360 vs PS3. September Price Drop for 80gig PS3?

[christoph08]

So the I want a 360 thread got me thinking. My 360 is currently in for repair and when I get it back I've been thinking about putting it on Ebay for and buying a PS3 with the recent price drop ($100).

 

Can anyone who has played both compare the two? I've heard the baseball game for PS3 is way better than 2K7 (no surprise). I also use my 360 as a media center streaming .divx and whatnot to my tv, can the PS3 handle that relatively well?

 

 

(added tag --1992)

[bjkrautk]

I've never tried .divx, but I have streamed unprotected .mp4 files (podcasts) to my PS3 over Wi-Fi; my only recommendation is to not use Windows Media Player as your server (since it can't handle the same media formats as the PS3).

 

To me, the head-to-head comparisons are less important than the variety of titles. It seems like every big announcement for the 360 is a 1st / 3rd person shooter or a driving sim.

 

Take a look at what's coming out on either system (exclusives mainly, but you can look for extra content on multi-platform games as well), and decide which interests you. For me, FF 13 pretty much made my decision for me.

(That being said, one of the games that I had expected to be multi-platform - Beautiful Katamari - dropped the PS3 version, so recognize that things may change before release.)

 

PS3 also has the advantage of being a Blu-Ray player, which I admit....I haven't used as much as I'd like. (Sony is actually also running a promotion for 5 free Blu-Ray movies with the purchase of any Blu-Ray player, including the PS3. It's an extremely limited list, so don't expect "Pirates of the Carribean" on there, but it at least allows the opportunity to show off your HDTV.

[endaround]

Everything I've heard has been negative about the Show on the PS3. As to getting a PS3, it really whether you want Heavenly Sword or really want a PS2 replacement before they kill off hardware backward compatibility. Otherwise there is likely to be another price drop in 6 months.

[patrickgpe]

i got a ps3 but only use it to play video games. I should use it for more media stuff though. I like the show and my only criticism is that it plays just like the ps2 version with somewhat better graphics. The graphics are nowhere near that of 2k7. The game play is good though.

[logan82]

I think the whole thing comes down to what games you want to play. I don't know of many games coming out as exclusives for the PS3 this year I think maybe a new God of War game(maybe). FF XIII is not coming out till next year, nor is Metal Gear Solid 4. If you plan on buying one system now and the other one next year I would say to go with the 360 first. They have Halo 3, Mass Effect and Blue Dragon coming out in the next couple months. They also have Gears of War out now. If you are only getting one or the other you will have to look into exclusive titles and decide what games you want to play. As for the BluRay player, I consider that a $100 price gouge for something I have no real interest in. Also consider it them charging me $100 for a technology they are trying to push. DVD is just fine with me until the movie industry picks a standard format and HDTV becomes the standard, as opposed to SDTV. I know most of this is making me come across as anti PS3. I guess I am a little, but the 360 just has more games out that appeal to me right now. Like I stated, it really all comes down to which games you want to play.

 

EDIT: I guess you could also throw the Wii into your decision, but the title of the thread of was 360 vs. PS3.

[da5thelement]

So do I have it right that when the 80gb version of the PS3 comes out it wont play PS2 games like the 60gb one did? If that is the case it might be worth getting the 60gb one so I can throw out the PS2.

[bjkrautk]

So do I have it right that when the 80gb version of the PS3 comes out it wont play PS2 games like the 60gb one did? If that is the case it might be worth getting the 60gb one so I can throw out the PS2.

 

Sort of.

 

The current PS3 comes with the PS2's hardware - the "Emotion Engine" - built in to its hardware in addition to the Cell processor. This means (for the most part) that any game capable of running on the PS2 should also run on the PS3.

 

The 80GB version of the PS3 will use software to emulate the Emotion Engine. Sony is already using software emulation in the European version of the PS3 (which came out several months after the U.S. launch), with mixed results. Off-hand, I don't know whether 'game X' will run on the 80GB PS3....but I wouldn't be surprised if Wikipedia or one of the European gaming sites could give you a pretty decent approximation of what games will or won't work.

 

Presumably, much like Microsoft and the XBox 360 (which uses a different vendor for the graphics hardware in the 360 than it did for the original XBox, and has always been using software emulation for backwards compatability), the list of PS2 games that can be supported on the new PS3 should grow over time.

[christoph08]

Does anyone have a PS3 setup to stream movies directly stored on a PC. I've searched the web for this but seems a little shaky to handle (have to download a Linux program or partition?).

[endaround]

Sony just got the PS3 to be a Media Center Extender. I'm not sure how the OS there works though so I'm not sure you can use transcode or not meaning you may be stuck with only wma files. Keep in mind Sony being a content provider tends to be much, much more strict in trying to stop media usage. See them planting spyware on your computer and the numerous PSP updates to stop home brew. Meaning if Sony could disable streaming of non-liscensced stuff they will.

[bjkrautk]

Actually, the PS3 supports considerably more media formats than you'd expect.

 

You'll probably need to download a software package to stream them to PS3, however, since the default server (Windows Media Player) won't support the quicktime extensions (MPEG-4, h.264, etc.).

 

I use TVersity personally.

 

My one word of warning before you do start media streaming; I tend to get between 3-7 disconnects between the server & PS3 an hour. It's not a big deal for video podcasts (just back out, and you can usually jump back into the file where you left off), but if you're watching something more dramatic....it may take you out of the experience. If this is a problem, you should be able to stream a copy of the file over to your PS3, and then delete it when you're done viewing.

 

I've watched a number of video podcasts this way over the past month or two since I learned how (including Flight of the Conchords ep. 1, to cross-reference a thread).

[endaround]

Yes but no divx

[mothershipconnection]

Resurrecting an ancient thread.

 

I just bought a PS3 on Ebay and guess what? Yup, broken: DOA - the Blu-Ray drive to be exact. So I'm returning it, and the company may give me an exchange or may just refund my money, which could suck big-time as I'm sure I'll then be out like $50 combined in shipping costs.

 

This rambling leads me to a question for our game nerds. Should the money be refunded, I may wait for the new cheaper 80gb unit. I gather this will happen in September, but does anyone know an exact date or if September of this year is at least set in stone for the $399 80gb console?

[nate82]

This rambling leads me to a question for our game nerds. Should the money be refunded, I may wait for the new cheaper 80gb unit. I gather this will happen in September, but does anyone know an exact date or if September of this year is at least set in stone for the $399 80gb console?

No shipping should never be refunded if that is what you are asking. September or October the latest just don't wait until November or December to buy one at least not on Ebay. Price goes up for some odd reason extremely above the market price for any of the consoles during the holiday season.

The 80gb console right now is $499 but that is the Metal Gear Solid 4 Bundle. Thats the only PS3 version with 80gb available that I could find at Best Buy or Circuit City.

 

The best thing about the PS3 though is that you can take it apart and add upgrade the hard drive to it. I believe it is just a basic laptop hard drive in it and all you would have to do is buy a transfer cable to move the files from the PS3 hard drive into the new one if you really wanted to get a bigger hard drive than the 40gb which are at $399 right now.

[mothershipconnection]

Sony announced earlier this summer (E3?) that this September-ish they would be releasing an 80gig unit for $399 which would basically be identical to the current 40gb unit except storage capacity would be doubled to 80gb. However, I can't find anything specific on the date, though I didn't look too hard.

 

No shipping should never be refunded if that is what you are asking.

 

I was talking about getting a refund for the purchase vs. an exchange. I'm hoping they'll take care of shipping for an exchange since they sent me a bricked console, as the "contract" we have is that I pay $27 for them to ship the functioning PS3 described in the auction - that's not what they shipped. Their return policy only states that shipping will not be refunded if the return is not authorized (you didn't submit the return form within 7 days) or on an "as advertised item", so I think I'll get it back.

[BrewCrewForever]

I'm thinking of finally ditching the regular xbox I have and getting a 360. Probably the 20 GB one.

[logan82]

I'm thinking of finally ditching the regular xbox I have and getting a 360. Probably the 20 GB one.

You might want to hold off a bit. There are rumors of price drops on the 360 in September. I think the 20 GB one is getting phased out.

[BrewCrewForever]

So the 60 GB will be $299.99 in September. How much is the 20 GB now?

[mothershipconnection]

I saw online that the arcade version of the 360 will drop to $199.99. An employee of a retail store looked into their computer and took a picture of the future price and posted the pic online.

[logan82]

So the 60 GB will be $299.99 in September. How much is the 20 GB now?

$299.99 I think. You also get a three month Xbox onling card with it at Wal-Mart. I think that might be only while supplies last because they seem to be phasing out the 20 GB model.

 

 

Edit: If you plan on doing Xbox Live, always buy the card to renew at stores instead of just renewing on your Xbox. The card at the stores will give you an extra month free, 13 instead of 12, and many times you can find them at a discount at online stores.(around $45 instead of $50) Beware though, there are rumors of the price of Xbox Live going down in price. Not sure if it is true though.

 

[BrewCrewForever]

So if I wait a month I can get 40 more GB of hard drive space for the same price? I might just wait a lil bit then. I'm not in a huge rush anyway. Here's another question for you logan since you seem to be a bit of a video game expert. Is MVP Baseball 2005 for xbox able to be played in a 360?

[logan82]

BrewCrewIn2004 wrote:

Here's another question for you logan since you seem to be a bit of a video game expert. Is MVP Baseball 2005 for xbox able to be played in a 360?

I will have to get back to you on that one. I will try it out later tonight. My son is currently playing.

 

This is all just stuff I have read on 1up.com. The price drops are just rumors right now, but 1up.com is usually pretty accurate with that stuff. If it isn't a big deal, I would wait. I have the 20GB and really haven't had any problems, but I don't watch and download movies. I am also pretty diligent in deleting demos and other stuff I am not going to use.

[bjkrautk]

Sony announced earlier this summer (E3?) that this September-ish they would be releasing an 80gig unit for $399 which would basically be identical to the current 40gb unit except storage capacity would be doubled to 80gb. However, I can't find anything specific on the date, though I didn't look too hard.

Just to make sure that it's mentioned, the major difference between the current 80GB version of the PS3 and the upcoming version (based on the current 40 GB console) is that the current PS3 plays some PS2 games (though not all of them....Sony has a database available on its website). The future version of the PS3 is not backwards compatible at all.

Also, just to update this thread to talk about media streaming....the PS3's firmware has been updated to allow you to copy files from your media server for play on the PS3. This is how I watch most of my video podcasts now (Totally Rad Show, 1UP Show, etc.). It's well worth learning how to do, if you don't already have a means of watching podcasts on a TV screen.

[logan82]

MLB 2005 does not work on the 360. Which in my opinion is extremely stupid since they appear to have software emulation to download for 2003 and 2004.

Link

[mothershipconnection]

Bumping to add a sweet deal and answer my own question.

 

You can pre-order the new 80gb version of the PS3 core system for $399 at Sony Style. It says it'll be there around Sept 1. The cool part is that you can add the PS3 to checkout and they'll give you the option to apply for their credit card with instant approval. You can then use the card to buy the PS3 and they'll give you a $150 credit - so the system, is $249.

 

LINK

[Gobias Industries]

The cool part is that you can add the PS3 to checkout and they'll give you the option to apply for their credit card with instant approval.

That is a very nice deal. I haven't bought a system since the original Playstation, but that might be too good to pass up.

 

Can you just cancel the credit card right after you pay it off?