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Video Asylum TVs, VCRs, DVD players, Home Theater systems and more. |
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Ahh, the $100 price drop and free movies finally got me to buy the Playstation 3 I had been drooling over long before it was actually released, and with the trade-in of my Playstation 2 and a stack of games I was no longer playing, I saved another $120, for a total cost of about $430 after tax for the 60G PS/3 with remote control.
Initial impression: Wow, it does feel like a slick flagship product: My Toshiba HD DVD player is a generic box by comparison! Larger than the PS/2 it replaces, but the footprint isn't too bad when it's standing upright. In fact, it blends in nicely. I also like that Sony didn't rely on a big external power supply: Pretty much everything is contained within PS/3's curvy shell.
Setup: This is where things slow down. Find mini USB cable (included) and use it to connect game controller to console. Enter simple info via the game controller. Not unlike composing a text message on a cell phone, minus a real keypad--kind of bad actually, but it's over quickly enough.
Wifi: I started to set this up, realized I needed to enter the Playstation's MAC address into my Apple Airport Extreme's access control screen and realized that Sony doesn't actually print the MAC address anywhere on the shipping carton or the outside of the console itself. So back to PS/3's main menu (losing my in-progress network settings) and after a couple of minutes, I found what I needed. As I type in my wireless password for the 6th or 7th time, I realize that I REALLY hate using the game controller in this way.
But I stick to it, and soon enough, I have a working connection, almost. All that's needed is a system update, and this is where I feel like gloating, because I won't need to run a long ethernet cable over to the Playstation in order to go online as I do with the HD DVD player: I can just use the wifi! That's the idea anyway: Truth is, after almost exacty 50 minutes (coincidently, this is the time needed to complete a firmware update on the HD DVD player) I get an error message saying that the update has failed. So I wind up taking my long ethernet cable out and going with a wired connection instead. If all goes well, I will have actual gaming and video 2-1/2 to 3 hours after I unboxed the console, with most of that time spent updating (or attempting to) the software.
Meanwhile, the Playstation's cooling fan is noticeable. Very noticeable actually. It's mostly inoccuous white noise, but there's rather a lot of it, and it'll probably be audible over my movies if I fixate on it. Lucky for me I am good at NOT fixating on the shortcomings of my toys once I've bought them--the money's spent, so make myself unhappy. The Toshiba HD-A20 HD DVD player is much quieter.
More on this as I have time to play :-) I made the trek down to the nearby Hollywood Video "library store" and discovered they had increased shelf space for both HD and BD movies, and from the BD side, I picked up Ice Age (just the thing for a hot day in summer), Bridge to Terabithia (never seen it) and Sonic The Hedgehog for the gaming side of things.
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Topic - Blu-Ray is in the house! - 4season 12:21:59 07/14/07 (5)
- Six hours later - 4season 17:12:41 07/14/07 (2)
- RE: Six months later - chris e. 19:04:31 07/14/07 (1)
- Well, if he's using a Windoze PC, that probably explains most of his problems. :0) nt - oscar 21:51:37 07/14/07 (0)
- Hee-hee - Jack G 13:13:57 07/14/07 (1)
- RE: Hee-hee - 4season 17:18:11 07/14/07 (0)
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