The PS3 Review Thread

[syncguy]

Originally Posted by WriteSimply

I'm sure if SCE feels that their user base can support it and they can support the royalties, they'd do that. Minor squabbles.

fuad

Yes. PS3 can decode True HD, however according to my understanding (please correct me if wrong) it cannot bit stream True HD. So you cannot use an external decoder for TrueHD. And also it cannot pass lossless DTS HD (instead it passes lossy DTS). In my understanding these cons are due to a hardware limitation of PS3 (SiL9132 HDMI chip). Hence I listed these as structural limits. PS3 may be able to firmware upgrade for internal DTS HD decoding, however, as previously pointed out this would be a business matter. Even with internal decoding of all formats, some people might argue that external decoding would be better and PS3 is not capable of bit streaming due to hardware limits.

I am very happy with my PS3, it's picture quality for blu-ray content is awesome. Above indicated audio issues do not bother me at all. I will always recommend PS3 as the best value blu-ray player. However, it is good if people know these fundamental limits of PS3 before they make a decision to purchase.

[aiman04]

Originally Posted by syncguy

Yes. PS3 can decode True HD, however according to my understanding (please correct me if wrong) it cannot bit stream True HD. So you cannot use an external decoder for TrueHD. And also it cannot pass lossless DTS HD (instead it passes lossy DTS). In my understanding these cons are due to a hardware limitation of PS3 (SiL9132 HDMI chip). Hence I listed these as structural limits. PS3 may be able to firmware upgrade for internal DTS HD decoding, however, as previously pointed out this would be a business matter. Even with internal decoding of all formats, some people might argue that external decoding would be better and PS3 is not capable of bit streaming due to hardware limits.

I am very happy with my PS3, it's picture quality for blu-ray content is awesome. Above indicated audio issues do not bother me at all. I will always recommend PS3 as the best value blu-ray player. However, it is good if people know these fundamental limits of PS3 before they make a decision to purchase.

That's right. And you won't notice the difference between bitstreaming and internal decoding anyway. There's something about "jittery effect" that only a sound engineer can explain.

[blu-eyes]

I have one additional comment and one question.

I don't like the fact that there is no backlight on the PS3 remote!

Does anyone know if the PS3 can be infiltrated by viruses over the internet to cause glitches/failures?

Thanks

[landry_p2000]

Originally Posted by Elandyll

Just sharing the week end experience, as a brand new PS3 owner

Got the PS3 friday night at the local BB, with Blutooth remote (Wife gave me the evil eye when we totalled at $460, when I told her it'd be $399 )

I went throught the same thing.

[drdeputy]

I've had my PS3 running for about a week. I'm very pleased with it. Having bought it as a Blu-Ray player, I didn't realize that it had the 'media center' capability and have been loading a few CD's onto it. I decided that I was going to eventually need more space, so before I got more than a couple CD's loaded, I decided to upgrade the HD. I got a Seagate 250 SATA at Staples for $119 and put it in without incident this morning. It took maybe 6 minutes max and that includes unplugging the console and putting it back afterward.

Question.....what is the normal overhead? The system menu shows 230-some GB max with about 205 available. Numbers are approximate, but is the difference (+/- 25 GB) normal system overhead? I understand about the naming convention differences, so it's not the 230 vs. 250 I'm concerned about.

Happy camper here.

[Robert Siegel]

Originally Posted by blu-eyes

I don't like the fact that there is no backlight on the PS3 remote! Thanks

Me either, but I didn't expect it. There are $1500 receivers out there with no back-lit remote. I think it's the one thing consumer electronics companies are doing wrong. Home theater equipment is usually used in darker rooms, yet very few of them use backlit remotes.

[phlydude]

Originally Posted by drdeputy

I've had my PS3 running for about a week. I'm very pleased with it. Having bought it as a Blu-Ray player, I didn't realize that it had the 'media center' capability and have been loading a few CD's onto it. I decided that I was going to eventually need more space, so before I got more than a couple CD's loaded, I decided to upgrade the HD. I got a Seagate 250 SATA at Staples for $119 and put it in without incident this morning. It took maybe 6 minutes max and that includes unplugging the console and putting it back afterward.

Question.....what is the normal overhead? The system menu shows 230-some GB max with about 205 available. Numbers are approximate, but is the difference (+/- 25 GB) normal system overhead? I understand about the naming convention differences, so it's not the 230 vs. 250 I'm concerned about.

Happy camper here.

Is this the drive you picked up?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822148310

[WriteSimply]

Originally Posted by boss

Is it ok to leave the main power switch on a PS3?

Yes it is. This is rather basic as most AV appliance like HDTVs and receivers are always on standby.

The Main Power Switch is really as a safety, just in case you don't want to accidentally turn the PS3 on if you sat on your controller and/or your Bluetooth remote. Pressing the PS button on your controller or pressing ANY button on the remote will turn on your PS3.

If I leave the "Main Power Switch" on all the time, and just turn it onto Standby by holding down and depressing the front "Power Button"?

When the PS3 is on Standby, it's really on the OFF position. When the PS3 is on, you can turn it off by PRESSING AND HOLDING THE PS BUTTON for at least 2 seconds. A new screen will pop-up asking you what you want to do. Choose "Turn Off System" and press X twice to shut down. This is basic stuff you must learn.

Originally Posted by syncguy

Yes. PS3 can decode True HD, however according to my understanding (please correct me if wrong) it cannot bit stream True HD. So you cannot use an external decoder for TrueHD. And also it cannot pass lossless DTS HD (instead it passes lossy DTS). In my understanding these cons are due to a hardware limitation of PS3 (SiL9132 HDMI chip).

When you say "all audio formats" I thought you meant codecs like OGG and FLAC, which the PS3 does not support. Yes, TrueHD is decoded okay but DTS HDMA is not. And nobody, not even paidgeek, has officially commented on if the Silicon Image on the PS3 can or cannot bitstream TrueHD or HDMA.

Originally Posted by blu-eyes

Does anyone know if the PS3 can be infiltrated by viruses over the internet to cause glitches/failures?

So far, nope. The PSN server is secure from what I read. Also the web browser limits what apps run and it also has a RAM limit.


fuad

[yesdup]

Having jumped in to HD DVD (because of low price of players vs Blu-ray) last Fall and being burned I am approaching my entry into Blu-ray more cautiously.

From what I read, the PS3 is a good choice right now for a Blu-ray player (Future proof is what I've read). While I am not a gamer, my children are (albeit they currently play xBox 360) and they do have old PS2 games lying around.

My thoughts are to buy the 80Gb since it is backward compatible to PS2...this would allow us to take the PS3 with us on holidays (we have a trailer) and use it for games & movies when on holidays.

When I look around there seems to very few retailers in Canada selling 80Gb (most have only the 40GB which is not backward compatible). Does this mean that Sony is removing the 80GB from the marketplace (not shown on their corporate web site for Canada) and if so, are they intending to replace it with a new improved model? If the latter, is there a timeline for the change. Once again, the Sony website seems to be silent onn future plans.

Should I wait to see what's on the horizon, should I buy 40Gb PS3 (and forget about backward compatibility issue) or should I wait until the Winter when the newer stand alone Blu-ray players arrive (at likely a higher price than today's players)?

I'd like to start building my library of movies through Blu-ray acquistions, but no sense buying Blu-ray movies if I can't play them. Right now I've discontinued buying HD DVD's and moved back to buying only standard DVD's (for new releases). Looking for feedback on pro's & con's of my analysis and hoping that someone has information on where Sony is going with PS3 units.

[blu-eyes]

yesdup,

I was in the same mode of thinking less than 2 weeks ago and I decided to go ahead and purchase a PS3. My primary thinking was that the PS3 has been very reliable for most folks and it has the best price. I'm not one to buy something new when its first released. I always wait to read reviews and find out if there are any problems. With this in mind, the new stuff won't give me warm fuzzies for 9-12 more months. There was no way I was going to wait that long! I'm satisfied with my decision to purchase the PS3 now. Good Luck

[drdeputy]

Originally Posted by phlydude

Is this the drive you picked up?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822148310

Yes, that's it and I already saw that guy's review and mention of the overhead. I didn't see a response there, so wondered if anyone else might know the answer.

[yesdup]

Did you buy the PS3 40Gb? (Sorry, I see you did buy the 40 GB..in your signature, which I did not read....my apologies new to this kind of stuff!)

That's the only version I can find these days.....hoping to hear that a newer version (that is backward compatible) is in the pipeline...then I would hold off buying for a month or two.

I'd really like to be in the Blu-ray game and to have backward capability if I buy PS3.

Can someone recommend a stand alone players (at a reasonable /compareable price to PS3 that would be a good investment)?

[syncguy]

Originally Posted by yesdup

Having jumped in to HD DVD (because of low price of players vs Blu-ray) last Fall and being burned I am approaching my entry into Blu-ray more cautiously.


When I look around there seems to very few retailers in Canada selling 80Gb (most have only the 40GB which is not backward compatible). Does this mean that Sony is removing the 80GB from the marketplace (not shown on their corporate web site for Canada) and if so, are they intending to replace it with a new improved model? If the latter, is there a timeline for the change. Once again, the Sony website seems to be silent onn future plans.

Should I wait to see what's on the horizon, should I buy 40Gb PS3 (and forget about backward compatibility issue) or should I wait until the Winter when the newer stand alone Blu-ray players arrive (at likely a higher price than today's players)?

It makes business sense for Sony to remove backward compatibility since PS2 is sold and positioned as a separate product. Also, that allows Sony to sell PS3 at a lower price point. This is just speculation. I am not sure about the real future plans.

I personally think it is better to keep a separate PS2 for PS2 games unless you have some special requirements (such as taking a single console on your holiday). This will put less stress on relatively expensive blu-ray drive in PS3.

[phlydude]

Originally Posted by drdeputy

Yes, that's it and I already saw that guy's review and mention of the overhead. I didn't see a response there, so wondered if anyone else might know the answer.

you got a good price at Staples...their website is worthless for laptop drives...can't search it out by type or size

[WriteSimply]

Originally Posted by yesdup

Did you buy the PS3 40Gb? (Sorry, I see you did buy the 40 GB..in your signature, which I did not read....my apologies new to this kind of stuff!)

There will be a new 80GB bundle sometime in June. It will include Metal Gear Solid 4 (a game that you might appreciate for its graphix) and a DualShock 3 controller (like the current Bluetooth controller except that it rumbles too).

So if you want backwards compatibility, you can hold out for that. In the meanwhile you can buy one BD per month to whet your appetite.


fuad

[drdeputy]

Originally Posted by phlydude

you got a good price at Staples...their website is worthless for laptop drives...can't search it out by type or size

I agree. I drop in because they seem to have 'unadvertised specials' all the time. This drive rang up $149, but was marked down to $119 on the shelf and I had to get the girl to price-adjust it. No big deal, but it's like that a lot. As long as I come out on top, I don't care. But looking for specials on the web site is a waste of time!!

[Robert Siegel]

I had originally purchased the 80gb model because I wanted backwards compatability. When I got it home with 7 new ps2 games (I wanted to be able to buy either because the ps3 games are high priced), 5 of them played and 2 did not. So I luckily found an older 60gb model at Sears and took the 80gb back. The 60gb, if you can find one, plays every ps2 game out there. Personally, I thought taking backwards compatability out of the ps3 was a mistake, obviously some people feel different about it. Sony put it into the ps2 for ps1 games and it was part of the success of the ps2. Of course, if people already have a ps2 and games for it, which I didn't, they really don't need another machine that plays the ps2 games, they already have one.

For those who really want the 60gb with full backwards compatability, there are still alot of them on Ebay.

[aiman04]

Firmware Update version 2.17 available now.

Download:

http://dus01.ps3.update.playstation....b/PS3UPDAT.PUP

[Robert Siegel]

Originally Posted by aiman04

Firmware Update version 2.17 available now.

Download:

http://dus01.ps3.update.playstation....b/PS3UPDAT.PUP

Does anyone have a page that describes what this update does? There is nothing about it on Playstation.com..I will wait for it to be officially posted. Here is a link to the official site, which shows only version 2.10...BE CAUTIOUS until its official:

http://www.us.playstation.com/PS3/About/SystemUpdate

[Arr MiHardies]

Oh god, please tell me it enables Dolby TruHD and DTS-MA bitstreaming... please... Im sick of having all these movies coming out dts ma, with no other hd audio options, and being forced to hear the core tracks.