And we've been griping about
Blu-ray delays in the good ol' USofA. Looks like the folks Down Under have it way worse, since Sony has just released their
BWU-100A internal PC drive for reading and writing Blu-ray discs in Australia, 'cept supposedly the thing can't actually manage to play back is Blu-ray movies. Apparently they're blaming the lack of
HDCP-compliant graphics cards, and the fact that there isn't any retail software that can play Blu-ray movies, just the OEM version of Intervideo WinDVD BD that ships with
Sony's VAIO AR laptop -- assuming of course, that your Blu-ray content requires HDCP to begin with. That would make us wonder why Sony can't just bundle that same software with the BWU-100A, but we're clearly thinking with the addled mind of a consumer. If we were smarter, we'd realise the logic behind releasing products so saddled with rights management that they can't even play back the media they were built for. Luckily, Sony says they're optimistic about resolving both issues soon, and that for now the device is still 100% functional for storage (hooray), and can play back your own home-burnt movies as well (as well as Blu-ray flicks that are HDCP-free). All this can be yours, you lucky Australian you, for a mere AU$1,399, or about $1,075 US.
[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
posted August 11th 2006 6:44PM
Why are people making excuses for Sony? This is nothing but BAD PRESS and it's well deserved. From blu-ray to the ps3 they've done nothing but show a complete disregard for their customers. Yet people still defend them like they do no wrong. Sure, there may be legit reasons why this drive, out of the box, won't play movies. But that is NOT the issue. The issue is that Sony talks up their products as if they are the best, they dog the competition and then they release products that either under-deliver or fail to deliver on the experience they have built them up to be capable of. Sites like engadget don't have to make bad press for Sony. They are doing a fine job of it on their own.
The ONLY valid reason to purchase this drive is if you are working with HD content and need a true HD format to store and display it. As a true backup device this thing is pure shit. If you purchased this to save your 500gb of porn to, great. But the fact remains, if you want to actually watch a blu-ray movie on it, as you would expect to be able to do, you're going to have to jump through hoops to make it happen. Sony is to blame for this because they build up the experience then they release a product that fails to deliver it. Yes, that may not be entirely their fault. But they shouldn't be out there building up the experience and then putting out crap that leads their customers to believe one thing(by the name alone) and then delivers another.
It's pretty obvious that you can't playback BR movies if your PC doesn't have the necessary hardware support for HD movies. It takes loads of CPU power to play at such ridiculously high bitrates, not to mention RAM etc. but even then, a CPU can only do so much (even a Core N6800), they're just not equipped for this currently.
So you're going to need a top-end (or atleast relatively new) GPU to have any chance at smooth playback. My "last-gen" GF6800GT can't play HD (well it can for about five seconds until picture goes distorted green or blue), and I'm betting the majority of PC owners probably have an even less powerful GPU, so there's little to no chance the average PC could play BR movies even with this drive. Sony could've put a big yellow/red warning sticker on the box warning users that this drive alone is no guerantee for playing BR movies, but A) That sounds ridiculous, no average joe will buy a BR drive if it's practically telling him "it doesn't work" (from his point of view) and B) It's the responsibility of retailers and outlets to inform about the product, if they didn't see this coming, they're either complete technolexic idiots or just plain greedy (or both) and C) Early adopters should know better, and its their fault alone if they didn't know about HD requirements prior to purchase.
I'm no big fan of Sony (and who in their right mind would), but this is not their fault (though they should've seen it coming). We'll be reading exactly the same thing about HD-DVD soon, since, well, it also sports a bit of system requirements.
Still... damn you Sony! :P
Blu-Ray and HD-DVD can both suck my b8lls. I for one will not be buying new hardware of either camp for the forseeable future. Consumers need to vote with their wallets and stop buying this sh1t once and for all.
"'Also, the 360 controller does not suck.'
Actually, it does."
ACTUALLY, it's a MATTER OF OPINION!!!
M-a-t-t-e-r o-f o-p-i-n-i-o-n.
I think the 360 controller is the best controller ever, and I've used quite alot. But I have a friend who prefers the Dual-Shock 2 controller. And you know what? You know what? I actually managed not to kill him. We still get along. You know why? Because he's entitled to his opinion and I'm entitled to mine.
They are working to get VLC media player play BDs.
"Um...let's see. How many more articles can Engadget write up that show bad press for Sony? Why don't we talk about how much the Xbox360 controller sucks or why you have to pay another $100+ to play HD-DVDs on the pile of crap. Or we could talk about the size of the power supply of the 360. Or the lack of quality in game choice...Point taken. Listen to some music instead and chill out.
Yours Truly,
Help Line
www.purevolume.com/helpline
Posted at 7:27"
Well it works like this, it shas recently beocme kinda hip to not like Sony sooo........
Xbox 360 controller doesn't suck, I love it its awesome, lets talk about Sony's crappy e3 controller with no rumble and a lackluster "motion" feedback system that their main game, whatever the hell it was claimed to not even know wnaything about until about 2 weeks before the show? Lets also talk about how if you wanna play HD movies on an xbox your still paying 100-200 dollars lesss than if you would have if you went and bought a PS3. In addition how can you bitch about the quailty in game choice when teh PS3 isn't even out yet and well, their launch lineup looks umm... lackluster? Please reserve your fanboyism for someone else, don't start ripping on stuff cause you have no idea what your talking about :) k. thx. bye.
Aussies are not filthy!!!!
Calm down Guruboy, we're a great bunch of people- every country has a bunch of idiots maligning their country's good reputation. Don't make yourself one either.
Guruboy, Australians can also be polite and very eloquent. Do some research.
Would you prefer us to all have American accents and speak fluent Thai?
um, storing stuff on a hard drive is a bit different from storing it on a disk? derr?
"Xbox 360 controller doesn't suck, I love it its awesome, lets talk about Sony's crappy e3 controller with no rumble and a lackluster "motion" feedback system that their main game, whatever the hell it was claimed to not even know wnaything about until about 2 weeks before the show? Lets also talk about how if you wanna play HD movies on an xbox your still paying 100-200 dollars lesss than if you would have if you went and bought a PS3. In addition how can you bitch about the quailty in game choice when teh PS3 isn't even out yet and well, their launch lineup looks umm... lackluster? Please reserve your fanboyism for someone else, don't start ripping on stuff cause you have no idea what your talking about :) k. thx. bye."
a. i don't understand how you're bashing the ps3 controller when you haven't tried it
b.wtf?
hd-dvd+xbox360=$500-600
blu-ray+ps3 with a hard drive 20-40gb bigger than the 360's(not that I'm rooting for the PS3, but you shouldn't spout random bs and call somebody else a fanboy at the same time)=$500-600
c. uh, you can easily complain about the "quality in game choice" in regards to the 360 when the ps3 isn't out yet, because, well, let's see..the 360 is out
obviously he isn't going to go off on how little game variety there is, because that would void his whole point about bad sony press?