Sony used to be a great electronics company but have run into a lot of problems lately. I have not heard too much about Sony LCD flat panels but the new Sony LCD projections are absolute garbage. However, I have personally exchanged 5 PSP handhelds because I kept getting one with 6+ malfunctioning pixels (one even had what looked like a human nail scratch on the backside of the screen resulting in a huge path of malfunctioning pixels). I ended up settling with a PSP with 3 bad pixels. We have all heard about the Sony battery recalls for laptop computers, the largest electronics recall in history if I’m not mistaken. Now, in response to the concerns about PS3 freezing issues, Sony spokesmen have tried to cover it up by saying that they designed it to freeze intentionally to keep people from playing for too long!

Also the PS3 doesn’t use all of its cores, most people don’t own 1080p compatible HDTV’s, AND most PS3 titles will not run in true 1080p anyway.

360: Currently has the best next-gen gaming library and with games like Gears of War, Halo 3, Mass Effect, Alan Wake, MechAssault 3, GRAW 2, Lost Planet, Lost Odyssey, etc., it shows no signs of slowing down on delivering the hits. You do have to pay (annually or monthly) for the Gold online service but I mean come on, the price comes to about $1 a week! Right now the 360 is the obvious choice for mature next gen gaming. The only issues I have run into with the 360 is that the wireless controller will continue to draw power even when turned off, taking away from the battery life. Second, the system is rather loud when playing games. One might want to wait 6 months for a 360 with a new cpu that will (fingers crossed) significantly reduce the amount of heat generated by the console.

Wii: For starters, Nintendo did an amazing job generating hype for this console. I loved playing this system for the first week that I had it. The gameplay is straightforward and intuitive. I enjoyed playing with my 7yr old nephew and my wife. Even though my nephew still adores creating Mii’s and playing Wii Sports, my wife and I haven’t touched the system in a couple of weeks. The simple control schemes come at a price as almost every game on the system is extremely shallow and dull when compared to the games on the 360 and PS3. Personally, I have a difficult time calling this system “next-gen” when it is about as powerful as the original Xbox. If a motion-sensitive controller were released for the original Xbox no one would call it next-gen, so why do we call the Wii next-gen? There are some good games coming out for this system: Metroid 3, Smash Bros., Fire Emblem, Advance Wars, and Mario Galaxy. If you are a young or inexperienced gamer the Wii is a great purchase. If you are a more experienced, adult, and/or hardcore gamer I would stick with the 360.

PS2/Xbox: Are currently being phased out of production. PS2 if you enjoy the Final Fantasy series and other Japanese RPG’s. Xbox if you enjoy FPS/adult action titles such as the Halo’s or the Tom Clancy franchises (Ghost Recon, Rainbow Six, or Splinter Cell).

SORRY SONY BUT I’M NOT RICH ENOUGH!!!!!!

The Cell Processor is built with 1 PPE (Power Processing Element) thats your main processing unit and then ontop of that is bolstered with **8** SPEs (Synergystic Processing Elements). 1+8 = 9 cores. Intel’s top chip, the Core 2 Duo Extreme is quad core (4 cores). The problem is heat, neither AMD nor Intel can cope with the problem.

So why Sony? Well Sony didn’t do it alone, a new company called STI was created purely to develop this monster of a chip. STI stands for, and all of you know these companies, SONY TOSHIBA IBM. The juggernauts of the computing industry.

IBM is the first company to come out with a PC.
Toshiba just launched the smallest with the largest space HDD ever (1.8 inches for 100gb)
Sony, well we all know what Sony does with their sick LCDs and super fine Vaios (I’d never buy one but people like em).

So people, buy a PS3. Not now, wait for the second wave, but when you pack a Cell processor with 1080p and a blu-ray I don’t see how you could go wrong. MiniGun is correct, buy a computer, buy a PS3.
As a final side note. STI advanced the technology further and created “Blades” of Cell chips that are powering the fastest computers in the world. We’re talking scrotching fast without scrotching burns.

Wii has similar plans to Xbox live? How bout they have licensing for all games that were ever on a Nintendo/N64/Gamecube or Genesis ready for download? Does PS3 online have that? Or that Xbox60 probably is more backward compatible than PS3? OR that the WII is 100% backward comatible with the Gamecube.

There are no drawbacks to the cheap PS3 version? Nothing is lacking that shows up in the more expensive version? Really? If I buy an add on to the xbox 360 to make it play HD-DVD it is a similar price to the PS3! OH Drawback! Shut up, idiot. How about that the Wii is planning on expansion hardware for HD. How about those apples?

Freaking do your reasearch you corporate shill. You make me sad and disgusted.

There are games that are coming out for pc’s that not even the capabilities of ps3 can run. With that said, let me explain something about cell processor in ps3. WHY GAMES SUCK FOR PS3 compared to Xbox360, ie Gears of War comparison to Resistance: Fall of Man.
The cell processors architecture requires rethinking of software programming. At this stage, not much is being developed. I don’t how many of you have read any research papers regarding this but I would suggest going to IBM website directly to find out. There is also another article in wikipedia, pdf format *direct research done. Read it then see what console really sux or doesn’t. I personally never had a console in my life but I am going to get PS3, not for gaming or videos but to make a pc out of it. With no disrespect but a lot of you don’t understand how chips work. All that dual core and quad core that are coming out or came out already is due to massive heating problems. Xbox360 produces more heat and why! Intel tried to cure their chip heating problems by putting in multiple chips because they couldn’t make it smaller without losing electrons and losing computing powers!!!! Sony has solved with this chip what Intel has been facing for many years. So next time you nubbies want to get a pc and it says dual core and quad core, think about whats going on and think CELL. Next generations electrons will all be based on cell principles. WELCOME TO FUTURE and its all CELL………..

Xbox 360: For now, definitely a best buy. The graphics are (currently) superior to PS3’s and it doesn’t force you to waste money on Blu-Ray technology that is likely to go the way of Betamax.

Wii: Worth it, if not just for a second system. It’s the fun system and if you can measure its success by means of the DS you will note that it will school Sony’s better graphics with current sales of 3:1 just on the basis of a new form of gameplay.

PS3: It may be the best technologically but Sony has to get its act together soon or else this system will flop. I bet that it will succeed but not nearly as well as PS2 since 360 has such a lead and due to its production problems. It’ll be well worth it after a (significant) price drop.

So, maybe I’m an old guy, but I have told people for years and years that ‘Great Graphics’ do not make a great game. Great graphics can only make a good game better. They certainly can’t turn a poor game into a great game, just because it ‘looks’ better. In some cases, great graphics can actually be a turn-off, because, by trying to represent ‘real’ life, the graphics can stick out like a sore thumb when they fail to achieve that expectation of perfection. Surprisingly, ‘cartoon’ graphics can sometimes work better in these circumstances. We don’t expect them to be ‘real.’ Instead, we expect them to be part of a ‘fantasy’ so we don’t feel shocked when we notice that they aren’t quite real, and we can feel free to become engrossed in the fantasy without distraction.

In any case, I am primarily interested in games for the FUN that they create. After all, if they aren’t fun, then why would anyone want to play them? In addition, after many years of playing games alone, I can tell you that the funnest games are always the games that involve other people. So, what is my view on the current game console war?

I think PlayStation 3 will be a winner, but it isn’t there yet. Great graphics, yes, but there just aren’t enough games, and most of the expected games will be for lone nerds. PlayStation needs to come up with a MUCH wider variety of games, and you are probably looking a year or two years down the road before it will really be fun to play. Sorry guys. That’s just the truth. In addition, they still have technological bugs to work out, so why would you buy one now? One more thing, don’t expect the price to drop. You won’t see it fall $100 in the next year, and it might be 3 to 4 years before it drops as much as $100. It is just too complex and they are ALREADY losing money on each console. They aren’t going to drop the price and lose more. Personally, I think PS 3 tries to do too much. Sony is obviously using it to try to push people into their HD TVs and to buy their ‘Blue-ray’ HD movies. They are great, but all of that is still very expensive for most people. I advise waiting at least a year or two, then get it if it has a wide variety of games that you like.

XBox 360 has a nice selection of games, a good price, but it won’t compete technologically with PlayStation 3, in the long run. Close, but no cigar. If the biggest selling point is the technology, then XBox 360 loses. Still, if you want an HD system that you can play right now, and if the games are the ones you like, then go for it. It will still be around for at least 4 or 5 years, and the game selection can only improve even more, in coming years. But it does have a distinct lack of party games, and fun games to attract people who aren’t the hard core gamers.

Last we come to Wii. Okay, I own one. I will tell you that it ain’t so cheap. By the time you buy the basic system for $250 (they are $670 online RIGHT NOW), then add 3 more controllers (Wimotes plus Nunchucks) at about $70 a set, then add 10 games at $50 each, you will be out around $1000. A lot to spend if you just want some ‘good games’ and you aren’t a hard core gamer. But I WILL say that the games are FUN. The graphics of Wii can be upgraded (and likely will be upgraded at a future ‘Wii 2′) but the game play probably can’t be improved. It is revolutionary, different and interactive, all at the same time. As a group game, social game and party game, it won’t be topped for a long time to come. So, my verdict is that THIS is the game for people who just want to have a GOOD time. It is surprisingly easy, intuitive and engrossing, all at once. Describing it is like desribing a roller coaster ride. You have to EXPERIENCE it to really understand it.

So, my personal verdict is that it is still to early for PS 3 (which WILL be successful, but isn’t there yet), and, when it comes to the other two machines, you should buy whichever one suits your own gaming style the best. But if you like to party, get the Wii.

This concept seems to apply to the 1080i display on a 768 line monitor. I have to assume that in order to keep the 16:9 aspect ratio you must say that a 1080 signal p or i is actually 1920×1080. So if this is true, the same scaling concept applies except instead of zooming in we are actually zooming out. Check out the Math.

1920 lines will scale down to 1366 and by default the 1080 line will scale down to 768. Now that would be how a 1080p signal could be displayed on a 768p monitor. So for 1080i just half the numbers i.e. 1080/2=540 scales to 768/2 = 384 lines. So for 1080i only 384 lines are displayed at any given time on a 1366×768 tv vs. 768 lines for 720p.

That is why I agree with the guy when he says 720p is better than 1080i.

http://alvyray.com/DigitalTV/Naming_Proposal.htm

http://alvyray.com/DigitalTV/Naming_Proposal.htm