Playstation 3 - The best Blu Ray player and game system!

I finally did it! I used my last Epinions Income share checks to purchase the Blu Ray Game Machine I've wanted since last year. Yes, I am talking about the Play Station 3! When it was introduced it was a whopping $600.00 and that was if you could get one retail! Games for the machine were in scant supply, and it was the red headed step child of Blu-Ray Players.

Well as of today, not only is the Playstation 3 an awesome game system, it is also quite a stunning Blu Ray machine ahead of many of its dedicated competitors. So read along as the two sides of me tell you my thoughts on the PS3. The self that loves to play games, and the self that loves movies!

PS3 - An Awesome Blu-Ray Player

Basics If the PS3 is off, inserting a movie into the slot will automatically start up the movie. No longer does it take up to 3 minutes to load, the movies I have watched thus far load in about 30 seconds at most. However, if you have the PS3 already on, putting in a movie does not do anything automatically. You have to go through the PS3 menu to click on the BRMD button (Blu-Ray Movie Disc). Then the movie will start up. I don't yet have a PS3 Blu-Ray remote (sold separately for $25.00), so I am using the PS3 controller. It is a bit awkward, but it gets the job done. I am certain I will soon get a remote to make DVD functions a bit more obvious than going through the longer than necessary functions via the PS3 controller. Keep in mind that to really enjoy your Blu Ray movies you also have to make sure all the settings for Blu Ray are properly set for your set up. Best settings will only be achieved with audio and video set to HDMI, with audio set to PCM out. If you don't have a Receiver with HDMI inputs, you can also set up Blu-Ray to send video via HDMI directly to your HDTV or projector, and send the audio signal via digital optical cable. Set the audio for bitstream for that. You will get all the audio codecs you are used to, like Dolby Digital ES, and DTS, but not the new Blu Ray codecs like DTS HD MA. On the other hand, you can also set the player to the old fashioned analog outputs, but because of all the copyright protections, you won't get any of the advantage of the higher audio and video definition that Blu Ray offers. (for the record, component video cables are perfectly capable of transmitting the HD signal, I've used my cable box that way for over a year).

Video I've only had this for about a week, but all I can say is WOW. I have it hooked up via HDMI to my Optoma HD 70 movie projector, and I watch on a 105" DA-LITE Cinemavision movie screen. Regular DVDs already looked incredible, but Blu Ray really pops out. The images are just brighter and have even greater detail than traditional 480p DVD. I think it is also better than HD movies I get from cable only because I'm not dependent on the cable company's signal. I inevitably get a bit of freeze and pixelation watching HD movies on cable. For detail though, I was just in awe.

Some Blu Ray films I watched in testing Sunshine, Chronicles of Narnia, Juno and Simpsons Movie. In both animated features and the regular movies, the color and detail was just even more impressive than I've seen. The black space, and the complex video displays on board the space ship in the sci fi thriller Sunshine were just as smooth, rich and detailed as they were at the movies. Whites seemed to be whiter and the deep black of space seemed darker. Narnia really showed off how full color can look with Blu Ray, I felt as if I could step into the magical land of Narnia. Colors just seem to "pop out" more with Blu Ray. I first noticed how Hi Def looks better with a movie I watched not on the PS3 but on cable in HD. In the movie Cars Lightin' McQueen's car literally SHINES, while on a regular DVD it is just bright red. I honestly didn't notice much difference with the Simpsons, but I believe it is because that the Simpsons uses a limited amount of colors in its animation.

Audio Eat your heart out every other Blu-Ray player; Sony's PS3's latest upgrade supports DTS HD Master Audio, one of the best uncompressed audio codecs out there. Most of todays state of the art players DO NOT yet offer support for DTS HD MA. Of course it also supports the other HD audio formats like Dolby Digital HD and DTS HD. The PS3 is now the prodigal son of Blu Ray and not the red headed step child.

Thanks to the built in wireless (or wired if you prefer) networking capabilities of the PS3, this machine downloads all the latest upgrades, and the last one from April of 2008, included the latest and greatest of Blu Ray codecs. DTS HD Master Audio is to regular DTS or Dolby Digital what SACD or DVD-Audio was to CDs. The sound is crisper, louder and more detailed. It just gives that perfect sound quality previously only delivered on the all but failed formats of SACD and DVD audio. I am looking forward to concert videos on Blu Ray. All of FOX's movie releases have DTS HD MA soundtracks, and PS3 supports this. You do need HDMI to get the audio signal. I use a Yamaha RX V663 Receiver which is a 7.1 Surround Sound system which has HDMI inputs. Be sure to set your PS3 to PCM out, it won't bitstream these codecs. However, it will output them via 7.1 LPCM and it rocks.

For those of you who are not audiophiles, simply put, the Playstation 3 brings a depth of audio that would put a huge smile on explosion master Michael Bay and make him shout AWESOME. It will also bring a pleasant smile to audio perfectionist David Gilmour whose latest concert DVD was released on Blu-Ray (which is in my netflix queue as we speak).

If you want a good Receiver with HDMI inputs to take the most advantage of the PS3's superior audio and video check out my review of the Yamaha RX V 663 7.1 Surround Sound Receiver

PS3, a great Game Machine!

I will start with my complaint. PS3 still does NOT have nearly the game selection of it's chief rival X Box 360. I didn't find much visual difference between the two machines either. That being said, lets take a look!

SIX AXIS controller Who among you video game players hasn't tilted their controller to one side for a hard steer in a racing game! Who hasn't pushed or pulled their controller in an effort to land a punch or get out of the way of an enemy. Of course that never actually did anything, the controller didn't respond to being tilted. Well, NOW IT DOES! Many of the PS3 games use Sony's new controller which actually responds to being tilted. My son was the first to discover it as he was able to control Ratchet in Ratchet and Clank Future - Tools of Destruction As the Lombax fell to the city below with his trusty robot strapped to his back pack, my son was able to tilt the controller to allow Ratchet to avoid missiles aimed at him.

In Liberty City, Russian immigrant Nikko is able to duck for cover and shoot at his foes in GTA IV utilizing the new controller.

Gone however is the rumble feedback. Of the two, I much prefer the tilt sensitive controller, and don't particularly miss the shaking PS2 controller.

Video I loaded GTA IV, and after waiting what seemed to be forever, the game itself kicked into place. My initial thoughts of Liberty City a.k.a. New York City. I felt like I was actually in a 3D simulation of NYC. The city skyline looms huge on the skyline, buildings, people, cars, everything seems so gritty, so real, I could just reach out and destroy it. When my son first booted up Ratchet and Clank we were amazed at the incredibly bright and detailed futuristic city of Metropolis. It seemed to be alive! I will say this however, I did not find it to be noticeably more stunning than X Box 360. I had that hooked up via component cables to my projector and the visual image of the retro art deco underwater city in Bioshock was every bit as impressive as Liberty City or Metropolis on PS3. However, compared to the PS2, it really has come as far as PS2 vs. the old Playstation.

Audio

So far the few video games I have played have been in Dolby Digital Surround. I haven't seen any games with the new Blu Ray sound codecs, but they sound pretty impressive in Dolby Digital Surround. My son woke me up in the morning as my subwoofer thundered with the explosive destruction wrought by Ratchet upon his foes. Games surround and immerse you within their environments. For the record so does X Box 360.

PS3 - on my wireless Network!?

What exactly does being on my network do for the PS3 besides go online to download any upgrades? Well for starters, it found my cache of music files on my computer and was able to play them! If I didn't already have my computer hooked to my surround sound system, having the PS3 be able to access my computer files (ones that are set to SHARE) is pretty cool. I can view and listen to my computer files without resetting my video switch boxes to put the computer image onto my projector. My son asked how I got my whole collection of MP3s onto my PS3 so soon. The answer is, "I didn't, PS3's wireless connected, so it just found my music files and was able to play them.

You can also go online to the PS3 website and download backgrounds and wallpaper or Video trailers for new games. I have not tried online play. I also noticed that it will download upgraded content for games.

Problems and Complaints

Shutting the PS3 off by pressing the off button on the front of the machine reverted my PS3 to its default settings which include composite video out. I actually took my machine back to GameStop only to discover that my machine still worked despite no HDMI picture out to my projector. I had to hook up the composite video cable (the single yellow one), then I could see the video settings, switch to HDMI, then switch my projector to HDMI input, then go onto the PS3 menu and confirm that I wanted HDMI out.

I was also initially confused between the bitstream and PCM settings and didn't really know which to use. When I first watched Juno I had sound hooked up via optical cable. PCM settings output two channel stereo if HDMI isn't used as the audio input. Once I figured out that Bitstream would carry all the non HD audio codecs I was all set and I was able to watch in Hi Def and listen on the regular Dolby Digital soundtrack. Only after hooking PS3 up via HDMI for audio and video and then setting output to PCM again was I able to access the new Blu Ray audio codecs.

The 40 Gig machine will not play PS2 games. No problem for me, I have my PS2 machine hooked up to a 32" TV, it doesn't look good on a movie screen. On the other hand, via HDMI it will play SACDs! It also plays regular DVDs and CDs.