Japanese Sony PSX – Home Entertainment Nirvana

By Alexander Grundner | October 17th, 2003 (0) Comments

If you haven’t heard yet, Sony has launched a Playstation 2 (PS2) on steroids in Japan called the PSX. With the “X” standing for “crossover,” Sony has combined three consumer electronic devices into one: PS2, digital video recorder (DVR), and DVD burner. But have faith; early next year PSX will come to America.

PSX, the next evolution in consumer entertainment devices, is available in two stylish models: the high-end DESR-7000 with a 250GB hard drive and the low-end DESR-5000 with 160GB hard drive – about $900 and $720, respectively. Being that the PSX is a convergent device, consumers will find Sony’s offering quite attractive. If you were to buy each device separately – PS2 ($179) and DVR/DVD burner (Pioneer 80GB DVR-810H – $1,199), you would spend at least $600 more than buying the low-end PSX DESR-5000.

Price aside, PSX is a beautiful, elegant, minimalist machine with very few buttons or lights. PSX, like the PS2 console, can be laid horizontally or vertically. The front or top loading slot, depending on orientation, is very convenient and welcome. No more loading trays to deal with; just insert the DVD or CD partially and the PSX will pull it in. Underneath the loading slot, is an inconspicuous cover, that when flipped down reveals two PS2 format memory card slots, a USB port, and a Sony Memory Stick slot along with other function buttons. On the back, you will find an integrated Ethernet port (perfect for network gaming and broadband functionality), one D1/D2 output, one Composite/S Video/Stereo sound output, one Optical digital Audio (SPDIF), and two PS2 format Analog controller ports.

Besides the innovative exterior and interior components, Sony has put a tremendous amount of effort in creating an attractive, user-friendly graphical user interface (GUI). The GUI can be controlled via the included remote or game controller, similar to the menu interface in PS2. But unlike PS2, this GUI gives you command over its digital media features: TV channel surfing, program guide, digital video recording, DVD burning (DVD-R, DVD-RW, and DVD+RW), digital music downloads/playback, and digital image slideshows.

It is important to point out that PSX’s high-capacity hard drives allow you to record and insane amount of programs. The DESR-7000’s 250GB hard drive can record about 325 hours of television while the DESR-5000’s 160GB hard drive can record 204 hours. Way more than you will possibly need since you will probably be archiving your media content to DVD. As for archiving, PSX can dub one hour of programming from the hard drive to a DVD-R in 2.5 minutes. Moreover, you can watch recorded content on the hard drive while recording another program or play games while recording programs.

Unfortunately, we have been discussing the Japanese PSX version. We don’t know what features the PSX will include or not include in the American version, due to the legal issues surround copyrighted digital music, films, and television. Even though, PSX is an electronic gaming and entertainment nirvana that is ripe for the American market.

* Above text is the original submission given to AsianWeek

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