PS3 Review

[JoeSp]

I waited for the forums to be split to do this. After playing with the PS3 for a month I decided to tweak my settings to see if I could improve PQ. My system is as follows:

Pioneer 630HD Dvi (58" RPTV) 1080i
Denon3910 DVD Player
PS3 BluRay Player
Denon 989 Receiver
Dish 622DVR
Yamaha 5.1 speakers with 250Watt Powered Sub woofer
Polk Audio Surrounds

I am using the same componet hookup that I was using for my PS2. The hookup is running thru my receiver and connected to the 2nd 1080i input on my Pioneer. The Pioneer 630HD is capable of receiving all signals. It does not display 720p but upconverts 720p to 1080i. However, you can see what signal is being recieved by pressing the input button. The resolution of the signal is displayed for about 2 seconds.

Since I only had the DVI inputs and the first componet input calibrated I had to converge and calibrate the second input where the PS3 is installed. First thing I noticed is that for the output of the PS3 I had to increase my white, black and colour settings about 15% in order to get the output of the PS3 to match the calibrated output of the Denon 3910 on DVI. To me the only differance between the PS3 BD and the standalone BDs is that you have no PQ adjustments with the PS3. You must make those adjustments on your HDTV in order to maximize your viewing. The Pioneer 630HD is able to save your settings on differant inputs. Some HDTVs do not do that. Having the PQ adjustments in the player is a better way but not $400 better. If you can do the adjustments in the set and they will stay the PS3 is as good as any BD player out right now.

PQ from the PS3 improved dramatically when I bumped up the settings. Colours looked bright and not over satuated and detail really began to pop off the screen. When my wife and I watched World Trade Center my wife stated that it was a very nice picture. She usually doesn't care one way or the other so a comment out of her means she is noticing a change. I had a friend over from work and he wanted to watch RV. We watched this movie before I tweaked the input and while the movie looked very well and some scenes were almost 3-D I was not overly impressed. Then I watched the same movie with my wife after I calibrated the input and what a differance. During the scene at the lake my wife stated 'That's beautiful, it is like we are there!'. A comment like that from her means the PQ was popping.

So you can tweak you HDTV to maximize you PQ from the PS3 and you might find that your settings will be higher then from your settop or regular DVD player. Does this mean that the PS3 output is set lower to protect your set? Maybe, but I think it might have more to do with that the PS3 is really made for digital screens and not analog like my Pioneer.

Sound quality is subjective. I like good spacing from my speakers and I also like it when the rear speakers are used well. I am using the optical hook-up as I do not yet own a HDMI receiver. That will be one of the new Denons with HDMI 1.3 and upconversion coming out this May or June. I am forgoing the new computer for a new AVR. But that aside, the sound from the PS3 is better then my DENON 3910. Now the Denon has BlurBrown Dacs for sound reproduction and I use the player's Dacs rather then my 6 year old Denon AVR because they are better and I have the Denon hooked up to the analog inputs in the AVR. Still the PS3 playing only the core of the BD movies sounds better then my Denon. I am very impressed.

Once again there are no real Sound settings in the PS3. Yes you can select PCM or Bitstream but you have no control over your speaker setup outside of your AVR. And since my AVR does not have seperate settings for inputs (do any of them?) I use the same settings for the PS3 as for the DENON 3910. You should use Bitstream for audio output unless you have a receiver the can do multiple channels thru HDMI. I believe the HDMI of the AVR must be 1.1 or higher.

All I can say about the sound is I am very impressed and I can not wait until I get my new AVR and hook up the PS3 thru HDMI. I know it will sound better but will the PQ improve? Moving my Dish 622DVR from DVI to Componet did not change PQ at all -- except that on my Pioneer the Componet gives you more settings for PQ then on DVI.

The Blutooth remote is a dream. Syncs up with the PS3 and it works seamlessly and the PS3 responds immediately. You can exit the movie and when you go back to the movie it starts where you were. You can fast foward with sound which is pretty cool. I tried to press a bunch of commands to get the PS3 to slip up but it did not once. While I know that there are those who wish the PS3 had IR so that they could use their HT remote I personally prefer the PS3's remote for movie viewing. In fact, I wish all my other componets used a Blutooth remote. I have never had a remote work so smoothly nor accurately as this remote works with the PS3.

Finally the noise output of the PS3. Folks does silent sound good? Well it is not silent. However if any of you use a Dish 622DVR then here is my best comparison. The PS3 makes less noise on then the Dish 622DVR makes turned off. To me that is pretty quiet and you will not hear the PS3 running during movie playback even during the very quiet parts of the movie. I am amazed at just how quiet this thing is. Of course I should say that the PS3 is on top of my equipment rack and has nothing arround it so it gets plenty of air. But that slick black look matches my Pioneer 630HD perfectly and they look like they go together.

In conclusion, this is not the last generation Playstation. The PS2 had a DVD player that was barely passable. Folks who used the PS2 as a primary DVD player were missing out on alot of PQ. The PS3 on the other hand is a very capable BluRay movie player. PQ is right with current standalones on the market right now. The PS3 comes with DolbyTrueHD right out of the box. (However, I haven't seen the first BD movie with DTHD) The player is capable of passing any of the new sound codecs thru its HDMI 1.3 port to an AVR equiped with HDMI 1.3 that can process the codec. Right now if you have an AVR HDMI equiped with 1.1 or 1.2 you can pass PCM directly to the AVR and PCM is being supported by most studios.

The PS3 also has an ethernet connection that will allow for updates. In the vine is an update to decode DTS Master HD and allow the PS3 full upconversion ablility. This update is supposed to happen during the European launch of the PS3. While I am hoping that this happens the PS3 right now is a very good BluRay player with the ablitlity to be upgraded to future BD specs. That makes it the only BD player on the market right now with that abliltiy.

The new Pioneer BD player is supposed to offer 24fps and ethernet connectivity but that player SRP is $1500. For $499 you can get the PS3 20gb, save alot of money and buy a few BD movies to enjoy or step up to the PS360gb for $599. Since you can upgrade the hardrive yourself unless you need wireless ethernet or would like the ability to put your SD cards in the PS3 for picture download then the $499 model will play BD movies for you flawlessly. Either model, the PS3 makes for an excellant BluRay movie player. And I know I haven't meantioned this but it plays games too!

 

[vurbano]

Joe is impressed with the PS3? Im shocked!!

Joe you do know that you are not getting 1920x1080i with those 7" guns in that dinosaur? What good is 1080p to you anyway?

 

[teamerickson]

I waited for the forums to be split to do this.

I was wondering why it has taken so long.

 

[JoeSp]

Joe is impressed with the PS3? Im shocked!!

Joe you do know that you are not getting 1920x1080i with those 7" guns in that dinosaur? What good is 1080p to you anyway?

Why Vurbano-- you care? Of course I know that. The 58" I believe does 1560 x 1080i. The 65" does 1600 x 1080i. You can only get 1920x1080 out of 9" guns. But hold up on calling my Pioneer a dinosaur. The picture out of my Pioneer Elite still blows away most everthing I see out today. My set has been professionally calibrated and it rocks. I am waiting for SED from Toshiba to see if that can finally overthrow my Pioneer's PQ. If so then I will have a true 1080p set. For now I will just have to do with my near perfect dinosaur.

 

[navychop]

OK- Let's sidetrack a moment to address that SED issue, so others aren't mislead.

The joint venture between Canon and Toshiba is no more. They've split up, for legal reasons. Canon will go it alone, to the extent they will continue with it. The production plant to mass produce SED panels has been cancelled. Canon MIGHT produce a few panels, but they would be for commercial use in Japan.

There is a lawsuit from Nano Technologies against Canon over the basic technology. There are serious doubts about SED ever being mass produced. There are currently no plans to do so. After the lawsuit is settled, which could take years, the issue might be revisited, but it will likely be too late to compete in the market. Toshiba could buy panels manufactured by Canon and produce consumer sets. But that is unlikely. The prices for Plasma and LCD have dropped faster than Canon anticipated. SED panels will be very expensive, and may not be able to ever reach production the quantities needed for economies of scale. They might never catch up, costs wise, to compete in the marketplace. Plus, OLED is moving strong now, and some say it has even better PQ. OLED certainly is easier and cheaper to manufacture.

There was a window of opportunity for SED to enter the market, be competitive, and succeed. It seems that opportunity was missed. Too late now. We likely will never see SED TVs for sale to the general public in the United States. Some disagree, but that may be mostly hope. There is an extensive discussion about this at AVS.

Now back to the PS3 review.

 

[vurbano]

Why Vurbano-- you care? Of course I know that. The 58" I believe does 1560 x 1080i. The 65" does 1600 x 1080i. You can only get 1920x1080 out of 9" guns. But hold up on calling my Pioneer a dinosaur. The picture out of my Pioneer Elite still blows away most everthing I see out today. My set has been professionally calibrated and it rocks. I am waiting for SED from Toshiba to see if that can finally overthrow my Pioneer's PQ. If so then I will have a true 1080p set. For now I will just have to do with my near perfect dinosaur.

Thats nice because right now you dont even have a true 1080i set. Hows that HDMI 1.3 workin for ya? How can you possibly tout the superiority of BD when you cant see or use half of either formats capablilities?

 

[JoeSp]

You obviously don't know squat about Pioneer Elite RPTVs. While you might have a stated resolution higher with an LCD or DLP right now you do not have the PQ that a professionally calibrated Pioneer Elite Pro HDTV can give you. Some 1080p sets are close but no cigar. My blacks and whites are spot on and the colour coming out of my set will caress you eyes. Unless I want to drop in the 5 digits there is nothing on the market better then my set for PQ.

Remember, no 720p set has my resolution and there are only a few 1080i RPTVs that can produce a picture that can come close. However, I will give you that a 1080p full resolution set does have more pixels and might look sharper but none of these new sets can match a Pioneer Elite for PQ in black, white, colour balance and tonal quality. They are getting there but not yet. This isn't just my take on it but is also the take by any professional calibrater or Home Theater specialist. It is a shame that no one has decided to expand on RPTV technology. Once folks get used to gray blacks and off-whites there will probably be no turning back.

 

[vurbano]

You obviously don't know squat about Pioneer Elite RPTVs. While you might have a stated resolution higher with an LCD or DLP right now you do not have the PQ that a professionally calibrated Pioneer Elite Pro HDTV can give you. Some 1080p sets are close but no cigar. My blacks and whites are spot on and the colour coming out of my set will caress you eyes. Unless I want to drop in the 5 digits there is nothing on the market better then my set for PQ.

Remember, no 720p set has my resolution and there are only a few 1080i RPTVs that can produce a picture that can come close. However, I will give you that a 1080p full resolution set does have more pixels and might look sharper but none of these new sets can match a Pioneer Elite for PQ in black, white, colour balance and tonal quality. They are getting there but not yet. This isn't just my take on it but is also the take by any professional calibrater or Home Theater specialist. It is a shame that no one has decided to expand on RPTV technology. Once folks get used to gray blacks and off-whites there will probably be no turning back.

Yada yada yada. Pioneer is good. But even as an CRT RPTV its an inferior model. Yawn.
I have a 7" gun RPTV in the bedroom. Sorry but, the only true HD resolution you can display is 1280 x 720p and that is converted to 1080i.

 

[hpman247]

You obviously don't know squat about Pioneer Elite RPTVs. While you might have a stated resolution higher with an LCD or DLP right now you do not have the PQ that a professionally calibrated Pioneer Elite Pro HDTV can give you. Some 1080p sets are close but no cigar. My blacks and whites are spot on and the colour coming out of my set will caress you eyes. Unless I want to drop in the 5 digits there is nothing on the market better then my set for PQ.

Remember, no 720p set has my resolution and there are only a few 1080i RPTVs that can produce a picture that can come close. However, I will give you that a 1080p full resolution set does have more pixels and might look sharper but none of these new sets can match a Pioneer Elite for PQ in black, white, colour balance and tonal quality. They are getting there but not yet. This isn't just my take on it but is also the take by any professional calibrater or Home Theater specialist. It is a shame that no one has decided to expand on RPTV technology. Once folks get used to gray blacks and off-whites there will probably be no turning back.

I have an RPTV, Sony KP51WS520 at my home, and a Samsung DLP here at college, and I like the RPTV for the blacks and whites, but the DLP is amazing.

 

[vurbano]

I think if I were going to drop 5 figures it surely wouldnt be on a 7" CRT RPTV. Hell you can have what I consider the top of the heap for 1/2 of that in the Pioneer PRO-FHD1

 

[mike123abc]

Once folks get used to gray blacks and off-whites there will probably be no turning back.

I do not think that it is lost. Every technology is being worked on. Next big step for flat panel LCD will be LED array backlighting with 100,000 contrast by being able to turn off and on individual LEDs (and adjusting their brightness). It is just a matter of time and expense.

DLP is improving significantly with LED light sources.

Plasma is making big strides in increasing resolution to 1080p, increasing color depth and contrast.

CRTs may still be king of some qualities, but other technologies are catching up fast. CRT devices have some weaknesses too, they have just had so many decades to work out most problems and around most weaknesses.

 

[navychop]

Plasma will always have a fill factor deficiency. It is inherent in the technology- glass tubes can only be made so thin. That is why I think plasma displays are a transitional technology. I doubt they will be a large part of the market 10 years from now.

 

[vurbano]

CRTs may still be king of some qualities, but other technologies are catching up fast. CRT devices have some weaknesses too, they have just had so many decades to work out most problems and around most weaknesses.

Their biggest weakness being the graveyard because no one wants to sell them or deal with their enormous size. The big box stores know that expensive pioneer or mitsubishi CRTs will do nothing but take up floor space and collect dust on the sales floor when consumers see the price and picture next to the price and pictures of Plasma, DLP and LCD.

 

[vurbano]

Joe Ive seen the Denon 987.. where do you get the 989 from? Is there a link?

 

[JoeSp]

Maybe it is a Denon 989 , I have had it for about 6 years. My Pioneer 630HD only cost me 4 bills and I have two buyers for 2 bills when I decide to upgrade. One is family and the other is a friend. They both want it but I am still waiting for better PQ out of either DLP or LCD. Right now I like the new LCDs but my Pioneer will still best anything out right now outside of a 1080p projector. My target for replacement of my RPTV is summer of 08. This year my big purchase is a new AVR with HDMI 1.3 and upconversion.

 

[vurbano]

Right now I like the new LCDs but my Pioneer will still best anything out right now outside of a 1080p projector.

sorry. Thats just wrong. Do the math.

 

[riffjim4069]

Their biggest weakness being the graveyard because no one wants to sell them or deal with their enormous size. The big box stores know that expensive pioneer or mitsubishi CRTs will do nothing but take up floor space and collect dust on the sales floor when consumers see the price and picture next to the price and pictures of Plasma, DLP and LCD.

I was thinking the same thing while picking out our new Mitsubishi Diamond DLP earlier this week, but I'm tired of waiting on SED and I'll be fine with this wonderful set until the 5 year premium warranty expires. Heck, our 5 year old Mits Diamond CRT RPTV down in the HT Room still looks fantastic. Ok...perhaps I'll start looking for another set in 3.

On a side note, I may be picking up a PS3 60GB soon. It is an excellent BD Player, and it even plays games too. PS3s were all over the place a few weeks ago, but I couldn't find a single one on the shelves at the local BB or Target this evening.

 

[riffjim4069]

Well, this weekends arrival of our new Mitsubishi Diamond DLP hastened my decision to pick-up a PS3. It's a top-notch Blu-Ray player...that plays games too! Anyway, there were a number of PS3s sitting on shelves at the local stores a few weeks ago (and a significant pile at the local BB), but when I went to pick up 60GB model yesterday there were none to be had: Best Buy, Circuit City, Target, and even Wal-Mart. Well, it looks like I'll have to stop by one of the gaming shops at the mall this evening.

Personally, I don't know if the vendors are selling them or sending them back to Sony. However, I've seen hundreds of 1080p sets rolling out the doors during my visits to local big box stores since the start of the holiday season, and I can't think of a better, more affordable 1080p HD player than the PS3.

 

[teachsac]

I was thinking the same thing while picking out our new Mitsubishi Diamond DLP earlier this week, but I'm tired of waiting on SED and I'll be fine with this wonderful set until the 5 year premium warranty expires. Heck, our 5 year old Mits Diamond CRT RPTV down in the HT Room still looks fantastic. Ok...perhaps I'll start looking for another set in 3.

Yep. I agree with you totally. I love my Mits DLP. The XX831 has some of the richest colors I've seen. It'll last until the next great technology is available and afforfable. I have an XBR2 in my bedroom. Nice set, but it looks washed out compared to the Mits.

S~

 

[jgantert]

Anyway, there were a number of PS3s sitting on shelves at the local stores a few weeks ago (and a significant pile at the local BB), but when I went to pick up 60GB model yesterday there were none to be had: Best Buy, Circuit City, Target, and even Wal-Mart.

I had the same problem picking one up this weekend. The 60GB version is still easeir to find (Target and Walmart had them), but only GameStop had the 20GB version, and only one. GameStop return policy sucks, tho. 30 days unopened, or 7 days open exchange only.

I think Sony is diverting stock from US to Europe for the launch next month. Just a guess, but it would make sence not to have shortages in Europe if possible.

-John