Tuesday, May 17, 2005
PlayStation 3: Better Than the Xbox 360?
Macworld has this to say about Playstation 3:
Make no mistake: the PlayStation 3 is utterly superior in graphics to the Xbox 360 from what has been shown.
The writer seems to be more impressed by PS3’s graphics and horsepower, but gave the Xbox the edge as a media center. Frankly, the PS3 technical specs are downright intimidating; the thing is a little supercomputer with serious cutting edge hardware.
On the plus side for my fascination with Xbox 360, the article does confirm that the new box will be compatible with original Xbox games. That makes me even happier than the decision to retain (and better use) the hard drive; if the 360 had launched without back-compatibility, it would have been a huge error. To launch without games is always tough, and the original Xbox already fought that battle. I’m sure that Microsoft would have hated to fight it again.
My inner geek is feeling well nurtured this week.
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Comments & Trackbacks
if the 360 had launched without back-compatibility, it would have been a huge error.
We are talking about the company that just recently abandoned DOS, right? Their whole corporate culture is backward compatible.
How’s this for backwards compatibility? The new Nintendo will play GameCube games and offer an online service that will let you download any Nintendo game from the last 20 years.
Since a major Xbox selling point will be it’s MediaCenter compatibility I wonder why Microsoft didn’t just make it run MediaCenter? I’d seriously consider getting one if was a DVR and could run a browser and Word.
Bryan, you really just wanted to stop at “their whole corporate culture is backward”, didn’t you? Tell the truth…
Matt, I was actually starting to wonder if the Xbox would have DVR capabilities. That would definitely make it even more valuable. For example, since I won’t be home tonight, I could actually record House and watch it later instead of mourning the fact that I’ll be missing an episode.
Darnit.
According to Gizmodo it isn’t a DVR, and it sounds like it simply can’t be. No one has mentioned it having any sort of video inputs at all, and it for sure doesn’t have a tuner.
Do you have Comcast? If so, you can get a DVR for 10 bucks a month. If you don’t want it, get it anyway and I’ll pay you for it. Employees get screwed on new equipment.
Ah, crap. I hadn’t even noticed that there weren’t any video inputs. I was kind of imagining that it might be an add-on service that would have to be purchased.
$10/month? I have to return my old, broken cable modem. Maybe I’ll sign on for the DVR when I do that.
You got me.
Seriously, zomby, this comment deserves some cynicism:
Matt, I was actually starting to wonder if the Xbox would have DVR capabilities. That would definitely make it even more valuable.
C’mon. MS practically invented digital rights management. You really think they would put something like DVR into their systems?
MediaCenter is actually a great solution as a DVR, Bryan.
Isn’t media center just a computer?
Nope, MediaCenter is an OS.
Matt,
if this : http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/mediacenter/default.mspx is what you’re talking about, it’s not an OS. It’s a windows XP machine.
From the webpage: “Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 is a version of Windows XP”. So you’re correct in a way, but I think I’m more correct. You can’t just put a TV card in an XP box and call it a Media Center PC, you have to buy a different OS.
My main point still applies: Microsoft already writes DVR software and I’d bet the Xbox 720 (or whatever) will run Media Center and will be a DVR.
I think the kicker is that you can’t upgrade to Media Center, you have to buy it preinstalled on some crappy PC with DRM presumably hardwired in.
I assume the crappy PC comes with an installation CD for hard drive crashes, etc. So could you just trash the DRM’d box and install Media Center on your on machine? Or does it look for some special hardware key?
Actually, it seems you can now get Media Center OEM, so theoretically you could install it on whatever you wanted. Only certain video cards & tuners are supported, though, so you might have to upgrade those too. From what I can tell just by googling, the DRM is all in Media Player. It shound like those might have some kind of hardware-config-based key, though, ‘cause the media can tell when they’re on a different computer. Sounds like it’d be easier just to get a TiVo than upgrade the computer ...
I read the specs for the 360. The 360 has overall better specs buy far. Seeing that the PS3 has only one 3.2ghz processor and the 360 having 3 of them. Also for most other things the 360 has the same or more in almost every catergory (unless you count the PS3 supporting 7 controllers to the 360’s 4 controller limit.) I don’t see where you guys are getting the idea that the PS3 can out preform the 360.