Sony PS3

Posted by: Tuan on 01 April 2007

The unit is priced for 600 British pounds and in Canada is about 650 dollards Canadian. Something is wrong. The only thing is right: The PS3 is a very good DVD player Big Grin
Posted on: 01 April 2007 by neil w
i got mine from canada for about £370

dunno where you get £600 from

neil
Posted on: 01 April 2007 by Tuan
quote:
Originally posted by neil w:
i got mine from canada for about £370

dunno where you get £600 from

neil


Check it out. How do you like the PS3 as a DVD player? Post a fair review here.
Posted on: 02 April 2007 by SimonJ
As a DVD player, I'd say it's pants, as a Blu-ray player I'd say the picture is the dogs danglies and it looks like a cheap deal too, although to be fair it is the only Blu-ray player I have seen. Blu-ray v SD-DVD, Blu-ray wins hands down, although it's hardly a level playing field with 5 times as much information on that silver thing.

Now BD-DVD v HD-DVD which one is best there?!?
Posted on: 03 April 2007 by Tuan
quote:
Originally posted by SimonJ:
As a DVD player, I'd say it's pants, as a Blu-ray player I'd say the picture is the dogs danglies and it looks like a cheap deal too, although to be fair it is the only Blu-ray player I have seen. Blu-ray v SD-DVD, Blu-ray wins hands down, although it's hardly a level playing field with 5 times as much information on that silver thing.

Now BD-DVD v HD-DVD which one is best there?!?


To be fair, your TV may not be up to the task (1080P)? For SD DVD the PS3 is above average and for blue-ray disc (and I have many) it is an outstanding playback machine (in my system) for a price of 600 dollars. How much is the Naim DVD5 now? 5000 dollars?
Posted on: 03 April 2007 by markusp
quote:
Originally posted by Tuan:
quote:
Originally posted by SimonJ:
As a DVD player, I'd say it's pants, as a Blu-ray player I'd say the picture is the dogs danglies and it looks like a cheap deal too, although to be fair it is the only Blu-ray player I have seen. Blu-ray v SD-DVD, Blu-ray wins hands down, although it's hardly a level playing field with 5 times as much information on that silver thing.

Now BD-DVD v HD-DVD which one is best there?!?


To be fair, your TV may not be up to the task (1080P)? For SD DVD the PS3 is above average and for blue-ray disc (and I have many) it is an outstanding playback machine (in my system) for a price of 600 dollars. How much is the Naim DVD5 now? 5000 dollars?


Not to harp on this fact Tuan but I think it is fair to let people know that the PS3 has a serious flaw with regards to SD DVD playback that has nothing to do with tv quality. As it stands right now, the PS3 is stuck in video mode and never switches into film mode when watching movies. As such, it literally throws away resolution and can not compete against mid-level sd dvd players, let alone high end models from the likes of Arcam or Naim.

Here are some benchmark tests done on the PS3 to back up my claim:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=809778&highlight=benchmark

No offense is meant to you Tuan. Please don't take this as a personal attack. I am just trying to make people aware that the PS3 is not the end all, be all product that Sony claims it is. And yes, I OWN a PS3 (20G version) and let me say that my Arcam DV89 wipes the floor with it for sd dvd playback.
Posted on: 03 April 2007 by Tuan
Markusp

Not at all. No offense taken. The PS3 produces beautiful picture on my system (Blue-rays) and above average on the SD-DVD for 500 dollars. You see the magic word? --- ONLY 500 dollars, not 5000 dollards ----
Posted on: 03 April 2007 by Mike1380
It still can't do this though.......



Razz
Posted on: 03 April 2007 by Jay
are they SD or HD pies Mike?
Posted on: 03 April 2007 by Mike1380
They're no longer either.....

BURP!!!!!!

Winker
Posted on: 03 April 2007 by neil w
18 pies in 5hrs Eek

neil
Posted on: 03 April 2007 by Jay
ah no I see now.

it's a 16:9, 6x3 running at 3p (pie)
Posted on: 04 April 2007 by Mike1380
Sometimes "interlaced" can be very satisfying.....


Big Grin


Spookily enough, look what I just found.....



Spooky!!
Posted on: 04 April 2007 by Frank Abela
Tuan,

have you applied the latest firmware upgrade released on 22nd March? I'm concerned about these reports that the SD-DVD replay is not up to scratch, and I see no mention of this being adressed in the firmware upgrade.
Posted on: 04 April 2007 by Tuan
quote:
Originally posted by Frank Abela:
Tuan,

have you applied the latest firmware upgrade released on 22nd March? I'm concerned about these reports that the SD-DVD replay is not up to scratch, and I see no mention of this being adressed in the firmware upgrade.


Frank

I did all the upgrades (now is 1.6) and my PS3 (connecting to a Sony LCD XBR Bravia 40' via HDMI) works well. I did not see any problem at all. The re-play of SD-DVD is quite good on my TV, certaintly better than those sub-300 dollars class DVD players.
Posted on: 04 April 2007 by Don Atkinson
quote:
I did not see any problem at all. The re-play of SD-DVD is quite good on my TV, certaintly better than those sub-300 dollars class DVD players.

ha! proof indeed (if we ever needed it) that the PS3 is a dvd5 killer.......

Cheers

Don
Posted on: 04 April 2007 by Tuan
quote:
Originally posted by Don Atkinson:
quote:
I did not see any problem at all. The re-play of SD-DVD is quite good on my TV, certaintly better than those sub-300 dollars class DVD players.

ha! proof indeed (if we ever needed it) that the PS3 is a dvd5 killer.......

Cheers

Don


Don.

For the asking price of the PS3 it is a killer machine for what it offers when compared to others including the DV5 in the more traditional SD-DVD viewing (although the Ps3 shines on blue-ray play-back which surpasses all standard DVDs).
Posted on: 04 April 2007 by iiyama
Ok, ive not seen a ps3 in action, either as a games machine or blu ray play back.

I have read a lot of reviews and one high end mag, the name i can't remember said that the blu ray player was the best they had seen. However, they still felt that the the play back wasn't what they thought it would be and certainly not superior to hd dvd.

But this wasn't high praise as all the previous blu ray machines were poor to say the least. Yes the ps3 is a good cheap blu ray player but the next wave of players from other companies will easily improve upon the ps3 and leave it far behind.

If you surf the net you will find articles that state the next wave will have a significant price drop but improved play back.
Posted on: 05 April 2007 by David Dever
...and given the new BD-JAVA compatibility requirements for next-generation machines, many of the existing stand-alone machines will be incompatible with newer features on discs already shipping from distributors.

Having spent some time in disc authoring myself, I suspect this may be a bit of a mess for the end-user, especially as these features will not (apparently) make it into the PS3.

Note: This is ultimately not an issue in the States–the Nintendo Wii, with its cheaper technology, is outselling the PS3.
Posted on: 09 April 2007 by Adrian F.
I like the PS3 as a game console very much! Cool

But as a dvd-player, unfortunately it is not very good.
- It does not upscale the picture, although it has more than enough cpu power inside to do so.
- It is much too loud!! No wonder, this cpu + graphics power produces lots of heat. I wonder if they could not switch off unused processor cores to produce less heat and consume less power. (Sometimes more than 200 watts... compared to about 50 watts of an usual dvd player.)
- I have a problem with blacks. It is connected via HDMI->DVI cable to my Sharp LC-45GD1E full-hd TV on the DVI-I plug set to "AV digital" in "dot-by-dot" mode. It is very sharp and almost 3D! But more than grey is not possible as soon as the PS3 is switched on. Already the menu background has a milky veil all over it. I think it could be a problem with a mismatch of the IRE black-level. But I haven't found a menu to switch that manually on both devices.
When I connect a computer, or when I had the denon 1910 dvd-player to test awhile back from a friend, it did not have this black-problem.

I hope that some of this issues can be solved with firmware updates... Confused

happy gaming
Adrian
Posted on: 09 April 2007 by Tuan
quote:
Originally posted by Adrian Frauchiger:
I like the PS3 as a game console very much! Cool

But as a dvd-player it is not very good.
- It does not upscale the picture, although it has more than enough cpu power to do so.
- It is much too loud!! No wonder, this cpu + graphics power produces lots of heat. I wonder if they could not switch off unused processor cores to produce less heat and consume less power. (Sometimes more than 200 watts... compared to about 50 watts of an usual dvd player.)
- I have a problem with blacks. It is connected via HDMI->DVI cable to my Sharp LC-45GD1E full-hd TV on the DVI-I plug set to "AV digital" in "dot-by-dot" mode. It is very sharp and almost 3D! But more than grey is not possible as soon as the PS3 is switched on. Already the menu background has a milky smear all over it. I think it could be a problem with a mismatch of the IRE black-level. But I haven't found a menu to switch that manually on both devices.
When I connect a computer, or when I had the denon 1910 dvd-player to test awhile back from a friend, it did not have this black-problem.

I hope that some of this issues can be solved with firmware updates... Confused

happy gaming
Adrian


You can bring the PS3 to ypur friend's place and try it with other TV and see if the issue remains. I don't have any problem with my Sony LCD. The picture from the PS3 to my Sony LCD TV for SD-DVD is sufficiently good compared to others 300 dollars machines and the blue-rays DVD are outstanding. I think they will resolve the up-scaling issue by firmware upgrade. I give Sony "the finger" on this issue too.
Posted on: 09 April 2007 by Adrian F.
Ha! After searching the internet, I found that some Samsung and other TV users had similar problems. They solved it by turning off some "enhancement" and "energy saving" features.

So I dug deep in the "advanced" picture menu and tried the different settings. The guilty one was "automatic contrast". On the analogue inputs, it seemed to help somewhat. But on the digital input with the PS3, this one is a complete no-go! After switching it off, the blacks where back to the usual level, the veil is lifted Smile One bug less to track...

Then I configured both, the older Sony DVP-NS900V over Scart RGB interlaced and the PS3 over HDMI-DVI progressive with a calibration DVD. The PS3 is now somewhat better. Not as much as it could (should?) be, but the ranking is more logical now, being connected on a flatscreen. On a CRT, it could probably be otherwise.

Learned tonight not to forget, that most of these "auto" and "enhancement" features have side effects or even do harm instead of what they claim to do... If you are in any doubt, shut off all those filters and circuits!

happy gaming
Adrian
Posted on: 13 April 2007 by Frank Abela
Probably setup (as with many things visual) to look impressive in the well lit environs of a shop.
Posted on: 15 April 2007 by Adrian F.
About the loudness: My first PS3 turned out to be faulty!
About 10 min. after it was switched on, without doing something, only let it stay in the X-bar-GUI in an empty chapter, it went up to fan-level 3 -> which is hairdryer style...

The second one stays in fan-level 2, even after several hours of playing, watching movies and folding@home. There are long threads about it in the playstation forum, english and german.

What a relief I got a more quiet one. Now you can even enjoy a movie, without being completely destracted by the noise.

happy gaming
Adrian
Posted on: 15 April 2007 by Rico
I'm sure this is all very interesting - however, it brings to mind arguments of "oh my £350 Sony SACD player is a brilliant CDP and eclipses (on SACD) all those other expensive Naim CDPs at many times more expensive"... only it didn't did it. And SACD continues to die a death.

Blu Ray vs HDDVD is a little different to VHS vs Beta; the similarity is that the porn industry will back one and that will probably win, (again, like Beta/VHS) regardless of the technical merits of one over the other, or how manufacturing/technology is licensed to other players. In the mean time I'll wait on the sidelines while the battle is waged, having been a compartively early-adopter of DVD.

PS3 - great gaming console that plays movie discs of higher definition - bonus.

As Adrian said, happy gaming.