ps3 or xbox 360

I can almost hear the breathless panting in the hallowed halls of a Canadian nuclear power station as a frothingly excited canuck hurls himself at his keyboard, bursting forth with vim & gusto to launch into yet another soliloquy extolling the virtues of Sony's compact portal to the devil's own lair....

Or as some might say.....


PS3


Which is better though?

Farked if I know......


But if I wanted something that does what a PS3 does, I'd buy a PS3.

but does a ps3 play normal dvds as i have quite a large library of dvds and not one blueray disc
YET!

quote:

Someone who knows lots "Farked if I know......"

Me too. I know this is a bit weak but does the PS3 Website not tell you these things? It may be stupid of me to expect that it does mind you.

ok big h is right - just surfed a ps3 forum and although its a bit vague i think ive answered some of my own questions. so according to them
the ps3 plays b-ray and standard dvds any region too by all accounts which is a bonus!
picture quality is pretty good too but obviously not up to the top notch dedicated players although there are software updates available online.
would still appreciate views by ps3 owners though.
cheers, scotty

Apologies if my humour was unhelpful.

A PS3 DOES play DVD's, and will upscale them too, although whether it does this better than your screen would when fed 576p via HDMI depends on what your screen is.

A PS3 does many, MANY things... so does my swiss army knife, but neither is a surgeon's scalpel like, perhaps, a DVD5 may be considered.

Which console is best depends on what you want it to do aside from playing games.

Do bear in mind that Microsoft are currently vehemently denying that they may consider making a version of the Xbox360 with integrated BluRay playback.

On the same basis that when Bill Gates's mob say something will do something then it usually doesn't, I take the denial as a pretty good omen that quite soon they'll launch this product... but that's only any good to you if you fancy waiting.

And that, ultimately, is why I'm ponderous about recommending either.

I would say, though, that a PS3 does a better job of playing DVD's than any xbox I've ever seen (even if it loses hands down to a high quality DVD player like the n-Vi I've chosen to use).

Be wary of multi-region claims... Should Sony change their minds on this, it is entirely possible to encode firmware updates for a PS3 onto a fresh games release - hence when you buy your shiny new copy of GT5 and load it for the first time the firmware on the disc updates the machine and renders it region-locked once more. Sneaky buggers!

Reasons why I preferred the PS3 to the xbox360:

- PS3 is already on the noisy side - but the xbox is even louder (hairdryer ). That's why I kept my separate DVD player.
- PS3 has HDMI 1.3 as standard in all models - the xbox no HDMI at all in their older/lower range models and only 1.2 in their top series (not 100% sure about their actual range).
- PS3 has integrated BluRay - xbox had external HD-DVD which is discontinued now. Heard rumors about external or even new box with internal BluRay drive. But this is only speculation at the time...
- PS3 keeps getting better with regular FirmWare updates. It was not capable of upscaling DVDs at first. The quality bettered quite a lot since they integrated it. Recently they added new HD sound formats.
I think the difference to a good (and more expensive) dvd player is bigger in audio than in video.
- Forget about picture quality if you have to use the analogue PS3 outputs! They need an adaptor and are known to be bad...
- I don't like MS stuff (except RDC - if there is no other way ).

happy gaming
Adrian

Hi Scotty,
I bought an Xbox360 for my Son when it was launched and subsequently (2 years ago) bought one for my lounge. This was mainly to enable the wireless streaming of music and photo's from my PC in the Study via Media Center (although I have been known to play the odd game or three).

I suscribe to Napster and for a monthly sub of £9 I am able to download most available albums and listen to them through my active Naim system. If I like the album I then buy the CD, and this has saved me a lot of money and storage space. Xbox also has a far better range of games available.

As far as I can establish, PS3 enables you to play music/photos but only by direct loading to its hard drivae via USB or CD, which would be a pain for me. Also I am not sure whether it supports wireless networking.

Microsoft opted for HDDVD in preference to Blueray, but is expected to make a Blueray Drive available "sometime".

I must also say, that I use an upscaling Denon DVD player that is not significantly inferior to Sky HD on my Pioneer plasma TV.

Regards

Gerry

Thanks to all who have taken the time to reply.
scotty.

Scotty,

So what's gonna be? X Box or 360? I was just about to as the same question and you've already done it for me. I was all set for the PS3 when on Saturday night my friend tells me wit the Xbox you can play over the net against each other.... Not sure if this is true and or you can do this on the PS3. sounds great though.

Now i've read this i'm more confused.

BTW - i think i'm gonna go for the Panasonic Lumix. I say think - because someone at work is selling a canon 440d at a very very good price................

It goes on!!!!

ATB

KK

kk,
trouble is as good as a 440d is it wont fit in your pocket! so depends what your gonna use it for. as for 360 v ps3.....im leaning towards the ps3 purely because of the blu ray player.
both consols seem to be great for games but i want it for movies too.
regards, scotty

The PS3 is technically by far the superior product but there are, at the moment, more XBox 360 games available. However the PS3 comes with Blu Ray already built in while you'll need to buy an external HD drive for the 360. As HD is now dead you'll have to decide if that'd be a smart thing to do. My son's PS3 looks and feels like a beautifully finished piece of black marble, runs almost silently, and upscales with the best, while his 360 feels like it's built into an old biscuit tin, sounds like a 1950s air conditioning unit, and requires an external HD drive. I'm also assured by the technicians in my department that although current games look stunning on both, the 360 is operating at its limits while the PS3 has hardly been tested. Online gaming is, I believe, more advanced on 360 but that's bound to change as things move on.

It looks to me as though the 360 is the end of one generation while the PS3 is the beginning of the next. It's a beautiful machine.

as far as i know on-line gaming with the ps3 is free, where you have to pay for it on the x-box 360, i have both and would go for the ps3, the main advantage with the x-box 360 is the range of games and the fact there are more bargains to be had, games for the ps3 seem more expensive.

points taken guys....the games im not worried about as ps3 will catch up quite quickly i think.
its the bluray capability thats a clincher for me!

p.s. one more question boys.....am i right in thinking on connections. FOR PICTURE = HDMI - LCD/PS3 and FOR SOUND THROUGH 5.1 = OPTICAL - PS3 / AV RECEIVER (mine has not got hdmi connection).
regards, scotty.

its got to be forget both and get a

wii

quote:

Originally posted by scottyhammer:
points taken guys....the games im not worried about as ps3 will catch up quite quickly i think.
its the bluray capability thats a clincher for me!

p.s. one more question boys.....am i right in thinking on connections. FOR PICTURE = HDMI - LCD/PS3 and FOR SOUND THROUGH 5.1 = OPTICAL - PS3 / AV RECEIVER (mine has not got hdmi connection).
regards, scotty.

Yep

My PS3 is connected to my LCD via HDMI and to my AV2 via optical link for 5.1 sound.

I agree with Neill though for pure family fun the Wii is unbeatable though

Richard

Main advantage of the X-Box 360 is you can get to play Halo! And Bioshock! Awesome! I'm no good at either but they're good fun anyway.

I'm pretty certain you can't use the optical digital connection for the HD sound formats; the bandwidth isn't enough & you have to use HDMI. You'll just get the "Standard" DD/dts via the optical.

tony,
the optical is the best connection for sound to my "old" receiver as it doesnt have a hdmi socket.
regards, dave

Scotty,

I'm currently using a ps3 for games and dvd duties. Picture quality on blu-ray is amazing and my tv only does 1080i. It upscales normal dvd's and they look pretty damn good too.

As far as audio goes, I'm in the same boat in that I use a yamaha av amp and connect via optical. On normal dvds this will give dolby or dts, dts neo etc and sond is really good. On Blu-ray it downscales it to pcm or dolby 5.1 depending on disks. But using some of the settings on the amp can give some really good sound.

If you connect via hdmi to amp then you get linear pcm hd audio which is truly mind blowing on movies.

As for it being noisy.....it is, but not as bad as many make out. Only on really quiet passages will you notice it and that depends on how far away you sit from it. Its much quieter than an xbox an a pc.

Gaming is amazing and even online its great if you have a good connection speed. ANd as someone else mentioned its free too.

Couple that with the advent of play tv, ps3 own dvr its looking a formidable media centre. You can even use it as a media extender where it connects to your pc wirelessly and you can play videos and music through your surround amp if you want to. The xbo lso does this and probably syncs up better via media centre prog, but the ps one is pretty good.

Hope this helps.

Ryan

cheers ryan thats just clinched it for me...im ordering one......... NOW!
Regards, Scotty

p.s.
what games do you recommend ?

call of duty 4 " THE GAME OF THE MOMENT"

i was thinking...........
COD 3 OR 4 (Prefer wwii scenario)
GT 4 Prologue
RATCHET & CLANK

cant wait for ALIENS Colonial Marines later in the year.