For $500 is can be yours. As was expected, Sony announced pricing on the PS3 yesterday. For $500 you get the console with a 20GB hard drive. For $600 you can get it with a 60GB hard drive. Interesting, isn’t it, that this is suspiciously close to the price of an HD DVD player that doesn’t have a hard drive or, you know, play games. They’re also claiming an early November release. The release also says that it won’t be the silver that they’ve been showing for (forever?) months, but in black. I’m sure I’ll see it at the show tomorrow, so I’ll snap a pic. Speaking of that, check back all week, as a bunch of us are going to E3, and I’ll be posting daily updates.
I’ve heard it from two sources now, and apparently the “never to be seen again” original versions of the Star Wars Trilogy, will be coming out on DVD. Looks they may be out as soon as September. How cool is that? Finally, the real versions of these classic movies. Too bad George ruined them forever with the crap he’s put out since. Bring on Yub Nub!
While the flood last week wasn’t nearly as bad as the one in October, we decided to do what we should have done that time: The carpets in our testing lab were ripped out, and the floor painted a lovely shade of gray. So the lab looks a whole lot better, and there isn’t the worry about mold and such. The downside, all the computers, test equipment, phone lines, Ethernet lines, and the myriad of other cables that connected gear to gear and gear to stuff, all still need to be run and plugged back in. The bottom picture is our temporary storage (as in, the listening room). Despite the mess, that was only half the amount of stuff in the lab. Spring cleaning indeed.
If you remember this post you’ll recall the flood our studio suffered 6 months ago. Well, it happened again. So forgive me if I don’t post for a while. In the mean time, please go Vote and post some pictures in the Galleries. Do check back later in the week though, as I’ll be posting a first look at Toshiba’s HD DVD player.
We are proud to announce the second new feature this month: Reader Galleries. Here you can post pictures of your theater, comment on other peoples, and more. Thanks to the people who posted over the weekend so we had a few theaters up there already. Go check it out!.
The results of our first vote are in, go check it out. While you’re there, vote on the next question of the week. Also, check back on Monday, we’ve got new site feature to unveil, and it’s really cool.
It's 61 miles from our Studio to the Huntington Beach Hyatt where Mitsubishi was holding their line show. It's all highway driving, which in most parts of the country would constitute a drive time of about an hour. Thanks to the fickle nature of L.A. traffic, it took 2.5. A colleague who lives near our studio left 10 min later than I did, and it took him 3 hours. Gotta love it.
Ok, I lied in my last post because I didn’t think this would happen this week. But it did, and it’s cool. I am proud to announce a new feature to HomeTheaterMag.com: Voting! No, you can’t vote your favorite editor off the island, but every Friday we’ll have a different question for you to sound off on (“off on,” that sounds weird). So go check it out, and vote away. Next Friday, I’ll post the results, along with a bunch of your comments and a new question. So make sure you write interesting and funny comments along with your vote.
Sorry, at the moment I have nothing to report. Friday is the Mitsubishi line show, so check back Monday and I'll post what I saw. Rumor has it they've got a new TV that's got lasers! Now if I can just get my plasma tweeter speakers I'll be all set.
I have a question for you all. In the April issue we had a Premiere Designs with a possible new look for some of HP’s RPTVs. A crappy picture of it is what you see here. According to HP, they’re not going to be making it, as their marketing department tells them that silver, black, and gray, are still the most likely colors to sell. So my question is this;
Despite a complete lack of enthusiasm for the next generation of DVD, it is coming. With it is the inevitable format war that is both asinine and expected. For the most part, though, the initial offerings of players will largely be irrelevant to the war or the format's future.
Not that I want to cover more Sony stuff so soon, but that’s the way things work out. Here’s a list of things I learned on the Sony Line Show in Las Vegas yesterday (in case the title didn’t give it away first).