Arstechnica Reviews the PS3

[rabidrabbit]

In retrospective, it's pretty surprising how fast the HD flatscreens have taken the shelf-space in stores. It happened in less than a year, I think. Today if you walk in to the local electronics store, there might be one or two 32" CTR sets in some corner, and some more 14" portable CRT's, and the TV wall is totally dominated by HD flatscreens.
Also, the price of which the full 1080p sets are introduced is suprisingly less than anticipated even earlier this year.

This is off-topic though, the topic being the Ars Technica review.
The 1080i issue is already argued through anyway, why don't we wait until there is a firmware update and whether it corrects the wrong.

 

[Arwin]

In retrospective, it's pretty surprising how fast the HD flatscreens have taken the shelf-space in stores. It happened in less than a year, I think. Today if you walk in to the local electronics store, there might be one or two 32" CTR sets in some corner, and some more 14" portable CRT's, and the TV wall is totally dominated by HD flatscreens.
Also, the price of which the full 1080p sets are introduced is suprisingly less than anticipated even earlier this year.

This is off-topic though, the topic being the Ars Technica review.
The 1080i issue is already argued through anyway, why don't we wait until there is a firmware update and whether it corrects the wrong.

Yeah. According to Eurogamer.net, Sony recognises the issue and is working on a solution. Apparently.

 

[-tkf-]

Re-Review

My SNES acts exactly the same now as it did when it was first released, and outside of the addition of Xbox Live, the first Xbox system remained largely unchanged throughout the hardware's life cycle. Those days are long over, and now which version of Sony's PlayStation 3 that you bought is only one part of the equation: welcome to the firmware wars.

http://arstechnica.com/reviews/hardware/playstation-3-blu-ray.ars

 

[ShaidarHaran]

http://arstechnica.com/reviews/hardware/playstation-3-blu-ray.ars

Seems like a rather accurate review to me, at least I couldn't find anything to disagree with, and certainly nothing stood out as blatantly false.

Dunno about the 9 rating though... I love mine but I'm a technophile - the average consumer may not enjoy theirs as much. Perhaps an 8 rating would be more appropriate, with the 360 getting a 7.

Note: I'm not knocking the 360. My roommate is buying one shortly, and there are tons of games I can't wait to play.

 

[Asher]

I thought ArsTechnica would be smart enough not to buy into the "Certified by DivX" thing. The 360 still plays more DivX/XViD videos than my PS3 does with the latest firmware.

 

[trinibwoy]

It does feel like the PS3 has momentum a the moment and hints at more potential than the 360. Home and stuff like Little Big Planet could have a big impact too especially with the more mainstream crowd. Who knows how the consoles will match up a year or two from now.

 

[Nesh]

I thought ArsTechnica would be smart enough not to buy into the "Certified by DivX" thing. The 360 still plays more DivX/XViD videos than my PS3 does with the latest firmware.

Yeah I found that strange too. I am having problems playing many of my files too

 

[standing ovation]

It does feel like the PS3 has momentum a the moment and hints at more potential than the 360. Home and stuff like Little Big Planet could have a big impact too especially with the more mainstream crowd. Who knows how the consoles will match up a year or two from now.

That's marketing drivel going to your head. By re-reviewing PlayStation 3, Arstechnica is no doubt trying to drum up web traffic so that they can get more beady eyes looking at their advertisements.

As far as the bottom line goes, nothing has really changed. Sony is still losing money on the PlayStation 3, it is still trailing in the console race, and Bluray is still an emerging technology.

 

[Nesh]

That's marketing drivel going to your head. By re-reviewing PlayStation 3, Arstechnica is no doubt trying to drum up web traffic so that they can get more beady eyes looking at their advertisements.

As far as the bottom line goes, nothing has really changed. Sony is still losing money on the PlayStation 3, it is still trailing in the console race, and Bluray is still an emerging technology.

But despite how well it is doing from a business standpoint (which will be determined in the long run) as a product I think it is a great device for the consumer

I feel that we start to get our money's worth from it.

 

[-tkf-]

As far as the bottom line goes, nothing has really changed. Sony is still losing money on the PlayStation 3, it is still trailing in the console race, and Bluray is still an emerging technology.

Well something has changed and i had this crazy idea that it was the basis for the Ars article. There is plenty of other threads where you can discuss the Console war, if you can find one that isnt locked.

 

[DJ12]

He has a point, the hardware hasn't really changed, but now it all works in a way people want thus making ownership far more appealing.

 

[INKster]

I thought ArsTechnica would be smart enough not to buy into the "Certified by DivX" thing. The 360 still plays more DivX/XViD videos than my PS3 does with the latest firmware.

Well, you still can't beat a good Linux distro + VLC player for DivX (and many other) video codec's.
Last time i heard, of all the game consoles only the PS3 can have them both...

 

[-tkf-]

I thought ArsTechnica would be smart enough not to buy into the "Certified by DivX" thing. The 360 still plays more DivX/XViD videos than my PS3 does with the latest firmware.

So, i guess you could make a list of the DiVX formats that the PS3 doesnt play and that the XBOX plays, and the other way around?

Would be pretty nice and usefull. It seems you have plenty of files to test with?

Just post a list with the Resolution and what DiVX version the file was encoded with and what Console that played it.

 

[Dominik D]

So, i guess you could make a list of the DiVX formats that the PS3 doesnt play and that the XBOX plays, and the other way around?

Would be pretty nice and usefull. It seems you have plenty of files to test with?

Just post a list with the Resolution and what DiVX version the file was encoded with and what Console that played it.

Do you test everything like that? Xbox 360 has full support for MPEG-4 Part 2 SP/ASP, which means that DivX 4.0+ and XviD encoded videos work (DivX pre-4.0 was modified MPEG-4 Part 2 ASP codec and it doesn't work on 360). Playback however is a matter of not only codecs but also containers. There's a list of supported stuff at:
http://www.xbox.com/en-US/support/systemuse/xbox360/digitalmedia/videoplaybackfaq.htm
If something stated as "works" doesn't, it's a bug.

As for the PS3 - since they have the logo, I'd expect them to work with any DivX codec. Not sure what's the reality though - Sony is always shy about update details.

 

[-tkf-]

Do you test everything like that? Xbox 360 has full support for MPEG-4 Part 2 SP/ASP, which means that DivX 4.0+ and XviD encoded videos work (DivX pre-4.0 was modified MPEG-4 Part 2 ASP codec and it doesn't work on 360). Playback however is a matter of not only codecs but also containers. There's a list of supported stuff at:
http://www.xbox.com/en-US/support/systemuse/xbox360/digitalmedia/videoplaybackfaq.htm
If something stated as "works" doesn't, it's a bug.

As for the PS3 - since they have the logo, I'd expect them to work with any DivX codec. Not sure what's the reality though - Sony is always shy about update details.

I didnt make the claim, i dont really care about DiVX anymore (it was fun during the hack days), i dont download Movies and TV-Series and i never would consider DiVX if i wanted to archive something.

My point is that when someone makes a "statement" like "DiVX works better on 360 than PS3" on this board they have to back it up.

 

[rekator]

If you want to test your consoles (or your divx player) for divx, xvid, bivx and media capacities go to: http://divxtest.surdvd.com/sommaire.php3?lang=en

Result for 360 after the Novembre 07 update: 62%
http://divxtest.surdvd.com/form/divxtest2_view.php?id_472=on

Result for PS3 firmware 2.1 (I hope you test with new firmware ): 52%
http://divxtest.surdvd.com/form/divxtest2_view.php?id_471=on

 

[-tkf-]

If you want to test your consoles (or your divx player) for divx, xvid, bivx and media capacities go to: http://divxtest.surdvd.com/sommaire.php3?lang=en

Result for 360 after the Novembre 07 update: 62%
http://divxtest.surdvd.com/form/divxtest2_view.php?id_472=on

Result for PS3 firmware 2.1 (I hope you test with new firmware ): 52%
http://divxtest.surdvd.com/form/divxtest2_view.php?id_471=on

Thanks, great link. A little bit surprising that the PS3 doesnt support DiVX at all, at least acording to the results you linked.

 

[standing ovation]

Well something has changed and i had this crazy idea that it was the basis for the Ars article. There is plenty of other threads where you can discuss the Console war, if you can find one that isnt locked.

You're right. Something has changed. Ars Technica is not above tabloid tactics to boost page views. How else can you explain the absurdity of a "re-review"?

Even if they were talking about a short- and long-term test drive (as is common with automobiles), one could argue that not enough has changed to even warrant another review.

 

[Shai-Tan]

If you want to test your consoles (or your divx player) for divx, xvid, bivx and media capacities go to: http://divxtest.surdvd.com/sommaire.php3?lang=en

Result for 360 after the Novembre 07 update: 62%
http://divxtest.surdvd.com/form/divxtest2_view.php?id_472=on

Result for PS3 firmware 2.1 (I hope you test with new firmware ): 52%
http://divxtest.surdvd.com/form/divxtest2_view.php?id_471=on

In my opinion that sort of comparison is misleading depending on the type of video you are watching. Many of those codecs aren't commonly used. Most people would probably be concerned with compatibility of videos with xvid/divx codec with either mp3 or ac3 audio. In particular movies or television shows downloaded off the internet.

I don't know about the level of 360 compatibility but ps3 is >95% in my experience. In contrast to the 360 afaik it also supports subtitles if you convert the video into a Divx container with AVIAddXSub.

The other major format is mkv and neither supports it officially, however both systems can mux mkv to a format playable playable on respective platforms (no transcoding, only requires a few minutes).

xenonmkv or the 360:
http://mkv.jakebillo.com/

mkv2vob or the PS3:
http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=131782

The disadvantage of the 360 at the moment is that it only supports 2 channel audio in the converted mp4 files.

Compared to a specialized player such as Popcorn Hour it will be missing some formats like H.264 within avi containers, or rare video with ogg audio codec, but overall both should play most of the content people find desirable (ps3 with the edge atm imo)

 

[Shifty Geezer]

You're right. Something has changed. Ars Technica is not above tabloid tactics to boost page views. How else can you explain the absurdity of a "re-review"?

The features of the product have changes, hence a re-review to consider what the product you buy now is versus the product you would have bought a year ago. That strikes me as sense, not absurdity. That's why Eurogamer have introduced re-evaluations of MMO's to explore how they have improved. If I want to know what a product is like before I spend my hard owned cash on it, I want an up-to-date evaluation. I don't see how reviewing PS3 with FW 2.4 isn't of 1.0 is any different from reviewing a software application in version 2.0 versus version 1.0 released last year - and we're all happy with those sorts of re-reviews. Ars ought to be doing re-reviews of XB360 and Wii too as they've expanded as well.

[modhat]Additionally, the level of discussion in this thread is pretty appalling. I have to go to work so can't clean it up now, but things will be chopped.[/modhat]