Decisions
Okay, I did my usual impulsive purchase thing and bought a PS3. I was researching them a bit when I found a 60gig model selling for $449 at The Source. I was actually on my way to my uncles to borrow his PS3 to test it out when I went to the mall, but I decided to buy it since it was the last one they had (and it was $30 bucks cheaper than everywhere else).
So I had some questions when I was researching:
1.) Will it work with my current selection of PS2? This is why I was interested in the 60gig model instead of the new 40gig (no backwards compatibility) or even the 80gig model (more limited compatibility).
2.) Will I be able to completely get rid of my PS2?
3.) Will the upscaling feature make my games look any better? Especially if this somehow made KR more playable on my LCD TV, which does a terrible job because of the too-slow response rate.
4.) Will the upscaling look any better for my DVDs than my current upscaling DVD player ($100 LG model)
5.) Will Blu-Ray look good on my TV, and be compelling enough to switch from DVD
6.) How well do the media extender functions work playing videos, music and photos from my PC?
7.) Are there any PS3 games that I am interested in that would prompt me to keep the system only to play newer games?
1.) YES. Running through the checks on the Website, most, if not all, of my primarily Bemani-style games are fully compatible with the 60gig unit - technically. I didn't experience any problems loading any particular title. Unfortunately, because there are no legacy controller ports on the PS3, I would need to buy a special adapter to get my dancepad working - a 20 purchase - plus spend another 20 bucks on a memory card adapter to transfer over the information I have stored from my old games (like unlocked songs). Even worse, the Guitar Hero controller has been confirmed NOT to work with any adapters, and likely never will, which means I would need to spend 110 bucks to buy the new GHIII so that I could play my old title that I haven't even passed on Medium yet. On top of that, I have no clue if my Beatmania controller would work either. So, to really get it compatible so that I could play all my old games would cost me an additional $150.
2.) NO. With the cost of getting the PS3 to play my old games in excess of the price of the PS2, it makes more sense to keep the PS2 around to play old games instead of wasting all of that money - unless it makes great strides in making them look better through the upscaling feature... which brings us to question three...
3.) ABSOLUTELY NOT. The upscaling that the PS3 does on PS/PS2 games is negligible, and really only served to make all of the text look fuzzier and less defined than when it was turned off. This translates into making my KR games look even worse than they already do and has absolutely no effect on how the DDR titles display (since they already look pretty darn good with no upscaling.) So, to answer questions 2 again, NO. I would be better to play the old games on my PS2 connected to the component input and let my TV do its mediocre upscaling instead.
4.) YES, apparently. I haven't spent enough time watching movies to really confirm this, but so far it seems that the picture is sharper when playing a DVD in the PS3 than with my current player (both connected via DVI and running at 1080i or 720p)
5.) YES. Blu-Ray look pretty, but is it compelling enough? No. Why not? Have you seen the selection of blu-ray discs at the video store? Forget it. Ken and I had a whopping 20 titles to choose from and could only find 2 that we were even remotely interested in watching for $1 more than renting one of the 1000s of other discs. Not only that, but have you seen the prices in the stores? HD discs, both BR and HD DVD are selling for like $10 more per disc and they won't be hitting the discount bins for years yet probably.
6.) QUITE WELL. The snazzy interface and ability to stream most of the files from my PC is great. But realistically, I will have a computer hooked up to my TV anyways so why would I need to stream my music or videos through the PS3? I wouldn't. This would be a much better feature for someone who didn't have a media focussed PC, but instead used a USB drive attached to a router with a DNLA server. So, a nice feature, but it doesn't have an impact on my decision.
7.) NO. Not a single title that sounds interesting to me is out exclusively for the PS3. Plus, knowing how much I game currently, there is no way I could justify the decision to spend $500 bucks on a gaming system. If there was a killer DDR game in the works, maybe...but I don't see any chatter about that, and I would need to buy a new pad on top of everything probably (since I would want the new, cooler - potentially wireless - pad. If I wanted to play only new games I would be at least able to save myself $50+tax by buying the 40gig model which maintains the only features I like and ditches the ones that don't seem to be worth anything..oh, and I would get a movie thrown into the mix!..Even if it is one I have seen and have zero interest in rewatching.
So, in conclusion, the only 2 things is seems to do very well are play Blu-Ray discs and upscale DVDs. If I was deadset on Blu-Ray, this would be the cheapest way for me to get a player right now, but I've always been more in the HD DVD camp because it sounds like the lower production costs and much more affordable players point towards it being the potential winner of the HD disc race. While the techie in me likes the slick graphics and the idea of a singluar system that could play my games all hooked up to the same input, the system doesn't show any strength in this area. While backwards compatibility seemed like a big boon to the system, it really isn't for me. If I really want all those other spiff features, I can get them with a 40 gig model no problem - Blu-ray, yep/DVD upscaling, yep/Media extender, yep - and if I wait until the New Year I could get it with less GST, making my savings an additional $65 over my (apparently) already good deal.
So, yeah, as much as it makes the techie cry, it's going back to The Source tomorrow night. My credit card will breath a sigh of relief.