Ps3

It not only upconverts dvds but also things like ps2 games (40GB isn't backwards compatible) and non-hd segments of blu-rays via the latest firmware.

Only reason not to get one is if you need analog outs for compatibility with older equipment (not a problem if you can use hdmi along the whole chain). If you don't want to bother with third party solutions to having IR universal remote compatibility as the ps3 uses bluetooth for its remote and controllers. Or you need to bitstream trueHD or DTS-MA to your receiver for decoding instead of having the ps3 internally decode them.

Otherwise you get a high quality blu-ray player and game machine that meets or exceeds features of most dedicated blu-ray players currently available. There are some just released and soon to be released blu-ray players from panasonic, sony etc. that finally match the ps3 feature for feature and add the analog outs and lossless audio bitstreaming features so they can do it all. But you might have to wait for dedicated players like these to be competitive with the ps3 price point.

It is the best upconverter I have seen. Better than my Oppo 981hd or my Pioneer Elite. Outstanding value for the money.

I'd say get one. The only reason from my experience not to get one is if your ambient room temperate is 'warm' the PS3 fan can sometimes be very annoying. It's not a deal breaker, but make sure your ps3 has good air flow and a nice cool room to operate in.

I did a side by side comparison of Oppo vs. PS3 on upscaling and the PS3 won. And if you include divX or .avi it wins hands down. As for the XA1 I've never seen one playing but read they are one of the best at upscaling. It needs to be said though that the differences in the Oppo picture and the PS3 are minor. Both are superb.

This weekend I decided to upgrade the TV and bought a Sammy HL56A650 from best buy. The offered me a $100 off a blue ray player, so I bought the Sony Bdp-S300 because it has the 5.1 analog outs. The sound quality was great, the rest of it sucked. Loads time was 3 minutes at best, menus to forever to load. I returned it the next day for a PS3 and I couldn't be happier. Loads much faster, can network it, will update itself (I tried for over an hour to load the latest firmware on the 300), with the bluetooth remote I can run an HDMI cable to the bedroom TV and control it. Best of all, it gives me an excuse to upgrade the receiver!

GEBBY44 wrote: »

I am going to agree with Fongolio here. With the latest firmware updates, the PS3 is one of the best upscaling players out there short of anything with a Realta chip or outboard processing. I recently did a shootout between 4 players: PS3, Toshibe HD-XA2, Pioneer DV-59avi, and Oppo 981. All 4 are considered really exemplary upscalers and in some cases, it was too close to call a winner (like when using suberbit SD transfers). But on poor to mediocre quality video, the PS3 and XA2 were essentially indistinguishable. I was really surprised as I thought that the Reon in the XA2 would win for sure. The Pioneer wasn't far behind, followed by the Oppo. All have different processing types (PS3 - graphics card, XA2 - Reon VX, Pioneer - proprietary, Oppo - Faroudja DCDi) so that can obviously account for some of it, but it's really tough to beat the PS3 upscaling for under $1500 and basically impossible for under $500. Just get one.

The PS3 is NOT in the same class as the XA2 for upscaling. Its not even close.

PS3 and Oppo are close but Oppo beats it out but not by much.

Dont get me wrong the PS3 is good but not great. And not even close to the XA2. The XA2 is flat out amazing.

This is based off my testing/findings.

I've aso considered the fact that I possibly have a defective Oppo because I was highly disappointed by it. I thought compared to the Pioneer DV-59avi it would be an improvement, but found that that wasn't the case. The Oppo sounded anemic on SACD and DVD-A and the video wasn't any better than the similiarly priced Pioneer. I read all the hype and was either expecting too much, or just got a defective unit.

grif32 wrote: »

I own XA1, XA2, PS3, Xbox 360 and Wii over 80 movies on HD DVD and over 100 on Blu Ray I enjoy movies and HD.

But I did do a lot of test for upscales DVD's I have over 1000 so I kinda wanted the best upscale player. And I found the XA2 wins hands down.

IMHO.

To stay on topic, if you have HDMI capable receiver, definitely get PS3 for BluRay - it's a true Profile 2.0 (upgradable) player. You will get your hi-def sound and picture through HDMI.

For upconversion of standard DVDs, not many consumer players (if any) can beat Reon HQV chipset. Reon HQV is used in Toshiba HD-XA2 and Samsung BD-P1200 (and in upcoming 2400). Having XA2, I know for the fact that XA2 will outperform other players including XA2 in upconversion. (I will check out BD-P1200 as soon as I'll get it next week).

ViperZ wrote: »

For upconversion of standard DVDs, not many consumer players (if any) can beat Reon HQV chipset. Reon HQV is used in Toshiba HD-XA2 and Samsung BD-P1200 (and in upcoming 2400). Having XA2, I know for the fact that XA2 will outperform other players including XA2 in upconversion. (I will check out BD-P1200 as soon as I'll get it next week).

While the Reon chip is a great upscaler, it is expensive. When the xa2 was released, it retailed for $999 IIRC. There are a number of receivers from Onkyo that have this chip if you really want it, but they also retail north of 1000 bucks. You can probably get used xa2s on ebay for a few hundred bucks. But you're basically limited to hd-dvds already released and whatever quality you're lucky to get off of ebay.

The ps3 is a quality player that Sony sells at a loss because of the razor/razor blade profit model of the gaming industry. Reon quality is great, but I wouldn't expect any player to eek out the last bit of picture quality possible with chips like the reon and have the feature set of the console at the budget price the ps3 goes for. I have a reon in my onkyo pre, but I really prefer to just let the ps3 handle all the upscaling just because the pre sometimes has trouble figuring things out when it gets the wrong signal fed to it. The ps3 is happy to convert everything from games to dvds without any problems, and I've never missed the quality since I don't watch movies with an A/B switch...;)

You're lucky, the 60GB is the best version sony made. It has all the ps2 hardware included for the best backwards compatibility and it has the media card slots, wireless networking etc.

If you will be using it as a media hub, you might want to drop in a new hard drive before you load up the current one. It accepts generic laptop SATA hard drives (easy instructions are in the manual). So if downloadable content might be your thing, you can do it now or wait until later. But 250GB drives are under a hundred bucks. And even a 320GB goes for the occasional $99 sale.

As far as the controller goes, you can do everything with the game controller. It just depends on how comfortable you are using the controller as your remote. If you just have to have your fast forward and pause mapped to traditional buttons, get the remote. Otherwise, it's pretty easy to use the controller. I recently bought the remote, but I used the controller so much already that I'm still getting used to the remote buttons again.

ViperZ wrote: »

As I said, BD-P1200 Blu-Ray player has a Reon XQV in it. 2400 will have it too. 1200 does not break the bank in any way or form.

It's been a while since I've looked at this player. Did they ever get the glitches fixed by a firmware update?

http://www.highdefdigest.com/tags/show/Technical_Glitches

Also, it's still far short of the full feature set in the ps3. But you are right that it's affordable, especially at closeout for the new models.

I wonder if PS3 sound quality is the same as Bluray player? My guess is not but I may be wrong.

suprafantx wrote: »

I wonder if PS3 sound quality is the same as Bluray player? My guess is not but I may be wrong.

Sound quality is stellar and many options are supported that aren't necessarily supported on a dedicated player. You have support for all the new high resolution formats that are only now gaining full support on the latest blu-ray players. Including TrueHD and DTS-HD MA. The ps3 lacks the ability to bitstream the formats to a receiver for decoding in the receiver. But the audio from the internally decoded PCM (same format the receiver ends up with after receiver decoding) is great. Just make sure everything is configured correctly on the receiver side so it can recognize and process the decoded signal properly (DAC and digital surround processing still depends on the quality of the receiver).

CDs sound great especially over hdmi. And except for the 40GB, you can even play SACDs. A rare option on blu-ray players.

What many people who "guess" at the abilities of the ps3 fail to take into account is that video games require far more processing, graphics, and network power than playing a simple blu-ray. This leads them to the conclusion that a game console could not possibly beat a dedicated player in features or quality. However, modern game consoles are more like desktop computers than the older game machines. I think you can even run linux. And the best thing is that because of the razor/razor blade model of the gaming industry, all this hardware is sold at a loss so they can eventually make money on the game software.

So you end up with a console that has a far better general processor, installed memory, graphics chip, and networking capabilities than is available in a dedicated player which has to be profitable based on its initial sale. And the console was designed from the start with 1080p video and multi-channel surround sound all via hdmi. This is why, the ps3, available basically at blu-ray's launch several years ago, continues to add features to compete head-to-head with the latest blu-ray players just releasing now.

The only things the ps3 can't do are hardware related. It doesn't have the proper hdmi 1.3 chip to do bitstreaming. And it doesn't have a reon chip for upscaling. But other than that, people who bought a blu-ray launch ps3 have only seen their investment grow as they would have otherwise had to upgrade if they bought a launch dedicated player. Among the many firmware ps3 enhancements:

Upscaling both legacy dvds and games to full 1080p
Internal decoding of DTS-HD MA
24fps native movie cadence output for blu-rays
Increased upsampling options of audio sources
More options for video output controls including RGB/NTSC black (for computer monitors vs. TVs)
Blu-ray Bonus View compatibility (Profile 1.1)
Blu-ray BD-Live compatibility (Profile 2.0)

And the ps3 still prompts users for easy firmware updates every month or so when you connect to the network. So they're constantly improving the platform's features and stability which are already very good.

I hijacked a thread earlier and thought I should start a new one...

I know and understand that you can swap out the internal HD of the PS3 for bigger. Can you also load MP3's or other song formats on an external HD and connect to the PS3?

Also, will the PS3 rip songs from a CD onto the HD?

Or...I currently have a PC set up as a media PC, but the way I have it setup is somewhat inconvenient. Is there a way that the PS3 can see the PC over my network and play songs of the PC harddrive?

Edit... Damn it... I mean to start a new thread. Sorry...