Hi everyone. After reading Alan's question of the day a while back, I've been looking forward to seeing reviews of the new Samsung BD player. Has anyone seen it available in Canada yet, and/or has anyone purchased one and can provide a review?

thanks!

I thought it was coming out in June.

I'm holding out for Oppo's upcoming unit.

Now is the time to buy if it were me. Walmart is offering a free $100 gift card with the 40gig PS3.

http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?dest=9999999997&product_id=10039674

If you purchase this online and get a Sony credit card. When you get your PS3 you can return it to your local Walmart and put it on your Sony credit card and save $100.

So, you get a PS3 for $300 with a free $100 Walmart gift card. The PS3 is the most complete blu-ray player out right now and will continue to be via firmware updates. With this deal it is the cheapest as well.

- Nick

Hold out for another year?

Nick, do you play games and watch BD on your PS3? I've only played one movie on the PS3 (for about 5 min) because my Samsung 1400 is just fine. But when I play games on the PS3, the fan kicks in and is VERY VERY loud. Almost as loud as the Xbox360 for those of you that have X360.

When you play BD, does the fan kick in?

I've heard some speculation that the old 20/60 gig PS3's had loud fans, and the new 40/80 gig ones have quieter fans do to system component shrinks, better fan, etc.. but no one who says they have done a direct comparison.. ymmv

Mine's the 40GB variety. I'll do an SPL and post it.

I watch Blu-ray's, dvd's and play games on my PS3. I have the 60 gig model and sit about 8 feet away from it in an open cabinet. The PS3 has two fan speeds from my experience: low and high. I like when the fan is on low since it masks the slight hum of my Pioneer plasma and it is not distracting. High speed is distracting at times. It seems to me when I watch blu-ray's and play ps3 games the fan speed stays low. When I watch dvd's within about a half hour the fan speed goes to high speed and stays on high. I am guessing that the processing for the upconverting is possibly the cause for the fan speed to go high. There are two possible solutions to the noisy fan that I have come up with.

First of all, I can move the PS3 into my office where I have my dvd collection so that I don't have to listen to it. My office is right next to my living room where I use the PS3. All I have to do is get a 25 ft hdmi cable from monoprice and drill a couple holes. The remote control and controllers are operate on R.F. so the signals will pass through walls and doors. Then there is no fan noise at all. From what I remember, when Gene at audioholics tested cables at Monster was that Monoprice passed 1080p at 60fps at 25 feet but not longer than that (this was from the avrant where Gene went to Monster to test all sorts of different cables).

Or secondly, if my thoughts about the fan only going on high with dvd's is correct then my other option is getting an Oppo upconverting player to use for dvd's. The PS3 is a good upconverting player (Gene said this past week on avrant that it scored 100/130 on Audioholics/HQV bench testing). But, I need a good region free dvd upconverter that will play PAL discs, my old one has quite a soft picture. If I do this then I don't have to move the PS3 at all.

- Nick

I just replaced my 60GB PS3 with a 40GB PS3 this weekend and there is definitely a night and day difference. In fact, after great initial results with much lower fan noise (while I know this sounds crazy), to test the new 40GB model, I watched a 2 hour movie with the PS3 sitting in the box it came in to see how it performed in limited ventilation. Even then, the fan never came anywhere close to making the noise my 60GB does, and it also ran MUCH cooler.

With my 60GB PS3, during medium to quiet movie scenes, I can hear it running from ~11 feet away through a closed closet door. The 40GB model is totally different.

Do the new PS3s play SACDs or did they cut that feature out? I thought I heard something about that, but now I forget what was said, exactly.

Good point... the 40GB does not support SACD, though I don't own any, so I don't think I'll miss that. (though at least now I know)

Here are the other differences I found with a quick google search (not 100% verified, but found in more than one location, so at least plausible).

a) 40GB uses 65nm technology, which leads to lower power consumption. Other versions use 90nm.
b) 40GB does not have the same backwards compatibility for PS2/1 games.
c) 40GB has 2 fewer USB ports
d) 40GB does not have a flash card reader
e) 40GB has an improved cooling system.
f) SACD isn't supported in 40GB.

For me, a and e are the most important. Considering I've had the PS3 for 6 months and wasn't aware of the other limitations, I can't imagine they will be a big deal in the future. c/d can be addressed by adding a USB hub or USB flash card reader if I ever need either. I don't think I'll look back after the change as I should drop the temperature in my A/V closet by about 10 degrees with the new version, but it is interesting now to see the subtle differences that I wasn't aware of before I made the snap decision to take advantage of the deal this weekend.

what did you do with your old one?

60 GB models are sought after because of the backwards compatibility features especially. You could probably sell it for a nice sum if it still works.

If you guys think that any of the PS3's or Xbox's have loud fans then turn on one of your old PS2's. I am using one of these as a dvd player in the basement and even in an enclosed cabinet from 12 feet away the whine of the fan in almost unbearable. I remember out of the box that the PS2 sounded this bad though. Are some of the later generation PS2's as loud as some of the earlier ones?

- Nick

I have one of the later slim versions of the PS2, and I don't think I've ever noticed distracting noise.

I can't remember how bad my old PS2 may have sounded.

I have yet to notice the fan on my 80GB PS3. I'm sure there is some noise but if I haven't even really noticed it until I read your question, then obviously whatever fan noise is there isn't a problem for me. Open shelf cabinet about 8 feet from where I sit.

Poor DBD. Only one "On Topic" answer to his question, and even it was a guess. Talk about PlayStation hijack....

The BD-P1500 is at Circuit City "in stock" for $380...

No worries, I learn something from the PS3 comments too. I've thought about getting one of the 40GB models recently instead of the Samsung. My kids would definitely appreciate that more

To the earlier questions, I'm putting my 60GB on ebay and it looks like I'll make between 100-200 on the exchange.

Regarding the PS2 sounding louder than the PS3... I can seriously tell you that my 60GB PS3 sounds like a hairdryer. It is that loud. I can't hardly imagine anything being worse, but if it is, WOW, you have my sympathy.

To the point on hijacking... sorry! Guilty as charged.

Wow.. this thread led me to do a quick google search, and found the following site.. Compare Blue Ray Players
probably should be taken with a grain of salt, but nice comparison.

Nice site, thanks for the link.

An update on my decision:
For now, I've decided to go with the 40GB PS3...and I couldn't be happier. I would recommend this unit to anyone, even if you think you aren't a gamer as it really displays the full potential of an HDTV. My PS3 bundle came with GT5 Prologue which is a mini version of the full Gran Turismo 5. The photo-realistic graphics and sound are simply amazing.
Of course, in addition to the gaming fuctionality there's the blu-ray player and although I've only looked at Planet Earth in BR so far, it is again very impressive.
An added bonus which I didn't even know you could do until I bought it, is that hooking your PS3 up to your network either by wired or wireless connection will allow you to easily access all of your digital media stored on a PC on that network (or I suppose you could wirelessly connect to your neighbors network if they allow you to) So from your PS3 you can watch your home movies, listen to your mp3s, view your digital photos in a very nice slide show format, etc. Considering that I was going to spend >$200 just for an accessory for my Denon receiver to allow me to only listen to my music this way, it just adds to the value that the PS3 brings.
And to the point about the PS3 fan potentially being noisy, I haven't experienced that.

Even if there are audio shortcomings on the PS3 (and I'm not sure if there are) and I end up buying a dedicated BR player at some point, I won't regret my decision one bit.

I have a question about the PS3 connection to the receiver which I'll post in a new thread.

But just be aware that the fan on my 40GB PS3 kicks in and it's quite loud. It's not distracting for games, but for movies? No way. Something to keep in mind.