Playstation 3.

[MrSiggler]

I recently got my first HDTV. A 46 inch Samsung LCD. As of now, for movies, I'm using a Samsung DVD player which both upconverts to 1080p(quite well, actually), and plays divx/xvid great. It's ran every divx file I've thrown at it thus far.

I've been tossing around the idea of getting a PS3 now that the HD war crap is over, since it seems the cheapest route to go for getting blu-ray playback. And of course you can play PS3 games as a nice added bonus. (MGS4, yay!)

Those of you that have PS3s... how well does it upconvert standard DVDs? How is it's xvid/divx playback? Could this replace the samsung unit I'm using for that now?

Edit: Wow. My first post here in ages and I managed to goof it! Meant to post this in off topic.

[melancholy]

I'm not sure about the Divx thing since I have no Divx files to test it with, but in regards to the upconverter, it's great. I think it beats out the Xbox 360's upconvert, and also seems to perform better than a few standalone DVD players I've seen at work. I can't comment on your particular player, but I think you won't be disappointed by the PS3's conversion.

For my PS3, I also bought one of these Nyko Blu Wave Remotes. The remote itself sucks, but I really wanted it for the IR sensor so I could use my universal remote with my PS3. It works like a charm and makes DVD watching really easy since I don't have to pull out the controller every time I want to play a movie.

Also, you probably already know this, but if you want full PS2 backwards compatibility, look for a 20GB or 60GB PS3. It's just nice to have, and though it doesn't upscale PS2 games, it does smooth them out on HDTV's.

[Veggita2099]

It could be something in my settings but I have toyed around with them and haven't seen anything to change it. However The ps3 seems to shrink Widescreen DVD's down a lot more then the 360 does. Blu-ray movies look fine but I personally use the 360 for DVD playback. I can't really compare it with other DVD players on the market as the only two I have used on my HDTV are the PS3 and 360.

[melancholy]

I don't know, I've tried the 360 and it seemed more blocky than the PS3, which generally seemed smoother. And there are two upconverted DVD players at work (a Philips and...something else) that constantly run Star Wars, and one seems blocky too (the Philips, obviously) while the other seems around the same quality as the PS3.

So yeah, I'm not an expert, nor have I done side-by-side comparisons, but from my own personal perspective, I prefer my PS3 upscaling.

[MrSiggler]

Thanks for the info guys. After a bit of googling, the general consensus I see is that the divx/xvid playback is pretty good on the PS3.

Another question!
How much of a difference is there between an upscaled DVD, and a Blu-ray disc? I hear varying opinions on that. Some say there's no difference, some say there's a huge difference.

[|darc|]

Thanks for the info guys. After a bit of googling, the general consensus I see is that the divx/xvid playback is pretty good on the PS3.

Another question!
How much of a difference is there between an upscaled DVD, and a Blu-ray disc? I hear varying opinions on that. Some say there's no difference, some say there's a huge difference.

I'd say there's a pretty big difference, though you can make it look pretty good using an upscaler. The problem with people's opinions on this is that a lot of people will watch a Blu-ray on the PS3 without using HDMI. If you don't use HDMI, the PS3 will not output in HD because of DRM "security" issues. So if you're using component on the PS3, you're basically viewing standard def or progressive content. So a lot of people don't realize that when they compare upscaled to Blu-ray, they're not actually watching the Blu-ray.

[melancholy]

Thanks for the info guys. After a bit of googling, the general consensus I see is that the divx/xvid playback is pretty good on the PS3.

Another question!
How much of a difference is there between an upscaled DVD, and a Blu-ray disc? I hear varying opinions on that. Some say there's no difference, some say there's a huge difference.

I'd say there's a pretty big difference, though you can make it look pretty good using an upscaler. The problem with people's opinions on this is that a lot of people will watch a Blu-ray on the PS3 without using HDMI. If you don't use HDMI, the PS3 will not output in HD because of DRM "security" issues. So if you're using component on the PS3, you're basically viewing standard def or progressive content. So a lot of people don't realize that when they compare upscaled to Blu-ray, they're not actually watching the Blu-ray.

Beyond even the picture quality, though, the biggest surprise for me when I watched my first Blu-Ray movie was actually the sound quality. Sure, I knew the picture would be much more crisp and clear, but I wasn't prepared for how amazing a Blu-Ray disc sounds on a home theater system compared to a traditional DVD. Of course, this point is moot if you don't have a 5.1 system, but if you do, man does it sound good.

[az_bont]

Thanks for the info guys. After a bit of googling, the general consensus I see is that the divx/xvid playback is pretty good on the PS3.

Another question!
How much of a difference is there between an upscaled DVD, and a Blu-ray disc? I hear varying opinions on that. Some say there's no difference, some say there's a huge difference.

I'd say there's a pretty big difference, though you can make it look pretty good using an upscaler. The problem with people's opinions on this is that a lot of people will watch a Blu-ray on the PS3 without using HDMI. If you don't use HDMI, the PS3 will not output in HD because of DRM "security" issues. So if you're using component on the PS3, you're basically viewing standard def or progressive content. So a lot of people don't realize that when they compare upscaled to Blu-ray, they're not actually watching the Blu-ray.

Beyond even the picture quality, though, the biggest surprise for me when I watched my first Blu-Ray movie was actually the sound quality. Sure, I knew the picture would be much more crisp and clear, but I wasn't prepared for how amazing a Blu-Ray disc sounds on a home theater system compared to a traditional DVD. Of course, this point is moot if you don't have a 5.1 system, but if you do, man does it sound good.

What sort of connection are you using between the player and the amp?

[impetus]

Thanks for the info guys. After a bit of googling, the general consensus I see is that the divx/xvid playback is pretty good on the PS3.

Another question!
How much of a difference is there between an upscaled DVD, and a Blu-ray disc? I hear varying opinions on that. Some say there's no difference, some say there's a huge difference.

Huge difference as long as you don't set it up like a newb.

[impetus]

I think it beats out the Xbox 360's upconvert

360 doesn't upconvert. DVD's are shown natively at 480p.

For my PS3, I also bought one of these Nyko Blu Wave Remotes. The remote itself sucks, but I really wanted it for the IR sensor so I could use my universal remote with my PS3.

I may have to get one of those for my Harmony.

[impetus]

DP

[melancholy]

Thanks for the info guys. After a bit of googling, the general consensus I see is that the divx/xvid playback is pretty good on the PS3.

Another question!
How much of a difference is there between an upscaled DVD, and a Blu-ray disc? I hear varying opinions on that. Some say there's no difference, some say there's a huge difference.

I'd say there's a pretty big difference, though you can make it look pretty good using an upscaler. The problem with people's opinions on this is that a lot of people will watch a Blu-ray on the PS3 without using HDMI. If you don't use HDMI, the PS3 will not output in HD because of DRM "security" issues. So if you're using component on the PS3, you're basically viewing standard def or progressive content. So a lot of people don't realize that when they compare upscaled to Blu-ray, they're not actually watching the Blu-ray.

Beyond even the picture quality, though, the biggest surprise for me when I watched my first Blu-Ray movie was actually the sound quality. Sure, I knew the picture would be much more crisp and clear, but I wasn't prepared for how amazing a Blu-Ray disc sounds on a home theater system compared to a traditional DVD. Of course, this point is moot if you don't have a 5.1 system, but if you do, man does it sound good.

What sort of connection are you using between the player and the amp?

Optical. Incidentally, my normal DVD player is digital coax, so that might also be a factor.

[Christuserloeser]

Isn't BR/HDDVD uncompressed PCM ?


- DVD is MP3.

[|darc|]

Isn't BR/HDDVD uncompressed PCM ?


- DVD is MP3.

DVDs don't use MP3. They can use uncompressed PCM, DTS, AC3, or MP2.

[Christuserloeser]

Um, yeah, I think I meant MP2...

They can use uncompressed PCM

I only know about one single (music) DVD that actually uses PCM. That doesn't mean that there aren't many more though, I just haven't seen any.

DTS, AC3

I read that DTS is based on ADPCM compression and AC3 is a lossy format too.

[MrSiggler]

Thanks for the info guys. After a bit of googling, the general consensus I see is that the divx/xvid playback is pretty good on the PS3.

Another question!
How much of a difference is there between an upscaled DVD, and a Blu-ray disc? I hear varying opinions on that. Some say there's no difference, some say there's a huge difference.

I'd say there's a pretty big difference, though you can make it look pretty good using an upscaler. The problem with people's opinions on this is that a lot of people will watch a Blu-ray on the PS3 without using HDMI. If you don't use HDMI, the PS3 will not output in HD because of DRM "security" issues. So if you're using component on the PS3, you're basically viewing standard def or progressive content. So a lot of people don't realize that when they compare upscaled to Blu-ray, they're not actually watching the Blu-ray.

I picked up a PS3 last night, and yeah There's a huge difference indeed.
So I suppose another question.
Any game recommendations?

[az_bont]

Thanks for the info guys. After a bit of googling, the general consensus I see is that the divx/xvid playback is pretty good on the PS3.

Another question!
How much of a difference is there between an upscaled DVD, and a Blu-ray disc? I hear varying opinions on that. Some say there's no difference, some say there's a huge difference.

I'd say there's a pretty big difference, though you can make it look pretty good using an upscaler. The problem with people's opinions on this is that a lot of people will watch a Blu-ray on the PS3 without using HDMI. If you don't use HDMI, the PS3 will not output in HD because of DRM "security" issues. So if you're using component on the PS3, you're basically viewing standard def or progressive content. So a lot of people don't realize that when they compare upscaled to Blu-ray, they're not actually watching the Blu-ray.

Beyond even the picture quality, though, the biggest surprise for me when I watched my first Blu-Ray movie was actually the sound quality. Sure, I knew the picture would be much more crisp and clear, but I wasn't prepared for how amazing a Blu-Ray disc sounds on a home theater system compared to a traditional DVD. Of course, this point is moot if you don't have a 5.1 system, but if you do, man does it sound good.

What sort of connection are you using between the player and the amp?

Optical. Incidentally, my normal DVD player is digital coax, so that might also be a factor.

As far as I know, they offer identical bandwidth--however, neither are capable of transmitting the new sound formats, so you only get a downmix in one of the old formats.

You do get increased bitrates over those typically found in DVDs, however--Dolby Digital gets 640kbps versus the usual 448kbps, and DTS gets 1536kbps, occasionally used at that rate on DVDs but more often than not at 768kbps. This is certainly not to be sniffed at, but it is arguably a marginal increase, especially compared to what you have access to.

In order to take full advantage of the next-generation lossy codecs (Dolby Digital Plus, DTS-HD High Resolution Audio) and lossless codecs (Dolby TrueHD, DTS-HD Master Audio) you'd need the player to incorporate an internal decoder and full set of 7.1 analogue outputs (which the PS3 lacks) or for your amp to accept the raw data or decoded output over HDMI (I believe it varies by format for the PS3).

I'm a little disappointed that there aren't more demos of these new codecs. You see plenty of lovely new 1080p displays showing off Blu-Ray, but more often than not they don't even have the sound turned up to a point where you can hear it from a few feet away, let alone in a properly-configured 7.1 setup.

I can't even hear the downmix from my HD DVD player as it is, because Panasonic were either being very short-sighted or very devious when they decided not to include an optical input on my surround system--even more frustrating than including a Dolby Pro Logic II decoder and only allowing it to be applied to CDs and DVDs, not the external input.

[Ender]

Thanks for the info guys. After a bit of googling, the general consensus I see is that the divx/xvid playback is pretty good on the PS3.

Another question!
How much of a difference is there between an upscaled DVD, and a Blu-ray disc? I hear varying opinions on that. Some say there's no difference, some say there's a huge difference.

I'd say there's a pretty big difference, though you can make it look pretty good using an upscaler. The problem with people's opinions on this is that a lot of people will watch a Blu-ray on the PS3 without using HDMI. If you don't use HDMI, the PS3 will not output in HD because of DRM "security" issues. So if you're using component on the PS3, you're basically viewing standard def or progressive content. So a lot of people don't realize that when they compare upscaled to Blu-ray, they're not actually watching the Blu-ray.

I picked up a PS3 last night, and yeah There's a huge difference indeed.
So I suppose another question.
Any game recommendations?

I got a PS3 a few weeks ago, and from what I've played the only games I'd recommend are Rock Band, and Ratchet and Clank

[melancholy]

Any game recommendations?

...no, not really. I mainly use mine for PSX/PS2 games, internet surfing, and Blu-Ray movies. I only own two games, Motorstorm and Folklore. Folklore is decent as a game but has a great story, so that might be worth picking up.

[Lunchbox]

Thanks for the info guys. After a bit of googling, the general consensus I see is that the divx/xvid playback is pretty good on the PS3.

Another question!
How much of a difference is there between an upscaled DVD, and a Blu-ray disc? I hear varying opinions on that. Some say there's no difference, some say there's a huge difference.

I'd say there's a pretty big difference, though you can make it look pretty good using an upscaler. The problem with people's opinions on this is that a lot of people will watch a Blu-ray on the PS3 without using HDMI. If you don't use HDMI, the PS3 will not output in HD because of DRM "security" issues. So if you're using component on the PS3, you're basically viewing standard def or progressive content. So a lot of people don't realize that when they compare upscaled to Blu-ray, they're not actually watching the Blu-ray.

I picked up a PS3 last night, and yeah There's a huge difference indeed.
So I suppose another question.
Any game recommendations?

As far as exclusives go I really enjoyed F1 Championship Edition, Warhawk, and MLB 08 The Show so far. I hear Resistance and Ratchet and Clank are pretty good. I didn't like Motorstorm at all. MGS4 and GT5 Prologue are coming too

If you didn't already play them on other systems definitely check out Rock Band, COD4, Orange Box, skate, fight night round 3, rainbow six vegas 1 and 2, GRAW 2, burnout paradise, condemned 2, and nhl 08.

oh and GTA4 in 26 days