Sony Playstation 3 as a Blu Ray Player?

I recently bought a 40" LCD HDTV from Sony with 1080p, and think PS3 would look amazing with that HDMI cable. The color quality is insane on it, and figure since PS3 has a Blu Ray player built into it along with the gaming, it would be a better choice all around.

[quote]Professor X wrote:
nowakc wrote:

You DO need an HDMI cable with the PS3 to get the full benifit of blu-ray definition (not a big deal, just don’t buy it from best buy), and of course a TV that supports such high resolution.

What is an HDMI cable and why shouldn’t I buy one from Best Buy?[/quote]

It’s a high-definition cable - basically your normal cables can’t carry such a high-definition signal so you need a special one to connect to your TV. You need a TV that accepts it as input as well…just do a google search and you’ll find them. Didn’t come with my PS3, which is why I mentioned it.

Best buy will charge you an arm and a leg for cables - you’ll have a tough time finding an HDMI cable from them for under $40 or so. It’s a huge scam - as the cables can be found online for like $5 or even cheaper. It’s a digital signal so there is literally no difference in the cheap cable vs. the expensive best buy one.

[quote]Professor X wrote:
nowakc wrote:

You DO need an HDMI cable with the PS3 to get the full benifit of blu-ray definition (not a big deal, just don’t buy it from best buy), and of course a TV that supports such high resolution.

What is an HDMI cable and why shouldn’t I buy one from Best Buy?[/quote]

Because they are ridiculously overpriced. You can get HDMI cables online for a fraction of what you’d pay retail. For example, the cheapest HDMI cable at my local best by was $79. I was able to buy a HDMI cable from Cables Unlimited for $12. It’s a digital signal, so there’s no need to spend a lot on the cable.

[quote]MaximusB wrote:
I recently bought a 40" LCD HDTV from Sony with 1080p, and think PS3 would look amazing with that HDMI cable. The color quality is insane on it, and figure since PS3 has a Blu Ray player built into it along with the gaming, it would be a better choice all around. [/quote]

I don’t think you’ll be disappointed at all. Just get yourself a cheap HDMI cable online and make sure you get the PS3 connected to the web so you can have it download the latest updates and you’ll be good to go.

Thanx Vader, I think this is a huge leap in the right direction for the full HD experience. When I go to Best Buy or similar stores and I see how the picture looks with an HD TV and Blu Ray, it just floors me how good it looks. I think you either gotta go all the way in, or not bother with it at all.

I also see pictures with the PS3 standing upright, can it be positioned this way or is this just a picture for marketing purposes? Sorry if this is a stupid question, but standing it upright would be better for me since I have limited space for it.

[quote]MaximusB wrote:
Thanx Vader, I think this is a huge leap in the right direction for the full HD experience. When I go to Best Buy or similar stores and I see how the picture looks with an HD TV and Blu Ray, it just floors me how good it looks. I think you either gotta go all the way in, or not bother with it at all.[/quote]

Definitely! I’ve actually gotten spoiled now that most everything I watch is HD. When I have to watch something that’s not HD, you can really tell the difference. I hate it now.

Just for comparisons sake, I also have an HD-DVD player. The quality between HD and Blu-Ray were pretty much the same, but the upconversion on the HD player when watching a standard DVD was much better initially. With the latest PS3 update, I’d say the upconversion is pretty much equal now. At least to my eyes.

[quote]MaximusB wrote:
I also see pictures with the PS3 standing upright, can it be positioned this way or is this just a picture for marketing purposes? Sorry if this is a stupid question, but standing it upright would be better for me since I have limited space for it.[/quote]

You can use it upright. I don’t believe there are any issues with doing so. In fact, I know a few people that say it tends to stay cooler if you keep it in the vertical position. Better ventilation.

That was another thing I thought about. When I read how Blu Ray upgrades standard DVDs, I wondered by how much. I know they arent as good as Blu Ray quality, but is there a noticeable difference with the upgraded picture?

Yeah, the folks I know that have a PS3 actually followed your logic and went with that system over the others due to the cost of a Blu Ray player alone is around the cost of the system (and you get to play games on a PS3).

I don’t have one, so I’m going off of water-cooler type talk.

Coupla other things that are cool on the PS3:

you can integrate your PSP somehow to it (if you have one, you can apparently play it on your TV wireless or something).

There’s a lot of forward-thinking in the controller and system design that will keep it viable for a while - there are some features that allow it to be very wii-like in the motion control/capture arena.

I have a PS2 and a Wii, but that’s cuz I have a 4 year old (though he is about 60% done with Lego Star Wars II on his own, so I can’t say the Wii is just for little kids).

Long-ass story short: I remember buying the PS2 for another DVD player, so I can see getting two appliances/devices out of one being the deciding factor in this case for me too.

[quote]MaximusB wrote:
That was another thing I thought about. When I read how Blu Ray upgrades standard DVDs, I wondered by how much. I know they arent as good as Blu Ray quality, but is there a noticeable difference with the upgraded picture?[/quote]

From my experience, it really depends on the movie. Newer stuff seems to upconvert better because the original source material is of higher quality. So like you’d notice more of a difference watching something like the extended versions of the Lord of the Rings movies or Episode III, but you wouldn’t get much out an older flick, like Caddyshack.

Is it true there arent many games for PS3?

[quote]MaximusB wrote:
Is it true there arent many games for PS3?[/quote]

I’ve seen some good ones coming out. I think people jumped the gun on that one because they don’t have any patience. If the PS3 now holds the Blu-Ray market, I am sure they will eventually have the library to make it worthwhile.

Then again, I’m not the type who buys EVERY single new game. The ones I want right now…it has.

After talking with my brother, he made a good point. Who won the Blu Ray war? No one. The reason being that not many people are buying and/or renting them and are sticking with standard DVDs. Something else to ponder.

[quote]MaximusB wrote:
After talking with my brother, he made a good point. Who won the Blu Ray war? No one. The reason being that not many people are buying and/or renting them and are sticking with standard DVDs. Something else to ponder.[/quote]

True. I have a SHIT TON of dvd’s. I have a hard time with the idea that all of this shit is now wasted because of newer tech. I don’t see DVD’s going anywhere for quite a while because of that.

[quote]MaximusB wrote:
Is it true there arent many games for PS3?[/quote]

Not so much anymore. Most of the new stuff is coming out on both 360 and PS3. PS3 now has a few exclusive titles out and more on the way that I’m interested in. There are definitely a few games that are coming out on both platforms that I will be buying on PS3 instead of 360 because of certain features.

[quote]Professor X wrote:
MaximusB wrote:
After talking with my brother, he made a good point. Who won the Blu Ray war? No one. The reason being that not many people are buying and/or renting them and are sticking with standard DVDs. Something else to ponder.

True. I have a SHIT TON of dvd’s. I have a hard time with the idea that all of this shit is now wasted because of newer tech. I don’t see DVD’s going anywhere for quite a while because of that.[/quote]

That’s the thing that pisses me off about the new formats. I’m sure as hell not buying all those movies AGAIN!

I will however buy newer movies on Blu-Ray because I want the higher quality. Stuff like Hulk, Iron Man, and The Dark Knight are no brainers to buy on Blu-Ray. With older movies there’s no real benefit to having them in HD anyway, so I’m fine with just sticking with DVD on those and letting the PS3 upconvert it.

I rent most of movies online and they have a good Blu-Ray selection. I have my preferences setup to always send me the Blu-Ray version of the movie if available. My local Blockbuster has also significantly expanded their Blu-Ray section in the past few months.

Blu-Ray did win in the HD Format war though. HD-DVD was the loser there.

I think DVD will be the foundation format for a long time, eventually with more time even that will become useless. Keeping up with the times can be pricey. Fuck it, they cant put someone from VISA in the coffin with you.

[quote]MaximusB wrote:
I think DVD will be the foundation format for a long time, eventually with more time even that will become useless. Keeping up with the times can be pricey. Fuck it, they cant put someone from VISA in the coffin with you. [/quote]

Kinda unrelated here - my nerd project that I’m considering is the whole ‘media center’ computer at home. Rip all the DVDs to Hard drives and that way I can get rid of the disks, access 'em easier, and just unify the whole mess.

Anyone do that?

[quote]LightsOutLuthor wrote:
MaximusB wrote:
I think DVD will be the foundation format for a long time, eventually with more time even that will become useless. Keeping up with the times can be pricey. Fuck it, they cant put someone from VISA in the coffin with you.

Kinda unrelated here - my nerd project that I’m considering is the whole ‘media center’ computer at home. Rip all the DVDs to Hard drives and that way I can get rid of the disks, access 'em easier, and just unify the whole mess.

Anyone do that?[/quote]

You would need an incredible amount of memory for that to work. I have compressed several movies into MP4 format and even that takes up a hell of a lot of space.