Frustrated with Playstation 3 – What is next?

Saturday, June 20th, 2009 | Technology

Yesterday I watched the The Curious Case of Benjamin Button [Blu-ray] DVD on my PlayStation 3. About 15 minutes into the movie the DVD stopped working. I restarted the PS3 and tried to play other DVDs without success. Everytime I enter a DVD (Game or Movie) the busy symbol in the upper right corner keeps moving but the system does not load or play the DVD. I checked Sony’s website and it seems that the Blu-Ray drive is broken. What really frustrates me is that earlier this year in February the hard drive of the PS3 broke and I had it repaired by Sony for $150. The repaired PS3 came with a 90 day warranty. So now about a month after the warranty expired another major breakdown. I am considering a couple of options:
1) Get the PS3 repaired (again)
Frankly I am fed up with the quality of the Playstation 3. I don’t want to put any more money into it. I also feel Sony has been behind in updating the PS3 software with valuable features, especially I a missing the ability to stream Netflix movies. Also the build in media player does not work with a lot of video formats. The other day I wanted to watch some home videos in .mp4 (H.264) and the system would not recognize them. Yet they play fine on my laptop using VLC. I feel that Sony as a media conglomerate is so paranoid about piracy that they leave out valuable features with the effect that the PS3 is not up to par with other entertainment systems. So this option is ruled out. I will continue to use my PS3 to play downloadable content but thats it.
2) Buy the Xbox 360 Pro 60GB Console
I will need a working gaming console by fall when DJ Hero
comes out. My brother and a couple of my friends have a 360 so that seems to be the best option. I can use it to watch DVDs and stream Netflix. The only disadvantage is that it does not play Blu-ray DVDs and I got really used to the HD quality of BluRay.
3) Get a good standalone Blu-ray Player, like the LG BD 390 Network Blu-ray Disc Player
The LG BD 390 seems to be the best Blu-ray player currently in the market (at least according to Cnet). It offers fast load times, wireless and wired connections. It also includes support for Netflix steaming as well as connection to media servers (I have a Netgear ReadyNAS NV+). Great to see that it not only supports the typical media files (.avi, mpg, .mp4) but also .mkv.

Right now I am leaning toward option 3 and maybe getting an Xbox 360 later in the year (once DJ Hero is available). What would you do?

4 Comments to Frustrated with Playstation 3 – What is next?

Pratyoosh Sharma
June 30, 2009

Another option for you
Install Linux on PS3
I do agree you need to have some patience do this but trust me it’s worth every cent in terms of hack value

Get a nice distro like PSUbuntu
http://psubuntu.com/
Find the installation instruction here
http://psubuntu.com/wiki/InstallationInstructions

You can’t fix the broken blu-ray but you can play literally anything with a media player like vlc.

Matthias Zeller
July 12, 2009

Thanks Pratyoosh,
I will definitely try that out. Love VLC and use it on my Mac as the default media player.
Good to meet you in person the other day in New York.