Tilting between the 360 or pS3

[jcbigredfan]

It's my first post here by the way. I am leaning towards the PS3 for the Blue ray format and the HD-DVD does not look to keep up with the PS3!!!!!

Right now I do not have an Hd monitor,But hopefully real soon one day!!!! As for the surround sound aspects. They are awesome I must say!!!
Yamaha receiver rx-v 1600
Paradigm studio 20 speakers Front
Def-tech center speakers, Rear speakers
Paradigm subwoofer PS-1000 SVS PB12 Plus/2 one day!!!!
I would probably receive the audio signals HDMi to the Yamaha 1.1 HMDi and the PS3 is 1.3 HDMi, Would i lose out somewhere here? Does the PS3 have the true HD decoders built into it? Well that's is for now and I like your website very much and take care out there.

[WriteSimply]

Originally Posted by jcbigredfan

I would probably receive the audio signals HDMi to the Yamaha 1.1 HMDi and the PS3 is 1.3 HDMi, Would i lose out somewhere here?

The differences between 1.1 and 1.3 are in video mainly. So long as you're using the PS3 to deliver PCM audio via HDMI, you should be in no problem.

Not all HDMI receivers that can handle audio via HDMI are the same. Some have standard sampling rates while others go higher. The sampling rate doesn't matter much if you're not going to use the PS3 to play SACDs.

Does the PS3 have the true HD decoders built into it?

Yes. Just one TrueHD decoder is enough.


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[ra1024]

Originally Posted by WriteSimply

Not all HDMI receivers that can handle audio via HDMI are the same. Some have standard sampling rates while others go higher. The sampling rate doesn't matter much if you're not going to use the PS3 to play SACDs.

I'm looking for an HDMI receiver but I have no interest in the audio cd formats. Is there anything I need to be concerned about if I'm only interested in PCM over HDMI? It sounded like you were saying the sampling rates only affected the SACDs but wanted to make sure.

Originally Posted by WriteSimply

Yes. Just one TrueHD decoder is enough.

Are there any codecs the PS3 can't decode right now? I thought DTSHD-MA was one but wasn't sure. I wan't planning to get a 1.3 receiver but could be out of luck if titles start coming without lossless PCM and the PS3 doesn't decode certain ones.

[theknub]

no player decodes dts-hdma yet. that should change soon. the main reason (as is my understanding) is that the chip designers and DTS underestimated the required processing power to decode the audio stream. as soon as this is resolved, it won't be an issue. FYI, the ps3 has more than enough power to decode, so that is only as soon as the decoder is released that it can be done.

[Filterlab]

Compare the specs:

PS3:

PU
Cell Processor
PowerPC-base Core @3.2GHz
1 VMX vector unit per core
512KB L2 cache
7 x SPE @3.2GHz
7 x 128b 128 SIMD GPRs
7 x 256KB SRAM for SPE
1 of 8 SPEs reserved for redundancy
floating point performance: 218 GFLOPS

GPU
Full HD (up to 1080p) x 2 channels
RSX @550MHz
1.8 TFLOPS floating point performance
Multi-way programmable parallel floating point shader pipelines

Sound
Dolby 5.1ch, DTS, LPCM, etc. (Cell- base processing)

Memory
256MB XDR Main RAM at 3.2GHz
256MB GDDR3 VRAM @700MHz

System Bandwidth
Main RAM 25.6GB/s
VRAM 22.4GB/s
SBStorage
Detachable 2.5″ HDD slot x 1

I/O
SD standard/mini x 1
USB Front x 4, Rear x 2 (USB2.0)
CompactFlash (Type I, II) x 1
Memory Stick standard/Duo, PRO x 1

Communication
Ethernet (10BASE-T, 100BASE-TX, 1000BASE-T) x 3 (input x 1 + output x 2)
Wi-Fi IEEE 802.11 b/g
Bluetooth 2.0 (EDR)

Controller
Wi-Fi (PSP)
Bluetooth (up to 7)
Network (over IP)
USB 2.0 (wired)

AV Output
Digital audio: DIGITAL OUT (OPTICAL) x 1
HDMI: HDMI out x 2
Analog: AV MULTI OUT x 1
Screen size: 480i, 480p, 720p, 1080i, 1080p

Disc Media
CD PlayStation CD-ROM, PlayStation 2 CD-ROM, CD-DA, CD-DA (ROM), CD-R, CD-RW, SACD, SACD Hybrid (CD layer), SACD HD, DualDisc, DualDisc (audio side), DualDisc (DVD side)

DVD: PlayStation 2 DVD-ROM, PlayStation 3 DVD-ROM, DVD-Video, DVD-ROM, DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+R, DVD+RW
Blu-ray Disc: PlayStation 3 BD-ROM, BD-Video, BD-ROM, BD-R, BD-RE


Xbox360:

Custom IBM PowerPC-based CPU


* 3 symmetrical cores running at 3.2 GHz each
* 2 hardware threads per core; 6 hardware threads total
* 1 VMX-128 vector unit per core; 3 total
* 128 VMX-128 registers per hardware thread
* 1 MB L2 cache

CPU Game Math Performance


* 9 billion dot product operations per second

Custom ATI Graphics Processor


* 500 MHz
* 10 MB embedded DRAM
* 48-way parallel floating-point dynamically-scheduled shader pipelines
* Unified shader architecture

Polygon Performance


* 500 million triangles per second

Pixel Fill Rate


* 16 gigasamples per second fillrate using 4X MSAA

Shader Performance


* 48 billion shader operations per second

Memory


* 512 MB GDDR3 RAM
* 700 MHz DDR
* Unified memory architecture

Memory Bandwidth


* 22.4 GB/s memory interface bus bandwidth
* 256 GB/s memory bandwidth to EDRAM
* 21.6 GB/s front-side bus

Overall System Floating-Point Performance


* 1 TFLOP

Storage


* Detachable and upgradeable 20 GB hard drive
* 12X dual-layer DVD-ROM
* Memory unit support starting at 64 MB

I/O


* Support for up to 4 wireless game controllers
* 3 USB 2.0 ports
* 2 memory unit slots

Optimized for Online


* Instant, out-of-the-box access to Xbox Live features, including Xbox Live Marketplace for downloadable content, Gamer Profile for digital identity and voice chat to talk to friends while playing games, watching movies or listening to music
* Built in Ethernet Port
* Wi-Fi Ready: 802.11 A, B and G
* Video Camera Ready

Digital Media Support


* Support for DVD-Video, DVD-ROM, DVD-R/RW, DVD+R/RW, CD-DA, CD-ROM, CD-R, CD-RW, WMA CD, MP3 CD, JPEG Photo CD
* Stream media from portable music devices, digital cameras, Windows XP PCs
* Rip music to Xbox 360 hard drive
* Custom playlists in every game
* Windows Media Center Extender built in
* Interactive, full screen 3D visualizers

HD Game Support


* All games supported at 16:9, 720p and 1080i, anti-aliasing
* Standard definition and high definition video output supported

Audio


* Multichannel surround sound output
* Supports 48 KHz 16-bit audio
* 320 independent decompression channels
* 32-bit audio processing
* Over 256 audio channels

Whilst I don't pretend to understand all the specs, the PS3 seems to be the more advanced machine.

However, I do admit to having a schoolboy giggle at the words Terraflops and Gigaflops. Teehee.

[pbnbcr]

Good post above. Another thing you might want to think about is price:
Let's assume you start off with the 20GB PS3 and, of course, the 20GB 360.
PS3: $500, 360:$400
The PS3, as you can see above, is far superior spec wise, but it also has the bluray plaer preinstalled.
Let's assume you want to play online and you'll be keeping your $360 for 5 years.
PS3: $0, 360: $350 @ $70/year
Let's also assume that you do get your HDTV and decide you want to watch HD quality movies (Of course, maybe by that time HDDVD will already be gone...)
PS3: $0, 360: $200

So you can see that when you pay for your PS3, you get everything (except the HDMI cable) you need.
Total Cost: PS3:$500, 360: $950.

Of course, if you want HDMI on your 360, you'll have to wait until the 360 Elite comes out (search for the posts on that).

[WriteSimply]

Originally Posted by ra1024

I'm looking for an HDMI receiver but I have no interest in the audio cd formats. Is there anything I need to be concerned about if I'm only interested in PCM over HDMI? It sounded like you were saying the sampling rates only affected the SACDs but wanted to make sure.

I think most lossy codec is at 20-bit/48kHz. CDs are at 16-bit/44.1kHz. The lossless codec starts from 16-bit to 24-bit at 48kHz.

The sampling rate for SACDs go higher than that, especially if you're using the PS3 and a HDMI connection.

Are there any codecs the PS3 can't decode right now? I thought DTSHD-MA was one but wasn't sure. I wan't planning to get a 1.3 receiver but could be out of luck if titles start coming without lossless PCM and the PS3 doesn't decode certain ones.

Just DTS HDMA. It decodes everything else. Uncompressed PCM does not need decoding.


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