PS3 – final price, new controller

My point exactly. What has the PS2 or PS3 offered that's new? Nadda. Dualshock controllers were a gen-one innovation. Sony has been coasting since the PS1, content to do nothing for the industry, just becoming a leech that cannot innovate for itself - or when it does, we get a boomerang controller which is ridiculed, and they cave in to the pressure.

Disagree gyros are a gimmicky addition.


A gyro-based controller could make for an excellent interface to any FPS;

The gyro controls where you look/turn and the analogue stick controls movement, leaving fingers and one thumb for fire, jump and weapon switching.

There there's the more fine control for steering an any driving and flying game (ref: Warhawk video)

There are many possible applications across genres, though not sure platformers would benefit.

Damn you config and damn your thought out responses shutting everyone up.


Concerning hdmi, the fcc has plans to downgrade digital tv broadcasting from 1080p (which noone does anyway) to 480p which would prevent rampant copying of high def through component analogue cables. In a similar route bluray players must comply with the AACS which restricts resolution to 960×540 on non-HDCP outputs. One assumes the ps3 is complying with this, which would suggest that unless DVI is included somewhere in the lower sku, ps3 output for Bluray movies will not be at 1080p.

An interesting way to get your player into living rooms, but perhaps sony were looking to reduce costs by not paying license fees for HDCP. Regardless, assuming some kind of alternative av output and the ability of your tv to connect with it, the lower sku should still be able to run games at 1080p (if there are any running it at launch) - otherwise Sony would have removed it from that press release.

Given that bluray is such an integral part of the ps3, it appears strange to neuter the secondary function of your formtat in such a fashion (assuming people will buy the ps3 primarily for games rather then as a bluray player). However it could also just be a way of preventing other bluray manufacturers crying foul play when the lower price sku ps3 undercuts their players. It'll be interesting how this reduction (well increase in the case of the higher sku) in quality for bluray playback is marketed (if at all) at launch. I can't imagine sony admitting that high def movie content, the reason for bluray in the first place, will not be accessable on lower skus. Hopefully for them, they've worked out a way around it.

Just a point of order. Blu-Ray and HD-DVD players have to comply with this ruling only if the disc demands it.

Sony have already gone on record saying their Blu-Ray discs won't demand this quality step down, at least at first.

So we'll still be able to watch Spider-man and James Bond in 1080p if we get the 20GB version of the PS3 and the correct connectors are released.

I seriously, not even kidding... thought this was a joke when i first read it. I kinda just glanced at the pic and saw some words... "New Controller" "Tilt"... I mean, its the same damn controller that was released with the original playstation. Kudos to Sony for sticking to their guns with that boomerang controller... The dualshock is lookin a lil long in the tooth, it looks like its starting to show its age... plain ugly.

I always cracked jokes about how Sony pulled their boomerang controller about the time Ninty showed off the Wiimote. How they were just going to rip something from Nintendo...

The joke that came true. Good God...

The whole chain has to be HDCP compliant. So the PS3's output and your TV's input and the cable in-between all have to be HDCP compliant.

Also, without the HDMI I don't think you can output in 1080p, I think Component Video does not have the bandwidth to support 1080p. That's why MS only support 720p and 1080i.

So no TRUE high definition for the 20GB pack.

None of this is the biggest problem tho, the price is. I'm just about to move house so it looks like I'm not gonna have the spare cash for one :(

The only two games that really caught my attention where Eight Days and Heavenly Sword.

Well, DVI has the bandwidth to support HD resolutions, I'm sitting in front of a 1920x1200 display running at 60Hz over DVI at the moment. Also, I think there is a scheme for running HDCP over DVI.

All it takes is for the Multi A/V to be able to output digital signals and for a DVI lead to emerge and the 20GB PS3 can support HDCP and therefore 1080p Blu-Ray movie playback.

Maybe.

But doesn't the DVI port need a HDCP chip to descrable the signal? and most, if not all, TV's will have this chip connected to the HDMI port...

It depends on why Sony aren't including HDMI, if its to do trying to keep with licensing fees for HDCP down then its unlikely they'll support DVI. If its just the cost of adding HDMI then there's no reason to suppose that DVI couldn't be used. Anyway aren't DVI leads like £30/40? Given MS' precedence I can't imagine that they'd include it in the retail box

I am not a TV designer, but I would have though the HDCP chip would be in the signal decoding hardware that would be connected to all input ports, not just to one. Again, that's just me thinking about it, I have no idea if it's true or not.


I can't see the HDCP licensing costs being high enough that this will make a difference. I personally think that Sony have a split SKU approach so they can have a "games only" and a "home cinema" model, with the higher spec model having the larger hard drive to support more downloaded movie content.


Not that I'm pimping for them, just the first place I checked, but Scan.co.uk have a 2m DVI-D lead for £3.16 inc VAT which they claim has "premium signal quality". If anybody is charging £30-40 for any type of DVI lead, I'd burn their shop down!

I can't see a DVI lead being included with the PS3/20 either. We may be lucky to get an HDMI lead with the PS3/60 (Scan price £8.17 - pimp, pimp). More likely we'll get a component lead and an S-Video lead that use the Multi A/V port for starters and a set of "attractively priced" Sony-branded A/V accessories released at the same time.