The HD Era Begins When…

…you buy a component or HDMI cable. Why the hell doesn’t the PS3 come with anything better than a composhite cable?

Cue lots of people being bitterly disappointed when they get it, stick a Blu-Ray in there, and find that it looks the same (or worse) than their DVD player. Or the same reaction when those whose knowledge of high definition is limited to the fact that their TV is “HD Ready” finds that it looks shockingly bad on their LCD. Believe me, composite really does.

I know that I haven’t said anything positive about Sony in a while and I’d like to be able to, but apart from the good move of adding HDMI to the cheaper model what have they done to make themselves some new friends?

This is supposed to be the ultimate high-end gaming experience with no expense spared but it comes to a cable that could only be worse if it was RF, they dropped the rumble apparently because of cost (a motor must cost them pennies), and they don’t give it an IR receiver so that even the most expensive of universal remotes can’t control the PS3; you need to buy its horrible Bluetooth remote. That last one, in particular, won’t convince the AV community with their £150+ remotes that this is a legitimate choice for their new HD movie player.

Can someone convince me that this isn’t a ridiculous move?

4 thoughts on “The HD Era Begins When…”

  1. Monster cable will probably sue Sony for interfering with their business or something. Don’t forget that you have to get a $90 dollar Monster cable to watch Blu-ray! (while it would probably cost Sony an extra $2 bucks to add one, considering normal people can get them for $6 bucks on monoprice).

  2. Give them a break. It’s a decision to appeal to the majority instead of the technical elite. Who probably have another £20, £30 to spent on a fancy cable, anyway. People who demand all the latest technology might as well be stamped with a ‘mug’ sign on their forehead, because that’s just how it is.

    The real world isn’t the same place as the internet community and the people with their big, fat hoojillion dollar HDTV’s. Give the things out with a bogstandard cable and have it work in the most amount of tellies. It’s not the Playstation departments job to flog fancy TV’s, it’s their job to get the damn thing underneath as many of the bloody things as they possibly can. Leave the technical gubbins to the people that give a damn. Besides, if it were too easy then they’d probably have some grim epiphany where they realise how shallow getting majorly fussy over something as benile as a cable is and suicide themselves.

    What’s actually annoying is the way that no printers seem to come with a twatting USB cable. What the hell is up with that? Like, you’ve just spent fifty quid on the sodding thing and now you’ve got to go back into town to get the cable that actually allows you to print. THAT’S stupid.

  3. Can’t say I’ve bought a printer in a while but yeah, that’s fairly stupid. At least the PS3 isn’t useless without a component cable which a printer probably is without USB. Then again maybe more people use them to print directly from a digital camera now. Who knows?

    I can see your point anyway, but why can’t they include a cable with component and composite on the same cable like the 360? The cost difference must be negligible and everyone is happy. Not including HDMI is understandable – it’s a premium that isn’t going to give a huge boost over analogue cables – but no component just baffles me.

  4. It does seem like a money-making decision. I can’t say I blame Sony though; the vast majority of the gaming public wouldn’t know what on earth the difference between composite and component is in the first place, and those that do will pay for superior cable, begrudgingly or not.

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