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feature :: xbox 360 vs ps3: storage and connectivity
Xbox 360 Vs PS3: Storage and Connectivity
Introduction : Hardware Comparison : Marketing : Storage : Connectivity
Harddrives : Communications : Controller : Styling : The Games : Conclusion
Storage and Connectivity
Media is an area that Sony really has a big advantage, and this one is pretty significant. Microsoft has chosen to store the game data on a standard DVD, the same basic format as the current Xbox. They argue that there is still plenty of space left in the format for upwards growth, and that developers are still not using the current space.
Sony, on the other hand, is using something called a BluRay disk. BluRay uses a blue laser, instead of the DVD standard red laser. Blue lasers have a higher frequency, allowing them to pick up much smaller pieces of data. This means the same sized physical disk can store a much larger amount of information. Where a standard DVD can store up to 9 Gigabytes of information, a BluRay disk can hold up to 50.
BluRay is a new disk, and is still only just past 'experimental'. It hasn't really hit mainstream yet,
That extra space really stands out in the area BluRay was designed for in the first place : storing of High Definition video imagery. High Definition takes up vastly more space than standard definition. There's just a lot more picture to save.
With both Microsoft and Sony touting HD support natively and by default, storage becomes more of a premium.
However, this is not quite the obvious jump it seems. For a start, while both systems will play to HD resolutions, they actually really don't need much more space to store them. The greater space is particularly relevant for video data, not real-time graphics. It doesn't take twice as much space to store a high-res game as a low-res one. For comparison, a game like Half Life 2 on PC was developed to run at resolutions significantly higher than High-Definition TV is capable of. Nevertheless, it still fits on 3 CDs, and thus contains far less data than HALF an actual DVD-Rom.
The only thing that really requires BluRay is actual movies, cut-scenes, High Definition CG intros, etc. But given the high technical specs of the machine it's unlikely that many games will (ever) feature much in the way of CG. The game engine will handle most (or all) of these story elements. In large part, CG was a crutch for lower spec machines (especially the original Playstation) to have high quality visuals on a machine that really couldn't handle doing so in the actual game.
So it can be fairly argued that using BluRay instead of DVD doesn't actually give Sony any advantage except one of perception. But perception carries quite a lot of weight on the launch of a new console, and in many ways, perception, as opposed to actual performance, defines the difference between the marketability of the Playstation 3 and the Xbox 360 at the moment.
To counter this difference, Microsoft have recently announced they will support an Add-On for HD-DVD, which will enable it to compete feature for feature. They haven't really stated how this add on would work, or what they're going to do to stop it looking bog-ugly.
Another factor is that while BluRay is almost an unknown at the moment, that's not necessarily always going to be the case. As High Definition on TV and movies becomes more and more common the difference in compatibility between the PS3 and the Xbox could well pull people more and more towards Sony.
Support for a range of storage technologies the Sony System has Microsoft's Magic box pretty handily beaten. The Xbox 360 supports Ethernet and USB connectivity, pretty much allowing the same sort of connections as are possible now. The USB, of course, is USB 2.0, with three ports, and apparently the implementation of it is a lot more standard, allowing the use of a wider range of peripherals and connections (like the now ubiquitous USB thumbdrives), but that remains to be seen.
The PS3, on the other hand sports 6 USB 2.0 ports, as well as support a range of media: Sony Memory Stick (of course) in both the regular version and the mini 'Duo' format, Compact Flash Type I and II, and SD Cards (regular and compact styles). This makes it clear that the Sony machine is trying to position itself much more as a 'do anything' machine than the Xbox, which is fairly minimal, but flexible. USB adaptors for all those types of storage are easily obtainable, and could be accessories without breaking a sweat.
Whether these factors will really make a difference in sales or industry support remains to be seen. It seems relatively unlikely, though. History pretty much shows that people don't really bother using a lot of the high end options on their hardware, and while some people might have, for example, a Sony digital camera with a memory stick, they're unlikely to have more than one or even two of the long list of supported 'bits'.
Media is an area that Sony really has a big advantage, and this one is pretty significant. Microsoft has chosen to store the game data on a standard DVD, the same basic format as the current Xbox. They argue that there is still plenty of space left in the format for upwards growth, and that developers are still not using the current space.
Sony, on the other hand, is using something called a BluRay disk. BluRay uses a blue laser, instead of the DVD standard red laser. Blue lasers have a higher frequency, allowing them to pick up much smaller pieces of data. This means the same sized physical disk can store a much larger amount of information. Where a standard DVD can store up to 9 Gigabytes of information, a BluRay disk can hold up to 50.
BluRay is a new disk, and is still only just past 'experimental'. It hasn't really hit mainstream yet,
That extra space really stands out in the area BluRay was designed for in the first place : storing of High Definition video imagery. High Definition takes up vastly more space than standard definition. There's just a lot more picture to save.
With both Microsoft and Sony touting HD support natively and by default, storage becomes more of a premium.
However, this is not quite the obvious jump it seems. For a start, while both systems will play to HD resolutions, they actually really don't need much more space to store them. The greater space is particularly relevant for video data, not real-time graphics. It doesn't take twice as much space to store a high-res game as a low-res one. For comparison, a game like Half Life 2 on PC was developed to run at resolutions significantly higher than High-Definition TV is capable of. Nevertheless, it still fits on 3 CDs, and thus contains far less data than HALF an actual DVD-Rom.
The only thing that really requires BluRay is actual movies, cut-scenes, High Definition CG intros, etc. But given the high technical specs of the machine it's unlikely that many games will (ever) feature much in the way of CG. The game engine will handle most (or all) of these story elements. In large part, CG was a crutch for lower spec machines (especially the original Playstation) to have high quality visuals on a machine that really couldn't handle doing so in the actual game.
So it can be fairly argued that using BluRay instead of DVD doesn't actually give Sony any advantage except one of perception. But perception carries quite a lot of weight on the launch of a new console, and in many ways, perception, as opposed to actual performance, defines the difference between the marketability of the Playstation 3 and the Xbox 360 at the moment.
To counter this difference, Microsoft have recently announced they will support an Add-On for HD-DVD, which will enable it to compete feature for feature. They haven't really stated how this add on would work, or what they're going to do to stop it looking bog-ugly.
Another factor is that while BluRay is almost an unknown at the moment, that's not necessarily always going to be the case. As High Definition on TV and movies becomes more and more common the difference in compatibility between the PS3 and the Xbox could well pull people more and more towards Sony.
Support for a range of storage technologies the Sony System has Microsoft's Magic box pretty handily beaten. The Xbox 360 supports Ethernet and USB connectivity, pretty much allowing the same sort of connections as are possible now. The USB, of course, is USB 2.0, with three ports, and apparently the implementation of it is a lot more standard, allowing the use of a wider range of peripherals and connections (like the now ubiquitous USB thumbdrives), but that remains to be seen.
The PS3, on the other hand sports 6 USB 2.0 ports, as well as support a range of media: Sony Memory Stick (of course) in both the regular version and the mini 'Duo' format, Compact Flash Type I and II, and SD Cards (regular and compact styles). This makes it clear that the Sony machine is trying to position itself much more as a 'do anything' machine than the Xbox, which is fairly minimal, but flexible. USB adaptors for all those types of storage are easily obtainable, and could be accessories without breaking a sweat.
Whether these factors will really make a difference in sales or industry support remains to be seen. It seems relatively unlikely, though. History pretty much shows that people don't really bother using a lot of the high end options on their hardware, and while some people might have, for example, a Sony digital camera with a memory stick, they're unlikely to have more than one or even two of the long list of supported 'bits'.
