Audio Video News

Sony shook up this week's annual gaming industry trade show, Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3), by announcing the final pricing and release date for its eagerly anticipated PlayStation3 gaming console. November 17th, 2006 is the day, and the prices are significantly higher than anticipated at $499 for a 20GB version and, gulp, $599 for a 60GB version.

As far as anyone who's serious about using the PS3 as a Blu-ray Disc player to serve up high-definition movies to their HDTV, you're in for the $600 version; the $499 PS3 astonishingly doesn't include a secure HDMI output. Not only will this prevent owners of the $499 PS3 from sending signals from BDs and DVDs to their displays in the digital domain, it also leaves users at the whim of the studios with respect to the Image Constraint Token (ICT), a security feature that allows the studios to downconvert 1920x1080 images to 960x540 (a 75% data reduction) for output via component video. I don't want to sound alarmist on this last point since no studio has yet committed to using it for either HD DVD or BD movies, and it's possible none ever will. But it's worth considering in the context of what the extra hundred bucks buys you in the 60GB PS3.

This higher than anticipated pricing is significant. The Blu-ray based PS3 has long been a key component of Sony's strategy for establishing BD as the dominant next-gen disc format. Sony claims to have sold over 100 million PlayStation2 consoles, and is hoping to sell at least as many PS3s, which would mean millions of Blu-ray Disc players in living rooms. It's believed that the PS3 angle is what convinced Warner and Paramount, two former exclusive supporters of the HD DVD format, to flop and commit to BD as well.

As late as last fall, when Spring of 2006 was still PS3's anticipated target date, Sony was on record as saying it would subsidize PS3 enough to keep its price down in the $400 price range. The lower price would not only be more attractive to gamers, but it would also represent the sole entry-level priced BD player in the market; all of the standalone BD players announced so far are priced at $1000 or higher. Toshiba's entry-level HD DVD player is only $500.

Reaction to the pricing among industry analysts was mixed, but out of the gate a good many feel that the PS3 is so hot a commodity that consumers will pay whatever it costs. Whatever the consumer reaction is, there are some other notable features of PS3 that may be of interest to UAV readers (I'll leave the gaming features to the 100s of sites versed in that arena).

According to specs that have circulated, the hard drive size and HDMI aren't the only features that the $499 PS3 foregoes. While both PS3s will support BlueTooth, Ethernet and USB, only the $599 60GB PS3 will support Wi-Fi and memory cards (Sony Memory Stick, SD, and CompactFlash).

On the AV front, Dolby Digital, DTS and Linear PCM will be supported in both consoles, but then it gets more interesting. According to the specs, both PS3s will playback not only redbook CDs, but SACDs as well. Sony has told UAV in no uncertain terms that their first generation standalone BD players will not support CD or SACD playback. We'll reconfirm with Sony on both points.