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Gamers Don't Know Their Own Consoles
deadmantyping writes "Ars Technica reports on a survey of 6,260 responses which indicates that only 40 percent of PS3 owners knew that their console included Bluray. Apparently a large portion of gamers aren't aware of the non-gaming capabilities of their systems. Ars speculates that this might help explain Nintendo's apparent dominance in the console market since their introduction of the Wii."
They bought a PS3 without realizing it had blu-ray?
Dear god... They must be mad.
-- Lattyware (www.lattyware.co.uk)
One of the interesting quirks of the market is that if you position a device as a game machine, people will buy it as a game machine. Thing like the media it takes are secondary to the function the device is being sold for. So if you sell your machine as a game machine, expect that people will treat it as such and compare it to other game machines. Secondary features like the BluRay drive will only matter if the device compares favorably on its primary function.
Now if you position a device like the PS3 as a Sony's PlayStation Media Center, suddenly it looks like a good deal. It can play BluRay, PS1 games, PS2 games, and games "designed for the BluRay format". All for less than competing BluRay players.
It's too bad that Sony didn't do this. They might have had a better response if they had.
Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
Correction: Most people who buy a Wii don't care what the differences in the hardware specs are between the systems. They only look at the gameplay.
- can the controller be used wirelessly to control the playing?
Yes
- does the ps3 have an IR receiver so I can program my existing remote to control it like a stand-alone blue-ray player?
No
- does the ps3 support blue-ray profile 1.1 (with dual decoding)?
This standard isn't required for months. It's trivial to include support in a future firmware release.
- how is the quality compared to a stand-alone player?
You know about a future standard but haven't read any reviews of the PS3, the most popular bluray player? The quality is superb, and is considered to have better quality than many standalone players.
- does the ps3 have a digital out to feed to my receiver? (coax? optical?)
Sheesh, reading the box would answer this question. Of course it has optical output. That is the only way to receive surround sound with a bluray player.
- the ps3 does NOT upscale dvd movies to 1080i/p
This is false. Support for upscaling DVDs, PS1 and PS2 games was added in the 1.8 system software release in May. The quality of the upscaling is superior to my Yamaha DVD player that came with my 5.1 setup.
- the ps3 supports 1080p/24 starting from firmware 1.9
The ps3 has always supported 1080p output. The 1.9 release was relatively minor, with the only major component being support for Chinese text.
I don't read or respond to AC posts
I'm not certain that being *SURE* is a good substitute for actual statistics.
how to invest, a novice's guide
This is the games section. Every assertion is backed with a personal guarantee, which is backed with all manner of anecdotes. If you want fancy numbers that hold up to scrutiny, get yourself over to the science section.
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My local Fry's had a gigantic sign over the blu-ray section the other day that said, "Blu-Ray discs require a Blu-Ray player." If there is enough confusion to justify that sign (Which just appeared there despite the fact that the Blu-Ray section has been there since late last year) then it is not surprising that many PS3 owners might be confused as well.
Correction: people buy the Wii because its peppy!
liqbase