PlayStation 3 is best Blu-ray player
Posted on February 22nd, 2008 – 8:06 AMBy Randy A. Salas
Blog observer Chad asked why I’m down on any Blu-ray player but the PlayStation 3. Here’s why.
First, it’s an extremely powerful machine. There’s a reason why scientists are increasingly using it to crunch numbers for complicated research; the PS3 has monster processors. Yes, it’s also a video-game system, which some pundits and the HD DVD camp continually ridiculed. Big deal. It’s also a great Blu-ray player with an easy-to-use interface. Don’t think of it as a video-game system that plays Blu-ray Discs; think of it as a Blu-ray player that plays video games and all other kinds of media, including storage cards. My friend Don Lindich, who writes a nationally syndicated consumer-electronics column, used to be critical of the PlayStation 3 when he championed HD DVD. When that format took a nosedive and it became obvious he would need to buy into Blu-ray, he picked up a PS3, partly at my urging. I think I’m safe in saying that he takes back everything negative he said about the PS3 now that he actually has used it.
Some people are turned off by the PS3 as a Blu-ray player because it stands vertically, as shown in this photo. But it also can be placed horizontally to match the orientation of a stand-alone player and other home-theater components. It also has a remote control available for those who don’t want to use the shown controller.
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Second, there is no other Blu-ray player on the market that is able to play all of the planned features of Blu-ray discs. Blu-ray Discs essentially have three generations, or profiles. Profile 1.0 was the first generation, essentially a disc that holds the movie plus typical bonus material like a standard DVD. All Blu-ray players can handle 1.0 discs, including Chad’s Samsung BD-P1400. Some Blu-ray Discs now have Profile 1.1, which essentially adds the capability for the player to do picture-in-picture and other Java-based supplements on the fly, such as director’s video commentary, through the hardware. If you want to play all features of a Profile 1.1 disc, you have to buy one of the few stand-alone players that have just come out that have this capability. If you have a PS3, though, you’re good to go. It’s so powerful that it doesn’t need the internal hardware for Profile 1.1; it updated to that version with a simple patch that Sony released last year. The next version of Blu-ray Discs, Profile 2.0 or BD-Live, requires an Ethernet port and connection to the Internet for online-related disc features. No Blu-ray player now on the market has this capability, although the first model is expected soon. But you’ll have to buy a stand-alone player all over again to gain this capability. The PS3 is already Profile 2.0-compliant, as it has been since Day 1.
Third, any updates to the PS3 are painless to install. It connects wirelessly to the Internet, so you just download and install. Through such continual updates, the PS3 has gained, for example, Profile 1.1 capabilities, SACD playback and photo slideshow features. Updating players such as your Samsung usually requires burning a disc and going through a needlessly laborious process. (And Samsung has notoriously lagged in issuing updates. Its players often have trouble playing features on the newest discs until it issues an update weeks later, spawning a class-action lawsuit over the matter.)
Fourth, you can play video games on the PS3. It even plays the older PS1 and PS2 games (on most models). That might not be a primary concern to most people, but it’s a great bonus. It also does much more. Slip in a storage card or burned disc, and it blazes through photos, songs and videos. You can also surf the Internet, because it has a built-in browser.
Even when Profile 2.0 players become widespread, it will be a while — if ever — before any of them match up to the PS3. It’s a dynamic machine that continually evolves to meet the latest Blu-ray developments without needing to buy a new player each time.
8 Responses to "PlayStation 3 is best Blu-ray player"
Wondering if anyone can answer a couple questions:
I have a Sony Blu-ray (BDP-S300), which is a version 1.0 I assume.
Does this Sony require you to burn a disc to update?
Any idea if 2.0 Blu-ray players will process faster? Some discs take almost five minutes before the movie actually plays (i.e. Ratatouille).
Thanks.
willisbrown:
Yes, the Sony BDP-S300 is a Profile 1.0 player.
To get info about updating the firmware, go to http://www.sony.com/blurayupdate. You can either download the update patch from there, burn it to a disc and install it that way, carefully following Sony’s instructions posted on its site, or call Sony (again, info on the site) and it will send you a disc with the firmware update.
Profile 2.0 players should be faster all around — not just because they’re compatible with the latest profile but simply because with each generation of players, the makers figure out ways to speed processes and make other improvements for better performance.
Wow! Thanks for the detailed response. I eagerly await each new blog entry from you.
My brother has a PS3, for many of the same reasons that you stated, and he also plays video games, which I do not.
I have my player connected to my wireless network and downloaded the latest firmware update as soon as I had it hooked up. It took about 30 minutes to download and install.
My Neflix copy of Ratatouille loaded in less than a minute. I also had no trouble with Pirates of the Caribbean, which is noted to cause problems with some players. I understand the concerns about Profile version compliancy, but for now I am very satisfied.
I love my PS3. I use it all the time. Don’t forget that it connects to your network and can play all of the movies, pictures and music that you have on your computer. I’ve even seen my father-in-law looking at it like he wants one.
Chad, you bring up a good point about the profiles and being happy with what you have. No matter the profile compliancy, all Blu-ray players play movies in high definition, and that’s really what it’s all about.
Now, isn’t this better than cables?
thanks Randy.
I can confirm what Randy says about my experience with the PS3… it has been a flawless performer and I can easily recommend it for Blu-ray playback.
As an A/V enthusiast who doesn’t play games, it was hard for me to deal with the concept of a game machine in my A/V rack… it doesn’t look the part and lacks the display I am used to seeing on DVD players and other playback components. Without Randy’s urging I probably would have bought the Panasonic BD30, the best current Blu-ray standalone but compared to the PS3, a less capable player that costs more money. Once you get past the “game machine” factor and the lack of a display (realizing it is across the room anyway and a press of the PS3’s DISPLAY button brings up the relevant info) you tend to just enjoy the movie and appreciare the PS3’s speed, reliability and responsiveness. High-def movie players take a lot of processing power and the PS3 clearly has that in spades.
The only current drawback to the PS3 is that for now, it does not decode DTS-HD MA, more precisely DTS Master Audio, an audio format that uses lossless compression. DTS-HD MA decoding is rumored to be in the works for a future update but has not been confirmed. So, for now you can’t be guaranteed of the best sound from all of your movies as New Line and Fox use DTS-HD for their releases. The PS3 also cannot bitstream TrueHD or DTS-HD to a receiver, so if you want 100% guaranteed playback compatibility with all of the lossless formats, for now you are constricted to a standalone player and receiver that decodes Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD, such as the Onkyo TX-SR605.
Unfortunately, as Randy says, none of the existing Blu-ray standalones are worth buying because of hardware and profile limitations, as well as playback and performance issues. Then there is updating… both HD DVD and Blu-ray players need LOTS of firmware updates. When your mom calls because a Blu-ray Disc won’t play, are you going to walk her through downloading and burning and ISO disc image over the phone? PS3 makes wireless updates easy and painless… I hope Sony incorporates this into future players.
When you consider that the PS3 is priced the same or lower than these standalone players, it really is the only choice right now, and a great choice at that. Bring on the DTS-HD decoding!
