Sony PlayStation 3

The start of 2008 finally saw the end of the High Definition DVD format war, with Toshiba and other proponents of the now-defunct HD-DVD standard ceding to the dominant Blu-ray disc.

Following the announcement back in February, the next move for those looking to upgrade their Home Cinema system should have been clear--buy a Blu-ray disc player and enjoy all those Full HD movies you've been waiting for.  Right?

Games Console or Media Player?

Things are rarely as straightforward as that, though, and the excellent performance of Sony's PlayStation 3 has left many asking themselves whether a games console might be a better investment than a dedicated Blu-ray disc player.

It's a valid question, because the PS3 offers not just a Blu-ray player, but also a whole host of other features, not least of which is the ability to play games.

Indeed, it's all the more valid since Sony updated the PS3's firmware in September 2008.  The new version, 2.43, has brought a number of improvements which really convinced us we should take the PS3 for a spin as a Blu-ray player, plain and simple.

In this review, we won't be looking at the PS3 as a console or be worrying about it's gameplay--you can find out all about that elsewhere--but instead examining whether or not it's a worthy addition to your living room as a media player.

Right at home

Although it looks very different from a regular DVD player, a PS3 will fit easily into most TV cabinets.

All you need to do is make sure that you leave around 10 cm around the slot-loading DVD and plenty of room for ventilation. 

The more space you can get around your PS3 for ventilation the better, as while it's running, it's generally a lot louder than an average DVD player. 

Although its sleek black casing makes it look discreet, the PS3's cooling can pump out a lot of noise.  Ours got particularly hot in our lab on sunny says this summer (so not actually very often, then ... -- Ed)

Connectivity and Compatibility

This being a console, the number of audio and video inputs and outputs is fairly stripped-down.

There is a standard AV output, a HMDI port and a separate digital audio out. 

 

If you prefer to use HDMI for sound, then the PS3 can decode all current digital audio formats (Dolby Digital, DTS, Dolby TrueHD, DTS-HD and DTS-HD MA are all a breeze).

As for video, the PS3 also supports not only DVDs and Blu-ray discs, but also DivX and Xvid files--that's the theory, anyway.

If you're looking for subtitles in different languages, the popular *.srt file format isn't supported by default, but many users report a good deal of success using the AVIAddXSubs program to add subtitles to AVIs, although we've not had a chance to check it out.

Two further peculiarities are that the PS3 won't accept DivX files from versions up to and including 3.11, but is fine with later encodings, and our test model found some Xvid files tricky.  

It's hard to be picky about this, as far too many DVD and Blu-ray players occasionally struggle with some of the more 'exotic' formats.

Control

Let's cut straight to the chase: the PS3 doesn't ship with a regular remote control.

Instead, you get two of the gamepads that are so popular with gamers.

There's more on how easy this is in the box here.

As for the menus that you access with the gamepad, they're amongst the best out there, and completely outclass regular Blu-ray players.

In a word, the interface is excellent.

Viewing

We started by watching a few DVDs, and found the upscaling to Full HD 1080p --where the PS3 has to produce a higher resolution signal than that encoded on the disc to match the TV's capabilities-- to be absolutely faultless. 

It's as good as that on the very best dedicated Blu-ray players out there.

As you'll be seeing, we were so impressed by it that we're going to use the PS3 as a new benchmark, not just for upscaling DVDs but also for TVs upscaling SD images.

When watching Blu-ray discs, the image quality is, to our eyes at least, perfect.

Not only are the pictures easy on the eye, they're also pretty speedy too.  From inserting a disc to seeing the first frame of a movie takes just 35 seconds.

That's not as fast as we'd like it, but it's certainly better than the two minutes some dedicated players take to start up.

A few little extras ...

Of course, the PS3 isn't primarily intended as a Blu-ray disc player--but that hasn't stopped us assessing its performance as one.  

If you're tempted by its Blu-ray performance, though you might also want to consider the 'other' features that you'll find on board which might finally convince you ...

Here's what you get:

• a HD games console
  
• a multimedia server that can access photos, video and audio from your computer

• an internal hard drive, starting at 40 GB depending on the configuration

• compatibility with a plethora of formats: DivX, Xvid and so on -- although a lot of users report problems with more complicated configurations

• the ability to add a Play-TV, giving access to free-to-air digital terrestrial television

Conclusion

While the PS3 is a great Blu-ray player, more and more dedicated players for the format are arriving, and prices are falling.

When it was first released, the PS3 led the way by including a Blu-ray drive (and arguably contributed to the success of the format), but its growing acceptance as the way to watch video in HD means that just isn't the case any more.

It's far from perfect, with the absence of a real remote control perhaps the most irritating omission, but it remains a good choice provided you intend to make at least some use of its other functionality.