Oh! My! God! it was like a breath of fresh air from the Gods! When i turned it on to be greeted with a really nice orchestral boot-up noise, great set-up system, Blue-ray player! and NO INDUSTRIAL FAN NOISE!!! It used to piss me off big time every time my XBOX fucked after only a few months but what really annoyed me was having to put the fucking subtitles on most movies I watched at night because I couldn't have the volume loud enough to get over the machines Turbo Engines for fear of waking my kids and the neighbours up.

I really feel for you man! I had enough of shitBox£60's constant fucking up probably coz it got internally Hotter than my toaster and After getting the PS3 I am sooo happy with the machine and the fact that Blue-Ray has won out over HD and I basically got a decent Blue-Ray player and amazingly user friendly media systems that was a doddle to hook up to my WI-FI and I can now try out the connectivity of my PSP to it too so the future's bright!

Your story doesn't fill me with much reasurance but I trust Sony more than Microsoft so fingers crossed! Hope you the best with your replacement machine and don't lose the faith it's a good year to own a PS3!

Putting it in perspective ... getting a few free DVDs, or even a free PS3 (which is not the case here I believe) does not pay the mortgage or put food in his kids' mouths. I swear, Bush gets less flack for starting an illegal war than Mori does for getting a few movies.

Too bad for gamers though seeing as the PS3 is a gimped and overcomplicated hunk of junk that gets the worst versions of multi-platform titles like The Orange Box (terrible frame rate problems; same as EA Sports titles), Splinter Cell: Double Agent (horrid graphics) and Rainbow Six Vegas 2 (broken multi-play) are but a few of the total failures on the PS3. The fanboys love to babble on about the Cell Processor and 50GB BD discs, but they're just fanboys, not sane people.

Yes, the Xbox 360 has spotty reliability and is louder than a jet engine, but it's got GAMES and the best versions of multi-platform games and tons of killer exclusives. If you want to play games, get a 360. If you want to watch movies, get a PS3. If you want to do both, you have to get both. The PS3 is simply too compromised and difficult to code for to ever have more than a handful worthy titles. Otherwise, wait until late this year to buy a standalone BD player.

While both Sony and Microsoft have had their share of defective machines, at least Microsoft has the balls to tell the truth in the matter! My cousin's machine died in a manner very similar to the one described in this article! He updated, restarted, and - BANG - it was broken! Sony's response: "This only happens in very rare, about 1%, of cases." This is a fine excuse -- until you become the statistic!

Not that I generalise about people, but yeah, mine has been fine, I'm hoping to get the same from my PS3 which arrives tomorrow. yay for amusing timing.

#1 RCA, this one is easily solvable, there is a device available at some pro audio shops and the internet, it is called a "Pad" and it will decrease the level of signal flowing to your amp/tv/speakersystem. You will need one for left channel and one for right channel

If you experience this with your digital system the problem is different. The output is finite in the digital relm and the signal is information and can not be brought up or down in volume via pad. So you must make sure your audio setting are correct and your light pipe cable is(the important part)NOT BENT. It is optical and needs to send a light signal. Distortion from source can blow speakers even if the volume is low.

Imagine you were at work(first imagine you had a job - some of you) then that you have a stack of work, but you can't do it because the machine you use breaks and you need to get it replaced, and the company send you a new one that tanks within 5 mins of opening it.

They then have the gall to call you a slanderer for wanting to mention that it happened.

Honestly, is the average talkbacker on this thread 14 with ADHD?

Also, your whole "I thought BDs would be good but DH-DVDs are better isn't even based on logic, let alone any apples-to-apples comparison. What you need to do to settle that one is first of all find out whether the film/theatrical version was 'soft' or grainy or lacking in colour range/heavily colour graded/lousy sound/whatever in the first place. For instance the amount of morons here that are outraged about paying for pristine digital high-def and getting grain is hilarious as it demonstrates their farcical ignorance. If the film is fucking grainy then the HD version SHOULD be grainy, not cleaned up/smoothed out or edge enhanced or any of that DNR crap. It should be as true to the original as possible. The other thing beyond their understanding is that some filmmakers choose a grainy stock ON PURPOSE, letting the texture of the image suit the tone of the movie. And some films are fucking soft. Like anything with Mae West in it! Don't make the same mistake as these cretins. Different films from different decades hold up better or worse, and age doesn't necessarily have everything to do with it. # strip technicolour or B&W have a better chance at looking pristine than many of the slightly experimental film stocks of the 60s and 70s for reasons I won't bore you with here.

Secondly, you can't compare disparate films on the two formats and surmise that therefore one format is better than the other! Apples and oranges, dude. Especially considering you're one guy who can do a true apples-to-apples comparison - you can get both the HD-DVD version and the BD of the same title and really tell who did the better job. Although you may come to the realisation that with a few caveats, the video codecs are the same on BOTH which is why you were seeing the same (bit-for-bit) VC-1 picture on both. It's not generally the platforms as much as the mastering. Even within just Blu-ray itself there can be differences in say, the U.S. BD and the German BD of Pan's Labyrinth. It's the transfer. The German one was done separately and actually is better quality.

And despite Michael Bay's flip-flopping, 300 (the movie itself not the extras although there'll be a new BD version with better extras like the PIP thing) is pixel-for-pixel the same on both platforms. Conceivably BD could have used even the same codec but at a higher rate to take advantage of the extra space but in reality it makes sense that if they can both play the same codecs then the studio will just use the same transfer. Why spend more money if you don't have to?!

I admit my bias is different to yours though. I personally don't want to watch the SD version if I can be watching HD. Maybe the commentary or something but even storyboards and concept art piss me off because 1080p is the only thing that does them justice - that stuff at SD is a joke. And I certainly don't want to pay the extra for the so-called privilege. I can just rent the SD and burn it for less if I really wanted to.

I'll grab a PS3 or Blu-Ray player when there are no more DVDs on the shelves for me to buy. Otherwise, I don't see a point. For the few movies I do care to watch in HD, I can download the HD version from Xbox Live Video Marketplace, or from the iTunes store. For everything else, upscaled to 720p is fine with me.

And I know that if the TV craps out, Apple will be quick to fix it for the next three years. The Xbox 360 also has a 3-year warranty, so I'm not really worried about the RROD (besides, I've had one since launch, and even though I sold that one, it never RROD in the two years I had it. My new one has the new mainboard and chipset, so it probably won't RROD either.)

Blu-Ray just isn't compelling yet. `Maybe later, when I don't have any other choice...

No, truth is an absolute defense against slander and libel. You can only be guilty of either if your statement is untrue. At least in civilized countries. (Truth isn't necessarily a defense in England.)

Of course, it doesn't play any movies except youtube videos.

My gut reaction to the dude on the phone talking about slander is he probably should find another line of work.

Seriously, it sounds like Sony was VERY accommodating, MUCH moreso than Microsoft was with a friend's 360 that BRICKED after about 4 MONTHS. Maybe Sony accidentally sent you a bad one back, maybe it got damaged in shipping- who knows?

You probably ARE one of the 1%. I know three people with a PS3 not including myself and none of us have had problems, either.

More than HALF the people I know that have a 360 have had a RROD. Not too good an average.

I think it is TOTALLY UNCOOL of you to gripe about it on here when it sounds like Sony is at least ATTEMPTING to solve the problem. Want to know what happened when my Panasonic Camcorder ate shit DURING warranty? Nothing. They said it was physical damage (which it wasn't) and I'd have to pay $275 to fix it. I personally give props to Sony on this one.

I used to think you were cool, maaaan.

In all seriousness, I know what you're saying, but god-damn I wish they still made action films that good. R-Rated, great dialogue, great cast, great score... that film is so much fun, and at the time it came out, I just though it, Con Air, Face/Off and all those others were 'just good fun'.

Now I see how far we've fallen (Ghost Rider anyone?) and they're definitely great films in my book, because they excite and entertain me in a way that's apparantly un-green-lightable these days :(

Good points as usual but personally and yes it's subjective, I don't think the rocky start for the PS3 is any worse than the howling about the overpriced, 'ridiculously hard' (oh no! Assembler!) to develop for PS2. I think PS3 is feeling that year's difference and will be playing catch-up for a while yet.

And it does seem like the majority of the harshest critics can be discounted to a degree because they're all on the "if it doesn't do my favourite hardcore FPS better then it's complete shit" trip. I don't think ANY Playstation has EVER excelled at FPSs, so is it a surprise this time around? Especially considering those obviously aren't top priority in getting your established base to migrate. But note I'm not saying the 360 isn't bloody amazing. I just think it's more of the same for every platform in terms of games, even though every platform's marketing says this generation is all things to all people. I love my Wii, but damn if 90% of those games aren't the same minigame crapola.

Esknerd does have a point, which is why something as great as the 360 IS history in Japan. WHo would have thought it could do any worse than the original Xbox?!

I do LOVE films that use it as an aesthetic choice to support the tone of their film, but it is still just a legacy of a maturing chemical medium. Otherwise Eastman Kodak needn't have bothered improving their stocks, increasing speeds and grain structure for all those years. These people (industry veterans with amazing track records) look down on digital's baby steps and things like shadow detail teething problems and actually try to argue that grain is WHY film is so good! Hey, fair enough if you love it but to say that's WHY film has personality is ludicrous and reasonably hypocritical when skewering digital for noise which is at least analogous in as far as being a side-effect. I think digital has pretty much licked the lower end stuff, rez (with 4k kits) and noise but the gamut and top-end has a way to go. No-one can deny how fast it's improving though. Do you think that's fair?

I was wrong.

The Israelis are ethnically cleansing the Palestinians. They are beating them into the dirt. They are wiping them out, slowly but surely. I saw too many sights of horror to even be able to describe this. A few examples that stick out: my dark-skinned (Christian) friend being given the finger, spat on and having cigarette smoke blown in her face by young American boys doing some kind of internship with the IDF. They were Jewish; they thought she was an Arab.

The same friend being constantly subjected to obscene harrassment at checkpoints by foul-mouthed Israeli teenagers dressed as soldiers. Why are they doing this? Because they can.

Meeting people who had been forced at gunpoint out of their homes so that "settlers" could use them as holiday homes. These Palestinians STILL had the keys to their former homes - now occupied by new "Israelis" from the USA. I can't imagine what this must feel like.

Palestinians have been herded into restricted areas, their homes and livelihoods taken from them and left to rot in the most abject, inescapable poverty. It's not Third World; it's Fourth World.

The words I'm using don't begin to describe the extent of this depravity -and I'm too shocked and upset to express it properly. It was like watching Schindler's List - except this time it's the Palestinians who are the victims.

So is it any surprise that in the entertainment industry, free DVDs and CDs are given to reviewers and fansites that would spread the word about them so the companies can reap the benefits of what is effectively cheap advertising? It's just good business for the multi-billion dollar media companies. Mori's being used, not the other way around.

Tim, "@" means "at" not "and". As in say, moriarty@aintitcool.com

Oh and I'm glad we've ironed out any misconceptions. Hopefully you read my reply in that 1st week of feb Harry DVD column - I did apologise and try to explain myself a bit better to you, and just like this thread show how I got the wrong impression from your initial post. Ah happy endings eh?

Cheers dude.

Giving Mori a hard time about free product is jealous stupidity.

Doesn't change the fact that I think he's being petty about his PS3 problem, tho.

It's a nice system, but I feel I'm missing benefit having only a 480p tv. *cries*

I getcha, and nice to know we can agree to disagree on Juno. It's more than most here can do. As you asked, I'm in Oz. As for Ridley yeah we can all dream eh? I do work with a coupla guys who've worked on his films and I can tell you Scott's I Am Legend would have been 10 times better than what we got in the end (Arnie or no Arnie), and the vampires woulda looked great too. Ah well.