clokwork

1) It is just my guess at this point. Im only basing this off the video that Sony had from the live demonstration. It reminded me of the PSP's menus. I was not a fan of what I saw, but of course I wasnt interactive with it.

2) I believe this is something a little bigger than what you give it credit for. Many of the fanbase for the ps2 bought it due to its multimedia capability. I remember reading countless articles on this close to and after launch. Times have changed now and DVD players are a dime a dozen like you said though so it wont play in that heavily (so I think). But I would still factor it in.

clokwork

That low huh? thats not bad at all. Thanks for the info. I had no idea on price.

tiblot

Yup. Give or take a little for the US market. It will be the cheapest high def player you can buy. However, thats assuming you have a 360. The cost of a 360 + this drive will end up close to a ps3's price.

Here's a pic:



Details:
http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=4162

terryw

i dont see how blue ray failing could mean death for the ps3 since its a video game console... There are advantages to blueray outside of playing movies... such as the 50GB per disk storage capacity and the much faster access time translating to much faster loadtime... theres plenty of systems that uses or have used proprietary format and did just fine. Blueray failing should not mean death to PS3 which most people will buy to play games, not to watch movies. past surveys on gamefaqs.com have shown that most people have a dedicated dvd player to play movies rather than using their xbox or ps2.

and its up in the air whether it will fail, but right now it seems to have the advantage. here is the list of companies that back each formats respectively:

HD-DVD:
Toshiba, NEC, Sanyo, Memory-Tech, Microsoft

Blue-Ray:
Sony, Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Hitachi, LG Electronics, Matsu****a (Panasonic), Mitsubishi, Philips, Pioneer, Samsung, Sharp, TDK, and Thomson Multimedia. Possibly Microsoft.

backing of major studios are divided as such:
HD-DVD
Universal

Blue-Ray
MGM (owns the largest cinima IP catalogue in the world), Tristar, Columbia, Disney

Supports Both:
Paramount, FOX, Time Warner

from the number of backers, id say blue-ray is looking good at the moment
*tristar, columbia, and MGM are all owned by sony

castertroy101

i think most ppl forgot that the reason ps2 did so well on its launch was cause it had a dvd player built in and was a game system for a good price. That was when the dvd revolution was coming about. Now everyone has a dvd player or 2 in their house. As for the Blue-ray/hd war...thats on a seperate playing field. Ask the common consumer if they know there is going to be a change from standard dvd to the aforementioned. Not many will know there was a coming campaign. When it comes to the console war proper advertising campaign will decide the victor.

clokwork

You're taking our words out of context Terry. We are not saying it will be the death of PS3 by any means. Speaking for myself, Im noting that it would change from a multimedia machine to a gaming maching solely if that happened. Nothing wrong with that.

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I like the way that addon drive is looking.

terryw

i personally think the games will decide the victor. not hd-dvd or blueray. xbox360 is going to have a really strong lineup this christmas spearheaded by Gears of War. ps3 has a lot of big hits in development, but few would be ready for launch. xbox360's launch tittles were crap imo and even now there are very few exclusive good games, i expect ps3's launch to be be crap also.

clokwork

I agree. crappy launch for the 360. Im hoping ps3 does better.

tiblot

Here's the problem if that happens:

1. You can't possibly justify an extra $200 for a high def drive that basically becomes useless. Its just consumer rip off.

2. Both Sony & MS are marketing their respective machines as "multimedia hubs of great value." Now that statement is absolutely true if Blu Ray becomes standard. However, if the most important feature of a system fails in the consumer world, its never good for any product.

Best case, I think, is both formats win and something similar to DVD-R/+R happens

tiblot

it wont, due to the crazy complexity of the system sony's scaled back their world wide launch to US and Japan only.

500k systems total with 400k systems in the US and 100k in Japan.

Now if you can score one at launch .... expect to make some damn good money on ebay

clokwork

You read my mind

castertroy101

exactly...i already have two on def hold from boy at EB Games when they hit store shelves...if that falls through i have a back up i just got a best buy....so im set Guess some poor schmo is not gonna be getting his even if he is waiting in line.

clokwork

Im that poor schmo you bastard!

I have one on hold and the other I have to camp for heh. IT'll be worth it once the auction closes on ebay though

tiblot

unfort. being on hold doesont mean much as far as getting one at launch

if the 360 launch was any indication, preorders will prob end up waiting months too, lol

its all bs, bc i know they can make a sh!tload of these systems, they just choke the market to generate mass hype

castertroy101

no not hold hold hold brotha....on the side hold....like someone puts in there depsoit and ill come in and take it from under them hold ...oh and im not paying retail if you get my drift...i worked at my mall for a year and some change and ive made some friends in key locations(namely management). So when launch day comes i dont wait in line i just come in whenever slide my boy some incentive ($$$$$) and walk out a happy camper and drop the system on ebay.