Brian A. Thomas .com » PS3

The HDMI 1.3 Connection

Brian A. Thomas — Thu, 22 Jun 2006 04:30:45 +0000

Thinking about getting a HD-DVD player, or the recently launched Blu-ray player? Just hold your horses. None of the players currently on the market support HDMI 1.3, which is essential to getting the absolute best in audio and video from a player. The first High Definition player to feature it will likely be Sony’s Playstation 3, with more players to follow. TVs, receivers and the like capable of receiving it will likely be out next year. Hat tip to this DVDFile.com article which noted this TWICE article… Check them out for more details.

You Don’t Own What You Own

Brian A. Thomas — Thu, 25 May 2006 13:18:48 +0000

It is looking like Sony will not let people sell their pre-owned games. The games will come with a license where you can’t sell a used PS3 game on eBay, your local game trade store, or whatever. Of course then the store can’t sell a used game either. If Sony is stupid enough to try this, I have to doubt it would actually be enforceable.
Update 26 May 2006: Turns out not to be true.

PS3 to be $499 and $599

Brian A. Thomas — Tue, 09 May 2006 13:09:50 +0000

There will be two versions of Sony’s PlayStation 3 when it launches in November.
Check the table below taken from Sony’s website (in PDF):

PlayStation 3
Product Name		PlayStation 3
CPU		Cell Processor
GPU		RSX®
Sound		Dolby 5.1, DTS, LPCM, etc. (Cell-based processing)
Memory		256MB XDR Main RAM, 256MB GDDR3 VRAM
HDD	2.5" Serial ATA	20GB	60GB
I/O	USB 2.0	x4
	Memory Stick/SD/Compact Flash	No	Yes
Communications	Ethernet	x1/10 Base-T, 100 Base-TX, 1000 Base-T
	IEEE 802.11 b/g	No	Yes
	Bluetooth 2.0 (EDR)	Yes
Wireless Controller (Bluetooth)		Yes
AV Output	Screen Size	480i, 480p, 720p, 1080i, 1080p
	HDMI Output	No	x1/HDMI NextGen
	AV Multi Out	Yes
	DigitalOut	Yes
BD/DVD/CD Drive (Read Only)	Maximum Read Speed	BD 2x (BD-ROM) DVD 8x (DVD-ROM) CD 24X (CD-ROM) SACD 2x
Dimensions		Approximately 325mm (W) x 98mm (H) x 274mm (D)
Weight		Approximately 5 kg

(All copyrights property of their respective owners. The table itself is Sony’s…taken from their PDF sheet and here translated into an XHTML table.)
From this we see there are two versions, one with a 20GB HD, which is the $499 model, and a 60GB model for $599. That $100 gets you far more than just a bigger hard drive though. The addition of 802.11 b/g to the higher end model is nice and I would have to guess it won’t be available with an add-on. The card reader is also a nice add-on, but that one I would guess will become an add-on, if not from Sony,than perhaps from somebody unofficially, perhaps via the USB ports.
The big thing missing from the 20GB version is HDMI output, which will be necessary for proper Blu-Ray output. While most of the studios say they will not use the image constraint token on their first batch of movies, sooner or latter they will turn it on, and then the 20GB version will not be able to output movies at their full resolution. I actually thought HDMI output was a required on the Blu-ray spec. Unless they have a spot there that you can add the HDMI output at a later date somehow, perhaps a plug-in module, then the 20GB version is worthless as a Blu-ray player for the long term. It is definitely worth the extra $100 to get the 60GB version.
The big surprise, for me at least, is the addition of SACD to it. SACD is Sony’s Super Audio CD and was one of two (the other DVD-A), still competing high end audio CD formats. Which is better depends on who you ask. Whichever is the better audio format, both are better than CD, this gives SACD a market edge. Odd nobody seems to be talking about this part of the system yet.
$600 for a Blu-ray player, awesome video game system, SACD player, and whatever other tricks Sony has up it’s sleeves is a heck of deal. Where’s my piggy bank…

Edit: The US release date will be 17 November. It will also have a motion sensing controller that looks and feels much like the current PS2 controller… motion sensing just like Nintendo’s Wii (the bad name for their next console).

Playstation 3 in November

Brian A. Thomas — Thu, 16 Mar 2006 12:43:47 +0000

Sony’s Playstation 3 will launch in November. It was widely expected to be out in the United States here in November anyhow, so this is mostly just a delay for Japan, and an early present for Europe which probably normally would have had to wait a few more months. Didn’t they learn anything from the XBox 360 global launch? I seem to recall them panning Microsoft for trying a global launch, yet here they are doing it themselves. The delay for the launch seems to be related to the final copyright specs on the Blu-ray drive.
The shortages we would have had on the machine will be made all the worse with a worldwide launch, and it will be worse then the XBox 360 launch since the PS3 is wanted in Japan far more then the XBox 360.
I didn’t get an XBox 360 as there are still no must have titles for it yet. Even the HD-DVD drive for the XBox 360 will be external, making it an expensive way to get a HD-DVD drive, perhaps cheaper then stand alone drives at the time it comes out, but still an expensive option. Even without any must have titles, the PS3 will be a something to consider since it comes with a Blu-ray drive.
They didn’t give a price. Last I heard was a consumer cost of just under $500, which makes it a cheap easy way to get a Blu-ray drive. I am guessing final price won’t be announced until closer to the date. In May comes E3, and we’ll probably get more details on the final specs and some expected launch titles. I am guessing the final price will be a tad more then whatever the XBox 360 is selling for, though Microsoft will likely drop the price on the 360 this holiday season to discourage people from buying the PS3. The developer kits with final hardware is also expected this May, so there will be time for developers to polish any titles they were trying to get done for the spring.
Anyhow, a Blu-way drive for under $500. Sign me up… then again, I have just a regular old TV, so the improvements in quality will be lost on me.