I want to play

In My Humble Opinion
1

I am seeking to modernize my entertainment options. I currently have a crappy PC, a dying DVD player and a PS2. I need to be able to play scratchy DVDs, check my email and play videogames (mostly driving games).

I was kinda waiting for the PS3, but that is sounding less like a good option every day. It seems like an XBox 360 is the way to go.

Can I surf the webs and check email on it (keyboard)? Is it a good DVD player, tolerant of damaged disks? Any good driving games around? Are there rumours of price cuts coming? Built-in HDDVD drive in the future? Buy, wait? Go PS3?

Please advice.

2

I would say you’re not going to web surf and check e-mail on an XBox360 without going through quite a bit of technical fumbling.

Other than that, I think a 360 would be great, and it’s been out a while so you can get good ~$20 games for it.

3

how much fumbling are we talking here? I am not afraid to get dirty but I don’t want to break a sweat.

4

Well I really don’t know, I know there’s no technical reason why it couldn’t be done.

A Google search reveals stuff like this keyboard:

Maybe after that is out there will be more apps for it.

This forum seems to indicate no web browser has happened yet: http://forum.teamxbox.com/showthread.php?t=446566&page=11

Perhaps booting into Linux would be the best bet. That apparently hasn’t happened yet either: http://www.free60.org/wiki/Main_Page

I wonder why MS has such an objection to getting the XBox 360 on the Internet? Maybe because it would make them sell fewer Windows licenses.

I guess for now the best TV web browsing option is the Wii. It’s a cool little console.

5

Wii works as a browser? and plays DVD’s?

6

The Wii will browse the web, and the Wii controller is used sort of like a mouse, you point it at the screen to control an on-screen pointer. Very slick. More info here: Wii Menu - Wikipedia

Wii doesn’t do DVD, but it looks like a future version will: http://www.geek.com/wii-dvd-coming-to-us/

You’d probably be better off with a separate dedicated DVD player though.

7

If all you’re doing is checking your email, a crappy PC should more than suffice. A Wii can surf the web, but there’s no keyboard and reading anything on a TV screen (even an HDTV) is not conducive to lengthy browsing.

I’ve also found that a cheap $30 standalone DVD player will play scratched DVDs just as well as more expensive players and better than the game consoles.

So I think you’d be best buying a new (cheap) PC for around $300, a Wii for $250 and a cheap DVD player for $30. Total: $580.

I just saved you $20 over a PS3. I take cash, check or PayPal :slight_smile:

8

I am trying to keep clutter to a minimum but I am not willing to sacrifice performance for the sake of convergence.

The crappy PC I already have and works as advertised :wink: . No real complain on this front. It would have been nice to do away with it, but there is no real need.

As for DVD players, a spate of power surges brought us down from $50 players to $30 players. The current one (Akai) is really sucky. The remote almost requires physical contact with fresh batteries, it takes forever and a half to load and to advance chapters (a real problem when you need to shorten Cars).

The PS2 works as well as it did the first day, of course. It is just that it has stopped impressing me with the quality of the games for it. This is my main concern, the need to return to the videogaming fold (last game I bought was Shadow of the Colossus).

Wii sounds very interesting, but Xbox seems to have more of the games I normally like (adventure platforms and driving).

Are there rumours of price cuts for the Xbox? An HD-DVD version?