With the Consumer Electronics Show in full-swing, one thing has become crystal clear: the electronics industry is hell-bent on making consumers look like complete tools by the end of the year. By “tool” I mean, “Who is that dork sitting on the sofa wearing the nerdy 3D glasses?”
3D TVs are all the rage. Every major television manufacturer, and a few minor ones, are jumping on the bandwagon without hesitation. ESPN and DirecTV have both announced imminent, full-time 3D channels. Sony has finalized their specifications for 3D Blu-Ray and the industry will have the home version of Avatar to use as consumer-bait.
But…we’re still going to look like complete tools with our 3D glasses.
Is this really what the consumers wants? Probably not. I think it is safe to say we want 3D without the frickin’ glasses. It’s not just the aesthetic-hit your once macho appearance will take, but the real, cold hard facts of reality that will take its toll. WTF am I talking about?
I’m talking about your dog munching on your beloved pair of 3D glasses while you are at work. I am talking about your rug-rat kids bending, throwing, playing and breaking your 3D glasses. I am talking about your 3D glasses disappearing under the sofa or between the cushions. I am talking about your big, fast ass sitting down hard on that pair of 3D glasses.
3D glasses only work in theory and the safety of an IMAX theater. All other locations will spell constant hassle and small-scale disasters.
Hence, this brave new world they want us so desperately to enter will only work sans glasses.
Beyond the hurdles of every-day life we have the tech itself. Everything on display at CES is first-generation technology without a unified standard. Early-adopters will undoubtedly be screwed by the time the second generation is greatly improved and enhanced. The 3D TV you buy today could be tomorrow’s HD-DVD.
So wait. Be patient. What is available now will be considered garbage by CES 2011, a date that will hopefully see a whole new generation of 3D that can be attained without glasses and the punishing hit to your fashion sense.
Damn it, Sony’s done it again – releasing the coolest stuff only to it’s Japanese customers at home. Yesterday they announced two new products that should turn hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of gamers green with envy. The first is a Japan-exclusive Michael Jackson-themed PS3 bundle. People hoping to cash in on the passing of the King of Pop are releasing the “movie” ‘This is It’ on Blu-ray and Sony has decided to moonwalk along with them to the money. The Playstation 3 Slim bundle costs ¥33,500 and includes a 120 GB hard drive, one controller, and the Blu-ray of MJ’s salvaged concert rehearsal footage.
Why only Japan, Sony? Don’t you know we love Captain Eo over here too?
The second slap comes with the announcement that Japan is getting a “Spring Blossom Pink” PSP 3000. Sure, three years ago there was a co-branded P!nk (as in the slutty popstar) PSP bundle and the more recent release of a “Lilac” PSP with a Hannah Montana game, but we need more options for accessorizing our gaming systems with our outfits. Unfortunately, for now it looks like only Japanese gaming fashion-istas can pick up the Spring Blossom Pink handheld for ¥16,800 ($183).
It’s like a scene out of West Side Story, with two groups of fanboys spitting into gangs and ready to rumble in a back-alley somewhere. I speak of the impending battle between PS3 owners and Xbox 360 loyalists in light of the impending release of Final Fantasy XIII. The issue? Which platform will the game look better on?
Answer: PS3.
There isn’t even an argument.
Here’s the facts:
According to Square-Enix, the PS3 version of Final Fantasy XIII will ship on a single Blu-Ray disc, containing uncompressed video and music for maximum quality. The Xbox 360 will ship on multiple discs and audio and video will be compressed. Why is this happening? Simple: it’s Blu Ray versus DVD. Blu holds up to 50GBs on a single disc whereas the Xbox 360 can only hold 9GBs.
So, yes, the PS3 will look better. Will you be able to notice? Probably not. But that isn’t the point in a fanboy war.
Update: Those are the facts when it comes to the old format wars and the benefits of Blu-Ray over DVD (and the now dead HD-DVD) and it will certainly give PS3 owners a clear advantage when it comes to the audio and pre-rendered video of cutscenes. However, it is still unknown whether or not Square Enix decided to use some of that extra room for the code needed to handle the compensations in the software developers need to write to overcome the anti-aliasing deficiencies in the PS3’s GPU. The hardware native to the Xbox 360 which allows it to smooth the geometry of curves, circles, arches, and certain diagonals in 3D games being rendered in real-time wasn’t included in the PS3’s internal architecture and was glaringly obvious in the system’s early games. Many recent games compensate for this by asking the PS3 to overcome this through extra routines they write into their software – often at the significant cost of some of the main processor’s clock cycles which can subsequently mean lower framerates. So was that a trade off Square Enix was willing to make? Were they clever enough to make it so you still won’t even notice? We don’t know yet, but it is a battle that will have to be won by more than capacity alone. It will probably be determined by how smart they were in working around the different limitations unique to each platform – no matter which one you personally are rooting for. – Christiaan Allebest
Battlestar Galactica: The Plan releases this week, which should make fans going through withdrawal quite happy. The Plan, directed James Olmos, attempts to fill in fill in gaps as it relates to the Cylons, specifically the story of Kavil. Unfortunately, The Plan is not a strong movie, lacking a central narrative thread. It plays out like a retrospective of key Battlestar events, doesn’t really shed light on anything, is disjointed and without purpose. Not a great review, sorry to say. On the upside, the special-effects have never been better, easily the best technical work of the series.
Battlestar Galactica: The Plan is available on DVD and Blu-Ray.
Monty Python: Almost The Truth is the best documentary ever created about the British comedy group Monty Python. Stretching six glorious hours, every member is interviewed, memories are recalled and tons of things you never new are revealed. This documentary, made by the son of Terry Jones, goes in-depth on how the group formed, what their lives were like prior to Monty Python, their inspirations, battles with the BBC, how George Harrison of the Beatles financed The Holy Grail because he wanted to see the movie, and on and on and on. No Monty Python fan should be without this great documentary in their library.
The Blu-Ray format is having a rough time finding market share, evidenced by the latest data from Harris Interactive. I don’t think anyone would have predicted that more people would own an HD-DVD player than Blu-Ray, considering the HD-DVD format died over a year ago.
When Blu-ray player or PS3 owners are asked specifically about standard versus Blu-ray format purchases, the results suggest a mixed bag of behaviors with some price sensitivity indicated:
Only one quarter plan to switch to Blu-ray completely (25%), while one third of Blu-ray or PS3 owners claim that most of their movie purchases are now on Blu-ray format (32%);
Two in five are waiting for Blu-ray format prices to come down before they buy more (43%) – and a quarter buy Blu-ray regardless of price (25%); and,
Only 1 in 5 appear to be replacing or duplicating their existing standard format DVD library with Blu-ray format (21%), and over a third say they only buy movies on Blu-ray format that they currently do not own on standard definition (37%).
(Ratings Average: 3.50 out of 5)
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