American PS3 or PAL PS3?

eoin2nc

Ive decided to gat a PS3, but Im traveling to the U.S next week. I was wondering if I should buy a PS3 there, as they are $600 which works out about 450 euro, if would it be better to buy one in Ireland?

Any suggestions would be welcome



Eoin

scrapland

3 things to consider

1. "if" you get caught for customs / import duty on your way home you will have to pay around €100-150

2. BluRay movies for the most part are still region locked. Some PAL BD movies are region free - but most are not. If movie hunting locally, or wishing to hire our movies from Xtravision etc. is important to you - then I'd wait for a PAL machine

3. Backwards Compatability. If you want to play PS2 games on your PS3 - then they have to be of the same region as the PS3. So if you got an American PS3 - our Euro PS2 games do not work on it.

mayto

plus your fecked if sometime goes wrong with it

4Xcut

IF, i stress if you buy in usa:

Open everything, throw out all tie strings and put it back in the box.. Make sure it looks like its been opened. Then when coming through customs say that it was bought in ireland and that you brought it with you cos there were relatives kids in the house or somesh1te like that.

Mods: Not sure if this post is ok for obvious reasons. Delete if its inappropriate

That Guy 901

Thats a great idea 4Xcut, never thought of that! Cheers!

4Xcut

got the idea when i was thinking of bringing back a laptop - was just going to buy the bring a bag over;)

GUIGuy

Well I've been in Dubai where they sell all 3 different models (US, Japan, Rest) at about 400 Euro. Very hard for them to shift even at that price.But if you're able to tell them apart what makes you think that a customs officer won't... after all it does have NTSC written all over it. Maybe get some PAL & correct region stickers too! Singapore or Malaysia are a far better bet as they have the same power and region as us and get the same model as us for the same price as Japan (AFAIK). I'll be over in June & might have a look.

savemejebus

simpler thing to do is bring a medium sized rucksack as your carry on on the plane. Buy the ps3, take it out of it's box and post the box, manuals etc. back to ireland. When posting the box back, buy some bubble wrap. wrap the ps3 in that, then put a towel or jumper around it and bring it back in your carry on.

morbo

Also, not all the games are region free. The Sony produced games will be universal, it's up to the individual developers of the independent games whether or not they want to region lock them. Most of them will be locked. The US PS3 console is slightly more powerful, but the fact that so many PS3's have been packing in over here would worry me about buying it abroad. If you’re in the US for two weeks, you should spend the whole time playing it to make sure it's not crocked. Plus, you'll only be able to play it through component, or HDMI on PAL TV's. Not a big deal, but something to keep in mind.

scrapland

morbo wrote:

Also, not all the games are region free. The Sony produced games will be universal, it's up to the individual developers of the independent games whether or not they want to region lock them. Most of them will be locked. The US PS3 console is slightly more powerful, but the fact that so many PS3's have been packing in over here would worry me about buying it abroad. If you’re in the US for two weeks, you should spend the whole time playing it to make sure it's not crocked. Plus, you'll only be able to play it through component, or HDMI on PAL TV's. Not a big deal, but something to keep in mind.

WHAT??? talk about missinformation fella.

ALL GAMES ARE REGION FREE!! PERIOD

USA machine is not slightly more powerful at all. It has a PS2 hardware chip - which is nothing when it comes to ps3 games - besides the Region coding of PS2 games as I covered in the first reply will probably make it a nill fact anyway.

There were very few reports of PS3's breaking down in the states.

You can play through composite & svideo too.

Movies are region coded, but most older titles are region free (just look on the back of them if ABC is shown, the movie is region free. Picked up Hellboy, Open Season, Kung Fu Hustle, Talegeda Nights in gamestop today. All work perfect with my USA machine).

eoin2nc

scrapland wrote:

WHAT??? talk about missinformation fella.

ALL GAMES ARE REGION FREE!! PERIOD

USA machine is not slightly more powerful at all. It has a PS2 hardware chip - which is nothing when it comes to ps3 games - besides the Region coding of PS2 games as I covered in the first reply will probably make it a nill fact anyway.

There were very few reports of PS3's breaking down in the states.

You can play through composite & svideo too.

Movies are region coded, but most older titles are region free (just look on the back of them if ABC is shown, the movie is region free. Picked up Hellboy, Open Season, Kung Fu Hustle, Talegeda Nights in gamestop today. All work perfect with my USA machine).

So you have an American ps3? Did you have any problems with it? How did you get it?


Reading the above posts it seems that there are pros and cons to it. I have to think about it for a bit longer.




Eoin

scrapland

eoin2nc wrote:

So you have an American ps3? Did you have any problems with it? How did you get it?

Reading the above posts it seems that there are pros and cons to it. I have to think about it for a bit longer.

Eoin

My friend in HK bought it, and then I bought it off him. It is a USA machine. I thought that because my friend had bought it and I was buying privatly again - that I would not get caught for import tax - but I did.

No problems so far at all.

Mizu_Ger

scrapland wrote:

3 things to consider

2. BluRay movies for the most part are still region locked.

Actually most BD movies are region free. See here: http://bluray.lindsite.dk/

Sony also recently announced that all their EU releases from now on will be region free!

scrapland

Mizu_Ger wrote:

Actually most BD movies are region free. See here: http://bluray.lindsite.dk/

Sony also recently announced that all their EU releases from now on will be region free!

I know it was me who posted that link in another thread yesterday for someone


Most 'new' titles however aren't. So that's somthing to consider unless you just want an older back catalogue of BD movies.