Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion The Water Cooler PS3 as Upsacle dvd/ cd player???

With the rumoured sale/pricedrop on the PS3,I was wondering if anyone who had one already would share there thoughts on it..Is it any good at upscaling regular dvd and how is it as a cd player.. I believe it has the ability to play dvd-a and sacd although it only has digital out for sound... Also do you need to use HDMI to get the upscaling to 1080i/p.. My TV only accepts a 1080p signal through component.. It has HDMI but only displays 1080i through the HDMI imput.. I have heard that you can only watch Blueray through the hdmi... Is this true or can you watch BD when hooked up with component and get 1080p.. Do ps2/1 games get upscaled to 1080 like the X360??? Thanks for any help you can give me .... I tried to poke around the gammer sites but it is hard to tell fact from fiction on those sites.. Hence why i posted this here... Hoping to get a straight answer... if one exists..

Avdude

I don't have all of the answers, but I'll share a couple of things.

The upscaling is all right--better than no upscaling--but I still prefer my Toshiba HD-A1 for watching DVDs. However, some days I'm listening to SACDs, then feel like putting in a DVD, but I don't want to wait for the Toshiba to boot up, so I watch it on the PS3. I don't feel like I'm missing out TOO much.

I use it as my CD player almost all of the time. I can't tell a difference between its CD playback and any other player I've ever owned.

I've only ever had it hooked up via HDMI, so I can't help with your component video questions, and I also don't have any PS2/PS1 games. I'm not sure if they get upscaled or not. If I recall correctly, they're not, unless it was part of a more recent update and I didn't see it slip through.

Oh, and it doesn't play back DVD-Audio discs any more than a regular DVD player will. It will play the Dolby Digital or DTS, but not the advanced resolution portions. Yes, you need the audio to go through HDMI for SACD playback.

Hope I've helped a little!

Thanks CV.. from poking around the "fanboy" sites it would seem that PS1/2 games are now upscaled after the latest update. To what degree Is not clear.. My reciever can only pass through the hdmi video so the sacd's will have to be playded in my oppo. I will most likely just switch my cable box over to comp from Hdmi to free up an imput for it ..
With a 37" lcd I can not see a difference between 1080i/p they both look great... I don't think it becomes an issue until you reach the 50" or better size..once again thanks for your imput..

Avdude

Yeah, I still have trouble seeing a difference between 1080i/1080p on my 60", but that's just a general impression. I haven't switched back and forth to see how much of a difference I can see.

Like I said "rumoured"..It has been confirmed that "some" Target's are already selling for $499 and that starting on the 17th Circut City will sell for $499 for a week..There are spy pics floating around the internet of next week's BB ad for Canada showing a Price of $549 (can).It would seem at the least there is going to be a price drop or at least a tempory sale.. It is widely believed that Sony was going to anounce this at E3 next week.. Of course Sony is going to deny it.. I doubt they want to stall sales for 10 days while people wait for the sale price to kick in.. Either way .. I will be in the US next weekend and if the price is not $549 here before I leave I will hunt down a $499 one in the US while I'm there.. Anyone know of a good site to buy extra controls and stuff from at a good price..

Avdude..

Stan, one point to keep in mind is that your TV can't "display 1080i" in any case. It's an inherently progressive scan set with a "native resolution" of 1080, so to even show a complete picture any incoming material which isn't 1080 has to be scaled to that and incoming i material has to be deinterlaced to p; in both cases the set itself would have to do this. So as always the question would be whether a player or receiver would do a visibly better job of scaling or deinterlacing than the set itself does. For example, in your case it's possible that the 1080i input would look just as good as the 1080p input.

Ya this Acer I have is a little funny.. It accepts a component signal and shows it as "p" 1080, but when the signal is going through the hdmi imput it is only capable of 1080"i".. The Hd chn's on cable hooked up through the HDMI are excelent.. The only other source I have used that put out a 1080p signal was an xbox360 through the comp imput's..With comp the Tv displayed 1080p for games made to output it... Im not a gamer but I'll tell ya Gears of war and stuff that is 1080 is amazing to watch/play. It seems Sony has improved video output(ie upscaling dvd/ps1/2 games, setting of output modes,etc...I just can't seem to find out if these updates enable 1080p through component.. They talk about hd sound only being able to be output through HDMI but you get DTS and dolbypl through the digital out.. I got this set for a great price just to tide me over until I decide what I want in a "big" screen. I didn't find out about the 1080p only through Comp till after but it was still too good of a deal to return.. At the moment I run my oppo and my cable box throught HDMI to the reciver (switching only) to the TV.. HD chnls and original copies of movies are excelent(or at least I'm satisfied) with the pic at 1080i... My next Tv will be able to do whatever the standard is at the time I'm sure.. I guess I'm just fishing for answers as to what I can expect with this sets Inferior HDMI imput that only puts out the "i" if that is the only way to watch BD movies..

Avdude

It's official .. after all the denials .. Sony has announced that as of Mon July 10 the PS3 60g will be priced at $499us and $549can.. Lets see how long it takes for all the existing stock to dissapear.. lol ...

Avdude

Yup. Those sneaky Japanese.... They "officially" say "NO" just last Friday, just to officially say "YES" today....

Here's the linky...
Sony Drops PS3 Price $100

Sony is so far behind in the "next generation" console race that they HAVE to do something. XBox 360 is still the "champ" in relationship to sales (of course it was out a year longer than the rest), but the Wii is catching up quickly. Of course Microsoft is going to pay a fortune to extend warranties to try to keep their customer base going. It only made sense that Sony try something to spur on sales of the PS3 since they are lagging behind, and price is a critical factor.

Happy shopping to you today. Enjoy your purchase!