[roohster2]

According to this:
The register
the Playstation 3 will have a Blu ray drive!

[Rob20]

Originally Posted by roohster2

According to this:
The register
the Playstation 3 will have a Blu ray drive!

er.. you're a bit late with this one. Has been known for a month or more. Sorry.

[oxygenuk]

Yes this is quie old news now my freind, but thanks for sharing your find anyway, never know some people might not of know that until they looked here so dont feel useless lol

[H4r7y]

but what does it exactly mean? is it just a case of having more space to create a game in? os it'll give a much bigger game etc?

[oxygenuk]

it'll produce much more space for a game yes, for instance you probably see gta4 on ps3 with a map size 3 times as big as the old ps2 gta maps and of course will also be a blu-ray player for all them blu-ray movies, and just incase people didnt know will also still provide dvd and cd playback while offering blu-ray playback

[H4r7y]

thats pretty good news then.
is the technology expensive then, i assume it is as its a new thing.
gonne bump the price of a ps3 up then.

[oxygenuk]

yea i think it is quite expensive, been out in japan about a year or more now though i think and guess who are the mainm manufactuars...... sony

[AML]

even thought the technology is new and expensive I dont think it will make the PS3 much more expensive.

Sony want people to buy the PS3 and in doing so they can get Blu Ray into peoples homes before HD DVD arrives.

However, I didi hear of 2 different PS3's. A cheaper game only machine and a more expensive model with stuff like Blu Ray and what not!

I dont think this is such a good idea as most people will buy the cheaper model and then Blu ray wont take off!

Still either way, the PS3 will be cheap. Every console maker always sells their machine at a loss and recovers it later thru the sales of softweare.

[inzaman]

I dont know if this has been answered elsewhere but is blue ray going to be the standard hidef format or will there be competing variants.

[H4r7y]

i think philips are making one format too. is it hd dvd theyre making?

[roohster2]

Originally Posted by Rob20

er.. you're a bit late with this one. Has been known for a month or more. Sorry.

Damn....did a search an everyfink....
Oh well, better to have the news twice than miss it completely.

[harrisuk]

I dont know if this has been answered elsewhere but is blue ray going to be the standard hidef format or will there be competing variants.

There are rival formats. HDDVD is the main one. But this time unlike the DVD format cross compatability is looking unlikely as the formats are fundementally different, or that is my understanding.

Sticking it in the PS 3 or whatever it will be called is a good move as straight away it will create a large installed base for their new format. I would worry about the cost though as the technology is still pretty expensive at the moment. Its quite strange really as most games dont come anywhere near to using the 9 meg you can get on a dual layer dvd. Sticking in technology like this flies in the face of current console design really. Proven existing technology mass produced at a cheap price.

I just seems a little strange when Nintendo and Microsoft are doing everything they can to make their next gen consoles sub £200 and Sony are clearly thinking along the lines of £300 +

[Rob20]

Originally Posted by roohster2

Damn....did a search an everyfink....
Oh well, better to have the news twice than miss it completely.

No worries mate. Happens all the time.

Seems to me that Sony may be willing make a significant loss on it's PS3 hardware because having the Blu-Ray format is not only important when selling the PS3, (next gen console + plays hi-def dvd format), but possibly more crucially, getting the Blu-Ray format into peoples houses. Giving the format a psychological boost in the eyes of the consumer. Advertising could use the PS3 in figures outlining Blu-Ray players sold. Especially as the release of the PS2 in Japan had a huge effect on increasing initially dissapointing dvd sales. Sony is hoping the PS3 will do the same job for Blu-Ray. Sony is adament to avoid another Betamax situation.

[harrisuk]

Sony is adament to avoid another Betamax situation.

But Sony obviously havent learned the lessons from Betamax. They cant produce a format on ther own and hope for it to become the standard without getting the other major manufacturers on board.

Sony were so concerned about which way the DVD writable market was going to go they didnt really commit to any of the formats. They had some involvement in Dvd +R with Philips but very little really, commiting to produce DVD +R compatable players and recorders and their logo on the format standard. That was it. In reality they couldnt even commit to that. Most of the the DVD recorders they have produced have supported both the main DVD R formats.

Having missed out to a large extent on DVD R, they are now going down their previous path of developing their own bespoke technology without involvement from the other major manufacturers. Very Strange and risky in my opinion, Sony are in quite a weak position at the moment, they cant really afford for Blu Ray to fail.

[AML]

"Its quite strange really as most games dont come anywhere near to using the 9 meg you can get on a dual layer dvd."

You mean 9GB?

A blu ray can hold up to 50GB dual layer and 25GB single layer.

I beleive Sony are bringing in all the big players to support Blu Ray.

As you may know FOX signed on and sony recently bought shares in MGM which means they will be able to release all those MGM and FOX movies (Star wars) on Blu Ray.

Its all about the movies folks. Whover wins the most studios over will win the war.

As far as I know there are only 2 major formats. BLU RAY and HD DVD.

Both are backwards compatible with the DVD format and Mpeg 2, so we can still watch out DVD's on any Blu Ray player.

The system may be different from DVD but its still compatible. Just think HI DEFF TV on a disk!

[Pooon]

But Sony obviously havent learned the lessons from Betamax. They cant produce a format on ther own and hope for it to become the standard without getting the other major manufacturers on board.

They have learnt, they have recently bought MGM who have a massive collection of catalogue titles that Sony now owns, so along with all the columbia/tristar film that they also own, they have a lot of titles to re-release on Blu-ray. But this is not to say that it will win the format war, but does put them in a better position than for the Betamax Vs Vhs fight.

[Rob20]

Originally Posted by harrisuk

But Sony obviously havent learned the lessons from Betamax. They cant produce a format on ther own and hope for it to become the standard without getting the other major manufacturers on board.

Sony were so concerned about which way the DVD writable market was going to go they didnt really commit to any of the formats. They had some involvement in Dvd +R with Philips but very little really, commiting to produce DVD +R compatable players and recorders and their logo on the format standard. That was it. In reality they couldnt even commit to that. Most of the the DVD recorders they have produced have supported both the main DVD R formats.

Having missed out to a large extent on DVD R, they are now going down their previous path of developing their own bespoke technology without involvement from the other major manufacturers. Very Strange and risky in my opinion, Sony are in quite a weak position at the moment, they cant really afford for Blu Ray to fail.

Have you seen the list of manufacturers that are behind Blu-Ray:

-- Dell Inc.
-- Hewlett Packard
-- Hitachi, Ltd. (original member)
-- LG Electronics Inc. (original member)
-- Mitsubishi Electric Corporation
-- Panasonic (Matsu****a Electric who is also parent of JVC) (original member)
-- Pioneer Corporation (original member)
-- Royal Philips Electronics (original member)
-- Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd (original member)
-- Sharp Corporation (original member)
-- Sony Corporation (original member who also owns Columbia/Tri-Star Pictures and Aiwa)
-- TDK Corporation
-- Thomson (original member

Not exactly on their own this time. Look for the HDD vs Blu-Ray thread, (page 3 ish). Or try www.blu0-ray.com for more info.

[inzaman]

Looks like sony are going to be quite agressive about bluray especially with all those manufacturers on board and the shares in the various movie studios.

If they are going for market penetration with this format we may see the new ps at new xbox and nintendo price levels etc. Hopefully it doesnt turn into a betamax v vhs battle and the consumer comes out the winner.

[CAS FAN]

You also have to remember that at the start there were some big companies (including Sony, Sanyo, Toshiba & NEC) that were behind Betamax with a few (like Philips & Grundig I think)behind V2000.

Betamax as we all know was the best format with higher resolution, better stereo sound and faster tape cueing. I just hope that Blu Ray is competetively priced as the mass market won't buy it (no matter how good it is) if it's too expensive. Putting a new & probably fairly expensive format into a console is also a big risk as again the mass market will not pay too much for a games console. We saw this with the X-Box and it's original £400 price tag. To be fair it was probably worth that as it was a much better machine than the PS2 or Gamecube, but people simply were not willing to pay that much for a games console.

Sony do own the market though and have the Playstation Brand on their side so in a way (if done right) the PS3 could be one of the huge factors in sealing Blu-Ray's success!

[zantarous]

The Xbox was £299 when it launched not £400. Xbox failure to sell has more to do with Sony’s dominant place in the console market the Xbox price point. Even now that they are sub £100 each I bet Sony are shifting a lot more PS2 then MS are of Xbox regardless of which one is superior.

Putting Bluray in the PS3 is a masterstroke of genius, it will have been a long time since a new next gen condole has been launched so I know doubt that PS3 will sell regardless of the any crazy price it comes out at. But aren’t MS going to have HD-DVD as their format of choice for Xbox 2?

[CAS FAN]

Yeah sorry I got that wrong it was £300 not £400. I do think that price was a factor on release as when you have the PS2 retailing at £169 as it was around the time the XBox was released, then people will go for the PS2 on price as well. The Gamecube was seen as too cheap and more a cheap toy than a serious games console and therefore was overlooked by masses of 20-30 year olds with some disposable income burning away in their pockets. In terms of pricing I think Sony got it spot on with the PS2 not being too expensive nor too cheap.

I think the X-Box sales will be almost matching Sony's now to be fair (I obviously don't mean overall but on a day to day basis). Loads of people (who were previously happy with the PS2 - me included) have gone out to buy X-Boxes to play games like PES4, Forza Motorsport, Outrun 2 and Halo 2. There have been two announcements that have caused a swathe of PS2 owners to buy an X-Box - Firstly "PES4 will only be playable online on the X-Box" and Secondly "Gran Turismo 4 will not be playable online". Combine this with Forza Motorsport (a potential GT4 beater) being fully online and it's not hard to see why people are buying the X-Box in larger & larger numbers.

This is all great for the next generation of consoles as the X-Box is finally becoming cooler to own and the games catalogue is improving by the day!

[inzaman]

Sony do own the market though and have the Playstation Brand on their side so in a way (if done right) the PS3 could be one of the huge factors in sealing Blu-Ray's success!

That could just be all that is needed and was certainly the missing factor in the betamax v vhs imo.

[CAS FAN]

I agree Inzaman, it's Sony's biggest brand (infact Playstation is probably a bigger brand than Sony itself is anyway) so if they can use it to bring their next storage system to the masses then why not. They could then launch Blu Ray players/recorders on the back of it or maybe persue the home multimedia (PSX) idea further (although reports are that PSX isn't doing well in Japan and they have slashed prices already!).

Who would have thought when Betamax, VHS and Video 2000 were launched on an unexpecting public that they would fight the first battle in the War for the spaces under our TV's! Infact before Video's spaces under our TV's didn't exist - just a wooden box with metal legs and 6 piano key buttons lol. How things have changed over the last 20 years!

[explicitlyrics]

i know that about a month ago, xbox sales had gone quite a bit higher than ps2 sales but i dont know what has happened since then. Xbox-scene is probably due an update on the sale figures so ill keep an eye open and let you know if they are interesting.

[AML]

I think the PS2 has reached a satturation Point where every one who is going to buy one has already. The Xbox is newer and is offering a few new things that the PS2 doesnt offer.
Also the fact the the PS2 is now old and has reached its limit in terms of performance. The XBox is only starting to show what it can do as we see in Halo 2.

As for Blu Ray, I have siad the same thing before. If they release the PS3 with blu ray drives, everyone who buys a PS3 will also be buying a blu ray player. All sony have to do is sit back and wait for a large instaled base, then out come the blu ray films.

As for HD DVD, unless they do something similar, i can see them failing before they even start.

[Rob20]

Do you think it's more important for PS3 to have Blu-Ray playback, (would certainly make me more interested in buying a PS3), or for Blu-Ray to be used on PS3, (to get a cheap Blu-Ray player into tens of millions of homes)?

i.e. who benefits more out of the collaboration, the PS3 or the Blu-Ray format?

[CAS FAN]

Personally I think that the Blu Ray format will benefit most from the PS3 having a Blu Ray drive. That said it is also another good selling point for the PS3, especially once the format is established. I do think that a Blu Ray PS3 will help establish the format in the first place though, just as the PS2 helped establish DVD. Back when the PS2 was released DVD players were pretty pricey at around £200 - £400 for an entry level model. Many people bought the PS2 for/or partialy for it's DVD playback capability on it's release. Whilst i'm not saying that the PS2 is the reason for DVD success, I do feel that it helped a fair bit early on in the format's life and helped get the format into some houses a lot earlier than it perhaps would have done otherwise.

[Rob20]

If the PS3 comes out at £300, and assuming there won't be any hidden costs to play BR movies (like XBox's £20 remote) then it will be an extremely cheap way to experience hi-def material. The first BR players/recorders aren't expected til 2006, so PS3 will be released at the beginning when machines will most likely be £1,000+. If this is the case people might be tempted to buy a PS3 solely for Blu-Ray playback. Without BR I probably wouldn't buy a PS3, (rather have Rev or XBox 2). With it it's a certtainty.

[danvitale]

An observation... interesting to see the major combatants of the current Recordable DVD formats (Philips for +R/RW and Panasonic/Pioneer for -R/RW/RAM) on the same side in terms of Blu Ray.. surely that will be a benefit in itself when it comes to the time they make Blu Ray recorders...

..Ive heard that Blu Ray will allow 26 hours of normal and 8 hours of HDTV recorded on a BR-R.. that in itself has got me foaming at the mouth in anticipation!

[Rob20]

I think a 50GB BR disc will give you 4.5hrs of hi-def at it's highest record rate. 24MBps or something. I believe that's 1920 by 1080 with 5.1. Not sure whether that's prog or interlaced 1080 though!?