RSSToshiba's $249 Blu-ray player vs. $299 PS3: The choice is obvious
By Tim Conneally | Published September 3, 2009, 6:30 PM
Just about a month ago, Toshiba confirmed it had applied for membership in the Blu-ray Disc Association, and announced its intention to launch both standalone Blu-ray players and BD-equipped notebooks this year.
Today, the company that was formerly responsible for Blu-ray's sole opposition in the high definition disc market unveiled the first details about its Blu-ray hardware.
Toshiba's BDX2000 will be launched in the holiday shopping season, and will support BD-Live, Toshiba Regza-link (HDMI-CEC), Dolby TrueHD, DTS HD audio, and both DiVX HD and AVCHD files can also be played back on the device. Expected to come to retail in November, the BDX2000 will cost $249.99....just $50 less than the Blu-ray equipped PS3 Slim.
Think they'll sell many when they're facing that sort of competition?
At least the The Toshiba Satellite P500 notebook stands a fighting chance. The hefty 18.4" notebook is equipped with an embedded DVB-T TV tuner and "Resolution+" DVD upconversion software and HDMI outs for media enthusiasts "who want to have the creme de la creme," Toshiba said today. It runs on Intel Core2 Duo processors and can offer as much as 8 GB of DDR2 RAM, and can be equipped with either an Nvidia GeForce G210M with 512 MB VRAM or a GT230M GPU with 1GB of VRAM. There's space for 2 HDDs, three USB ports, Express Card, 5-in-1 Bridge Media port, 802.11 a/b/g/n, Bluetooth 2.1 +EDR, and the touchpad supports multi-touch gestures.
Toshiba today said the Satellite P500 will be launched in the fourth quarter of this year in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. There is no word on a baseline configuration cost or whether it will be released in the United States.
![Toshiba Satellite P500 18.4" blu-ray notebook](http://images.betanews.com/media/3807.jpg "Toshiba Satellite P500 18.4" blu-ray notebook")
Purchase a PS3? Ridaculous! why would you spend the 50$ more especially when using it just to play movies.. and it doesnt even come with a remote.
I have a PS3, it collects dust in comparison to the 360, its laughable that someone would actually buy disk based media anymore for movies with a 9$ unlimited Netflix account and a stream based ISP (broadband).
As for Toshiba I am not surprised they have decided to support this media, I would like to believe that their decision is based on availablity for their notebooks. I don't know anyone (and I am serious about this) that has purchased a notebook with bloray compliant hareware included.
Score: -1
|Alot of it depends on how fast it is to load the movie. My dad has a Sony Blu-Ray player (I don't remember the model) and it takes forever for the commercials to start. If the Toshiba is as quick to play a movie as the PS3 it will do well. If not it won't.
Score: 2
|I will still go with the PS3 because you can a little more with it than any other platform.
Jay,
http://www.workathometomakemoney.com/
Score: -1
|"Toshiba's $249 Blu-ray player vs. $299 PS3: The choice is obvious"
Yes it is.
A proper dedicated standalone player, everytime.
The PS3 slim uses 3x the power of a decent standalone (even after the recent reduction & improved energy efficiency) when playing a Blu-ray movie.
It is also a poor DVD player and its upscaling is nothing special either.
The hoops necessary to go through to get the slim to bitstream properly are decidedly user-unfriendly.
The PS3 slim also has issues bitstreaming 7.1 DTS HD MA audio on some discs.
Basically the PS3 is a poor mix, not quite one thing nor the other.
It loads quickly.
That's it big feature.
It will also play games.
However everyone I know with an Xbox & a PS3 uses the Xbox for gaming (1 ended up selling the PS3 because it was used so much less).
If you have an Xbox and want blu-ray buy a decent standalone (Amazon have the Panasonic DMP-BD60 @ $180).
It's much cheaper and far superior at movie playback.
Your Xbox has more games and more games with higher review scores - in short it offers everything and more than a PS3 does except for a handful of exclusive games (hardly worth $300).
(and I'd give odds that this toshiba streets at a lot less than that $249 quoted too)
Score: 2
|For the price and what you get for, I would definitely buy a PS3 over the stand alone player. I only need a basic player and the PS3 does that. I own neither at the moment but hope the 360 comes with a B-R solution in the future.
Score: -2
|I have a PS3. If this player has similiar start up times and performs well, I would consider it if I was looking for a second player.
The PS3 is certainly a better value if you want a player and all the extras, but if all you want is a player, this could fit the bill quite nicely and as others mentioned be usable with a normal IR remote - my one issue with my PS3.
The other factor left out in the article is how these two units are marketed. Go into an electronics store and browse the blu-ray players. Do you see a PS3? No. Its in the gaming section - so someone just looking for a player might very well pick this up instead of a gaming console.
Score: -1
|If one wants only a Blu-Ray player, then the Toshiba might be the better choice since it probably comes with an IR remote an can thus be used with other universal remotes. If you want to use the PS3 to playback BDs you have to use the wireless controller or buy the bluetooth remote - which might not appeal to some.
Score: -1
|Thats alot of money for a disc player.. Best to buy a media player that will play flac and other un-compressed formats..
Score: -4
|They would. They have sold the HD-DVD technology rights to a chinese company. Now Toshiba is not competition for BD group.
Score: -1
|Instead buy chinese bd player for 24.90 $
Score: -2
|I know some people may not want a games console, bt the PS3 is so much more, I have had mine for about a year and yet I play very few games on it, in fact I only got the two that came with it. You can put music and video files on it, something which most Blu-ray players wil not do, well not internally anyway as they don't have a hard drive. $249 is about 150 British pounds, but I doubt it will convert that way, I bet the Toshiba player will be in the £200 mark when it gets here. there are cheaper players here, I saw a Samsung for £140, mind you it was profile1.1, but then that is fine for a lot of people.
I like my PS3, even if I don'5t play games on it, I am one of the people sony don't like
Score: -1
|I agree, the PS3 fills a niche in our house for watching streaming shows on Hulu etc... I like the web browser and of course the BD capability is top notch. I have no games either, but we do use it occasionaly to break out a PS2 or PS1 game.
Pretty soon the XBOX360 will have Facebook capability and they are going to intertwine the two somehow. I'm glad I have both systems (and a Wii), but the 360 is the only serious gaming machine.
Score: -1
|Hulu has been blocked on the PS3 for months.
Score: 0
|Well, at least it comes with a remote
Plus, it's MSRP is $249.99, which means it'll sell anywhere from $180-$250, while the PS3 will be $299 everywhere since the retail markup on PS3's are nonexistant, while the markup on electronics are substantially larger.
Score: 0
|I would say Toshiba really isn't wanting to sell many BRD players.
Score: -1
|I'd imagine the price would drop to $199 or $179 within a year. Whereas PS3 would likely stay at that pricepoint until Sony tells them otherwise [due to Manufacturer Minimum Advertised Price ( MAP )]
I would be interested to learn if any of the up-conversion/post processing SD tricks from the XDE-500 are in the unit.
Guess we'll have to wait and see..
Score: 2
|Yes it is obvious: "none of the above"
Score: 8
|LOL. I am in complete agreement!
Score: 5
|Comparing a brand new product with discounted version of 3 year old one is a bit strange - Toshiba's player will be discounted too and will compare much better. Besides not everyone wants a console.
Score: 1
|OK, what about the other brand Blu-Ray players in the universe that are $249+? Or is this some kind of mocking over Toshiba or something? Confused here...
Score: 3
|This, I saw a blu-ray player at WalMart today for nearly $400 only 2 aisles away from the $299 PS3 Slim. Some people (myself not included) don't want a console, and still others will buy whatever is cheapest (regardless of features).
Score: 1
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