The new and improved PlayStation 2 - The Pulse 2: the best of J@pan Inc's newletters - Brief Article

Japan, Inc., June, 2003

Sony may be guilty of making more revisions of its PlayStation 2 games console than the WWE has newly-crowned champions, but the SCPH-50000 is the company's first PS2 with a progressive-scan DVD player. Sony is clearly playing a spot of catch up with Microsoft's Xbox here, since the newer machine has been capable of playing in progressive scan from the very start, but it's still a welcome move, particularly for any of those games console owners who pay [yen] 25,000 for the dumb thing. But honestly it's way more than just a marketing scheme peddled by the manufacturers, right? Again, bowing to consumer demand, the new PS2 can also handle playback of DVD-RW discs, although not DVD-RAM discs.

Nevertheless, movie fans without a dedicated DVD player will be happy campers now, even if they do have to shell out again for the SCPH-10100 component or SCPH-10330 digital cable and then again for the SCPH-10420 remote control unit. The new remote has added functions, such as the ability to turn your console on and off, reset it or open the disc tray, but who thinks you should be paying again just for that? Nah, thought not.

More info: www.scei.co.jp/corporate/release/pdf/030414.pdf