HD-DVD versus Blu-Ray

As the title goes, its about the next generation video format. And I have to say it was confusing at first. On one side is HD-DVD (High Definition DVD), a format that is supported by Toshiba and was the natural evolution of the dvd format. While on the other corner is Blu-Ray which is a format being supported by Sony.

Just to put things into perspective, what is the real big deal about the formats, as a lot of people were saying format wars were never good, because it is always tough to choose and usually confusing. And this one was no different, it started quite heated with a lot of movie studios supporting each side, Paramount and Dreamworks on the HD-DVD side while Sony Pictures et al were on the Blu-Ray camp. Warner Bros. was fence sitting by releasing movies for both formats. Sony was really in a fighting mood because they have gone into format wars before and were usually on the losing end (remember Betamax and MDs), so they went into this with a lot to lose, and it made them more focus on winning, and finally after less than two years, February 2008 to be exact, Toshiba conceded defeat and announced that it will discontinue HD-DVD by stopping its player production. So how did Sony do it?

This is my personal opinion. First, they made their very strong PlayStation 3 console Blu-Ray capable, by doing so, they have the cheapest Blu-Ray player in the market, imagine having a Blu-Ray movie player with a next gen HD game console to boot! Even though initially slow in sales as a game console, losing to XBox 360 and Wii it definitely outsold the stand alone HD-DVD players in the market. By the end of 2007, Sony has roughly around 9 million PlayStation 3 sold to roughly less than 2 million of HD-DVD players globally. With the player population secured, Sony went to work with content. That for me is reason number 2 on how the war was won, before 2008 started, both camps were even steven in terms of studio support. But come 2008, Warner Bros surprised everybody by declaring themselves Blu-Ray exclusive and with that one announcement (believed to be worth $400 million on Sony's part), spelled the eventual death of HD-DVD camp.
I am writing this on my blog because I am initially from the start a PS3 Fanboy, and as such, have hope from the start that Blu-Ray must win the war. But now that its over and I know that it has already won, what's the first thing I did? I bought myself a Toshiba HD-A3 HD-DVD player, you might think that I am nuts to this, but I got the player for a song! And movies are selling for cheap too (locally, around 700-1000 pesos and on Amazon, as cheap as $10 per title). I know it won't last long, but that is the point, I am trying to get all the HD movie goodies I can get before the format totally dies and when it eventually dies, that is the time I will shift to Blu-Ray as my de facto HD movies standard!

And what happens to the player? as I said, it will be for my HD-DVD back catalog movies and the nice thing is this Toshiba HD-A3 player upscales ordinary DVDs to 1080i glory (HD). Not bad, rather than getting an upscaling DVD player which I would have paid the same money for. So for now, I am format neutral but buying HD-DVD content. Sorry Blu-Ray, my monies with them first, see you by the end of 2008!

NextGen Gaming

Family Computer, man, those were the days. I would pester my mom to buy me one and when I finally got one. Sweet!!! Mario Brothers, Donkey Kong, Battle Tank, Galaxians and others. I would be glued to our TV set until my dad would shout at me that he needs to watch the news (we only have one TV set then).

Fast forward, I am now 37 years of age, I have two boys, and I still love gaming, I am not a hardcore gamer, but on weekends (when everything is done; shopping, grocery, pedia visit and etc.), I can sit there for hours playing until I get the ire of my wife eventually. I was never big into PC gaming (I stopped after my Apple II+ died on me). After the Family Computer, I sorta stop playing. Finishing High School, going to college, chasing girls and drinking..... I started noticing the games again when I was working already. PS One was the hot stuff then, but not earning much, I could not afford to buy it. And so I only got to look at it from a distance.

I bought our PS 2 around 2004. Boy, was I excited, my eldest; Hans was around 5 then was too. Got to play all those games like Final Fantasy, Metal Gear, Socom, DMC, RE and more recently God of War was awesome. Next thing I know, my son was asking me for a Gameboy. Lucky for him I love gaming, if it was my father, no deal. But I got him that too, and later on got myself a PSP and got Hans a DSLite. We are now really into it. Three handhelds and one console.

The year 2005 started in the west the so called next gen gaming when Microsoft launched their Xbox 360 then Sony and Nintendo followed suit the next year with their own consoles, PS 3 and Wii. Today the cast is complete. Tough to decide, but last June, I bought the Wii simply because its cheaper, and I want my family (specially my wife) to play with us. And after a few nudge, she tried Wii Sports and it did not got her hook but atleast she is now trying to understand why we love playing. I plan to get the PS 3 next, specially now that they have announced that they will lower the price by $100, so its now $499, not bad at all since you also get a next gen BluRay player to boot. I'm stoked, hope I can get it by December.

Right now, I'm content. Lots of choices to play and a chance to own maybe the most sophisticated piece of game machine by Christmas. What more can a man ask for. Wait, I wonder when my youngest son Cross will start playing video games......

PSP vs. DSLite

Simply unbelievable!

I bought my Sony PSP (Playstation Portable) last February of 2006, and my son Hans Dylan's Nintendo DSLite (Dual Screen) last December of 2006. Which now completes our collection of game handhelds (Hans also has a GameBoy Advance SP). Why I am simply flabbergasted into writing a piece about this is my utter disbelief that I will simply fell for the DSLite handheld.

Even before owning the DSLite, I was simply a fan of the PSP and when I got my hands on my own unit, I simply fell head over heels for it. Its screen is to die for (4+ inches of high resolution goodness), the games that I have bought and played in it were simply top notch, games like Daxter, Lumines, Syphon Filter, WipeOut Pure, Burn Out Legends and etc, simply brought out the best of the machine, add to it its capability to play mp3s and wma sound files, mp4 video and surf the Net through its Wifi makes the PSP a multi media beast of a machine. That's why when I hit the Net and read about how PSP is inferior to the DSLite (Game-wise) I just knew that the writers were just being fanboys, for I truly believe that the PSP easily out performs the DSLite. And add to that, Nintendo has the reputation of having a fanbase of mostly young children did not make me want to purchase one for myself right away.

Enter my son, Hans Dylan, at eight years of age, currently playing his GameBoy Advance SP and starting to get bored with it. Having seen the DSLite being wielded by some other kids when we were inside malls and other recreational areas, started to ask me if I can buy him one. Luckily, me and my wife went to the US of A last Christmas and got a pretty good deal for a new DSLite (cheaper by around 1.5k pesos). And the rest as they say was history.

We bought the black DSLite, same color and finish as my PSP, the graphics of the games can't compete with the PSP's but boy o boy do the games get addictive, lets start with Brain Age, its a puzzle game that is innovative and addicitve, it makes counting and doing math fun, even my wife is competing for play time with the DSLite! Games like Advance Wars, Super Mario, Wario Touched, Trauma Center, Phoenix Wright and Metroid Prime makes use of the stylus during gameplay that gives the games an extra oomph factor which i can't describe.

Now I am a convert, I still use my PSP but the DSLite is number one on my playlist, my poor son has to compete with me for the machine's use. Oh well, I just hope they can both co-exist, since both handhelds have their own competencies and weaknesses. I am just glad I can afford both. For those who have to choose, if gaming is your number one criterion, then go with the DSLite, you will not go wrong with that choice. If you want to play games but at the same time watch movies, play sound files and keep some of your photos with you, then the PSP is your machine!

"THE" SE K610i

For two weeks now, I have gotten my new cellphone. its a company issued phone. For the past 3 years, I never use my company cellphone. IT'S USELESS!!! But I guess this is about to change... The Sony Ericsson K610i is a great piece of equipment, it offers every cellphone or techie nut like me all the bells and whistles you may want in a cellphone right now, at a great price (Php11,500.00 on the streets).

First off, the unit is sleek. It is said that the unit is Sony Ericsson's slimmest candybar phone to date. The keys and make does not feel flimsy and cheap (a nice touch by Sony Ericsson). For the features, well, its 3G (third generation). You can surf the net at DSL speeds, you can of course make video calls (husbands all over! our days for seedy and kinky night outs are about to end.), its Tri-band, its a music player; plays almost all major file types (atrac, mp3, wav, wma and etc), its also got a decent video player (3gp & mp4), the k610i also has a 2mp camera attached to it. It can record video at 30 fps and it is limited only by the memory you have on your phone. Speaking of memory, the unit's can be expanded via Sony's proprietary Memory Stick M2 series (what jerks, its expensive as hell). You can of course use the gadget for voice calls, sms, mms, email, its got the usual calendar functions, task list, notes, calculator and other stuff to keep you organized. Best of all, you can sync it with your computer via bluetooth or usb cable (included), to keep your data up to date and backed up. There are still a ton of features i did not mention, you just have to read the manual or find it out for yourselves. you can go to this link and check it out for yourselves. http://www.sonyericsson.com/spg.jsp?cc=ph&lc=en&ver=4000&template=pp1_loader&php=php1_10389&zone=pp&lm=pp1&pid=10389

Now, for the not so good, the camera is decent but without led flash (no night pictures!!!). Its got no IR port (although jurassic as a tech, it is still very usable and dependable). And since its not using the Symbian software (unlike Nokia), third-party software are limited to Java kind. To keep the price low, SE decided to give us the bare bones package, no head phones and the Memory Stick included is a measly 64mb!!! and lastly, if you are the type that fiddles with your phone a lot then daily charging of the unit is a must, the battery capacity is kinda low.

But the good far outweighs the not so good, overall I consider the phone a buy, specially for the budget conscious techie who wants to jump over the 3G bandwagon but does not have the clams to buy themselves a high end Nokia Nseries or SE P990i. Go ahead and take the K610i for a test drive I'm sure it won't disappoint.

US Bound!

Twelve days to go... Me and my wife will be going to the USA. Yahoo! This is for the both of us our first time to go to a western country, both our foreign travels are of the asian variety. China, HongKong, Taiwan, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia and Thailand, been there; done that.

What gets me most excited in going to the US is.... NEXT GEN GAMING!!! At the time of my visit, Sony and Nintendo would have just launched their respective consoles the PS3 and Wii. Although I have decided to buy the Wii (budget cap) it will be so great to see the PS3 console in those malls and stores even before it hits the Philippines. Even my son Hans is excited at the prospect of playing a Wii, although his dream game machine right now is still the Nintendo DS. I guess Nintendo will be the lucky corporate bastard to get my holiday dollars this year, imagine both the Wii and the DSlite. Sorry Sony, I love your console but its just too expensive for me right now. Maybe 3 years down the console's life, I will certainly get it.

Well, back here in the Philippines, Xbox 360 seems to be selling well. especially now that they have found a way to flash the drive of the console thus enabling people to play copied games on it. The Philippines is still basically a third world country and for people to be spending roughly $400 or more for a console, games should be cheap. and i guess the hackers helped the market to flourish right now. The question is... Microsoft certainly isn't happy about it, as all gamers know, to make money on the console market, developers and Microsoft should sell a lot of software, they make their money on software not hardware. so basically in South East Asia, where its been said that the Xbox 360 is selling well, Microsoft may be losing money. Because they may be selling a lot of consoles but most definitely very few original game titles as the pirates are busy supplying these market's gamers with illegally copied games. I think Microsoft has made a move in the right direction by smearing black glue on their drives for flashers to have a harder time opening the console's drive. But personally, i think they should try harder. I don't think black glue will stop the hackers. As we say in Pilipino, ABANGAN!

I hope my sister (our US host) will have time to take me and my wife to see atleast Hollywood, Universal Studios and Las Vegas (home of the original CSI). You see, my sister lives in Santa Rosa, its actually nearer to San Francisco (around 1.5 hours) while LA is a long 8 hours away. So from my sister's place we are bound to see San Francisco, Napa Valley (Yipee!! wine tasting) and I think Lake Tahoe. We will be spending Christmas there. First Christmas for both me and my wife outside home soil and away from our two boys; Hans and Cross. With Hans, he will be staying with my parents. He agreed to not have us for Christmas as long as he gets his DSlite (granted!!!). For Cross, he will be staying with Maphel's; my wife's parents. Cross is ok, he is still too young (1.75 years old) to know that we will be going away for a month. We will just see if he will still recognize us when we get back. Hehehe

Oh well, Got to go. hopefully will be able to pose some pics and write about our trip when i'm there already.