How good is a PlayStation 3 as a DVD player? (1 Viewer)

[Haris Ellahi]

How is the PlayStation 3's DVD peformance?

 

[John Garcia]

Excellent. The upconverting capability is actually a bit better than my Oppo 970.

 

[Adam_R]

I have no basis of comparison as far as upconverting DVD players go, but after the firmware update to allow the PS3 to upconvert to 1080p, I am HIGHLY impressed. There really is a big difference and some movies (Star Wars III was my test disc) look phenomenal.

 

[DavidJ]

It is a very good dvd player. I never would have used my PS2 as a dvd player, but the PS3 is in a different league. I still tend to prefer my HD-A1 for upconverting. The PS3 gets the nod when speed is important.

 

[Haris Ellahi]

Thanks for the replies.

What about its audio CD performance? Comparable to a good DVD player?

 

[Brent M]

You know, this is something I've been wondering about myself. I currently have a Toshiba HD-A1 HD-DVD player and as everyone pretty much knows by now it does an amazing job of upconverting DVDs. I've been thinking about getting a PS3 for Blu-Ray playback(as well as upcoming games like GTA 4 and The Force Unleashed) and while I don't necessarily need it to do a good job with standard DVDs I was curious as to how it did with upconverting them. Sounds like it does a pretty good job after all which is a pleasant surprise after what I saw from the PS2.

 

[Eric_Connelly]

I would say unless your spending huge money on a DVD player it bests most units out there.

I have a Yamaha C950 and have always been extremely happy with it.

The PS3 is a visually better upscaler which says a lot consider the Yamaha is also a good upscaler.

Audio wise I don't notice a whole lot of difference. I think they are both equal in quality.

Now if they'd make them play DVD-A's I'd sell my Yamaha all together if the PS3 has analog outs.

I still prefer the Yamaha for audio playback, but thats because I use an analog crossover though 6 channel analog outs.

 

[Jari K]

IMO, since the quality with e.g. PS3 and Toshiba HD DVD -players with upscaling SD DVDs is so good now, I see no reason to buy a new DVD-player - even if you don´t want to jump on that HD-bandwagon just yet.

Buy PS3 = Quality DVD/Blu-ray/game console
Buy Toshiba HD DVD = Quality DVD/HD DVD

This "upscaling" has been (a bit) blow out of proportion in the forums. All DVDs will have that 576 (PAL) or 486 (NTSC) resolution and there´s no player out there that can suddenly make them look "as good" as HD (1080). They don´t magically make everything look perfect, since the limitations just are there (the capacity and resolution with SD DVDs). Further more, if the print/DVD-release is mediocre, it´ll look "mediocre" with the good upscaling player also..

Sure, some players do upscale better than others, but even with the best of them, those SD DVDs won´t look as good as HD.

I´m currently doing a minor article to my local paper about Toshiba HD-XE1 (1080p-model here in Europe, which I believe have HQV Reon-chip like in the US model XA2) and this is the first time I have (properly) used the player. While the upscaling looked very good indeed, I doubt that it looked any better than with PS3. Granted, I haven´t done a proper comparison (it´s not the main point in the article anyway), but this was just my thought when I watched one DVD ("The Game" SE still looked somewhat soft and murky.. ) with it and tested with the couple of others. So take my comment with that grain of salt.

IMO, if you´re looking a good upscaling DVD-player, you can´t go wrong with either of them (PS3 and Toshiba). You still have to remember, that "cheaper" Toshiba-models won´t upscale to 1080p and I´m not sure that do they have HQV Reon-chip like in the HD-XE1 (Europe) and HD-XA2 (US) models?

I was a bit disappointed that Toshiba HD-XE1 didn´t support MP3s or JPEGs (Yes, I tested to make sure), when PS3 literally supports almost anything (yes, again I have tested - it also plays MP3s and JPEGs from the DVD-R - not only in CD-R). Sure, these are probably what you could call a "minor issues", but still.

 

[Doug Pyle]

I had the same question - how good is the PS3 upscaling - so I did an entirely amateur & subjective test. I did an A/B comparison between the PS3 DVD playback via HDMI (version 1.81 with upscaling), and my Panasonic DVD F-85 (no upscaling), via component, as viewed on my Sony 34" XBR 910 HD direct-view display.

I sync-ed up dual copies of The Messenger (a standard 480p DVD) to play at the same time - and I switched playback between them to compare.

I saw more color detail using the Panasonic playback than the PS3 in both standard & upscaled PS3 DVD playback. The PS3 standard 480p DVD playback without upscaling was pale and less dynamic in color range/depth, a stark difference in contrast to the rich colors and detail as viewed on the Panasonic (e.g. in the thick forest & grassy field scenes where young Joan finds the sword, or has prophetic visions).

The difference was significant with PS3 standard DVD playback (no upscaling), but just subtle with upscaling. The Panasonic playback (no upscaling) was equal to or better than the upscaled PS3 playback.

The Panasonic does not have HDMI, and I don't have 2 component cables, so couldn't compare the Panasonic 480p versus the PS3 1080i using the same type of cable simultaneously.

With upscaling, I might be satisfied with the PS3 for standard DVD playback, if my budget were tight and I couldn't afford a better standard/upscaling DVD player. As it is, I prefer using the Panasonic for standard DVDs.

Obviously, others have different impressions than I did.

Still, the Blu-Ray image is outstanding on the PS3 and I'm very glad to have it. Games also look great - though I didn't buy it for games. Even older PS2 games look much better upscaled on the PS3.

 

[Jari K]

I was planning to do a similar test tonight with PS3 and Toshiba HD-XE1. I have 2 HDMI sockets in my LCD, both PS3/Toshiba upscale to 1080p and I have 1080p "full HD"-LCD. I did the similar test at one point with Panasonic Blu-ray-player vs Panasonic "basic" DVD-player and with SD DVDs & upscaling, I didn´t find any significant differences.

 

[Nimrod]

What about this statement about the PS-3 a buddy of mine sent me

"yes the ps3 does play bluray but it is not desiged to be used all the time. the bluray lazer works intermitenly with the games. useing it all the time to play movies will burn it out."

True or not?

 

[Jari K]

Lol. BS. One of those funny rumors..

 

[Nimrod]

looks like i'm getting me a PS-3

 

[Dave Gilbert]

The PS3 is also a SACD player.

 

[Jari K]

Of course, there's no guarantee that the laser will last "forever", but that´s the case with any similar equipment. e.g. Xbox 360 is a top notch game console, but has some real issues with their compatibility (this is a fact: http://www.audioholics.com/news/indu...-warranty.html ). Let´s hope that PS3 will be free with similar problems..

 

[Jari K]

I have to admit that I had a long day at work, so I didn´t have energy to do a very "in-depth" test. I had two copies of the same DVD that I tried and did some comparing (changing between HDMI in-puts takes a few seconds, so very quick/instant comparing wasn´t possible).

One thing I noticed. PS3 had a slightly sharper picture compared to Toshiba (at least NTSC SD DVD upscaled to 1080p). As we know, "sharp" is not always equal to "better", so perhaps fine tuning the "sharpness" set-up from Toshiba would´ve done the trick (and both would be quite equal in that sense). In any case, this minor additional sharpness on PS3 probably made some of those artifacts/effects on the picture (that you get via upscaling - 480p => 1080p) a bit more prominent on the screen than with Toshiba, which gave a slightly softer picture.

At this time, I can´t really say that I noticed other significant differences, but to my eyes, PS3 was somewhat sharper than Toshiba (when upscaling SD DVDs). Still, all this with the grain of salt - I didn´t spend much time on this issue. This type of comparing is actually quite time consuming and tiring and I doubt that I would have energy to do a full, in-depth test anyway..

Toshiba is probably a very good upscaling DVD player also, but IMO: So is PS3. To my eyes at least (which for me is "enough").

 

[John Garcia]

I compared both via a HDMI switch box so I can switch back and forth with one button, at the same resolution on the same input. I noticed the same thing as Jari K, the PS3 looks sharper than the Oppo. The Oppo is better with film based material due to the slightly softer presentation, while video based (animation) looks better on the PS3 I noticed.

I also compared my Denon 2900 via component to both the Oppo and the PS3 upscaling and both look better than the 2900, though not by a huge margin.

 

[Todd H]

And media center. I store lots of photos, video, and music on mine.

 

[Brent M]

I did a little reading over at AVS since they have a lot of information in the Blu-Ray section about the PS3 and it sounds like the 1.81 and/or 1.82 firmware updates have really made the PS3 a very good upscaling player. I don't know if it would be as good as my Toshiba HD-DVD player, but I'm sure it's pretty close. I'm really close to just pulling the trigger and buying this machine. The $100 price drop along with a 12% off coupon I got in the mail from Best Buy means I could pick one of these up for around $465 with tax. A Blu-Ray player, game machine and good upscaling player for that price is a pretty solid deal IMHO. Plus, it's eligible for the 5 FREE Blu-Ray discs offer. Even though they're not the greatest titles in the world, it's still $100-150 worth of software.

 

[Doug Pyle]

Focusing back to the thread question, I do think it is useful for any PS3 user to try your own A/B comparison, as the result will ultimately depend on your own system and hookups.

Whether or not the standard DVD playback is better or worse than your current equipment, there are many other reasons to like the PS3 - such as SACD playback, Blu-Ray movies, excellent playback with upscaling on PS2 games as well as the PS3 blu-ray games, etc.

Standard DVD upscaling is gravy. Once you decide to get the PS3 for all its other, primary qualities, an A/B comparison will help you decide whether your current DVD player compares better or worse than the PS3 with upscaling, for standard DVD playback on your own system.

I do expect varied results. For me, I'm happy using the Panasonic for standard DVD, and the PS3 for everything else it can do. (However, beware the fan if fan noise is a concern to you - I've elaborated on this, my pet PS3 peeve, elsewhere).