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Posted by Jeff Rife on 04/13/06 02:40
CJ (cjmartin04@verizon.net) wrote in alt.tv.tech.hdtv:
> The PS2 is a
> serviceable DVD player and it helped to spread the use of DVDs over VHS
> tapes.
Although it *was* another DVD player, it really wasn't that big of a
deal. When the PS2 was released (2000), there were already about 10M DVD
players in homes in North America
By 2002, 43M DVD players had been sold in North America, but only
11M PS2s. So, the PS2 had 20% of the DVD player market (although there
is no proof that DVD-Video playback was a big selling point), and there
were a *lot* of other choices. Even if the PS2 couldn't play DVD-Video
disks at *all*, there still would have been a DVD player for 2 out of 5
homes.
On the other hand, on its release date, the PS3 will be one of a tiny
handful of Blu-Ray players, and using DVD player sales as an example,
there will almost certainly be less than 500K Blu-Ray players sold by the
time the PS3 is released. If it sells 5M units the first year, it will
be far and away the market leader for Blu-Ray players. But, if it isn't
a good Blu-Ray player, then the extra $100-200 for that feature will make
it sell a lot fewer units, except to hard-core gamers.
What will make the PS3 a "good" movie player are the things that make a
good DVD player (in no particular order):
- remote control (including battery life, layout, etc.)
- variety and utility of hardware audio/video outputs (i.e., what plugs
it has)
- variety and utility of software audio/video outputs (i.e., what formats
it can output)
- output quality
- config menu quality and ease of use
- speed of load/eject/seek
- software playback features (FF, REW modes, etc.)
In addition, if you can sell a game console that includes a decent
Blu-Ray player for $500, people are going to demand a Blu-Ray player with
no game features for $300. Once this happens, whether the PS3 is a good
player or not becomes unimportant, as it will stop being the market
leader.
--
Jeff Rife | "I'm reading a great John Grisham novel...it's
| about a young Southern lawyer who fights an
| evil corporate giant."
| -- Dick Solomon, "3rd Rock from the Sun"
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