it's not bad but when they are adding a feature that won't be even used in games and will be as popular as linux on ps3 which means will be used by a huge group of maybe 8 people not to mention to actually have ability to use that feature you have to spend 4x more money than on ps3 alone. and then sony can't give me simple features that actualy DOES matter that were even on past ps3 models like 4 usb ports, memory cards reader, BC or SACD playback. those things were promised as a core ps3 features since ps3 announcement.

if Sony gives waron 1 million dollars and HUGE 10 million dollars worth house,5 most expensive cars and a private helicopter waron would,as always, find something negative to say about it

Disclaimer, this is for everyone who seems to agree with the OP.

No, you guys don't understand what we're saying here. The average person won't care about this stuff. The thing is though, if they want a PS3, they'll buy one anyway. No one is forcing them to go out and buy the best surround sound system. Including this stuff probably doesn't cost Sony much at all, and if they hadn't included it, I doubt we'd have seen greater than a $100 price drop. Seriously, they drop $100 off of the price and add in some new sound support. No, not everyone will use it, but a few will.

Honestly, you guys should look at it from this angle. The PS3 has always been insanely expensive. Sony just lowered the price to a much more reasonable $300. That's right, a $100 price drop. They dropped an entire $100 off of the price of this console. That's sunk in now, right? Okay, well do you honestly think that they would drop the price further by not including these features? No, it's probably not worth any more money off, and you'd think that people would be happy with the PS3's new price. I don't see a problem with Sony taking $100 off of the price and adding in a feature that some people might use. And for those of you who're saying that they could save "$20-$30" by taking it out, I'd like to know where you got this information.

You don't seem to understand what Sony is doing with the PS3 and there plan for it.

The PS3 is as everyone knows way ahead of its time because it's made to last a really long time (10 year plan). So there adding all these features that basically everyone is going to have in a few years, there just getting ahead of the game.

This doesn't cost them 30$... this doesn't even cost them 2 dollars....

And let me get this straight... SONY drops the price by 100$ and give the tech junkies a new feature that will cost SONY themselves next to nothing while giving consumers just another option to enjoy the system [ONE THAT'S COMPLETELY OPTIONAL]. The people who would by the PS3 for this feature... chances are they have the money to do it, or they already have the sound system to do it.

So because SONY spent very little and cut the price so that a few people can enjoy a new feature, you come to this forum to bitch and complain...

Oh yes, I sitll remember the worldwide ad campaign: "PS3, the PS2 with 4 USB ports and a card reader"

Again as I said in my previous post: they are not adding a functional feature. You are not paying extra money. Using the latest revision of an HDMI chip did not hold them back from other features.

The PS3 was always positioned as a console/mediacenter with the vantages of a computer/console: powerful stream processing, easily upgradeable in software to support various standards. And that's what moved a certain number of units in the prosumer market. People who - differently from me and you - really have an home-theater system and care about being able to play those formats.

Thus talking about BC or two extra USB ports or card reading hardware - which were cut years ago to cut down costs - into a thread about direct bitstreaming of two previously supported audio standards (about which you also demonstrated to be quite ignorant) has no logical reason. Unless, you know, you're just trolling.

Sony tries to expand true HD experience with less money and people never get satisfied...

man stop being a peasant and complaing that the stuff is too high tech.Some people actually like having and collecting high tech gear.Man ye people are incredible,always have something to wine about

GROW UP!!!!!!

Admit it MDmaniac, how much did it hurt pulling that $30 estimate for this capability out of your ass. I hope you atleast had it in dollars and not quarters.

This is a ridiculous thing to complain about. You have no idea how much they could save if they didn't add this feature if anything at all. You just wanted to talk about how much you love the direction Nintendo is going, which is fine, but don't expect everyone to disagree with you that all hi-tech stuff is bad.