't be like the PS2 player.

To me, my entire HD future is depended on this system's player capabilities. Hyperbole? A bit, but I have the credit to go either with the HD-A2 or the PS3 and I'm having a hard, hard time deciding....

I've been a Blu-Ray supporter from day one. I like what I've seen from HD-DVD. But in buying a PS3, you cover your bases if Blu-Ray doesn't win it because I'm a gamer when it comes to sports games and fighting games and it's been a long while since I've owned a console. I want the PS3 to be it.

But more importantly, I'm a film buff just anxious to go HD.

To quote the immortal words of 3P0, "I'm so confused...."

 

[ppltd]

I am not disagreeing with this point, but if HDMI is being sold so heavily by Sony, and as a reason not to get the XBOX 360 (because it supports component only), then why would they ship components with the PS3?

The PS3 will be a fine game console, but it will be a long time before we can state with any credibility which console will out perform the other. Having been in the compuer industry for as long as I have, one thing is a given. Systems NEVER live up to their theoritical limits. They usally fall far shot.

 

[PeterTHX]

Cory, teh PS3 is going to be a kick butt BD player. I've seen the interface, it shows bitrate & codecs, something even the more expensive BD players do not. Disc load times are fast. The unit is HDMI 1.3 compliant (future ready) and updateable. I've seen version 1.0 and they are already working on a 1.1 update for it.

It also converts SACD and Dolby TrueHD to multichannel PCM thru the HDMI output, so you don't even need a HDMI 1.3 receiver to benefit.

Picture quality is topnotch. Sony's designed this thing to last 10 years with minor revisions. The first gen player is more akin to the first gen Sony DVD players.

 

[ppltd]

Give me a break. A game system designed to last 10 years? There has never been a CPU based product that doesn't become seriously outdated in 3 to 4 years. The PS3 will be no different. Intel and Motorola base life expectancies of CPU's at 18 to 24 months, and like it or not, the cell processor is a CPU, and nothing more. Sony, like MS, have already limited their life by including only 512 MB of memory.

Game systems have seldom lasted more than 4 years before game development can no longer push the console any further. This forces console manufacturers to design new systems.

 

[Cory S.]

Peter and Thomas,

Thanks for the info. I'll just wait it out eventhough I had the Panasonic in my hands today and put it back. As much as I want to go HD, 1300 dollars is just too much.

At 600 dollars, at least it's a game system as well, eventhough when I do get one, I'll primarily use it as a Blu-Ray player.

 

[Frank@N]

Peter,

Not to nit-pick but hasn't it been reported in the press that the PS3 will ship with a Composite Video Plug (yellow RCA), not HD Component...?

 

[PeterTHX]

From what I've read/seen it's a multiplug in the same styling as the XBOX 360 pack in cable...with both composite & component + stereo audio together (RCA)

 

[JodyL]

The playstation website says "Video output in HD requires cables and an HD-compatible display, both sold separately."

Un-friggin-believable how little info Sony discloses about this system on their websites.

 

[James St]

60GB PS3: What's in the Box


I had posted that an HDMI cable would be included based on a few bloggers who attended the Gamer's Day event a few weeks back. Unfortunately that is not the case and I apologize for the bad info. Perhaps it was confused with just having a HDMI output.

Here is the PS3 user guide for those interested...

http://manuals.playstation.net/docum...ent/index.html

 

[Ryan-G]

I'm in agreement with alot of what's been said here by ppltd. Just wish to make a few points.

-Not only have there been fairly reliable reports of overheating, but the reports from IBM itself of sub-processors blowing without warning haven't been resolved. It may not be an issue, but it could be a rather expensive one.

-There is no way the PS3 runs cool. It's using a Cell processor with 8 "Pseudo-cores" running at 2.8ghz, as well as a G70 Nvidia core. If a single core at 2.8ghz can't run cool, I can't see 8 of them being better. Even a Laptop has to step down the processor due to heat and power issues. The G70 isn't a whole lot better, My 7800GTX idles at 54C/129F. Sure they could be using a smaller process to reduce heat as well as IBM's insulator tech, but it'll still be a very warm chip. I doubt very highly they're using the tech found in the Go series, for one since it's primary duty is games it'll very rarely step down, two stepping down would be a liability in a console. While I could be wrong since I don't know the architecture, I just can't see an electronics manufacturer solving problems AMD/Intel/Nvidia can't get a good handle on. IBM does have some very good tech for dealing with these issues, but I believe AMD already uses most of it and it still results in some warm chips.

-Cell is well suited for BR decoding, and the PS3's G70 chip has the side benefit of (theoretically) being able to use Nvidia's Purevideo tech. As far as BR performance goes, should be high quality.

-The speed of the drive isn't a good indicator of Level Load times. To some extent the issue become Random Access speeds as it's unlikely the Laser will consistently be pointing at the start of the next level, especially in less linear games like Oblivion or games with random encounters that need swaped. It's more efficient to swap commonly used data and level files to the HD on the unit where it can get better random access speeds. If you've got it available, best to use it, though we're probably only talking a couple seconds difference here.

-The lack of an external power brick is interesting, if this thing is keeping it's power supply inside the case, that ends up that much more heat that has to be disappated. IMO not a wise choice.

-"It's designed to last 10 years!" is marketing FUD. It's not even released yet and it's graphics chip is already at least a generation behind.

-The PS3's are manufactured in Japan and Taiwan, IIRC it's Asus as their Taiwan manufacturer.

-At the end of the day, it all comes down to the games. Sony's got problems on that front ATM. I'm not saying their DOA, but they're walking a very fine line here. They really, really, need to have the games come through. If all they have on the shelf for the next 12 months are games available on the 360, this is not going to end well. Brand Loyalty does not exist with most gamers, any given MMO shows that. Took just a few months for SWG's to cave, despite having the most popular branding in the world.

 

[Rob_Walton]

The heat or otherwise of the PS3 doesn't bother me. According to the first user reports it's far far quieter than the 360, which can only be a good thing.