PS3 is a sinking ship: Sales plummet

[andrew]

[QUOTE=riftt]

blu ray discs are a huge step up "graphically" and anyone who can't see it doesn't have their display configured properly. 

[/QUOTE]

More so for newer films than older films especially sci-fi stuff. All older films have their special effects shot in standard def which means those effects would have to be completely redone to be in proper hi-def. Otherwise they're simply upscaled. That's an expensive plan that only perhaps LucasArts and Paramount would do for Star Wars and Star Trek respectively. This explains why putting older TV shows like Buffy would not be worth the investment on Blu-Ray or why only seasons five and six of Smallville are in Blu-Ray. Lets not forget many older films benefitted from a lower resolution to hide technical limitations. Blu-Ray will take much longer to even come up to par with dvd sales. The difference of VHS to DVD was much greater than DVD to Blu-Ray going beyond just the actual 'look'

As for sound, yeah the HDTV and its standard speakers isn't the reason for better sound. Uncompressed audio is the reason because DVD simply doesn't have eough capacity for uncompressed sound.

[Paul Campbell]

[QUOTE=Viper82]One thing I've noticed (and no one has mentioned) is that Blu-Ray discs, while not a huge step up graphically, sound absolutely terrific. The sound quality is so much better, especially on a good quality HDTV.  I think that's something that nearly everyone overlooks.
[/QUOTE]

Are you saying this out of personal experience or just what you have heard from other people or advertisers?  I promise you that if you have the same movie on two different systems, one is Blu-Ray, one is not, that they will sound the same.  There is absolutely zero evidence that the human ear can detect higher resolution audio than what a CD or DVD can provide, and I have done more double-blind tests than the average person will ever have time to do.  Anybody who thinks they hear a difference are only assuming they do.  And even if there WAS a difference, it would certainly not be discernible through the built-in speakers of a flat panel television.  One reason for this misconception is that so often people see Blu-Ray for the first time through a decent quality surround system (or at least a step up from what they are used to).This is like a modern-day version of The Emperor's New Clothes.   I am now demo-ing my Home Theater installs using Blu-Ray versions of the same movies I used on DVD.  I am VERY familiar with these scenes and what they sound like.  Trust me.  They sound the same.

[Paul Campbell]

[QUOTE=riftt]

blu ray discs are a huge step up "graphically" and anyone who can't see it doesn't have their display configured properly. 

[/QUOTE]

Actually, relatively speaking, Blu-Ray is a minor step up from Progressive Scan (and especially Upscaled) DVD.  The huge step was when we went from VHS to DVD.  People also seem to think that 1080p is a huge step up from 1080i, when in truth they probably couldn't tell the two apart if they were side-by-side.

[Viper821]

[quote]Are you saying this out of personal experience or just what you have heard from other people or advertisers?[/quote]

I'm speaking from personal experience only and maybe it's just me but I clearly notice the jump in audio quality.

[quote]Eh... how can a different television make the SOUND better? Is that like Victor Borge talking about "Seeing what it sounds like?"[/quote]

Better quality speakers, I assume? I'm not an expert by any means. When I went from a 20 year old STV to a year old HDTV, there is a very noticeable improvement. It doesn't sound nearly as 'flat' on the HDTV and it really gets you into the game or movie.

[Funkmaster V]

I have never looked at my Tube TV/ DVD combo and said " I can't stand this picture."

So therefore... not in the market for that stuff...

Funk

[ActRaiser1]

Does anyone know if the PS3 will display movies and games in 1080i over component? 

When the PS3 was first released Sony stated that unless you had a tv that did 720p you'd get 480p at best for games that were coded for 720p.  Instead of upgrading to 1080i they by default downgraded it to a 480p resolution.  The reason I'm asking is that my TV doesn't do 720p; hence, the need to either downgrade the resolution or upscale it to 1080i.

I've tried searching for the answer on the web.  Any ideas? 

Here's a better explanation from the following website:

http://www.highdefdigest.com/feature_ps3vsxbox360addon.html

[QUOTE=website above]
But perhaps even more significant is that aforementioned late-breaking issue surrounding the PS3's resolution upconvert/downconvert problems. Sony has confirmed that the PS3 has no internal scaler as part of its hardware that can upconvert 480p/i or 720p content (whether a standard-def DVD or a PlayStation game) to 1080p/i. That leads to two separate issues. First, if you have a 1080i-only HDTV, it is up to your monitor to upconvert the 480p/i or 720p output from the PS3 to 1080i. While that puts the PS3 a rung below most next-gen disc players, which usually upconvert lower-res sources to at least 1080i, I don't know if it's a true deal breaker for me. Far more problematic is if you set the PS3 to 1080 mode to interface with your 1080p/i-only monitor, the PS3 can only downconvert 720p content to 480p. This is not a huge problem for owners of 1080p sets, as I can't think of one that doesn't accept a native 720p source and upconvert it to 1080 internally. However, there are a wealth of 1080i sets out there that will not accept a 720p signal, so if you are the owner of one of them, you're going to be confined to 480 downconverts of most PS3 launch games, as the vast majority are 720p only. That's a big drawback for the PS3 right out of the gate. Why Sony just didn't build in 1080 upconversion into the console is a bit of a mystery. We can only hope that a fix is possible via a software update. [UPDATE: (12/07/06) Well, it's not a scaler, but Sony has issued a PS3 update that changes the priority of resolutions, putting 1080i over 720p. The update can be downloaded at Sony's PS3 website.]

[/QUOTE]
I clicked on the [update] link but the article in the update is no longer there.  I'm not really sure what it means by priority.  Any help or advice?  I'd love to get a PS3 but there's no way in heck I'm getting one if I have to get a new tv.  I can just wait until the price drops in a few years.

[andrew]

[QUOTE=Viper82][quote]Are you saying this out of personal experience or just what you have heard from other people or advertisers?[/quote]

I'm speaking from personal experience only and maybe it's just me but I clearly notice the jump in audio quality.

[quote]Eh... how can a different television make the SOUND better? Is that like Victor Borge talking about "Seeing what it sounds like?"[/quote]

Better quality speakers, I assume? I'm not an expert by any means. When I went from a 20 year old STV to a year old HDTV, there is a very noticeable improvement. It doesn't sound nearly as 'flat' on the HDTV and it really gets you into the game or movie.
[/QUOTE]

Going from a 20 year old tv with average speakers to a television with better speakers will make everything sound better, not because of blu-ray. Blu-Ray has better sound but the true difference is only heard if you own a top notch surround system to exploit it. Otherwise, regular stereo 2.0 will not have any audio inferiority  vs blu-ray lossless audio through your standard speakers.

[ajsmart1]

[QUOTE=ActRaiser]Does anyone know if the PS3 will display movies and games in 1080i over component? 

When the PS3 was first released Sony stated that unless you had a tv that did 720p you'd get 480p at best for games that were coded for 720p.  Instead of upgrading to 1080i they by default downgraded it to a 480p resolution.  The reason I'm asking is that my TV doesn't do 720p; hence, the need to either downgrade the resolution or upscale it to 1080i.

I've tried searching for the answer on the web.  Any ideas? 
[/QUOTE]

One of my sets will only do 1080i or 480p/i.  From my experience, the above is correct.  Games display in 1080i only if they specifically support it, those that only support up to 720p will down-convert to 480p.  And this is I think kind of chintzy on Sony's part for not building a scaler into the hardware (this is what the 360 has).

PS2 games will upscale to 1080i over component nicely if you have a PS3 with the backwards compatibility.

Blu-ray movies play just fine at 1080i over component.   PS3 will not upscale DVDs through component though. (I believe doing so violates DVD copyright laws)

That update you mentioned only changed the priority when the TV and media both support 720p and 1080i. The PS3 would default to 720p, now it will default to 1080i.

A console just shouldn't have this many 'if thens' in the equation

[funky_muzic1]

Nice thread, so I'll throw in my two cents.
I don't see Sony absolutely failing with the PS3.  I think their overall numbers are pretty close to the 360 (thanks to Japan of course).  However, I do expect them to finish in third place at the end of this "generation".  I don't own a PS3, but it does really seem like a great console.  The problem is that Sony greatly underestimated the importance of the price point of the console. 
Just looking at the history of console sales, you can see that there have been a few highly priced consoles, and none of them sold well.
The Sega Saturn was $400 at launch and it bombed for the most part desipite some decent games.  The Neo Geo also had some good (mainly fighting) games but it was way too expensive at $650 (plus those $100-$200 games!).  And then of course was the 3DO at $700. 
Overall the PS3 has much better exclusive titles than any of these 3 systems, which is why I think it will survive, but it just won't have the success of a quality system that is priced lower.
Watch the PS4 will come out (if they don't scrap the Playstation brand name altogether) and it will be priced in the $250 - $400 range with an emphasis on "casual" gaming in order to compete with Nintendo and MS. 

[BanjoPickles1]

zzz, have you even played the Wii? The reason I ask is because you said that Wii Sports looked like it was fun. If you haven't played it, how could you consider it a flop? It's not like the system only has Wii Fit, Wii Sports, Wii Bathroom, and Wii Sex Change!

In all honesty, aside from the Virtual Boy, Nintendo has never had a flop! When I think flop, I think the sales of the Atari Jaguar or CD-i. People called Gamecube a flop but how can a system that sold 23+ million worldwide be considered a wash?

Zzzz, like any system, the Wii has some pretty outstanding games...if you're willing to look for them. Also, 2009 is looking to be a pretty damn good year for the system. It's strange because I was so much more focused on 360 during 2008, but I think I'm going to be more focused on Wii this year(Punch Out...whoo hoo!!!). It just sucks that, as of Feb. 23rd, I no longer have a job to feed my habit.:-(