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Sony Announces a Super Playstation 2, the "PSX"
Doctor_No writes "Sony has announced a souped-up Playstation 2 in Japan. The machine, named the "PSX", comes with 120GB hard drive and a DVD+/-RW for recording videos and DVR features much like
Sony's Cocoon.
The machine will be released sometime in 2003, and come with a service that offers multimedia content such as video and music through internet
connectivity. If you live in Japan, it will also come with a BS
tuner; which is a Japanese Satellite Broadcast tuner. The new
machine also boasts a real-time OS, USB 2.0, Memorystick slot, and a
connection with Sony's Portable handheld, the "PSP".
UBS Warburg has an article here,
but these two Japanese sites offer better information (albeit in
Japanese); Watch
Impress, ZDnet
Japan. Here is a rather large PDF presentation."
Beautiful...
Mother is the best bet and don't let Satan draw you too fast.
English versions of the japanese sites
Actually, with Sony, there's no need for step 2.
Stupid sexy Flanders.
Unless Japan suddenly becomes the 51st state of the USA, no. RIAA/MPAA are American organizations. Other countries should tell them to buzz off.
Sony held a press conference on the 28th to present their 2003 corporate direction. President Kutaragi announced their new platform, the PSX. It is planned to be released domestically within the year, with a North American and European release following in 2004.
The PSX uses the same chips and OS as the PS2. It will be a new platform providing not only gaming capabilities, but also containing a TV/BS analog tuner and delivering DVD recording functionality and acting as a 120GB HDD recorder.
In addition to a slot-in type DVD+-RW/-R, it also has a Memory Stivk slot, an Ethernet port and a USB2.0 port.
The company declared that they "aim to take advantage of the combination of electronics and gaming, and through the use of the most advanced semiconductor technology for game machines and a real-time OS, we plan to deliver this high quality, high speed response DVD/HDD recorder within the year."
Kutaragi said the X is intended to indicate the machine's "crossover" role between digital home electronics and gaming, as well as show their enthusiasm for the "eXtreme" nature of this ultimate expression of the PS2 platform. He also provided a demonstration of the machine.
In the demo, he displayed the machine's newly-developed interfaces, and showed it conducting video playback. He demonstrated the highly responsive menu system in an attempt to refute the reputation digital home electronics have for slowness. He explained, "we have been thinking about how far we can take the PS2 engine as a home electronics device, and we wished to demonstrate how much we can change digital home electronics by using this engine."
In addition, he demonstrated the machine's interface as a photo server and discussed the machine's attractiveness as a digital media server.
No details were given of the machine's implementation of I/O ports and recording methods, but regarding DRM, he said, "it is a very serious problem. Protecting the rights of copyright holders is important, but at the same time users desire to be able to enjoy (it) easily and conveniently." In order to fulfill these requirements, he explained that the latest DRM technology would be used. "We are thinking of including a signal in the analog output to prevent copying", he said, and regarding digital broadcasts, explained that "the industry has not yet come to a consensus, so we are intending to include a preliminary implementation."
The PSX is not a product of SCEI, but rather the BroadBand Network Company, part of the main Sony company and headed by Kutaragi. There was no comment on the price.
Can anyone explain to me what a "real-time OS" is?
real-time OS
I'll be teaching remedial googling later.
Quick translation from the Watch Impress article:
"Although the types of inputs and outputs on the PSX have not been made clear, they explained that copyright protection would be a main concern. They stated that such protection is very important, but they are aware that users want to use the machine freely, and the newest DRM technologies would be incorporated. 'We are considering including a signal in the analog output that would prevent copying.' They went on to explain that, since a consensus had yet to be reached regarding digital transmissions, that they would make it compatible with a tentative standard."
the blurb from Sony talks about a 65nm fabrication process .. isn't that 0.065 um? i've lost of track of silicon nowadays but isn't that bloody tiny?
version 0.0002
Very creative, but utterly wrong.
It's abbreviated to PSX because the Playstation is desended from the failed Super NES CD.
Alongside the SNES add-on, Sony were going to launch their own "SNES CD" without a cart slot which would be called "Playstation X". The product name stuck right up until the launch of the 32-bit box of tricks we now know when the X was dropped.
But the apprev stuck.
I'm not sure if or what Japan's version of the MPAA is.
Here are some pictures of the PSX's main menu screen taken from a news
segment that Fuji television in Japan aired (Quiter
and ZDnet).
The images show how you will be able to navigate content stored on your
HDD, DVD, as well as content offered from online places like Sony Music.
The menu offers 3D "Jog-style" navigation. The article also has a quote from
Sony executives saying that the PSX will be the "Home Server" for it's consumers
and be a global product (with releases scheduled in the US and Europe).
They're in a weird situation where they can't release the cool new devices for listening to music and video that other companies are, because they're percieved as encouraging piracy, and movies & videos is where Sony makes the money. Sony MP3 players suck because of the hostile DRM check-in/check-out system. Even minidisc.org peoples (a cult audience for sure) are ready to ditch MDs, frustrated by having to workaround the check-in system, and that you can't upload (when many MD users like bootlegging)
This (and more especially, the PSP) seem like an attempt to use the insanely positive perception of their Playstation to piggyback onto other formats - for instance, the PSP will be released at the same time as a media player, which plays music/video off the little discs.
By itself, the PSP shouldn't be a good format - you can't record to it, it doesn't have the information of a DVD-Audio or SACD, and by the time it comes out, smart media cards will be both smaller and hold more information. Sony's hoping people buy the PSP and its audio discs because they like that it's Sony, rather than quality of the product, and the dominant format will be a DRM one.
This new product seems like it will be one of many by the time it reaches America - except, it'll have tighter DRM, and Sony controls it. A hard drive and a DVD writer. A start-up company could release one of these next month.
Personally I don't think either scheme will work - it's more a desperate move by a company that's doing bad business, has promised in two years to do amazing business (a promise recieved skeptically by analysts), and has its hands tied by conflicting interests in its unprofitable hardware business, and its profitable software business.
I'm not a Sony expert or whatever, but I have friends who work for Sony Japan, I read minidisc.org, and one can't help but hear about them. The general positivity of this discussion is annoying. Sony is no better than the often-targetted MS, they just have better marketing.
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