Is the PS3 worth it?

pwjohnston

So let me start off by saying I’m not much of a gamer. I have an original Xbox and may have played 2 games on it this year. But it’s getting old and I think my DVD player is going out. So I need a new DVD player. Now, if I’m going to buy a DVD player now I don’t want to be spending the money to buy a blueray player here in a couple years. I would probably go out and buy a DVD recorder, but I have a TIVO so that’s really not necessary.

So I got a $100 Target gift card for Xmas which would knock the 80gig one down from $399 to $299 which is roughly the price of a Blue Ray player ($250 - $299 ). I’m pretty sure the BlueRay is backward compatible with DVD.

My main issue is that the PS3 isn’t backwards compatible with PS2 games.

On the plus side I hear the PS3 is a really sold rig and does a lot outside playing games (I heard one university was clustering them to calculate black holes). Oh and Killzone 2 is coming out and I loved Killzone 1.

Oh and you can put linux on it, but seriously, what can’t you put linux on these days? My toaster is currently running a patched 2.6.18 Kernel.

I’m basically looking for another good reason to buy it. I know as soon as I do they'll drop it another 50 bucks.

HeroPsycho

Remember, you can get a standard DVD player for $50, so don't think you absolutely should get a BluRay player. Even if you decide later you want something better, you only spent $50 for the DVD player.

Personally, I have doubts BluRay will ever succeed as a format in any significant fashion because of how expensive the players still are, how expensive movies are, the included PITA DRM, and due to the fact that on demand streaming content is increasing in prevalence and popularity because it's so darn convenient.

If you're not much of a gamer, why spend that much on a PS3, especially if you don't need BluRay?

arwes

I bought the Metal Gear Solid 4 bundle a few months ago and I love it, but I'm also pretty big into gaming. In your case, I'd pass on the system. Blu-Ray players are getting cheaper all the time, and that was pretty much the selling point of the PS3 when players were well over $500. Just make sure you get one that's upgradeable.

One selling point for the PS3 and the 360 is media streaming. Basically stream ripped movies from your PC to your game machine. Works pretty well from the little that I've played with it. Here's an article showing how to set all that up:

http://www.maximumpc.com/article/streaming

nel

If i were you i would just get one of those cheapy dvd players which play all the formats you require. i bought one for £20 from asda (owned by walmart in the UK) and it works a treat.

There's no point in getting a gaming console if your not going to use it for what its designed for. Give blue ray a few years and it will come down alot. I dont think its gona go away like the op said because there's nothing really to compete with it

boostinbadger

I was reading an article while waiting in a doctor's office before Christmas. It said the BluRay player in a PS3 was worth $400 itself and rivaled similar players costing $1000. It also said that Sony could afford to put a better player in and still keep the price down due to the profit it would make selling games.

I wish I could remember which magazine that was in.

dynamik

I'm a fan of the 360. It has more AAA exclusives and a significantly better online experience. The Netflix streaming is great too. There's always a few of my friends watching something on there.

There just hasn't been anything that has made me want to drop $400 on a Playstation. I've gotten all my other Playstations for Final Fantasy, but that's going to be multiplatform as well. I'd love to give Little Big Planet a shot, but I can't justify a Playstation just for that.

HeroPsycho

nel wrote: »

Give blue ray a few years and it will come down alot. I dont think its gona go away like the op said because there's nothing really to compete with it

I'm not saying it's going away. I'm saying I don't think it's going to penetrate the market like DVD did because we're moving to discless based media playback like streaming and downloadable content. We've effectively done that with music, so it's going to be a much faster move to video, as people are increasingly comfortable and there are more providers with online distribution.

BluRay should already be cheap for it to succeed like DVD did, as it does provide higher video quality than pretty much all streaming content for now. However, it's significantly more costly than DVD, is less convenient than DVD due to it being harder to rip and store, costs more than DVD's, less compatible since BluRay players aren't very prevalent, and is less convenient than streaming/downloadable content.

A good parallel is SuperAudio CD's. They sound significantly better than regular audio CD's, but nobody cares because the players cost more, and we don't listen to music on discs. Sure they cost less than they did before, but we've chosen convenience over high fidelity.

kriscamaro68

Well I have a PS3 and I love it. I am not really a gamer either but I bought the metal gear solid edition 80gb and it is backwards compatible with ps2 games cause I have played them on there mainly the mortal kombat series for ps2. Also you can rent and buy sd and hd movies on the PS3 and the collection is always getting bigger. Plus you can also use it as a media center like others have said and also use it to view photos and movies of of a camera because it has a built in card reader. I rarely play games on it but it has some pretty sweet features without the gamming.

snadam

mine is used for PS3 exclusives (Metal Gear, Little Big Planet, etc) and Blu-Ray. Everything else goes to my 360. The game library is not there yet for PS3 for me to consider it a 'must buy' console. While there are many other factors, those are the ones off the top of my head.

Devin McCloud

I suggest saving your money and take your original xbox 1, open it up and install a mod chip ($40-60) and put a 500gb hard drive($79) in it. Then install XBMC and transfer all your movies,music and games to the drive. I even transfer my training videos (mcse) to watch them of a large screen.You can also play Nintendo, neo geo, PlayStation 1, PlayStation 2, and Atari games on the original modded xbox. Nothing beats playing Mario on xbox! Now you have a entertainment system that tops the ps3 by far. Does anyone really need Bluray? I guess that's a matter of opinion. Personally, considering you can program your own games in C# for the Xbox 360 and the PC, it seems like a much better choice of consoles.

nel

HeroPsycho wrote: »

I'm not saying it's going away. I'm saying I don't think it's going to penetrate the market like DVD did because we're moving to discless based media playback like streaming and downloadable content. We've effectively done that with music, so it's going to be a much faster move to video, as people are increasingly comfortable and there are more providers with online distribution.

BluRay should already be cheap for it to succeed like DVD did, as it does provide higher video quality than pretty much all streaming content for now. However, it's significantly more costly than DVD, is less convenient than DVD due to it being harder to rip and store, costs more than DVD's, less compatible since BluRay players aren't very prevalent, and is less convenient than streaming/downloadable content.

A good parallel is SuperAudio CD's. They sound significantly better than regular audio CD's, but nobody cares because the players cost more, and we don't listen to music on discs. Sure they cost less than they did before, but we've chosen convenience over high fidelity.

Yeah i totally agree with you there. Looking back my wording should have been better when referring to your post. Im hoping online distribution takes off and hopefully there will be a much much bigger library of tv shows, films etc than there is from current services. Hopefully with super download speeds.

skeet2331

I have a 360 and I love the video streaming features of it. I run windows home server to store all of the media. I can then watch any movie on my tv with no configuring. It auto recognized the server. The only thing i had to do was download the mpeg codec and it was good to go.

If I was you I wouldn't buy one if you are looking just for a dvd player. Consider your options I don't think you will be unhappy with either choice you make.

Daniel333

Worth it? How much are you willing to pay per hour of entertainment?

system cost + game cost + memory card + internet service + cables + controllers + electicity / estimated hours per year spent gaming = cost per hour.

pwjohnston

kriscamaro68 wrote: »

Well I have a PS3 and I love it. I am not really a gamer either but I bought the metal gear solid edition 80gb and it is backwards compatible with ps2 games cause I have played them on there

How about Killzone 1?

pwjohnston

Devin McCloud wrote: »

I suggest saving your money and take your original xbox 1, open it up and install a mod chip ($40-60) and put a 500gb hard drive($79) in it. Then install XBMC and transfer all your movies,music and games to the drive. I even transfer my training videos (mcse) to watch them of a large screen.You can also play Nintendo, neo geo, PlayStation 1, PlayStation 2, and Atari games on the original modded xbox. Nothing beats playing Mario on xbox! Now you have a entertainment system that tops the ps3 by far. Does anyone really need Bluray? I guess that's a matter of opinion. Personally, considering you can program your own games in C# for the Xbox 360 and the PC, it seems like a much better choice of consoles.

WTF? I didn't know you could do that. I thought the mod chip was just for ripping? I'm more than happy with my xbox. But again, I think the drive is dying and I don't think it takes a regular form factor DVD player.

dynamik

http://www.llamma.com/xbox/

tiersten

pwjohnston wrote: »

My main issue is that the PS3 isn’t backwards compatible with PS2 games.

It depends on what model you buy. Older models have the PS2 chips inside them. New models don't and are therefore not able to play PS1/PS2 games.

tiersten

Daniel333 wrote: »

Worth it? How much are you willing to pay per hour of entertainment?

system cost + game cost + memory card + internet service + cables + controllers + electicity / estimated hours per year spent gaming = cost per hour.

You don't need a memory card as you can save on the internal HD. Basic cables and 1 controller come with the package. The internet service cost is shared with your computer.

The cost per hour is similar to what a computer would cost. You need the base system + game + electricity.

tiersten

pwjohnston wrote: »

WTF? I didn't know you could do that. I thought the mod chip was just for ripping? I'm more than happy with my xbox. But again, I think the drive is dying and I don't think it takes a regular form factor DVD player.

The modchip is used to run a modified Xbox firmware or Linux. The modified Xbox firmware is used to defeat the copy protection on discs and to allow you to run unsigned binaries. It is the ability to run unsigned binaries that is important in this case.

mamono

I softmodded my xbox, you don't need to spend money on a mod chip, plus its a PITA to install a mod chip unless you are able to solder well. I know because I've modded PS2's. I'm happy with my soft modded xbox. I don't use it as a DVD player because I want to preserve the drive. I bought an upconverting Phillips DVD player for $60 that plays DIVX. I use that for everthing else.

Devin McCloud

You don't need to solder anything..buy a solderless chip! There's a lot of different one. The best part of XBMC...playing games online for free....all codecs (flash,mpeg,avi,apple,ect), replacement drives are cheap but I never use it ever. I run everything from the drive. Transfer my movies by ftp. I another cool thing is python scripts to watch youtube, movie trailers, games and other shows off line through the xbox. You will never need a codec for any file - they are all supported. For movies...I shrink them down to 700mb and the quality is amazing. Then just buy the remote and dongle and you never need to put in a disc again!

nel

This not illegal activity talks on TE?? tut tut tut.

But yes XBMC is very good!!! i wish MS encorporated something similar in with the 360! lets hope MS pull there finger out and fully encorporate media centre into the xbox and not having to stream content etc.

excalibur1814

Here's what I have:

A projector, with a pc behind where I sit and thus it acts as the tv, pc, internet, media player and last but not least, BD player. A Blu-ray drive can be purchased for £60 in the UK and that beats a PS3 and a stand alone BD player. Not sure why more people don't do this really???

D-boy

I have a PS3 and my brother has a xbox 360 elite.

PS3 has pretty much been used as blu-ray player, than a games system. Theres just not many good games out. I have MGS4, Motorstorm pacific rift, Pro Evo 2009. I am looking forward to getting Streetfighter 4. PS3 online is not as good as the 360 live experience! Also PS3 europe never seems to get games on PSN when the rest of the world does, Street fighter HD remix for example...

tiersten

excalibur1814 wrote: »

A projector, with a pc behind where I sit and thus it acts as the tv, pc, internet, media player and last but not least, BD player. A Blu-ray drive can be purchased for £60 in the UK and that beats a PS3 and a stand alone BD player. Not sure why more people don't do this really???

A Blu-Ray drive might only be £60 but you still need the rest of the PC and it has to be powerful enough to decode and output full HD.

kriscamaro68

pwjohnston wrote: »

How about Killzone 1?

I dont know about that game never tried it. Just mortal kombat series and nba 2k8 and they worked.