Pros:
- best CPU (“‘jou see doz folding@home stats!?”)
- BlueRay player
- backwards compatibility with my existing PS2 library
- excellent media center functionality (I didn’t even realize it had CF/SD/MS slots until I got it home. 🙂 )
Cons:
- too expensive
- BlueTooth remote, with no IR option
- not as many games as XBox360
- noisy (but not as noisy as the 360 — man those things howl!)
Of the Cons, the only one that really bugs me is the remote. It means that if you want to use this as your main media center, then you can’t use the same remote you use for everything else. Or at least, I can’t, since I’m hooked on my Harmony. Time will tell how much that pisses me off.
I “solved” the problem of it being too expensive by turning in my old PS2. They gave me $100 in trade for something I only paid $169 for — not bad. The rest was just the little bit of “mad money” I got for my year end bonus.
The noise problem I solved by mounting it in a small end unit that faces away from the viewing area. That’s one good thing about the BT remote: no need to point the front of the PS3 in the same direction as the TV. On a related note, since the controllers are all just USB devices, I could use one of the 10′ USB extension cables I had to reach to my favourite spot on the couch.
You can’t, of course, enclose the unit since it would cook itself. It definitely runs warm to the touch, even with lots of ventilation. Oh well.
As to the games, well I picked up Resistance:FoM, which seemed most like something I would play, given the available titles. It’s a good, if not particularly inspired, FPS. I’m having enough fun that I’ll probably continue to play it, which is all that counts. I must say that on the HDTV, the graphics are almost as good as I could get out of my PC, which given the box I run, is quite a compliment.
I also got Underworld:Evolution on BlueRay. I’m very pleased with the resulting image quality. I guess those of you who borrow from my video collection are going to have to start upgrading too; I’ll probably be buying BlueRay versions of anything new that comes out, from now on.
That’s the problem with being picked up by aggregators like Planet OTI: By the time I had re-read this post, and realized that its tone was too self-centered, it was too late to go back and clean it up. Oh well.
I’m trying to get one for work since it runs a particular Java Virtual Machine we seem to know something about.
Cool to buy this. First I have to get a TV to play these things. Maybe next Christmas if you can believe it….
>>IÂ’ll probably be buying BlueRay versions
>>of anything new that comes out, from
>>now on.
Well I guess if we ever expect to borrow movies again we’ll need to get one too! 🙂
Ah well, was looking for a reason to get one of those lovely 1080p screens anyway.