PS3 HDMI, but No Hard Drive

[Woochifer]

Well, considering that my PS2 does not come with a hard drive, and I've never owned a gaming system with a hard drive, the lack of a hard drive on the PS3 is neither here nor there in my thinking. In the 4+ years that I've had my PS2, I've bought a grand total of three memory cards.

I have no idea whether the PS3 games will put more demands on the memory side, or if the hard drive would provide any benefit whatsoever to the PS3 games, or if Sony will even market a hard drive as an option (I know they make one for the PS2, but I don't anyone who uses one with their console). Time will tell on those questions.

For my own purposes, the exclusion of HDMI on the PS3 would be far more consequential because when I upgrade my video chain to HD, I intend to go with all digital video sources (DVD universal player, HD satellite receiver, HD-DVR, and Blu-ray or HD-DVD player), and have all of them switched out to the TV through a single HDMI video output.

HD components that saddle me down with analog component video would necessitate buying a redundant set of analog cabling going out to the TV. Considering that I need about 15' from the rack to the TV, that would entail at least another $70 or so for two sets of decent cabling (just one 16' set of Monster's entry level component video cabling will run at least $80, plus another $30 or so for the short run from the component to the switching device), not to mention having to switch two sources every time I change from a digital source to an analog source. Keeping the video chain all digital keeps the video source switching as simple as possible.

Plus, the Blu-ray playback capability for my purposes will factor in much more prominently than whether the thing comes with a hard drive.

[Groundbeef]

Well, considering that my PS2 does not come with a hard drive, and I've never owned a gaming system with a hard drive, the lack of a hard drive on the PS3 is neither here nor there in my thinking. In the 4+ years that I've had my PS2, I've bought a grand total of three memory cards.

I have no idea whether the PS3 games will put more demands on the memory side, or if the hard drive would provide any benefit whatsoever to the PS3 games, or if Sony will even market a hard drive as an option (I know they make one for the PS2, but I don't anyone who uses one with their console). Time will tell on those questions.

Plus, the Blu-ray playback capability for my purposes will factor in much more prominently than whether the thing comes with a hard drive.

Your desire for the HDMI connection is well established. However, on the gaming side, there is much lamenting that the Hard Drive will not be included. Many gamers are upset this feature is left out. Now this forum is a bit different that many posters are more interested in the Blu-Ray than for gaming.

However, there have been many posts on other boards pointing out how games play different on the orginal xbox than ps2 due to the xbox Hard Drive. The football games in xbox for example use in game video clips to replay during half time, whereas the ps2 uses "pictures". THere are others, but I can post them if you like.

Yes, the ps2 only has a harddrive for 1 game, but I think Sony missed the boat on that one, and on the future of gaming if the PS3 lacks the hard drive.

Anyway, good discussion.