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PS3 Enjoys Retail-Wide Sales Spike After Price Cut
donniebaseball23 writes "Sony, after nearly two years on standing firm on PS3's price, dropped the console to $249, and it's been having an immediate impact. GameStop has already noted a 'significant' increase in PS3 sales, while big box retailer Target confirmed an 'immediate lift' in sales and recommended PS3 as a 'great option' for its customers. Not only that, but leading e-tailer Amazon saw PS3 sales explode by 400% in the days after the price cut. All told, in the months ahead, analysts are expecting Sony to see as much as a 30% sales bump for PS3 this holiday season."
Is there any other way to get a 3d bluray player and a sixaxis (to use with my n900 and android tablet) for cheaper than this price?
Don't complain about syntax, grammar, or spelling. There is no.hell like input on android.
but it took so long I did not care, I got a 99$ gamestop trade in 360, it plays new games and looks fine on my crt tv
=|
I know quite a few people who have consoles and are looking at buying a new video card for their PC instead of getting BF3 on their console (PS3). The PS3 getting the price drop before several high end games (MW3, BF3, Mass Effect 3, etc) come out this fall doesn't seem like a huge surprise. For the less technically inclined, a $250 console might look like a better option than a $200-250 video card + installation + buggy drivers.
Heck, as a "PC guy", I might finally consider getting a PS3 simply as a HTPC replacement. Blu-Ray + Netflix + PC for web browsing on my TV @ $250 is way cheaper than buying a used mac mini or similar device. Not to mention the much better resale value...
moox. for a new generation.
I'd buy a preowned PS3 fat for $200 in a heartbeat. $249 still seems like too much to me. Great for competition though...
I look at console all of the time... decide to buy... then look at the game prices... shocked by the prices of the games... I leave the store... NO SALE!
PSN doesn't cost money. And if you do want to purchase something available on PSN, you can get a PSN card and none of your details need ever go to Sony.
No one gives a shit but you.
You do realize you can get PSN without giving them your credit card info since it is free, right? Heck, even if you want to buy something you don't have to give them your CC info, just need to buy PSN cards at the store.
Yea, about "web browser" you might as well assume the PS3 doesn't have a web browser. It's so shitty that nothing renders right in it, and youtube only works about one fourth of the time due to weird navigation issues(you click on one video and it gives you the one under it.. you click on the one under it and it gives you one 5 videos under it. etc)
When you lower the price, you sell more product. There are a lot of things you learn in ECON classes that are pure bullshit. This is not one of them.
Colloquially, "when you lower the price you increase demand". Technicly, given a lower price, the intersection of the demand curve and the supply curve moves to a point where the number of units sold is greater.
Of course, it is economic theory. I suppose that if you lowered the price for something where demand was already dropping like a rock, you wouldn't see more units sold. I wager PS3 sales weren't dropping like a rock.
OTOH, if you wanted to call BS on "rational actors" or Keynesian theory, or Austrian theory, I might go along with that. IMHO, the greatest folly of economic theory in general is to think that what can be measured in economic terms is an economic problem. More often than not it's a social problem, outside the scope of economics and thus likely to be unexplained by economic theory.
But I digress. The "price fell and demand increased". 'nuff said.
I was one of those people who cared about this.
You start out saying correlation is not causation but then feign surprise that a price drop causes increased sales.
You know - causation.
Why didn't you just say "FRIST POST" or something equally stupid?
Isn't BF3 a real FPS? In that case consoles really takes away immersion and playability.
As for Mass Effect 3 the controls will probably make it unplayable on PC anyway.
Jesus, can you shut up?
just because an event is obvious doesn't make it non news worthy, Especially when event is actually quantified.
or do you get up in arms when you see news articles like "bad weather destroys port" because "this isn't news, we know that bad weather can cause damage."
I think you need to learn the difference between news and unexplained phenomenon.
Yeah, im also considering buying a PS3 just as a media center. Not many console games that interest me, but blu ray and netflix sure do. Not a big fan of sony, but its the best device for what i want. Have a Wii and no blu-ray now, waiting for them to definitively say the WiiU will not have blu-ray before i buy a PS3
"Sic Semper Tyrannosaurus Rex."
Wow, entitlement complex much?
If only someone who built consoles allowed you to install Other OSes...
In North America, the 160 GB PS3 and the 320GB PS3 are now available for $249 and $299, respectively.
Over here, though before the price cut (which may never even happen for us):
PS3 40 GB = $300
PS3 80 GB = $340
PS3 120 GB = $380
PS3 160 GB = $470
PS3 250 GB = $530
PS3 320 GB = $550
I'm not familiar with consoles, but I think you can't pirate PS3 games, so I'd be really surprised if the console enjoyed much sales.
The Xbox 360 slim 250 GB is "only" $400. The Kinect version of the same thing is $580.
"so I'd be really surprised if the console enjoyed much sales"
The PS3 is the top selling console worldwide in 2011.
And that was before this price cut.
Wow, entitlement complex much?
And how would this be an entitlement complex? It's not as though I'm some spoiled kid that wants as much as I can get my hands on - I work two jobs, 50+ hours a week, and could really use any extra money. It took enough time just to save up for the system, just for them to slash the price shortly thereafter. So if I do have an entitlement complex, as you're saying, I'd say it's well-earned.
The Wii U will have a 25 gigabyte disc format like the PS3's 25/50 gigabytes discs, but it won't be a standard Blu-Ray drive and won't play Blu-Ray movies.
For both ya'll... PS3 are great. I've had one for years, has lasted this whole time, and is playing the new Bad Lieutenant right now on netflix. If you have a media server on your home network, you can access it with the PS3. You can also put in yoru own HDD and not break the warranty. Sony tells you exactly how. That way you can do all kinds of media storing, etc.
PS3 is great. Blu Ray, HD, 3d gaming and movies, media playing, open platform for USB hardware and bluetooth hardware. I know people on slashdot hate sony and for their reasons, and i understand them. I've thought about whether i would buy the next generation... who knows.. but I do appreciate what I have. Great gear.
If all you want to do is Blu-Ray and Netflix, than the PS3 is just fine. If you plan to do anything else home-theater-esque with it (even web browsing), you'd really be far, far, far better served by a cheap HTPC. There are things like PS3 Media Server that help serve video from your PC to PS3, but it's frequently more trouble than it's worth.
You do realize you can get PSN without giving them your credit card info since it is free, right? Heck, even if you want to buy something you don't have to give them your CC info, just need to buy PSN cards at the store.
I didn't actually know that. Thanks for the info.
Should people that purchased stocks, in any particular company, that ended up going down in price, be refunded the difference? The answer would be, "Hell no". The fact is that you have to make a purchase and hope your bet(i.e. your purchase) was placed at the right time. If you are wrong, then you go the poorer for it. If you cannot afford to be wrong, then do not buy.
As far as "earning" anything; you haven't. My girlfriend works for the life-sucking, vicious company that is AT&T(wireless). She wakes up at 0450, leaves the house by 0600, and does not get home until 1930 to 2000. Afterwards, if she doesn't have to log into her VPN, to finish off some work(which happens 85% of the time), then she has to feed the dogs and jump into bed. That is just in time to see the clock hit 2200 to 2230. If she has to do work, then it more like 2345 to 0030. Even when the weekend rolls around, she is work six to nine hours, both days. Of course, she is just happy to still have a job.
So, spare me this "well-earned" statement. There are people that work far harder than you, for far longer, and probably for less money. I mean, it isn't like my girlfriend is receiving a six-figure salary for the ridiculous amount of work she does. In actuality, she makes way below that mark; I mean way, way below it. On top of it, management tells her group others see them "smiling too much". ...and, no, I am not making that shit up. So, I guess she cannot be too overtly happy.
I do not fault you for wanting to see the most value for your money. My problem is that you are using the wrong argument.
You want money back? Pack the thing up and try to get a refund from wherever you got it from. Don't expect the retailer to have much sympathy either.
Be careful with using the PS3 as a media center. It will look for watermarks on movies that you've ripped from DVD/Blu-Ray and will refuse to play them.
(In a more general sense, never buy consumer electronics from a media company.)
I've been using PS3 Media Server for a while now, and it's pretty good at what it says it does. It'll play most any media file you throw at it. What more do you need?
I do not know why people keep saying this, i have not had a problem with buggy drivers (nvidia) in atleast 5 years. I have atleast 6 computers here all with nvidia cards including configured as sli, hybrid sli, and sli with independent additional cards. At one point i was even running 2 different versions of the nvidia drivers simultaneously to handle a brand new 560ti (prior to the driver becoming unified) and an additional 8000 series card driving the 3rd and 4th monitor. All of this has worked flawlessly under winXP, XP 64, and Win 7. And while i was gaming without a hitch almost everyone i know experienced a 360 red ring of death nonsense and were out of commission for weeks getting repairs or this latest fiasco with PSN.
I think the days of the typical whine about PC gaming being buggy because of drivers are over. Add steam into the equation and i find that PC gaming is significantly more convenient than console gaming. The big problem we face now is games that are buggy because they are all becoming half-assed console ports.
So please stop perpetuating the PC gaming hardware difficulties myth if you do not know what you are talking about.
Seems to me that a Laptop or even just a small-form-factor PC *is* the sort of console you're talking about:
1. Interfaces to your TV via HDMI(common, these days).
2. Will use most all controllers, either via USB or an adaptor
3. Runs any OS or combination of OS's.
4. Greatest selection of games ever.
5. Better graphics on even a low-end system.
6. Better browser, and a gigantic collection of homebrew.
What's not to like?
Yea. I know.
Nonsense. There have been far worse consoles in history. What of the Philips CD-i? Or the Apple Pippin? Or the Nintendo Virtual Boy? Or reaching back a bit, how about the Atari 5200? Or the WoW Action Max? Or the RCA Studio II?
I know you’re just trolling –and rather poorly too – but you really ought to know a bit more about console history. There are plenty of really awful consoles out there, and to really pick on something you’d do well to be able to compare to them.
If you do TV (over-the-air is free and awesome) I'd get something that can act as a media extender; either a Windows Media Center extender, or a MythTV or VDR or Mediaportal or TVHeadend or whatever frontend. An atom-based Windows box works nicely since you can also use it for casual/older games.
The PS3 works fine if you're not going to be doing that stuff. Good luck getting a 1080p media player with blu-ray for $250. PS3 Media Server works; it obviously decreases quality a bit and swamps the CPU of the computer that's doing the transcoding, but it works and it's easy to use.
Me, I'm sort of cheap right now. I have TV with a PC and an Xbox hooked up to it, and a TV table for my keyboard and mouse. My TV is currently my TV and my computer monitor. It works.
Let's just sum up Microsoft's 'amazing' Xbox 360:
* Rushed out the door with poorly designed and underpowered hardware after the first Xbox fiasco
* The only console in history to be shipped with a SMALLER disc format compared to previous gens. 6.7 GB 360 vs 8.5 PS2/Xbox
* Forced to pay 50-60 dollars a year extra just to be allowed to play games online with laggy P2P based networking
* Jet engine loud operation due to the piece of crap outdated DVD drive spinning at an insane rate and shitty, poorly designed cooling system
* Giant Ghostbusters style external powerbrick
* Graphics hardware so weak that it is the only console in history to be forced to rely on silly fanboy 'side by side' comparisons with shitty multiplatform games because its own exclusive games have been blown away by the competition
* Absolute joke lineup of exclusive games due to Microsoft's pathetic lineup of only 3 first party studios compared to Sony's gigantic 21 and Nintendo's 10
* Can only play old low res DVD movies
* Absurdly overpriced addons
* No webbrowser
* Absolute cheapest lowest bidder construction - shitty tray loading drive, etc.
* The garbage HD-DVD addon
* The shitty Sony EyeToy ripoff, Kinect, addon
Gee, can't imagine why the Xbox 360 is in last place this gen in worldwide sales and is already being pulled from the shelves in Japan...
IIRC most SONY products are still manufactured in Japan and not farmed out to China or other Asian countries. I am curious as to where in Japan the actual factories are. For example, Alpine (car stereo makers), have factories in the Fukushima area so I would be wary to buy anything from them for the time being. Is any testing being done on electronics products from Japan? We know that the food exported from Japan is only getting haphazard testing that cannot be relied up and they are actively selling contaminated beef domestically to their own population.
As ridiculous as it may sound to some this should be a real concern. Radioactive isotopes like uranium, plutonium, strontium are not things that should be taken lightly. Sure, you are not eating your PS3 but you can easily inhale the particles or get them in your skin from touching.
You're forgetting the fact that the PC had the power of the PS3 4 years ago. You can get an 8800 GTS for less then $100 there's no point in comparing if you forget the used video card market. Comparing a PS3 price dropped TODAY against a modern videocard is dumb as rocks considering the PC has been well ahead of the consoles since the 8800 and Core 2 duo which was 4 years ago.
I can run any big name multiplatform game on a core 2 + 8800 GTS (Assasins creed, Darksiders, etc) at higher resolutions and better framerates then a console and that is on last gen hardware.
You always can buy cheap AMD E350 mini-itx motherboards.(around 100$ ) and build HTPC.
Install Ubuntu + smplayer (or vlc or Boxee or XBMC and enjoy the ride :)
Now that the console is affordable, and games area easily pirated, it can be observed that there might be 400% sale growth in consoles but nowhere near as many in games.
If Sony had any clue they'd not bother with protection as much so their console will be ever more popular. I refer you all to the amazing success of the wii. Easily pirated, cheap and sold more than all the others.
With jail breaking the PS3 becomes an even more attractive product.
At the end of the day, there are a lot of PS3 consoles sitting in a warehouse somewhere, if they are not sold now, when will they ever?
Just a thought.
Heck, you can buy a 460gtx which is 2-3x as powerful as a 8800GTS for $120 these days. $100 for an 8800GTS is wasting your money. I was in the BF3 alpha and can confirm that BF3 runs at a solid 60fps on a 460gtx.
I totally agree! I was running Bad Company 2 (BF3 lite) on a 8600GT and a midrange Core 2 for a few years (I've since upgraded). BF3 is definitely geared towards turning the screws on even a high end PC with all the settings maxed out... but at the same time, the engine still has to run on six-year old hardware *cough* consoles *cough*. I don't think (most) console owners are in denial that their hardware is ancient, but the stark reality is that games are written to run on consoles first, and PC is generally an afterthought*. You'll note that I highlighted "PC Guy" in quotes in the original post; I definitely agree you get a higher quality experience on the PC, particularly in terms of resolution. I don't think I'm forgetting that consoles run on ancient hardware. My point was that the console market is something like 10x the size of the PC market. I've run across some really sharp people, but have zero motivation and would rather have a console than a PC. There's a huge segment of the population that wants the "bleeding edge", but at the same time want bleeding edge technology that "just works". Consoles represent the equivalent of a toaster with an HDMI port on the back. Insert bread, press start button, receive 46" glorious 3D gaming toast. Asking the general public sitting on their couch after a 10 hour day + 1 hr commute each way with their boss breathing down their neck, a dog and 2.6 children to do any more is madness.
*yes, I'm acutely aware that "PC is the lead platform for BF3"
moox. for a new generation.
Amen. I started out with PS3 Media Server and the PS3, but gave up, it is such a friggin hassle to work with. These days I'm using a QNAP NAS and a small HTPC, works every time.
(Shame less plug, one drive in the QNAP gave up and for some reason the entire soft array got whacked, the QNAP tech rebuild the array remotely for no charge; that's customer service).
Cry bitch, cry.
Which is exactly why I am never giving Sony my CC info ever again. I just used it for convenience, however cancelling my CC wasn't so convenient so no more CC transactions for them.
I'm calling bullshit on that. I use my PS3 as a media center and it's fine with all the divx/xvid movies/series that I've got, whether they're ripped or downloaded. It can get a bit fussy with some mp4 files, but a transcode to divx fixes that.
You're a temporary arrangement of matter sliding towards oblivion in a cold, uncaring universe
Currently rocking a C2D 2.6ghz/8600GTX/4GB RAM; the only down side is a) noisy power supply and b) pulls almost 360w continuous.
The most recent PS3 only pulls 100w on average; the PS3 would pay for itself in 3 years at current electric rates. http://www.edepot.com/playstation3.html#PS3_Model_Differences
moox. for a new generation.
The PS3 is a horrible choice for a HTPC replacement. It won't let you update your codecs, it won't play .mkv, it doesn't support subtitles, it doesn't let you record anything, the only way to get anything on it is via the slow-as-molasses USB2 connection or via lan (but it won't be much faster because the hard drive is a slow 2.5-incher) and you have to buy a remote seperately (which you can't replace with a universal one - bluetooth).
May the source be with you.
The philips CD-i was a great console. What are you on about?
True, I only used it for Tetris and CDi/VCD movies, but still.
Actually its pretty easy to set up a media server for a PS3/Xbox. I have an application that can share to both Xbox and PS3 I've never had a problem with it.
I'm by no means a console fanboy or gaming nut. I grew up playing video games and still do. I was skeptical about buying into the current generation of consoles, but I purchased a PS3 Slim shortly after the price cut. In the prior years I hadn't played any recent games because I didn't have any recent console, nor did I ever purchase PC gaming hardware (a regular desktop was always good enough for me). It's a slick device and well worth the money; I'm really glad I bought it. Since then I got more into gaming and purchased a couple other consoles and a high end video card for my latest desktop. Most of my game time is still on the PS3, and I would recommend it to anyone who had to pick just one thing.
Also it's not just good for games. It's possibly the most well rounded general entertainment device I've ever owned. It makes the big HDTV in my living room come alive with on demand downloadable content, streaming movies and shows, blu-ray films, and whatever else a person could want from a home entertainment center. It's good at what it does and does it quickly and efficiently with great audio and video quality. Basically you're getting a lot of bang for your buck, because the PS3 has the equivalent functionality of 3 or 4 other devices that would require a high upfront cost and be more of a hassle to deal with. It's ironic considering how skeptical I was before I even thought about buying one, and I don't much like Sony, but after all is said and done, it's an awesome product.
I can't answer directly about a PS3 (or xbox) as I use a Raidsonic icybox for that, but it all comes down to the video codec support on the playback device. Sure PS3MediaServer can transcode on the fly, but I never liked that too much.
You can get little boxes that sit under the TV and are networked to your PC over cabled ethernet for £20 and they work for practically all codecs (some .mkv contaners can have unusual contents). Buying a PS3 for this task is a lot of money in comparison. There's basically 2 chipsets used for these little devices, my Icybox uses the Realtek RTD1073 and it's given me no problems whatsoever. (the other is the Seasonic which I think has slightly less codec support)
As for the server software, check out tvmobili which is a lot slicker than PS3MediaServer, smaller, and has the ability to keep your PC awake while streaming. Cross platform too and lets you stream over the internet (eg to your phone while you're out, battery life and data transfer cap is on your own head :) )
I think Commodore's CDTV was more interesting but ahead of it's time. After all it was an Amiga, but that too didn't exactly set the world on fire and the video playback was an expensive add-on. If it did it out of the box it might have been a better proposition. What amazed me was that video CDs actually took of in Asia and were available long after they were dead and buried in the West.
Or, you need a PC or comparable somewhere on your network to run PS3 Media Server software.
But as a standalone media server, the PS3 really is a pretty bad choice, you'd be much better off with for instance a WDTV, which still costs considerably less.
Who the would trust Sony with their CC Info at this point and why would I want a PS3 without PSN?
One might reasonably apply that question to any random website. Besides Sony have had their kicking and it's likely their security is much better than the industry average.
Well, so much for all the ./ rage a few months ago about Evil Sony and their pursuit of poor hackers, DRM, and lax security procedures....
I guess at the end we all do have our price, don't we?
Generally it makes an excellent media box allowing content to be played locally, from physical media or remotely over http or DLNA. There are a couple of major issues with the PS3 for media streaming which can be an impediment:
It would be nice if it supported MKV + the codecs they already support + subtitles. Hopefully the format has gained enough industry traction for Sony to consider supporting it.
Web browsing is poor on the PS3. There have been off / on rumours of something changing in that department for a while but nothing concrete. The issue is Sony uses a licenced browser called Netfront and it's a heap of crap. It would be nice if they used something based off Webkit or even licenced Opera Mini but most likely if an update occurs it will just be a bumped version of Netfront. Better than nothing I suppose.
You're using a PS3 on a CRT TV? That's like the A/V equivalent of buying a Ferrari and never driving over 30 mph.
Then which console plays PS3-exclusive franchises and is better for use with a paid-for TV, either a CRT SDTV or an early adopter CRT HDTV? To continue your analogy, there exist parts of the country to which the only roads are roads on which only a Ferrari can travel.
Recording is only important if you subscribe to live TV
moox. for a new generation.
My old QXGA CRT would like to inform you
Does this monitor have a TV tuner? If not, it's technically not a TV.
If sharing a song makes you a pirate, what do I have to share to be a ninja?
Seeing as ninja were covert agents in feudal Japan, a close modern counterpart would be the kind of stuff reported on by WikiLeaks.
Or you can just just use the samsung remote from your tv to control it :) Then again if i do want to play media files i just stick a usb stick or harddrive into my samsung tv, it even plays mkv. Cant stick a 3d bluray into it though, and i'm guessing you can't do that with a htpc either.
Don't complain about syntax, grammar, or spelling. There is no.hell like input on android.
The PS3 doesn't support MKV container formats. Instead you use AVI (for DIVX format) or MP4 (for AVC H264) and you're good to go.
No, no, a thousand times no. This makes both the PS3 and Xbox 360 utterly unsuitable as a stand alone media player. In order to play these files anyway you now have to transcode them or use PS3MediaServer to transcode them on the fly, either way there is a loss of quality and a need to have another [powerful] computer active at the same time. Or you could have one quiet little HTPC connected to your TV which would perform this task better, run quieter... and yes, cost more.
Web browsing is poor on the PS3. There have been off / on rumours of something changing in that department for a while but nothing concrete. The issue is Sony uses a licenced browser called Netfront and it's a heap of crap.
Netfront has been around for eternity and it's always been a heap of crap. But you can run Firefox on your HTPC.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
I don't have a kill-a-watt but I have a Phenom II X3 720 and a 240GT and my whole system's rated TDP is less than your actual draw. Most of the time I'm probably puttering around at half that or less but like I said, I don't have a meter. However, since my system is only just barely said to be capable of drawing what yours is pulling all the time I doubt it's anywhere close.
Maybe you should try visiting this decade :D
Oops, I'm not even in this decade!
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
It is funny there is all this excitement now, when really the console has been $50 off at various sources for a while now. Hell, I got mine for $100 off with that Gamestop promotion a few months ago.
For many observers, this actually comes a little late, because many were anticipating this after E3.
Finally someone with intelligence. Economic theory (so far as what 99% of the world is taught in school) is designed to explain how markets generally work. They are not designed to be simulations of markets.Hell, unless you have a phd in economics, you don't know enough to begin to simulate the complexities of markets; and even still, its largely somewhat of an art.
I can't tell you how may times I've debated economics, as it applies to the real world, with really intelligent people, who completely demonstrate epic failure of comprehension when it comes to economics because they can't grasp the world doesn't actually work like economics 101.
Not only that, you can buy PSN cards online from Amazon.com and download the codes immediately. So you don't even have to go to the store. (At least in the US. YMMV.)
Not only was there the price drop, but DirecTV, Sony, & the NFL also just announced that the PS/3 will have access to the NFL Sunday Ticket for the 2011 NFL season.
Sunday Ticket on PS/3
For those that don't know, you pay $340/season and it lets you watch just about every NFL game. While the average Slashdotter may not care in the least, this is a pretty big deal for NFL fans who don't have DirecTV. I know of at least a couple of people who are planning on purchasing a PS/3 simply because they want the NFL Sunday Ticket.
There will undoubtedly be at least some uptick in PS/3 sales from fans of the NFL. The new $250 price is just added fuel to the fire.
...the next time they think about overpricing their consoles.
In debates about Christianity, there are two groups: those looking for answers, and those looking to just ask questions.
Besides the price drop, I am sure a lot of the uptick in sales is due to DirecTV announcing the availability of the NFL Sunday Ticket Package on PS3.
Only if you're planning to give them your credit card information or to use a password on PSN that you use elsewhere. Neither of which is required nor recommended (IMHO). If you don't give them anything sensitive, then they have nothing that can be compromised.
if only I had mod points... :)
Correlation is not Causation.
Of course not. But it often implies causation, and you should stop throwing around this expression and take time to understand it.
Yeah, this should be filed under #firstworldproblems.
yep and it works fine and who cares, its in the top spot so guess which console gets the second hand shitty port
The web browser on the PS3 sucks. It is so bad, I pretend it does not exist. It also cannot be used for Hulu or most similar free services. A PC hooked up over HDMI is pretty much the only way to get those on a TV.
For some games I like the PS3, but any decent FPS or similar is much better on PC. The real problem recently has been the shitty console ports to PC.
No, no, a thousand times no. This makes both the PS3 and Xbox 360 utterly unsuitable as a stand alone media player. In order to play these files anyway you now have to transcode them or use PS3MediaServer to transcode them on the fly, either way there is a loss of quality and a need to have another [powerful] computer active at the same time. Or you could have one quiet little HTPC connected to your TV which would perform this task better, run quieter... and yes, cost more.
You don't have to transcode either MP4 or DIVX + AC3 AVI files to play them on the PS3. They play superbly well. And M2TS files. If you have an MKV your choice is to either transcode, remux or possibly run it through MeGUI if you have to. MKV says nothing of the audio / video codecs but usually they're ones the PS3 can handle so you can remux to MP4 or M2TS.
Netfront has been around for eternity and it's always been a heap of crap. But you can run Firefox on your HTPC.
Sure you could but I wouldn't see browsing as something people want to do that often through their TV anyway. They have laptops, tablets etc. for that. The browser in the PS3 is poor though and it is desperately overdue a revamp.
But what is the dollar value for the improved graphics? How do you price that? Poeple don't buy consoles for their superior graphics. They buy consoles for their ease of use. You buy a console for the hundreds of games that just work. Consoles are obsolete in their hardware before they hit the shelves. From a catalog perspective the PS3 is still a good buy. Games will still be made for it over the next 2 years. The old games still work and can be easly purchased used. A good example of this is the PS2. PS2 are still being sold in large quantities. The PS2's hardware is a joke compared to modern PC's. You can get alot more for you $99 than what the PS2 provides. But the games still work and they are still fun. And it is still super duper easy.
The whole point is that an HTPC with XBMC will handle more or less whatever you throw at it without another computer being involved. Indeed, for many users it could be their only computer.
Sure you could but I wouldn't see browsing as something people want to do that often through their TV anyway.
It would be great if it didn't suck, if you could just tab (or the equivalent) over to the browser and look something up on IMDB... when the intent is for everyone to be able to look at it at once.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
I agree on all those points, except some games really suck with a controller and the web browser on the PS3 is a joke.
Otherwise great device, glad to have it.
While I am not disagreeing that a PC is a better option here, low end PCs do NOT exceed the graphics capabilities of a PS3 without buying a new GPU.
Any machine that can is virtually guaranteed to not be classified as 'low end'.
It's easy but it doesn't work for shit. I used the PS3 with Tversity for a while and it was a buggy pile of crap. Movies would just randomly quit in the middle, if you tried to fast forward it would get all screwed up, and Tversity would just randomly disappear from your list of media servers sometimes. Also I sometimes had to turn my PS3 off to get it to refresh the list of available movies/TV shows because the PS3 would cache and there was no way to manually make it take another look. I mean yeah, it worked most of the time, but a lot of the time it irritated the shit out of me.
I have a media center PC with XBMC on it now and except for a few hiccups here and there which are commonplace for any PC, it works great. I even got one of those Logitech HarmonyOne remote, bought a cheap media center remote to use the IR receiver, and I can use it with XBMC now along with the TV and receiver.
Best part of having a media center always on is that I can also run other servers on it. I've got a remote desktop session with VMWare running an Apache web server and I've also got some game servers like Minecraft and Terraria. Plus I have a half way decent video card in there for using DXVA (1080p video can bring my dual core processor to its knees) and friends can use it to play some PC games on my HDTV. It's kind of cool to watch.
"Those who would sacrifice essential liberties for a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." - BenF
Beyond that, I have decided after the "we're going to try to prosecute people who watched the Geohotz video" episode that Sony would get no more of my money. I've bought a lot of stuff from them brand new -- PS1's and 2's, multiple, games, controllers, two PSP's. Then this is how they treat the people who pay thier bills. No thanks.
I'll buy a priced dropped PS3... a used one, after the price drop makes them even cheaper still. I'll buy my games used, and if Sony goes download-only with the next thing (or this one -- you know they'd make a pach that disables playing game disks and force you to go download-only if they could get away with it) they'll count me out.
You know what really kills immersion? Not playing because your PC is crashing for whatever reason.
Although I also greatly prefer mouse/keyboard for an FPS, I have made my peace with console controllers being used to play an FPS because as annoying as that is, maintaining a gaming PC was worse.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
and how much did the combo of NAS + HTPC cost? I'd wager quite a bit more than $250!
I can run any big name multiplatform game on a core 2 + 8800 GTS (Assasins creed, Darksiders, etc) at higher resolutions and better framerates then a console and that is on last gen hardware.
1080 at 1' is better than 720 at 5' because... why now? Not to mention console games are designed for consistent framerate on standardized hardware, while PC games are all over the map performance-wise.
If the modding scene were what it used to be back in the Quake days, I'd have more sympathy for PC games, but meh. PC gaming experience is on the whole miserable and propped up by geeks with a tad too much pride in their computers. It is what it is... lousy, and with frequent hardware upgrades, 10% more shiny than console versions, and controls that only really make sense for stupidly accurate point & shoot, or strategy games.
When people say PC gaming is dead, they don't mean it is gone, or going... if you didn't play PC games in the 90's, you just wont get it, but it is dead.
Wow, and after that first paragraph you came off reasonably intelligent. Too bad you had to ruin it. It's impossible to "earn" something as long as someone else has had to work harder than you? What utter idiocy.
There's this new invention called an antenna, that lets you get magical pictures that come through the air, at no cost to you.
(Yes, I have cable, but plenty of people have "cut the cord" and use OTA + sometimes streaming or DVD/BluRay services.)
I used to use OTA for political speeches (2008 presidential inaguration, etc) and live news, but in recent times I've found that YouTube's streaming video has improved dramatically. The white house streams most of it's video live over youtube now, and Al Jazeera has a great live streaming (English Language) channel for world events. I watched hours of footage online during the "Arab Spring" Egypt/Libya protests and the hours following Joplin, Mo.
:)
In terms of sitcoms... well, they'll always be around! I'm usually busy doing things when they air and tend to watch them in chunks of 2-4 episodes at a time. That's what Hulu and Netflix is for
I *DO* have an "HD" antenna + tuner (from the 2008 presidential inauguration), but in two years I haven't bothered to unpack it since I moved.
moox. for a new generation.
As Sony president I can see you are aggressively utilizing all avenues of communication and I applaud your efforts!
It's not bullshit.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinavia
Incorrect. There is no transcoding required. Remuxing is what needs to be done, and there is NO loss in quality as the streams are simply ripped out and placed in a new container. It's just the container that it doesn't support.
Agreed, except a little fuziness on the "PC" part. :)
I have an apple macbook
Spent $10 for an adaptor, and now when I want to watch hulu-type services, I plug it into the HDMI port on my TV, and watch it that way.
(sound and video over the single cable, if you have a non-ancient mac)
For other folks, investing in a 20' HDMI cable from their "desktop" computer would be all right, probably.
I find it absurd that companies are even bothering to limit consoles out of stuff like "hulu", when other computers, including laptops, are allowed.
Have to laugh when I see the "we arent licensed to stream this to 'mobile' devices" licensing whine... so then I watch it anyway through my "mobile" laptop anyway.
I had to measure the draw all the computers and monitors in our office when we moved locations. Most of them clocked in at 1.1-1.4 amps, which is 130-170watts at idle. Most of those machines (cheap office Dells) had 200-225w power supplies. I haven't had a chance to measure mine but I suspect it's about 20% higher at idle. Decoding a video file and showing it at 1080p probably bumps it up quite a bit. 200w is a lot when it's 111F today here in Dallas, Texas and you have to spend an additional 66W to pump all that waste heat out of the house. It won't get below 100F until after 10pm here.
moox. for a new generation.
Never heard of that. I've never seen the message about the media not being authorised, so I doubt that Cinavia works that well.
You're a temporary arrangement of matter sliding towards oblivion in a cold, uncaring universe
The power consumption is basically irrelevant unless you manage to use a Wii.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
A macbook is a PC.
How did you measure those 360W, and what were you running on the PC at the time? 360W sounds really high for continuous draw unless you're folding on the CPU and GPU.
... but its made by Sony, and I am currently boycotting Sony.