PC World Calls PS3 a mistake, "One Of The Top Tech MISTAKES of 2006"

[Banjo]

I agree with kurt that Sony's own systems (BetaMax, MiniDisc, etc) is Sony's own Achilles heel.

Whoa, whoa...

That's a big misconception. Blu-Ray is not Sony... at least not entirely. It belongs to at least 170 different companies. Yes, that many!

A large number of companies including Samsung, LG, Phillips, Lite-On, Mitsubishi, Panasonic, Pioneer, Sharp, AMEX, Hitachi, JVC, Yamaha, Zenith, BenQ, HP, Fujifilm, Imation, Maxell, Memorex, Optodisc, Ricoh, Ritek, TDK, Verbatim and many more. They already have a bunch of Blu-Ray recorders out on the market.

BetaMax failed because Sony owned it and refused to share it with anybody. That was 30 years ago. They learned their lesson.

Keep in mind that Sony and several companies listed above were involved with the development of the DVD format. This is also the case with Blu-Ray. Sony didn't just "develop" Blu-Ray, it was developed by the Blu-Ray Disc Association, a joint development team.

Sony is not keeping Blu-Ray to itself. They don't own all of it, it's owned by the Blu-Ray Association formed by several giant corporations. The key to the survival of a media format is the majority of studios backing it up. Blu-Ray has more studios backing them up as exclusive distributors than they do on HD-DVD. Buena Vista (Disney, Touchstone, etc), Fox, Lionsgate and more.

7 of the 8 major studios support Blu-Ray while only 3 support HD-DVD. I can see where they're at a disadvantage. It's a bigger problem for HD-DVD as they only have one exclusive distributor which is Universal. The other 2 are supporting both formats.

Not only that, Blu-Ray is much more capable than HD-DVD ever will be. Blu-Ray is believed to be capable of maxing out at 200GB with 8 layers while HD-DVD will only max out at 60GB.

HD-DVD and Blu-Ray have shown pretty much the same video quality for now... but that may change in the future as they expand.

 

[kurtcs]

What's TOS?

Terms of Service

Terms of Service (often abbreviated as "TOS") are rules by which one must agree to abide by in order to use a service.

Certain websites are noted for having carefully designed terms of service, particularly eBay and PayPal which need to maintain a high level of community trust because of transactions involving money. However, to attract new members and maintain current members, the terms must be perceived as fair and must not be needlessly bureaucratic. For the sake of good public relations and effective community building, the organization should strive to form a social contract that balances the organization's interests with a set of rights granted to the membership.

Most Internet service providers have terms of service—notably AOL LLC—which many perceive to be very strict.

As video games move online, many of them are also adopting a terms of service, separate from the End User License Agreement required to utilize the client software. These Terms of Service generally specify behaviors that are disallowed within the video game's virtual world, generally to prevent a player from disrupting another player's game experience. For example, many online games disallow the use of racist speech through communication channels provided by the game. Many MMORPGs also disallow the trading of in-game items for "real world" money.

 

[Banjo]

Not only that, people here don't seem to understand what they are planning to do with Blu-Ray. It's really for the best as the DVD format itself already has been utilized to the limit. Seriously, you cannot do much with a 9.4GB disc these days for the movies. It's time for an upgrade, but the important thing is... these machines will be backward compatible with the previous optical discs including CD and DVD.

In fact, Warner Bros. had to use a 30GB HD-DVD disc for Unforgiven (single layer is 15GB)... so that's saying something.

It will be forced onto you whether you like it or not... Dell, Apple and other giants are going to install it into their machines. Actually, Dell is already selling computers with Blu-Ray drives.

 

[sablescort]

Whoa, whoa...

That's a big misconception. Blu-Ray is not Sony... at least not entirely. It belongs to at least 170 different companies. Yes, that many!

A large number of companies including Samsung, LG, Phillips, Lite-On, Mitsubishi, Panasonic, Pioneer, Sharp, AMEX, Hitachi, JVC, Yamaha, Zenith, BenQ, HP, Fujifilm, Imation, Maxell, Memorex, Optodisc, Ricoh, Ritek, TDK, Verbatim and many more. They already have a bunch of Blu-Ray recorders out on the market.

Yeah thanks for pointing that out. Sometimes there are holes in my memory about history. However 170 companies into Blu-Ray is like having 170 fingers into a single pie

The consumers prefer to wait until there is a single dominant format for either HD-DVD or Blu-ray when it comes to their entertainment. Remember the war between VHS and BetaMax? Now HD-DVD and BluRay is like the last video format battle in the 1980's.

 

[DefMATRIXense]

Really? Biggest mistake? Ummm, how come PS3 is successful because they are sold out and it is hard to find everywhere even thought sony shipped more unit weekly. I need one, motherfucker. Lol. I want to another fact is before ps3 arrives, Bluray movies sale really bad due to expensive player ($1,000 dollars) and then after ps3 arrives, blu ray sale went up to the roof.

 

[Foxrac]

Really? Biggest mistake? Ummm, how come PS3 is successful because they are sold out and it is hard to find everywhere even thought sony shipped more unit weekly. I need one, motherfucker. Lol. I want to another fact is before ps3 arrives, Bluray movies sale really bad due to expensive player ($1,000 dollars) and then after ps3 arrives, blu ray sale went up to the roof.

Yea, thanks to PS3 for make sale of BD to went up and probably to outsell sale of HD-DVD. In 2007, when PS3 is release in Europe, Mexico, HK, Oceania countries like New Zealand and Austrilia then sale of BD will goes skyrocketing since Sony is shipping more PS3 every weekly.

I believe that PS3 will outsell Wii in next year and still make more units to release in worldwide.

I got right choice for not buy HD-DVD add-on because they are going to fail, also Disney and other movie studio made good choice for not release on HD-DVD and after found out with petition then Disney rejected it and rather to sell on BD only.

Banjo made great point about BD.

 

[Banjo]

Myself, I don't think Wii should be compared to PS3... they're pretty much different from each other.