PS3 to use Blu-Ray Discs, could equal no backward compatibility for PS2 games??

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Duo_Maxwell

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http://www.gamespot.com/ps2/news/news_6104095.html

I wasn't sure if this belonged here or in general gaming news, I figured here seeing as how it only relates to the PS2 but whatever....Anyhow according to the GS article, they'll probably use Blu-Ray ROM discs. I don't like the setup, don't like it at all. I was really hoping for backwards compatiblity for PS2 games, especially seeing how Sony had already stated they'd be likely to have it again, but no this news looks like they may be goign the other way.
 
The PS3 WILL be backwards compatible (pardon the caps).

Backwards compatibililty is Sony's magic bullet, esp. in light of MS's challenges making some much press as they migrate to a Mac based dev platform.

When the PS2's "official" budget title program debuts, I can guarantee that Sony will ensure that the PS3 is backwards compatible... $$$$$
 
[quote name='"Persain"']blue ray is backwards compatible with dvd's you just need to pu the dvd in a a spcialty case first[/quote]

Didn't somebody recently develop a coating for the disk that makes it so that Blu Ray disks don't need the case? That's what I heard...
 
I thought I read on GS a while back that Sony had been able to take the size of their PS1 and PS2 chiips and decrease them, therefore indicating that they could fit in the PS3. I don't know about the blu-ray being not compatible. does somebody remember from when the article is??? 'll try to see if I can find it, but I don't give any guarantees. The PS2 backwards compatability is one of the main reasons I own it. It's great having one system that works for both, so you don't have to keep the old one.
 
[quote name='hiccupleftovers'] The PS2 backwards compatability is one of the main reasons I own it. It's great having one system that works for both, so you don't have to keep the old one.[/quote]

Exactly, My original PS1 system died about 2 years ago, and eventually the same thing will likely happen to my PS2. instead of having to go buy another PS2 it would be awesome just to be able to use the PS3.
 
[quote name='Duo_Maxwell'][quote name='hiccupleftovers'] The PS2 backwards compatability is one of the main reasons I own it. It's great having one system that works for both, so you don't have to keep the old one.[/quote]

Exactly, My original PS1 system died about 2 years ago, and eventually the same thing will likely happen to my PS2. instead of having to go buy another PS2 it would be awesome just to be able to use the PS3.[/quote]

Wow, what a scam. Sony's little plan works perfectly for you fellas - wouldn't you be much more interested in hardware that didn't die in just a few short years? I know I am.
 
From http://www.blu-ray.com/

"Philips announced that they have developed an optical pick-up unit (OPU) that will be able to read and write CD-R/-RW, DVD+R/+RW and the next-generation optical disc format Blu-ray Disc (BD). With its new OPU81, Philips has created the first important building block of the all-in-one recorder that can record and playback all popular consumer optical formats. By integrating the infrared, red and blue wavelength lasers and single detector into one single OPU concept, Philips has succeeded in developing a flexible triple-writer OPU design in a compact form factor. The OPU81 is designed for mass production and will meet mass consumer price levels. Mass production of the new OPU will start in 2006 when Philips anticipates that the mass-market demand for BD recorders will pick-up."

Therefore, I'm guessing there will be backwards compatability.
 
It's one of the reasons that I boght my GBA. I have a ton of older GB and GBC games and if there wasn't backwards compatability for GBA, I probably would not have gotten at the time, because I, like other CAGs, don't have enough money to spend on systems everyday.
 
After reading a little more of the site...

"Jun 10, 2002 - Blu-ray Disc's Advantages Over DVD
Blu-ray Disc

Wired's June issue includes an article which describes the advantages Blu-ray technology has compared to traditional red-laser. To summarize, Blu-ray increases the recording capacity to 27 Gbytes (13 hours of standard definition TV or two to three hours of HDTV) compared to 4.7 Gbytes recordable with DVD+RW/DVD-RW while still being backward compatible with DVD. "

"May 17, 2004 - Sony Develops Single Optical Head for Blu-ray Disc, DVD and CD
Blu-ray Disc

Sony has successfully developed a single three-wavelength optical head, capable of recording and playing next-generation Blu-ray Discs, as well as conventional DVDs and CDs without requiring an extra optical head for backwards compatibility. The technology requires less parts, is cheaper to produce and provides full backwards compatibility with current DVD/CD formats. Sony will target commercializing the newly developed optical head within 2 years, and will positively promote to further technology development. By doing so, in addition to further reducing the number of parts used for achieving smaller size of optical heads, enhancement of productivity and reliability will be achieved. "

The heading of the one I pasted before is "Jul 15, 2004 - Philips Develops All-in-one Optical Pick-up Unit"

At this point, I'm almost positive that it'll be backwards compatible.
 
[quote name='Sartori'][quote name='Duo_Maxwell'][quote name='hiccupleftovers'] The PS2 backwards compatability is one of the main reasons I own it. It's great having one system that works for both, so you don't have to keep the old one.[/quote]

Exactly, My original PS1 system died about 2 years ago, and eventually the same thing will likely happen to my PS2. instead of having to go buy another PS2 it would be awesome just to be able to use the PS3.[/quote]

Wow, what a scam. Sony's little plan works perfectly for you fellas - wouldn't you be much more interested in hardware that didn't die in just a few short years? I know I am.[/quote]

I know. I'm having the same problem. My PS1 died a year before PS2 came out. I was going to buy a PS2 anyway but that still pisses me off. My PS2 has been working flawlessly for sometime, but recently it has been having trouble playing some DVD's and it has frozen a few times in some games. I really hope my second Sony console doesn't crap out on me this time. If it does, I definetly wont be getting the PS3 on release, if at all.
 
[quote name='hiccupleftovers']I thought I read on GS a while back that Sony had been able to take the size of their PS1 and PS2 chiips and decrease them, therefore indicating that they could fit in the PS3. I don't know about the blu-ray being not compatible. does somebody remember from when the article is??? 'll try to see if I can find it, but I don't give any guarantees. The PS2 backwards compatability is one of the main reasons I own it. It's great having one system that works for both, so you don't have to keep the old one.[/quote]

This is not a likely scenario. The PS2's backward compatibility to PS1 was thanks to an entirely new chip that also serves as the PS2's primary I/O controller. They would almost certainly take a similar approach to making the PS3 backward compatible by giving the new chips important functions within the PS3's design as well as running PS2 software. For instance, rather than building a USB controller into the PS3 they would instead incorporate the one that is already part of the PS2 (while likely upgrading it to USB 2.0). Likewise for the ATA controller. This may be upgraded to ATA133 or replaced by a S-ATA port for a number of good reasons but it would be transparent to PS2 software.
 
Another vote for BWC from Gameforms.com

Format for PlayStation 3 confirmed
» And it's just what everyone expected.
News | Friday, August 6, 2004 | Gameforms Staff

Sony has confirmed that its next console will make use of the "Blu-Ray" format, a new technology capable of holding five times more than a DVD disc. The news comes fresh on the heels of progress this week toward a creating a standard for consumer equipment using the technology.

Blu-Ray is so named for the blue laser, a more accurate replacement for the current red laser. Discs using the format can hold up to 27 gigabyetes of information, though the version being chosen by Sony and other companies such as Dell and Matsushita (Panasonic in the U.S. and Gamecube technology partner) looks to hold 23GB.

Manufacturers recently met to decide a read-only standard for the format. This is the next step required before Blu-Ray players can be developed and released, which is expected to happen by next spring.

Those concerned about growing PS2 and DVD collections need not worry, as Blu-Ray is backward compatible with DVDs.
 
OTOH, this will make for an annoying part of a format war with the HD-DVD spec the DVD Forum has adopted. Remember, with DVD the issues were all resolved beore any product shipped so consumers never had to choose. It seems unlikely this will be resolved before Sony and MS each have to make their manufacturing commitments.

For a number of technical reasons I favor the HD-DVD spec, especially on the codec issue.
 
What are the technical differences? All I know is that Blu-Ray supposedly holds more (like 50 GB on dual layer) than HD-DVD. Is HD-DVD more compatiple then?
 
The differences are much like a repeat of the DVD-RW vs. DVD+RW battle. Pioneer thought rewritable DVD would be a huge seller regardless of price and rushed the specification process to get product on the shelves in Japan. At well over $2000 for SVS-RW recorder deck they sold dozens where they needed to sell thousands. By the time the price was approaching something reasonable for creating a mass market the much more versatile DVD+RW spec was ready to go. Basically, if you're trying to make a nicely laid out disc of your own material and need to make a change, on DVD-RW you pretty much have to remaster the disc while on DVD+RW you can do it in place almost aseasily as if it were all on a big hard drive.

So far this hasn't been a acotr for most consumers since much like CD-RW they largely ignore it and just burn one-time discs that are effectively ROMs thereafter. If you're part of a group collaborating on a project by shipping discs around the difference is major but that isn't very common among consumers. You can find a lot of comparison info here. THis is of course a site bias in favor of DVD+RW but I've found nothing there I can dispute.

The situation with Sony's Blu-Ray is very similar. THey rushed the project so they could offer products at ridiculously high prices that only a handful of the welthy curious will buy. Most owners of large film libraries won't care until the decks are selling for well under $1000. If it isn't mass market it isn't worth pressing the discs.

Some of the spec details are handle is a somewhat untruthful manner also. Much like the way hard drive manufacturers will list their capacity in terms of a raw unformatted drive the Blu-ray capacity is for a disc that isn't actually usable. Once you've created the formatting structure the actual usable capacity drops a fair bit.

Likewise, the Blu-ray spec calls for MPEG-2 at a 18-23 megabit (IIRC) per second rate. It's just DVD with a fatter pipe to feed the 1080i resolution. THe HD-DVD spec is instead supporting several much more advanced codecs such as MPEG-4, H.264, and Windows Media 9. These go beyond just higher efficiency to ofer a lot of features that are very useful for creating interactive content without reinventing the wheel. And by allowing a variety of competing codecs on the same hardware it give producers a lot of choices between features on a single platform, so it's completely transparent to the users.

In terms of content volume and quality there is a likelihood the HD-DVD spec could pull ahead of the Bluray spec in spite of the smaller capacity, which incidentally will be easier to manufacture and lend itself better to lower prices. An example that can be seen right now is the latest DVD release of Terminator 2. It comes with a second disc that has the movie in a High Definition format using Windows Media 9. This is not in full 1080i but that decision was driven more by the fact that the highest resolution most PC user's monitors support is 1600x1200. I've seen demos of full 1080i on WMV9 using a PC that cost no more than $1400 to build from scratch and it looked great while fitting the entire movie on a DVD-9 disc.

Doing the same thing using a deck with a dedicated codec chip rather than a general purpose PC CPU and video card gets the price down to about $250. HD-DVD decks with the necessary drive and nice feature sets could enter the market for well under $500, making for a very quick mass market for HDTV content.
 
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