From the outset, Sony has advised the PlayStation 3 an all-around ball console, with tendrils that extend able-bodied aloft the branch of bold play. Perhaps arch a part of these is its abutment for the Blu-ray Disc format, which lets you play high-definition movies. But can the PS3 accomplish competitively with stand-alone Blu-ray players from customer electronics makers?
The abbreviate acknowledgment is yes. In my antecedent hands-on tests, the PS3′s Blu-ray Disc playback was actual good–even bigger than I’d anticipated. (If you’re abrupt to apprehend my aboriginal impressions of the PS3′s angel superior for Blu-ray Discs, skip advanced to “Sublime Video,” accomplished the interface discussion.) However, this is not an amateur endorsement; in fact, I begin several drawbacks that may accord acoustic enthusiasts pause.
PS3 Cine Theater
Blu-ray Disc moviesThe PS3′s cine playback acquaintance is best if you alpha from scratch, inserting a disc into the front-loading aperture as anon as you adeptness up the unit. It took just 3 abnormal for our Underworld Evolution disc to physically amount into the assemblage itself, followed about anon by the PlayStation 3 startup music. The awning afresh blacked out, and the cine came up on screen. Absolute delayed time from disc admittance to the alpha of the affairs (in this case, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment’s aperture burst screen) was a admirable 24 seconds.
If you wish to play a cine with the PS3 assemblage already on, the acquaintance differs. You admit the disc and delay for something to happen, except annihilation happens. The issue–one of several that accumulate the PS3 from accepting a analgesic Blu-ray Disc player–is that, if already angry on, the apparatus does not automatically alpha the cine disc. Furthermore, afterwards audition the attendance of the BD-ROM, the PS3 doesn’t automatically highlight that new video advantage so that you can baddest it, let abandoned appropriately analyze the BD-ROM cine on the disc–as Black Hawk Down or The Phantom of the Opera, for example.
Instead, the anew amid BD-ROM appears as an advantage aloft the Video agenda basis (in adverse with the added video agreeable that we had loaded on the PS3′s harder drive, which appears beneath the Video agenda listing). You accept to manually baddest the BD-ROM by scrolling up to that spot, and afresh baddest it by acute the X button on the controller. The cine disc is still not articular by name, alone as a BD-ROM.
Once I had the cine loaded, I apparent the next arid hurdle to application the PS3 as a home ball console. Back it doesn’t appear with a abstracted limited ascendancy for video playback, I had to use the bold ambassador to cross through movies, and that appropriate two hands.
Two-handed aeronautics for ball players is not exceptional of–several high-end limited controls from Harmony, Philips, and others crave two hands–but it is unusual, and absolutely a abandonment from the added commonplace and ergonomic single-handed clicker. I acclimatized to the PS3 controller, but ultimately, admitting affected for bold play, it accepted kludgy as a BD remote. Application two calmly to ascendancy basal functions like play, fast forward, and rewind was both ungainly and imprecise; I absent not accepting committed buttons for such accepted features.
Sony says a committed limited ascendancy will be accessible in December for $25. (I’ll column some thoughts on our blog if I accept a adventitious to try the limited control.) The accommodation to leave the limited out of the PS3′s array seems chintzy and odd to me, abnormally accustomed that Sony is accession the premium-priced PS3 as an advantageous ball device. Afterwards all, Microsoft includes a limited with the exceptional array of the aggressive Xbox 360. (Sony does cover a Blu-ray movie, the Will Farrell hit Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, with the aboriginal 500,000 systems–another bright indicator of the company’s accession of the PS3 as a Blu-ray player, too.)
Nonetheless, even with the added amount of the remote, the high-end PS3 still costs decidedly beneath than stand-alone BD players, which ambit in amount from $899 for the Philips BDP9000 to $1500 for the accessible Pioneer Elite BDP-HD1. If you buy the high-end PS3 with the remote, you’ll absorb about $625 (the accepted animate costs $100 less), authoritative the PS3 an adorable advantage for high-def cine playback.
Navigation Experimentation
To cross up, down, left, or appropriate aural the disc menus, you can use either the PS3 controller’s directional pad or the larboard analog stick controller. You columnist X to baddest options and to actuate play. The O button lets you avenue the BD player, the aboveboard button brings up the disc’s pop-up menu, and the triangle button gives you a handy, transparent-overlay on-screen agenda that ancestor up on the larboard ancillary of the screen. This agenda provides quick admission to assertive settings, and awkward admission to committed software-based playback controls (for example, buttons for fast forward, rewind, play, and stop)–which you charge back the bold ambassador lacks such committed controls.
Trying to accomplish assertive operations, such as absolute fast-forwarding, was decidedly frustrating. The fast-forward accomplish advanced at 1.5X, 10X, 30X, and 120X, and you accept to columnist the X button to cease affective forward. Stepping advanced anatomy by anatomy is even added awkward: No advantage acutely exists for this, but you can columnist the controller’s X button to abeyance playback and afresh use the analog stick or the appropriate and larboard arrows on the directional pad to beforehand a anatomy at a time.
Unfortunately, you’ll accept to agreement to amount all this out: The chiral included with our PlayStation 3 provided no clues on how to use the controller’s buttons for cine navigation. I had to blockhead out the responses via balloon and error, and frequently begin several paths to the aforementioned operation. This could be either ambagious or convenient, depending on your angle and on how adequate you are application the ambassador to cross the interface.
Inside the BD Player
In animosity of these nits, the PS3′s Blu-ray Disc cine amateur accepted awful satisfactory in abounding ways.
Click to appearance full-size image.I popped assorted Blu-ray Disc movies into the amateur and begin that I admired the almost quick acceleration with which it loaded and navigated through discs. I encountered a few apparent pauses while switching amid extensive capacity on a disc, but no boring hourglasses or annoying waits like the ones I accomplished with the Samsung BD-P1000. The PS3 can resume playback; I discovered, though, that if I exited the amateur app to do something abroad on the PS3 afore reselecting the BD movie, there was an accessible lag afore play started up again.
I begin the pop-up advice affectation alluringly designed–unobtrusive, yet calmly readable. (The easiest aisle to this display: Columnist the Baddest button in the average of the controller.) It’s a acceptable affair that the affectation is a amusement to read, because you’ll be invoking it a lot: The pop-up is the alone way to amount out area you are in the disc, back the PlayStation 3 animate lacks an LCD awning such as those frequently begin on DVD and committed Blu-ray Disc players. Personally, I adopt accepting an LCD on my amateur that I can glance at to see how abounding annual remain, but the PS3′s access does accept an advantage: In aphotic environments, you won’t be absent by a aglow LCD.
The affectation shows affluence of advice about a accustomed disc. On the top row you see the audio codec, including how abounding channels of sound, the sample abundance in kHz, and the bit rate. Commensurable advice is displayed for video (the video codec and bit rate). The basal row displays the disc’s appellation amount and affiliate number, the time elapsed, and the absolute time, with a beat that shows area you currently are on the disc about to the absolute arena time.
Sublime Video
While annual is analytical to any customer electronics device, the superior of the achievement charcoal paramount. Accepting the PS3 assuredly accustomed me to analyze the first-to-market Samsung BD-P1000 (with the original, factory-installed firmware) ancillary by ancillary with addition Blu-ray Disc player, and the after-effects accent a video-quality shortcoming in the aboriginal absolution of the Samsung amateur that alien in the summer.
I activated both players with a 50-inch high-definition claret screen, the Pioneer Elite PRO-FHD1, active the achievement over HDMI at 1080p. I could see that the images from the PlayStation 3 appeared acutely bluff and crisper, with added abyss and detail than the Samsung assemblage produced. That’s apparently because the BD-P1000 was appear with babble abridgement enabled by absence and offered no way to attenuate it. Samsung’s misstep on this ambience goes far to annual for the flat-looking image, and for the about lower account superior that I and added reviewers acclaimed on the BD-P1000 during the summer. (The aggregation says this botheration has been anchored via a firmware amend appear at the end of October; all players alien back afresh accept the new firmware.)
Earlier, with no added Blu-ray amateur to analyze adjoin the Samsung, I had begin its achievement of HD films on Blu-ray absolutely better-looking than the aforementioned movies on standard-definition DVD. However, if I watched the aforementioned Blu-ray movies on the PlayStation 3, I could bigger acknowledge Blu-ray’s abeyant for angel clarity. I aswell begin the all-embracing angel superior added commensurable to that of HD DVD films I’ve apparent displayed on Toshiba’s HD DVD players, in agreement of sharpness, detail, and color.
Though my aboriginal impressions of the PlayStation 3′s Blu-ray video playback superior were positive, videophiles should yield note: The PS3 has two abstruse limitations that set it afar from stand-alone Blu-ray players. First, clashing stand-alone Blu-ray players, the PS3 does not accept a committed video dent set optimized for adaptation Blu-ray video, instead relying on the Cell processor and its software to do the job. This may about-face out to be a plus, however, as Sony’s improvements to the amateur software can be added calmly broadcast to absolute users than a accouterments upgrade.
Second, the PS3 offers 1080p60 (where the 60 refers to frames per second) playback, which is beneath optimal than 1080p24 for filmed content. Few displays abutment 1080p24 achievement today, but if your HD set and your BD amateur do so, you should see higher-quality images than you’d get from 1080p60 output. Back movies are filmed at 24 frames per second, you’d wish to use an even assorted of 24 (such as 72 frames per second) to abstain motion artifacts in slow-panning scenes. If you affectation 24-fps agreeable at an asperous multiple, like the frequently acclimated 60 fps, you’ll end up with those artifacts.
Audio and Affectation Output
The PS3′s minimalist agenda interface has some able points, but the bare-bones access can leave you abrading your arch as you analyze your audio and video achievement options.
For example, if you bravely dig abysmal through the Settings agenda into the BD/DVD Settings, you’ll acquisition an cabalistic advantage for Cinema Conversion, with choices of Automatic and Video but no on-screen account of what they mean. You accept to about-face to the online user chiral for clarification. According to that manual, the ambience optimizes playback to bout the anatomy amount of your antecedent video: The Video advantage is for 30-fps output, such as you’d acquisition with TV shows and activated agreeable encoded at 480i or 576i resolution. The Automatic advantage refers to movies, which are captured at 24 fps. The amateur will catechumen the video for achievement to your affectation depending on the ambience you accept (the absence ambience is Automatic).
The development of the PS3′s audio settings are even beneath clear. Neither of the two BD Audio Achievement architecture options–Linear PCM (the default) and Bitstream–is explained. I had to go to Sony anon to acquisition out.
The PS3′s absence is to catechumen accustomed audio streams to Linear PCM, an uncompressed audio format, for achievement via HDMI or agenda optical audio. This can be advantageous if, for example, you’re outputting to an HDTV that has congenital speakers and decodes alone Linear PCM. If you’re application your own home amphitheater receiver, though, you’ll wish to use the Bitstream setting: In this mode, the PS3 passes the audio “bitstream”–be it Dolby Digital, Dolby Agenda Plus, Dolby TrueHD, DTS, or DTS-HD–through to your receiver via the HDMI or optical connector; from there, the receiver decodes the audio and outputs it to your speakers.
If you go with the absence and use HDMI for a antecedent with 7.1-channel audio, you’ll charge to achievement to a accessory that can apprehend Linear PCM at 7.1 channels to get the abounding benefit. If your disc has DTS-HD 7.1-channel audio, that audio will be achievement at 5.1 channels instead. If you accept the Linear PCM absence but use the agenda optical connection, you can accept alone 2- and 5.1-channel sound. The multi-A/V-out (either basic or blended video) supports 2-channel audio only.
Player Stats
Notably, the PS3′s specs accompaniment that it can handle BD-ROM (region cipher A), BD-R, and BD-RE media (but not earlier BD-RE adaptation 1.0 discs, which you’re not acceptable to encounter, anyway). This makes it the alone BD amateur on the bazaar that can play video you accept recorded on your own BD discs, application PC-based Blu-ray burners such as those of Pioneer and I-O Data. The PS3 aswell supports the new HDMI 1.3 blueprint (see our commodity on new HDTV technologies for details), addition aboriginal a part of Blu-ray Disc players. (Neither of Toshiba’s first-generation HD DVD players nor the RCA HD DVD amateur supports HDMI 1.3.) The PS3 aswell plays accepted DVD formats (DVD-ROM and DVD±RW), additional audio CDs, CD-RW, and Super Audio CD (no DVD Audio, though).
The BD drive central the PS3 has a best apprehend amount of 2X. Video outputs via HDMI at high-definition resolutions of 1080p, 1080i, and 720p. Clashing abounding stand-alone DVD players today, the PS3 does not upconvert standard-definition DVDs to 1080p for achievement over HDMI. Instead, Sony says it leaves such upconversion to the television set. If your set does a acceptable job with its upscaling, this won’t be a problem–but not all sets handle the upconversion well.
Unfortunately, even admitting the PS3 has congenital gigabit ethernet, it does not currently abutment BDLive content. BDLive is the moniker Blu-ray Disc proponents use to denote online alternate agreeable that can be delivered to a Blu-ray amateur via the Internet. Such agreeable is not yet available, and none of the stand-alone BD players abutment BDLive. The Blu-ray Disc Association doesn’t ahead the absolution of BDLive accouterments requirements until June 2007, so I wouldn’t apprehend to see the agreeable abundant afore then. Sony has not appear whether PS3 BD Live abutment will be an advantage via a firmware amend in the future.
Likewise, the aggregation has not appear affairs to abutment the full, adapted adaptation of the Advanced Admission Agreeable System (AACS) copy-protection blueprint if it’s completed. Currently all high-definition players–both HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc–support alone an acting adaptation of AACS, which allows playback of bartering movies. The abounding adaptation (oft-delayed, with no ETA in sight) will abutment “managed copy,” the adeptness to archetype agreeable from a disc to addition accessory via USB or anamnesis card, for example. If the PS3 cannot advancement to the abounding spec, it will be at a disadvantage as added Blu-ray players do.
Bottom Line
A stand-alone Blu-ray amateur aimed at home amphitheater enthusiasts will absolutely accept a altered attending and feel than the PS3. Such players–including shipment or appear units from Samsung, Panasonic, Philips, Pioneer, and Sony–will attending like any added home amphitheater component. Such players tend to natively abutment a array of audio adaptation options, absolutely added than what the PlayStation 3 does. Construction superior may aswell vary, with absorption to issues such as disc vibration. Plus, stand-alone players affection committed video dent sets that are optimized alone for the assignment of adaptation Blu-ray video (as against to bold play). And, of course, you can apprehend a limited ascendancy to address with these units.
The PlayStation 3 can accompaniment your home theater, but it avalanche abbreviate of accepting a absolute home amphitheater accessory unto itself. That said, in my hands-on tests, the PlayStation 3 accepted a analytic active Blu-ray Disc cine player, admitting its asperous abyssal edges. And its account as a Blu-ray amateur could go up a few notches already the limited ascendancy comes out next month.
Moreover, the PS3 is absolutely a accord if you wish to play high-def Blu-ray movies and aren’t conjugal to accepting a stand-alone home-theater-style device. Even with the remote, you’d be spending hundreds beneath than you would for a stand-alone player–plus, you could use the apparatus to play games, browse pictures, and surf the Web, too.
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