Slashdot Mirror
PS3 to Act as Digital Video Recorder?
PS3 Evolution writes "Ars Technica has some new info regarding the PS3 and PSP Connectivity, and explores claims that the console will be a Digital Video Recorder." From the article: "An 'accessory' for the PSP is going to be a device that can connect to the PS3 for interactive gaming, video sharing, and probably music synchronization. Think about it: you're Sony, and you have the PSP. The device is in the same price league as the iPod (although storage is more expensive), and the screen is better. You're also a content owner with fingers in movies, music, and television. Sony's efforts to-date with UMD offerings are only the opening salvos for the company. How do you go after iPod-like success? Like the iPod that is tethered to a computer, the PSP will be tethered to a PS3." Take with the usual recommended amount of salt.
Hmmmm, do I pick being able to swing Link's sword in my living room or not having to parse through my roommate's Fox & WB fodder to get to my Aqua Teen
*head explodes*
I know the rest of this post is painfully offtopic but I'll take the karma hit for those of you that like trivia.
The saying "with a grain of salt" refers way back to its Latin phrase, "cum grano salis." Pliny the Elder wrote about a poison that had an antidote that needed to be taken with a grain of salt. Since said antidote was known by Pliny, any threats involving the known poison were said to be taken "with a grain of salt" meaning they were not to be taken seriously or to be believed since the antidote was on hand. Another take on it from Maven's Words:
My work here is dung.
thats it... PS3 just won the console war going to have to get like one of these for each room (after I make a couple million to be able to afford that...)
30% Troll, 50% Underrated, 10% Interesting
Score:5, Troll
Old news - the technology's called LocationFree, the LocationFree player was already included in PSP firmware 2.5, as was already reported here, with the PS3 as PVR story repeated too many times to even bother pointing you there.
It'll also play PS1 & PS2 games, act as an electronic secretary, automatically sort your socks, render the special effects in LOTR in real time and double your TV resolution. Meanwhile, if you plug in your PSP into the PS3 it'll make it play all of Nintendo's portable games as well as all of the Xbox games available. A software update late next year will allow the PS3 to play Xbox 360 at twice the speed.
Seriously, doesn't anyone remember the hype that surrounded the PS2? How much of that was true? Sony couldn't live up to it's OWN hype, nevermind what the press and fanboys came up with.
Don't be fucking idiots and charge an arm and a leg for storage on a MULTIMEDIA/gaming device. Hello, Sony??
Now, after seeing that the PS3 might be able to be a PVR, I would have to say this would change my mind of whether or not to purchase a gaming console. In the past, they could play DVDs, but I have a home theater system... But this would make me definately want to purchase a PS3. Not only would it play DVDs (with my HT System, but it would record TV for me... and Time Warner wants 415 a month for that... so it pays for itself over time.
The only question is... Will Sony make their PVR software able to understand the guide information coming through? Or would you need to hook the console to the internet to get a directory of whats on much like how my ATI All in Wonder does for when I have it record? Definately something worth while.
-- Josh
"Whoopie! Man, that may have been a small one for Neil, but that's a long one for me!" - Pete Conrad
If the PS3 has a DVR, that's no doubt a great thing to many people. If you see TV over regular coax cable or have over-the-air HDTV reception, this will be great. However, there's a ton of people who have subscribers (DirectTV, Comcast, Time-Warner, Dish) where AFAIK the only way to see expanded and/or HD content is through that content provider's digital set-top box.
The two workarounds would be to have inputs and outputs to record the content (analog) or to have a Cable Card slot. But Cable Cards usually have monthly fees attached to them about equal in price to the fees for the content provider's DVR.
What strikes me as interesting is that Sony wants people to believe that you can happily move around movies, music, TV shows to and from your PS3 and your PSP. Yet this same company is the one that doesn't let you rip CDs that you've already bought. What Sony is not saying is that you can move your purchased content around. (See Sony's answer to iTMS). I can't see this being an easy, open way to move around your media. Not with Sony.
Also, if consumers really wanted DVRs with their game machines, the PSX would've been a huge hit that Sony would've brought to territories outside of Japan.
Small potatoes make the steak look bigger.
Hypocrisy or just plain ignorance?
Left hand insists on bundling root kits, backing the *IAAs and curtailing purchasers rights wherever possible in the pursuit of profit.
Right hand wants you to freely copy from everyone else - assuming any kind of truth to these rumours. Bear in mind we've seen thus kind of U-turn before with MP3 players.
Either Sony are just too branched out to figure out a consistent stance on digital media and copyright or they're so old and cumbersome that they're beginning to suffer from the corporate equivalent of schizophrenia.
It bothers me only a little since I now boycott Sony thanks to the whole rootkit issue. I can understand the need for "light-touch" DRM (Fairplay etc.) but *any* DRM opens a door that we don't want opened and Sony's antics convinced me of that.
Besides all that, despite the high quality of the screen, I can't really see myself using any kind of handheld to play video on the go. Squinting at a tiny screen on the train seems somewhat pointless to me. Of course, that's just my take on it.
"...So I hung back and lurked. For 18 months. Can't beat a good old-fashioned lurking."
Sony bmg "destroys" your computer, sony is just a name with lots of subsidaries. Sure, in the end they are related, but to tie that directly with the playstation portion of their company is wrong.
Instead of UMD would you rather they make the psp twice it's size to fit in a cd? Do you complain about Nintendo's gameboy format? Then you top it off with complaining about the type of memory... What did you do when mobo manufacturers started using dimms instead of simms, or what about the transition from pci to pci-x to pci-e, wtf is this agp stuff? OMG the sky is falling, why are we using different kinds of technology for different applications?
you sir are a grade A moron.
*sniff sniff* Vaporware to me. It just seems like one of those things that are said, but are never really followed through (Remember the Super-Nintendo CD system that became the PS? Anyone?).
Sure it'd be "neat" and "handy" but at what cost? Will I be forced to pay a premium for this ability (Like the core and "ultra-mega-super-ultra-cool-badass" edition of the XBox 360) or will it be standard and come at no extra cost, if it's even made at all?
I Lost My Virginity While Waiting for BSD to Compile.
... and you'd be able to soak up CPU from all the other little PS3s around the world. Regardless of the fact that when you do the math, the moment you want any kind of frame rate, you're limited by the speed of light and the fact that to get out of your local hub takes 13ms.
Running a PVR on a PS3 doesn't make any sense - for the same reason it didn't make any sense to run a PVR on the XBOX360. I like my PVR to record things when they're on TV. I don't like having to STOP playing any games for the PVR to go off an do its business. If I have to give up CPU power to the PVR (which you do!), then my game experience will suffer.
Cramming a PVR in a console is a lousy idea. It was a lousy idea when Microsoft was playing around with it 4 years ago, and it's a lousy idea now.
I bought the PSP hoping for a complete platform with accessories, etc, since it is essentially a mini-computer. However, the things they showed at E3 a couple of years ago, including GPS, is not available. How lame is that?
I mean, I'm no genius, but it is apparent to me how useful this PSP would be if they had accessories such as a GPS unit, a TV over-the-air unit, some type of portable hard drive, etc. But after two years, it's still just a stupid video game platform and they haven't done anything to encourage broader use of it. Any ways of trying to expand the PSP uses was blocked by Sony itself.
I just saw that recently there was a translation device, but nothing really useful.
So all this talk about DVRs, etc... I'll believe it when I see it because I do not trust Sony one bit to actually come up with anything except for vaporware.
As for stopping a game to record tv. If the system is anythign like the PSX (the PS2 /w DVR that was Japanese only on the original release of the PS1) then the DVR will be a seperate system function and the recording will happen at the same time you play games without any loss of framerate or anything like that.
To date, there is no DVR/PVR available, unless it's TIVO or some box that you must buy directly from the cable company, that is worth buying.
Without built-in ability to access digital cable schedules and HDTV content, 3rd party DVR's are novelty items that find only limited functionality in the home. I bought a DVD-HDD DVR a few months ago and returned it, mostly because the ONLY way I could record content was to plug the video out of my Digital Cable box into the video in on the DVR, and then make sure I hit record when the television show started. There is no way to automatically schedule TV recording on 3rd party DVR boxes. The Cable companies won't allow Open cable standards to flourish, banking on proprietary cable technology to gain the extra $5-$10 a month renting boxes out generates.
Unless Sony builds a Cable Card slot into the PS3 (and US and Canadian cable companies actually start supporting Cable Cards), the DVR capabilities of the PS3 will be a novelty item, like the DVD player support in the PS2. A few people will find it handy, but most people will find it too cumbersome to use or have an existing solution that meets their needs. Without the ability to schedule Digital Cable recordings, or access HDTV content without the blessings of the Cable companies, the PS3's DVR capabilities will be greatly diminished.
Also, I am sure Sony will build in so much DRM protection schemes and other ways to prevent the PS3 from being an adequate DVR solution will make it suck as a DVR.
Sony is one of the few companies that are putting Cable Card slots into their TVs, so perhaps they will build them into the PS3. But this represents more technology to implement and license meaning that the cost of the PS3 will increase because of this feature.
That combined with the necessity of a hard drive means that the PS3 won't be cheap.
The PS3 doesn't, and shouldn't, be an all-in-one device. Playing back video, music, and photo slideshows is alright, these features can be added without any additional cost, but I would prefer if Sony focused on gaming and leave the superfluous features out of the PS3. Keep the price low and let people buy more robust and better implemented solutions elsewhere.
I haven't thought of anything clever to put here, but then again most of you haven't either.
The PS3 is sounding dangerously vaporous, and adding new vapor features doesn't help. Seriously, the conventional wisdom on this was that we'd see a Spring launch in Japan, and Fall in North America. Well, Spring is getting pretty close, and the only news in the PS3 camp is that blogging on how it's too hard to develop for and not really "next gen" gets you fired.
Whatever the PS3 ends up being, I no longer expect to see it in 2006.
Because tonight I am setting up VLC to send my America's Army video at 320x240 over my lan to my pocket pc, which will transport back wireless controls, allowing me to export my entire AA experience to a portable device. Now I can hide in the cupboard and play AA, while imagining people are looking for me.
.1 seconds lag, I think that would be teh fun.
What has this got to do with the story? Well, I have a PDA that runs a GBA emu, and a PC that runs lots of EMU's, and if I can export them to my PDA with
And I have a PVR in my PC. so ner. seriously, anyone ever done this?
#hostfile 0.0.0.0 primidi.com 0.0.0.0 www.primidi.com 0.0.0.0 radio.weblogs.com
I wish someone, well no, I wish I did this. I wish someone would keep track of all the Hyped-up stuff that they say about their consoles before launch. I remember how the PS2 was going to include face recognizition in all games, the broadband connector would allow it to become a media hub, blah blah blah.
So here we are hearing it will have record capabilities. It'll revolutionize the way people use their video game consoles for the next decade. What is it? Oh. its some 3rd party pledging to port MythTV to the PS3 (I'm making that part up.)
Anyway, anything I hear about Sony's consoles before launch I ignore. At Launch it'll be an evolutionary product, not a revolutionary product like their marketing machine wants us to believe.
I have to go, I left my emotion engine running.
I have one full-length movie (about 2 hours) in HD (1920x1080). It is a bit over 11 GB. Just a stat based on my observation.
The difference between spam and poop is that you don't have to dig through septic tanks looking for real food. -- Me
The information about the PS3s working in a grid was just the system designer throwing out his crazied dreams like normal. He has good idea that could create an incredible product, but he doesn't always stick around in reality on what is even possible.
Doesn't help when they keep throwing out misinformation and vaporware like that on a regular basis though. I'm past my trust threshold on those guys.
Streaming content from the PS3 to the PSP is a killer app.
If it's a fully funtioned at the existing Location Free player, you don't even need the PS3 to perform the PVR functions. It can just front-end an existing Tivo. This platform looks to be the living room convergence box that we've all been hearing about for so long...
Game Console - Location Free Base - DVD Player - Blu-ray Player - Front end for Streaming Media
I am so glad I didn't get a 360...
For those that would die defending it, Freedom
has a sweet taste that the protected will never know.
"Sony destroys your computer, insists that you accept such insipid formats as UMD and Memory Stick PRO Duo with MagicGate, and denies any wrongdoing."
What's wrong with UMD? Rootkits and MagicGate I can understand, but UMD...?
"I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)
How do you go after iPod-like success?
Dear Sony: Try not sucking.
Let us just briefly analysis this one, shall we: ... that's all I can think of just now, but I'm confident that with a bit more careful analysis we'd be able to put a nail in the coffin of this hype material.
- No confirmed hard-disk - Hard-disk is essential for the PVR functions- ok, maybe it will be sold seperately, but as it stands, we almost certainly won't get out of the box PVR.
- Region Issues- From a technical point of view there are HUNDREDS of TV standards out there, more so if you include analogue and digital based broadcasters all over the world. Sony plans to sell the console in lots of countries- thus you have to create a compatible recording device for various video signals - unless you simply get a bog-standard VCR like device that can't change the channel on your TV, let alone your set-top box (this, friends, seems to me to be the biggest issue and reason why this is almost defintely vapourware). TV Listings over the net would require extensive partnerships across the world to create a worldwide TV Guide...
- Copyright issues- Sony like copyright. Ripping content to a hard-drive is a security risk- they would much rather sell you it in DRM'd format over the net.
- Where's the $$$? - What benefits will Sony get from combining PVR with the PS3- they already sell PVR devices (DVD-recorders, HardDisk recorders, etc.) and locationfree devices - all of these will suffer if they the features are stuffed into one, very popular, device. It'll cost them more money per console and cost them lost sales- where's the business plan?
- HD Content and Hard-disks- HD Content eats up HD space faster than regular content- sony can't afford the extra hard-drive costs if they want to keep the rest of the specs reasonable and not sell the console at a reasonable loss level.
- Sony are a "super-dooper" hype company. They have a habit of going a bit Over the Top (though I do love my VAIO laptop!)
The only thing that saves us from the bureaucracy is its inefficiency (Eugene McCarthy)
Two words: no UMD-R drive*.
* UMD-R is not a word.
"Two words: no UMD-R drive*."
So? Don't get me wrong, I'd love to see one, but I can't imagine getting that upset with them over it.
"I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)
I teach English at a Junior High School in Japan, and when I told my students I was going to purchase a PS3 when it came out they looked at me and asked me wtf was I talking about (mind you, this was last October). I still run into a kid every now and then who doesn't know about the PS3 (can you believe that?!). So I take that reaction as a sign that Sony might just not live up to whatever BS their marketing department spouts out. And I was so looking forward to playing the new Winning Eleven 10...
Fighting over religion is like seeing whose imaginary friend is best.
Considering that the PS3 doesn't have any video inputs, I'd call this 100% Grade A Sony Branded bullshit.
It is also a mini-fridge, and a toaster oven!
They have no secret source or whatsoever. They pretend to be otherwise, but actually they are just relaying unfounded speculation without a clue like other crap blogs.