PlayStation 3 PS3 - what you get for the money

As always, comments are welcome.

Now, I'm fortunate enough to work for Sony but regardless of that I really like my PlayStation 3. What follows is my personal view and does not represent that of my employer or any other person.

Here's what I can do by itself at no extra cost:
* Play PS3 games obviously
* Watch Blu-Rays & DVDs in high-def. The DVD upscaling is the best I've seen
* Listen to music with a great visual display to match of planet earth in glorious HD
* Look at photos with a great looking slideshow that looks like someone throwing photos onto a table
* Wirelessly connect to the internet for browsing
* Download & play brilliant games from the PlayStation Store
* play online with other players at no extra cost

If you compare that to what you get out of the box from an Xbox 360 then you can see that it represents much better value. Especially if you tried to replicate everything it does with supporting hardware.

Here's what supporting hardware I've got, none of which is essential but it adds to the experience:
* Play TV
* PlayStation Portable
* BluRay remote
* Buffalo Terastation Duo - 1TB (Media Server)
* Full HD tv

Add in the PlayTV and you've got yourself a Freeview+ box (terrestrial freeview and a digital recorder) to watch and record digital TV

Now, layer onto this a PSP to connect to your PS3 via Remote Play and you can remotely connect to your PS3 from anywhere in the world and view photos, listen to music, watch videos and watch live tv and your recorded programmes!

Now, throw in a media server that your PS3 magically connects to and you can safely store all of your photos, music and video and access them either on your PS3 *or* on your PSP anywhere in the world!!

This only really scratches the surface of the capabilities of the PS3 but in the space of 3 months it's become the central entertainment hub in our house through which most of our onscreen entertainment flows.

I'm objectively happy that I chose a PS3 as the base on which to build everything. I'm very happy.