32 Responses to “Playstation 3 will be a hard sell in Australia on March 23”

1. Anthony:
   February 27th, 2007
   

   hey, i think that article was stupid. I live in Australia and have already ordered my ps3, my friend got a 360 a couple of months ago and it is hardly better than the ps2! Yeah okay the graphics r good but not excellent like you have seen the ps3 will be. The ps3 can do heaps more so i don’t know what your talkin about. I think you need to get your facts straight before you would compare something AU$400 less to something that’s going to be huge. And seriously man, the little Jonny thing wasn’t funny!

2. Triston McIntyre:
   February 27th, 2007
   

   I’m sorry you didn’t enjoy the article Anthony. If you feel my facts were questionable, you can reference the sites Engadget.com or Joystiq.com where I have accumulated my research via comparisons and spec sheets that have been released by multiple credible sources. I was not saying that the Xbox 360 is superior, or that the Playstation 3 is a poor purchase, I was simply observing that the 360 would pose stiff competition because of its capabilities and lower price. Are you related to someone named Jonny, by any chance?

3. Anthony:
   February 27th, 2007
   

   no i am not but every1 says that as a joke and it’s old and not funny, anyway….i am saying that you cannot compare a 360 to a ps3. They might to the same things but comeon man, the ps3 is sooo much better. Well thanx for your reply and i think the 360 is not worth it. The grapics really aren’t fantastic as the ps3, have u seen the latest ps2 games that have recently come out? They r just as good as the 360. The only thing better is like the net and ps3 can do that. Also ps3 has got Blue-ray so ps3 wins. And the price, $999 is alot but it is not just a gaming machine, it’s a home entertainment pack! It’s like a computer. Thanks again for your time. Has ps3 come out in America yet? If so do u have 1 or do u have a 360? Cya =)

4. Anthony:
   February 27th, 2007
   

   Sorry about the mistakes!

5. Triston McIntyre:
   February 27th, 2007
   

   Anthony, in regards to your comment that the ps3 is not comparable to the 360, I would have you reference this article: http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/617/617951p3.html
   this is a hard-technology comparison of the two systems in performance capabilities. I don’t think you’ve really made any specific statements as to why the PS3 is so far better; you’ve simply said it is, so there. I have seen the latest PS2 and PS3 games (my friend owns a PS3), and the graphics at this point are not as impressive as the Xbox 360’s…this is evidenced in Gears of War sweeping nearly all categories, including game of the year, at last year’s game awards. In regards to blu-ray, many people do not feel blu-ray to be superior (I would point you to an article where HD-DVD is actually just recently proven to hold more than a blu-ray disc:http://www.ameinfo.com/112059.html) Neither format has proven superior as of yet, but HD-DVD did just pass Blu-ray in storage capacity, and may I add, you can use an xbox’s external HD-DVD drive on a PC as well with a simple driver update? That is something you cannot do with PS3’s built-in blu ray drive. If you were to price out a 360 with an HD-DVD drive and all the trimmings that come with a PS3, it is still less expensive for a 360 as the “home entertainment pack” you described. The PS3 is, literally, a computer, but so is a 360 :)

   Now, if you would like my opinion :), I would say that the 360 and Playstation 3 are geared towards different audiences; Xbox has dominated and will dominate the FPS category with titles such as Gears of War and Halo 3. Playstation has always been geared towards those fond of RPGs and sports games. If you want Final Fantasy, you probably want a PS3; if you can’t live without Halo 3 or GoW, you have to have a 360. Both systems are amazing in features and quality. Thanks for your comment!

6. Anthony2:
   February 28th, 2007
   

   Most of the article is correct except for one glaring fact. The PS3 does indeed play regular DVD’s on regular tv’s currently. It also plays CD’s, vcd’s, etc… In the future with a firmware update it may even be able to scale up that regular DVD to 1080p.

   I have a PS3 and love it. I am not a hardcore gamer, but I have been satisifed playing the many demo’s sony offers for free online. Also have watched 3 Blu-Ray movies and the lastest ones like Crank and The Departed are awsome. It makes a great all around entertainment system, and if you have the money then there really is no reason not to get it.

7. Triston McIntyre:
   February 28th, 2007
   

   I’m glad you love your PS3…otherwise it really is a waste of money! I was unaware that the Playstation could play normal DVD’s; thank you for that correction, however, it will not be able to upconvert to 1080p for a couple reasons. If you are familiar with upscaling technology, or the variations in resolutions, you will know this is impossible. The difference between 720p and 1080i is that the original 720p image is flashed very rapidly and made to appear as 1080 lines (1080 and 720 represent the number of horizontal pixel lines); though it is not true 1080p, which would mean there are 1080 horizontal pixel lines. Thus, it would be physically impossible to upscale an image that is recorded in 420 horizontal pixel lines to something that is 1080 horizontal pixel lines.

8. Anthony:
   February 28th, 2007
   

   hi it’s me again…
   i was just wondering if on the internet on your ps3, you can download programs like kazaa or limewire or bittorent and download the stuff of that downloaded program onto your ps3 harddrive and can play them? If you can, is this legal?

9. Triston McIntyre:
   February 28th, 2007
   

   Anthony,
   In the PS3’s out-of-the-box state, no, you could not. The reason is that the playstation 3 operating system only allows a certain number and type of downloads; however, if you were to tweak or uninstall the operating system, and replace it with something like Homebrew, you could most likely perform such functions. This would most definitely void your warranty so it isn’t recommended, and in response to your question, “is it legal,” bit torrent clients, kazaa, and limewire are illegal shareware softwares, no matter where you download them. We here at Blorge would never condone usage of such programs, but if you were to hypothetically use them, I would think it best to save your PS3 for games and movies, and buy a cheap pc to perform whatever tasks you would have for it.

10. Anthony:
    February 28th, 2007
    

    Thanks for your response.
    Could you download something legal like MSN (messanger)? If so could that damage your PS3? Thanks,
    Anthony

11. Triston McIntyre:
    February 28th, 2007
    

    Anthony,
    Generally as a rule of thumb, under the playstation 3 browser you will only be able to download content that is designed for the playstation 3, such as game demos, videos, etc. Applications, or anything not strictly designed for playstation 3 can be downloaded or used unless you change the playstation’s operating system.

12. Anthony:
    February 28th, 2007
    

    Triston,
    How would you do this?
    thanks,
    Anthony

13. Anthony2:
    February 28th, 2007
    

    Well, many dvd players up-convert to progressive scan. There is no reason the PS3 cannnot do that with it’s cell processor – which is really a very good video processor in its own. I do admit this is speculation so far as Sony does not reveal its roadmap (yes it is an arrogant company)

    Regarding running programs on it – right in the PS3 menu’s there is an option to install another OS – specifically you can install a special PS3 version of Linux, this action is sanctioned by Sony and WILL NOT void your warranty. Only limitiation is that this OS does not have full control of the machine – RSX still runs underneath. This is just like installing windows in a virtual machine on a Mac.
    If you mess it up there is another button in RSX to restore the system which you would also use if you swap the built in drive for a larger one. No reason to yet, but if I wanted to run Linux on it I would put in a 160GB drive at least – also sanctioned by Sony.

    As for downloading PC programs – it’s not a bloody pc so you cannot just download programs and run them – but you can browse the internet with the built in browser and play videos from youtube and download mp3’s and the like.

    One thing I find they don’t do (yet?) you cannot connect to your PC’s shares over the network like you can with XBox. This is something Sony needs to have to compete – you cannot imagine how dissapointed I was to find this is missing. However if you can run a web server on your home pc then you can get to the content that way.

    Otherwise – it’s a solid system. When complaining about it keep in mind it is all new – the XBox has had a big head start.

    So bottom line, I dissagree with your assertion that ‘it is a waste of money’ – No more so than any other luxury item. I would agree the XBox is a great system and there are many good games for it – but since I am not a hardcore gamer I went with the playstation as I can wait for it to catch up. In the meantime it is still a great entertainment system. The Demo’s are nice and free, the blu-ray is great, the system does not look like a toy but rather a high end component, the wireless controllers are nice, the built in blu-ray, wireless, Bluetooth, USB, Memory card readers and hard drive are worth something to me.

    I am not recommending you sell your big screen tv to get one, but if you have the extra cash and won’t suffer from spending it – then buy it. I think it will only get better.

14. Triston McIntyre:
    February 28th, 2007
    

    Anthony2 (what are the odds?)

    After reviewing your post, I want to thank you for some of that information I was unaware of.

    To begin, I would like to note I never said it was a waste of money, I was saying that if he had purchased a PS3 and didn’t enjoy it, THAT would be a waste of money, not necessarily the system itself.

    I also feel like Sony needs some sort of system to compete with xbox’s streaming content feature; Apple’s iTV will usher in a new era of media control (I think we can skip this whole blu-ray hd-dvd battle and jump right to downloadable content that can be stored on terabyte HDDs, and stream them to our tv’s, no messy cds involved), and Sony is sort of shooting themselves in the foot by not including it. Perhaps they had to decide between the six-axis addition or the streaming video, and a sony exec, in a moment of consternation, said, “Uh, I…I..I gotta have the sixaxis!!”

    The Playstation has a wealth of features I wish I could afford. I don’t want to give the impression I’m an xbox fanboy or anything of that nature..they’re both amazing systems…I think for me it comes down to what you plan on doing with either system. streaming media and first person shooters makes you an xbox person, and blu-ray, rpg’s, and big black shiny consoles make you a playstation fan.

15. Anthony:
    February 28th, 2007
    

    Thanks to the both of you,
    I am not a hardcore gamer like the other Anthony (you’re right, what are the odds). I am a Sony man as i have a ps1, ps2, psp, and a ps3 on March 23. I wouldn’t switch to Xbox 360 as i can play my ps2 games on my soon to be ps3 and my ps1 games on my psp. I understand that the Xbox is a good thing for the fact that is quite a margain less than the ps3 but i am still going to wait for the PS3. It’s march 1st here in Australia at 3:37pm so only 22 more days =)
    With the Australian ps3, is it like the European version in that it wont play as many ps2 games as first thought? If so that’s a bummer but i will still get one. So can you download legal programs like MSN and go on that?
    Thanks you guys!

16. LooM:
    February 28th, 2007
    

    Sorry, I seemed to read in you article that the playstation 3 cannot play standard dvds.. if I’m not wrong it’s a combi drive able read both DVD, Blu-ray and standard disc?..

17. Qayin:
    March 1st, 2007
    

    You can install Tera softs yellowdog computer os wich is playstation 3 compatible and use the playstation 3 as a computer !

18. Anthony:
    March 1st, 2007
    

    Qayin, can u then download programs on your ps3 and use them on it?

19. Anthony:
    March 1st, 2007
    

    Also, You know how people are saying that the European version is not backward compatibility, is the Australian model going to be like this? Is the Australian version going to be just as good as the best?

20. Anthony:
    March 1st, 2007
    

    Also, You know how people are saying that the European version is not backward compatibility with the ps2 games, is the Australian model going to be like this? Is the Australian version going to be just as good as the best?

21. Anthony2:
    March 1st, 2007
    

    I think Sony really miss-fired on that one. While I personally don’t have any PS2 games, I do like the fact that I can go and buy some now that they are getting cheap.

    Still XBox360 is just the same – software emulation – so I don’t see where all the negativity is coming from.

    There is nothing that cannot be done in software that the chip does – question is will the emulation be fast enough? I believe the PS3 will have enough firepower if the software emulation layer is programmed correctly to perform as well as the missing hardware chip. I mean that thing is stupid-fast. I read that toshiba was going to use the cell in a cable box that can decode 48 hi-def channels at once… that is a lot of data…

    Anyone have any evidence to the contrary?

22. Anthony:
    March 4th, 2007
    

    So can you download any program and use it on your ps3?

23. Digitalx:
    March 7th, 2007
    

    I think to an extent here you’re comparing the Xbox 360 to PS3 like an orange to a tangelo. The odds are between the differences in the raw hardware specs may not seem “that” much more different to an average joe gamer but they are rather larger when you do more investigation beyond IGN. The IGN article you posted your source from is an out-dated misleading article. Microsoft at the end or during of E3:2005 analyzed both systems their total system bandwidth in the Xbox360 and came up with a bandwidth figure around 5 times that of the Playstation 3. One of the big reasons for this total number being higher is the 256GB/s bandwidth between the daughter die and parent die in the Xenos(graphics chip). But it is important to know that the logic performed between those two components with 256GB/s bandwidth hardly constitutes a major system component. Additionally, Microsoft added up two bandwidths figured that were in series (thus they were sharing the same bandwidth) that shouldn’t have been added. Context like that matters a lot, because bandwidth between any two elements is only as fast as the slowest memory bus in-between. The only bandwidth figures that make sense to add together are those on separate and parallel buses to the end destination(s).

    The GPU’s memory controller and shares the same 128 bit bus to GDDR3. The Xbox360 GPU’s 22.4GB/s bandwidth to the system’s unified memory, but this bandwidth is split between the GPU’s needs and the CPU’s. This means that if the Xenon(Xbox360 CPU) was using its full 21.6GB/s bandwidth to system memory, there would be 800MB/s left for the GPU. If the GPU was using its full bandwidth to this memory, none would be left for the Xenon. Additionally, the south bridge(I/O devices) are connected through the GPU also, and all of these devices are actually destined to go to the CPU unless sound for the Xbox360 is done on the Xenos. The impact of this is considerably less since I/O devices probably won’t exceed more than a few hundred MB/s during a game, and isn’t shared by GPUs 22.4GB/s access to main memory. This bandwidth is still going through the same bus that the CPU uses to access RAM and depletes off of the 21.6GB/s communication with RAM and the Xenos.

    Looking at the Playstation 3, you can see that the RSX has a dedicated 22.4 GB/s to its video memory, and the Cell has a dedicated 25.6GB/s to its main memory. Additionally, if you wanted to find the bandwidth the RSX could use from the Cell’s main memory, it go through the 35GB/s link between the Cell and itself, and then go through the Cell processor’s FlexIO controller, on the EIB, to the Cells memory controller which is the gatekeeper to RAM. The slowest link in the line is the bandwidth the XDR memory controller which is 25.6GB/s. If the RSX uses this bandwidth it is being shared with the Cell. In general, the major components in the Playstation 3 have their own memory to work with which provides maximum bandwidth to the respective pools of memory that each component will be using.

    In terms of peak performance, if both the GPU and CPU for both consoles were pushing the maximum bandwidths from their respective memory banks simultaneously and full time, the total for Xbox360 would be 22.4GB/s, and the total for the Playstation 3 would be 48GB/s. Considering the situation where half of the time the CPU uses bandwidth, and another half the GPU uses the bandwidth, the Xbox360 has a straight 22.4GB/s for each the CPU and GPU. The Playstation 3, in this situation, has 25.6GB/s for the CPU, and 22.4GB/s from GDDR3 + 25.6GB/s from XDR simultaneously (since it’s not being shared). I’m not fully qualified to answer which of the two situations is a more accurate representation of bandwidth usage in games, but either way comes out with Playstation 3 on top with general bandwidth.

    Still Xbox360 has eDRAM hold up the battle in terms of bandwidth next to the Playstation 3. In a traditional GPU setup, frame buffer operations occur using bandwidth to main video memory. This has a dramatic impact on the GPU’s performance as a few of those operations consume large amounts of bandwidth. Because the eDRAM and logic to perform these operations reside on a bus separate from GDDR3 in the Xbox360, these operations are considered “free” as they do not incur a penalty to the 22.4GB/s bandwidth limit to the system’s memory. How much bandwidth does this eDRAM take off? That question hasn’t been answered in good detail to actually calculate how much bandwidth is lifted off of the main GDDR3 memory bus compared to how much is used for the other bandwidth consumer of GPU memory – texturing and texture filtering.

    Now “little johnny” may not understand much of this. But lets be realistic about the situation. What demographic is the PS3 being aimed at ? – Most probably around 14-16+. Now I don’t know if this is what you call “little johnny” but 16+ most are getting some sort of financial assistance in the modern day-and-age, whether it be a job or some sort of allowance. Now the Playstation 3 isn’t that expensive in retrospect to what you get out of the product. It’s more of a matter of who wants it most in the beginning and only time will tell how it develops. Anyway I’ve got my Playstation 3 package (pre selected before ordering) pre-orderd for $1,495 NZD (approx $1050 USD).

24. chris:
    March 8th, 2007
    

    hello, i have a ps3 and i would like to know if i can put my music from my dell dj into ps3, and if so how can i ?

25. chris:
    March 8th, 2007
    

    hello, i have a ps3 and i would like to know if i can put my music from my dell dj into ps3, and if so how can i download it

26. Digitalx:
    March 8th, 2007
    

    Hi chris, you can use optical media DVD disk or a USB Media/Storage device.

27. chris:
    March 9th, 2007
    

    hello,i have a usb cord for my dell dj and i hooked it up to my ps3, but it says i have no tracks on my dell dj which i have 400 songs though. please help me

28. Jack:
    March 12th, 2007
    

    Hi there, have been reading the comments and the article to make sure im getting across my point here. As for the huge price tag being placed on the Playstation 3 i can see why most gamers would most likely go for the much cheaper system, being the XBOX360. The Xbox launched for a price in the Uk of around £200 – £250 on March 14th 2005, the PS3 will launch over here on March 23rd 2007 for retail of £424, so not long now. Before starting off my argument, i may say this argument is only in defense to the PS3 and Xbox comparison/price. I am an admirer(spl?) of both systems

    The resoning for the price difference(spl) is quite simple. The huge difference would be Xbox live compared to the PS3 Online, Xbox live is NOT a free service, with you having to buy a 6month/yearly subscription costing around £30 per year. PS3’s online service is completely free… although im sure you pay for it in the main retail price in a way. Second, Xbox360 does not offer live, and free firmware updates as where the PS3 does. The next thing which is going to completely sell the PS3 is going to be its live, online and free ‘Home’ service, i suggest everyone here reseaches it and agrees its what the gaming community has been screaming for. This service when fully resleased is, in my opinion going to give the PS3 the edge over both the Wii and Xbox360.

    As for the argument of Blue-ray vs HD-DVD, its simple, Blue Ray has 25GB storage capacity Single layer, and 50Gb Dual Layer where as HD-DVD has 15GB single layer and 30GB dual layer… Blue-ray has more storage capacity, therfore wins. PLUS Blue ray has been backed by 5 Hollywood studios whereas HD-DVD is being backed by 2 studios. So just from the facts you can see which is preferred as of late

    Thats my argument across, i am sorry if my argument has in anyway offended anyone. Thankyou :)

29. Anthony:
    March 13th, 2007
    

    can you download legal programs onto your ps3 and use them normally like on a normal computer?

30. jason AKA code:
    May 7th, 2007
    

    anthony try ebuddy

31. gentouru:
    July 3rd, 2007
    

    Can you play vcd on playstation 3.. if possible how do you do it?

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