Yes it is very capable and it is what Lassater uses to demo new features from Pixar. But it does not have the best audio support. There are several high end audio codecs it does not support.

"people will hang onto their DVD players coz its a legacy item that noone wants to let go of"

All the HD-DVD and Blu-Ray players I'm aware of are upscaling DVD players as well. My Toshiba HD-A3 is my machine of choice for watching DVDs on my HDTV.

The PS3 does a fine job of upscaling as well. We'll be renting all our BD titles until the prices come down but in the meantime the SD library doesn't look too shabby.

If you're still on the fence...get off it and go get a PS3!

There's a fence? :)

I've thought about it but there's no real "want" for me to get one. If it was priced $300, then I would of had one already to go along side our Wii, but, as of right now, it would only be used for a few BD movies and the longer the players are priced higher, the more DVD's I'll own by the time the price drops.

Yeah, it's not something I would recommend anyone go out and buy for the sake of buying it. However, if you're ready to buy a player, I think the extra $100 is money well spent. Some of you might even find it useful to demo your work? I'm picturing a plush editing suite with an adjacent and equally plush "theater" where clients are treated to popcorn and sodas. Far from MY reality but a man can dream.

> Yeah, it's not something I would recommend anyone go out and buy for the sake of buying it. However, if you're ready to buy a player, I think the extra $100 is money well spent.

I believe it's more than money well spent. It's "future proofing". There is a whole other angle here to consider:

It seems kind of silly to me to buy a stand-alone BD player that only plays "shiny plastic discs" (although I do own one). The future is streaming home media. There are several Network Attached Storage (NAS) devices that run Linux and have UPnP/DLNA Media Servers in them. I just picked up a LaCie Ethernet Disc Mini (500GB) and I have all of my MP3's, family photos, and mpg videos on it. It quietly runs 24/7 while all of my PC's are off and I can watch videos, view slide shows, or listen to music, from my HDTV that has a PS3 attached (without having to go turn on a PC like you have to do with an Xbox360).

Try that with a standalone BD player. You can't! (but I bet they will start adding this capability soon just to compete). Current BD players have Ethernet ports but how many people have an Ethernet connection next to their TV? I don't. The PS3 is Wireless! So in addition to playing BD and DVD, you are getting a wireless media player. (oh yea, and it plays games)

I also just ordered (but haven't yet received) a D-Link Wireless HD Media Player for the TV in my family room. That will make two TV's that I can watch any of my media on. To me, buying a BD or DVD player that isn't a networked media player is a dead-end investment. I want my media where I want it when I want it and I don't want to go hunting for a disc to get it. ;-)

These little NAS Media Servers are small, quiet, and allow access to all of your media at any time. I only wish the PSP was a DLNA media player like the PS3. That would be awesome.

~jr

Yeah, you can't go wrong with the PS3 in lieu of a stand-alone BD player. I've been using it for some time to watch my BD Netflix films on my 61" Samsung DLP. I even took the measure of running an Ethernet cable from my desktop to the PS3 so I wouldn't have to fool with Wifi. Crawling under the house wasn't fun, but it works great.

I'm using Nero 8 as a media server (DLNA compliant) from my desktop. It works well with the PS3. Cyberlink recently announced similar capabilities so there are alternatives. If you already have Nero 7, it works too.

One thing most folks don't take into consideration is the ease with which the firmware can be updated to incorporate features. Sony recently updated the firmware so AVCHD files play without problem. I believe the PS3 has more flexibility than the stand-alones in this regard.

Guy

> One thing most folks don't take into consideration is the ease with which the firmware can be updated to incorporate features. Sony recently updated the firmware so AVCHD files play without problem. I believe the PS3 has more flexibility than the stand-alones in this regard.

Oh yea I almost forgot about that. We opened our new PS3 and my son put in a game he had bought and the game upgraded the firmware to the proper level before installing. What a great idea. Then later I realized I needed an even newer update for using it with my media server and I just selected network update and it downloaded and installed the latest update. No searching web sites or finding the correct version numbers or anything. All I did was press a button and it was done. Very impressive indeed. (the PSP does this too btw)

~jr

I did basically the same thing three weeks ago when my HD-mediaplayer (Kiss DP-600) finally died: I bought a PS3 instead. Its main advantage is certainly the blu-ray disc.

However, as a mediaplayer there is still room for improvements:
- The PS3 does not support NTFS which limits file size to 4 GB which limits playback time of HD files (typically 15 mbps) to something like 30 mins.
- The PS3 (firmware 2.10) does not support WMV files larger than 2 GB in size which makes it pretty much useless for WMVHD videos. Unfortunately WMVHD was my favorite format with the Kiss player and I have tons of these files.
- The PS3 just supports a small subset of the available audio codecs for WMV. In other words: More than half of my WMV clips (I've collected some 50 demos or so from various sources over the years) play without sound.
- The PS3 does not play back at 50 Hz screen refresh rate (except when playing from disc). So all video footage from USB or the internal hard disc is converted to 60 frames per second. As I live in Europe my material is usually 50 frames per second and the PS3 creates very ugly stuttering when playing back these files.

All these issues were not existing in my three year old Kiss DP-600 (which had other problems, of course).
So, I'm still waiting for fixes in the next firmware updates.
Best regards
Martin

I bought myself a PS3 for Christmas. Use it for monitoring Vegas on the big screen. Just render to m2t and put on DVD or transfer to the PS3 HDD and watch on a 42" 1080p monitor. A quick way to see what your edits really look like. Love it.
Mike

". Just render to m2t and put on DVD or transfer to the PS3 HDD and watch on a...."
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The media serving stuff along with its limitations is something I can live without. The ethernet updating feature is nothing new since I own hd dvd and it has been able to do this since day one.... but I will say that the PS3 has tempted me many times on its M2T playback abilities.

If they took this technology and put into a set top player, and boosted the audio qualities, I would jump at the chance and not look back. Why they have not done this is beyond me.

"With all the talk of fan noise, overheating, etc. I was reluctant to spend the extra $100 for a PS3 over a dedicated BD player."

Overheating? I've run my PS3 on Folding@Home for days on end (with breaks for a few hours per day to watch a movie) and it *never* *over* heated. It runs hot, but it's no different than our HD/DVR cable box (and the fan is much louder than the PS3).

Have you heard the horror stories about the XBOX360 fan being loud as hell, and then folks having to buy *another* fan in order to keep their unit from *really* overheating and crapping out? YIKES.

We're as excited about the PS3 as you are. We happened to buy ours just a few days after the 2.10 firmware revision was released, which added support for DivX and VC-1. I installed a media server app on our Yellow Machine NAS and Viola! all of my audio and video clips can now be played back on our 52" plasma display and piped through our surround system.

I'm going back now to re-skin some of my production work and put them together in a playlist so I can sit down with a director and just pop up my spec and production work and 'let it roll. Nice. Now, I get to go back and do a few things in surround and see how that rolls out.

:-D

Life is good.

(Oh, and the gameplay on the PS3 rawks!)

"Overheating? I've run my PS3 on Folding@Home for days on end (with breaks for a few hours per day to watch a movie) and it *never* *over* heated. It runs hot, but it's no different than our HD/DVR cable box (and the fan is much louder than the PS3)."
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There are a TREMENDOUS number of conflicting stories on PS3 noise and running hot... enough so that it IS an issue. One person made the remark as to NOT buy these things on-line so that returning them becomes easy if need be.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=932785&page=9

the ps3 is a workhorse,, use it all the time for viewing our hd, and playing movies... love it,, what is lacking is why my kid also has a xbox... games. Xbox pretty cool also.

Sometimes it is just great havin a son around with a job ,who spends all his money on toys,,, gotta love him

There are a TREMENDOUS number of conflicting stories on PS3 noise and running hot... enough so that it IS an issue. One person made the remark as to NOT buy these things on-line so that returning them becomes easy if need be.

I had no idea that the PS3 has "levels" to the fan speeds. It must have been for the early/larger units. I have the 40GB version and like the respondant in the thread you reference, I've never heard mine going above level one - which most regard as silent. I guess that *would* be a good reason to be sure you buy yours at a local store. We got ours at BestBuy - and like I said, we couldn't be happier.