Latest PS3 review in the blu ray special issue

[Anonymous]

Thank you for taking the time to explain that, Andrew.

I can appreciate that a PS3 is optimised to read BluRay discs and therefore the ability to read a red book CD may be compromised.

However, what I cannot get my head around is the opinion that misreading data on the disc will have a certain sonic attribute.

For example, transport x has more bass, or transport y has better timing, and so on.

As far as I can comprehend, the data that is missed when reading the disc is basically random. How would transport x only miss bass information? And transport y miss timing cues?

 

[Andrew Everard]

a4quattro:
And transport y miss timing cues?

I didn't say it missed timing cues - it's not like instruments appear to come in at the wrong moment!

Rather as the error correction works to recover lost data, so there is some softening of focus in the sound, and this is perceived as a lack of crispness to the timing and rhythmic drive.

 

[Anonymous]

Whatevetr the ps3 does or does not do well it still has zero chance of looking good in any situation.

alan.

 

[Alsone]

Tallyho:

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

I can only presume there's something wrong with the player or connection or settings on the Denon in this case.

Having owned a Denon 1940 myself, I can say I've never seen any of the problems you mention with upscaling, in fact the pictures on mine were always superb. (Although it only played a few discs before the thoughts of an upgrade to Blu Ray tempted me).

A read of the What HiFI review of the PS3 says that whilst capable, it does suffer from picture noise and lacks depth, and isn't a particularly good upscaler, something which seems at odds with what you've reported especially against the Denon. In fact if the PS3 review is accurate, the Denon should look better not worse in comparison.

I played House of Flying Daggers on mine and I can honestly say that of the few Blu Ray discs I've seen, I haven't seen as much detail or as beautiful or as smooth a picture as I saw on the Denon when upscaling this disc. In the forest scenes on my Pioneer 428XD Kuro, the picture looked totally 3D with amazing depth.

Other DVD discs I upscaled included Pearl Harbour and Point Break and Terminator 3. I failed to see any of the problems you mention in any of them and in all cases the picture was superb, amazing overall, totally sharp but with smooth blending to large areas of colour, and entirely noise free.

As I said above, I think there's a problem somewhere Tallyho with your player, leads or upscaling settings.

However, don't just take my word for it, the person I sold it to who's also a hifi / cinema enthusiast said "It's totally blown me away. I'm absolutely ecstatic with my purchase and couldn't me more pleased, its totally exceeded my expectations". Hardly the words of a someone with a noise filled picture!

 

[professorhat]

Alsone:Having owned a Denon 1940 myself, I can say I've never seen any of the problems you mention with upscaling, in fact the pictures on mine were always superb. (Although it only played a few discs before the thoughts of an upgrade to Blu Ray tempted me).
A read of the What HiFI review of the PS3 says that whilst capable, it does suffer from picture noise and lacks depth, and isn't a particularly good upscaler, something which seems at odds with what you've reported especially against the Denon. In fact if the PS3 review is accurate, the Denon should look better not worse in comparison.
The review was conducted before the 2.50 version of the firmware was released, so doesn't take the improvements into account. I've just a run a test with House of Flying Daggers since we all know what a good DVD this is. There's absolutely no doubt in my mind now, the PS3 is definitely a superior upscaler compared to the Onkyo 905. Before this update, there's no way this was true. So it's definitely possible that it is now better than the Denon 1940 with this improvement (although I don't have one to compare though Tallyho clearly does).
I know it might seem horrendous to the purist that a mere games console can surpass a quality dedicated DVD player, but remember, we're talking upscaling here which is essentially a processor intensive software routine which "fills in" detail where there is none compared to the original signal it's receiving. When you then consider the PS3 has a cell processor in it, an incredibly powerful processor, it's not actually too surprising that, when the software which carries out the upscaling is improved, backed with that processing power, it can actually surpass these other machines.
I would say, until you've actually seen both running, you can't really deny what all PS3 owners seem to be currently reporting.
EDIT - also remember we're talking comparatively as well. I'm sure the 1940 picture isn't "filled with noise" - certainly I was more than happy with the upscaling my Onkyo 905 was performing before. However, with the update, it's now clear from a comparison that there is some noise in the picture which isn't present when the PS3 is upscaling. It's not the picture was bad before, it's just the picture is now even better! I'd also like to add, Blu-Ray is still even better quality than the upscaled DVD for all those worried this might make Blu-Ray redundant!

 

[Anonymous]

I can only tell you what I am seeing...and that is a marked improvement with DVD playback by the PS3 (having upgraded to version 2.50 firmware ) over my now one year old DENON DVD 1940.....As for the From Russia With Love Bond Blu Ray Film the PS3 raises the bar and reaches sublimity aided also, of course, by a simply beautiful transfer

I also don't get any Lip Sync issues at all on any of my old DVD's which I was getting on my DENON

I have also compared it's Blu Ray Playback with the Sony BDPS350 ( which incidentally you can now get for a ridiculous £169.99 on Amazon this very minute: 19:11 is the time) and in terms of both Blu Ray and DVD playback there is now also no difference, in my opinion, between these two machines. What I was very pleased about was how clean DVD picture quality is now via the PS3.

I watched Lethal Weapon 3 on DVD last night followed by the original John Carpenter's The Fog 1979 film and my eyes are not deceiving me...both were much cleaner -Don't know what else to say to you folks...that's how it was

There was a time when I thought that my DENON was the the best thing since slice bread but even I know when to succomb and wave the white flag on some things

 

[Alsone]

Well can't really argue with that!

There's no doubt the PS3 represents some of the best value out there being a console as well as a BluRay player and if its truly now exceeding the upscaling capabilities of the Denon, then its certainly a very good buy.

Prof Hat, I note you've been upscaling via the Onkyo, I did all of my upscaling using the player alone. My Onkyo amp was nothing but a pass through. I don't know how the Onkyo vs the onboard players chip thing all pans out.

 

[professorhat]

Alsone:Prof Hat, I note you've been upscaling via the Onkyo, I did all of my upscaling using the player alone. My Onkyo amp was nothing but a pass through. I don't know how the Onkyo vs the onboard players chip thing all pans out.
Indeed, but only a few months ago, the upscaling chip in the Onkyo 875 and the 905 was being hailed as one of the best there is without resorting to silly money. Given the price of the receivers at that time (875 was £1,000, 905 was £1,400), the £300 PS3 seems like a pretty good deal when it comes to upscaling now! Clearly I understand both of those receivers do a hell of a lot more than upscaling and I'm certainly not upset about this result as the 905 is a fantastic surround receiver, which is the main reason why I bought it, and that hasn't changed.

 

[yiannis550]

Thanks to eveyrone for your opinions and help.

I have finally made up my mind and went for a PS3. Argos had a great deal for the 80GB PS3 with Little big planet and GT prologue for free. You also get a silly accessory pack that will probably go to the bin, but all this was 299.99! So essentially you only pay for the PS3.

Now I have to get the rest of my Home cinema
As some of you may know I was on to get a Panasonic PT AE 2000, an onkyo 875 and the B&W 685 theater last year .Due to unforseen circumstances, credit crunch and moving to a new home and all this was delayed.
Now I am again moving to another country permanently, got a new job in Cyprus and things are looking great! Got a good quote for the B&W set from the official B&W dealer in Cyprus (cheaper than here!) and now tryign to decide on the receiver. I am not goign for the 875 anymore as there are better out there. I am really interested in the Yamaha rx-v3900 but there is so much choice out there is difficult to make a final decision.

As for the projector the new Panasonic PT AE 3000 looks very promising...

Hopefully by the time we settle in the new home in Nicosia I will decide. And hopefully What Hifi magazine is available in Cyprus too

 

[Anonymous]

If someone could convince Nobuyuki Idei (Sony Corp) that enabling Bitstream output of DTH/DTSMA, would actually not damage sales of their 43cm units, and market them properly to each customer group they would outsell everything.

Please, before anyone posts "they cannot ever do bitstream" check the specs of the PS3 Cell Processor on wiki, this is an astounding piece of kit, still, years after its introduction.

It could, if required, process the the data from an entire bluray disc in about 60ms, thats milliseconds. In a distributed form it holds the world record for supercomputing power, still, and will do for sometime, because no other companies will nearly bankrupt themselves like Sony did, in paying for the R&D.

 

[Anonymous]

After reading most the posts below it is easy to see that quite a few of you are purists when it comes to music and DVD playback, machines like the PS3 will never appeal to some of you because they will always be a games machine and nothing else. Well as i can't get technical with you guys as i'm not that clued up, let me just say my 2 pennies worth.I have just finished installing 5000 tracks, 4000 photos and about 30 avi movies. This brings alot of my entertainment stuff together ina system that can be upgraded through firmware updates which will allow it to play the latest stuff, i watched my first Blueray which was die hard 4 and to me it looked and sounded fantastic, the photos look amazing on a 42" TV, i have played a game and was blown away by that. I have not tried a CD but music from the hard drive sounds well good enough to me, i have worked in oil industry for 25yrs so hearing is probably not 100% but is generally ok, all in all it is one hell of a machine which does so many things very well, only which i had put a bigger drive in and put my entire DVD collection on it.

 

[Anonymous]

Agree Swampy.
The PS3 is a great package, more and more people are finding out just how good music sounds off a hard drive, its so good I don't use a CD player any more!

The processing power built into the machine is still amazing and its versatility in doing everything that it does can't be equalled.

 

[Anonymous]

I really dont understand how anyone can call the PS3 a "Games Console" HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA