Playstation 3 - Frustration

[kpadalik]

Don't know if I should be posting this here, but I'll give it a try! I am so frustrated w/ DH. He just bought a brand new HD LCD 52" Television. It is very nice, but he always has to have some new toy it seems (as I'm sure is the same with other DHs). Once he gets something, it seems he's not quite happy with it and has to buy something or do something to make it just a little bit better.

So here's the problem:

He bought this TV. Then of course, he has to go and buy the HDMI cables for it to make the HD even better (the HD cable package wasn't good enough, I guess ). At least I got a good recommendation from another Dis'er (sorry don't remember who) to buy the cables off of monoprice.com where they are much cheaper. So anyway, he's been talking about Blu-Ray players/discs for awhile now. I told him that we are not getting one. We rarely EVER watch movies, mostly the kids watch them. And we have 5 million DVDs (it seems) taking up space and we never have a chance to watch them. So now he wants to use his money (that he has saved, btw) to buy a Playstation 3. When I found out how much it was, I about died! He says he'll only buy one game for it (Tiger Woods golf) and he may download a couple of games off the computer or something. But he will "never" buy a BluRay movie b/c they are too expensive. He will just rent. Thing is, he doesn't play video games - EVER. We had a game system before and he played w/ it for about a month or two and never again. So now he wants to spend hundreds of dollars (of his own money) to buy this PS3. I know what will happen, though. He will want to buy "just one" bluray disc b/c he probably thinks he'll watch it all the time and then one leads to two, two leads to three, and so on. And then we'll end up with a bunch of overpriced DVDs that sit on a shelf and never get watched. And he's never been a video game guy (even as a child) so that portion of the PS3 will never get used. And we have two DDs, and they aren't into video games . I told him that it would be a waste of money, an impulse buy, and that there is no justification in buying it. If he played video games, or even watched movies on a regular basis, then maybe. But we haven't watched a movie in months from our DVD collection. (unless it's a Disney movie we watch w/ the girls ) Am I being totally unreasonable? Can someone tell me about the pros and cons of the PS3? What do I do? TIA!

 

[bumbershoot]

I don't play videogames at all, but it's highly likely that we'll get a ps3 when we can finally do the bluray thing (some people think it's on its way out...I don't). It can get software updates, which some blu ray players can't. It doesn't even matter to us that the videogame part of it will never be used...that's not what it will be for.

FWIW, even with our 32" LCD tv getting the HDMI cables made a HUGE difference with the HD channels and our DVDs. Night and day. So I think he made a good call getting the cables (and I'm so glad you used monoprice!) for such a massive TV.

It's too bad you never get a chance to watch your DVDs; perhaps you could make a strong effort to do that before moving on to a blu ray? Have a cooling off period, where you really look into all the blu ray options (there are MUCH cheaper options than the ps3, and since the newer units have the software update option now it's easier to think of getting a normal blu ray player) and find the best prices, before going forth. Hubby looks at cnet reviews before making a move electronically, and looks at them for a few months. And he's definitely seeing that there are other players that are rivaling the PS3, for less money.

Oh and by the way, any blu ray, including the PS3, will play your DVDs. AND it will "upconvert" them to a BETTER picture quality, so you'll notice a difference playing them in the blu ray than with your regular DVD player. You'll also want the HDMI cables from your blu ray to your TV, to make sure the quality is the absolute best it can be.



I'm really not helping YOUR case, but I'll tell you, since getting the HD tv, even the small one, a better (though cheap) DVD player, and those HDMI cables, our movies look astonishingly better, and I'm now yearning for when we can get a blu ray, PS3 or not. And I'm not a TV-techie person at all, never thought I'd get to this place, until I really saw the difference.

 

[kpadalik]

Bumber,

Thanks so much for your insight! I admit that I am not all that tech-savvy when it comes to TVs (computers are a different story) and you did make some valid points. I didn't know that BluRays played regular DVD's, so that helps DH's case a bit. If he's so deadset on a BluRay player, why wouldn't he just get a BluRay, you know? The video game part of the PS3 will be a complete waste - I know him better than he knows himself. That's what is so frustrating! He says he will use it, I know he won't. Maybe I should just let him buy the darn thing and just wait a couple of months until the novelty has worn off. Then I can say "I told you so" He he he!!!

 

[all4fun]

We got a PS3 for Christmas. DH enjoys video games, as does ds... they are actually playing on it together right now. I wanted it because I wanted a bluray player to go with our HDtv. As bumbershoot wrote, it also upconverts the regular DVD format to "almost" bluray quality. The difference in the picture between regular and bluray is astonishing. We also wanted to get something that would update off the wi-fi, and I think that most of the blu-ray players out there still don't have that feature. Glad to hear you bought your HDMI cables online because it's unbelievable what the stores charge for them. The $7 cables we bought off newegg.com look exactly like the ones they sell for $50 at best buy! unbelievable.

oops, edit to add, I need to finish my thought. Even though we love our PS3, because I wanted the bluray player -and the PS3 is a really good one - & dh & ds will play video games on it, so it does get used. I think if I were in your shoes though, i would also think it was a waste of money. You may at some point want to get a dedicated blu-ray player that has the ability to upgrade. If those are $400 though, you might as well buy the PS3. Then again, electronics prices are supposed to be dropping a lot this year, so maybe you could convince your dh to wait on this a few months, and see what happens.

 

[stace1214]

Hmmm..... I think you might be talking about my husband too! We bought the big flat screen tv, then had to have the expensive cables, then of course, what's the use of lcd tv with the HD cable package and finally, the PS3. My husband's obsession with gadgets and gizmo's kills me! I do have to say though, we use the PS3 for movies all time. We never buy blu-ray movies, but we have a netflix subscription, so we end up using it often. Neither of us plays video games, but we bought the PS3 because at the time it was cheaper than a blu-ray player. I do like having it, the quality of movies is incredible.

 

[Mic]

My husband, myself, and oldest daughter(then 18) took turns standing in line for two days to purchase a PS3 for my son for Christmas when they first came out. I would never admit it to my husband and son, but it was probably the best purchase we have made in a long time, however, not every family is like ours. My hubby and son are electronics geeks, and that in itself is a budget buster. We had the PS3 for a year before my husband purchased the 52" Samsung hi-def TV he had drooled over for two years; I made him wait until it was on sale. We have had NO trouble with the PS3, and it plays all of my son's other PS games(PS1,PS2) in addition to blu-ray discs. Like another poster said, it updates itself(we have a wireless network so myu son can play online), and it does a host of other things. My son has a 60 GB hard drive that he stores music files on, he connects online with a research facility that uses the PS3 for medical research(sorry, I don't remember all the details), and he stores his photos on there, too. I guess he sort of uses it as a back-up hard drive. My husband purchased the Samsung blu-ray player for our new TV a few months ago, and he wishes now he would have just purchased a new PS3. He was concerned, though, that the new PS3's don't play all the old PS games like our son's first-generation PS3 does, and they no longer have a memory card reader. But he now agrees with me that he should heve purchased another PS3 anyway...mostly because HE does not have any old PS games, so we would not have needed that feature anyway! If he had ever felt the need to play an old PS game, he could just go to our son's room to do so! Keep in mind that whatever your husband purchases will most likely be outdated or improved upon within a short time, but electronics prices are pretty good right now. If asked, I think most people who own a PS3 player have been happy with it, even if it is primarily used as a blu-ray player. I don't think I helped you any...

 

[JoiseyMom]

The older PS3's play the PS2 games. The newer ones do not.

 

[Fabinva]

I remember thinking the same about HD TV and blu rays but when I watched the first movie I was hooked!!! We got the PS3 because at the time Blu ray players were so expensive but do not think that's the case now.
I do remember reading online not long ago that the PS3 sucks a lot more electric power than the blu ray player will so if he is not going to play video games (husband hardly ever does) probably wiser to buy the player. We rent online from Blockbuster and they have a lot of blu ray movies available.

 

[bluefairy21]

I gotta to say we love our PS3. My husband tried hard to convince me to buy it when we bought our HDTV. He is into games more than me. We have had it for more than a year and love the blu-ray aspect and upconverting regular DVDs.

We also have a lot of our music on it and listen that way. We can show slideshows of our pictures to family when they come over(like our Dec. disney trip)

You mention that you and your husband aren't big gamers but there are some games you might like that you could play together that are different other games. Singstar is fun and also we love to play Rockband. You might be a gamer yet!

Lately, I have been having fun on Playstation Home meeting new people. Would love to meet any DISers on it!