GatorDeb

I use my PS3 everyday, for both BLUs and SD DVDs.

Knives

PS3 won't blow up with overuse, it was built to last.

With the hundreads of things the ps3 can do, like stream music, play xvids, browser, games, downloads, linux, ect. ect.

It's AWESOME!

marginal

Honestly, I'm kind of surprised this issue hasn't been brought up more. I hear people talking about how well-built the PS3 is... but you know, I had both a PS2 and an Xbox that died on me last gen, and in both cases, it was the DVD drive that gave out. I would NEVER use a game machine as a way to watch movies if I had another option, just because that adds wear and tear to the drive.

Now, if you're only using your PS3 (or whatever) for movies, then you probably won't have much to worry about, since playing games is what really works over the drive. I wonder if we'll see an increase in these sorts of problems as PS3 consoles age a little bit in the coming year.

Chad

Yeah, it's my go-to machine for all things blu and it just so happens to be a damn fine upconverting player as well.

Kromax

You are correct.

Yavin

Overuse is exactly what I am slightly concerned with with my PS3. My primary purpose for it is to watch Blu-rays. I have my HD-A3 to use as an upconverter. However, I recently said "screw it", and decided to get a handful of games to enjoy as well. I only have time to use it for games/movies about one day a week (probably about 2 to 6 hours of usage a week), so I'm guessing I'm using it far less than other people.

asianxcore

I use it as my main player like a lot of others here. It pretty much takes care of all my SD Region 1 DVD's as well as Blu-Rays.

samper

I do - except for my other region disks.

Parasol Stars

I do. Wife loves it cause it's so much faster than using the A-2. But i wish i could disable the start-up beep.

Parasol Stars

I really think the only way to over-use it is to leave it on all night. I did that with my old Sony DVD player and it konked out after a while. I think that it is meant to be used alot though. That's why it is designed as an all in one machine.

sracer

I use my 80GB PS3 as my primary multimedia device in the living room. DVDs, Blu-ray discs, mp3 music jukebox, photos, and DivX rips of my TV show DVDs (more convenient than fishing out individual episodes on individual discs) all stored (currently) on a WD Passport USB harddrive. Plus games.

Between all those uses it is on a few hours each day. It isn't noisy, and it doesn't get hot... though the air that blows out is very warm.

I absolutely love it....

GreenMonkey

You must not have had a launch PS2 like us. It was getting disc errors after about a year. I swear the failure rate on the launch PS2 DVD drives was like 50%.

I bought an Xbox which had a replacement drive installed...I barely used it compared to the other systems. The DVD drive died a month after I sold it to a buddy. Luckily he was using it more as a XBMC streaming device that a game system.

I'm fairly leery of optical drive failure, especially on expensive hardware.

darkside

I have some worry, but my PS3 has been in frequent use since buying it last February and it is still working great.

It is my main DVD and BD player and I also use it to play back most of my video podcasts and random divx files. I also use it quite a bit for PS2 and PS3 games so the thing is in heavy daily use.

The problem is the fact it does a hell of a job at these tasks. It is a great DVD upscaler and a much better BD player than the standalone Sharp I got free with my HDTV. I thought about using the standalone more for Blu-ray, but despite the great picture the Sharp has issues with java menus and likes to randomly crash in the middle of movies forcing me to unplug the player to get my disc out or finish the movie. The PS3 has none of these issues and honestly seems to be the only player capable of handling the Blu-ray format the way it was designed to be used.

I'm using mine till I run it into the ground.

GatorDeb

Is there a website that lists all the things you can do with the PS3? I'm greatly underutilizing it. I have just 1 game, motorstorm, and I don't play it. I -am- looking forward to Home. I wish you could use Netflix with it (maybe if enough people write in asking them to support the PS3's internal browser?).

Thanks!

Gizmo

How easy is it to hook up a USB HD to the PS3 and access it to play movie files? Does it just play divx files, or would it play ISOs?

RoboDad

I haven't heard of any ISO capability on the PS3 (I just did some checking and it is not supported), but from what I've read, hooking up a USB HD is pretty painless. The only downside is that you must use FAT32. That means you would either need to buy a drive that is pre-formatted in FAT32 (since Windows can only create a maximum partition size of 32 GB in FAT32), or else use a third party partitioning utility to gain access to the whole drive. But once that is done, access to the drive from the PS3 is pretty simple.

sracer

Yes, it is that painless.

I simply reformatted the drive using the free Maxtor tool, copy my files (using a logical directory structure), and go. I have a 160GB WD Passport drive, 250GB Maxtor, and 250GB no-name... all are easily attached and accessed by my PCs and PS3.

RockyMtnBri

If you're using a PC, you can right click on your My Computer icon to bring up the Manage application, select Disk Management, select the right drive and format the drive there. I use a dual partitioned drive (FAT32/NTFS) with my PS3 all the time. And yes, the PS3 does not do ISO (but it can read VOB files). Sorry about the jargon.

GatorDeb, visit the http://www.us.playstation.com/PS3 site for ALL PS3 info. Not sure about the Netflix comment, unless you mean streaming. Supposedly in Home, if you have a movie either on disc in the player or stored on the hard drive, you should be able to view it with others in Home.

Damed

I use my HD-A1, as I find it does better upconversion than my PS3.

GatorDeb

I mean Netflix's Watch Now service, which doesn't work with the PS3 (You can't download and watch it later as it is against their TOS even if the file is DRMd.

RockyMtnBri

Gotcha. I know Sony's supposed to be working out VOD via the PSN. We'll see.

mike2

Is the Logitech harmony even worth it?

GatorDeb

YES!! I've had mine for a month and I'm a convert.

It doesn't work with the ps3 though.

mugwump

I've only had my PS3 for about a week and haven't used it all that much but it is my only Blu-Ray player. I just ordered a Toshiba HD-A3 so I'll have to wait and see which player takes on most of the upconverting burden. I also have a 360 and since that will actually stream Xvid I use that for a lot of TV shows and what not since I don't want to convert to Divx just for the PS3's sake. Why they didn't implement Xvid support is beyond me.

While I don't mind having to use the controller to power up (I use my Harmony with the USB dongle after that) it sure does blow the hot air like a furnace which has me a bit worried for long term survival.

My launch PS2 is still kicking and used weekly (my 40g PS3 doesn't have backwards compatibility) -- knock on wood -- but I did have to replace the drive in my original Xbox. Wish I could retire that thing but so far no other console can do everything that XBMC can do like streaming ISOs. That's a function I don't ever expect to see through official channels.

I guess I'm not quite as blown away by the PS3's capabilities as some others as it's still lacking in a few areas thus the need for legacy consoles.

sracer

My XviD files play just fine.

I'm not concerned about the heat... because airflow and ventilation is excellent. The console itself remains quiet and cool. If it felt warm or hot, then I too would be concerned.


If legacy support was that important to you then the 40GB PS3 was the worst model to get.