Are new standalones killing PS3 profits?

[prerich]

Here's a question to think about and I would like to know your views. At one time the PS3 was considered the benchmark in BD playback Now we have test that show that standalones have caught and exceeded the PS3 in several areas. The LG BH-300 is now the fastest loader, the Sony BDP-S350 basically defeated the PS3 in a series of video performance test conducted by HT magazine - it was also bested on the most part by the LG-BH200. The same test conducted in the same issue of HT also shows the Panny 35 and 55 scoring higher than the PS3 in video performance.

Heres the question - Standalones have definately caught up with the PS3 and some defeat it in price point, some in performance, and some in both (however the PS3 is a swiss army knife console - it does more things for the money but does everyone want those things). Is the advancement of standalones hurting the sales of the PS3 and pushing it back into the gaming console only market? With so many quality standalones to choose from, I personally can see people buying standalones. Ok everyone chime in with your perdictions, opinions, facts ect....But lets keep it clean!!!!

[Dodge Blu]

As time moves on things get better. I only look at the PS3 as a gaming machine. Due to having an xbox, I felt there was no need for a PS3 and went for an upto date standalone blu ray player.

[GundamWingEW]

That's a great question and I think the answer is truly yes. I work retail and it's harder to sell ps3s since people now bring up standalones all the time. Especially if they don't care about gaming I send them over to home theater department to look into the various models.

Even if they're into gaming they still debate whether to get a ps3 vs another console since the cheapeast ps3 is $400 and that one doesn't come with any games or w/e like the Wii or the 360 does. And if one were to get a 360 pro ($299) and a standalone that was around $200 then they'd be in the same ballpark as the $500 model ps3.

Anyways the ps3 was the peak for a while but it's obviously not the ultimate best player out there. And with CES 2009 coming up I fully expect all the companies to announce players that will be extremely better than the ps3.

Speaking of CES does this website have any info regarding that? Are there any insiders who know what's being worked on? I'm curious as to what companies are gonna be there in terms of Bluray.

[andyman1970]

If I had known standalone BD players were going to surpass the PS3 and offer a lower price point then I would have waited another 9 months. As for all the features the PS3 offers the built if WiFi is the only one that is useful to me so I can easily access the firmware updates. I have no use for linking to my computer and streaming my music and video files and surfing the internet or a built in HDD. All the other things the PS3 can do just doesn't impress me. In fact I'm kind of disappointed in it since it doesn't bitstream audio through HDMI or internally decode 7.1 DTS. I would say the PS3 is now becoming a gamers only unit.

[Marine Mike]

I think you make some very valid points as Stand-Alones are getting up to speed if not exceeding the PS3 with price and performance.

Though I think that it should be accentuated that the PS3 is the 'Swiss Army Knife', as you mentioned in your post, as it truly is capable of a lot more things that many Stand-Alones.

One key thing to look at with the price difference is not only performance, but what you get for your money. The PS3 is basically a media center of its own compared for those Stand-Alones.

[GundamWingEW]

Originally Posted by andyman1970

If I had known standalone BD players were going to surpass the PS3 and offer a lower price point then I would have waited another 9 months. As for all the features the PS3 offers the built if WiFi is the only one that is useful to me so I can easily access the firmware updates. I have no use for linking to my computer and streaming my music and video files and surfing the internet or a built in HDD. All the other things the PS3 can do just doesn't impress me. In fact I'm kind of disappointed in it since it doesn't bitstream audio through HDMI or internally decode 7.1 DTS. I would say the PS3 is now becoming a gamers only unit.

The built in wifi is a really good feature in my opinion and truly makes it a great system for both gaming and Bluray what with the updates and stuff.

I hate how big it is though. The thing just looks too massive to me.

[prerich]

Originally Posted by Marine Mike

I think you make some very valid points as Stand-Alones are getting up to speed if not exceeding the PS3 with price and performance.

Though I think that it should be accentuated that the PS3 is the 'Swiss Army Knife', as you mentioned in your post, as it truly is capable of a lot more things that many Stand-Alones.

One key thing to look at with the price difference is not only performance, but what you get for your money. The PS3 is basically a media center of its own compared for those Stand-Alones.

Here's another question to throw out there, should the PS3 include a linux install to sweeten the pot and gain a new fanbase - since its basically a media center?

[becomingwater]

Originally Posted by prerich

Here's a question to think about and I would like to know your views. At one time the PS3 was considered the benchmark in BD playback Now we have test that show that standalones have caught and exceeded the PS3 in several areas. The LG BH-300 is now the fastest loader, the Sony BDP-S350 basically defeated the PS3 in a series of video performance test conducted by HT magazine - it was also bested on the most part by the LG-BH200. The same test conducted in the same issue of HT also shows the Panny 35 and 55 scoring higher than the PS3 in video performance.

Heres the question - Standalones have definately caught up with the PS3 and some defeat it in price point, some in performance, and some in both (however the PS3 is a swiss army knife console - it does more things for the money but does everyone want those things). Is the advancement of standalones hurting the sales of the PS3 and pushing it back into the gaming console only market? With so many quality standalones to choose from, I personally can see people buying standalones. Ok everyone chime in with your perdictions, opinions, facts ect....But lets keep it clean!!!!

I really do not see this a problem at all. I still think the PS3 is still the BD player to get if you ever think about what package you get as a whole. You get a movie service and game service through PSN. Yes it plays games. You can stream video from your computer. With stand alone player all you can do is play BD, which is what it's for. I predict Sony is not worried. Better games will be developed in 2009 and more features added to the PS3 firmware. Even more so I see people getting both. I know of a few friends getting a standalone for the bedroom and the PS3 for the living room.

Note: The PQ on my 46 bravia is amazing with the PS3. On my friends with his stand alone Denon 3800 is the same

[becomingwater]

Originally Posted by prerich

Here's another question to throw out there, should the PS3 include a linux install to sweeten the pot and gain a new fanbase - since its basically a media center?

You can easily install Linux already.

[prerich]

Originally Posted by becomingwater

Even more so I see people getting both. I know of a few friends getting a standalone for the bedroom and the PS3 for the living room.

Very solid comment (however, if it were me - the standalone would go in the livinig room/theater room and the PS3 would go in the bedroom )

[prerich]

Originally Posted by becomingwater

You can easily install Linux already.

That's 10-4, I know that - but I'm talking about it coming pre-installed

[Marine Mike]

Originally Posted by prerich

Here's another question to throw out there, should the PS3 include a linux install to sweeten the pot and gain a new fanbase - since its basically a media center?

Its funny you mention this as one of the first things that I did when I got my PS3 was install Linux Yellow Dog. I actually did get it to work as well as get it to use the wireless card. Keep in mind that it was my first time ever using any type of Linux. I think that it had to of been one of the most frustrating as well as learning experiences I've ever had.

I would answer 'yes' if it was a working version of Linux. If it was the version of Linux that I got with the numerous bugs with it, then I would have to say 'no' as it really was too much work than it was worth to get working. After I climbed to the top of that mountain of bugs I eventually deleted it as I didn't really care for it.

I think for the average user, which never has experienced Linux before, the learning curve like it was for me would be too high and not enough people would be able to fully utilize or recognize its capabilities.

[jdmac29]

I agree with the 1st post, the standalones are better blu ray players now than the ps3, they cost less and have a few more features( analog outs, bitstream etc) Unfortunately the ps3 was marketed heavily as a blu ray player in the beginning to help with the format war and they did not have any killer games like they did with the ps2 was introduced. Now they have to compete with the xbox 360 which has the same graphics/sound as most of the ps3 games and they are cheaper consoles and the entertainment machine that the WII is. I am a Sony fan but I stayed away from the ps3 due to price from the beginning and I waited for the S350 as my blu ray player for only $150. Now from what I can see Sony has along way to go to make the ps3 into a viable game machine considering the competition. They won the format war but might lose the gaming machine war.

[CptGreedle]

I think that stand alone systems HAVE to start to outperform the PS3 sooner rather than later.
This is good news. The PS3 will continue to sell since it does so much so well. It is also an excellent gaming system, arguably the best. (And by that, I don't want to argue about it).

It is still outselling all the stand alone systems, and so I am not worried, but if the stand alone systems do not start to make strides against the PS3 now, they will take too long to catch up and hurt Blu-ray overall.

More importantly, once these stand alone systems outperform the PS3 and at a lower price, we can FINALLY see a PS3 price drop! One of the MAIN reasons the PS3 has not had a price drop in a while was due to the Blu-ray competition. They need the other manufacturers to catch up to the PS3 or they will be unable to compete against it. Taking a hit like this is not good for the gaming aspect of the PS3, but Sony makes up for it with Blu-ray sales. I hope PS3 prices drop soon, to keep the competition alive with BD players, and also with consoles. The price drop is overdue for the gaming aspect, and about to strike for the BD side of it, so I think we will see the price drop sooner rather than later.

[stargazeruk]

When I brought the PS3 it was the best and cheapest blu-ray player out there at the time. Remember the PS3 has been out for quite a while now, Had constant firmware updates and compatable with every profile so far.

Standalones were not the best at the time of me getting the PS3. They had crap load times, issues disks and profile issues and cost way to much (over the £1000 mark but the format war brought those prices down quickly).

I chose the PS3 for a few reasons. I stream media files to it from a NAS box I got a couple of games on PS3 I wanted and it was a blu-ray player so it was an all in one.

But unlike me not everyone wants a gaming machine for a blu-ray player despite at the time this was the best player out there. My parents did not want a PS3 nor did other people I know.

It was only a matter of time before manufuctures would lower the price point and start producing better players. Manufuctures had most certainly lost out to the PS3 so far.

Manufuctures for blu-ray players now have had plenty of time to improve there products and offer better load times, better picture and sound and sort out compatability issues. Remember they want blu-ray to succed and replace DVD so they need to capture the mass market. I also thing they need to work harder to elimate the need for constant firmware updates since most people would not know how or what to do and more and likely some won't have an internet connection at home (I know some people who still don't have the internet).

So far almost everyone had recommend a PS3 as the best blu-ray player to get or wait but I am glad now that things are starting to change for the better. As far as I am concerned from my point of view it was needed to force standalone manufuctures to improve there products for the end user to adopt.

At the end of the day the US PS3 users have enjoyed a good PQ from the start and at low price compaired to what was out there. It was expected the PS3 would be beaten in quality and price. Either way the PS3 is still very good so enjoy what you have.

[Blu Titan]

From a Blu-ray movie perspective, it is great to see standalones overtake the PS3 as a preferred medium for Blu-ray playback. Don't get me wrong I own a 60GB PS3 and it has always been my primary Blu-ray player. However, the key to mass adoption for the format lies in the sucess of the standalone players. Sony just has to bring more exclusive games to the forefront, more rpgs, ect.

[SHines-IT]

I personally like standalone, why I bought the Sony BDP-S350. I will still buy a PS3 later, but would rather have a standalone for Blu Ray.

[crackinhedz]

the Sony BDP-S350 basically defeated the PS3 in a series of video performance test conducted by HT magazine

...I see no quality difference between my Sony S350 and PS3's.

In the end I like my PS3 much better. (emphasis on the much)



not for nothing...but why do people get so involved when trying to find ways to topple the all mighty PS3? there will always be newer and better...the PS3 has been out for years now...does it really matter anymore?

It's gettin' old.

[Blove23]

I feel you on the PS3, but it has changed so many times. I had to work my way up to the last gen of backwards compatible PS3's. It seems to be a waste to get a PS3 without all the perks. The 80 gig PS3 isn't the same as the PS3 6 months ago. Knowing that I would by a standalone blu-ray.

[Bluray_ne1]

Lots of good points here. Being a Playstation owner from the first series, it was easier for me to justify upgrading to the PS3 when I did (Dec '06) with the added bonus of the Blu-Ray player. I would have had a hard time convincing my wife (or myself for that matter) to plunk down $500 for a stand alone player, particularly with the format war still raging.

If Blu-Ray had gone the way of the Dodo Bird instead of HD-DVD, I still would have an awesome gaming platform, SACD player, music/video jukebox and upscaling DVD player that was easily updateable and dependable.

The stand alone players should catch up and surpass the PS3. It is an inevitable and needed transition for the continued success of the format. I think it's great that it is happening as quickly as it has. Early in the year, no one was predicting sub-$200 players. The PS3 served it's purpose well. It and Warner switching to Blu-Ray exclusivity are the biggest factors in Blu-Ray coming out on top, in my opinion. Now it's starting to pass the batton.