Heavenly Sword Comments by Tom Bramwell

I am going to come to Truth defense on the multi-media front since I have a PS3 and a 360. If you are not using the DVD drive in the 360, it is quieter then the PS3. The PS3 fans kick in loud and strong after having the system on for more than 20 mins. During quiet moments while watching a movie I can definitely here the PS3 where I cannot here the 360 in the same situation.

I found out about a week ago, that I cannot use my USB drive to play music, watch photos or view videos from the PS3. Unless I miss something within the PS3 menus I could not find a way to do any of the above from the PS3. The 360, I can do all of the above not only from a USB drive but also from a portable like IPOD, ZUNE, PSP, etc. I can use my 20 in 1 Flash USB drive to play those media as well. I can say that remote play is pretty cool feature with the PS3 but it does involves having to purchase a PSP, thank goodness I have one so I am covered.

On my PC, I have transcode 360 and Tversity. I use Tversity to stream media from my PC to the PS3 as well as the 360 but I also use Transcode 360 to stream media from my Vista Media Server to the 360 when using Media Center. Tversity works ok there are some little problems I have with it but delivering content is pretty easy. I will say the quality is not as crisp as using Transcode 360 but I have to play with it enough to find out if I do not have everything set correctly.

Right now, Media Center and the 360 is the way I view my media. The interface is better, I still have all of my Xbox Live functions. I can stream recorded TV programs from OTA HD stations. I still have all of the PVR functions with those recorded and Live TV broadcast so I can pause, rewind etc and since I have two tuner cards I can also record and watch Live broadcast at the same time. Yes I know cable boxes do this two but then I do not have to pay 10 bucks for DVR function and also 9 bucks to rent the unit.

As a media player, the 360 is almost complete. IMHO it definitely has oodles more feature and function over the PS3 at this point in time.

It's always PS3 owners not knowing what the 360 is capable of. I have a PS3 and 360 & PC too. I can point out the many problems of cross conversion games that plague the PS3, and that it's multimedia cannot compete against the PC or 360...I also think that blu-ray will fail, as HDDD drives are becoming extremely cheap, the muiltlayered disc are becoming the norm for DVD/CD and HD disc. Also with Super Hi-Def approaching quickly, and download becoming more available easily, with HDD becoming larger and cheaper. Personally Sony did miss the main point for console: GAMES. This is where 360 beats it's hands down, also with muiltimedia and online gaming.

"I have a PS3 and 360 & PC too."

No, no, no, your brother has the PS3, truth, remember?

"I am going to come to Truth defense on the multi-media front since I have a PS3 and a 360. If you are not using the DVD drive in the 360, it is quieter then the PS3. The PS3 fans kick in loud and strong after having the system on for more than 20 mins. During quiet moments while watching a movie I can definitely here the PS3 where I cannot here the 360 in the same situation."

20 mins of doing what, exactly? And are they in the same location, same amount of air cooling, etc.?

"I found out about a week ago, that I cannot use my USB drive to play music, watch photos or view videos from the PS3. Unless I miss something within the PS3 menus I could not find a way to do any of the above from the PS3."

Then you're not very smart, are you?

Seriously though, this is absolutely possible. You can even download stuff to your USB stick from the Browser and play it from there. Try that on your 360. ;)

My guess is that you have your media files in different folders on your USB stick. To display those, just press triangle on the usb drive in the XMB and you'll get to see the full folder structure. If you installed FW 1.90 recently, it will also remind you of this option now (so obviously you're not the only one who didn't figure it out. ;) )

Some of the other stuff you can do on the PS3 too though, but in some areas the 360 is still slightly ahead. But the DNLA features of the PS3 are pretty good.

[quote]As a media player, the 360 is almost complete. IMHO it definitely has oodles more feature and function over the PS3 at this point in time.[/quote]

I think oodles is rather overstating it. The 360 also misses a host of features like you mentioned, the browser is pretty good, you can download stuff through your browser to at least your USB sticks (though some of these things can't be directly saved to the HDD, probably for security reasons), and it can actually do more with its harddrive (you can copy most of your stuff to it, including music from your iPod - or can you do that these days on the 360 as well?).

And of course there's still the better upscaling of DVDs in the PS3, as well as the BluRay playback which the 360 doesn't have at all unless you buy an external drive, the PS3 has the RGB Full option (my TV supports it and it makes a big difference), and it supports HDMI 1.3 rather than 1.2 (if you even have the Elite), giving the PS3 among others higher quality sound output (not that I have the stereo to match it, mind you).

Anyway, Heavenly Sword is great, and my girlfriend and I had a laugh when we (or actually she, which is a rare thing) played it in Dutch (our native language). That's not an option very often (Beyond Good and Evil was a nice exception), let alone in a demo. Good move by Sony there.

My take = WTF for that I downloaded 1GB?!