I haven't seen a scratch from the PS3 on discs either. Ours is vertical. I used to be leery of slot-loading drives, but this one has given us zero problems.

PS3 is by far the best way to go. Aside from being a BR player and obviously a game system, you can stream photos/audio/video from your PC via a media server, you can connect an external USB hard drive/flash drive and view photos/audio/video, and you can surf the web.

As already mentionedby RockyMtnBri, the NYKO IR remote/dongle works great and is a much cheaper alternative to the schmartz dongle. Can be found at most gamespots and works with any universal remote.

I went for the 80gb version over the 40gb. If you don't mind openning another CC account you can get a $100 credit after purchase and 12 month 0% interest if you buy from SonyStyle. With GA taxes and $15 shipping you can get the 80GB for $456.19 shipped or the 40GB for $331.99 (free shipping on this one). You still get the 5 free DVDs by mail, and with the 80GB you get enough points for one more from SonyStyle plus $5 or so for shipping.

Here's the deal linky.

http://www.sonystyle.com/webapp/wcs/...msId=sony_card

Dammit, now you guys got me thinking about getting a PS3 for Blu-Ray ... I guess the firmware updates can be done via downloading the update on my PC, burning it to a CD or transferring it to a USB drive, and then uploading it to the PS3? What about the failure rates for PS3s? Are they anywhere near the levels of the XBox 360?

Last time i read up on it, PS3 failure rate was 0.02%. Nothing like the 360.

Yavin...

If you have wi-fi or a hard wired internet connection, the updates can be done that way. You can also do it by burning a disc, or putting it on a USB drive. It is so easy to do this. In fact, the PS3 itself will tell you when an update is available.

I'm telling you (and so is everyone else), you can't go wrong with the PS3. I didn't even get into the media server stuff it can do!

+1

The PS3 is the way to go if you are thinking about Blu-Ray. If you have even an inkling of gamer in you then go ahead and jump. I have PS3 and have had zero problems with either one for games or Blu-Ray playback. As far as an internet browser goes it is competent but not the greatest. There are certain flash videos that can't be played because of the required software. I'm sure there are some homebrews out there that you can install and use to fix that. We also use our PS3 to video conference with my in-laws in Guatemala. It is free and it beats the hell out of emailing back and forth or the high call rates.

Yep, mine is connected wirelessly so I update it that way, but I just hooked up a friend's who doesn't have wireless internet and it was simple. Go to the PS3 site, download the update file to a thumbdrive (put it in a PS3/UPDATE folder), plug it into the PS3 USB port and let the update begin.

I wholeheartedly agree! I've only had my PS3 80 for 3 days and I'm loving the multimedia jukebox capabilities. I've transferred the entire TWIN PEAKS series from DVD to USB harddrive and the PS3 plays them beautifully. Nearly dead quiet. No power brick. Solid construction. George Foreman grill form-factor. It's darn near perfect. The PS3's playback of SD DVD is so good that I'm removing my standalone DVD player from my living room setup.

Could you expand more on how that works? We have the PS3 but I had no idea it had that capability. Sounds very cool.

This was such a pleasant suprise when I unpacked mine. I already had a PC power cable in my entertainment rack, so I just used that one and didn't have to deal with aother plug.

As for the SD playback, I couldn't agree more. My philips DVD/USB player is pretty much unsued now.

I will add that at fist I had some cooling issues in more cabinet. It's a pretty confined space and the PS3 would heatup often. I fixed this by wiring 4 80mm computer fans to a USB cable and plugging them into the PS3. Now when the PS3 starts up, the fans draw all the hot air out of the back of my cabinet and the PS3 stays nice and cool.

yep. the PS3 is truly a great piece of electronics. I'm planning on upgrading my HDD one of these days because I have been doing the same as others and adding tons of videos/music to it which it plays nicely. if they ever released a patch that made this play my other region discs I'd toss my Oppo out in a heartbeat.

I've used a regular SD card to upgrade mine too in case anyone was thinking they'd have to use a usb thumb drive.

plus the fact that I can play all my PS2 games(I have the 60Gb) that I never got around to before is just icing on the cake.

You guys have pretty much convinced me on the PS3 ... only thing I'm worried about is a better, roughly equivalently-priced standalone option coming along by the end of the year, which would make me kick myself for being impatient.

I highly doubt that a standalone player will offer the capability of playing media from a USB drive (flash or harddrive). If you've ever used those capabilities on a 360 or Wii, then you'll love it on the PS3... and quickly find it to be an indispensable feature.

but again, even if a slightly better standalone player did come out it still wouldn't be able to do as much as the PS3 can now.

Which still doesn't control the power. So, I have to get up to turn it on, and get up to turn it off. Infinitely annoying when you want seamless integration with a universal remote. As highly hyped as the machine is a player, that whole issue turned me off to it. That, and it's Sony. But we won't get into that.

I have both formats. But really PS3 as best standalone player. Shame on you the Blu-Ray association companies selling blu-ray players. You could of done better than that. How many companies are making a Blu-Ray player? Kind of pathetic if you ask me!

By the way I support both formats.

Well that's not entirely true. Right now Panasonic has a player that can output audio tracks over bitstream, so DTS HD-MA tracks can be decoded by HDMI 1.3 receivers. The PS3 can't do that, and reportedly will never be able to.

Granted, a firmware update allowing the PS3 to decode the tracks would solve that problem, but we've been waiting over a year for that to no avail.

At the Sony booth, they are showcasing two new prototype BD-Live players. The Sapphire 3 and 4 will both be Profile 2.0. Sony also has indicated that the PS3 will get a BD-Live upgrade sometime in the future.

http://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=813

Ok, I think I will try and pick up a PS3. I just have to stop viewing it as a gaming machine with Blu-Ray functionality and more like a multimedia center. I just noticed that the Sony BDPS300 is also slot-loading (according to Best Buy's specs), so I don't feel so bad about the PS3.

Now the only thing is to figure out if I should return my A3 or not. Tomorrow is the last day I have to do so, but something tells me that it would still be better to keep it. I am planning on trying to arrange things so that I don't pay more than $450 collectively for both the HD-A3 and the PS3 40-GB.

If both parties have an eye toy, or even just a headset, you can invite that person to a chat room. If that person is online and accepts your invite then it opens a chat room. If they are in your friends list it will tell you if they are online or offline. From there you can turn your camera on and use it to not only send your video capture but also transmit your audio. My in-laws bought a PS3 when they were here two months ago for two main reasons: 1)Blu-Ray playaback and 2)the ability to communicate with their daughter and I whenever they wanted without worry of extra cost. You can pick up an Eye Toy camera at most places for around 40 bucks. Also, there is a free program that you can download from the PS store that you can use the camera and the PS3 to take pictures or record video right to the hard drive and then edit them as you wish. This is how we recorded my daughter's Christmas since we don't have a video camera (next big purchase). There are many cool little things you can do with the PS3. If you have a PSP you can remote connect to your PS3 and stream whatever video or music you have on your PS3's hard drive to your PSP and enjoy it wherever there is an internet connection.

Thanks dsa-shea. Very interesting.

good point but I was mainly talking about the ability to play games, stream music/videos, do automatic updates, etc. stuff like that. there isn't another BD player on the market that can do any of these things.

how much is that Panasonic by the way? I paid 600.00 for my PS3 on release day and I still think it was one of the best bargains I have ever purchased considering what it can do. true, it didn't start out this way out of the box but I can't think of much else that has had this much added to it in a short time.

I'm still holding out hope that the PS3 will eventually get DTS HD-MA one of these days.

Doesn't bother me. I never leave discs in machines, so I have to get up anyway to take the disc out/put it in.

It doesn't bother me either. By the time I get up and turn it on and sit back down it still loads 10x faster than any other player I've seen on both sides of the HDM market. Besides, you can leave it on but in standby so that you can flick it on with a press of the PS button. It is usually running and fully functional in about 10 seconds.

I guess it's me and 11 others (and yes, it's one of the reasons I chose the 80GB over the 40GB).