I'm not a Sony fan. The way they must always 'own' the format has resulted in number of still born formats and pointless consumer confusion that has seldom benefitted the consumer. SACD as a knee jerk reaction to DVD-A has hardly resulted in mass market appeal for instance. They're the Coke of AV as far as I'm concerned.
So, I put my foot firmly in the HD-DVD camp and bought the most complete example to date, the Toshiba HD-EP35, only for Warner to be 'bought' by Sony, thus ensuring that Blu Ray would be required, whether I liked it or not. With heavy heart, I shelled out on a 40GB PS3, miffed that the new machine didn't support SACD (Sony's own format remember) like the 60GB fore runner.
These two machines are a far more likely combination in most homes, especially those like mine less concerned with games and rather more with movies.
I must say, where properly encoded (not MPEG 2) movies are concerned, I find there to be virtually no differences in picture and sound quality between the two. I am outputting the HD sound formats as LPCM and the picture along with it via HDMI, so only a power cable is required for each box, making for a vastly tider rack.
However, hard as it is to admit, every aspect of the PS3 has been a superior ownership experience. After idiot proof setup and online registration, connected wirelessly, I had downloaded the BR1.1 enabling v2.0 software and was up and running in under 30 minutes. All in a beautifully built, if conspicuous package that actually has a start up time that a kettle couldn't boil in.
By comparison, the Tosh resolutely refused to connect to the internet even once I'd found a long enough ethernet cable and I had to resort to ringing Toshiba for a disk by post. This was all to cure unexplained 'lock ups', lipsync and any other number of niggles in what was billed as, the most complete player to date. To cap it all, it's made from that plastic you get inside biscuit tins.
I like the Sony's 'Apple-esque' approach to ease of use and simplicity of operation that even an adult can understand. I can forgive Sony the 1.0 start, because frankly HD-DVD didn't get there much quicker in an equally affordable and complete package. It's also interesting, because I run Macs and not PCs, for exactly the same reasons and HD-DVD is the Microsoft format. Mmmm.
I'm glad I got a raft of free disks with the EP-35, because it means its price was virtually cancelled out in software that for the most part, was on my shopping list anyway. From here on in, I shall check the video encoding of a film prior to purchase and where all things are equal, I will buy Blu Ray.
In the meantime, there are some pesky 15 year olds who need their collective butts kicking in an online Motorstorm frenzy, which is something I had no intention of being interested in. Until I found out PS3 online gaming is free, unlike the MS alternative.
Russell
