PS3 General Discussion

  • Thread starter Thread starter Solid Lifters
  • 14,035 comments
  • 907,802 views
Solid Lifters
I don't understand how your country can charge so much tax on "out of country purchases" when the item being purchased is not even made in your country! Talk about getting screwed... and Sony charging so much for games in Rooland, I can't believe they sell anything at all after pulling a stunt like that on you people.
Click to expand...

To be fair on Sony its not just them, its pretty much everything, in general US RRP x2 = Australian RRP.
It is cheaper to buy a LS2 Pontiac GTO in the US than to buy a base Holden Monaro CV8 (LS1) here and its our local car. So too bad the US isnt right hand drive (or were left) as if that was the case I could import a better version (better version made here not sold to Australians) of our local car (made in a factory 30 mins from me) for cheaper than it would cost me if I were to buy it at the factory.
 
Solid Lifters
They have pics of the PS3 that was at CES. It looks 99% the same. But notice it has handles on the side? I suspect that's new.

http://ps3media.ign.com/ps3/image/article/679/679434/ces-2006-ps3-on-the-floor-20060106001151197.jpg
Click to expand...

Well...we have the handles and the fact that 4000 dev kits have been shipped so far. I guess we'll have to wait at least until Feb.06 for more info ( release date, playable demos ? ). I still hope, that Sony will follow their short traditon of a Playstation Festival before the release. Last one was in Feb.00...
 
Hadn't Sony shown playable demo's of PS2 games before their 2000 PlayStation Festival? They do seem to be leaving it very late with the PS3.
This gives rise to rumours that the PS3 isn't ready yet and won't be released anytime soon (missing a Spring launch). But the interweb is full of PS3 rumours at the moment.
I'm hoping most issues will be laid to rest very soon. Sony need to show their hand now.
 
AV for normal TV's, HDMI for high-def TV's and LCD tv's that sort of thing. 2 HDMI's ports so you canuse two hi-def TV's at once.
 
So, kind of multiplayer with 2 (or 3) televisions but with only 1 PS3 (instead of 2 (or more) PS2, like we're used to))???
 
Anything is possible with 2HDMI outputs, however, you must remember one thing when thinking about using it as a multiplayer application, or even a panoramic display: a lot get's effectively cut in half.

When you do this, you are now displaying a LOT more on the screen, rendering twice as many polygons that will be visable at any given time, hence, the strain is increased, and the visual quality will likely decrease.

This is why it is required to have 3 PS2's and 3 TV's to set up a Panoramic GT4 display, because it's not possible otherwise.

I really expect to see extremely limited use for 2HDMI ports as far as gaming is concerned. Mainly we'll probably only see first party games that *may* be able to use it.

Also, I'm not really sure if the ports are I/O or just Output. If they are I/O then it would be VERY interesting to see what kind of HD perephials come out, like a new Eyetoy perhaps
 
tha_con
Anything is possible with 2HDMI outputs, however, you must remember one thing when thinking about using it as a multiplayer application, or even a panoramic display: a lot get's effectively cut in half.

When you do this, you are now displaying a LOT more on the screen, rendering twice as many polygons that will be visable at any given time, hence, the strain is increased, and the visual quality will likely decrease.
Click to expand...

So you don't think it's possible that Sony came up with a way to simply split the output into two different directions? Like a "y" splitter for your cable TV for example? A bit more sophisticated sure, but same principle.
 
Okay, let me clarify.

I'm not talking having the same image display on two monitors, that is VERY easy.

What I'm talking about, is what Sony mentioned as a possibility, that this could be used to "expand" the visable area of the player. In otherwords, you would see noteably more (twice as much, think panoramic view) with 2 outputs.
 
Ah, i see said the blind man.
I can't see a use for only 2. 3 yes but not 2.
More power to'em if they can do it and keep acceptable frame rates from only 1 PS3.
 
Drillah
Ah, i see said the blind man.
I can't see a use for only 2. 3 yes but not 2.
More power to'em if they can do it and keep acceptable frame rates from only 1 PS3.
Click to expand...

Ok, think about this. 2 TV's in the same room(very common in American gamers homes), one copy of a First person shooter, 2 players and 2 controllers and 1 PS2. There's no need for the scaled down splitscreen now. Forget an FPS, what about 2 player GTV?

That's the main advantage I see in the ability to have to seperate signals coming from one machine.
 
Yeah but as Tha_Con said, by doing that your almost doubling the work the console has to process.
 
live4speed
Yeah but as Tha_Con said, by doing that your almost doubling the work the console has to process.
Click to expand...

Depends on how you do it. YOu could simply cut down on a few poly's or lower the resolution somewhat.

It's still a very viable option that I'm looking forward to. Much better then having to have two consoles and two games. :yuck:
 
I agree, it's still a lot better than split screen and less background scenery and a slightly lower resolution would be acceptable imo.
 
live4speed
I agree, it's still a lot better than split screen and less background scenery and a slightly lower resolution would be acceptable imo.
Click to expand...

Exactly, so you take out the crowd from around the track...I really don't care. As long as the game plays the same, that's what matters.
 
I think dividing a multiplayer game in two different screens would require the same amount of power as dividing the images in split screen does. And it would be so much better than split screen.
 
No because with split screen your only rendering one screen, it uses slightly more power than single player simply because it has to calculate the other players movements. Doing it on 2 seperate screens at the same detail takes twice as much power.
 
I think split screen renders two different screens too. After all, if you're playing a FPS with a friend and he's in a different location of the map it has to render two different locations on the screen.

A non split screen multiplayer game would just calculate the second player's movements, like Winning Eleven.
 
Yeah but each screen is half the size of the screen in single player, it's rendering half the ammount of polygons for each half of the screen in split screen.
 
What about Blu-Ray output on two HDMI displays? One Plasma in the living room, the other in the kitchen (expensive amount of HDMI lead mind). Does Blu-Ray playback demand a lot from the PS3?
 
I think you wont have to cut anything in half if the game was designed from the ground up to be displayed twice(Halo) Just look how blocky the wolrd is in Halo and Halo2. Hard edges make up most of the levels. Even Red Faction 2 had more realsitic looking levels.
 
I don't think that the retail version of PS3 will have 2 HDMI ports. Maybe if they plan a specific peripheral ( as the_con said before ), but honestly, who has two HD TV'S in one room ? Like 0.1 % of the potential buyers ? The PS3 will be an expensive piece of hardware and I doupt that they'll keep the second HDMI port. The PS3 on E³ was a empty peace of plastic. Like MS Sony will sell the PS3 below production costs. 2 HDMI ports are like Ilink - 1% of the developers would use the option for 0.1% of gamers. The rest will go with classic splitscreen and especially Online gameplay. Imo Sony wanted to show the power of the PS3 in order to make people wait for it instead of buying a 360. But for final production this rather useless port means 20 $ ( pure speculation ;) ) more or less per console, and when you think of the amount of consolse they'll sell (5-20 mio /year ) you see the dimensions. Don't get me wrong, it's fine for me if I open my japanese import and see a second HDMI, but atm I don't think it'll come.
 
Actually Max_DC, the cost of an HDMI port is rather cheap, especially since it's easily manufactured in pairs. More than likely Sony will keep the port on the console just for the bragging rights.

I mean, when did ANYONE use their i-Link? NEVER. But PS2 kept it on for quite some time, then finally they did away with it. It's all Sony to say "hey, we've got it". It doesn't increase the cost of the console by any significant amount, so I would assume that there won't be any change, and two will be included in the final version, but we'll only see support via an add on (assuming it's an I/O port).

But, as you said, at this point in time, anything is possible.
 
tha_con
I mean, when did ANYONE use their i-Link? NEVER.
Click to expand...
I did with a friend of mine.
I'm more interested in surround gaming. Like you said (and that was the purpose of my question about the 2 HDMI and 1 AV port), expand the view. I'm less interested in playing online or multiplayer (in LAN with more people could be fun) but I do want the be able to play in "suuround mode", without having to buy an additional PS3 (or 2) and 2 more copies of GT5. It's already possible (like everybody know) with GT4, 3 PS2 and 3 televisions.

https://www.gtplanet.net/forum/showpost.php?p=1499367&postcount=8

I just wanted to know if it's going to be possible to "surround game" with the PS3 and GT5?????
 
tha_con
Actually Max_DC, the cost of an HDMI port is rather cheap, especially since it's easily manufactured in pairs. More than likely Sony will keep the port on the console just for the bragging rights.

I mean, when did ANYONE use their i-Link? NEVER. But PS2 kept it on for quite some time, then finally they did away with it. It's all Sony to say "hey, we've got it". It doesn't increase the cost of the console by any significant amount, so I would assume that there won't be any change, and two will be included in the final version, but we'll only see support via an add on (assuming it's an I/O port).

But, as you said, at this point in time, anything is possible.
Click to expand...

I have no clue how much a second HDMI port costs. Let's say 5 $. Let's also say that they sell 5 mio consoles in 2006 and 20 mio in 2007, which should be more than realistic. Then they would lose 125.000.000 Dollar. Maybe the port only costs 2 $ and after 2 years just 1$, then they'll still lose 50.000.000 $ in the first two years and 40.000.000 $ in the following two years ( again 20 mio consoles/year, which should be the case, since they almost sold that amount of PS2/year and the videogame market is growing a lot ), which again almost makes 100.000.000 $ losses. And for what? For nothing, since they won't sell a single console/game more because of the possibility to play on two screens.

I don't know Sony's plans, maybe there is sth great they can and want to do with the second HDMI or the production costs of a second port are like 20 cent, then the situation is a different one. But if my estimated prices are somewhat realistic, then a second HDMI sounds like an easy avoidable waste of money. We'll see.
 
Max_DC
I have no clue how much a second HDMI port costs. Let's say 5 $.
Click to expand...
Your probably talkking less than $4 for the pair of them, in fact I'd be suprised if the extra HDMI port cost as much as $1 to include in the manufacture of the PS3.

It's like Bluetooth on mobile phones, people think it costs a good few quid extra to make a phone with Bluetooth, it costs between 30p-50p in manufactureing costs per handset. People don't realise how cheap. Sony will very easilly say that keeping the port shows that they're delivering on a claim they made that many said wouldn't happen, removing it give rivals an open shot at the they promised this but didn't deliver line.
 

Latest Posts

Back