OK, so Sony just announced a new standalone blu-ray player.
Nothing too shocking there, right?
But what if it was cheaper than the PS3?
Some places are already
speculating about the potential impact this will have on Sony in general, competing blu-ray players and, of course, the PS3.
The first question is obviously "will this affect the price of the PS3?", since the consensus seems to be that price is the limiting factor on PS3 sales.
The second question is then "how will this new player affect PS3 sales?" Sony are effectively undercutting themselves here, especially if you assume that some of the people buying the PS3 just wanted a blu-ray player and that his segment of the PS3 owning demographic will jump ship to the new player immediately.
So, is this another boneheaded move on Sony's part, liable to destroy them within five years, or is it actually a subtle move to placate those game publishers who worry that the "oh, we just wanted a blu-ray player" crowd is bigger than anyone thought?
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I can only assume (emphasis on assumption) that they might be planning a price drop to separate the PS3 from the Blu-Ray player to try and actually get some game sales in.
I think this can be summed up as 'company makes business decision about a product line as component costs fall'. I don't think it'll make a difference to games, or the minute High Definition movie market at the moment.
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If stand alone players are $1000 and the PS3 is $600, the PS3 is a good deal, as you get the funtionality of the stand alone, plus a game system, plus some other functionality, for a cheaper price.
If the stand alone players are say $400-$500 and the PS3 is $600, yeah it's more, but you also get a game system as well as other functionality, so you are paying a premium for additional functionality.
If the stand alone players are $200 and the PS3 is $600 - lol sony
I doubt it will be lol sony cheaper.
somewhere around 3 million PS3s have sold worldwide.
A smidge over a million Blu Ray movies have been sold. Period.
Movies have not been the deciding factor in anything that has gone on as of late.
Trust me, as an owner of over 60 HD-DVDs AND a console that would benefit by Sony screwing the pooch a bit more, I would love to see this hurt both the Blu Ray and the PS3 front... but in all honesty, it is likely to do neither, and will probably help the Blu Ray side, which is begging for a standalone player that has a chance of being competitively priced.
Let's play Mario Kart or something...
But is this the sort of thing that would precipitate a price "readjustment" or are Sony going to plough any gains from having cheaper lasers (the root of the cheaper player) into making it not lose as much money?
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I think it was around the same price as the now discontinued 20 gig PS3.
PS3 games are on Blu ray discs.
All PS3 games whether they need it or not are being pressed on Blu Ray discs.
They come in 25 and 50 gb formats.
Let's play Mario Kart or something...
All PS3 games are on Blu-ray as well, but the entire point of using Blu-ray as a gaming medium so far has been moot.
Slurpee's post makes me ask this though: Do you mean that no games have taken advantage of the blu-ray's storage capacity?
Whereas, 360 games are on DVDs? Isn't using Blu-Ray discs for games a bit unnecessary at this point in time?
I would rather see PS3 games on DVD with the ability to buy a PS3 without the Blu-Ray player
Well, I think Resistance clocked in bigger than a normal DVD would hold, but then there is the question of if they actually needed that space or not. Honestly, this topic alone would fill it's own thread (and has). . .
If you don't have an HDTV its absolutely pointless.
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There are Blu-ray games that are physically larger than the 9 gigs of a normal DVD, but the read speed requires much of the game's data to be pressed repetitively on the disc in numerous areas or to be installed on the PS3's hard drive. Even certain games that can fit on a normal DVD require a hard drive install (Spider-Man, for example).
There have been numerous arguments on whether the capacity of the Blu-ray for gaming on the PS3 is useful at all right now, but the general concensus is that it will be MUCH better utilized in the future. How far in the future though is anyone's guess.
Higher resolution. Higher bit rate soundtrack. Longer movie or series on fewer discs. This would be the case for both HDDVD and Bluray vs. DVD . . .
That's the problem with HD movie formats (Blu-ray and HD-DVD). Most people (and by that, I don't mean us technophiles) think that DVD is just peachy, and can't really tell the difference between 480p and 720/1080 or don't really care. It doesn't help that much HD content isn't filmed with cameras that take full advantage of the extra resolution either.
There IS a noticeable difference though. Watch something like Planet Earth on Discovery HD, and you'll be amazed how gorgeous it is. DVD can't do that. But until more content like that is available, most folks just won't care.
I would probably count myself in there too. If HD content is available, sure I'll take advantage of it. But DVD is fine enough for me too.
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lords of dogtown and spider-man 3 don't count
Do you see the mistake here?
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Ah okay, it's appealing to those who crave quality like no other. Gotcha. (I can't really say I'm one myself)
So faster blu-ray drives would be a big help, right? Accessing the data quicker seems to be the solution.
Aside from a true HD picture, even more impressive than a standard DVD, you get full 7.1 audio in a lossless format. Now for the average consumer both these things aren't all that vital, but for video and audio enthusiasts its a step up and something desirable.
EDIT: I was beat 3-fold.
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Yeah, it's my opinion. But seeing how blu-ray movies haven't picked up that well, I think it's safe to assume that people bought their ps3 to play games, for the most part.
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Yeah, that was something I learned in my film classes during highschool. It doesn't matter how the final content is shown. How it was recorded makes a big difference too. Hell, this was in 2002/2003, which is when (if I remember correctly) filming with digital cameras was becoming more standard. I remember my teacher noting that the new Star Wars trilogy was special in that it was filmed in digital format.
Edit - I'm going to note here that I personally haven't seen anything in HD myself. I don't know how much of a big difference it makes. DVD, however, is a format I feel is perfectly fine. Maybe when I see HD that'll change. Who knows. I'm just Joe Schmoe.
It may very well never be a solution for the PS3, though. They could theoretically slap in a faster drive, but all games would have to be designed with the assumption that the slower drive is used.
Faster disc access is not a solution in and of itself. Getting it off of the disc is the first step. Moving it around the system would be another, as well as the amount of RAM there is to store it in. It's great if you can make twice as much water come out of a faucet, but if the hose that's connected and the bucket you are filling are still the same size, you still run into a bottleneck . .
But since you were in film class you would also know that actual film has plenty of resolution for any of our current and most future HD formats.
Ack, and I doubt developers would want to run another print with discs at higher speeds. Again, things I forget to consider.
@The Burnin8or: More to consider, and more to up the cost I suppose. Aside from the actual RAM size, the access speed too. I really need to remember these things are essentially computers. >.<
I'm sure that would help, but unfortunately, the PS3 is already out with the current speed drive.
Plus, and I'm not an expert on this, but apparently the PS3 is limited spec wise (its ram or video ram or something along those lines), so even if the disc spun a million times faster, the PS3 itself might not be able to process that much data at one time. Like I said, I have very little knowledge on this subject, but I'm sure someone will come along to fill in the details.
Mix all that, along with hard drive installation and much of that 25 gigs filled with repetitive data, with the "$599 olol", and you might be able to see why people are so angry about Sony sacrificing its most popular (and most profitable) brand to plug in an overpriced product to win a format war in a completely different industry.
Analysts are notoriously crap in making future predictions, but they're great at finding out current inner workings in companies that we normally don't hear about. Several of them have mentioned that Sony is going to drastically lower production of the PS3 to sell off the current (sizeable) inventory, which will take a while. It's not much of a stretch to interpret that (as many have) as a sign that we won't see a price drop for quite some time, maybe not even this year. Dropping the price on existing inventory would cause them to lose even more money per unit, even if production costs have dropped.
Anyway, I think the price drop on Sony's Blu-ray player is simply the result of dropping production costs and a desire to compete with HD-DVD, which has a $300 player at this point.
My first experience with actual HD content was with NFL football. Hot damn.
Nowadays though, you should be able to walk into any Sears, Best Buy, Costco, etc. and check out all the HD content there. For some reason though, being bombarded at all sides with HD stuff isn't as neat as just being at someone's house (or your own) and watching some quality HDTV show/movie/sport in a living room. (Maybe it's just me?)
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its this part right here thats being discussed.
We're talking about that small fraction of people that would have bought a PS3 for the blu-ray player.
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The problem with walking into places that offer displays is that they aren't configured properly. The contrast is fucked, too bright, and sometimes there's blurry-as-hell screens set up. Technically I've seen HDTV, but until I see a TV that's fucking configured properly, I won't know what it really can bring.
I'd actually appreciate seeing DVD on one screen and HD on another. It's the only way I can make a real comparison. I'm quirky like that.
There's a big danger in telling a parts company you're going to slow down your ordering...
I work for Agilent we're actually in that business