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aristotles · Jan 21, 2008, 03:41 AM

Originally Posted by Lateralus

And with a track record like Sony's, why would anybody buy a PS3 for the Blu-ray drive?

What are you getting at? Sony hardware is usually known for its quality but you do have a choice of CE brands with blu-ray players if you hate sony for some reason. The PS3 has been stress tested in a sauna and was found to have a 0.2% failure rate.

I'm going to sleep now. I hope you are not taking this stuff personally.

Lateralus · Jan 21, 2008, 03:46 AM

Originally Posted by aristotles

I hope you are not taking this stuff personally.

What?

All I did was post about buying an HD DVD player, saying I was happy about it. Then you attacked my decision.

Who's the one taking things personally?

brassplayersrock² · Jan 21, 2008, 03:53 AM

No need to worry about the übber fan boys. just enjoy your new toy.

Lateralus · Jan 21, 2008, 03:58 AM

Thanks.

It helps that my real-life friends are HD DVD fans too.

starman · Jan 21, 2008, 09:09 AM

Originally Posted by Lateralus

And with a track record like Sony's, why would anybody buy a PS3 for the Blu-ray drive?

Uh, what "track record" would that be?

icruise · Jan 21, 2008, 09:43 AM

Originally Posted by Lateralus

Oooohhh nooos!

Yeah, sorry, but I'm gonna have a hard time regretting the purchase of a $150 HD player that does an incredible job of upconverting and comes with 9 free HD movies.

Fair enough. As long as you're going into it with your eyes open.

It's also nice that I'll have an HD player to hold me over for a while until Blu-ray player and movie prices become much more reasonable.

The point about hardware is valid, but you do realize that Blu-ray movies generally cost the same or less than the same titles on HD-DVD?

Originally Posted by Lateralus

And with a track record like Sony's, why would anybody buy a PS3 for the Blu-ray drive?

I assume you're talking about problems that people had with the PS2's drive, but there's no indication that reliability with the PS3 has been anything less than stellar.

jokell82 · Jan 21, 2008, 10:16 AM

Originally Posted by icruise

I assume you're talking about problems that people had with the PS2's drive, but there's no indication that reliability with the PS3 has been anything less than stellar.

My guess is that he's talking about their recent issues with DRM and rootkits.

starman · Jan 21, 2008, 10:19 AM

Originally Posted by jokell82

My guess is that he's talking about their recent issues with DRM and rootkits.

That's a completely different part of Sony, and I read somewhere that Sony wasn't even aware of what that company was doing.

As far as Blu-Ray goes, Sony's doing just fine.

icruise · Jan 21, 2008, 10:42 AM

Originally Posted by jokell82

My guess is that he's talking about their recent issues with DRM and rootkits.

What does that have to do with the PS3 specifically?

jokell82 · Jan 21, 2008, 10:56 AM

Originally Posted by icruise

What does that have to do with the PS3 specifically?

Nothing specifically, but it does have something to do with the overall image of the company and their "recent track record."

jokell82 · Jan 21, 2008, 10:57 AM

Originally Posted by starman

That's a completely different part of Sony, and I read somewhere that Sony wasn't even aware of what that company was doing.

As far as Blu-Ray goes, Sony's doing just fine.

That doesn't make any sense. It was still Sony. They didn't hire an outside firm to put rootkits on their discs - they did it themselves.

Now that wasn't SEA specifically, but it was Sony.

TETENAL · Jan 21, 2008, 11:06 AM

It was Sony𝄞BMG.

starman · Jan 21, 2008, 11:09 AM

I could have sworn I read that Sony outsourced that, but after reading up on it I guess that was wrong.

Ok, so they learned from their mistakes. No biggie. It looks like they took it on the chin for that and won't do anything stupid like that again.

cSurfr · Jan 21, 2008, 11:30 AM

Originally Posted by Lateralus

Oooohhh nooos!

Yeah, sorry, but I'm gonna have a hard time regretting the purchase of a $150 HD player that does an incredible job of upconverting and comes with 9 free HD movies..

Good luck getting those. I've been waiting since October for mine. Not that my Blu-Rays will get here any faster. . . 8-10 weeks my a$$.

jokell82 · Jan 21, 2008, 11:37 AM

Originally Posted by cSurfr

Good luck getting those. I've been waiting since October for mine. Not that my Blu-Rays will get here any faster. . . 8-10 weeks my a$$.

I sent off for mine in early May of last year and didn't get them until the end of August. Takes forever.

cSurfr · Jan 21, 2008, 11:39 AM

Originally Posted by jokell82

I sent off for mine in early May of last year and didn't get them until the end of August. Takes forever.

From what I understand, you don't always get the movies you pick either.

starman · Jan 21, 2008, 11:45 AM

Heh. By the time you get the movies, HD-DVD will be dead and buried

jokell82 · Jan 21, 2008, 12:18 PM

Originally Posted by cSurfr

From what I understand, you don't always get the movies you pick either.

I got lucky - I got the movies I picked with no damage to the cases (sometimes they destroy the UPC code by drilling through the case). Of course I didn't really want any of them so they're still in their shrink wrap on my shelf...

Chongo · Jan 21, 2008, 12:32 PM

My movies arrived in 6 weeks. "The Thing" is one of my favorite movies, as is "Full Metal Jacket". I haven't had time to look at the others yet( "Black Rain", "Rattle and Hum", and "The Italian Job")

Eug · Jan 21, 2008, 01:12 PM

Too funny.

R&B Films to Exclude HD DVD for Future Releases : Format War Central

Richard Casey of R&B Films (who have released Chronos and Nature’s Beauty on both HD formats) has announced that "we are excluding HD-DVD with respect to our future releases" in a forum posting on blu-ray.com.

Richard said that this decision was made prior to Warner’s decision announcement and he cited "experience with the HD-DVD audience and the abuse I took in the AVS Forum" as his motivation to drop HD DVD support.

Dakar the Fourth · Jan 21, 2008, 01:14 PM

Abuse? I'd love to read that.

Eug · Jan 21, 2008, 01:21 PM

Same here. I hadn't heard anything about it until now, and I didn't know who this guy was either until now.

Anyways, whoever he is, it sounds like a couple of HD DVD geeks pissed him off and he now is holding a grudge against the entire format. So either he's a complete crybaby, or else he's very shrewd and he's using this as a way to generate free advertising.

starman · Jan 21, 2008, 01:32 PM

With respect to this whole HDTV thing, I noticed over the last few days that there are a LOT more HD commercials now. If HD wasn't such a big deal, why bother making commercials in HD?

Dakar the Fourth · Jan 21, 2008, 01:35 PM

I always find it amusing when commercials are in HD. Living in an area where I've heard idiots complaining about the blackbars on their tv from DVDs, I can only hope they find this new development highly irritating.

analogue SPRINKLES · Jan 21, 2008, 01:44 PM

Originally Posted by Lateralus

And with a track record like Sony's, why would anybody buy a PS3 for the Blu-ray drive?

Lets see, best industrial design in the electronic consumer space next to Apple.
Great quality and support.
They sell it to me at a loss.
It does TONS more than just play a movie.

I don't see what is wrong with my choice. Should I have got a junkie overpriced Samsung stand along player instead?

Eug · Jan 21, 2008, 01:53 PM

Originally Posted by Dakar the Fourth

I always find it amusing when commercials are in HD. Living in an area where I've heard idiots complaining about the blackbars on their tv from DVDs, I can only hope they find this new development highly irritating.

What's worse is a 16:9 commercial letterboxed in a 4:3 frame, which in turn is pillarboxed inside a 16:9 channel.

I see this all the time on some HDTV channels. WTF?!?!?

jokell82 · Jan 21, 2008, 01:56 PM

Originally Posted by Eug

Same here. I hadn't heard anything about it until now, and I didn't know who this guy was either until now.

Anyways, whoever he is, it sounds like a couple of HD DVD geeks pissed him off and he now is holding a grudge against the entire format. So either he's a complete crybaby, or else he's very shrewd and he's using this as a way to generate free advertising.

When one of his movies came out there was a huge to-do on AVS about video quality and audio quality. He claimed that he "maxed out" both formats, and the video differences weren't noticeable. But I believe he included another audio format option on the Blu-Ray that wasn't on the HD DVD. There was a HUGE thread about it and my guess is that if he got any grief from some of the more vocal users there it was in that thread.

Originally Posted by analogue SPRINKLES

Lets see, best industrial design in the electronic consumer space next to Apple.
Great quality and support.
They sell it to me at a loss.
It does TONS more than just play a movie.

I don't see what is wrong with my choice. Should I have got a junkie overpriced Samsung stand along player instead?

Not sure I'd call the PS3 good industrial design. It's well designed internally, but it's ugly as hell.

Dakar the Fourth · Jan 21, 2008, 01:56 PM

I get the inverse (4:3 shows, pillarboxed on 16:9 programs, letterboxed for 4:3 SDTV) from PBS documentaries and History channel programs I've been catching. I dunno, I find it amusing just because of the ludicrousness of it all.

Brien · Jan 21, 2008, 02:15 PM

Originally Posted by jokell82

When one of his movies came out there was a huge to-do on AVS about video quality and audio quality. He claimed that he "maxed out" both formats, and the video differences weren't noticeable. But I believe he included another audio format option on the Blu-Ray that wasn't on the HD DVD. There was a HUGE thread about it and my guess is that if he got any grief from some of the more vocal users there it was in that thread.

Not sure I'd call the PS3 good industrial design. It's well designed internally, but it's ugly as hell.

Nah, just bulky. I like the piano black look. Chrome I could've done without.

analogue SPRINKLES · Jan 21, 2008, 02:20 PM

Originally Posted by jokell82

\\
Not sure I'd call the PS3 good industrial design. It's well designed internally, but it's ugly as hell.

Well it is personal opinion but I think it looks sexy. My sister who never comments on this sort of thing also brought it up once.

It looks better to me than any game system before it especially next to the xbox 360.

I mean to watch an HD-DVD on the xbox you got One big assed power supply 3x the size of a Wii, an big white box that looks like an old compaq PC and an ugly add on HD-DVD drive circa 2001. And the worst part is at the end of that it is a windtunnel with the fans, the disks spin loudly and it is unreliable as all hell.

The PS3 is whisper quite and there is about 2 cases of a PS3 failing.

Eug · Jan 21, 2008, 02:25 PM

FWIW...

I think the Wii is the cutest, and the PS3 is the purdiest of the three consoles. I think the 360 is rather fugly, like in a curvy Viper sort of way. (And yeah I know, car analogies always suck.)

analogue SPRINKLES · Jan 21, 2008, 02:25 PM

Originally Posted by Eug

What's worse is a 16:9 commercial letterboxed in a 4:3 frame, which in turn is pillarboxed inside a 16:9 channel.

I see this all the time on some HDTV channels. WTF?!?!?

Oh ya I see this 10x a day also. So many commercials are filmed in 4:3 and then they add black bars to make it look letterboxed and all fancy but on a widescreen TV it just looks ridiculous.

jokell82 · Jan 21, 2008, 02:48 PM

Originally Posted by analogue SPRINKLES

Well it is personal opinion but I think it looks sexy. My sister who never comments on this sort of thing also brought it up once.

It looks better to me than any game system before it especially next to the xbox 360.

I mean to watch an HD-DVD on the xbox you got One big assed power supply 3x the size of a Wii, an big white box that looks like an old compaq PC and an ugly add on HD-DVD drive circa 2001. And the worst part is at the end of that it is a windtunnel with the fans, the disks spin loudly and it is unreliable as all hell.

The PS3 is whisper quite and there is about 2 cases of a PS3 failing.

The rounded top/side is the ugly part IMO. Looks like a grill.

And I said nothing about design of the other consoles. Just because one thing looks better than another doesn't mean it looks good. An HP laptop may look better than a Compaq, but they're both still ugly.

analogue SPRINKLES · Jan 21, 2008, 02:54 PM

Originally Posted by jokell82

The rounded top/side is the ugly part IMO. Looks like a grill.

The Xbox seems like it could use some as its problems come from the heatsync. Perhaps it would be as reliable as the PS3 then.

jokell82 · Jan 21, 2008, 03:02 PM

Originally Posted by analogue SPRINKLES

The Xbox seems like it could use some as its problems come from the heatsync. Perhaps it would be as reliable as the PS3 then.

It could use some what? Rounded tops? I have no idea what you mean.

mrtew · Jan 21, 2008, 03:40 PM

Originally Posted by jokell82

The rounded top/side is the ugly part IMO. Looks like a grill.

Originally Posted by analogue SPRINKLES

The Xbox seems like it could use some as its problems come from the heatsync. Perhaps it would be as reliable as the PS3 then.

Originally Posted by jokell82

It could use some what? Rounded tops? I have no idea what you mean.

Grills, dude. Grills. (Geez I thought you were just pretending to be dense.)

Dakar the Fourth · Jan 21, 2008, 03:43 PM

It's interesting what we can argue about now that the format war is pretty much resolved.

jokell82 · Jan 21, 2008, 04:05 PM

Originally Posted by mrtew

Grills, dude. Grills. (Geez I thought you were just pretending to be dense.)

Yeah, except I was referring to a grill:

mrtew · Jan 21, 2008, 04:26 PM

Are you grilling pickles at the front there or what?

jokell82 · Jan 21, 2008, 04:45 PM

Looks like they're green peppers - but you'd have to ask Asian George there.

Eug · Jan 21, 2008, 04:53 PM

I do that all the time. Green peppers, red onions and zucchini are great on the grill. Haven't tried it on a PS3 though yet.

Oh, and while the PS3 isn't my fave in terms of looks for a stereo system, I don't get the grill analogy. Does the Ken K. Foreman grill look like that or something? I did find this though.

P.S. I was considering a hi-def burner for work. It looks like it will likely have to be a Blu-ray burner. Desktop HD DVD burners still are pretty much non-existent, and the only combo burner available for a reasonable price is actually only a Blu-ray burner and HD DVD-ROM.

However, given the cost of the media (on both sides), I think I will tough it out with DVD-R for the time being.

analogue SPRINKLES · Jan 21, 2008, 05:48 PM

New evidence that Paramount is going Blu? - Engadget HD

angelmb · Jan 21, 2008, 05:55 PM

IMHO it is all about retrospective memory, the original xbox was so ugly than any improvement, even the slightest one, is going to be perceived as a huge accolade. The PS2 looked much better and its last slim iteration was really easy on the eyes, while you can argue about the PS3 looking like an old PS2 with a new facade made by Frank O. Gehry it is due it has a resemblance as opposed to the 360 which looks damn fresh… if only you put it side by side with the first xbox. So yes, the 360 is just MS at its best, trying to look a nice gizmo but failing to… cause the 360 dashboard is a pain, the system reliability is worse than european dot mac service and what not… just hiring an external studio to design your hardware doesn't make you cooler cause the brains -software wise- like it or not are still in Redmond.

I haven't tested a PS3 yet, but at least, SONY has style and good taste, I have had plenty of SONY stuff albeit audio, video and old MSX computers and all them had some kind of genious touches. It only takes you to check the PS3 themes to get the idea, there is creative people working there, they CARE about it. Albeit it is a pity the gamepad looks so dated. Yes, you can back your discussion assets telling about how people doesn't need to accommodate to a new gamepad and what not… but Wii and 360 would prove you wrong, the Wiimote is awesome if you have the creativeness to get the best of it, the 360 gamepad is really good, they brought the original xbox gamepad to the drawing board and wondered why that thing sucked too much and did solve it perfectly. SONY preferred continuity, damn boring continuity, sure the boomerang concept was all about fireworks but come on, don't give up and evolve the old boy cause as I told you before, a slight enhancement can do wonders anytime anywhere.

As for how related is rootkits, DRMs are to PS3… I don't think that's a fair scenario, your dad being an asshole doesn't make you to be another one as long as you have a brain… or how you could have heard "By the time a man realizes that maybe his father was right, he usually has a son who thinks he's wrong".
It is like blaming Rolls Royce powerplant engineers cause such luxury car maker gets the car's inner leather from 16 cows and wood from six different kind of trees to create the 'ambiente' of a damn Phantom unit, just one car. I blame rich people liking to play diva 24:7 for it.

Last but not least, I laugh (kind of) when I heard about the PS3 is expensive (or any other gaming system for that matter), sure the PS3 is more expensive than the Wii and the 360 but come on, how would anyone justify to spend over 300 euros on a damn nVidia GPU to… well, play games on a PC instead getting the whole, functional, with a span life over five years thing?, now that's expensive my friend.

Eug · Jan 21, 2008, 06:00 PM

Last but not least, I laugh (kind of) when I heard about the PS3 is expensive (or any other gaming system for that matter), sure the PS3 is more expensive than the Wii and the 360 but come on, how would anyone justify to spend over 300 euros on a damn nVidia GPU to… well, play games on a PC instead getting the whole, functional, with a span life over five years thing?, now that's expensive my friend.

People calling the PS3 expensive don't generally spend 300 Euros on a PC gaming GPU either.

analogue SPRINKLES · Jan 21, 2008, 06:14 PM

Originally Posted by Eug

The sad truth is that that grill still looks better than the same setup with a 360:

icruise · Jan 21, 2008, 06:32 PM

I think we're getting a tad off track again, folks...

analogue SPRINKLES · Jan 21, 2008, 06:36 PM

Time Warner not in sync with HBO online videos, usage caps

Denon's DVD-3800BD Blu-ray player delayed until March - Engadget HD

Better?

mrtew · Jan 21, 2008, 07:15 PM

Originally Posted by icruise

I think we're getting a tad off track again, folks...

You're the one that refuses to close a dead thread! OK, I'll give it a try.... I think Blu-ray is going to increase sales this year and HD is going to go downhill. Just a guess.

analogue SPRINKLES · Jan 21, 2008, 07:20 PM

Originally Posted by mrtew

You're the one that refuses to close a dead thread! OK, I'll give it a try.... I think Blu-ray is going to increase sales this year and HD is going to go downhill. Just a guess.

In all seriousness that about sums it up and I don't see what else there is to talk about unless there is some MAJOR change coming up.

Atomic Rooster · Jan 21, 2008, 07:29 PM

This thread has been hangin' around for a lonnnng time.

My two pesos...I'm fine with my DVDs and DVD player that can play DivX.

I posted in this historic thread.