Don't make my mistake regarding PS3

[HT Junky]

I have biases I didn't really know I had. I'm a long time audiophile, living in the world of transports and DACs. I really didn't even give the PS3 gaming system any thought as a home theater component. It's shaped like a UFO, is made largely of plastic and it's a gaming system for goodness sake. All this in spite of the fact that I have read review after review praising it's Blu-ray playback.

Well, this weekend was a slap in the face. I purchased the 40GB model this week. I "justified" it as something for my 11 year old, but it sits in my home theater (as apposed to her room). I even bought a few games. What a dad. Truth be told, the Home Theater review of it as a Blu-ray player pushed me into curiosity mode. And you all know what happens after that. By the way, does the EA in "EA Sports" stand for "Electronics Anonymous"? Better yet, a theraputic device.

I'm on my third Blu-ray player (now my fourth). I've had the Sony BDP-S300 (gave it to a firiend), Pansonic DMP-PD30 (now in my bedroom) and finally the Denon DVD-BD2500BTCI. Well, the PS3 bests them all. The picture is very slightly better than Denon and the audio (thanks to the DTS master firmware upgrade) is great. Plus its 2.0 compliant and has fastest load times by far. While standalone player models come and go, trying to keep up with new features and specs, the PS3 (with the exception of bit stream DTS-MA support) keeps pace with firmware upgrades.

I wish I would have considered the PS3 a viable option for Blu-ray playback a long time ago. It sure would have saved me a ton of money.

[kennyt]

My findings are completely different.

I A-B the PS3 (I have the 80G model) to my Sony BDP-S1 and Samsung BDP-1200 and both had markedly better picture, with clearly superior edge detail and color, bass was also significantly better on the stand alones, though I was suing an older toslink cable vs the coaxial for the stand alone players. All video was done with identical HDMI cables and tests were done with two copies of the same disc (Spiderman 3, which the copies were switched between players to assure that both discs were of equal quality)

I think I am going to get one of the Denon transports here soon so I'll re-do my tests once it comes in.

[rlpiii]

Originally Posted by kennyt

My findings are completely different.

I A-B the PS3 (I have the 80G model) to my Sony BDP-S1 and Samsung BDP-1200 and both had markedly better picture, with clearly superior edge detail and color, bass was also significantly better on the stand alones, though I was suing an older toslink cable vs the coaxial for the stand alone players. All video was done with identical HDMI cables and tests were done with two copies of the same disc (Spiderman 3, which the copies were switched between players to assure that both discs were of equal quality)

I think I am going to get one of the Denon transports here soon so I'll re-do my tests once it comes in.

I would be interested to know what you thought of the Denon DVD-3800BDCI.
Are you, or anyone else @ AVREV, going to to review it?

[TheMoose]

I have been very happy with my PS3 as a Blu-Ray player, it's a very good first player.
Fast load times, easy to update & it's never once failed to play a movie.
Add to that it's so far the most future proof player on the market & gets regular updates & additional functionality & I have to say it was worth the $599 I paid for it!

While I have been happy with it's picture & audio quality I have seen standalones with better audio & video quality.
I will be getting a standalone soon enough but the PS3 was a great starting point!

[kennyt]

Originally Posted by rlpiii

I would be interested to know what you thought of the Denon DVD-3800BDCI.
Are you, or anyone else @ AVREV, going to to review it?

I believe I will be getting the 2500 transport as I also have the AVP-A1HDCi still unboxed at home.

[pfslai]

I have a PS3, a Toshiba A35, and Pioneer elite DV59. Even on regular DVD the PS3 and A35 was better than the Pioneer elite DV59. However, the DV59 is a nearly 4 year old player so it's not a fair comparison. On regular DVD, the A35 is better than the PS3. Better flesh tone and more detail. The colours on the PS3 was somewhat too exaggerated.