Sony Adopts Blu-ray Disc PlayStation 3 335
fenimor writes "Sony announced today that it had begun preparations to adopt Blu-ray Disc ROM (BD-ROM) format as a medium for the next generation PlayStation. Single side double layer Blu-Ray discs have a huge memory size of 54 GB, being an ideal medium to distribute next generation entertainment content from movies and music to computer applications. Next month Sony plans to announce a 200GB 8-layer version of BD-ROM according to MacWorld."
I wonder (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:I wonder (Score:5, Informative)
Lots. That was a common concern when DVDs came out but there is a lot more data correction on DVD. Same so with BluRay See the FAQ [dvddemystified.com]
but DVDs suck ... (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:I wonder (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:I wonder (Score:4, Interesting)
I mean, let's have higher resolution FMV's! Crisp! Less artificing. But seriously, the game itself -- Do you suppose they'll ever make a 50 gigabyte PS3 game?
I'm not denying that they will. Just being curious.
Re:I wonder (Score:5, Funny)
I mean, let's have higher resolution FMV's! Crisp! Less artificing. But seriously, the game itself -- Do you suppose they'll ever make a 50 gigabyte PS3 game?
It's not just about games. Once the Blu-Ray readers are more common and available for a few hundred bucks for your AV rack you'll see the push to re-buy the movies you've already bought on VHS and DVD.
"Star Wars Special BluRay Edition in 300 channel THX certified blah blah blah" (and Greedo will still shoot first in that release)
Re:I wonder (Score:2, Funny)
Re:I wonder (Score:4, Funny)
Re:I wonder (Score:4, Insightful)
Personally I'd rather they spend the time creating more "world" to explore rather than rendering hours and hours FMVs...
Re:I wonder (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:I wonder (Score:5, Informative)
Re:I wonder (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:I wonder (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:I wonder (Score:3, Interesting)
Of course, they could just make some premium version of GTA that would use something like private shoutcast stations to stream radio stations and have virtually unlimited in-game music.
Re:I wonder (Score:5, Insightful)
I think one level had around 10gb of textures uncompressed, brought down to under half a gig after heavy processing.
That said, if we'd had access to a really fast processor and GPU, none of that would have been necessary. So I don't know what people can use 50gb for, given that the system is extremely fast.
But maybe it's not as fast as I think it is.
Re:I wonder (Score:2)
BTW, Champions of Norrath was a great game. My wife and I played the hell out of it and enjoyed every minute of it.
Where I think the blu-ray technology will be great is that you'll make it possible to add all kinds of extra stuff. Just imagine if this technology was available for Champions, how many extra levels, optional side quests, character classes, weapons, etc. that you could have added to game, while not having to compress the crap out of the textures and
Re:I wonder (Score:5, Informative)
(There are a few, but you have to kind of know what you're looking for - they look surprisingly like MPEG2 decoding artifacts, despite absolutely no similarity between the algorithms.)
And thanks for the compliment ^^
The problem with extra content is that somebody has to generate it and debug it. I mean, yeah, we would have loved to add tons of new character classes and weapons and levels and quests, but the fact is that spending twice as long making the game wouldn't have generated twice the sales. Even all the different colorings on the pieces of armor - I watched our artists wandering around the office for *days* with long reams of paper, doublechecking that every single armor color matched up properly (and boy did I not envy them, although I did the same thing with the minimaps, so there you have it.)
Content, unfortunately, is surprisingly expensive to produce.
Re:I wonder (Score:3, Informative)
And let's not forget the audio.
Re:I wonder (Score:3, Interesting)
Or, maybe they'll start using some sort of caddy, much like when CDROM's first became used in PC's.
Or, they'll use some 'space-age' technology where you can't scratch the disks.
Re:I wonder (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:I wonder (Score:4, Funny)
*click*.....*click*.......*click*...
Damn...
Don't forget about the drives! (Score:4, Interesting)
I've gone through 2 PS2 drives- the units function perfectly otherwise they just rarely load discs anymore. I'm sure there's plenty of people out there that this has happened to. I want to know if we're gonna get cheap drives that break every 8 months.
I have the capacity to take care of the discs pretty well but all I can do with the drive is use it as intended.
That said, yay for new tech adoption.
Re:Don't forget about the drives! (Score:3, Funny)
Judging from the experiences of the gamers I know, the reason the PS2 is the most popular console is because EVERYBODY HAS TO BUY BLOODY THREE OF THEM!
Re:Don't forget about the drives! (Score:3, Interesting)
I recall hearing that Final Fantasy 8 killed a lot of older PS1s (probably first-gen ones), probably due the the fact that it pushed
Re:I wonder (Score:4, Funny)
Don't rent DVDs much do you?
Re:I wonder (Score:5, Informative)
My father owns a chain of stores that rent DVDs. The grandparent is absolutely correct when he says scratches are a non-issue. You'd be amazed what those things can survive. They're infinitely better than CDs as far as reliability after being scratched.
If you're having problems with rentals, get a better DVD player. The only people who come back with problems have either a first generation DVD player, or a mauled DVD.
Re: (Score:2)
What will XBOX 2 use (Score:2, Interesting)
Now all we need... (Score:5, Funny)
with all that storage they could make the planet Irata truly shine...
Hmmm..... (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Hmmm..... (Score:3, Interesting)
I want to see... (Score:4, Funny)
Fuzzy Logic. (Score:2, Funny)
backwards compatible (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:backwards compatible (Score:3, Informative)
Re:backwards compatible (Score:2)
Re:backwards compatible (Score:3, Funny)
54GB (Score:3, Funny)
Yes, that allows a lot of bloat for computer applications. Windows anyone? Sorry.
Re:54GB (Score:2, Funny)
And even if you didn't *want* AOL, at least you could reuse the floppy.
</crotchety bastard>
Re:54GB (Score:2)
It's not just Windows. I can't even get SuSE 9.1 Personal below 2 GB. For one thing, it likes to find very weird places to hide temp files permanently (does that make sense?)
Disclaimer: SuSE is my favorite Linux distro
Re:54GB (Score:4, Funny)
Re:54GB (Score:3, Interesting)
Security by Obscurity? (Score:5, Interesting)
Nope (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Security by Obscurity? (Score:2)
Now, of couse you can head over to your local Blockbuster and possibly burn the disc yourself from their copy (if it's possible) but I have a feeling that the media costs might not justify you doing that at least for several years.
Re:Security by Obscurity? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Security by Obscurity? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Security by Obscurity? (Score:4, Interesting)
And even if piracy becomes a problem they will get an advantage in the next format war.
IMO those factors played a higher role in their decision than enabling developers to create 54 GB games.
BD-RW (Score:3, Funny)
Re:BD-RW (Score:2)
Re:BD-RW (Score:3, Interesting)
In other news... (Score:2)
Today is November 5, 2006, and in today's news, angry video store owners with pitchforks are lined up in front of Sony's front doors.
Kids will love these discs.
Purchase of MGM (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Purchase of MGM (Score:2)
Flaming Sony for Proprietary Format (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Flaming Sony for Proprietary Format (Score:5, Informative)
The following explanation is courtesy of SkunkWorks [mozcom.com]
The Sega Dreamcast GD-ROM system utilizes Oak Technology's OTI-9220 CD-ROM controller which is a single chip integration of Sony's "CXD-3005R" DSP/Servo control and Oak Technology's "OTI-912" CD-ROM decoder.
So what does this mean? Sega had their "proprietary" GD-ROM system designed to use media with 2 times the capacity of CD-ROM discs, but with off-the-shelf CD-ROM components, and may have used a technique of running the spindle motor at half the speed required for CD-ROM's in reading 2x density GD-ROM discs-- tricking the pickup into believing it's reading off data from a CD-ROM disc at "x" (CAV) spindle rpm when it is actually reading a GD-ROM disc at "y" spindle rpm (x divided by 2=y). With same data read rates as with a CD-ROM disc running at twice it's rpm, the optical head, focus servo controls, signal processors, etc etc. aren't aware it's actually reading data off from a larger capacity medium. In other words, the GD-ROM disc is nothing more than a "passively accelerated" (tightly packed) CD-ROM disc, "decelerated" to emulate a CD-ROM by running the spindle motor at half the rpm!
Re:Flaming Sony for Proprietary Format (Score:2)
Re:Flaming Sony for Proprietary Format (Score:2)
(besides, it was probably just cheaper to make the games for cd's.. )
Re:Flaming Sony for Proprietary Format (Score:2)
Re:Flaming Sony for Proprietary Format (Score:2)
Sorry.
That's not what worries me. (Score:5, Interesting)
- Sony will be soon leveraging the Playstation 3 game console to push a proprietary Bluray-based video format they will be attempting to introduce at about the same time.
- Sony will be at about the same time attempting to leverage their upcoming PSP handheld game system to push another proprietary video format, this one based on Minidiscs, called UMD.
Something within this I'm not so comfortable with. We're about to get a bona fide Betamax vs VHS style format war between HD-DVD and BluRay. I don't think it's going to be pretty. I'm glad I don't have plans to buy an HDTV.Nothing to worry about (Score:4, Insightful)
Sony's like the Brain from Pinky and the Brain:
"What are we going to do tonight Sony?"
"The same thing we do every night, Pinky. Try to take over the home electronics business with a proprietary media format!"
Re:Flaming Sony for Proprietary Format (Score:2)
NEC PC Engine (the later version with the cd drive, of course - the one with the awesome Castlevania game - Akumajuo Dracula X - Chi no Rondo)
Sega 32x was also standard CD-ROM, right? Sega Satuen? And what about Phillips CD-i? (if that even counts)
Blu-Ray Winning (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't know many people who will rush-out to buy a new DVD player to play HD movies, but EVERYONE is going to buy a PS3.
With that installed base, it will be fairly easy to translate into the market for movies being sold in that format.
Re:Blu-Ray Winning (Score:3, Insightful)
But I also think it's too early for any new movie media standard. Sure, I'm an outlier, as demonstrated by what I just said about the PS3, but I just started getting some movies on DVD, and I imagine a good segment of the public only really got into DVD buying within the last few years. Even assuming 4-5 years before a new format is really ava
Re:Blu-Ray Winning (Score:3, Informative)
So with that knowledge, comes this:
Lots of the poorer people in America don't even have a DVD player YET!
Quite a few movies are either no longer released on VHS, or the public release date for the VHS is a month or more later than the release date for the DVD.
I can order movies on VHS from my distributor, but they are insanely expensive.
Take the wretched "Bad Boys 2" for example. From my distributor, the DVD
Re:Blu-Ray Winning (Score:2, Insightful)
sony already tried to establish MD (mini-disk) technology few years ago, which was a brilliant sollution for the time. Although, MD's were eaten by cheaper CD-R/RW's
so its way to early to predict something - i guess the most affordable and widespread technology will win
Bluray has a 50GB capacity (Score:3, Insightful)
http://ps2.ign.com/articles/549/549950p1.html [ign.com]
Re:Bluray has a 50GB capacity (Score:2)
finally a followup to The Dukes of Hazzard (Score:2, Interesting)
if this is the case then I doubt ps3 in 05 (Score:5, Insightful)
anti-piracy (Score:4, Funny)
It will be impossible for people to burn those other formats.
Chris
Re:anti-piracy (Score:2)
Re:anti-piracy (Score:2)
Oh, my 96 CD wallet of Dreamcast *coughbackups* is about full. Someone help me buy another one.
It was a joke. (Score:2)
A friend of mine has a lot of "backups" for his DC.
Chris
Re:anti-piracy (Score:2)
MGM comes into the picture.. (Score:5, Insightful)
Big Deal (Score:3, Interesting)
Finally! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Finally! (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Finally! (Score:2)
Re:Finally! (Score:3, Funny)
Actually, what I'd really like is for them to take that extra space and use it to include the original japanese voice acting. I cannot stress enough how much this would improve the game. Simply put, American voice actors are, with very few exceptions, terrible. As in, like a thousand needles in my spine. Restoring the original, non-awful voice acting would be the best use of additional space.
Re:Finally! (Score:4, Insightful)
backing up will still take 50 disks (Score:5, Interesting)
In the days of 40GB hard disks, it took 50 800MB CD-Rs.
With 250GB systems, it takes about 50 4.7GB DVD-Rs.
By the time 50-200GB burners are available for under $200 in 7-8 years, I'll probably be using 2.5-10TB systems at home, and the ratio will still be 50.
I don't know about you, but 50 disk-swaps is several too many. Even with incremental or differential backups, it's a pain in the ***.
Your disks-per-complete-backup ratio may not be 50 but it's probably fairly stable over time.
um... (Score:2, Insightful)
You actually back up your entire harddrive on 50 CDs/DVDS? Sorry, but that's just anal.
Re:backing up will still take 50 disks (Score:2)
Sony to announce 8 layer 200 GB Blu-ray (Score:3, Informative)
BD-RAM? (Score:2)
Damien
Sony Adopts Blu-ray Disc PlayStation 3... (Score:2)
Re:Sony Adopts Blu-ray Disc PlayStation 3... (Score:2)
It's all about the load times... (Score:2)
The ps2 was absurd when it came to that and those games about a gig or so. I couldn't imagine waiting 5 minutes between levels.
PS3 Hard Disk Speculation (Score:3, Interesting)
What does this all mean? It means that the PS3 is even less likely to come out with a HD and by extension, the same can be said for Xbox 2 since it will likely use a disks of similar capacity (to keep up in the spec war). I'd expect to see memory cards for both boxes come in 128MB and 256MB flavors.
Re:PS3 Hard Disk Speculation (Score:3, Funny)
Maybe Sony should direct efforts elsewhere? (Score:3, Informative)
Put this in the context of a hard drive: Pricewatch says we can get a 400GB HD for a little over $1/GB right now (lower capacity hard drives offer faster rotation speed at less than $1/GB prices). Putting aside the price, these HDs currently deliver 4X the space of what Sony may deliver in 2007, and the hard drive will offer no proprietary hassles. I'm guessing that any HD will be faster to find what I want to read and faster to get the data to me than the upcoming Sony device.
Perhaps their upcoming drive would be interesting if the specs for it and the compatible blank media were distributed to any competitors, thus letting the market turn this into the new low-end optical drive+media. But since Sony is probably not going to do that, I doubt the market will change to this new format.
I recall a Sony CD-R replacement that offered slightly more space than a conventional CD-R, but only if you used their proprietary encoding scheme. The drive cost more than a conventional CD-R burner and the blank media would cost more than conventional CD-Rs as well. The press release came out and I knew nobody who was excited about it. It was obviously a bad exchange: initial hardware outlay would cost too much money, there was virtually no interoperability with one's friends, and any subsequent maintenance would cost too much (CD-R burners are about $20 and DVD burners are about $30 right now, by my skimming of Pricewatch).
Re:Blue Ray? What about Z Ray? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Blue Ray? What about Z Ray? (Score:2)
Had I said something about Microsoft or SCO being evil or the benefits of open source then I would not have been labeled as Offtopic (damn mods).
Though I have to admit, the one poster above who gave the values for X and Z compared to Blue certainly put things into perspective.
Re:recordable bd-rom for pc? (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Xbox 2 and PS3...... (Score:2)
Re:As space available goes up (Score:2, Funny)
The individual sprites were very, very small... A c64 game wouldn't keep each individual background as a single file, it was building these from indexed sprites, most likely 2-4 bits of color (not sure of the specifics)
Point being, you have a bunch of 256 byte sprites that are repeadedly being drawin on the screen... The instructions to "draw this sprite again" are quite a bit smaller...
oh, hell... you were being funny weren't you? (*smacks self on head*
Re:As space available goes up (Score:2)