PS3 and Wii sales

Lets see... I have owned a 1st gen PS and a later gen one; 1 PS2 and 1 PStwo. Plus one of my PS2 controllers (sony brand) died. How much money have I spent on sony video game hardware? Too much.
 
Come to think of it I've had many problems with my original PS1. And I've had a couple PS2 controllers (sony brand) die on me as well.
 
I guess I'm just lucky, I've never had a problem with any of my Playstation consoles. That goes for controllers, etc.
 
I've gone through 4 PS1s - thankfully I had the foresight to get the extended warranty (never did that for any other system though). Did the same with my PS2, though that hasn't been used nearly as much.

While it's $600, it's still less than a stand alone bluray player. Not that it matters, but it's just a point of observation. And while we'd like to think our money goes far, I don't think there are any electronics that have anything past 1 year parts, 1 year labor (and we're generally lucky to get 1 year parts, 3-6 months labor).

It's really odd to see Sony taking such a beating. They've, until recently, been a pretty savvy company (more or less). This and the battery thing, it's amazing. I don't know how any company bounces back from those two disastrous outings.

On top of that - I don't recall any killer apps being out for the PS2 at launch - but that didn't prevent it from being exceedingly rare, did it?

As an aside, I wonder what it's like to be one of those schmucks who paid several thousand dollars for a PS3 only to find it sitting on a vast number of shelves a few weeks later. :D
 
Even though Blu-Ray makes it a great deal at that price, I still think most people are not supporting the hd DVD standards yet. I also think most game consumers are not ready to spend that kin d of money on a system. Had they gone with plain DVD, they could be selling that system for XBox 360 prices and they wouldn't have manufacturing issues. Monthly sales would be blowing away the competition.

But Sony is hell bent on making Blu-Ray the next standard. If it wins, they stand to make loads of money on licensing rights alone.
 
This is drifting off topic, but that's what threads like this are for.

I honestly don't believe that HD-video formats of any kind are going to become "standard" until they get so dirt cheap that it would be stupid for anyone to have plain DVDs anymore. When DVD came to replace VHS, it offered a more stable picture with cleaner encoding, vast subtitle and dubbing support, as well as extras like commentary, missing scenes, making-of pieces and more. HD formats only bring sharper picture, and far fewer people are going to care about that. How many times have you watched a movie and said "boy, this would sure look good at 1080i!". For now, Blu-ray and HD-DVD alike are going to be strictly for the videophiles and wealthy among us. Only internal issues will make one a winner anytime soon.

If Sony is depending on their Blu-ray to give them a ride into the next generation of success, I believe they will be in for big problems. I kind of hope that's the case, too. Their attitude toward their work and their consumers makes me hope that they will not be leading things forever.
 
You're probably right. Most people probably won't be able to tell the difference at all between dvd and hd dvd movies, with out a side-by-side comparison.

So far, the only movie I've seen on hd dvd that really stands out is King Kong. I've heard several people praise batman begins and a few others but haven't seen them yet.

I believe hd dvd formats (hddvd and blue ray) have pulled in some extra stuff, to get people to buy though. I believe it's full metal jacket that got its first anamorphic widescreen release on these formats. Also, interactive menus while the movie still plays, interactive features (haven't used them but still,) the ability to download/update content on the internet automatically, combo formats to help transition (soften the blow) of upgrading from dvd to hd dvd, etc. They've also brought new, better sound formats to the home, although I'm not sure if there are any receivers yet that can decode them.

Are all of these bells and whistles worth upgrading to the consumer? Maybe, maybe not, but if you have a 50"-65" projection, lcd, or plasma screen hdtv, or an hd projector with a 100" viewing area, then I think there could be an advantage of upgrading.

SamIAm said:
How many times have you watched a movie and said "boy, this would sure look good at 1080i!".
 
HA!... that's all I have to say about the PS3.

As for the new HD formats. I got a HD-DVD player for my 360. I bought 'Fearless' in this format and popped it in and popped my cousin's DVD version into a PS2. Now I know the PS2 probably isn't the best hardware for a video quality benchmark, but still it was all I really had to compare on. So I swapped back and forth with my remote while they played simultaneousily and the difference was noticeable... but nothing SUPER huge (keep in mind, my TV is 720p). There were fewer artifacts and less noise on the HD-DVD, but the noise was most likely caused by the video source and not the format itself (mainly because my PS2 goes through a switch box, where as my 360 is directly inputted into the TV).
 
No, it goes up to 1080p for component. You have to set up the resolution in the xbox 360's menus. Most televisions don't allow for 1080p in analog component (some do), but i've got mine set to 1080i, and HD DVDs play at 1080i on that setting. The only thing it won't do is upconvert standard DVDs via component - but you can use vga output for that, if your television supports VGA.
 
Good news: The PS3 has apparently fixed the BC issue with their latest firmware update. Before, non-progressive scan games had visual issues. So there's one more reason to get a PS3. Now, only if they'd upscale the games....
 
tsumake said:
Good news: The PS3 has apparently fixed the BC issue with their latest firmware update. Before, non-progressive scan games had visual issues. So there's one more reason to get a PS3. Now, only if they'd upscale the games....


Did they start a system where they tell you that is what they're patching? Or this was something the community at large had to guess?
 
Actually, they never mentioned the fix in the update.... The community has found that all of their PS2 games that looked like crap on the system suddenly no longer look like crap after the update.....
 
Speaking of sony's poor craftmanship, my Sony Powered Home Theater Subwoofer just blew up. I've had it for awhile but probably didn't get a good two months of use out of it.

When I first got it, it had other problems, like the rca input not working (had to use the speaker in/out connectors) and a buzzing noise that came and gone, but I looked past that, because I didn't want to pay the high shipping cost back to the dealer.

Sony = shit
 
Hmm... I wonder... I just purchased a Sony 5.1 setup because it was inexpensive, and got high reviews everywhere I checked... but of all the reviews, no one mentioned how well it worked 6 months to a year from when they purchased it...


Hrm. I sincerely hope I don't have your experience.... I absolutely love my Vaio, even though it's a couple years old it still runs like a champ (VGN-S150).
 
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