{"id":188,"date":"2008-11-19T09:51:16","date_gmt":"2008-11-19T14:51:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lowtek.ca\/roo\/?p=188"},"modified":"2008-11-19T13:21:22","modified_gmt":"2008-11-19T18:21:22","slug":"playstation-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lowtek.ca\/roo\/2008\/playstation-3\/","title":{"rendered":"PlayStation 3"},"content":{"rendered":"

After months of agonizing over the decision to buy a PS3<\/a> I finally made the leap. \u00a0 \"\"<\/a>This is a decision that I’ve been mulling over since I purchased the Epson 1080UB<\/a> back in January. \u00a0Once Blu-ray had “won” the format battle<\/a>, the PS3 was nearly certainly on my wish list. \u00a0However, early in the year I chose to go with the Oppo 980 DVD player<\/a> instead of making the leap to the PS3.<\/p>\n

There are some stand alone players that are worth considering now. \u00a0While you can purchase one in around the $200 mark now, you may end up slightly disappointed with the quality. \u00a0Yes – a cheap player will enable you to watch and build a Blu-ray collection, but you are making trade offs on quality.\u00a0 Looking more at the mid-range offerings, the Sony S550<\/a> is very recently available in Canada and offers some features that the PS3 does not. \u00a0It benefits from being a stand alone, single function device with IR control. \u00a0The S550 also provides internal decoding of the HD audio streams and discreet analog outs. \u00a0The PS3 edges it out slightly for performance, but the S550 will run cooler (quieter). \u00a0It was a tough choice – but the PS3 also serves as a media center and is more flexible appealing to the geek in me.<\/p>\n

I’ve been watching the slow progression the PS3 has made recently, hoping that there would be an additional price break or introduction of new lower power chips. \u00a0Neither has really happened over the course of the year. \u00a0While 45nm cell processors are a possibility<\/a>, the PS3 still uses a 65nm cell. \u00a0The RSX (graphics chip) is still the original 90nm version. \u00a0As a result the unit still pulls around 135Watts <\/a>of power when in use.<\/p>\n

The new 80Gig low end unit is effectively the same as the 40Gig that has been available since late 2007. \u00a0It does not have backwards compatibility, and features a reduced number of USB ports and connectivity options. \u00a0For folks like myself interested in Blu-ray<\/a> playback or the PS3 games then it has what it needs. \u00a0Earlier units which supported backwards compatibility had the larger cell processors and more chips to support the old games, this meant running hotter with more fan noise. \u00a0I haven’t used the PS3 extensively yet, but so far it is quieter than the fan in my projector – which is very quiet (siimlar to the low fan noise of my laptop).<\/p>\n

There are no deals on the PS3 happening in Canada. \u00a0I was able to score a minor deal from BestBuy.ca<\/a> which lately has had the best prices on a number of the things I’ve been looking for. \u00a0Normally when they have customer appreciation sales with discounts in the 10% range video game hardware is excluded.\u00a0 As chance would have it a sale cropped up that offered discounts that did include video game hardware.\u00a0 I was amused to find that the next day a very similar online sale started and ran for a week duration, but specifically excluded video game hardware.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Only $25 off a PS3 isn’t much to boast about.\u00a0 Considering that in the US people have access to a SonyStyle visa which gives them $100 credit<\/a> on their first qualifying purchase over $299.<\/p>\n

Previously FutureShop.ca had free shipping on many items and BestBuy.ca did not. \u00a0Now that both stores off an in store pick up (ISPU) that has no shipping cost, FutureShop now charges for shipping. \u00a0Just last night I ordered a copy of Wall E<\/a> from BestBuy.ca for $27.99 + $1.99 shipping + tax<\/a>, beating out FutureShop.ca’s price of $28.99. \u00a0Of course, both of these prices at the two stores are not available for in store pick up so you have to pay shipping – and they are not filed under the Blu-ray category making it harder to find (they are under DVD, but are clearly Blu-ray media). \u00a0This might not seem like a deal with Amazon.com selling it at $24.95<\/a>, but with the exchange rate<\/a> the story is quite different.<\/p>\n

Of course, to cable it into my system I needed to buy some cables. \u00a0The PS3 supports audio over HDMI or digital optical out. \u00a0Since I don’t have an HDMI capable audio setup, I went with a digital optical cable. \u00a0My projector only has 2 HDMI inputs, and I wanted to continue to run DVD via HDMI so the Satellite box lost out and has moved to component. \u00a0I used Tartan Cables<\/a> for the component and digital cables, and its parent company Blue Jeans Cable<\/a> for the HDMI as they had a sale on their old BJC-Series2<\/a>. \u00a0All of the cables came in a single shipment, since Tartan and BlueJean are really the same business.<\/p>\n

The PS3 only comes with a single controller, which can be used to control Blu-ray playback but there is an additional Sony Bluetooth remote<\/a> you can purchase. \u00a0I was able to find one used in mint condition for $15 from someone who had upgraded to an integrated automation solution<\/a>. \u00a0The PS3 has been criticized for not having a standard IR control story, and there is merit to this argument. \u00a0A number of 3rd party solutions exist such as IR2BT<\/a>, ps3toothfairy<\/a>, Schmart<\/a> and IR4PS3<\/a>. \u00a0I’ve chosen to go with the latter, it is built in Canada and uses the guts from the official Sony Bluetooth based remote meaning it has 100% compatibility.<\/p>\n

There are still lots of things for me to do to get the PS3 setup to my satisfaction. \u00a0I haven’t yet ordered the rack shelf, but it will be another 2U unit from MiddleAtlantic<\/a>. \u00a0There is a very long thread on AVSForum on setting up the PS3 for Blu-ray playback<\/a>. \u00a0I will also want to get the AVS HD 709 calibration disc<\/a> and see where things sit (this opens up the whole calibration can of worms again and I really need to find time to do more on this front). \u00a0And of course there will be actually getting the IR4PS3 and integrating that into my remote control setup.<\/p>\n

Initial impressions can be summarized in one word: Wow<\/strong>. \u00a0The ability to deliver 1080p content to my projector (not upscaled) is awesome. \u00a0I haven’t yet watched a Blu-ray disc, but just the intro\/menu of the Indiana Jones Crystal Skull looks great. \u00a0Another thing that impressed me was that my MythTV box was discovered on the network, recognized as a media server – and the PS3 was able to play back recorded content without any complicated setup. \u00a0 This alone justifies the choice of the PS3 over a stand-alone player for my needs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After months of agonizing over the decision to buy a PS3 I finally made the leap. \u00a0 This is a decision that I’ve been mulling over since I purchased the Epson 1080UB back in January. \u00a0Once Blu-ray had “won” the format battle, the PS3 was nearly certainly on my wish list. \u00a0However, early in the … Continue reading “PlayStation 3”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-188","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-home-theater"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lowtek.ca\/roo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lowtek.ca\/roo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lowtek.ca\/roo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lowtek.ca\/roo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lowtek.ca\/roo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=188"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/lowtek.ca\/roo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":194,"href":"https:\/\/lowtek.ca\/roo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188\/revisions\/194"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lowtek.ca\/roo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lowtek.ca\/roo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lowtek.ca\/roo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}