Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater Blue Ray or PS3?

There are several "PS3 USB IR dongles" available (try Google). They let you use an IR remote for less than Logitech's Bluetooth IR converter. But they can not turn the system on, and perhaps have problems with off too. But other than that, they can perform the other disc playback functions.

Gotta run but 'in my friendly voice' your quote is contradictory "only the 60 played SACDs"..."80 dropped SACD support."

Not sure what you meant exactly but I can assure you that early 80GB models played SACDs as own one and I enjoy the feature along with DVD-A quiet regularly.

The PS3 is one of the best and most complete Blu-ray players around for $300. That being said it has one downfall. The fan noise! I have an 80 gig model. My living room is on the first floor and I moved it to the basement just last year, because I couldn't take the noise anymore when playing anything (DVD, Blu-ray a game, etc.) Good thing for the blue-tooth remotes and controllers. After that I couldn't take going up and down the stairs every time that I wanted to change the disc. I can't imagine the PS3 slim being quieter since it is in a smaller case. I suggest that you find a friend that has a PS3 and go over to their house and watch a couple of movies to see if you can live with the fan or not.

I wound up buying an Oppo player just this past summer (partly because of the fan issue) and I am much happier with the silence that I hear from this player. So, a stand-alone player is going to be better in this respect.

Oop, you're right. There are a few 4 USB port, 80 GB models. The majority of the 80 GB models have 2 USB ports and no SACD support.

I'll stand by my DVD-Audio support statement. While most DVD-Audio discs do have a DVD-Video section which can be played on any DVD player, only DVD-Audio players can access the lossless MLP data on the disc. So if you're playing a DVD-Audio disc in the PS3, you're getting the Dolby Digital (or on a few rare discs DTS) lossy compression.

I am hoping the fan noise won't be an issue as I will be 14' or more away from it.

My 60 GB PS3 the hottest and loudest of the bunch. Every model after that has run cooler (more energy efficient chips built from newer technologies), and quieter. That said, I have my PS3 on an open shelf right under the TV, I can't hear it from 7 feet away in most cases. Blu-ray playback is no issue at all, it takes very little of the PS3's power to decode Blu-ray video and the fan runs at the lowest speed. Actually some DVDs with very noisy pictures, can get the fan running up to an audible point when noise reduction is enabled. Games will also sometimes get the fan running so it becomes noticeable.

The other problem with fan noise on older PS3s, is they are full of dust. The fan has to run harder and more often to cool them in this case. Taking it apart, removing the dust, and also replacing the thermal compound between the CPU and heatsink, got my system running quieter than when it was new.

My guess would be the Nyko PS3 remote. Using that remote, you can teach your universal remote what IR signals to send. And the IR to BT adapter on the PS3 takes care of the signal.

I've got the 60GB version and fan noise (12' away) hasn't been an issue. But I have it sitting on 2" high blocks for better clearance/air flow and that may help.

There are several solutions for remotes now, but the field was a bit limited when I was looking 15 mos. ago. Plus, I wanted to use IR, add the commands to my MX-900 remote and have the solution include discrete On and Off.

I ended up with a product from Schmartz. A bit pricey, but the discrete On & Off is important to me and they have great support and firmware updates you can download.

Those Schmartz sounds good and more affordable than the Logitech plugin for their RF remote.

Just looking over the specs for the Schmartz. Their Bluetooth models (the ones which can turn on and off the PS3), are USB powered. Which means you need to find another source of USB power other than the PS3 if you want to turn the system on with it. But since everything has USB ports these days (you could use the receiver) it's not a big deal. The Logitech one uses an AC/DC transformer. The Logitech one also has a wired IR receiver port. This is nice if you want to tuck everything away and use an RF remote. Yeah, RF remote, to wired IR transmitter, to Bluetooth transmitter, to PS3 is a round about way to do things.