PS3 as a BRD player - predictions
 

Due to cost reasons, as well as to prevent it from completely canibilising sales of dedicated BRD players, it's obvious that the PS3 will have to drop some aspects of the Blu-Ray format. But which ones will they be?

I personally think that for BR movies it will only support up to 1080i, it won't have support for the new Dolby/DTS formats, and I also think that it won't do things such as scaling standard DVDs.

Admitteldy I haven't been following PS3 news too closely, so some of the above may have already been officially confirmed or denied. But I'd still be interested in hearing your thoughts on the issue. Remember, the PS3 - when it comes to Blu-Ray - is a budget player coming sometime after dedicated players, and as a result it won't do everything you'd hope for.

Well, there was a sign on the CES PS3 display that said it would output at 1080/60p, so we're okay on that one. Upscalling to HD will probably be there as well - remember, that was one of the big presentation points of the Cell. It probably won't have BD-J, is my guess. And obviously, it won't have any onboard hardware decoders for Dolby or DTS.

You must realize that all producers of Blu-Ray are counting on the PS3 to take the budget Blu-Ray player spot (have you heard of another Blu-Ray player for less than $1000?). These companies will allow Sony to be the loss leader and get the machines into people's homes quickly. Once the format war is settled, people will start buying stand-alone Blu-Ray players which will be of a better quality than the PS3.

No, but admittedly, most Blu-Ray hardware manufacturers didn't announce prices with their products at CES.

question: what is the release date for the PS3 slated for?

It seems like this would severly limit the player... all the fancy menu and interactive content I've been seeing would appear not to be available without BD-J...

While looking around for information on BD-J, I found this 1/7/06 article saying that first gen players may not be "full profile" which means BD-J won't be fully supported. Weird because on the digital bits interview (posted in this thread), Pioneer says that BD-J is ready. If this article is true, it really muddies the waters.

From CES 2006: First-generation Blu-ray disc players may not be full-featured:

Blu-Ray really seems like it's not ready for prime time. BD-J not available on first-gen players, initial discs mastered using only MPEG2 compression...

Why would it be any worse than a standalone? It's got the hardware (3.2 GHz Cell, 550MHz Nvidia graphics chip, BR drive, HDMI, etc.) and any software problems can be fixed through updated firmware.

That's not a whole lot different than DVD was when it first hit the market in '97 (only single-layer discs, no DTS support from players). Getting the product on-the-market sped things up, and just a year later, things were different. So I'd expect Blu-ray (and HD-DVD) to be greatly improved when 2nd-gen players are here next year.

I think it will be about like the PS2. A good player, but not great. Will get people by until the price of the others come down. :shrug:

These companies should be learning from the mistakes of the past, not repeating them.

(This applies to both formats).

If they learned like I wish they would, there would not be two formats.

Agreed about the two formats but look at the bright side. Two competing products mean competative pricing.

As for leaving things out of the early players like 1080p/audio support, well, I'm sure every CE company has a laugh about this as they don't see it as a mistake. i.e. Selling interlaced dvd players then progressive then upscaling ....

I agree. My PS2 did me for 4 years and introduced me to the world of DVD's (my bank account has never been the same again :p )

I've always regarded the PS2 as one of the worst DVD players of all time. Is that just me?

Very true, but do they ever really learn?

In fact it could well be the other way round. I read an article from a gaming expert the other day complaining that the CELL processor was much more suited for multimedia and video than for gaming.

No you are not the only one, the PS2 was a pretty crappy dvd player. They did improve it with later revisions of the system, but it still isn't very good.



I don't plan on using my PS3 as a BD player for two reasons.

1. Consoles are generally poor performers in this area.

2. Extra wear on the console itself.

I thought DVD was proof they had learned their lesson from Beta/VHS. I remember discussions like that back in the mid-90s. SACD/DVD-A and BD/HD-DVD show that DVD was a fluke, instead. Idiots.

It's not just you. But for a lot of people, it will get them by.

No official date yet.

But sometime this spring/early summer in Japan, and around the Holiday shopping season in the US.

Forbes is backing up what Josh mentioned above that the PS3 may be delayed.

http://www.forbes.com/technology/fee...fx2453335.html

I would expect the PS3 like the PS2 to be a very entry level player. Sony wants to get you into Blu-Ray with it and then get you to upgrade to a better standalone.

I agree. A friend of mine had a PS2 that he used as a DVD player for years, I hated the thing. The PS2 was hard to control and the picture quality was good, but not great. Years later, he picked up a $99.00 DVD player, he is much happier with the Stand alone player.

That all said, since I already have a nice DVD player, I am going to be very happy with a PS3 hooked up to my HDTV. Cheap and the video quality should be much better than my current player.

Not sure if this is mentioned anywhere and I havent seen it, but I know both BR and HD-DVD are supposed to be backward compatible, but will the PS3 be as well. I figure it will be, but I wasnt so sure. Also, will it be backward compatible and upconvert as well?

It should be BC because BC with PS2 games is a selling point of the system. In order to read those discs, the player will need to read DVDs and CDs. Wether it upconverts is anyone's guess, but I doubt it.