PS3 or Blu Ray Player

[pabloB]

Is the Ps3 any good as a blu ray player, or are the latest Players (and was looking at the Panasonic range) decent and better then the PS3.

Please consider as a Blu ray player and disregard games aspect etc.

Cheers

Paul

 

[Kohaashi]

I have a PS3 that is used purely as a Bluray player / media player and I'm very pleased with it.

I think it gets better support than Bluray players in general as it's better supported with updates, like being able to play 3D Blurays.

 

[Disco Boy]

A PS3 has a fair number of features not found on a lot of bluray players. Whether or not it has more features than a player of a comparable price is another question...

Games consoles are certainly noisier than any bluray player I've every heard.

 

[lucid]

PS3 used to be a top choice. But player prices have fallen and features increased to the point where it's hard to justify the cost of the console purely as a BD player. Most people wouldn't be able to thell the difference in picture qyuality between it and a £99 BD player.

It's also not as advanced as current generation 3D players. Yes, it get's more updates, but a PS3 can't do 3D and play out the HD audio at the same time. Admittedly that's not so much of an issue if it's just plugged in to your TV. It is a limitation though if you have a decent AV system.

 

[gothic_hobbit]

Games consoles are certainly noisier than any bluray player I've every heard.

I concur.

 

[Alfie]

I planned to do this, but after two exchanges for fan noise and drive noise I went for a standalone player. You just don't want to hear the equipment during movies.

 

[Mr_Sukebe]

I have both a PS3 and Pioneer BDP in my lounge. Have previously had a Sony 760 and Samsung unit for comparison against the PS3.
For straight image/sound quality, I couldn't tell the difference.

Actually, let me clarify that, with the Sony there WAS a visiible difference. However, I twiddled with the brightness/colour settings a little and they ended up looking the same. Fairly obvious deduction from that is that some manufacturers are slightly modifying the gamma/colours to make their players look better in side by side comparisons, which is fairly similar to the godawful "display" mode that many new TVs have and use whilst on the shelf at major electrical retailers.

I have a PS3 that's about a year old and runs quietly, so no audible difference on that. I tend to find the PS3 slight more intuitive to use. The only other differences being:
- Many players add 3D now, which you may or may not care about
- Some offer SACD capability, which was the only real reason I bought the Pioneer, as it will output SACD (via decimation) to my AV processor in PCM format. Very nice it is too
- Some players will offer 5.1 analogue outputs, which the PS3 doesn't have. If you have a legacy AV amp/processor, possibly worth considering
- At least two player (Sony 790 and the newer Oppos) include dual HDMI outputs, useful if you have both a projector and TV

 

[pabloB]

Guys, thanks for taking the time to reply, all very useful comments. Think I might plump for a blu ray player as I'd like to update my audio bits and bobs shortly. The DMP-BDT500 from Panasonic looks good

 

[Broken Hope]

but a PS3 can't do 3D and play out the HD audio at the same time.

It can actually for DTS Master Audio.

 

[james.miller]

It can actually for DTS Master Audio.

Oh I thought they released a firmware last year that fixed both DTS:MA and TrueHd bitstreaming ? That's a bit of a bum deal really

 

[Broken Hope]

Oh I thought they released a firmware last year that fixed both DTS:MA and TrueHd bitstreaming ? That's a bit of a bum deal really

The firmware only did DTS:MA and 3D, TrueHD still doesn't work with 3D, though to be fair most 3D releases use DTS:MA.