I'm not quite sure how to start this entry, because two years ago I would never have seen myself in this position. But I guess i'll come right out and admit it: this week I bought a Playstation 3.

Now I realise this is going to seem unusual to those who know me and also for the regular readers of this blog as I have generally been critical of the hardcore consoles and the Playstation in general, but like much of my other expenditure, this was mainly motivated by one thing: Star Wars. 😛

This week the first Star Wars release on Blu-ray disc came out: the Star Wars: The Clone Wars movie.

I didn't have a Blu-ray player, and despite recent price-drops in standalone Blu-ray players, the PS3 is still generally considered one of the best Blu-ray players and DVD upscalers out there. Plus Des has been quietly commenting and hinting how cute Little Big Planet is. So the PS3 is basically both our Christmas presents to each other :D.

It's not the first time Star Wars media has pioneered my exploration into new technology. Back in 2001, the first DVD i ever bought was Star Wars: Episode I, and that was months before we even owned a DVD player!

Like the DVDs seven years ago, i'm really astounded at the quality of picture on the Blu-ray discs, and that's only watching it on our non-full-HD 720p TV. I have made a rule though: i'm not going to re-buy any movies on Blu-ray that I already own on DVD (the only exception being Star Wars ;)).

There just isn't the jump in quality and technology to justify it. Blu-rays just aren't that much better than DVDs to re-buy all movies I already own. All Blu-ray players are essentially DVD players too, and most do a really decent job of upscaling normal DVDs to display them at near-HD quality. But for future purchases of movies that are worth it, i'll now probably be buying Blu-rays over DVDs.

Nothing much else has been happening, we're almost at the end of work for the year. I spent today rolling out IE emergency patches for the latest gaping hole in security for the browser.