"And that's also going to be true over the entire life time of the Xbox360 too huh?"
Well, it looks to be true for the first year of it's life so far. No stores around here have any 1080p televisions, and the prices I've seen online are triple what I would call a mainstream price (e. g. you can get a 1080i CRT for <$800, you can't get any 1080p televisions for less than $2400). Why charge customers for supporting technology that simply isn't going to be adopted in the console's lifetime?
"I have PS2 games that are in 1080i over component,"
Bullshit. No PS2 games support anything more than 480i, and the best late-model PS2s can do is support 480p DVD playback. GameCube had 480p games and Xbox had the occasional 1080i, but, well... if such a PS2 game existed, you'd be able to name them, wouldn't you?
"It's noticable on my plasma."
If you can notice the difference between two digital inputs, it's either psychosomatic or you spent a lot of money on a lousy television.
"Analog TVs with digital inputs are essentially converting the digital signal to component. Now you're just being difficult."
No, he's not. I have a nice 480i set from Toshiba with component inputs, and I can see the difference between component and s-video with any of my consoles. When all is said and done, component input is a digital input, compared to the analog signal of s-video and composite, and there is a lot to be said for keeping the output digital for as long as possible.
I'm not all that sure it ever gets converted to analog before reaching the tube.
95%+ of the game-buying public aren't. Most game buyers consider particular titles to be decision makers on the purchase of a console, not an unrelated feature.
"With the exception of the Saturn, this algorithm has served me well."
Except you're selectively ignoring your algorithm.
If you were truly following your "Must also play as much media as possible" rule, you would have gotten a Pioneer LaserActive to play your Genesis cartridge and CD-ROM games on, as well as laserdisk movies and games. After that, you would have at most gotten only a Saturn (could play VCDs), but more likely nothing until at least the PS2 (why would any 32-bit console interest you when your 16-bit set-up can play laserdisk? Obviously, nobody wanted your "technophile money" that generation).
That, and you'd be wishing more good games were published for your PSP while everybody else plays with their DS.
It's not a matter of you listing consoles that can play other media, it's listing what you consider to be mainstream media, and right now you're gambling that either Blu-Ray or HD-DVD will hit mainstream, when in actuality the best either could hope to do is take up the niche that was once held by laserdisk, which you apparently ignored (but no true audiophile would).
"(and they also keep on working on their Xbox backwards compatibility)"
Why would you care? You never got an Xbox, it didn't play DVDs out of the box.
"I don't understand why you insist the comparison MUST be made to the high-end model."
Aside from the fact that the PS3 cannot be upgraded, there's:
"Don't get it if you don't need or want it."
There's the rub. I don't want any sort of HD player at all. At least with the Xbox 360 I have the option of not buying the (hypothetical) HD-DVD add-on. However, if Sony is going to require that I pay extra money for Blu-Ray functionality by not releasing a PS3 without it, it doesn't make sense not to go all the way. If you've already decided you want a PS3, you have to decide between a full-featured player or a crippled player that cannot be fixed; not buying the player is not an option, unless you forgo the PS3 entirely.
"Wait until the machine gets here to fling mud if it under performs. This article is just FUD for marketing reasons."
Why must I wait when I already know everything I need to know about it? It will play Final Fantasy XIII (which was all I was looking for from a PlayStation), it will cost more than half a month's rent, and owning one means owning a piece of technology I not only am not interested in but would actually prefer not to own (both HD formats are too much DRM for my sensibilities). How many polygons it can or cannot push is immaterial; if money were no object, I'd have my very own Cray.
"They only compare to the High End PS3 price with its support of HDMI."
Because it's the only way to get full functionality. You can't upgrade the $500 later when they start enforcing the constraint token. I'd have thought, based on how you praise how "functional" the PS3 in your post, you'd be inclined to ignore the $500 offering as well.
"PS3 will likely be Linux compatible straight out of the box without modding. How could Slashdotters not go ape for this console?"
Because we've seen Linux on the PS2, and it was Bad. There's is nothing in Sony's history to suggest that they will magically become less restrictive with this new iteration.
"Two less capable machines do not add up to the same value as one more powerful machine if it does what you want."
If. Stand-alone Blu-Ray players aren't exactly flying off the shelves and the player function in the PS3 has the potential to be as useful as being able to play Betamax. Sony is asking the consumer to gamble as much as they themselves are.
"They even envoked the Betamax comparison (when in my opinion HD-DVD will likely be the really Betamax redux)."
The rest of the market doesn't seem to care one way or the other. They could both end up being the Betamax as people continue to buy DVDs.
"The whole thing smacked of trying to stop Sony momentum from building."
Even if it did build without what you pretend is FUD, there's still Newton's First Law of Marketing: You'll need a metric fuckload of momentum to sell a game console for $600.
"I myself am looking forward to a $500 dollar blue ray player that plays games and hooks up to my 1080p NEC 1350."
If you're getting the $500 model, you had best hope Blu-Ray fails. If Blu-Ray hits the mainstream, there will be nothing keeping movie companies from using the constraint token, and you'll end up wishing you'd either bought the $600 HDMI model or that you saved your money and just got the 720p set.
"Hate groups and extremists like Michelle Malkin love to pretend that pointing out racism is racist in itself - because, the argument goes - "you must have racist tendencies to recognize them in others' speech or behavior"."
So Michelle Malkin is actually a closeted left-leaning Democrat?
Yeah, because Japan is just a nation of people who hate the US and fear its culture.
Seriously, there are more amerigophiles in Japan than there are in the United States. They play baseball, fer cryin' out loud. It's not a matter of Microsoft not being a Japanese company, simply that Japan has different tastes in games than the US (they'll still consume American "culture" in mass quantities, just different parts that what is popular over here).
Microsoft has a reputation for putting forward FPS-heavy consoles. Japanese players would much rather buy dating sims. If Microsoft cut back on Halo 27 a little and spent a few cents luring over the Tokimeki series, they'd have it made.
"I don't know about the rest of you, but if I were a Louisiana senator, I'd be more concerned about global warming than violent videogames."
We're talking about the Louisiana Legislature, representatives from the state with the most offshore drilling rigs in the Union. Why worry about global warming when you have campaign donations from oil companies to earn?
Time for my favorite money-making idea on a regulation-free internet: charging the telephone and cable companies rent for running wires through my front yard. Buck a bit or I introduce your wires to Mr. Shovel.
The big ISPs don't really want deregulation, they want preferential regulation. They want all the rights and privileges of being a common carrier (like eminent domain, which prevents my little scenario) without actually living up to the responsibilities.
"MA safety belt & motorcycle helmet laws (You're too stupid and irresponsible to make your own decisions about safety)"
More like "I don't feel like having to pay for any injuries caused because you were too stupid to use a helmet/seatbelt/etc." If you want to repeal helmet and seat belt laws, pass a corresponding law absolving drivers of any responsibility for any injuries to other parties that could have been prevented by such devices. Otherwise, I have car insurance to pay for, and I don't feel like having my rates hiked up because of somebody else's foolishness.
"MA makes possession of consumer grade fireworks a felony (The message from the legislature to the voters: You're too goddamn stupid to handle things NH residents safely use all day)"
Consider the respective populations in MA and NH, something like 6:1. If both states have the same percentage of people go to the emergency room on 7/4 with fireworks-related injuries, which state has their emergency rooms too swamped to handle other emergencies?
Besides, if Massachusetts voters don't like it, they can change their legislators. Their state, their problem, Tenth Amendment and all that.
Why are they aiming to try to outdo Xbox Live Arcade when they still have to worry about the back-catalog that will be available on Nintendo WiFi? Seriously, the offerings on Arcade are currently pretty slim, while Nintendo has four libraries to fall back on. Microsoft has been planning to offer Street Fighter II "any day now" while Nintendo can offer 3 different SNES ans a Genesis version.
Other than that, if the Xbox 360 can't handle the hardware requirements for what Sony intends to offer online, just how large are these Sony downloads going to be?
If everybody who owns an Xbox 360 or a PlayStation 3 also has a Wii, who's in first again?
"Geeks, please don't respond that you love Nintendo... we all know that many of you don't care about things like story."
Ah yes, real adults are more interested in the deep and moving stories such as those found in "DOA: Xtreme Beach Volleyball" than the non-existant story in any Zelda game.
"Some day somebody will have to explain to me, without using an annotated dictionary, how tapping international phone calls is domestic wiretapping."
When the calling (i. e. paying) party, the party specifically being monitored, is a citizen of the United States, calling from within the jurisdiction of the United States, and is therefore covered by the Fourth Amendment.
"Who is "he", and how is maintaining the status quo "adding to the pile"?"
President George W. Bush, and how can implementing a new program in February 2001 possibly be "maintaining the status quo?" You do know what "status quo" means, correct?
"It seems to me that our monitoring programs have actually shrunk in the last six years or so due to the massive increase in data that there is to monitor."
So... there's less information gathering because there's more information to be had? Even if you were talking in terms of percentages of communications tapped versus unmonitored communications, the fact that it is now easier to monitor communications (people using cell phones or emails instead of talking face to face, etc.) seems to suggest that even the percentage of information gathered would go up. Interpretating that data may be another matter, but the Fourth Amendment doesn't give that kind of deference.
"The reason we're finding out about this now instead of ten years ago is that for the first time since, well, pretty much ever, the vast majority of journalists and government employees don't like the current administration, and are working extra hard to dig up dirt."
Were you born yesterday, or did you just flunk history? Name one president that was popular among the press while in office. Even George Washington was villified in the press.
"The truth is that these programs have been going on for years but none of you cared."
So it's OK if he just adds to the pile?
When I saw the headline I myself thought that meant the program was enacted during the Clinton administration, but with the date of February 2001 it seems Bush had been in office for less than a month and already his administration is trying to expand executive power, with no other excuse beyond the one that has become so clear in the years sense: his belief that the executive always had this power.
"Why the.... state the date as seven months before 11th of september 2001?"
Because the actual date is less important than the fact that it happend before Congress said "ZOMG! You're now supreme dictator for the duration of the crisis!"
"So the researchers at the University of Utah determined that using your phone is worse than having a BAC of 0.08, the equivalent of one drink, not the equivalent of being drunk."
You phail drivers ed. Everybody knows that one drink (can of beer, glass of wine, shot of hard liquor) is the equivalent of 0.02% BAC. 0.08% BAC is the legal limit for most states nowadays (back when I was in drivers ed in Maryland, it was 0.10%, and even then the teacher noted it was high compared to most other states, which had already enacted the 0.08% limit).
So... what other bits of drivers ed are you forgetting?
Slashdot Mirror
"And that's also going to be true over the entire life time of the Xbox360 too huh?"
Well, it looks to be true for the first year of it's life so far. No stores around here have any 1080p televisions, and the prices I've seen online are triple what I would call a mainstream price (e. g. you can get a 1080i CRT for <$800, you can't get any 1080p televisions for less than $2400). Why charge customers for supporting technology that simply isn't going to be adopted in the console's lifetime?
"I have PS2 games that are in 1080i over component,"
Bullshit. No PS2 games support anything more than 480i, and the best late-model PS2s can do is support 480p DVD playback. GameCube had 480p games and Xbox had the occasional 1080i, but, well... if such a PS2 game existed, you'd be able to name them, wouldn't you?
"It's noticable on my plasma."
If you can notice the difference between two digital inputs, it's either psychosomatic or you spent a lot of money on a lousy television.
"Analog TVs with digital inputs are essentially converting the digital signal to component. Now you're just being difficult."
No, he's not. I have a nice 480i set from Toshiba with component inputs, and I can see the difference between component and s-video with any of my consoles. When all is said and done, component input is a digital input, compared to the analog signal of s-video and composite, and there is a lot to be said for keeping the output digital for as long as possible.
I'm not all that sure it ever gets converted to analog before reaching the tube.
"I am a technophile, I can't help it."
95%+ of the game-buying public aren't. Most game buyers consider particular titles to be decision makers on the purchase of a console, not an unrelated feature.
"With the exception of the Saturn, this algorithm has served me well."
Except you're selectively ignoring your algorithm.
If you were truly following your "Must also play as much media as possible" rule, you would have gotten a Pioneer LaserActive to play your Genesis cartridge and CD-ROM games on, as well as laserdisk movies and games. After that, you would have at most gotten only a Saturn (could play VCDs), but more likely nothing until at least the PS2 (why would any 32-bit console interest you when your 16-bit set-up can play laserdisk? Obviously, nobody wanted your "technophile money" that generation).
That, and you'd be wishing more good games were published for your PSP while everybody else plays with their DS.
It's not a matter of you listing consoles that can play other media, it's listing what you consider to be mainstream media, and right now you're gambling that either Blu-Ray or HD-DVD will hit mainstream, when in actuality the best either could hope to do is take up the niche that was once held by laserdisk, which you apparently ignored (but no true audiophile would).
"(and they also keep on working on their Xbox backwards compatibility)"
Why would you care? You never got an Xbox, it didn't play DVDs out of the box.
"If you don't like their customer service, don't buy their products."
Kinda hard to tell if the customer service is any good unless you're already a customer. Chicken/egg.
"I don't understand why you insist the comparison MUST be made to the high-end model."
Aside from the fact that the PS3 cannot be upgraded, there's:
"Don't get it if you don't need or want it."
There's the rub. I don't want any sort of HD player at all. At least with the Xbox 360 I have the option of not buying the (hypothetical) HD-DVD add-on. However, if Sony is going to require that I pay extra money for Blu-Ray functionality by not releasing a PS3 without it, it doesn't make sense not to go all the way. If you've already decided you want a PS3, you have to decide between a full-featured player or a crippled player that cannot be fixed; not buying the player is not an option, unless you forgo the PS3 entirely.
"Wait until the machine gets here to fling mud if it under performs. This article is just FUD for marketing reasons."
Why must I wait when I already know everything I need to know about it? It will play Final Fantasy XIII (which was all I was looking for from a PlayStation), it will cost more than half a month's rent, and owning one means owning a piece of technology I not only am not interested in but would actually prefer not to own (both HD formats are too much DRM for my sensibilities). How many polygons it can or cannot push is immaterial; if money were no object, I'd have my very own Cray.
"They only compare to the High End PS3 price with its support of HDMI."
Because it's the only way to get full functionality. You can't upgrade the $500 later when they start enforcing the constraint token. I'd have thought, based on how you praise how "functional" the PS3 in your post, you'd be inclined to ignore the $500 offering as well.
"PS3 will likely be Linux compatible straight out of the box without modding. How could Slashdotters not go ape for this console?"
Because we've seen Linux on the PS2, and it was Bad. There's is nothing in Sony's history to suggest that they will magically become less restrictive with this new iteration.
"Two less capable machines do not add up to the same value as one more powerful machine if it does what you want."
If. Stand-alone Blu-Ray players aren't exactly flying off the shelves and the player function in the PS3 has the potential to be as useful as being able to play Betamax. Sony is asking the consumer to gamble as much as they themselves are.
"They even envoked the Betamax comparison (when in my opinion HD-DVD will likely be the really Betamax redux)."
The rest of the market doesn't seem to care one way or the other. They could both end up being the Betamax as people continue to buy DVDs.
"The whole thing smacked of trying to stop Sony momentum from building."
Even if it did build without what you pretend is FUD, there's still Newton's First Law of Marketing: You'll need a metric fuckload of momentum to sell a game console for $600.
"I myself am looking forward to a $500 dollar blue ray player that plays games and hooks up to my 1080p NEC 1350."
If you're getting the $500 model, you had best hope Blu-Ray fails. If Blu-Ray hits the mainstream, there will be nothing keeping movie companies from using the constraint token, and you'll end up wishing you'd either bought the $600 HDMI model or that you saved your money and just got the 720p set.
"Hate groups and extremists like Michelle Malkin love to pretend that pointing out racism is racist in itself - because, the argument goes - "you must have racist tendencies to recognize them in others' speech or behavior"."
So Michelle Malkin is actually a closeted left-leaning Democrat?
"This is the same guy who takes 8 paragraphs to say that..."
Read the rest of this comment...
Priceless.
Yeah, because Japan is just a nation of people who hate the US and fear its culture.
Seriously, there are more amerigophiles in Japan than there are in the United States. They play baseball, fer cryin' out loud. It's not a matter of Microsoft not being a Japanese company, simply that Japan has different tastes in games than the US (they'll still consume American "culture" in mass quantities, just different parts that what is popular over here).
Microsoft has a reputation for putting forward FPS-heavy consoles. Japanese players would much rather buy dating sims. If Microsoft cut back on Halo 27 a little and spent a few cents luring over the Tokimeki series, they'd have it made.
"I don't know about the rest of you, but if I were a Louisiana senator, I'd be more concerned about global warming than violent videogames."
We're talking about the Louisiana Legislature, representatives from the state with the most offshore drilling rigs in the Union. Why worry about global warming when you have campaign donations from oil companies to earn?
"What is needed is less regulation,"
Time for my favorite money-making idea on a regulation-free internet: charging the telephone and cable companies rent for running wires through my front yard. Buck a bit or I introduce your wires to Mr. Shovel.
The big ISPs don't really want deregulation, they want preferential regulation. They want all the rights and privileges of being a common carrier (like eminent domain, which prevents my little scenario) without actually living up to the responsibilities.
"MA safety belt & motorcycle helmet laws (You're too stupid and irresponsible to make your own decisions about safety)"
More like "I don't feel like having to pay for any injuries caused because you were too stupid to use a helmet/seatbelt/etc." If you want to repeal helmet and seat belt laws, pass a corresponding law absolving drivers of any responsibility for any injuries to other parties that could have been prevented by such devices. Otherwise, I have car insurance to pay for, and I don't feel like having my rates hiked up because of somebody else's foolishness.
"MA makes possession of consumer grade fireworks a felony (The message from the legislature to the voters: You're too goddamn stupid to handle things NH residents safely use all day)"
Consider the respective populations in MA and NH, something like 6:1. If both states have the same percentage of people go to the emergency room on 7/4 with fireworks-related injuries, which state has their emergency rooms too swamped to handle other emergencies?
Besides, if Massachusetts voters don't like it, they can change their legislators. Their state, their problem, Tenth Amendment and all that.
So eBay bans the use of Google's payment system. How much longer do you think Froogle will continue returning eBay auctions in the results?
Burning dog poop wants to be free!
Last tried I ate something glowing from the employee fridge and ran around singing a five-second loop of music, things didn't end well.
Why are they aiming to try to outdo Xbox Live Arcade when they still have to worry about the back-catalog that will be available on Nintendo WiFi? Seriously, the offerings on Arcade are currently pretty slim, while Nintendo has four libraries to fall back on. Microsoft has been planning to offer Street Fighter II "any day now" while Nintendo can offer 3 different SNES ans a Genesis version.
Other than that, if the Xbox 360 can't handle the hardware requirements for what Sony intends to offer online, just how large are these Sony downloads going to be?
If everybody who owns an Xbox 360 or a PlayStation 3 also has a Wii, who's in first again?
Of course not. Everybody knows His name is Shigeru Miyamoto.
Up here in Daytona Beach, it was at about 1444 EDT.
"Geeks, please don't respond that you love Nintendo... we all know that many of you don't care about things like story."
Ah yes, real adults are more interested in the deep and moving stories such as those found in "DOA: Xtreme Beach Volleyball" than the non-existant story in any Zelda game.
I thought the article was going to be about that which incapacitates gamers whenever they are in close proximity: women.
"Some day somebody will have to explain to me, without using an annotated dictionary, how tapping international phone calls is domestic wiretapping."
When the calling (i. e. paying) party, the party specifically being monitored, is a citizen of the United States, calling from within the jurisdiction of the United States, and is therefore covered by the Fourth Amendment.
"Who is "he", and how is maintaining the status quo "adding to the pile"?"
President George W. Bush, and how can implementing a new program in February 2001 possibly be "maintaining the status quo?" You do know what "status quo" means, correct?
"It seems to me that our monitoring programs have actually shrunk in the last six years or so due to the massive increase in data that there is to monitor."
So... there's less information gathering because there's more information to be had? Even if you were talking in terms of percentages of communications tapped versus unmonitored communications, the fact that it is now easier to monitor communications (people using cell phones or emails instead of talking face to face, etc.) seems to suggest that even the percentage of information gathered would go up. Interpretating that data may be another matter, but the Fourth Amendment doesn't give that kind of deference.
"The reason we're finding out about this now instead of ten years ago is that for the first time since, well, pretty much ever, the vast majority of journalists and government employees don't like the current administration, and are working extra hard to dig up dirt."
Were you born yesterday, or did you just flunk history? Name one president that was popular among the press while in office. Even George Washington was villified in the press.
"The truth is that these programs have been going on for years but none of you cared."
So it's OK if he just adds to the pile?
When I saw the headline I myself thought that meant the program was enacted during the Clinton administration, but with the date of February 2001 it seems Bush had been in office for less than a month and already his administration is trying to expand executive power, with no other excuse beyond the one that has become so clear in the years sense: his belief that the executive always had this power.
"Clinton did it too" is not a valid excuse.
"Why the .... state the date as seven months before 11th of september 2001?"
Because the actual date is less important than the fact that it happend before Congress said "ZOMG! You're now supreme dictator for the duration of the crisis!"
"So the researchers at the University of Utah determined that using your phone is worse than having a BAC of 0.08, the equivalent of one drink, not the equivalent of being drunk."
You phail drivers ed. Everybody knows that one drink (can of beer, glass of wine, shot of hard liquor) is the equivalent of 0.02% BAC. 0.08% BAC is the legal limit for most states nowadays (back when I was in drivers ed in Maryland, it was 0.10%, and even then the teacher noted it was high compared to most other states, which had already enacted the 0.08% limit).
So... what other bits of drivers ed are you forgetting?