Help! PS3 Info Overload. (1 Viewer)

[wally]

OK. I’m just confused on moving to HD media for movies. I’m getting close to pulling the trigger on a PS3 with my spring bonus. Thought I had a good handle on things, but there is so much info here I’m not so sure.

I’m looking for a bridge until I can swing either an HDMI switching receiver, or Blu-ray player with 7.1 outs. I just hate dropping $$$ on SD-DVD titles that are being released in BD, might also get into a little gaming (that PS3 F1 title looks...WOW).

Am I correct to think the following hook up will work?

HDMI from PS3 to the TV (Sony KDF-55WF655 with 1 HDMI in). Optical from the PS3 to a Denon 2805. Will that give me the option to listen to the PCM track on BDs or does that require the analog outs?

 

[Chris*Liberti]

That will work. The only thing is that full 5.1/7.1 PCM surpasses the capability of the optical connection. You can still get the PCM track, it will just be stereo, and then you set your receiver to Dolby PLII. I went through this entire thing. I didn't research enough myself. I bought the PS3 only to find out it does not scale 720p to 1080i. So I bought a Samsung 1080p TV. Then I decided I wanted to have full PCM in so I bought a Marantz receiver, luckily I sold my old receiver to cover this. So, instead of spending ~$500 to get into Blu-Ray I ended up spending ~$3300 before I sell my old TV and my old receiver. Still, I end up after selling stuff of spending ~$1900 to get into the theater quality I wanted.

 

[Austan]

I too had to ditch my 6 year old 1080i only HDTV when I got the PS3... But hey, when have I ever kept any electronics that long? (Ok..Ok.. my Parasound amps are 11+ years old)

If you want to keep up with the latest and greatest you have to upgrade... PC's 3 years old most likely wont have SATA drives. And dont even think about a PCI express video card.

You upgrade because you want to... No one is forcing you... I couldnt justify replacing a prefectly good HDTV. But the PS3 scaling issue was just the right reason I needed. Boohoo me... and damn SONY!!! I have PS3 and now I have to live with a 47" 1080p LCD.

 

[Tim Johnson]

Yup, lots of us ditched not-so-old tvs due to buying PS3s. Shame too, because I used to like that old HDTV.

I laugh when people complain about the $500 - $600 price tag of the PS3, throw a 65" DLP on top of that $500 "bargain" 20GB PS3.

 

[Neil Joseph]

Moved to the Blu-Ray area

 

[wally]

Not sure I know what this means. I believe my TV has selectable resolutions of both 720p and 1020i.

 

[Brian_cyberbri]

The PS3 does not have a scaler like the 360 does. Apparently there is some sort of scaler that does half-scaliing. At least for the games. For example, Resistance: Fall of Man is rendered in 720p. The PS3 cannot, or currently does not if they fix/patch this down the road, upconvert to 1080. So if you have the PS3 set to 1080 and you play Resistance, it is output in 480p. I don't have a PS3 myself (yet) so I can't confirm from first-hand experience, but I believe a recent system update let you specify and place the order of preference for resolutions. So even if you have it set to 1080p for movies, it MAY (someone please confirm) switch to 720p for you for Resistance, etc.

For DVDs however, I don't believe the PS3 upconverts.

For video games, the Xbox 360 will scale and output any game to whatever resolution you have set in the dashboard, including original Xbox games supported by backwards compatibility. The PS3 only does PS2 games in 480p (over HDMI) I believe, and at least at first it did a TERRIBLE job of de-interlacing. You were better off using lesser cables and letting your display do the deinterlacing. This may have been fixed in a system update since then, I'm not sure.

The HD-DVD add-on for the Xbox 360 upconverts SD DVDs when you use the VGA output, and only does 480p through the add-on if you're using component cables. Even so, the player does very well for SD DVDs, at least according to the benchmark tests over on Secrets of HT and Hi-Fi.

 

[Got Sony?]

You can download quite a few game demos directly to the ps3 including F1 Championship Edition. They are FREE downloads. Then you know for sure if you want to pony up 60 bucks for a game!

Sony 55 SXRD 1080p TV
PS3