I had sat on the sidelines of the next gen video games up until a couple of weeks ago. I had tried Wii almost as soon as it came out and was captivated by the motion sensors but the limited availability and sameness to the games as well as limited graphics was frustrating.

Xbox 360 the $50 a year subscription and more importantly it lost the Blu-ray/HD battle were big no points for me. I enjoy games, my wife does not. She does enjoy movies and the internet. When I pointed out that PS3 was a Blu-ray player (with excellent reviews) and could let us surf the internet, she was all for it.

I have an ‘old’ HDTV (3 years old). It has a maximum resolution of 1080i and a DVI input but no HDMI. I did some research before buying this so I bought an HDMI to DVI cable at the same time. I was worried about hooking it up and getting it to look right and also getting sound. I should not have been. It took literally a few minutes. Plugged the HDMI end into the PS3 and the DVI end into the HDTV. Received a picture (great picture) right away. It detected that 1080i was the highest resolution and I choose that.

Sound I simply choose the option to put sound out correctly and received gorgeous sound. I only use the speakers that came with the HDTV but it sounds fantastic on Blu-Ray. I can only imagine what people with surround sound systems will get.

The Blu-Ray discs are stunning. Even with ‘just’ 1080i. Truly beautiful. And it also up-converts very well. My favorite movies are the LOTR expanded editions. I have seen LOTR on TNT HD broadcasts. With the PS3 they look almost as good perhaps even better than the HD broadcasts. Also one of the coolest things and I have no idea if this for all Blu-Rays are just PS3 is that it remembers where you were on discs (Blu-ray and DVD discs)even if the disc was last played 8 discs ago. So say for instance you a third of the way through Fellowship. You then put a few game discs in, some other movie discs, then go back to Fellowship. It actually remembers where you left off that disc. Love it.

The internet browsing has been very cool. At first it was ok but it did not fill up the screen and the lettering was too small. But then I discovered zoom in and zoom out. And now it is really fun to browse. As an aside when I started browsing if someone was on our lap-top we would get a connection conflict and would not be able to surf on the lap-top. I called Linksys and they were able to change a bunch of settings on the router and it works just fine now, no problems on using both at the same time.

As for games I have Assassin’s Creed and Oblivion now. Both look amazing. I have also downloaded demos for Mirror’s Edge (stunning) and Motorstorm (fun and also amazing graphics). Even as a gamer truly I only really have time for a half dozen games every year or two or even three. A lot of these games last a long time. So in reality the 360s edge on variety is for all intents moot. I am planning to get Little Big Planet and maybe the new Spidey game when it comes down in price. That will more than hold me over to God of War and which ever other few games I will get in 2009. Having a handful of great games, to me, is more important than 50 titles coming out a year.

Bottomline is if you have an HDTV (particularly if you have a home theater set up) and no Blu-ray and enjoy gaming the PS3 is truly awesome. You get a great Blu-ray player, an 80gig hard drive, incredible gaming capabilities (just downloading the demos would be cool), internet browsing and video watching on your TV. You can also download the LIFE utility that has an incredibly cool visual globe where you can get live weather and news headlines around the world. And you can help cure diseases by linking to a Stanford project that looks at how proteins work and fold. If you allow it your processor can be added to the processing power being used for the Stanford project (when you are not gamin and such).

Sony has succeeded in making a truly great heart of your home media experience. This is so much more than Wii it isn’t even close. And with Blu-ray and free Sony playstation network, it really is a much better value than any of the 360 choices you have. Right now heading into the 2008 holiday season, PS3 stands alone as clearly the best system and the best value. Not only for gamers but for the entire family.

Necessary disclosure: I do not own this model. I have what used to be a 60GB model, recently upgraded to 320GB – the gold standard.

As compared to the 60GB model:
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+ less expensive (I paid $599 for my 60GB PS3)
+ 33% more storage
+ needs less power
+ dual shock controller (rumble)
- no memory card interfaces
- 2 USB ports vs. 4 USB ports on the 60GB
- no PS2 compatibility
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This model comes with an 80GB drive. This is nice because, most would agree, 80GB is more than 60GB. If you feel that the extra 20GB is a big deal, maybe you should think again. I upgraded my 60GB to 320GB because I was about to run out of space, with only 10GB or so left. One month or so later, I’m using more than 80GB already – just downloaded the Ratchet and Clank minigame from PSN and it alone needs about 3GB. My advice is to buy this model and upgrade it yourself. It’s (relatively) easy and you can find a lot of advice if you Google for it.

If you are on the upgrade path, $80 would buy you a 320GB drive. I used the Western Digital WD3200BEVT 320 GB Scorpio Sata 5400 Rpm 8MB 2.5 inch myself but that was back in June/July and I paid about $150 then; you could get much larger drives for less now. 500GB drives are available for less than $100 and you should try to get one of those if you are planning to store lots of videos. One that I tested would be the Western Digital 500GB Scorpio Blue SATAII 5400RPM 2.5IN 8MB Bulk/OEM Hard Drive WD5000BEVT which replaced my laptop’s 60GB little drive and I helped a friend upgrade his own PS3 with. The nice thing about upgrading your disk is that you are also going to be left with a perfectly good 80GB or $160GB drive which you can place into a cheap enclosure, and the StarTech AT2510U2 InfoSafe 2.5-Inch USB/SATA Hard Drive Enclosure worked for me. I am using the free leftover drive as a backup device for family photos.

Upgrading the disk is (relatively) easy and you can find a lot of advice on the Net. Search for “PlayStation 3 Hard Drive Upgrade (HOWTO)” for videos that should help you decide if you are comfortable with upgrading. If upgrading is the first thing you do (before installing games or uploading personal files), everything becomes very easy because you need not worry about backups or restores. I upgraded my box in a couple of hours WITH the backup/restore steps.

The lack of memory card interfaces is annoying but you can get around it. Copy your stuff to a USB drive or flash drive and… problem solved. You can then upload your things through the USB. It’s somewhat inconvenient but it’s no big deal.

My old (10 months) 60GB model has 4 USB slots and I am using all of them. One for the PS3 Eye (camera), a second has a wireless keyboard dongle, the third is where the racing wheel plugs in and the last one I use to charge controllers. Can you live with 2 slots? I suppose you can but there’s going to be some plugging/unplugging if you begin adding peripherals. I suppose you could get one of those USB ports multiplexers. They’re ugly but… it’s doable.

PS2 compatibility… can’t get it. Sorry. I don’t play PS2 games but my kids do. In fact, they just bought some Sonic game a couple of days ago. I was surprised but… de gustibus. They’re also playing Kingdom Hearts and Destroy All Humans.

This model comes with a couple of improvements over the gold standard. It burns less electricity, which is a good thing for the rain forests, keeping them cool and maybe you save a few dollars on your electric bill. And, of course you get the advanced controller.

Briefly:
- If you are planning to upgrade, the 80GB model is the way to go because it is selling for $100 less than the larger disk version and you can use the savings to pay for your disk upgrade
- Get yourself a USB port multiplexer if you need more than 2 ports
- Transfer your photos to flash drives to get around the missing memory card interfaces
- Or or, even better, to address both the USB and the memory card issues, get the Playstation 3 Media Hub+ for 2 extra USB ports AND a card reader
- Keep your PS2 if you have one and still wish to play PS2 games in the future.
- Enjoy your new PS3.