Of course, you'll have to get used to your DVD player having an umbilical cord. Whenever a DVD is put into the PS2, the game controller becomes a DVD remote (not remote remote, but a remote nevertheless). All the basics of navigating a typical DVD are assigned to specific buttons: X is enter, O is stop, Triangle calls up the DVD's own menu, and Square is for the title menu. Start toggles play and pause. Clicking down on the left analog stick is for subtitle options and the right stick is for audio options. The directional pad mimics the same function on most DVD remotes, while the left and right shoulder buttons control forward and back scan searches or moving to the next or last disk chapters.

Since most users haven't a prayer of remembering all these dedicated button functions, the Select button superimposes on screen an embossed menu with all of these commands and more. From here you can go directly to specific chapter numbers, change video angles if the disk supports it, or open the general PS2 setup routines for the DVD player.

To be sure, DVD users will face limitations on a PS2, not the least of which is the controller issue. For many users who don't want to watch their DVDs from the living room floor, the absence of a built-in infrared remote is a deal-killer for the PS2. In fact, even with third-party remotes coming on the market, the lack of a reliable one is a key issue. First of all, with a DVD player, Sony should have had the foresight to include IR functionality. None of us sits on top of our TVs to watch movies, so making the controller the standard control device for DVDs was not the sharpest move. And the third-party remotes are not much help. One unit from Interact was delivered to US stores configured for the Japanese PS2, so two critical buttons were reversed. This is to be fixed in the next shipment of the units. The Pelican unit I tried was abysmal. Its thin plastic shell and crude button feel is about as sturdy as your standard Happy Meal toy. Worse, it not only had trouble sending commands reliably in the twelve feet between my couch and PS2, it also frequently sent false signals. With the Pelican remote plugged in (it has a pass-through plug that keeps the same port open for a game controller), the DVDs I watched frequently paused and searched ahead all by themselves and without a finger on the remote. As soon as I unplugged the remote from my system, the problem disappeared. The fixed Interact unit may be better (it would have to be), and I have seen a Saitek unit also offered that may be more helpful.