Latest PS3 review in the blu ray special issue

[yiannis550]

I bought yesterday the blu-ray special issue [EDIT BY MODS - That's the Ultimate Guide To Blu-ray] and I have questions on the PS3 review.

You say that up-scaling DVDs is not as good as other players. What if you let the Receiver do this job and you have a good up-scaling receiver?

Also would all these issues like the sound quality and the image be improvable in a future firmware or is it restricted to hardware capabilities.

I am not into Games much and I was about to get a PS3 for my Blu ray, DVD and CD playback and also benefit from the wireless streaming from the PC and maybe play the occasional game, but your review put me off, especially when I can have the Sony standalone player for cheaper, or the Panasonic for the same money.

 

[D.J.KRIME]

If as you say you are not into gaming then I for one would look elsewherethan a PS3. Look at say the Panasonic BD35 as it is a better BD spinner and to be honest the PS3 is a bit rubbish when it comes to playing CD's.

 

[Anonymous]

Yes and the Panasonic BD55 is better than the 35 and the £600 Pioneer is better than both and the new £900 Denon is better than all of them put together

For goodness sake...The PS3 is a damn good Blu Ray Player as it's a also good Upscaler of DVD's even more so as a result of the recent 2.50 upgrade. It's also a superb games console and what's more it's futureproofed/ugradeable so it's not likely to age as quickly as I

As for playing CD's I agree it's useless but seeing as I don't...that side of it doesn't concern me

 

[Anonymous]

^ What he said.

 

[yiannis550]

Why is it useless in playing CDs? One of the main uses I will put it on is to play my CD collection. Is it that bad?

 

[professorhat]

Well useless is a bit strong, it will certainly play CDs, but just not as well as a budget dedicated CD player would.

 

[Anonymous]

The PS3 is a very capable machine especially at playing Blus. I have one and a Sony 350 and I cant tell the difference at all when spinning blu rays in the picture however bitstreaming the HD audio to my Onkyo amp I do notice a slight improvement in the PCM output by the PS3. If you want to take advantage of the storage on the PS3 for music it certainly is a decent bit of kit for the price.

 

[Clare Newsome]

Odd that you should mention music storage on the PS3 - its music playback from the hard drive (assuming you're playing decent bit-rate files) is clearly superior to its CD playback (which suffers very noticeably from the AV-product curse of poor stereo timing).

 

[Anonymous]

The PS3 is great for CD if you have an external DAC, which you will in your AV amp as standard.

If you had something like an Arcam AVR it the CD playback would be good.

A Dac Magic or Beresford should give you a huge leap.

 

[Gerrardasnails]

Tallyho:
Yes and the Panasonic BD55 is better than the 35 and the £600 Pioneer is better than both and the new £900 Denon is better than all of them put together

For goodness sake...The PS3 is a damn good Blu Ray Player as it's a also good Upscaler of DVD's even more so as a result of the recent 2.50 upgrade. It's also a superb games console and what's more it's futureproofed/ugradeable so it's not likely to age as quickly as I

As for playing CD's I agree it's useless but seeing as I don't...that side of it doesn't concern me

The OP said, "I am not into Games much and I was about to get a PS3 for my Blu ray, DVD and CD playback and also benefit from the wireless streaming from the PC and maybe play the occasional game". That sounds like HE wants to play cds more than he does games. The DJ was just saying that the real Bluray players could do a better job (for less money). As for being upgradeable, the Sony BDP-S550 is the same (ethernet connection) and can be had for £225. It looks like a piece of AV equipment and will definitely play cds better as well as dvd and BDs.

I don't understand why PS3 fans have to ram the machine down people's necks when, unless you are into games, it's not worth buying it as a BD player.

 

[Torres09]

@Gerrard-phew-was i a happy man Wed 21:45

Ive probably been guilty of it myself (unintentionally- "ramming the machine down people's neck") but from reading the posts here, members will champion whatever AV product they own themselves...............

I was actually going on holidays to Lanzarote when i saw the PS3 on release week in the Duty-Free, and as Lanazarote is Tax Free i saved £100. i actually bought it for BluRay playback.....the gaming was a bonus for me......................

However now that BluRay is taking off, prices are dropping, more functionality, etc,etc, when i get the attic done i will be getting a standalone...........prolly Sony S550 or Pana BD35

 

[Gerrardasnails]

Torres09:
@Gerrard-phew-was i a happy man Wed 21:45

Ive probably been guilty of it myself (unintentionally- "ramming the machine down people's neck") but from reading the posts here, members will champion whatever AV product they own themselves...............

I was actually going on holidays to Lanzarote when i saw the PS3 on release week in the Duty-Free, and as Lanazarote is Tax Free i saved £100. i actually bought it for BluRay playback.....the gaming was a bonus for me......................

However now that BluRay is taking off, prices are dropping, more functionality, etc,etc, when i get the attic done i will be getting a standalone...........prolly Sony S550 or Pana BD35

I hear you but at least you are nicely rested for Saturday.

Of course I meant ramming down throat and not neck! Busy getting dinner ready and not thinking properly....

 

[madeinstein]

yiannis550:You say that up-scaling DVDs is not as good as other players. What if you let the Receiver do this job and you have a good up-scaling receiver?

This is what I've heard on this forum. "To get a better upscaling than my Pioneer TV I need AV receiver in 1k+ price range", "PS3 upscaling is better than Onkyo 905" and now "Other players in PS3 price range have better upscaling than PS3". For me all this doesn't make sense at all but what I can tell you is that my PS3 with latest firmware has better upscaling than my Pioneer TV and I think DVD's look really good.

 

[Gerrardasnails]

madeinstein:
yiannis550:You say that up-scaling DVDs is not as good as other players. What if you let the Receiver do this job and you have a good up-scaling receiver?

This is what I've heard on this forum. "To get a better upscaling than my Pioneer TV I need AV receiver in 1k+ price range", "PS3 upscaling is better than Onkyo 905" and now "Other players in PS3 price range have better upscaling than PS3". For me all this doesn't make sense at all but what I can tell you is that my PS3 with latest firmware has better upscaling than my Pioneer TV and I think DVD's look really good.

Whoever said this "PS3 upscaling is better than Onkyo 905" needs glasses!

 

[professorhat]

That was me, and to be fair I've still only tried it on one film, though others have also said that DVD playback has improved with the 2.50 firmware. And I was wearing my contact lenses

 

[yiannis550]

FRrom all of the above I think I made up my mind. I am going for the PS3. I guess the differences in quality will be minimal, plus I want to try out little big planet and access my PC wirelessly to stream music and movies. Most of my CDs are ripped on my 300GB hard drive but I will have to do this again with a better bit rate. I was using 196k. With my new setup which will include the B&W 685 Theater, I will probably need some kind of lossless format and a new hard drive 🙂

 

[yiannis550]

Clare can you explain in more detail what is poor stereo timing and if that on the PS3 is because of hardware or software issues?

I searched google for PS3 and poor stereo but the only reference I can find is your comment! (Google is really quick picking things like this up 🙂)

 

[Clare Newsome]

It's not just on the PS3, but a lot of AV kit (especially - but by no means exclusively - budget products). It's like any product that's trying to do many things well - something has to give, and the involvement of video processing, kit being optimised for movie performance first (with music an afterthought) and often not the best disc transports typically means music loses out.

What tends to suffer most with music is timing and integration - the sense that the tune and the different aspects of a track (voice, instrumentation etc) just aren't flowing and connecting as rhyhmically as they should. Music can end up sounding plodding, compressed and more like a disparate collection of sounds than a coherent whole.

With the PS3 (and any Blu-ray player) there's also the laser mechanism to consider - it's having to cope with reading Blu-ray discs, DVDs and CDs in different ways, so - again - something's gotta give, and CD is it! This (and the transport consideration; plus real-time error correction required) also explains why music typically sounds better from the PS3's hard drive.

I don't want anyone to think, by the way, that i've a particular downer on the PS3 - far from it: I have one at home as the Blu-ray and gaming source for a Full HD projector and 80in screen. It just does some things way better than others!

 

[Anonymous]

Hi,

Seeing as time is obviously quantifiable, could you tell us how the timing of the PS3 playing a CD compares to a good CD player?

Is it as simple as recording two waveforms from the analogue outputs of the players and comparing prominent parts relating to timing - for instance, the drum beat at every bar?

I would assume that a visual waveform would clearly show the better player ?

 

[Anonymous]

Torres09:

@Gerrard-phew-was i a happy man Wed 21:45

Correct me if I'm wrong,but wasn't that on Tues. and the ref did admit that he made a mistake.

Glory,Glory,............

 

[Anonymous]

I watched Reservoir Dogs on the PS3 yesterday DVD having upscaled on full screen, i was amazed at the picture quality. i was gonna get this on blueray but i wouldnt have thought it would get better than upscaled Dvd. Something which i will look at in future instead of rushing out and buying something on blueray that i own on Dvd.

 

[professorhat]

dazb:I watched Reservoir Dogs on the PS3 yesterday DVD having upscaled on full screen, i was amazed at the picture quality. i was gonna get this on blueray but i wouldnt have thought it would get better than upscaled Dvd. Something which i will look at in future instead of rushing out and buying something on blueray that i own on Dvd.

Indeed, some Blu-Ray transfers genuinely aren't much better than their DVD equivalents (though funnily enough, the Blu-Ray version of Reservoir Dogs is apparently actually quite good). Two ways I use to decide on whether to splash out on a Blu-Ray upgrade of a DVD film I already own and love enough to want to upgrade. The first is the review on the picture and audio quality of the disc (it also has a review of the film itself, but I pay little attention to this). If this has given enough positives to make me consider, I'll then hire it through my Lovefilm subscription so I can ensure the quality and sound is up to standard. If it is, I'll then look for a good deal on the disc.

 

[Andrew Everard]

a4quattro:
Hi,

Seeing as time is obviously quantifiable, could you tell us how the timing of the PS3 playing a CD compares to a good CD player?

Is it as simple as recording two waveforms from the analogue outputs of the players and comparing prominent parts relating to timing - for instance, the drum beat at every bar?

I would assume that a visual waveform would clearly show the better player ?

It's more that the leading edges of sounds aren't so well defined, so the sense of rhythm can be smeared a little, whereas with a more competent CD player the rhythmic flow of the music is more apparent.

It's a common phenomenon when using players having multipurpose drives - ie with optics designed to work at the different wavelengths and depths required for CD, DVD and now Blu-ray - and is usually indicative of the player's internal error correction having to work harder to handle msireads of the disc.

Of course when music is ripped there's more time for a correct read to occur, as things are no longer happening in real time, and this could account for music from the HDD in the PS3 sounding better than the same material played directly from the transport mechanism.

 

[Anonymous]

I watched the 1938 Technicolor Film The Adventures of Robin Hood yesterday evening starring Errol Flynn at al on the PS3 having watched it twice already on my DENON DVD 1940. The picture is vastly improved via the PS3 and there is now no way near as much picture noise as I had experienced before via the DENON

The Film is superb and many of the shots are almost 3D like

Now on the HighDef Digest Review Website they have a great review of the Blu Ray version of this film and I am toying with the idea of buying the Region Free BD for around £15.00 from the US.

However I was utterly enthralled by what the PS3 displayed last night which has now, as far as I'm concerned, surpassed my DENON DVD 1940 for DVD Playback. I also recently watched the 1987 DVD Film The Untouchables on the PS3 and once again it hit the spot on my 42inch plasma...The PS3 is definitely now producing much cleaner, and significantly less noise free, pictures

 

[Clare Newsome]

Tallyho:
I watched the 1938 Technicolor Film The Adventures of Robin Hood yesterday evening starring Errol Flynn

Great film! If you haven't already done so, can I suggest a read of Flynn's autobiography - My Wicked, Wicked Ways - which I enjoyed immensely recently, in its newly-restored uncensored version. Totally bonkers in places, but highly entertaining!