PS3 or Stand Alone?

[bpomalley85]

Originally Posted by Marine Mike

Yes and Yes.

Great! One other question then... On these blu-rays that have the DTS-HD, well I still get just standard DTS?

[zweet77]

Originally Posted by Lacit170

Ive never had this problem... how low was the volume when watching the movie?? thats some fan power in the ps3 then if u can here it over the movie...

+1 while thile 60gb is louder than my old 40 the only time I notice is when i am surfing the web or doing something with no sound.

[zweet77]

Originally Posted by bpomalley85

Great! One other question then... On these blu-rays that have the DTS-HD, well I still get just standard DTS?

yes

[Electric_Haggis]

Back in December, I too was tossing up between the PS3 and a standalone.

I started a couple of threads, and got some interesting responses...

https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?t=75318

http://www.avforums.com/forums/blu-r...35-vs-ps3.html

In the end, I got a PS3.
For the record, I ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT.

Why?

* Fast as hell.
* Love the optional Bluetooth remote, and not having to aim it at the machine.
* Love the slot loading drive and operation. You just put in a disc, and the machine turns itself on.
* Love that there's no front LED display to cast light into a darkened theatre room.
* Love the info/bitrate meter that pops up when you hit the Display button.
* Love the PS3's menu and GUI.
* Love the frequent updates.
* Love having a machine that won't get discontinued next year.
* Love the flexibility of having a games machine / web browser / photo viewer / media server / etc.
* The largest user base of any Blu player.
* Many friends have PS3s, so games can be lent around. We can bring our controllers round to each other's places for the odd gaming night!
* Couldn't care less that it doesn't bitstream HD audio. It's best done in the player anyway (for interactive features, etc).
* Upscaling (on a 90" 1080p projector screen) could be very slightly sharper, but it's still basically up there with the best. It's very clean and smooth, and compares well to the Toshiba HD-EP10 or the HQV scaler built in to my Benq W5000 projector.
* Am completely unconvinced that a standalone can offer superior Blu-ray PQ over HDMI - unless it's employing some sort of "enhancement" of its own.

Having said all this... I still recommend the Panasonic BD-35 to many friends and colleagues!!

Why?

* Many folks just don't want or need anything more than a simple, cheap, solid unit that plays discs and nothing more.
* Slim, more rack-friendly - You can put it anywhere.
* The PS3 is an awkward shape, a fingerprint magnet, and downright hideous to some people.
* No chance of them having issues with heat, noise or power consumption.
* Already comes with an excellent remote.
* Decodes DTS-MA, unlike the similarly-priced Sony 350.
* Panasonics have a brilliant track record for DVD playback quality and compatability.
* In Australia, Panasonics usually come DVD-region-free off the shelf. I'm pretty sure the BD-35 would too.

[bpomalley85]

Originally Posted by Petra_Kalbrain

Nobody knows for sure if the PS3 is really going to drop in price at all this year. The rumour was created by a "market analyst." Technically, a market analyst is the equivalent of a fortune teller. Do either really have any proof to back up their claims? Not really, since Sony themselves are not sharing this kind of information with ANYONE.

I say, put yourself out of your misery and just buy the PS3 already. You said that you are happy to stick with the 360 for gaming, but you are already missing out on some amazing PS3 exclusive titles with tons more coming throughout this year. In particular, check out 'Uncharted: Drake's Fortune' (in preparation for the amazing sequel to be released this year), 'Metal Gear Solid 4', and 'LittleBigPlanet' (for the kid in all of us... especially those who grew up as Mario Bros addicts).

Ahh I see.. I was thinking that these articles all had a little more evidence that the PS3 was going to drop in price but after further reading no one has any idea. I think I will save myself some sanity and just get the PS3 now... I think Best Buy just has the 80GB for 399 and the 160GB with Uncharted for 499. I know that there is a 40GB too, but not sure where or what price that is... I am thinking about just getting the 80GB. When I get it tonight do I need to first plug in the ethernet and download all the firmware upgrades? Also what are the best settings on the PS3 for blu-ray if I have a 1080P Panasonic Plasma 50"?

NOTE: If that last question is to complicated I will just browse some more on the forums..

[joegs300]

i would go withe the ps3

[ozzman]

Iam really happy this thread has made 3 pages.
I just want to add haveing a standalone and a PS3 ,For Me they both even out and make great players.
Haveing a blu-ray player is a gift that alote of people still have not yet experienced.So personally i feel lucky to have both
So any player That WORKS works for me

[krazeyeyez]

Originally Posted by Blu-ray Neo

My equipment is listed below in my sig and considering that I own both a standalone and a PS3, I felt that my opinion would be appreciated.

UPSCALING

PS3: This totally sucks as an upscaler. Playing Blu-ray's is a different story. The PS3 I think, is one of the biggest bangs for the buck when you look at the value. As an upscaler, my Toshiba HD DVD A20 player makes the PS3 look like like ^&*$ when it comes to upscaling DVD.

S300: My S300/S301 does a decent job at upscaling DVD's. Better than the PS3 and as for BD's, I haven't had an issue yet. I always keep my firmware up to date and with my experience in standalones, the "boot-up" time can be rather tedious. (45 seconds - 1 min.) I really can't comment on the S350, but I've heard that the "boot-up" time and "start-up" times have been radically reduced with the S350.


If you're looking at playing BD's and a good bit of DVD's without gaming, you may wanna save the money, buy some BD's and get you a Sony standalone. If not, spend the extra money and get a PS3.

Just my 0.02

lol thats what i was looking for thanks. i actually have a s300 no longer under warranty but it doesnt play blu-rays and only plays dvd's after being powered off for some time, otherwise even dvds get a cant read disc message! real pain so i dont mind sacrificing a little quality in dvd to actually have them play when i want again.

to the fellow that said it compares to the oppo he has/had, did you compare them side by side? i knew the ps3 was by no way good in this department i was just looking for how bad it is, and i am curious since oppo gets such high respect for this how uh OCD are you lol when it comes to your image? do you get like inches off the screen during blu-ray playback to watch pixels lol or no? i know this is a subjective topic but thats the first time i have heard ps3 dvd playback compared to oppo especially since you didnt have the low end model.

[BD4Life]

I started my adventures in High Def with a PS3 60GB model 1st Generation for my BD player for many reasons, 1 being the cost to features ratio. You just got more at that time with a PS3 then a stand alone BD player.

Now that things have moved on since the beginning of the format war and players are now complete in terms of profiles and bitstream output, I sold my PS3 (it stopped reading Speed BD for some magical reason). I have the Panasonic DMP-BD35K and I am beyond satisfied with the unit.

I highly recommend the Panny over the PS3 for BD playback and it does a good job with DVD upscaling and DVD 24p conversion as well. At the time I sold my PS3, the firmware at that time did not support DVD 1080/24p, only 30. Also bitstreaming PCM, TrueHD, and DTS-HD Master Audio was very important to me.

[bpomalley85]

Well I got the PS3 80GB tonight... I know it was a little gutsy but I bought it at Circuit City liquidation because it was 10% off and it was brand new with manufacture warranty so I trust that it won't break within 30 days. I was pretty much broke after I bought it so I just rented Wall-E (never seen it before and thought it would be cool in blu-ray) and also Uncharted: Drake's Fortune game. I already had the optical and hdmi cords from monoprice and everything worked out pretty well. I haven't downloaded any of the firmware upgrades yet so hopefully it will get even better. One thing that drove me crazy was that I couldn't get Wall-E in DTS or even DD, only Pro Logic Movie... When I would put in the game it would automatically switch to DTS and Wall-E is DTS but I just couldn't get my receiver to correspond with it... I am hoping this is maybe a firmware upgrade? I still don't quite understand the audio terminology. Can someone tell me what bitstreaming PCM and the other option is (forgot) and the difference between the two? I don't have an HDMI capable receiver so I am running optical out to the receiver and hdmi directly to the tv. I was hoping I could get DTS or atleast DD on the DTS-HD blu-ray movies... any suggestions??

BTW: Wall-E looked amazing in 1080P!! I dunno what it looks like in SD but it was sure fun to look at just because of the vibrant colors and animation.

[Petra_Kalbrain]

Originally Posted by bpomalley85

Well I got the PS3 80GB tonight... I know it was a little gutsy but I bought it at Circuit City liquidation because it was 10% off and it was brand new with manufacture warranty so I trust that it won't break within 30 days. I was pretty much broke after I bought it so I just rented Wall-E (never seen it before and thought it would be cool in blu-ray) and also Uncharted: Drake's Fortune game. I already had the optical and hdmi cords from monoprice and everything worked out pretty well. I haven't downloaded any of the firmware upgrades yet so hopefully it will get even better. One thing that drove me crazy was that I couldn't get Wall-E in DTS or even DD, only Pro Logic Movie... When I would put in the game it would automatically switch to DTS and Wall-E is DTS but I just couldn't get my receiver to correspond with it... I am hoping this is maybe a firmware upgrade? I still don't quite understand the audio terminology. Can someone tell me what bitstreaming PCM and the other option is (forgot) and the difference between the two? I don't have an HDMI capable receiver so I am running optical out to the receiver and hdmi directly to the tv. I was hoping I could get DTS or atleast DD on the DTS-HD blu-ray movies... any suggestions??

BTW: Wall-E looked amazing in 1080P!! I dunno what it looks like in SD but it was sure fun to look at just because of the vibrant colors and animation.

Since you are using an optical connection, make sure that your PS3 is set to bitstream. Optical cable can't handle more than stereo PCM signal. So, if you bitstream the audio, the receiver will be able to use the core element of the DTS track on the Blu-ray.

P.S. Welcome to the club my friend. You are about to discover that your living room will be sucking much more of your time and money away from you!

P.P.S. Connect that MoFo to the internet immediately and get the latest firmware. ALWAYS stay on top of the PS3 firmware!

P.P.P.S. Also create a PSN account right away too so that you can set up a boatload of demo downloads from the Playstation Store. You have A TON of free content on that store to checkout.

[bpomalley85]

[QUOTE=Petra_Kalbrain;1541373]Since you are using an optical connection, make sure that your PS3 is set to bitstream. Optical cable can't handle more than stereo PCM signal. So, if you bitstream the audio, the receiver will be able to use the core element of the DTS track on the Blu-ray.

P.S. Welcome to the club my friend. You are about to discover that your living room will be sucking much more of your time and money away from you!
QUOTE]


Haha! yeah I've already spent more $ in the last month then I probably have in my entire life when it comes to entertainment equipment... hopefully that stops soon. So does PS3 have wireless built in?? If so, do I first need to connect it through ethernet to get it to recognize the network first? lol I just realized I have no idea how the PS3 works hah~!

[Scorxpion]

Ps3 for me still a great player as all of you have said.but now i'm thinking to add a blu-ray player which is Sony BDP-S550 to go along with PS3.

No way to retired from using a PS3.in my eyes and others still a king for BD.

[Petra_Kalbrain]

Originally Posted by bpomalley85

Haha! yeah I've already spent more $ in the last month then I probably have in my entire life when it comes to entertainment equipment... hopefully that stops soon. So does PS3 have wireless built in?? If so, do I first need to connect it through ethernet to get it to recognize the network first? lol I just realized I have no idea how the PS3 works hah~!

It has a wireless card built into it. However, you have to have a wireless router that is broadcasting a wireless signal. If you don't have a wireless router, then using a network cable is your only option (unless you can pick up someone else's unprotected wireless broadcast - hehehe). It's pretty easy to setup. Just go into the "Network Settings" option in the "Settings" section on the PS3 main menu and follow the instructions. You will need your wireless network password though. If it has an "automatic" option, select that. That will make the PS3 do all of the work in setting it up for you.

Once you get it connected to the internet, the firmware update can be done through the "System Update" option at the top of the "Settings" menu on the PS3 main menu (a.k.a. XMB).

P.S. The spending won't stop anytime soon. You'll see your Blu-ray collection and PS3 game collection grow like a bad weed!

[mreilly611]

Originally Posted by Lacit170

Ive never had this problem... how low was the volume when watching the movie?? thats some fan power in the ps3 then if u can here it over the movie...

It was hooked up directly to a Sony 52 inch tv trough hdmi. So it was using the tv speakers. The blu-ray watched was Sleepwalking. Which was mostly talking and not much action. I don't feel like you need to blast your tv to drown out the noise of the PS3.

[Petra_Kalbrain]

Originally Posted by mreilly611

It was hooked up directly to a Sony 52 inch tv trough hdmi. So it was using the tv speakers. The blu-ray watched was Sleepwalking. Which was mostly talking and not much action. I don't feel like you need to blast your tv to drown out the noise of the PS3.

I can see where ONLY TV speakers might prove too weak to drown out the PS3 fan. However, my 60GB unit has never caused me any noise problems with a proper 5.1 setup... even when I keep the volume extremely low when my roommates are sleeping in the next room with thin walls.

Ultimately, the PS3 fan noise is a subjective point of argument.

[bpomalley85]

Alright I got my PS3 all setup wirelessly, created my profile, upgraded firmware, have all my pictures and most of my music streaming, and WOLA! the PS3 is turning into not only a blu-ray player and game system but a kickass multimedia system as well! I switched from PCM to Bistream so I am now atleast getting DD which is great... I was scared and thought I was stuck on pro logic. I turned Wall-E on again to see what my receiver would say when set to bistream... I thought it would just say DTS like normal but it said something different: Matrix and then when I hit display it was something like: DTS-ES 1/3.2 or something like that.... I was worried about it say matrix because I thought matrix was fake splitting signals like pro logic... Anyway, it sounds like DTS with each channel always doing something different so it must of worked.. Anyway, thanks for all the help guys!! This forum helped me alot!!

NOTE: now the one and only thing that kinda bothers me now is when playing games it seems like the frame rate slows don't quite often and I get choppiness and that slow down effect. Like when moving the camera/view really fast or when the environments change drastically.. I see horizontal lines and slows down... I only have one game, the others are demos so maybe it's just the game I guess (Uncharted)?? Hopefully it is and other games are as out to do this... because it is annoying!

[Entertainment72]

No brainer, PS3 all the way.. BD playback is just as good as most standalones under $50,000. I cannot hear my PS3 (60gig) day and date release.
Future proof!
Large sums of storage capacity!
WiFi!
Unmatched power!
Incredible value!

[prerich]

Originally Posted by Entertainment72

No brainer, PS3 all the way.. BD playback is just as good as most standalones under $50,000. I cannot hear my PS3 (60gig) day and date release.
Future proof!
Large sums of storage capacity!
WiFi!
Unmatched power!
Incredible value!

There's new news my friend. Standalones less expensive than the ps3 are out performing it in PQ and have more options in AQ (test recently performed by HT Magazine and Sound and Vision). You don't have to buy a mega high-end BD player to best a PS3. It's still the swiss army knife of BD players (does some of everything) but if you are just looking for PQ/AQ and upconversion - a standalone is the best way (and least expensive way) to go.

[Blu-ray Neo]

Originally Posted by Entertainment72

No brainer, PS3 all the way.. BD playback is just as good as most standalones under $50,000. I cannot hear my PS3 (60gig) day and date release.
Future proof!
Large sums of storage capacity!
WiFi!
Unmatched power!
Incredible value!

You left out it's hunger for energy. The PS3 is a "Powerhog" and it will raise your power bill by a good bit if you use it often.