PS3 = Good BluRay player?

pandamoanium

Hi all,

Saw a deal on today for a Sony PS3 for E250 (think that seems like a good price?) anyways I've been thinking of getting a BluRay player for sometime now to go with my Panasonic 50" G10 Plasma and was wondering if the PS3 is any good as a BluRay player or would I be better off just getting a standalone BluRay player?

Thanks guys!

Idleater

Yes it is very good.

Biro

Depends. For €250 I assume it's the non-slim PS3. These can't bit-stream Dolby True HD sound apparently, so if you're planning on complimenting your G10 with an AV receiver at some point for surround sound, then it's something you might want to consider.
Do you want to use it to play games? It's a games console first and foremost, and a blu-ray player then. If it's only ever going to be used for blu-rays then I'd buy a stand alone system. Far less bulky, no menu to root through to play the disk, no need to buy a remote control to replace the joypad, etc.
If however you like games and will use it as that then it's a no brainer!

Idleater

Biro wrote: »

Depends. For €250 I assume it's the non-slim PS3. These can't bit-stream Dolby True HD sound apparently, so if you're planning on complimenting your G10 with an AV receiver at some point for surround sound, then it's something you might want to consider.

This is incorrect, because the PS3 internally decodes all the HD sound formats and streams them as LPCM, so you can survive with a decoder that can process this.

For a brief further explanation, consider bitstreaming HD audio equivalent to sending a zip file, and LPCM as sending the contents direct.
in the former, the destination unpacks the content, in the latter it is already done.

The only difference is in the extra bandwidth used with LPCM, vs the computing power required to unpack the HD audio stream on the fly.

If you ask me, the PS3 is well endowed in the latter (and probably more powerful than the processor in a reciever), and HDMI is well able to cater for the former.

Biro

What about DTS-HD MA? Was there ever a firmware update for that?

Idleater

Biro wrote: »

What about DTS-HD MA? Was there ever a firmware update for that?

since firmware 2.30

Smeghain

Originally i bought a Ps3 (older model) to use as a blu-ray player simply because your getting a few options in one box, the games playing ability, the console can also be used as a computer if you install unbuntu (the new slimline ps3 does NOT have this option) and of course the media streaming capability (it`ll play most formats of video and audio), if your not too intrested in another other than a blu-ray player then just get a standalone one but for those optional goodies i`d definatly think about the ps3

Rsaeire

pandamoanium wrote: »

Hi all,

Saw a deal on today for a Sony PS3 for E250 (think that seems like a good price?) anyways I've been thinking of getting a BluRay player for sometime now to go with my Panasonic 50" G10 Plasma and was wondering if the PS3 is any good as a BluRay player or would I be better off just getting a standalone BluRay player?

Thanks guys!

If you're considering a PS3 then I'd recommend you go for a PS3 slim, over a standard PS3, for a number of reasons:

- 36% lighter
- 34-50% less power consumption
- 33% smaller
- Quieter
- Full HD audio support, i.e. internal decoding and bitstreaming of DTS-HD MA

chrism2007

what about streaming other media like AVI and MKV files.

never used a ps3, but id love if you could plug in a hard drive and play through it. whats it like in that sense?

Smeghain

dunno about mkv but avi, dvix and so on work grand. they do regular updates on em so mkv is probably supported by now, its been a while since ive used or updated it