I am looking to get a blu-ray player now that the battle is over. People are saying the best player available is the ps3. Is this true and why or why not? I don't care about gaming, I just want a good blu-ray player.

there are like a million topics that discuss this.

if it is not THE best it is one of the best. i am sure something better will come out shortly but it will cost you at least 1k.

the ps3s beauty is that you get frequent updates to make it better.

are there downfalls to the PS3? sure. it doesnt support one of the audio formats and the remote is bluetooth only (but there are workarounds, although not good ones).

I love my PS3 as a Blu-ray player and I get to play some games once in a while.

It's the most versatile, most supported, most updated, and one of the cheapest, BD players there is.

Yes. I had already bought a (Sony) Blu-Ray player when the Warner news came out. I don't reall the model # but it was the one Best Buy has at $400.00. then I found out it was Profile 1.0 and thus returned it. then I tried my hand at a PS3 and the firmware for some weird reason locked up the controls in the front (disc eject and power). So I returned that.

My nephew then bought a PS3 and we again did the firmware and this time it worked fine. So based on having bought 2 BD players thus far, I'd say the PS3 was the most future proof one as it has an ethernet port (profile 2.0) and thus can do firmware upgrades and PiP (profile 1.1).

On all the other standalones that i saw, getting the higher profiles means an added $100.00 bucks minimum, raising the price to at least $500.00. Which frankly as a fully functional HD-DVD user, was unacceptable to me.

So yeah, go with the PS3.

The main reason I'm asking is because the dvd player on the ps2 was junk. I want to make sure the same isn't true of this blu-ray player. Thanks for the help.

That's certainly not a problem with the BD player in the PS3. I also have two other standalones.

nope. even the upscaling of SD-DVDs is fantastic(ish).

the start up/loading time was/is the most impressive thing about the PS3.

Personally, I'm VERY pleased with my PS3 thus far. Loving it as a blu-ray player and looking forward to GTA IV in April.

Well my opinion of the PS3 as a machine is that it has nice features, a very elegant menu system but it runs hotter than my HD-DVD player and it's ugly as hell compared to stanalone players. But whatcha gonna do. As far as picture quality, on MY system, the picture looks just as good as my HD-DVd but the SD DVD upconversion isn't as great.

Long story short, it's the best player available right now. 12 months from now, who knows, but as of now you can't do any better. I've had mine for about a month now.

and the fact that it's slightly curved means that you can't stack it under another component - the shape in general is odd, to put it mildly.

Other than looking like a waffle iron, the PS3 is the best player available currently.

If you stack it, it'll dangerously overheat whatever you have it on top of. As I noticed when I placed one on top of my HD-DVD player. It was frying an egg hot, it was!

I now use mine as my main DVD player along with BDs and one thing I've grown to miss is a LCD display with the chapter/time.

Ugly as hell, but yes it is.

One has to wonder why they do not just put the insides into a rectangle case sell it as a standalone.

That's a good point. I feel the same way. It's a pain having to press the "Display" button on the bluetooth remote every time to find out where you are in the film.

I think it is top notch....upconverts great for me with SD.

It also plays games too....some which are pretty good exclusives.

I have a Panasonic BD30 that I'm very happy with.I have never had a problem with a disc yet.It doesn't upconvert as well as my Tosiba HDA30 player tho.I was never interested in a PS3 since I don't play games and it wouldn't fit in with my other electronics very well.Besides I got the Panasonic at the same price as a PS3.

I've been happy with my PS3 since I bought it, and I use it for the gamut of what it can do - Blu-ray, media server, PSP interface, and of course gaming!

The PS3 has advantages and disadvantages as a Blu-Ray Disc player.

Pro:
• Well supported by Sony.
• Profile 1.1, with 2.0 expected via a firmware update in the near future.
• Can decode and output Dolby TrueHD as PCM over HDMI to an HDMI capable receiver. DTS-HD-MA support is expected eventually.
• Reported to be fairly quick to boot up and load discs, in contrast to many other players.
• Seems to have a good reliability record thus far.


Con:
• No multi-channel analog audio outputs (for lossless audio with older HT receivers).
• No bitstreaming of lossless audio codecs (for use with the latest HT receivers with on-board decoding).
• The PS3 is a power hog, compared to just about any other Blu-ray Disc player one cares to name — that’s why it gets so hot. The Panasonic BD30 is rated at just 25 watts, by contrast.
• No IR remote compatibility (meaning that one can't use a universal remote). Also, one has to use the game controller as the remote or pay extra for a more conventional (Bluetooth) remote.
• The PS3 is a slot loader. While some might like that, I would guess that many of us don’t like trusting our discs to a slot loader, scratch-resistant coating notwithstanding.
• No LCD display panel on the machine.
• The PS3 is considered by many to be “ugly” as a home theater component.


Which of these characteristics can be considered important will vary for each of us. For a more information on second generation BD players, check out the Blu-ray Disc Player Thread.

The lack of an LCD display is my one big complaint, but I've found that it's sort of helpful because you can immerse yourself in a movie without always glancing at a counter.

While you can't power on with it, you can use an IR dongle to make the PS3 IR Compatible (and work with most remotes).

unfortunately yes