IGN Rips Sony A New HDMI Port

Look, if you don't know your HDMI from your ICP or your HDCP/AACS, you, Mr. Consumer, might be F'ed by those SOB's at SCEI. IGN Gear takes Sony to task for ripping out the promised feature of HDMI output in the lower-priced PlayStation 3 model, implying that the company may be misleading consumers about the hi-def capabilities of the Blu-Ray enabled PS3 Jr.

If you aren't familiar with the latest info on the Blu-Ray copy protection scheme, I suggest you become so now. Basically the issue is that without HDMI output, HDCP copy protection will down-convert your signal to 540p. That may be fine for the Wii market, but now that Sony has finally said "Next generation has started", we expect some pretty pictures out of our $500 investment.

One of the most important things to take away from the corporate lashing is the following:

Until Sony announces a $499 PS3 design change, we at IGN Gear can, in good faith, only recommend that interested buyers steer clear of the lower-priced PS3 model or make the purchase fully aware that they may in future suffer severe repercussions when it comes to Blu-ray movie playback -- one of the key features that puts the PS3's price point above competing systems. 540p, the resolution that the Image Constraint Token will down-convert 1080p movies to in non-HDCP systems, is by no stretch of the imagination Hi-Def, and will, without major changes in PS3 design or studio policy, be the future of Blu-ray playback on the $499 PS3.

Yeah. Harsh. Keep your eyes peeled for more on Sony's plans to bait-and-switch consumers. —Michael McWhertor

Source: Kotaku

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