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Sony To Ship Enhanced PSX Console/DVR Combo
bluethundr writes "The Register has posted a story indicating that Sony will ship the new PSX models on July 1 (Japan first, Europe to follow, then - eventually released to us Yanks?) following the company's move to suspend production of the original model of PlayStation 2/digital video recorder hybrid, earlier this year. Apparently: 'The new models, the DESR-5100 and DESR-7100, offer the same storage capacity - 160GB and 250GB, respectively - as their predecessors, the DESR-5000 and DESR- 7000. What's changed is the introduction of a better graphical user interface and the ability to add DVD-style menus to content copied from the unit's hard drive to a DVD-R, DVD-RW or DVD+RW disc.' Sony also appears to have added a range of extra video recording modes to maximise the amount of programming that can be stored on the PSX's hard drive."
One of the major selling points of the original PS2 was that DVD players were still fairly expensive, but gaining popularity. For the price of a nice DVD player, you could get that and much more. I don't see that happening with the PSX, but only time will tell.
Disconnect and self-destruct, one bullet at a time.
I just don't understand why they don't focus more (read: release) the PS3 instead of this intermediate step with the PSX. I just don't see something so expensive taking off when the same things can be had for pennies on the dollar. No.. a PS3.. A think there would be a lot of people able to fork over some dough for that beast.
Hmmm.
Almost $900 for a PVR / Playstation 2? That's a bit pricey for a gaming console which i'm sure will be (already is?) obsolete.
Acronym time : DIY PVR IMO. FU PS2/PVR DRM.
The PSX includes a TV recorder, a large hard drive, and a DVD burner to save recorded TV shows. Comparable products that don't require a full PC sell for over $800 -- and they don't play PS2 games, either.
You can put together the hardware for $350, but you assume (rightly so, around here) that everyone has a free powerful computer to put it all in, and nobody minds a cheap uninsulated case sitting next to their TV to encode everything.
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Well currently they are still winning w/their PS2 console. They can hold out for a while longer in comfort before MS may/may not beat them to the punch on the next generation.
I'd prefer that they be working solely towards releasing the PS3 but that's just wishful thinking.
Sure, enough people would be willing for fork over the dough for the PS3 but they seem to be betting on the possiblity that people will fork over the dough for this one...
The 160 GB model of the PSX costs $676 with a pretty unfavorable dollar-to-yen ratio right now. An off-the-shelf x86 PC isn't designed to encode video, so you'll need a pretty powerful CPU to keep up.
Price it out, including $x for your time. In the end, you'll see the same split as with TiVo: people willing to pay $600 for a solution that works out of the box, and people willing to spend $800 to build their own box and shout down everyone else.
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65nm, 300mm wafer.
"Cell is going to be like IBM's Deep Blue integrated on one chip," said Ken Kutaragi, chief executive officer of SCEI, referring to IBM's chess-playing supercomputer, which is based on a massively parallel architecture.
"One Cell processor will have, say, 1 teraflops performance. One thousand Cells make 1 petaflops performance. Then 1,000 of these 1,000 Cells can combine.
"We are planning to create a processor architecture that makes this network connection possible. We will focus on processors. The day when processors can truly link together will surely come. This project is such a huge challenge," said Kutaragi.
Seems pretty damned focussed to me. The Cell chip looks to be well on schedule..
But I know what you mean; I'd like to have one next week, too. How much do you think a prototype Cell chip would cost?
I survived the Dick Cheney Presidency 7 to 9 AM 7-21-07