The supposed "full-on assault" by Sony
on the Xbox 360 and its vaunted Live service continues in the pages of PSM this month, with the rumored DVR
and media-center-like capabilities of the PS3 taking center stage.After someone literally took a page from the unofficial PS mag for the previous post on the topic, another PlayStation.com forum poster (with J Allard 'shopped into "Jak" as an avatar?) decided to spill the beans on the rest of Sony's secret plans for the next generation. They include DVR functionality, "high-def movie and TV episode downloads" in an iTunes/Connect-like way, LocationFree support for the PSP, and a fall release for the system and possibly its online service as well. For a look at the PSM page with all this secret talk, try the publicly available link over here.
Of course, a scan from a magazine doesn't prove anything, as Engadget so rightly states in a recent post. After all, if the PS3 hard drive proves to be optional, and a video input isn't featured on the back, it's highly doubtful that every system (if the PS3 releases in Blu-ray/HDD-separate SKUs) will support all of these capabilities.
[Thanks for letting us know about the scan, Aaron Laine, and thanks to everyone who sent this in]











(Page 1) Reader Comments
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The PSP is a mutli-finction device.
*) PSP is a poor video player, playing expensive and proprietary UMDs or lower-resolution videos off of an expensive and small-capacity proprietary memory stick.
*) PSP is a poor music player with the most bare function set, even fewer functions than most cheap, tiny Chinese players. Music, like video, is plagued by the proprietary memory stick format.
*) The PSP Web browser is worse than that on most mobile phones.
*) PSP Text entry is the worst possible combination of on-screen keyboard and T9 without leveraging the strengths of either.
*) PSP Game selection sucks and play is plagued with long load times and short battery life.
*) PSP was promised to have GPS integration and a slew of other features that never saw the light of day, much like the poorly conceived and implemented PS2 hard drive.
All in all, the PSP does many things and does none of them well.
One can extrapolate based on historical evidence that the PS3 is going to be a jack-of-all-trades, master-of-none.
Do you really expect a PS3 to make a better Tivo than Tivo? Do you really expect it to have a better Microsoft Live than Microsoft Live? Do you really expect it to have all of these features better than the competition?
All I ask is they everyone keep their head. Sony is in serious financial trouble and they are betting the farm on this one product. Think of it as the Homer Mobile (http://www.megahobby.com/Modeling_Z...ity/POL4000.jpg), a product designed with features for everyone but appealing to nobody.
Now is a good time for everyone to read the Lost Garden article about why convergence is a dirty word.
http://lostgarden.com/2005/12/conve...rd-to-hate.html
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In memory of the immortal words of Josh Robinson;
"I’ve also talked with people on the technical side of the Xbox 360. The consistent comment I am hearing from people on my end is, 'The Xbox 360 is better'," Robinson wrote.
"They are saying that it is capable of just doing more."
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If some PS3 games ever actually come out on BluRay (DVD9 not large enough), then does this imply that a great deal of the Cell processor and the graphics card's resources will be dedicated to just getting the information off the disc?
That's gotta limit the graphical potential of games on BluRay...and if they are crippled, then shouldn't DVD9 be large enough anyways?
I'm no tech genious, so correct me where I'm completely wrong (I'm guessing in the region of 90%)
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Does this include the DVR functions that will need an optional HDD, and TV tuner? Or the "Slingbox" functionality that they won't have for years into the future?
Oh yeah, DVR functionality was also pushed as a feature of PS2, but that never came to fruition. Hmmm...
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http://www.megahobby.com/cgi-bin/shopper.exe?preadd=action&key=POL4000
and
http://lostgarden.com/2005/12/convergence-great-word-to-hate.html
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Didn't Microsoft start that media-center-convergence-HD-digital-media-integration trend?
What did you expect?
After Microsoft started the ball rolling, Sony must follow or be left behind.
For Sony, it's damned if you don't, damned if you do.
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I thought the PS3 wasn't coming with a hard drive.
Does this mean a slew of accessories to bring the cost up to what, the price of a computer?!
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"The problem with the cheaper SKU is that it plays blu-ray games (as if there will be any) and not movies"
This is retarded. Obviously all PS3s will play Blu-ray movies out of the box - if not, that would entirely cripple Sony's attempt to make the Blu-ray a standard. Why would they sell them for 300 anyway if it still has the blu-ray disc player? It's impressive how gullible some people can be. What Sony should do, is offer a single SKU that costs 500 dollars and includes a 120 GB hard drive; developers would like having HDD as a standard.
"4. They said exactly the same thing for the ps2, and im still waiting for the toys story graphics."
Toy Story graphics are pretty relative, and honestly the FFX in-game graphics are close to the cut-scenes. Want Toy Story graphics? Watch the cut-scenes. I'm still waiting for the Xbox 1 to show me graphics like the video they showed with the huge robot and the funky girl.
"In memory of the immortal words of Josh Robinson;
"I’ve also talked with people on the technical side of the Xbox 360. The consistent comment I am hearing from people on my end is, 'The Xbox 360 is better'," Robinson wrote.
"They are saying that it is capable of just doing more.""
Immortal? Hahahaha, if he cited any source, that would be swell; the opinion is divided though, so nobody cares about Josh Robinson. Stop being so gullible, people.
"Oh yeah, DVR functionality was also pushed as a feature of PS2, but that never came to fruition. Hmmm..."
It did. It's called "PSX", sold only in Japan.
"If some PS3 games ever actually come out on BluRay (DVD9 not large enough), then does this imply that a great deal of the Cell processor and the graphics card's resources will be dedicated to just getting the information off the disc? "
No, you have a "BD-reader" (a blue laser) to do that. The processor and graphics card will be used for AI, physics, polygon rendering, etcetera.
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"It will also allow the PS3 to stream all major video and audio formats over a home network."
Once Sony officially announces DivX support, Microsoft will have no choice but to follow suit. Competition is good!
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But that's just my opinion.
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The PS3 is probably going to be expensive, but only a little ahead of the 360...
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The PS3 can do that too; I love how xbox fanboys repeat what they read (in blogs) with nothing to back themselves up.
Examples of why the PS3 can procedurally generate content (that is, "on the fly") are:
-The use of the development tool "SpeedTree" which generates forests procedurally
-Caspar Sawyer, an advanced engineer that works for SCEE will talk about how to use the SPUs (namely, the Cell) for procedural geometry.
Fanboys... the lot of you.
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Here's hoping that Microsoft or Sony replicate the iTunes experience for the living room.
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[quote]
They include DVR functionality, "high-def movie and TV episode downloads" in an iTunes/Connect-like way
[/quote]
I really want Sony to have a strong Online go of things, and hopefully their streaming media does force Xbox360 to support streaming video (AND DIVX/XVID %!@$@#!) without a windows media center pc....
Back to earning money to put in my Ps3's college fund...
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Peripheral attachments do so poorly because they have no game support. The PS2 hard drive only supports 2-3 games if I remember right; the only one that needs it is FFXI. The only thing it is really useful for is the non-Sony-approved HDLoader so your games will load faster. A network adapter is needed for that, and it happens to be the only thing it is good for as well.
Another example: my friend gave me a Gamecube microphone that he found in his car. Come to find it is essentially worthless, just like their broadband adapter.
As someone else mentioned, the 360 should fair well because they are putting games as a priority. The other functions are great, but if they don't directly support the games then it is obvious they are less important. This is what Sony missed with the PSP.
#2 is spot on as far as far as this article goes. If Sony tries to cram too much in there, it will do each function poorly.
As far as movies and music downloads go, this is still something Microsoft could easily offer if the need arises. But they better start producing bigger hard drives at a decent price.
As far as DVR, consumers would be better off with a Media Center PC. I have no need for DVR myself.
The PS3 Bluray using the Cell processor for part of its functions shouldn't affect the games. Even if it did, the developers would/should optimize if it put any drag on the system. The only problem there is we end up with more proprietary Sony parts that are difficult to service.
I don't know about you, but as long as the PS3 has good games and GOOD online support, then I will be mostly happy with it. I don't care about all these extra features. If that controller sucks, I hope some 3rd party hardware vendor produces a good replacement.
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My question is, will all of this media functionality work with any home network? Will it work with any home computer or mp3 player?
Or, will all of this functionality be restricted to only Sony products? Sony is really bad about proprietary media and hardware. I wouldn't want to be forced to fill my home with Sony products just to get the most out of my PS3.
I hope PS3 and 360 start expanding their media functions. I just hope that they find a way to make it seamless and not intrude on the games.
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anyway, so how much are these blue ray dvd's going to cost themselves, and what will motivate people to buy them instead, majority being people who own hdtv's. a slight clarity upgrade? is it worth the price?
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[Edited out something concerning bd]
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it's on a playstation 3 forum. and look...I can make an "unofficial magazine scan" too.
http://www.imageviper.com/displayimage/24275/0/magazine.jpg
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The big bad guy is Clancy Brown.
"Its better to burn out then to fade away!"
Sorry, great movie and so I had to get Clancy's back on that one.
Nice analogy too. :)
And Blizz419, I'm talking about games like SOCOM, Gran Turismo, Jak and Daxter, Ratchet & Clank, God of War, ICO, Shadow of the Colossus, etc. All great games. I would hate to see them go.
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As far as all the other stuff, hey I hope Sony can pull off some of this stuff. When companies compete to make the best product possible, we all win. But I couldnt help but hear the faint sound of a cash register every time a feature was mentioned. If the 360 cost $400 (w/harddrive) I can't see how the PS3 will cost anything less than $500 (if all these features turn out to be true)
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They showed it right before the Gamecube and xbox launch.
I not going to get too excited at about any hype sony says. But it would be cool it if it did that stuff. If they said they were going to push the launch back a two or three I might start believe some of it.
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You can also install Linux on the Xbox, and make the Gamecube a Linux client. The Xbox is the only machine that makes a linux install worthwhile and useful (as a PC). You can even get a PSX emulator for the XBox.
I'm waiting for Sony to claim the PS3 could emulate the Xbox 360. They've made equally stupid claims before.
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oh, please. Don't you even know what your are talking about? I loved ffx and ffxi fmvs, but When i was refering to sony's quote on the Toy story graphics, it is because it would be done in real time.
We all know sony and kuturagi are real liars to the bone. They just hype their things so much that its becoming Incredibly stupid, and still some people follow them and believe them, even if it defies the laws of the realism.
Sony already said they would sell videos and chapters of your favorite video games, like add-ons, on the ps2 with the hdd and online. Bullshit.
They also said playing ps2 would be like entering the matrix, and that they feared terrorism would use the ps2 as a super computer to launch and guide missiles.
So, please...
As for your exemple with the xbox, i dont care at all.
I love my xbox, just as much as i love my ps2 and my gamecube, and we know that every compagnies are lying at some point, because they want to sell. But sony is going so far that it is ridiculous. And whats more stupid is that some people actually believe them.
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hell. they look better than that freaky redhead-matrix-joanna-dark video for the xbox 360. is that thing supposed to be impressive?
ghost recon, gears of war, fight night -- lord, even basketball games look better than that video.
m3mnoch.
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Don't worry though; you might be correct, but only time will prove right... or wrong.
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http://news.com.com/2100-1040-250632.html
"Gates and Seamus Blackley, head of Microsoft's Xbox division, ran demonstrations of several Xbox titles, which featured detailed graphics and smooth animation that looked more like a Disney movie than current video games....
One of the basic premises of the Xbox is to put the power in the hands of the artist," Blackley said, which is why Xbox developers "are achieving a level of visual detail you really get in 'Toy Story.'""
I dunno if Sony promised Toy Story graphics, they probably did, as it was the most common frame of reference for people at the time. But MS certainly did too.
As to Sony showing a PS2 with a mouse and keyboard running linux...
http://playstation2-linux.com/
Sony shipped it. A friend has it. There's plenty of hacking done on it, the PS2 cogswap loader exploit was developed on it. Not many units were sold (or even offered). It came with a keyboard, hard drive, mouse, network adaptor and VGA out cable (VGA is somewhat limited, maxing out at VESA 1024x768/60Hz).
The PS2 can definitely decompress on the fly, the PS1 could decompress on the fly.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Playstation
"Data Decompression Engine
This engine is also inside the main CPU. It is responsible for decompressing images and video. Documented device mode is to read three RLE-encoded 16%uFFFD16 macroblocks, run IDCT and assemble a single 16%uFFFD16 RGB macroblock. Output data may be transferred directly to GPU via DMA. It is possible to overwrite IDCT matrix and some additional parameters, however MDEC internal instruction set was never documented."
The PS2 contains an entire PS1 (the I/O chip is a PS1) so the PS2 can definitely decompress on the fly, in fact the PS2 had more decompression capabilities. Note that in case, "in the CPU" means in the chip, the decompression capabilities were extensions to MIPS, not just part of the regular CPU operation.
Wise up. Where do you space cadets come from? I've said it before, I'll say it again, there is no fanboy like an Xbox fanboy (because an Xbox fanboy don't stop).
Now, the comments about PS3 being cheap because main processor can handle the work was in reference to a PS3 versus a dedicated BluRay player. A dedicated BluRay player would need a pretty beefy processor, a bunch of RAM and such in order to decode the audio and video on the disc. The PS3 already has this stuff in order to play games, so you don't have to duplicate it in there to play BluRay discs. In other words, those who say PS3 will be expensive by stating that the BluRay drive will be expensive because standalone BluRay players are expensive are adding in extra costs that won't be there.
That's a misunderstanding, not a crazed fanboy thing though.
Anyway, I don't see PS3 as being all that cheap. It'll be cheap for what you get, like 360 is, but it won't be $250 at launch I don't think.
And back to the original article crapping on Sony's online stuff, yeah, I'll say they're unproven so far. But to say that it can't be all that because the HD in PS3 is optional is a bit weird since the HD in 360 is optional too and no one says that makes Live suck.
Live 360 sets a high bar. But I'll say this, 360 can be beat. For example, if I could stream video to it without running a special MS OS on my computer at extra cost (if MS will even sell it to you!), it'd be a big advantage over the 360.
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Just how much is Sony willing to lose on this next-gen war???? Just looking at the bare minimum spec they released like Blu-ray and Cell CPU, this thing must cost them at least $1000 to manufacture. Just Blu-ray drive alone will cost them at least $400 to include in PS3.
I plan to buy both Xbox 360 & PS3 and honestly I don't care about all the features Sony's trying to cram into PS3. I watch videos and listen to much on my computer just fine, and I most definitely don't need a Blu-ray player.
Maybe when I get several grands to blow on a super hi-res HDTV, then I might consider getting a Blu-ray player, but not with TV I got right now.
Sony can wish that people will go out and spend crazy amount of cash right now to just enjoy the benefits of Blu-ray spectacles of PS3, but honestly you need invest at least $2000 on your TV to notice the difference between Blu-ray movies and common DVD.
Most people are not willing to invest kind of money on a "Gaming system".
Remember, Sony?? It's supposed to be a gaming system.
There were days when people were just happy with their gaming system and most people still are. With all the hype that surrounded with PS2's DVD player function, how many people do you think actually plays their DVD movies with PS2??
Most people simply don't care. With the kind of money I'm spending of my next-gen 'game' console, I'd rather have 10 awsome must-have games than some half-baked media center. What I mean is I'd rather hear from Sony that they got exclusive rights to several mega game franchises like FF, Resident Evil, etc than the news of Blu-ray drive or media center fuctions on PS3
Although I love all big 3, I think Nintendo and Microsoft are really getting their acts together in terms of their focus. This time, Nintendo is focusing on new 'innovation in gaming' blended with its never-waning sense of fun flavour it always had, and Microsoft is concentrating not only on the visuals, but also the ever improving Xbox Live that made game connectivity so much easier.
On the other hand, Sony seems to be all over the place with too many things they want to implement. They seem to be losing focus when it comes to getting clear message across consumers. I'm sure PS3 will sell tons of units, but that will only force Sony go deeper into their financial troubles. What will save them are profits from game softwares. That's where the money's at.
What Sony should do is to minimize the cost on hardwares and maximize the profits from softwares. No matter how many features they put, the number of PS3 shipped won't change very much because it will be very popular even if Sony puts out PS3 with bare minimum feature sets, and therefore any more features they tack onto PS3 will only hurt Sony's bank account in the end.
I just wish that Sony mindset goes back to it's PS1 days.. It's the incredible games that allowed Sony to break into this business, not the hardware.
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There's NO WAY Sony will have DIVX/XVID streaming enabled on PS3!
Sony owns a movie studio, remember?
DIVX/XVID is the format that almost every single illigal moves are encoded in, which makes it the undisputed king of formats that are on Sony's blacklist. Sony hated MP3 so much that they developed their own got aweful ATRAC format exclusively for their audio players.
On top of that Sony's own record division went as far as putting DRM(root kit) spyware to their CDs to prevent piracy.
Sony suffers from extreme paranoia when it comes to media piracy, so there is no way DIVX/XIVD streaming will be allow on PS3. More like the exact opposite is more plausable.
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...
[edited out]?? i'm sorry, but that's the stupidest thing i've heard in quite a while.
what's the point in trying to create some retarded fantasy out of corporate rivalries? Nintendo and Microsoft.. buddies? that's idiotic. just because you happen to be a Microsoft fanboy, and Nintendo has seemingly chosen to not compete on the same level as Microsoft and Sony, doesn't make Microsoft and Nintendo allies against Sony.
[edited out]
.. GOD that was a stupid comment..
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uh. i kind of agree with you. mpeg2 decoding hardware capable of decoding an hd stream has been around for about 10 years now. that's certainly not where the blu-ray gets expensive.
it's the manufacturing process for that fancy triple-action, .85 aperture blue laser head that's expensive. the margin for error is so incredibly small (40% more than hd-dvd by the way) that it just plain takes longer/fails qa/more throw aways/costs more.
now, combine that with the crazy high-margin for error blu-ray disc manufacturing process -- 1 in 5 discs of that first run of charlie's angels were coasters -- and stick it to a board that actually has 9 processors on it -- just in case up to 2 of the dies are hosed -- because the yields are so error prone and you have yourself one damn sexy, super expensive, low failure tolerance machine.
boy-howdy, don't that make you feel fuzzy about the ps3's chances at launch. especially with all the hub-bub over the 'complicated' process of putting together xbox 360s. hell. they're tinker toys compared to the assembly magic the ps3 will require.
that's why they are going to be so very expensive. not because of some silly mpeg decoder chipset who's technology has been around for a decade.
m3mnoch.
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Yeah, but that was not the point. Someone above mentioned it wasn't possible to do on PS3 which is wrong, and in fact Revolution will apparently be able to do it too. Anyway, XNA might make it easier to compress everything, but then again a good programmer will know how to compress everything. What is likely to occupy less space on 360 discs compared to PS3 discs are FMV, since the 360 will probably use WMV-like codecs for that, while the PS3 is likely to use MPEG-2, which occupies more space.
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uhg. uhg. me likes games.
m3mnoch.
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