PlayStation 2 Will Play DVD Movies By Terence P. Keegan
Sony Computer Entertainment executives set the record straight about the company's forthcoming PlayStation 2 home entertainment system this week, stating that the console would tout full DVD-Video support when it is launched in Japan March 4, 2000 (with a North American launch to follow next fall). Sony expects to ship one million units in the first week of its Japanese launch at a ?39,800 price point, or currently, about $375 (the same price point Sony's current PlayStation launched at in Japan in 1994). Pricing and availability details for PlayStation 2's North American launch will be made available at next year's E3 Conference (the current PlayStation, which launched at $299, now sells for $99). Phil Harrison, Sony Computer Entertainment of America's Vice President of Research and Development and Third Party Relations, hinted that future DVD-Audio support may be in the cards as well, stating that in addition PlayStation 2 allows for ""full DVD-Video playback, plus future possibilities as that format enhances in other areas, particularly relating to audio."" But Sony's vision for its potential PlayStation consumers stretches far beyond traditional gaming--and even DVD playback- into the fabled world of CE/PC convergence. Equipped with Universal Serial Bus (USB), PCMCIA, and IEEE 1394 ports, PlayStation 2 will have the capability to eventually serve as a nucleus in a network of home audio, video, recording, and Web devices. Sony hopes 'eventually' will be 2001, when it plans to launch a broadband content distribution platform that may signal the age of coexistence between physical and electronic media. Rather than a set-top box approach to convergence, Sony seems to be advocating the home network approach, which involves the integration of separate playback, recording, and interactive components via an interface such as IEEE 1394. ""PlayStation 2 is obviously and clearly focused on at-home digital entertainment,"" Harrison remarked. ""I often use the expression that our market is the 1.2 billion color televisions that are on the planet today....it is a clear part of our strategy to change the way people relate to their television set in the home."" ""What this means for the consumer is that they will be able eventually to enjoy a vast selection of software content, beginning with the PlayStation and PlayStation 2 software libraries, through the convenience of download capability directly into hard disk drives provided by SCE for their PlayStation 2 system,"" added Andrew House, SCEA's Vice President of Marketing. ""There are also a number of future content opportunities that this opens up within the network including downloadable music and movies."" House also noted that clearly there are still technical hurdles to overcome for the introduction of such a network, including hard disk technology development as well as authentication and encryption technology development. Perhaps Sony will enlist Tivo, Inc. the hard-disk based television recorder company that Sony recently took an equity investment in and agreed to provide manufacturing services for. On the copy protection side, Sony will doubtless employ its MagicGate system that already exists for IEEE 1394 devices. Source: Replication News