Sony PS3 Slim review now online

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Anonymous

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Rubbish there is a hell of a lot more to bitstream than a pretty display on your amp,PCM from my PS3 is - - - - compared to a bitstream feed from Pioneer and Denon and letting my amp decode, if it was all the same buy the cheapest digital blue ray player you can buy after all it is just 1's and 0's isn't it? ( NOT )
 

sonycentre

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lesmor:Rubbish there is a hell of a lot more to bitstream than a pretty display on your amp,PCM from my PS3 is - - - - compared to a bitstream feed from Pioneer and Denon and letting my amp decode, if it was all the same buy the cheapest digital blue ray player you can buy after all it is just 1's and 0's isn't it? ( NOT ) Like i said thats just my thoughts,and i have listened to bot the same disc using my ps3 and my sony bdp363 bluray player through my onkyo tx505 amp using same ixos xht458 cable.
 
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Anonymous

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sonycentre:why is everyone obsessed with bitstreaming,just so they can see the logos displayed on there amps!!!!.i cannot tell the diffrance at all,when blu-ray first came out all soundtracks were 5.1 pcm,casino royale is a cracking example of pcm sound vs dolby true hd.the pcm sound was a lot more in your face.decoding onboard the ps3 is the same as sending via bitstream.it just lights the logos up on the amps,whilst the amp decodes the sound,and not the ps3.just my two pence worth.and now doubt this will be commented on.

Sorry should have quoted but was so annoyed, anyway one good thing out of it,I'll never visit a SONY centre if this is the advice you get
 

professorhat

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lesmor:Rubbish there is a hell of a lot more to bitstream than a pretty display on your amp,PCM from my PS3 is - - - - compared to a bitstream feed from Pioneer and Denon and letting my amp decode

Ah, but that's not a fair comparison since the Pioneer and Denon are completely different players - being standalone and more expensive, you would very much expect them to sound better than the PS3, bitstream or PCM!

The only real way to know is if someone with the slim version can try outputting via Linear PCM (i.e. getting the PS3 to decode onboard) and then bitstreaming out (i.e. letting the receiver decode) and see which sounds better.
 

sonycentre

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Thank you professorhat.like i said it was just my thoughts and what i heard myself.And for lesmor to say he will never visit a sony centre is rather negative.I will always let the customer decide,i just give advise and demo the diffrent products we sell.thats like me saying i will never buy what hifi again because the staff make comments that i do not agree with.its just my opinion thats all,if people are happy to bitstream or decode via pcm,at least its an upgrade on what we have had.and some people cant even tell the diffrence at all,I know i deal with the public 6 days a week!!!
 
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Anonymous

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sonycentre:Thank you professorhat.like i said it was just my thoughts and what i heard myself.And for lesmor to say he will never visit a sony centre is rather negative.I will always let the customer decide,i just give advise and demo the diffrent products we sell.thats like me saying i will never buy what hifi again because the staff make comments that i do not agree with.its just my opinion thats all,if people are happy to bitstream or decode via pcm,at least its an upgrade on what we have had.and some people cant even tell the diffrence at all,I know i deal with the public 6 days a week!!!

Totally agree Prof but a poster who states why is everyone obsessed with bitstreaming then puts himself forward as a spokesman for SONY ( Sony Centre ) posting in bold text and having the arrogance to state that Quote:and now doubt this will be commented on.

To post why is everyone obsessed with bitstreaming,just so they can see the logos displayed on there amps!!!!.
and to post under SONY Centre as if that adds some credence

A forum member with a personal view would be acceptable but not on the back of " I work in a SONY Centre"

But I may do you a injustice and you may save some members a fortune

Does the new PS3 in bitstream sound better than the old PS3?

The man from SONY Centre says NO

Should I upgrade to the new PS3 Slim now that it bitstreams?

The man from SONY Centre says NO

Should I buy SONY'S Flagship BD player to bitstream to my amp?

The man from SONY Centre says NO

The man from SONY Centre says bitsteam makes no difference will only show the logo on your amp, how patronising

IMHO the PS3 PCM is C - - - compared to a player that can bitstream to an amp

As he states let the customer decide

Just my 2 pence worth

and I dont prepose directly or indirectly to represent anyone

Andy
 

PadRock

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Do you reckon they will ever enable it to play any lossless music? Kind of annoying that it doesn't when one of my main uses for it is as a media server and when I have most of my music in Apple Lossless format ....
 
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Anonymous

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Fanboys, yawn

He said noise when watching film, which is different to a mini 360 hurricane even playing from the HD.

BTW you may remember that am in debt enough to own ALL current consoles !
 

daveh75

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Err, it's a requirement of the house rules that anyone who work's within the industry must state it in their signature.

Sonyman hasn't put himself forward as an official spokesmen for sony and clearly stated that it's his own opinion,so what's your problem lesmor?
 

professorhat

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PadRock:Do you reckon they will ever enable it to play any lossless music? Kind of annoying that it doesn't when one of my main uses for it is as a media server and when I have most of my music in Apple Lossless format ....

Do you use a Mac? If so, you can use MediaLink to stream music from iTunes to the PS3...

EDIT - NB for later readers, this is incorrect, MediaLink can't currently stream Apple Lossless files to the PS3, only formats supported by the PS3 e.g. MP3, AAC and WAV.
 

ear

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I understand if it does bitstream it sends the signal through the hdmi connection and the amp decodes it, if it is LPCM the signal is sent from what?
 

PJPro

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Maybe I remember this incorrectly but didn't the mag reckon, as a general statement, that it was better to do the decoding on the player and send the PCM to the amp?
 

PadRock

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professorhat:

PadRock:Do you reckon they will ever enable it to play any lossless music? Kind of annoying that it doesn't when one of my main uses for it is as a media server and when I have most of my music in Apple Lossless format ....

Do you use a Mac? If so, you can use MediaLink to stream music from iTunes to the PS3...

I do use a Mac and MediaLink, so can stream aac files to the PS3, but it doesn't recognise / play any of the Apple Lossless file I have on there. Have to convert them to AAC format before the PS3 play any of the files. 'tis a pain .....
 

professorhat

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ear:I understand if it does bitstream it sends the signal through the hdmi connection and the amp decodes it, if it is LPCM the signal is sent from what?

Difference between the two is the audio information is decoded from say Dolby TrueHD to PCM onboard the player, rather than being sent in Dolby TrueHD format and then the amp decodes it to PCM - it's all still sent over HDMI. Think of it like a compressed file being decompressed with the likes of Winzip. In theory, it shouldn't really matter where the decoding is done, but people have said that it can be better if it's done in one place rather than the other.
 

ear

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many thanks professorhat,I think I understand it better now.So any amp that decodes all formats should be able to decode signals even from the older ps3.right?
 
daveh75:
Err, it's a requirement of the house rules that anyone who work's within the industry must state it in their signature.

Sonyman hasn't put himself forward as an official spokesmen for sony and clearly stated that it's his own opinion,so what's your problem lesmor?

I second that. That's what the forum is for, for people to express their own opinions. Even I can't tell a difference in the audio quality between my PS3 & Panasonic BD60 with Yamaha RX-V1900. I've always accepted I'm no audiophile.

You can't expect all Sony (or for that matter, any AV company) sales people to be audiophiles. As long as they have a knowledge about what they sell, it's perfectly acceptable.
 

professorhat

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ear:many thanks professorhat,I think I understand it better now.So any amp that decodes all formats should be able to decode signals even from the older ps3.right?

Kind of! Basically, the older PS3 is unable to bitstream the HD formats, meaning to get HD sound on an older PS3, you have to set the PS3 to decode the formats to PCM onboard - there's no option to bitstream them in their native format for the amp to decode. However, any amp that can decode all the formats will also be able to accept this multichannel PCM over HDMI, so your statement is pretty much true.

The new "Slim" PS3 can bitstream the HD formats over HDMI for the amp to decode though, hence all the hoo-hah about which is better.
 

ear

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Yet another tricky question.does the ps3 uspcasle dvd's to 1080p better than a dvd player with uspscaler would? say the onkyo sp-406 or toshibas (the 5 star versions wich are reviewed here)
 

professorhat

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Honestly not a clue I'm afraid. My experience with the PS3's upscaling is it's pretty good, but I've only really compared it with upscaling via my Onkyo 905 amp and my Panny TH-42PX600B TV (where PS3 was best IMO) and also against the Sony BDP-S550 (in which the 550 is better, but it's pretty marginal).

NB - worth nothing my TV is an HD Ready 720p TV, but I always upscale to 1080p as I find this produces a better picture than upscaling to 720p. I put this down to the fact the TV resolution is 1024x768, and the TV downscaling from 1080 to 768 lines looks better than the TV upscaling from 720 to 768 lines.
 

GJ

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So for the million dollar question

i currently send the pcm signal to my pre hdmi Denon amp for the PS3 the sound on Dark Knight and Ironman is impessive

Is it really going to be worth spending the money on a new amp and speakers to get the benefit of the amp decoding it over HDMI?
 

professorhat

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Unless you have the brand new slim PS3, you can't send the signal over HDMI for the amp to decode. However, if you have a pre-HDMI PS3, I'm guessing you're using optical which means you're not getting HD audio. In that case, it could be worth upgrading the amp (no need to upgrade the speakers unless you want to) to one which accepts multichannel PCM via the HDMI socket so you could set the PS3 to decode onboard and enjoy HD audio. I'd suggest auditioning this setup to see what you think.
 

GJ

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i send the signal from the PS3 40GB via optical to my denon as previously described on the threads last year i though it was sending HD sound over the pcm signal

I will try and demo later in the week hopefully i will be blown away with the difference!
 

professorhat

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Unfortunately not, optical doesn't have the bandwidth for the HD formats, so if you're use PCM via optical, the PS3 will be decoding the standard DTS / Dolby Digital signals onboard and then sending them to the amp.

Let us know how the auditions go!
 

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