The PS3 - What can it do for me?

[Centauri]

Yes, I still think it is the ugliest piece of consumer hardware ever to be considered successful at market. Yes, I still loathe Sony.

But... my nerd morals seem to be in fluctuation lately. And I'm craving things that the 360 apparently can't provide.

I'm not a gamer. At all. And I kinda doubt I will ever be. So my mild interest in the PS3 only goes so deep as its entertainment potential.

I see that it plays DVDs. I see that it plays SACDs. And I've heard it apparently also plays Blu-rays...

So I have a few questions;

DivX playback: To what extent can it handle DivX? What resolutions? And can it read them from a USB flash drive?

International DVDs: Can the player be made multi-region?

Remote: Can the PS3's hideous controller be taken completely out of the equation, allowing the system to be controlled entirely by the remote control that can be had?

Audio connectivity: Is its only digital-out optical? With my 5000 likely going toward the funding of a PS3 should I so decide, I'd have to bring my A20 back into service for HD DVDs, meaning it and the PS3 would have to fight over my receiver's one optical audio input.

Trying... to... click... Submit... button... AAAGGHHHHHHH!!!1111111!11

[SoylentGreen]

Originally Posted by Centauri

Yes, I still think it is the ugliest piece of consumer hardware ever to be considered successful at market. Yes, I still loathe Sony.

But... my nerd morals seem to be in fluctuation lately. And I'm craving things that the 360 apparently can't provide.

I'm not a gamer. At all. And I kinda doubt I will ever be. So my mild interest in the PS3 only goes so deep as its entertainment potential.

I see that it plays DVDs. I see that it plays SACDs. And I've heard it apparently also plays Blu-rays...

Upscales DVDs very well indeed, If you want a SACD playing one, make sure you get a 80GB one, the 40GB ones don't (at least not here in Europe). Yes it plays Blu-Ray, it also does very classy photo slideshows, and acts as a very capable media streaming client (photos, video, music). It's got some tasty music visulisations, if that's your thing. You can rip CD's to the HDD, it will even upsale audio (in a similar way video is upscaled.

So I have a few questions;

Originally Posted by Centauri

DivX playback: To what extent can it handle DivX? What resolutions? And can it read them from a USB flash drive?

No resolution limits I am aware of. It's got DivX support certified by DivX networks, and you can play them from a USB drive, or even a big external USB HDD stuffed full of music and movies. It also plays Xvid, AVC, MPEG1, MPEG2. It has Mosquito noise reduction, and MPEG macro-deblocking which works very well for low bitrate video.

Originally Posted by Centauri

International DVDs: Can the player be made multi-region?

In short, no. The workaround, is to rip them on your PC using DVD Decrypter, and remove the region coding, the MPEG VOB can be copied to the HDD and played from there.

Originally Posted by Centauri

Remote: Can the PS3's hideous controller be taken completely out of the equation, allowing the system to be controlled entirely by the remote control that can be had?

Absolutely, and because it's Bluetooth, it does not need line of sight, so you can keep the PS3 out of view if it's looks bothers you that much...

Originally Posted by Centauri

Audio connectivity: Is its only digital-out optical? With my 5000 likely going toward the funding of a PS3 should I so decide, I'd have to bring my A20 back into service for HD DVDs, meaning it and the PS3 would have to fight over my receiver's one optical audio input.

It's only digital out optical, and digital out via HDMI 1.3a(7.1ch via HDMI).

[Centauri]

Thanks.

Another query; Can the hard drive be upgraded easily? Is it a desktop drive or a notebook drive? I'm assuming desktop.

Also - Are the any deals on the PS3 running around now? A price drop in the works, perhaps?

[gwoardnog]

There's still no way to play files larger than the Fat32 files size limit (~4.4 gigs or something) though is there?

no Flac, or bit perfect audio from files. It might work with Linux, but... let me know if you figured it out and wrote a guide...


still not a replacement for an HTPC, which was most of the reason I wanted mine...

[viewsonic]

Originally Posted by Centauri

Thanks.

Another query; Can the hard drive be upgraded easily? Is it a desktop drive or a notebook drive? I'm assuming desktop.

Very easily. You just need a 2.5" SATA drive.

As for the remote you can only use the PS3 Bluetooth remote but there is a Bluetooth converter which enables you to use any remote with it here:

http://ir2bt.com/

[ArronC07]

Originally Posted by Centauri

Thanks.

Another query; Can the hard drive be upgraded easily? Is it a desktop drive or a notebook drive? I'm assuming desktop.

Yes any 2.5 inch SATA internal drive will do so no worries about paying over inflated prices for proprietary drives and changing the HDD will not invalidate the warranty and Sony even tell you how to do it in the instruction manual. It's simply a case of taking off a little slide off cover, unscrewing a couple of screws and swapping it over. The screws that hold the drive you get with the machine are crazy tight though.

Also - Are the any deals on the PS3 running around now? A price drop in the works, perhaps?

There may be retailer promotions but as far as a price drop is concerned nobody knows.

[Vindibudd]

It will play blu-rays and give you an awesome game console all at the same time. And it is one of the classiest consumer electronics devices I have ever seen. If you can, there is no question that you should get one.

[donconsolmagno]

Originally Posted by Centauri

Thanks.

Another query; Can the hard drive be upgraded easily? Is it a desktop drive or a notebook drive? I'm assuming desktop.

Also - Are the any deals on the PS3 running around now? A price drop in the works, perhaps?

Order from amazon, no tax, free shipping, saves you like 40 bucks...

[BrendonL]

It is a double speed Blu-ray player that decodes DTS Master HD audio and Dolby TrueHD and full 2.0 BD-Live! capability with 80GB of persistent storage and a wireless enabled media center extension with full Internet web browser, 7.1 channel audio, fully user upgradeable hard drive, sends everything over a very clean HDMI 1.3, is ninja quiet, and has proven to be one of if not the most reliable pieces of home theater electronics on the planet. And it even plays the best looking next generation games. And you can rent movies and television shows on it in high definition. All for less than the price of a regular Panasonic Blu-ray player. The bigger question is why WOULDN'T a self-described nerd own a PS3. For a nerd it is like the only device you really need in your home theater.

[SoylentGreen]

Originally Posted by gwoardnog

There's still no way to play files larger than the Fat32 files size limit (~4.4 gigs or something) though is there?

PS3 does not use FAT32, there are no inherrient file size limits. There WAS a issue a while ago, when DivX support was introduced, where the limit was 2GB for a DivX file, but the 2.20 firmware update added >2GB DivX support.

http://blog.us.playstation.com/2008/...d-live-to-ps3/

Originally Posted by Centauri

no Flac, or bit perfect audio from files.

??? WAV (PCM) works just fine, you can't get more bit perfect than that!!!!

Yes, if you load Linux, you can play anything you want, FLAC, APE or whatever...

Originally Posted by Centauri

Thanks.

Another query; Can the hard drive be upgraded easily? Is it a desktop drive or a notebook drive? I'm assuming desktop.

Internally you can fit a 2.5in SATA notebook drive, it does NOT void any warranties, the handbook explains how to do the process. The other, cheaper option, is to plug a USB HDD in, and store media on there. The only downside, is it's listed as a seperate "node" in the XMB you have to navigate to (think Windows drive letter), where the files on the internal drive are in the "root", not a deal breaker. The upside, is you can stuff a 2TB drive on the back for little money and have a mega media centre. Games and PSN downloads/DRM protected content can only live on the internal drive, not a USB drive.

Originally Posted by Centauri

Also - Are the any deals on the PS3 running around now? A price drop in the works, perhaps?

No deals, the new 80GB models are out, for the same price of the old 40GB ones. You missed the awesome Walmart $399 with $100 voucher back deal. I doubt we will be seeing those prices for a very long time yet...

[twonunpackmule]

Originally Posted by BrendonL

It is a double speed Blu-ray player that decodes DTS Master HD audio and Dolby TrueHD and full 2.0 BD-Live! capability with 80GB of persistent storage and a wireless enabled media center extension with full Internet web browser, 7.1 channel audio, fully user upgradeable hard drive, sends everything over a very clean HDMI 1.3, is ninja quiet, and has proven to be one of if not the most reliable pieces of home theater electronics on the planet. And it even plays the best looking next generation games. And you can rent movies and television shows on it in high definition. All for less than the price of a regular Panasonic Blu-ray player. The bigger question is why WOULDN'T a self-described nerd own a PS3. For a nerd it is like the only device you really need in your home theater.

Is it worth the $7.50 an hour they pay to write that infomercial material?

[Thulium]

Aren't there region-free players available for linux that could be run on the PS3?

[gwoardnog]

Originally Posted by SoylentGreen

??? WAV (PCM) works just fine, you can't get more bit perfect than that!!!!

Yes, if you load Linux, you can play anything you want, FLAC, APE or whatever...

the HDCD (and DTS etc.) light on my receiver says no. I can get it out of my comp. (I'd like WAV everything, but it's a hard drive killer). Put the CD in, sure, lights up woot!.., file meh eh.

I might try installing linux again, but it was such a headache last time, and I still never got a file to play with VLC.

[BrendonL]

Originally Posted by twonunpackmule

Is it worth the $7.50 an hour they pay to write that infomercial material?

Actually I get paid a little more than that. And my employer is Northwestern Memorial. Thanks for your concern though. Strong post as usual.

[Stranger Danger]

Originally Posted by donconsolmagno

Order from amazon, no tax, free shipping, saves you like 40 bucks...

Unless you live in NY. The assholes here got creative with the tax law and makes amazon collect taxes because the have referrer's here and consider them employees and then makes the jump that amazon has a physical presence here. Sorry I had to rant!