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PlayStation (Games) Media Television Entertainment Games Hardware

Sony's PSX Game/Media Hub Loses Features For Early Release 49

Posted by simoniker from the the-doh-continuum dept.
StingRay02 writes "Sony's recently announced 'digital media hub', the PlayStation 2-based PSX, is getting a feature downgrade to facilitate getting it out of the door for the holidays in Japan, according to a GameSpot article. Apparently, the following features are being cut: HDD to DVD dubbing has been downgraded from 24x speed to 12x speed, CD-R playback will not be supported, DVD+RW playback will not be supported, MP3 file format will not be supported, TIFF and GIF file formats will not be supported, Sony's Cybershot movie format will not be supported. There will also be no antenna output, nor will it be compatible with the Playstation BB service. The original specs can be found on Sony's website." The company "plans to offer firmware updates to owners", but it's unclear as yet what features this will add.
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Sony's PSX Game/Media Hub Loses Features For Early Release More

Sony's PSX Game/Media Hub Loses Features For Early Release

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  • Uh oh! (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Acidic_Diarrhea ( 641390 ) on Tuesday December 02, 2003 @12:02PM (#7609838) Homepage Journal
    Boy, it's always good news when you hear about a company pushing a product out the door in order to hit a sales date. Screw the long term effects of disappointing the consumer! We need sales now!

    This is bad practice. The PSX always seemed like this poorly thought of device that was just going to test the waters for the PS3 (and gauge what people wanted from their PS3 - video game device or all-in-one media powerhouse) anyway. The poor selection of a name coupled with this news about the downgrade really makes me wonder who's in charge at Sony and whether they are thinking long term at all.

    • Same reason that institutions don't buy durable computers (or, for that matter, think longterm on any (especially purchase) decision). People don't think in the long term; TCO and total sales take second seat to the here and now, and the bottom line suffers.

  • A Digital Media Hub.... (Score:5, Funny)

    by McLuke ( 603959 ) on Tuesday December 02, 2003 @12:04PM (#7609860)
    ...with no MP3 support. that's great R&D that is.

  • No surprise, really. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Thedalek ( 473015 ) on Tuesday December 02, 2003 @12:11PM (#7609929)
    This device is out of Sony Electronics, not Sony Computer Entertainment Incorporated, nor Sony Pictures. Same brands, different heads of the hydra.

    What winds up happening is that different sections have entirely contradicting business goals: Sony Electronics wants to provide the consumer with devices which will allow him to burn DVDs at high speeds from a large capacity hard drive, and record live TV onto said hard drive, not to mention viewing a variety of other burned media, including the burned DVD-rs.

    SCEI fears this will allow people to play copied PS2 and PSOne games. They need to squash some features.

    Sony Pictures fears this will allow people to play copied movies. They need to squash some features.

    Sony Music fears this will allow people to play downloaded songs. They need to squash some features.

    And so on. It's no surprise that the PSX is going to be all black-and-blue (and missing functionality) after all these corporate divisions have beaten it up. By the time this thing sees a stateside release, I'll be surprised if it even has a dvd-r drive in it.
    • Sony makes several devices that play MP3s, including their PDA line.

      Apparently Sony Music doesn't really have as much sway over what the rest of the company makes as one might think.
      • Only insofar as it would be impossible for an electronics entertainment company to justify not having MP3 playing devices. They make MP3 players because all portable electronic entertainment companies make MP3 players.

        As for the PDA's, if you make a PDA with halfway decent specs, someone is going to start writing software for it. If it is technically possible for the device to play MP3s, someone will write software to do so. Sony just bowed to the inevitable.

        The biggest battle is coming from SCEI, who
    • For other companies, this might be true, but for Sony, I'm not sure the same 'all in it together' policy is true. The various Sony divisions are often at odds with each other; after all Sony produce standalone DVD+/-R/RW wrtiers, as well as PC drives, allowing you to copy DVDs, which has previously caused conflict (quite obviously) with Sony Pictures. You are right that "Sony Pictures fears this will allow people to play copied movies", but on previous experience, I'm not sure how much influence they will h

  • HDD to DVD dubbing has been downgraded from 24x speed to 12x speed, CD-R playback will not be supported, DVD+RW playback will not be supported, MP3 file format will not be supported, TIFF and GIF file formats will not be supported, Sony's Cybershot movie format will not be supported. There will also be no antenna output, nor will it be compatible with the Playstation BB service.

    Gosh, I hope it will still monitor my home network to make sure I'm not using raped-and-pillaged media files (I think that's wh

  • New name.. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by ewhenn ( 647989 ) on Tuesday December 02, 2003 @12:20PM (#7610006)
    I know the Media-less hub. It doesn't support CD-R or DVD+RW, my cheap Lenox sound DVD walmart player does. No MP3?? Heck it doesnt even play sony's own format. Save your money folks.

  • The PSX... It's the penultimate! (Score:5, Insightful)

    by cgenman ( 325138 ) on Tuesday December 02, 2003 @12:26PM (#7610062) Homepage
    Several bad ideas.

    The downgrade must have made sense on paper. The difference between 24 speed and 12 speed recording is not a lot. DVD+RW is a standard that isn't particularly necessary, despite what SCE's parent company may think. Who needs Tiff? Cybershot? MP3?

    Ok, the lack of MP3 playback in a media hub is like a car that can't turn left. Even on paper that cut's dumb. And being incompatible with Playstation BB seems very odd... Almost like compatibility with other online games is not guaranteed.

    The main problem that I see with this, however, is that you are taking a luxury device that retails near $1,000, and removing features before it launches. People spend that much money on a device because it will be the ultimate... The penultimate just isn't enough. If the cuts had been made before the device was announced, and released later as a patch, it wouldn't be an issue. In fact it would serve as a boost, as people get a better machine than they had planned for. But making cuts now just days before the item goes on sale is going to severely tarnish its image.

    Bad planning guys. Bad planning.

  • Sony's idea of firmware updates for PS2 (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Artifex ( 18308 ) on Tuesday December 02, 2003 @12:30PM (#7610099) Journal
    The only way you can get a more recent version of the DVD player app for the PS2 is to use the disc that came bundled with the optional Sony-branded remote. Then you have to install it to a memory card. Remember, it's illegal for you to copy and distribute the disc, though it might not be illegal to install the software on a friend's memory card for him.

    Also, I'm told that later models of the PS2 have support for extra media like DVD+R(W) playback, but my early model certainly doesn't.

    I'm still waiting for Sony to explain how to add a hard drive in the hard drive bay; without a filesystem the PS2 won't see any drive. They have or had a Linux distro bundled with a hard drive, but that had a noncompatible filesystem on it so you couldn't use it for game storage.

    Console vendors have a history of promising more than they can deliver. If Sony is already admitting to scaling back on the original PSX, I don't have faith that any promised add-ons or upgrades to firmware for it will actually materalize, especially since this is just an interim product.

    • Actually... just because your Sony doesn't claim support for DVD+/-RW media doesn't mean it doesn't have it. I know for a fact that with the right brand of discs, you can get every single model of the PS2 sold in the U.S. to read them. I have used every model:

      SCPH-30001
      SCPH-30001 R
      SCPH-35001
      SCPH-39001
      SCPH-50001

      You have to usually burn the DVDs at 1x, NO FASTER! And I generally find that Verbatim discs work the best - but other brands do work, you just have to try one to know. The later models obviousl
  • The sony PSX is neither competing with nor complementing the PS2. It is a PVR with a HD that aspires to being a good place for your media to be centrally stored. The lack of certain features bring the featureset of this beast down to Sony's DVD recorders, the GX3 and the GX7, and that is not a bad thing per se. I own the gx3 and even though the lack of mp3 and svcd is a bit disappointing, it has the best recording and playback quality in the business, excellent media support (will burn to anything but dvd+r
  • And now, I will not. No recordable format = locked in system. My multimedia computer plugged into my TV via Svideo = 10x better than the downgrade. The original spec for the PSX was compelling because it offered nearly everything (excepting wifi+divx) that I was looking for. Now, it would be a PVR with a DVD burner.
  • Makes one wonder what the release specs on the PSP will end up being.

    --Jeremy

  • Power Source?!?! (Score:4, Funny)

    by PeeweeJD ( 623974 ) on Tuesday December 02, 2003 @02:46PM (#7611256) Homepage
    ...HDD to DVD dubbing has been downgraded from 24x speed to 12x speed, CD-R playback will not be supported, DVD+RW playback will not be supported, MP3 file format will not be supported, TIFF and GIF file formats will not be supported, Sony's Cybershot movie format will not be supported. There will also be no antenna output, nor will it be compatible with the Playstation BB service.

    Did they drop support for electrical power as well? Should I dig out my old steam engine?

    They will no doubt can the remote control as well. That does not bother me so much as I have 2 kids to change channels for me :)

  • According to PC World [idg.com.au], only data CD-Rs can't be played. Burned audio CDs will still be supported.

  • Fall of Sony? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by AvantLegion ( 595806 ) on Tuesday December 02, 2003 @03:09PM (#7611458) Journal
    This does make one wonder what the PSP and PS3 have to look forward to. The PSP seems like it might be the next overpromised device to get cut down.

    Is this foreshadowing Sony's fall from the #1 spot? Sounds impossible, but it also seemed impossible that Nintendo would fall after the NES and Super NES (and Game Boy, for that matter), but all it took was the Nintendo 64 to send them free-falling down the totem pole.

    Sony needs to not be screwing with this PSX crap, and maybe not even the PSP, but better focus attention on the PS3. There won't be a big head start for them this time.

    Of course, for Sony to fall, it means Microsoft has to step it up to the next level. They had a good first showing, and really led the way on complete online console gaming, but they have to bring in more balanced, broad development for the second go-around (and no flubs like too-big-for-some-people controllers on release).

  • 'cause it ain't us.

    Those people who are looking at the PSX as the "next generation gaming system" to upgrade from their current PS2s are not the audience Sony is looking for with the PSX.

    The PSX is aimed at those people who have not purchased a PS2 yet and are thinking of not buying one until the PS3 comes out... which won't be until 2005 (so everyone's been saying). Those people who are not early adopters.

    Yes, the diehard PS2 owners and gaming early-adopters are probably dying to get their hands on

    • I think the target audience is "people with so much money and so little common sense that they're willing to blow nearly $1000 on a device that isn't any better than a $170 device (PS2) coupled with a $200 device (TiVo) sold by the same company".
  • Didn't Sony state that the PSX was going to be an All-in-one entertainment device?
    Now, that 24x speed, I belive, is 24x if you're burning to a disk at the lowest quality out of six, so actually, the REAL speed was probably 4x (that IS the highest on the market, currently.) So now, they're downgrading to a 2x burner, if my math is correct.
    "CD-R playback will not be supported" I thought this was supposed to be an all-in-one media device?
    "DVD+RW playback will not be supported." considering

  • Whats left for the gamers? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by MMaestro ( 585010 ) on Tuesday December 02, 2003 @05:42PM (#7613011)
    Or for the would-be gamers? Obviously Sony [whatever branch here] was never targetting gamers from the beginning since it was basicly a souped up PS2. Now me being the minority (I STILL don't have a PS2) would have been interested in the PSX since I'd get all the cool swag along with a PS2. But now, whats the point?

    'Apparently, the following features are being cut: HDD to DVD dubbing has been downgraded from 24x speed to 12x speed, CD-R playback will not be supported, DVD+RW playback will not be supported, MP3 file format will not be supported, TIFF and GIF file formats will not be supported, Sony's Cybershot movie format will not be supported. There will also be no antenna output, nor will it be compatible with the Playstation BB service. '

    Slower DVD dubbing? Considering DVDs hold 4.7 gigs of space, that can't be good. No CD-R playback no supported? Does this mean I can't play my own re-mixed CDs? No DVD+RW playback? Two words : Bad Investment. No MP3s? Wtf? Why not take out the PS1 capability at the same time? No TIFF and GIF format? COMON! Last time I checked there were no complaints about photo privacy. No Sony Cybershot capability either? Great, one more type of Sony product I'll have to avoid in the future, assuming I still get the PSX. No antenna output and no Playstation BB service? Gee, thanks. Nice way to wrap up the list of nerfage. If the PSX was a game, this would be the equivaliant of removing the crowbar, the AI, the storyline, and the voice acting from Half-Life followed by a press release saying that the game will make "its bitch".

  • Xmas launch is very important (Score:3, Informative)

    by JazFresh ( 146585 ) on Tuesday December 02, 2003 @08:54PM (#7614602)
    Even though they don't celebrate the birth of Christ in Japan, Xmas there is as much of a big deal to retailers as it is in the States. I've seen graphs of console sales vs month, and the number they sell in December is more than 10 times what they sell in all other months combined. So it's understandable that they'd do anything to launch for Xmas.

    And is it really so bad? All these features they're dropping are software features that can be upgraded later. Not the ideal situation, but certainly financially better for the company than delaying the launch.

  • Wait until Sony comes out with a product that is actually new and not just trying to play catch-up with the Xbox. Got it. Then again, this is a japan-only release, where the Xbox has sold relatively poorly compared to the GC and PS2. So what should any of us have to worry about?
  • Comment removed based on user account deletion

  • another change (Score:3, Funny)

    by prockcore ( 543967 ) on Wednesday December 03, 2003 @02:19AM (#7616373)
    aparently Sony's PSX has just been renamed to "Fuck You Customer".
  • Comment removed based on user account deletion

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