PS3 reviews... looking forward to some hands-on comments... (1 Viewer)

[Dave Mack]

Yeah, it's weird with the Region 1/region A thang....

 

[PeterTHX]

Well, to me it makes perfect sense, changing the numbers to letters. There are different Regions now (less) and folks would get mixed up, like Japan being Region "2" for DVD yet Region "1" for BD.

 

[Ryan-G]

Actually, the comment I was responding to was on the X-box 360, Fox and Disney aren't onboard with the HD-DVD's are they?

The X-box 360 allows for full 1080p over component and VGA from what I'm told. As I said though, no 1080p TV for me :frowning: So YMMV...

 

[DaViD Boulet]

Ryan,

very intersting if the 360 add on let's 1080p over component. Of course... very few TVs accept 1080p over component (though some do, like older CRT front projectors). 1080p over vga is more common on machines that have such an interface though. Interesting. I'll do some reading over at "the other" forum where Amir posts to see what else there is to learn...

dave

 

[Mark Butler]

Sorry, Region A, B,and C. Not 1. Here in Japan all the new (manufactured in 2006) 1080p TV's I have looked at ( I am looking to buy a 1080p Big-Screen or Projector) have HDMI and D5 connectors. That is all the major companies too, like Panasonic, Sony, Samsung, Sharp etc.

 

[Robert Crawford]

Too confusing for me with these different region designates and formats, so I'll resort to using North America and such.





Crawdaddy

 

[Dave Mack]

DaViD, how's your PS3 doing? I'm reading more and more posts on AVS of people getting lockups after that 1.3/1.31 firmware upgrade....
gettin' a little spooked....

 

[DaViD Boulet]

Yes,

NO ONE apply the 1.3 or 1.31 updates... leave your 1.1 firmware alone until Sony gets this fixed.

I reset my firmware to factory (or something similar) using a trick the Sony tack walked me thru over the phone. I'll try some blu-ray movies tonight/tomorrow night and see if I can watch lock-up free.

Again, for anyone reading, not a problem with the PS3, just a problem with the downloaded firmware update from the Sony site.

dave

 

[DavidJ]

Oops! I already upgraded. I still don't have any Blu-ray movies to watch. I have some in the rental queue, but I will move them down the list until Sony fixes the problem.

 

[PeterTHX]

No lockups here really. The disc stopped fast fowarding once (the unit still responded though).

Been running 1.31 a week now. 22 BDs and counting! Would be more but goddamn Amazon shipping...

 

[BrianShort]

Hopefully I'll get some titles in tomorrow I can watch. TD did freeze up on me once (I have the 1.31 firmware, but was unaware of any problems at the time it happened). David, could you share the trick you used to switch back to the 1.1 Firmware?

 

[BrianShort]

BTW, just read over at AVS that 1.32 is out. I'm not at home right now so I haven't downloaded it. No word on what it does that I've found.

 

[Sam Posten]

2 pages later and still nobody has taken a crack at these questions, I dont see any easy reference for this info anywhere, and I have searched quite a bit.

Sam

 

[PeterTHX]

OK.
"Settings"
"Sound Settings"
"Audio Output Settings"
Select "Digital Out (Optical)"
Check "Dolby Digital", "DTS" ("PCM 2 channel 44.1KHz and 48KHz" should both be automatically checked.)
Check "AAC" *only* if your receiver supports it (mine doesn't). The PS3 can rip CDs in MP3, AAC, and ATRAC to the hard drive. You can then directly output the AAC files to the receiver (MP3 and ATRAC are converted to PCM)
List, then "X" to save settings.
Under "BD/DVD Settings" make sure "BD Audio Output Format (Optical Digital)" is set to "Bitstream"

There ya go

 

[Grant H]

Just remember you can't take advantage of lossless audio if you stick with optical. You'll have to use HDMI to hear uncompressed audio from the PS3, or to pass the encoded signal to a receiver for processing (future). You can only get high bitrate DD and DTS with optical (bitstream).

 

[DaViD Boulet]

Not entirely true...

If the lossless stream is LPCM then you can output it downmixed to 2.0 via SPDIF optical (and it probably will sound better than the 5.1 DD mix!).

What I'm not sure is if the PS3 will let you take a Dolby True HD stream, convert to LPCM internally, and then downmix that stream to 2.0 over SPDIF or if it forces you to be happy with the DD core mix over SPDIF instead.

 

[Dave Mack]

Got the PS3 last nite. We got the HD going through component for now and are watching Kingdom of heaven and its amazing looking. Agreed, the machine is very, very impressive. We are just using optical out and the downrezzed to 1.5 DTS is pretty damned impressive sounding.

dave

 

[BrianShort]

I agree the sounds via optical out sounds great. I can't imagine I'd hear much difference going to lossless, so I'm not as anxious to get a receiver with HDMI as I was a week ago. Good thing, I didn't want to spend any more money. I watched M:I III and Black Hawk Down last night, and both looked phenomenal on my Sony 42A10 (1080i converted to 720p by the set). I have KoH too but haven't watched it just yet.

 

[RobertSiegel]

Regarding the comments on lossless audio and that there wouldn't be much difference.....I had the opportunity to visit one of the movie studios (a blu ray supporter) because I have a relative working in the home video department there, and this was a week that they were demonstrating for the entire staff the differences between dvd and blu ray disc. They had set up a home theater room (very elaborate high end). They were doing side by side demos of 4 movies (some sadly still not out on blu-ray). The movies were: Sound of Music, Independance Day, Spiderman and Lawrence of Arabia (obviously not all from this studio).

I could NEVER have imagined how big the difference was between a compressed dvd and DTS HD master. I was stunned, especially at The Sound of Music and Lawrence of Arabia. I obtained a smile on my face for hours after this demo, knowing soon we would be able to hear the classics sounding so good. The differences in tonal qualities, frequency response, and every sector of the audio spectrum were vastly improved. We are turly in for a treat when all of these movies come out with DTS HD.

I can't say about the new Dolby(plus,ect) because all these demos were in conjunction with DTS, but what I heard that day was an AMAZING difference. When the dvd played, which was done first, it actually sounded quite good. But when switched over to the DTS HD master track, my jaw fell to the floor. The stereo separation vastly improved, the richness of every instrument almost made me feel the orchestra was in that room. Well, with my all time favorite movie being The Sound of Music, they showed the entire opening sequence and then parts of Do-Re-Mi and the movie ending. I know the tracks from Sound of Music so well...I have owned every vhs, laserdisc and dvd version, so being familiar with the track, I fell out of my chair when I heard exactly what this track SHOULD sound like....nothing short of fantastic, making the latest 40th anniversary regular dvd sound, well, average. The nice thing is that Fox is releasing every blu ray title with the DTS, including their classics (I am not sure about pre-stereo era).

I am totally sold on these new sound formats, and after hearing that, I truly believe once you hear this properly presented, if you are in to the audio tracks of a movie like I am, you will forever trash the dvd version of your favorite movies (when the blu ray comes out, of course).

 

[Robert Crawford]

Interesting read! I wonder how that lossless audio track would fair against DD+ as to whether the difference would be so apparent? Also, judging by your last comments, audiophiles are going to have a field day with this stuff.




Crawdaddy