The day of the superbowl I sat down while one of them demoed the on-line capabilities. I've always been a PC guy but the HD graphics blew me away. Anyone else seen this stuff? It's impressive...
So yeah, I have a life, bust my tail working and when I'm not doing baseball, cubscouts, brownies, gynastics or rennovating another room, I screw around on the computer. : )
Today I finished installing a wood floor in my sons room and stained his new wooden doors and baseboard. Tomorrow I hang the door and install the BB. Ever try to type after doing something like that? Ouch...
Heck, I can't move after all that anyways...
Please share your thoughts on the console wars.
We wanted the Wii, but had a hard time getting one around Christmas. We settled on the 360 with no regrets. I have to pry the controllers from the kids to make them go outside. Eventually, I'd like to pick up a Wii for the kids. As for the PS3, the kids don't seem to have any interest - which is good, considering the price tag.
I am late to this, got linked at:
http://www.informationarbitrage.com/2007/02/from_inside_ea_.html
I chose 360, and Samsung 50 inch HD DLP. Total $1500.
Why did I do that?
I really love this stuff.
Price,picture quality,Games, graphics, online play. And Football.
Patriots, for the win. Errr, almost.
The Wii is last generation, graphically.
Online, there is no comparison to the Xbox setup.
PS3 has no killer game. Plus a bit of a higher price.
So that was an easy choice, actually
TV's, so many darn TV's...
Price, size,replaceable bulb, picture quality, inputs,
no burn in, no lag, and that the heart
of the DLP is Texas instruments gadget were factors.
Texas is alright with me. You know?
My decision, after looking and studying a lot,it is a complicated mess, but my decision was finalised
after I learned that Samsung worked closely with Microsoft on thier 2006 line of DLP TV's to make it just work. It does. There had been a lag, or delay issue on previous models.
I wanted VGA input for my PC ,HDMI inputs, USB/flash drive input, plus the other standards. Got that.
But I do wish I got the 60 incher.
If in doubt, opt for the bigger one.
Together they are beautiful. There is no "rainbow" effect, no Lag, it is just gorgeous.
Absolutely Go look at them in the stores. Radio Shack actually has a nice setup for that in my area, and they left me alone with the clickers and a comfy chair. I put in hours just watching. Even brought my own DVD's.
The DLP I got was a reconditioned,from Tiger. 2006 model, got it with a strong all inclusive 27 month warranty (90 days, plus 2 year extended),for 1100 bux,delivered to my door. I used Froogle,the phone,just said no until I liked the number. I have had no issues with it. Tiger was excellent.
The thing is, they all are a lot of money. I would never ever have thought of spending a grand on a TV, but
today, that is a cheapseat.
Extended warranties are advised on these, generally considered the exception to the rule there.
Plasma's are very pretty,but they are expensive, have a limited lifespan, and burn in issues.
LCD's also have the cool thin look, but fisher-price bright colors, that to me was cartoonish. Bad set-ups are possible there.
There is a shinyness, glare off of the Plasma I do not like, but I really did not see any weakness in the picture. There is a plasma advantage on Black. Blacks can look
a bit grey, and dark scenes can lose definition, so try and have a source you are familiar with to look for that.
DLP's suffer when viewed from a steep angle. So, depending on how your setup will be, you should consider that.
The fancy,very cool wall mount is a great,stylish look, but it is costly and difficult to pull off. Just the wall mount gadget is hundreds of dollars.
Dont overlook a way to hide all the wiring that will go to the thing, from the various gadgets. I have the PC,the 360, an Xbox,PS2, DVD recorder, VCR,Upscaling DVD player,surround system all going in and out of there.
This gaggle of wire takes some time and patience to make neat, and hide. Velcro is your friend there, nice loops. Twist ties are good too.
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1080P? 1080I? Based on the large price gap, and my inability to see a difference between 1080I and 1080P, and that the content is virtually all @ 720P, I skipped the expense and chose the 1080I set.
Maybe next time.
*
As far as High def movies? I picked up one of the $200 HD players for the 360. Four of us sat and watched Kong on the HD, vs Batman Begins on standard DVD, my upscaling DVD player, and through my old Xbox, that is modified with Xbox Media center (XBMC). Clicking back and forth and generally trying to compare. Unscientific to say the least, but one would expect obvious differences, right?
No.
There was no consensus. There were subtle differences, detail on distant shots for example.
I ended up returning the High def player to gamespot, they were good enough to take it back.
The
I am not sure if the content is taking advantage of the tech yet, and the subtle difference between them simply was not worth the much higher cost per movie.
Maybe next year.
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Sony is suprisingly weak, given that they have sold hundreds of millions of boxes, and Billions of games. Literally.
Game development for the PS3 is stalled,delayed
for many reasons.
Developers are trending toward the 360 and Wii.
There is currently no "killer app" for the PS3.
This is finally what moves these things. Wii sports is a fabulous example. Nintendo always seems to get that right.
As far as a software battle between Microsoft and Sony?
Microsoft has,err some experience there. And
Microsoft's hardware is reportedly much easier to work with. The sony architecture is new, and everyone is stumbling with it right now. Maybe next year.
The Wii motion gadget strength will be neutralised as
similar gadgets/games inevitably appear for 360 and PS3.
Also, the 360 is poised as the killer "Set top box"
in that war.
Hope my blather has helped some.
later.
I have xbox 360 and the wii. The wii sucks for first person shooters, the 360 does it great ...especially gears of war, which while technically is not a first person, still kicks massive ace and i would put up there with Halo 1 in well-designed gameplay.
The wii is a blast for family fun goofy games. I played the darn thing for two hours the first night I had it with the included wii sports, and was sore for two days from the jumping around. And being able to download classics like Super Mario is cool.
Xbox live is just awesome. No matter if sony gets their act together on the cell processor or not for the graphics handling, Xbox live stomps ace. All aces are pwned! by MS in the online arena.
Now for resolution. I have a 1024/768 DLP projector onto a 16x9 106" screen. I had to make a Wii wireless "sensor bar" since the included one has about 6 feet of cord to the main console. Bad mistake on nintendo's part. However, with a half-ace soldering gun, a half ace understanding of electronics, and a stubborn ace attitude (and 6 bucks worth of infrared LED's), I am now operational whle playing 10-15 feet from the screen.
However, the wii will not put out anything above 480p, and you need the optional s-video connection for that (comes standard with composite). But this doesnt really matter much, because of the "cutesy" factor of the games that are a blast with the wii. The xbox will put out 1080p as of the october firmware update, but my projector will only support 720p. But not to worry, even that surpasses the graphics off my dual core media center box with the latest generation graphics card (albeit one of the cheaper latest gens) doing Half-Life 2: Lost Coast or F.E.A.R.
Sound-wise, the Wii only does Dolby Surround. Xbox does glorious 5.1 digital.
Long and short: for high def late teen / adult games, xbox 360. for kids and goofy games that WILL get you and them addicted (not to mention LOTS of exercise), the Wii is the way to go.
I would definitely recommend both.
I have the 360. It looks and sounds great on the 61" DLP.
X Box 360 needs guitar hero
If you are wanting to play games with your friends online you absolutely positively have to go with the 360 it is lightyears ahead of the PS3.
Wii is fun, but is not a serious gaming platform its more of a family set.
As far as the graphics go PS3 may eventually pass the 360 in graphical capabilites, but already some games like Oblivion have had to be downgraded for the PS3 from the 360. Graphics don't make the games and if you like shooting, racing, and sports games 360 wins by a mile.
If you do get a 360, you need to get Halo 3 when it comes out.
Blu-Ray runs Java.
The mainstream marketplace hates
Java. It's like Forth,
no monster seller
ever grew on Forth even
if Forth programmers
loved to work with it.
Java is the modern Forth --
Java programmers
are all passionate
but the slow, convoluted
language is a curse.
Go with the console
that is farthest from Java --
That would be XBox.
I have all three of the current game systems (Wii, PS3, XBox 360). I prefer the XBox 360's controller and online functions over that of the PS3. The Wii is great for social gatherings (my parents are in their late 50's, and both love Wii Sports). The only thing the PS3 has going for it, in my opinion, is the Blu-Ray capability. If you aren't interested in watching movies in that format, the 360 is your best bet.