Re: Playstation 3: Not the best Blu-ray player you can buy

ive only heard of this happening to films(moreso normal dvd's) when the ps3 is set for 1080p/24,and the tv is not capable of this output


AND I>>>>>KNOW<<<<<WTF IM TALKIN ABOUT

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All this said, we only try to inform the consumer the best we can to help them make the buying decision that is right for them. And for the record, the PS3 is not a bad machine at all. It has great value and its Blu-ray playback IS very good. Simply not the best.

Henning, thank you for that. It's uncommon to get an honest opinion about these things. My belief (from actual experience) is that multi purpose devices rarely have equivalent capabilities of dedicated ones. As I said, I have no plans on getting a PS3 for BR playback, so I guess I'm just going to have to wait for a dedicated, capable player, at an affordable price, even if it does take a couple of years.

BR has won, and this bit of 'anti' PS3 news isn't going to kill the format. Sure, it may scare off potential PS3 buyers, but why should anybody care as long as the news is legitimate? We'll buy when the time is right.

So has anyone tried the DTS HD audio with the new firmware update on the PS3?

Whats the verdict?

Falcon said -

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"I also assume that they had the PS3 set to 1080P/24 output unless of course the TV they were using is not capable of 24fps."

And also the above^ info referred to by another poster. Again, that's why I'm asking for the SPECIFICS for this magazine's test. Definitely if you have your Blu-ray or HD-DVD player with 1080p/24 ouput, but the TV is INCAPABLE of supporting this signal, then you could very well see 'stuttering', and would need to change the setting of the player to either 1080p/60 (standard), or 1080i/60 (interlaced).

And that brings up another note... T3 on Blu-ray - I heard that Warner mistakenly released it with 1080i, and not 1080p! At least that's what was reported for the Region A edition. Have they remastered it with 1080p? Did the magazine have the new/improved disc, or the original in 1080i ?

Because IF they were using the 1080i version, then the PS3 is not doing the deinterlacing, and instead it's done by the TV display, and according to Gary Merson VERY FEW displays correctly deinterlace 1080i film-based signals, notably those from Samsung, Sony, Vizio, Philips, Hitachi etc (although a few models 'pass'), compared to those that properly deinterlace such as Pioneer, Sharp, Toshiba, JVC, NEC, some of the newer Panasonic models, etc.

Still, if I were to make a guess, I would assume that it's the 1080p/24 issue that Falcon and mr_p-ness mentioned above - that the PS3 in the test is outputting 1080p/24 into a TV that does NOT have a special input mode for -this- signal, and can only handle 1080p/60 (the standard 1080p signal of the majority of 1080p TVs)... and that this is where the 'stuttering' is happening, from improper attempts to play a native 1080p/24 signal on a native 1080p/60-capable TV. And this DOES NOT REFLECT ANY SHORTCOMINGS, OR PERFORMANCE 'ISSUES' FROM THE PS3 ITSELF!!!

-JIMI (the Voodoo Child)

[Post edited by Love Hendrix! on Mar 26, 2008]

Hendrix, don't you think they would have set the standalone bluray players to 1080P/24 output as well?

It's a weird one for sure.

Falcon you misunderstood my post... IF the PS3 or SA players are set to 1080p/24 output, you MUST have -that- specific input capability on the TV display (like the Pioneer plasma etc), otherwise this 'stuttering' could be from the improper 'conversion' of the 1080p/24 signal by the TV's native 1080p/60 capability - it may not be capable of displaying a native 1080p/24 signal, and is trying to convert to it's native 1080p/60... hence stuttering - see?

That's why we need know the SPECIFICS of the magazine's test. Simple as that - would clear up the various speculations.

-JIMI (the Voodoo Child)

I agree with you Hendrix but what I'm saying is if the TV could not properly de-interlace 1080P/24 content wouldn't the standalone bluray players also experience the same issues?

Assuming the standalones and the PS3 were set to the same output, the same picture issues should be happening on all players. If the TV can de-interlace 1080P/24 properly than none of the players should have issues. That's why it's weird that only the PS3 was having this issue.

Like you said, we need more specifics.

Hmmm... interesting about the 24fps.

Falcon about the BD30 and PS3 outputting the same 24fps...

It is capable with the PS3 to force the 24fps setting. Even though most/all standalones obviously output 24fps, they rely on the HDMI handshake to switch to 24fps, or whatever the highest compatible setting detected is that the display can handle.

I cannot use *most* standalones with my projector @ 24fps, because players will automatically switch it off because my display fails to submit the fact it can take 24fps properly during the HDMI handshake. So I can only use players (the PS3 is one) that I can set to output 24fps no matter what.

But lets just imagine the reviewer had the PS3 with 24fps option set to "on" (forced), and mistakenly thought just because their LCD was 120Hz it could handle it natively when it couldn't. Then they attach a BD30, and assume it's outputting 24fps but really wasn't due to incompatibility information received during the HDMI handshake.

It sounds silly, but I've seen dumber things in my life...

Well at least what you're saying makes sense. These HDMI issues are getting annoying.

[Post edited by Falcon01 on Mar 26, 2008]

Falcon said -

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"If the TV can de-interlace 1080P/24 properly than none of the players should have issues."

Actually, a TV doesn't do ANY deinterlacing when receiving a progressive signal (1080p/24, 1080p/60, 720p/60, 480p/60) - it just 'passes' the sigal thru... however, ANY signal has to be scaled to the set's native resolution, and IF the TV doesn't have the capability for a pure-native-'untouched' 1080p/24 pass-thru, then, since it does 'accept' 1080p signals, it will attempt to scale it to it's native resolution, but 1080p/24 does not = 1080p/60 (without 3:2 pulldown), and hence may be why there is 'stuttering' on fast-moving images to the viewer's eyes.

Note: 3:2 pulldown is the TV (or disc player's) processing to convert an interlaced 24fps film-based signal into a 60fps progressive signal. But it's not needed (or used) with 1080p/24 signals (as the player does all of the signal processing, then passes this signal to the display, and the TV should then scale it as a 24fps signal (not 60fps) if it's capable of doing so (very important).

The Pioneer plasmas (which both you and me, and others own, like wolfen) easily do this with their 'Advanced' option under the "Pure Cinema" menu... like this -

1080p/24fps output to 1080p Pioneer plasmas = 1080p/72 (a pure multiple of 24, passed 3 times to ensure a strong signal)

1080p/24fps output to 768p Pioneer plasmas = 768p/72 (etc) - note: the popular Pioneer model #5080HD Kuro plasma has a native resolution of 768p/60, but will easily scale/display 1080p/24 signals as 768p/72

-JIMI (the Voodoo Child)