Blu-Ray has won the Hi-Def war!

[EricJ]

I remember DVD was slow going until about late 2000/2001 (I got in November '99 shortly after the Disney announcement of classic animation releases), but a more expensive format that requires a NEW TV purchase is doing this well?

I remember June 15, 1999 - DiVX Armistice Day:
Went out and thought I could get a cheap DVD-converted player on clearance, was told how inferior they were compared to real players, and made the better decision...
Within literally weeks, the flood of new first-time-to-disk announcements began--You mean I've bought my new player, and they're restoring "Yellow Submarine" ALREADY?

(Of course, we won't get an official HD-DVD surrender in May, like we did with Circuit City, and studios are still too unprepared with long mastering times for unprepared titles, but we can still expect some title-announcement Starting Pistol by the end of '08...And, they're off!

Caveat to non-HD set owners like myself -- even if you DON'T have a hi-def TV set, the Blu-Ray titles definitely seem a bit sharper on regular TV than the average DVD title. True that you don't get hi-def output, but the PS3 and every other authorized Blu-Ray player WILL still play on a conventional TV set through S-Video and composite cables. The improvement is enough to convince that the step up to hi-def TV is definitely worth the investment...!

Keep in mind, you also have the panic (and "helpful" warnings in Best Buy) about the Feb. '09 changeover to ATSC digital convincing people they have only a year left to replace their TV's or watch them self-destruct.
They don't of course--since cable broadcast isn't affected, and government agencies are offering incentive coupons for antenna converters--but, hey, we're guys...Just TRY and get us out of the bigscreen section of Best Buy if we think we have an excuse. And one excuse for making the leap to HDTV goodness is as good as any.

One advantage of later-model PS3s is that they probably don't get as hot as the earlier 60GB models do. That's the reason I bought an external fan for the PS3...! It is also by far the noisiest gaming system and set top player I've even owned.

Must be an early model, and the fan systems improved with experience--
I'd bought one of the last 60G models, stood it upright with plenty of ventilating room, and barely a whoosh...Now I panic if it makes slightly less noise than the refigerator in the kitchen.
(Warning, btw, is that the third-party external fans are the quickest way to blow out the insides, and don't expect sympathy from Sony's warranty department.)

[Randall]

One advantage of later-model PS3s is that they probably don't get as hot as the earlier 60GB models do. That's the reason I bought an external fan for the PS3...! It is also by far the noisiest gaming system and set top player I've even owned.

Must be an early model, and the fan systems improved with experience--
I'd bought one of the last 60G models, stood it upright with plenty of ventilating room, and barely a whoosh...Now I panic if it makes slightly less noise than the refigerator in the kitchen.
(Warning, btw, is that the third-party external fans are the quickest way to blow out the insides, and don't expect sympathy from Sony's warranty department.)

My new 40GB PS3 is super quiet. Not an issue at all.

[James]

I've got the original 60gb model and noise has not been an issue at all, but the cabinet it is in has plenty of breathing room so that may be a factor.

[droosan]

My 60GB PS3 (bought last November) is whisper-quiet, as well .. though, I have yet to play any games on it; it's strictly used as a Blu-Ray player. It is 'noticably' warm after playing a 2-hour movie, however.

OTOH, my room-mate's XBOX 360 sounds like a Lear-jet preparing for take-off, whenever he's playing games on it ..

[Daniel]

Haha, I know what you mean, Droo. My cousin has the 360, and my goodness it's LOUD! How do you stand it!?

Thanks for the insight up there, George. I really wish I would've considered the PS3 last year, but oh well. As of now, I probably am going to get the 40GB.

Btw, has anyone heard this rumor for a new PS3 model? Sounds legit, since the 80GB is labeled as "Limited Edition". Guess it's to much ask for this to have full bc, huh? Would be nice, though...

[GeorgeC]

I think full hardware compatibility has been dropped for good from the PS3.

There are still plenty of PS2s out there and Sony doesn't see a reason to split the market. The XBox 3360 never had hardware compatibility with the original XBox gamess to begin with!

My guess is that the rumored new model (120GB? 160GB?) will have the same software emulation that the 80GB model had. Other than the hard drive, basically the same system.

Of course, the whole thing about "new" is silly since every PS3 is hard drive upgradeable. You can take just about any stock SATA drive and plug it into a PS3. Says so right in the Owner's Manual which 95% of the people who own a PS3 have never bothered to read!

If you already own a PS3, your upgrade path is obvious.

Just buy a new hard drive if you're so desperate for space! As far as I know, the machine can accept up to AT LEAST 160GB without a problem.

[James]

Of course, at least for now, I don't see the big deal about having a bigger hard drive. If Sony ever gets some kind of music/video download service then maybe. I copy video files (mostly HD movie trailers and short films) to my PS3 all the time and am not even close to making a dent in the HD space!

[James]

BTW - should we maybe move this thread from "News Submissions" to "Home Entertainment"?

[Daniel]

Yes, please!

Also, could we maybe change the title of the thread? It's irked me since day one, since Blu-ray didn't *officially* win. Yep, Blu-ray is pretty much the winner, so much I'm finally jumping on the wagon in the coming weeks, but still...

Here's some suggestions: (doubt any will be taken. )

"HD-DVD and Blu-ray (thread)"

"HD and Blu discussion"

"Who will win - Blu-ray or HD-DVD?"

"The High Definition thread"

"HD-DVD, Blu-ray and beyond!"

... And that's all that comes to mind at the moment.

[Ben]

I think we already had another earlier HD thread, so I vote for keeping the title of this (and, really, BR <I>has</I> won the hi-def wars).

Moving to Home Entertainment though, right.......................................................now.

[Daniel]

No, it hasn't! There's still, what, a 1% chance? Never know what HD-DVD has in store...

Here's a question I've been meaning to ask, for those who have the PS3, (ha, everyone!) how is it putting a disc in? You just put it near the slot and it goes in? Has anyone noticed scratches or anything? (Same question for DVDs) and lastly, has anyone here tried playing PS1 games and can let me know how the quality is? (Sorry for all the questions!)

[Randall]

The PS3 just kind of vacuums the disc into it! I'm not sure of the mechanism, but I'm sure it's designed to be gentle on the disc.

And, sorry, but even as a HD DVD owner, I acknowledge that Blu-ray has effectively won. Yes, there are still HD DVDs coming out, but Blu won in most people's eyes as soon as Warner dropped HD DVD.

[Megagents]

I think the new DVD players thing happened too fast. People have huge DVD collections and now they're going to have to buy those movies all over again IF they are made into HD or Blu-Ray.

[James]

On the PS3 you have to insert the disc almost half way before it gets sucked in (as opposed to the Wii which sucks it in almost on contact). A lot of computers today have the same type of slot-loading disc machines so i doubt they are a problem on the discs.

Blu-ray discs have a very cool hard coat layer applied to them that make scratches not a problem.

[Daniel]

Yeah, I've heard, it sounds too cool! Not that my collection is prone to scratches, but it's nice security.

And thanks for the input on the disc slot, James and Rand!

And, sorry, but even as a HD DVD owner, I acknowledge that Blu-ray has effectively won.

Yeah, sorry, I regret bringing it up in the first place. I should've done that when the thread was created, not now. Thread title is fine.