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

Dave Mack

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Nice story, Robert!

Well, much lower down the scale in comparsions but I gotta say last nite hearing the spaciousness, separation, dynamic range and incredible clarity of the DTS HD Kingdom of heaven track simply downrezzed to dts 1.5 through optical was revelatory. I have a nice modest settup, NHT Superones and supercenter, decent sub and a pioneer elite amp and honestly my settup never sounded so good. I was pretty floored. My next amp will be HDMI so I can only imagine the jump to come....
And for me, audio is at LEAST 1/2 the game in the movie experience...

:)
 

Sanjay Gupta

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The 'Ultimate AV magazine' website, has posted a very indepth review of the 'PS3', totally from a Home Theater perspective. http://ultimateavmag.com/hddiscplaye...blu/index.html

I guess, saying that they liked the 'PS3', would be an quite an understatement.


PS: Please excuse this post incase this has already been mentioned before, in this very long thread.
 

DaViD Boulet

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Robert,

Wow. thanks for sharing that incredible experience with us. Having spent so much time with lossless 2.0 LPCM on laserdisc, DVD was such an audible step backwards with many titles. Looking for the day the high-res, multi-channel lossless audio becomes the norm with top-titles (and maybe not-so-top-titles).

Happy Holidays/Merry Christmas everyone!

dave :)
 

BrianShort

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Robert: I'm sure I'll be getting an HDMI receiver eventually, but I was happy enough with the sound using just the optical that I can live with what I have for now, be very satisfied, and save $400 :) The only thing I need is an optical to coax converter so I can hook my PC back up to my stereo for music. The PS3 stole the only optical input my receiver has.
 

Matt Hough

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I have five Blu-ray DVDs set to arrive in the mail this week (three tomorrow if luck is with me), and I'm looking forward to experiencing something other than TALLADEGA NIGHTS. First up for me will be THE SEARCHERS.

As a total non-gamer, using the controller as a remote did take some practice, but like any new piece of equipment, it all will become routine with time. I'm thrilled with the look and operation of the PS3 thus far. I'll be back with more comments as I view more quality software.
 

Romar Armas

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One major issue that the Ultimate AV Magazine fails to address is the cables that SONY has chosen to include in the PS3. Composites!!! In this next generation Hi Definition age, they can't even include Components?? I have an unopened PS3 sitting in the basement which I got 2 days ago. It's unopened because I got it mainly for the BR feature but what's the point if I can't make use of it out of the box. If you're going to promote BR in all it's HD goodness, why composites??
 

Mark Butler

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In this case, I think Sony was pandering to the lowest common denominator with including composites. Almost everyone knows composite cables, the yellow one goes in the yellow hole and the white and red go in the white and red holes. I still know people who can screw that up and plug the audio cables in the wrong holes. My friends who have worked and still work at CE stores have had customers bring back dvd players they thought were not working because they had plugged the wrong cables into the wrong color coded holes. Three colored plugs are difficult enough for some people but component plus the stereo plugs would be that much more difficult to figure out. Plus if you plug into the wrong hole with component the picture still shows up sometimes but just looks wierd so they would think its a problem with the player or their TV, if you plug the yellow video into the red stero you get nothing so people are more inclined to think they plugged it in wrong.I would have liked Sony to include a HDMI cable but again that would probably panicked people. People worry that maybe the extra cable is needed for something and the hooked it up wrong or why doesnt their TV have the hole for it. With composite everyone has used it and everyone has it. It's safe. Once HDMI becomes the norm there wont be this problem. One plug, One hole, easy.
 

Sam Posten

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OK. So are there any disadvantages to hooking the sound up from the PS3 to the receiver via HDMI other than the pain in the ass handshaking that can cause the connection to not work if components arent all on beforehand?

Can you have both connected simultaneously and A/B them live?

With a projector its not just a simple matter of swapping an easy cable connection, I have to juggle a 50 foot cable and make sure the PJ is running before turning on the ps3 etc....

Sam
 

Romar Armas

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I don't think this really applies to the market that SONY is going for. They are heavily marketing the PS3 as a Next Generation Hi Definition Gaming System and Blu Ray player. If MS can include a Component/Composite cable with the 360, I really don't see why SONY can't. I went to Wal Mart today and grabbed a Mad Catz universal Component/Composite connector that works for the PS2/Xbox/Xbox360 for $10. SONY could have easily added this in, specially with the 60GB package.
 

Edwin-S

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I don't think SONY knows what they want. They claim to be aiming the PS3 as a HD game and movie platform, but they don't include a component cable, 720p>1080i upscaling, 1080i upscaling of DVD, or analog outputs for legacy HT receivers. The last three are the main reasons why I am holding back on purchasing a PS3.
 

DaViD Boulet

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Hey Ed,

what do you mean by analog outputs for legacy receivers? Do you mean 5.1 analog out? Don't most receivers for the past 10 years accept a toslink digital connection for 5.1 audio?

I agree on the DVD scaling and 1080i/720P conversion thing. Hopefully a firmware upgrade will add both of those goodies in time.
 

ChristopherDAC

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Sure, but what about lossless/PCM? Those won't go over SPDIF. At best, you'd be looking at downgrading to DD/dts 5.1, or else stereo PCM.
 

Edwin-S

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Sorry, if I caused any confusion. I shouldn't have said legacy since I believe that refers to 5.1 DD and DTS audio codecs. I meant 5.1 analog outs like on the HD A1. My receiver has 5.1 analog inputs for an external decoder or a SACD or DVD-Audio player. The PS3 does not have the analog outputs so I wouldn't be able to listen to the LPCM uncompressed soundtracks available on some of the BD releases. Eventually, I would like to do a new set up and go with all separates. Unfortunately, the dream set up is far off in the future.

I have listened to the Dolby TrueHD track on "BATMAN BEGINS" and it sounds pretty good; although TrueHD is not as Earth shattering as some guys have posted here......at least not to me. Of course, my ears are getting old. To tell the truth, I could live with 640 DD or 1500 DTS but the 720p>1080i conversion is the real sticking point. The PS3 would be seeing duty as game machine as well as a movie player and my TV does not accept a 720p signal.
 

Carlo_M

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How ironic: I lucked into a PS3 60GB today (happened to be in EB, they said they were expecting a shipment which "might contain Wii or PS3" in a couple of hours, got in line (I was 5th) and the first 3 wanted Wiis (they only got 3) and 4-6 got PS3s (again, they only got 3).

I get home to do some research and come across the scaling issue. I have two TVs: a 7 year old Panny RPTV which only does 480i/p and 1080i, and a 32" LCD TV [1366x768] that can accept 1080i, 720p, 480i/p.

I understand the scaling issue about if I play a 720p game on my Panny, it will be output in 480p (though clearly there is downscaling done, so the PS3 should have some scaling chip inside, right? just not enabled properly?)

I can live with that, as I can just play 720p games in the bedroom on my LCD TV.

What worries me is will 1080p Blu-Ray and PS3 games be properly displayed in 1080i on my Panny set that only does 1080i? Or is the conversion of material from 1080p to 1080i considered scaling which the PS3 can't do? I refuse to watch BD-ROM discs in 480p on my 1080i set.

Please help clarify this for me before I break open the box. Thanks!
 

BrianShort

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I believe that the scaling issue is only a factor with games. BD movies should be fine. My Sony is native 720p but also accepts 1080i, and it shows the input from the PS3 during BD playback as 1080i.

Brian
 

Romar Armas

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The issue with the "scaling" is indeed with games only. The PS3 does not do any scaling at all. It's more of what is being supported by the software. If a game is 720P, then by default it should also support 480i/p which should be indicated in the box/manual of the game. There are games that support all resolutions like the GT HD Demo which can be downloaded.

When dealing with 1080i/p, it's more of an interlacing/de-interlacing issue which is quite different from scaling. So when a BR movie shows 1080p, the PS3 can interlace it to output 1080i.
 

DaViD Boulet

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Correct.

I hope everyone realizes that taking any 1080i/p or 720p signal and outputting it via 480i/p from the PS3 (which it can do) is indeed a form of scaling... downscaling.

the PS3 has the guts and chips to perform some level of scaling functions. In fact, the first released players prior to firmware 1.1 could even downscale 1080p BD movies to 720P! Then the 1.1 firmware update stopped that and all units that shipped with 1.1 didn't downscale to 720p from 1080 any longer... just down to 480 (movies).

It's been rumored at AVS that Sony is working on improved scaling for upscaling of DVD playback. It's hoped that this will also include the ability to downscale 1080 BD movies to 720p, and also to convert 1080p games to 720p as well as 720p games to 1080. But it's probably several firmware updates away...
 

Carlo_M

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Well it looks like a keeper then. You'd think for the price they asked, as well as the marketing hype, and the fact that their competitor does scaling, that they'd have this issue be...a non-issue. Oh well. Looks like when I want to watch BD movies, it's out in the living room w/ the Panny (which is the larger of my TVs and my primary HT system) at 1080i. When I want to game with games supporting 1080i I can do it also on the Panny, but if I ever get a 720p only game, it will be in the bedroom on the LCD TV.

Thanks for all of the help!
 

DaViD Boulet

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Agreed... would have much preferred the PS3 to ship with all up/downscaling functions in-tact.

grrr.

Though the "lockup" that's been happening on occasion after my 1.3 update is really the most serious offense of all. Not enjoying that one bit. I'd encourage anyone buying a new unit to avoid updating the firmware as long as they can until we get a confirmed update that fixes the bug.
 

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