PS3 initial Impressions...

BIZILL

no. but only because i'm too cheap. $50 for a little bit of convenience. well, give me some time to decide. i don't mind using the ps3 game controller for now. don't want to purchase the sony bluetooth remote. though it's cheaper than either dongles.

newbie2k8

My ps3 kicks butt I love it no complaints

mantis

landry_p2000 wrote: »

I am in the market for a blu-ray disc player. I want to enjoy both formats, and I already got the hd-dvd add on for my 360. I am trying to decide on a PS3 or a Sony BDP-S300 ($300) for blu-ray playback. As far as gaming goes I love the 360's games, graphics, and controllers. Is the $100 price difference worth getting the PS3?

Yes,

The Sony 300 sucks. We have had about 7 or 8 now bad out of the box. They have problems not to mention the very slowest loading player on the market. The PS3 is 10 x's faster and much worth the asking price.

Go for it man,

Dan

landry_p2000

Thanks a million fellas. You helped me make up my mind. The pS3 it is. Plus, it gives me a whole lot more expansion of media not only with blu-ray, but another console format as well. Glad I asked and stayed away from the Sony BDP-s300. That ($300) is too much too pay for a crappy unit.

BIZILL

i like streaming music from my ps3 more than my 360. don't know if that was already said. but hope it helps.

Sami

BIZILL wrote: »

i like streaming music from my ps3 more than my 360. don't know if that was already said. but hope it helps.

Have you managed to get any other lossless format than WAV to work?

BIZILL

Sami wrote: »

Have you managed to get any other lossless format than WAV to work?

i just listen to my cheapo mp3's at lower bitrates. if i want to listen to something with better quality, i just pop in a cd.

avelanchefan

BIZILL wrote: »

i just listen to my cheapo mp3's at lower bitrates. if i want to listen to something with better quality, i just pop in a cd.

I dont know Bill I feel the 360 just transfers music better. It matrix's the mp3's in DD 5.1, where as the the ps3 does not. It sounds okay from my front speakers, but the rear speakers come out weak and hollow sounding. If I change my reciever to 5 channel stereo it sounds good, just like the 360. But that is a step I just hate to add.

Also I like the fact that you can play music in the 360 during any game. I love that feature. I mean I don't know how many times I have chosen my music over the in game music. Like in Forza or Project Gotham. Plus playing my music during the arcade games. Just a really nice feature from the 360. Something that the ps3 is really missing. Even during Live play I have chosen music over listening to the guns shooting at times.

In fact now that we have had it a month I feel the ps3 is just as good as the 360 in every area except the music playback. The ps3 play's my .avi files flawlessly. IN fact I like it better than the 360 way. You cannot play .avi files on the 360 unless you are on Live. Something that is very very lame on M$ part.

12 year old loves Resistence, 14 year old loves UnReal. Me I am enjoying MX Vs ATV and Motorstorm. Looking to get Uncharted in the near future.

BIZILL

avelanchefan wrote: »

I dont know Bill I feel the 360 just transfers music better. It matrix's the mp3's in DD 5.1, where as the the ps3 does not. It sounds okay from my front speakers, but the rear speakers come out weak and hollow sounding. If I change my reciever to 5 channel stereo it sounds good, just like the 360. But that is a step I just hate to add.

funny, when i used my 360 i could only get two channel stereo. with the ps3, the first thing i noticed was that i could finally use my 7 channel stereo and many other soundfields. maybe my 360 wasn't set up right to bitstream la musica. as far as in game music, i've never wanted to listen to music over what the games offer. that's just not my preference.

landry_p2000

Hey fellas. I got the PS3 on Monday, and I tell ya, I am glad that I did. So far zero complaints on the performance, loading speed, graphics, or Blu-ray player. I have picked up 5 Blu-ray movies (plus a free Spider-Man 3) and 3 games already, and I am also waiting for my 5 freebies in the mail. I have to admit, as much as I love my 360, the PS3 is 10 times more quiet than the 360. If there is anyone not sure about this purchase, I say go for it. Thanks for your advice dudes.:D

landry_p2000

Quick question....Is there any way that I can get the sound through the optical output, and the tv speakers at the same time without having to go in and manually change the settings each time.

mantis

I'll post my review here on the unit.

For blue ray, I believe i's as good as any other Blue ray player on the market. I see no softness or blurry anything. It's completely clear. I have Blue ray test disc's and it's amazing how clear it is. You what really blew me away, Rush Hour 3. I expected it to look and sound like **** like the first 2 do. I even got the newer versions(replaced my orignals) and they look alittle better. But damn the Blue Ray version of 3 took me. I don't know how many times I commented on the audio. I was shocked. Again my player is conneced optical as my preamp doesn't switch HDMI. Sucks but I'm working on a replacement. After watching Rush Hour 3, I'm not in any hurry to get True HD and DTS HD audio. It was simply fantastic. I could go on and on how damn good it sounds.

For music I was actually shocked. As a CD player , it rocks. I noticed all of the detail and clarity I'm used to. Now it's being send VIA optical to my Rotel rsp1068 so it's using the Rotels DAC's. As anyone knows, Rotel preamps sound effin awesome. I love how good it sounds. Also I burned in a few cd's under AAC 320 and It sounds exaclty the same as the orignal. I didn't hear any of the typical loss of tone and clarity like you do on lets say an ipod even running at 256. I did a direct compare and the Ps3 killed it dead.
I didn't however try the other burning abilities, what do you guys use??? Again I'm still shocked on how good this damn video game machine is. For music I like it alot better then my Xbox360. I think it sound richer and fuller.

SACD I have no experience yet but I will once I get a new preamp that does HDMI 1.2 or 1.3 which is what I want. The damn Integra is the only one on the market right now thats fully ready. The NAD is a let down as it has 1.3 but no decoding, I don't even get that. Rotel also killed it with there new preamp 1069 it has 1.1. that sucks.

So far so good, DVD looks fantastic. Sounds fantastic and I could not use my Pioneer Elite Dv47a and be completely cool with it. Right now the only reason I have it is so I can still listen to DVD audio and SACD. Years ago when I compared my Pioneer Elite to everything else at that time, I felt it was the best overall performer. It killed the Toshiba, it blew away the Denons and simply looked sharper and more detailed the Sony es. So I purchased it and had it since release date. I had the first of 3 we got in at Soundex.

For games I only have Motosport something that it came with. I played it for a few minutes it looks good and all but games are my last priority. I may pick up AC but it's on Xbox 360 and on sale at BB for 39.99. I don't know and really don't care about the games.

What I didn't know about it and know now after owning it is the fact you can serve online. Not needed as my house had Inernet everywhere. Hell my wife and I both have iphones and use them alot for online.

As far as the comments about the WiFi not working good, I have a Apple extreme 10/100/1000 Router and connected at 60%. It never drops and I also have the ability to connect hard wired but I wanted to test out the wireless. My router is in my basement and on the other side of the house. We have 3 computers , Xbox 360 , 2 iphones and a wireless laptop all on it at all times. So far no problems and it stays connected. I plan on doing a Speed test. I'll post my results after a few trys at different times of the day/night.

Anyone who wants to get into Blue Ray would be a fool not to check this out. Hell it's upgradable VIA internet and if Blue fails , it still cool to own. The music server built in is awesome. I'm so happy with it. I plan on burning in Chrstmas songs/holidays for that matter and using it when family comes over. Ipod had that duty but it just got put on the back up plan. I'm cool with that.

I have not tested out the card reader under the left panel yet. I plan on stacking up a few cards and trying it out with pics. I'm sure it will be cool. My family is big on digital pics so I'm sure it will get used alot.

I'm suprised what you get for 499.99.

Did I mention I love this effin thing????

Dan

avelanchefan

Nice review Mantis, glad to see you got the your wireless running flawlessly. After searching around more for my problems it seems that the ps3 does not meld very well with my Linksys router. Known issues abound all over googleland with Linksys and the ps3.

Oh well it is now hardwired with an rj45 splitter that shares time with the xbox360.

sbpolk

mantis wrote: »

I'll post my review here on the unit.

1) For blue ray, I believe i's as good as any other Blue ray player on the market...

2) For music I was actually shocked. As a CD player , it rocks. I noticed all of the detail and clarity I'm used to...

3) For music I like it alot better then my Xbox360. I think it sound richer and fuller...

4) damn Integra is the only one on the market right now thats fully ready...

5) I don't know and really don't care about the games...

6) Anyone who wants to get into Blue Ray would be a fool not to check this out. Hell it's upgradable VIA internet and if Blue fails , it still cool to own. The music server built in is awesome. I'm so happy with it...

7) I have not tested out the card reader under the left panel yet. I plan on stacking up a few cards and trying it out with pics. I'm sure it will be cool. My family is big on digital pics so I'm sure it will get used alot.

8) I'm suprised what you get for 499.99.

9) Did I mention I love this effin thing????

Dan

Dan, ditto on almost all your findings. Now to add my own thoughts to yours! (BTW all, I added the numbers for the bullet points! )

1) I currently have the Panasonic BD30 in my rack above my PS3. The BD30 has an excellent picture, and I have been very stoked to be able to send DTS-HD Master Audio to my new Integra 9.8. The Panny is, of course, completely silent. Much quieter even than the fans on my Toshiba HD-A2.

Having said that, I spent $399 for it plus 5 free of my choice at BB, and I just don't think it brings enough to the table to keep it permanently, and certainly not enough to replace my PS3. I am hoping the PS3 will get DTSMA decoding in the future, and since it generally runs quieter than my projector, the sound isn't as big of an issue.

In the future, however, I will need to address the heat issue since my theater is in a bonus room above the garage and tends to get warm in the summer.

2 and 3) I think the PS3 as a music source absolutely ROCKS. I ripped some CDs to it at the highest bitrate, and played them back to back from the harddrive and the actual CD, and I could not hear a difference on music I am VERY familiar with.

I have not tried streaming music from a PC yet, but will try in the near future.

The PS3 absolutely KILLS my recently purchased XBOX360 Elite for Music. Not only does it run much quieter, music when AB'd sounds much fuller and richer on my system as well. I am surprised by anyone who feels the XBOX is equal to or better than the PS3 in the music department.

The new folder/sort functions on the PS3 are great too.

I haven't tried SACD yet, now that I have it hooked to my Integra via HDMI I would love to try it out... any donors out there? I need some SACD material!

4) The Integra 9.8 Pre/Pro rocks. It lacks some of the whiz-bang features of a Denon 4808ci or Pio Elite 94TXH (like ethernet firmware updates, windows play-for-sure, internet radio, etc.) but is a killer prepro with balanced outs, Reon video scaler, 4 HDMI in/2 outs, etc. And it sounds fantastic!

5) I currently have no games for the PS3. Not really by design, I just found the selection of XBOX games more to my liking at this point. I am kinda cheap too, so I don't mind playing an older XBOX 360 title for cheaper right now. The PS3 is still too new for cheap titles!

6) Mega dittos! It can now be completely controlled with a Universal remote. My remote handles everything but turning it on, but even that can be done now.

I think that people who say "I won't use a gaming machine as my Blu-Ray player" are very short sighted. While it has a few drawbacks, it's many plusses simply outweigh the minuses, in my opinion.

Do I wish it was whisper silent, cool running, had IR/RF remote cabapility out of the box, and looked like a regular 17" wide HT component? Sure. Deal breaker? Not at all.

7) The card reader is cool. I just use it to put pictures on the harddrive.

You really need to explore the picture display capabilites. The photo album functions are SWEET, and are awesome to play music to. I have friends with PS3s in nice living room systems that have had parties playing great music with great pictures being displayed on the plasmas. VERY COOL!

8) Me too...

9) Me too!!!

Finally, I have had the BD30 in my rack for about 3 weeks now, and it will be going back. A sweet BD player for sure, but it just isn't a replacement for a PS3. And I can't justify $400 for a "second" Blu-Ray player, just to get DTSHD MA.

mantis

sbpolk,
cool man. I like the Panasonic 30 as well. I actually considered it before the Ps3.It's also the fastest stand alone player that I have seen.

From what I have heard the PS3 is getting the DTS upgrade.

On the sound fan noise, I havent heard mine yet. I sit about 10 feet from the unit and I don't hear it. It sounds like a soft fan when it's dead silent in the room but when I'm watching movies I don't hear anything. The Xbox is louder, that I notice unless I turn the volume up.

Dan

sbpolk

Here is my current setup, with the "Gaming Trifecta"! Also a pic of the Integra 9.8 and the Panny BD30.

landry_p2000

Very nice set-up you got there sbpolk.

Dan you pretty much gave one of the best rundowns on the PS3 I have heard yet, but, I was wondering if there was a way I could get my sound to come through the tv speakers and the optical output at the same time. Sometimes I play with the tv speakers only late at night. By the way, I use my Onkyo for sound only, and have my consoles ran though the Onkyo on optical only. No picture through the onkyo. When I set it up for optical out, the sound won't come out from the hdmi cable, and when I set it for hdmi, I get no sound through the Onkyo. ????

landry_p2000

Anybody???

Sami

I don't think you can do that. I wish you could so if anyone finds out, please post.

mantis

landry_p2000 wrote: »

Very nice set-up you got there sbpolk.

Dan you pretty much gave one of the best rundowns on the PS3 I have heard yet, but, I was wondering if there was a way I could get my sound to come through the tv speakers and the optical output at the same time. Sometimes I play with the tv speakers only late at night. By the way, I use my Onkyo for sound only, and have my consoles ran though the Onkyo on optical only. No picture through the onkyo. When I set it up for optical out, the sound won't come out from the hdmi cable, and when I set it for hdmi, I get no sound through the Onkyo. ????

Thanks man.
You can not. You have to change it every time you want to use one or the other. It only outputs one or the other. not both at the same time.
it just take a few seconds to set up.

Sorry dude,

Dan

mantis

sbpolk,
man I want to see more pics of your room... It looks awesome from what I can see.
Come on man, lets see more pic's. Start a new thead and give us some great pics.

Did I mention I wanted to see more pics of your room????

Dan

mantis

avelanchefan wrote: »

Nice review Mantis, glad to see you got the your wireless running flawlessly. After searching around more for my problems it seems that the ps3 does not meld very well with my Linksys router. Known issues abound all over googleland with Linksys and the ps3.

Oh well it is now hardwired with an rj45 splitter that shares time with the xbox360.

You know the more I have to deal with Linksys the more I don't care for there products. I had 3 different b g and n units from them and I had nothing but problems. I use 3 comm at work and they are not bad. D links are horrible as far as I have experience with them. Then I got the Apple Extreme and I have had no problems at all. I also never had to reboot it which is something I had to do often with Linksys.

Do yourself a favor and get a Apple Airport Extreme N router. They now even have 2 new ones with 500 and Ter Built in hard drives. Sweet man,

Dan

landry_p2000

mantis wrote: »

sbpolk,
man I want to see more pics of your room... It looks awesome from what I can see.
Come on man, lets see more pic's. Start a new thead and give us some great pics.

Did I mention I wanted to see more pics of your room????

Dan

Damn, that sucks. Thanks anyway Mantis, and I totally agree that sbpolk needs to hit the system showcase for more detailed pics of the display and gear. From what I see, it's a very nice set-up. :eek:

mantis

landry_p2000 wrote: »

Damn, that sucks. Thanks anyway Mantis, and I totally agree that sbpolk needs to hit the system showcase for more detailed pics of the display and gear. From what I see, it's a very nice set-up. :eek:

Hell yeah Brother. Hell yeah.

Dan

sbpolk

I'll start a thread, and I when I do, I will link it here!

dipiazza

Kind of bringing up an old thread here but im intersested in gettin a PS3 or Xbox360... mostly im interested in the music capabilities. My roomate has a 360 and ive messed around with it a little but i am wondering if there is anyway to move mp3 files directly off an external hard drive onto the 360's drive. I cant seem to find a way. Also the 360 doesnt play .wav?

i have no music experience with teh ps3 but i like that the 360 can play straight from an external player or hardrive... how is the interface on the PS3? The 360 interface is OK not great but seems to work well... also i am outputing digital to my reciever and the reciver is decoding it to DD stereo... there is a volume control on the 360 player that allows you to mess with the volume. on true digital out shouldnt you not be able to change the volume at the source?

Just lookin for some more info here. Thanks

mantis

dipiazza wrote: »

Kind of bringing up an old thread here but im intersested in gettin a PS3 or Xbox360... mostly im interested in the music capabilities. My roomate has a 360 and ive messed around with it a little but i am wondering if there is anyway to move mp3 files directly off an external hard drive onto the 360's drive. I cant seem to find a way. Also the 360 doesnt play .wav?

i have no music experience with teh ps3 but i like that the 360 can play straight from an external player or hardrive... how is the interface on the PS3? The 360 interface is OK not great but seems to work well... also i am outputing digital to my reciever and the reciver is decoding it to DD stereo... there is a volume control on the 360 player that allows you to mess with the volume. on true digital out shouldnt you not be able to change the volume at the source?

Just lookin for some more info here. Thanks

I have not tried a external drive or tried to tranfer music. I however burned cd's in using the highest form to retain the best sound quality. the 360 I have used my ipod and controled it with the 360, thats very cool but don't sound all that great. I perfer the ps3 as a music server. Again I like audio quality not quanity.

Dan