CriPPleR_HD
Auditioning
- Joined
- Aug 23, 2006
- Messages
- 6
- Real Name
- Samuel Gonzalez
I picked up my 60gig PS3 yesterday and a Panasonic DMP-BD10 Last Saturday. I know a lot of people wanted to compare the PS3 to the Panasonic so I thought I will post my impressions.
Panasonic DMP-BD10 v1.2:
The Bad:
The player feels like $300 to $500 player it definitely does not feel or look like a $1,300 dollar player. The menu's are all low res and really look cheap. Nothing to write home about. When the disk is accessing data it is very noisy but once the movie starts it is whisper quite. There is a low res pop up that says "Reading" when the disk is accessing which really looks bad. Skipping scenes takes a bit of time even when skipping one scene at a time.
Before we get into the good I will say that I firmly believe that HD-DVD PQ is superior to Blu-Ray. In my rig HD-DVD PQ is king. No matter what I read on reviews site etc, no matter what movie I throw at them, HD-DVD's looked better. Sometimes slightly better and sometimes it's drastically better. There was never a time that the Blu-Ray PQ looked better then HD-DVD in my system. This is ONLY my honest opinion using the same settings and same HDMI cable. That being said, at it's best Blu-Ray can look GREAT!!! Now on to the Good.
The Good:
This is a rock solid player that performs flawless once you get past the menu's ETC. If the PQ is better than my old samsung it is only slightly. Where blu-ray excels at is in the audio department and the DMP-BD10 will soon be the master of that domain with it's 7.1 analog outs and its promise of decoding TrueHD and DTS-HD in future firmware updates. The DMP-BD10 also never skipped stuttered or missed a beat. This player has it were it counts Stability, PQ and SQ.
If HD-DVD is PQ king then Blu-Ray is SQ King. If I did not know any better I would sware that the audio from the uncompressed PCM is better than TrueHD but lossless is lossless so who knows. SQ is the main reason I own a blu-ray player. If you have not had a chance to hear it yet then you owe it to yourself to hear these sound tracks on a good HT system. I can tell the difference without even trying.
If all that matters is PQ and SQ than the DMP-BD10 is the best Blu-Ray Player on the market with it's quick FW Updates and 7.1 analog outs.
PS3 Blu-Ray:
I was truly expecting the PS3 to be a crappy BD Player but PQ and SQ are about the same as the Panasonic minus the 7.1 anolog outs and no mention of supporting DTS-HD. I do notice that the PS3 picture is slightly darker then the Panasonic but the image is just as clear. As with the Panasonic I had the PS3 hooked up to my Denon 4806CI/200w x 7 McIntosh amp via HDMI. The HDMI from the receiver was hooked up to my Sony 70" SXRD XBR2. I experienced none of the HDMI issues that others reported and hooking it up was a snap. The menu's and icons are all in HD. A small high res "Play" icon replaces the Panasonic's low res "Reading" pop up. The unit is MUCH quieter then the 360 in general and when watching a movie you do not hear a peep from the unit. Skipping scenes is quicker on the PS3 then it is on the Panasonic. The system does get hot but never out of control. I netflixed a bunch of BD's and PQ seems to match the panny blow for blow. Like the Panny the unit seems stable and it has not crashed or locked up while watching BDs or games. I got the PS3 for gaming and got the panny for my HT needs but I think the PS3 is more then capable of handling my Blu-Ray needs. This player will not scale so don't expect to replace your dvd player with the PS3.
PS3 Gaming:
To be honest I am so underwhelmed with the PS3 for gaming. Maybe it's because I am an avid PC gamer but games like Half-Life 2, Prey and Q4 look much better then Fall of Man. On the 360 side games like Gears of War, Ghost Recon and Kameo look better than anything on the PC ATM.
I have seen people with myspace pages that look better than the Playstation Online Store. The online is clunky and the interface pals in comparison to 360 with it's Live and Marketplace. 360 is SOOOO far ahead with Xbox Live and Arcade that sony will never catch up. All the games that I would of purchased I already own on 360 and from the reviews they are better. CoD, Marvel, Oblivion, Rainbow Six: Veges ETC. I use to think that MS Achievement system was a gimmick but while playing Fall of Man I realized how much I missed getting rewarded for doing something cool. Buddy list on PS3 is also a joke. If you get a message and want to respond to it you need to exit the game you playing.
By now everyone knows that it does not come with any kind of HD cables. It also does not come with a head set / mic. You can not recharge you controller and play at the same time if your TV is 50" and above. The cord is so short that you will go blind. I also have an issue with the audio. For some reason I can not turn up the volume past -3.0 on my processer when playing games. It is fine when watching Blu-Ray disk but with game it's caped.
When you first get a game it has to install some of the data to your hard drive just so it can avoid the loooong load times. Most games are in 720p and if it is in 1080p the texture become so simple that it looks worst then some last gen games. You can have all the storage you want but PS3 only has 256 VRAM so we are not going to see these crazy high rez textures that are possible on the 360 with it's 512 unified ram.
Mobile Suit Gundam: Crossfire = One of the worst game every made.
Genji: Days of the Blade = This is so not Next Gen. That genera just took like 5 steps backwards with this game.
Resistance: Fall of Man = Fun game but there is nothing next gen about it. The areas are LARGER than most games but some objects look sooo bad that it throws everything off. The windows are straight out of the Half-Life 1 engine and some of the foliage is down right 8bit. Check out the weak bush from the Resistance pic below. Some cool weapons save this game but the Lancer from Gears of War owns them all.
Motorstorm demo is pretty fun but nothing worth buying a system for.
I am sure the games will get better in time but so will the 360 games. As far as the interface and online capabilities, MS is light years ahead of Sony and I don't believe they can catch up. Not gonna happen.
If you are coming straight from PS2 and have not played PC games in the last 4 years then PS3 might look GREAT!
If you have a 360 or an updated PC then the PS3 might not impress you.
If you are looking for an inexpensive Blu-Ray Player then the PS3 might be what you have been waiting for.
If there is any specific movies or features you want me to check out let me know. My netflix is unlimited
I know some members will not agree with me and that is fine. This is ONLY my opinion.
Happy Thanksgiving,
-Sam
PS I suck with a camera. I will learn to take pics with out flash next time
I was also in the process of demo'ing amps so please excuse the wire mess.
