Sony Playstation 3 with Blu-ray Remote (Import) v1.93

Update, November 2, 2007: This review has been updated, as originally promised, to reflect the various improvements and changes that Sony has made to the PS3 System Software over the last months. The firmware version used for this review was v1.93.


Sony's long-delayed Playstation 3 console finally launched in most major territories in late 2006, after a string of seemingly disastrous press. First and foremost was the announcement of the machine's high price, backed up by claims of a "worldwide launch" which failed to materialise, leaving European and Australasian fans not content with importing an American or Japanese unit with a long wait. Gamers that were content with imported machines (I'm one example of a European gamer who prefers to use American equipment, for several reasons) were then appalled, if not outright disgusted, by news of Sony Computer Entertainment Europe's lawyers pursuing legal action against hardcore gaming store Lik-Sang, who were charged with the apparent crime of allowing Europeans to buy the machine and quickly went out of business.

As a result of such behaviour, Sony have, rightly or wrongly, inherited the role of the large, anti-consumer corporation to be wary of in the gaming community – shoes that Microsoft wore at the start of the decade. To further this situation, much has been made of the fact that Sony are effectively forcing the Blu-ray Disc format on gamers who only want to buy a video games machine. It's a huge gamble for the company, which is more than likely a result of much note-taking during the Playstation 2 launch back at the beginning of the decade. Early PS2 sales were fuelled by Japanese buyers who cared little about video games and only wanted a cheap DVD player. I don't for a minute doubt that Sony hope to emulate this behaviour with the PS3 and Blu-ray.

Although I've talked about the machine's background as it's seen by the gaming community, I need to point out that I'm only going to review the media playback functionality of the PS3 – that is, how it handles DVD and Blu-ray playback.

First Looks and Build Quality

There are many phrases to describe the appearance of the PS3 system. "Large and unattractive" is probably the least insulting. Unusually for a Sony product, the system's designers appear to have settled on the truly baffling decision of applying a gloss-black coat to the machine. This means that the Playstation 3 is a scratch and fingerprint magnet – it is literally impossible to keep spotless. The curved top also means that it must be stacked on top of any existing AV equipment (unless you use a rack). As this is an updated review using the same unit originally reviewed in February, I've noted the countless scratches and blemishes that adorn the top of the unit, which have collected over the last 9 months.

On the plus side, the PS3 can, like all of today's games machines, stand either horizontally or vertically. Neither of these make it a looker, in this reviewer's opinion, so as such, I look forward to the efforts of the case-modding community to see if anybody can fit the machine's internals into a better-looking exterior.

Remote Control

Neither version of the Playstation 3 comes packaged with a remote control, relying instead on the wireless game pad to control movie playback. The "BD Remote" accessory (which can be had for around £22) adds the much-needed AV feel to the machine, and is a well-constructed and well laid out piece of hardware. Its shape is very similar to the newer Sony BRAVIA TV remotes, but in glittery black, it's much, much more attractive. All of the buttons on the remote have a great feel to them, and move inwards nicely – unlike the cheap, nasty feel of Toshiba's HD DVD player remotes.


My main complaint with the BD remote is that it lacks a Power Off button. Fortunately, holding the "Playstation" button in the middle of the controller for about 4-5 seconds allows you to power off the system via a menu option. Also, some of the buttons seem strangely placed. The number buttons, for example, are squashed up at the very top of the remote, despite there being what looks like available space at the bottom. Additionally, the Stop button is located between the Play and Pause ones. For some reason, this meant that I kept pressing it by accident, stopping playback instead of pausing it (this could be a personal thing, I'd be interested to hear if anyone else keeps doing this).

In addition, the remote uses Bluetooth wireless technology to communicate with the console, rather than the infra-red that we're used to. Many American home theater owners have complained about this, because it means that it's not possible to copy the commands from the remote to an all-in-one Universal remote control (such as the Logitech Harmony). I personally feel that the BD Remote is well designed enough for me to actually enjoy using it, but I can understand why this would be a problem for people who use universal remotes to automate their home cinema systems.

Complaints aside, the BD Remote is a must-have accessory. It is considerably nicer to hold and use than the Xbox 360's media remote, and looks nearly as slick as those bundled with Sony's top-end AV components.

Set-up and Picture Tweaks

We connected the imported PS3 directly to the UK wall socket using our own power cable (of the "kettle" type), because the system operates on 110-240v, 50/60hz, meaning it can be used anywhere in the world without an additional power transformer. Apparently, later American/Japanese PS3s can't be used in 220v countries without a stepdown transformer, so please investigate before you fry your newly imported machine!

Before the machine would output a video signal, we first had to connect the supplied Composite video cable, and enable the digital HDMI AV output in the System Menu. Doing so disabled the Composite output, so we then switched over to the HDMI input on our HDTV, which presented us with a crisp 1080p rendition of the system interface. This is a little messy and has proved confusing for some owners, but using the PS3 is a smooth experience thereafter.


When the PS3 launched, much was made of the fact that the machine could not downconvert Blu-ray Disc movies to 720p, for those without fully 1080-line compliant displays (most recent 720p-centric displays can handle 1080i and 1080p correctly, but some cheaper/older ones downgraded such signals to Standard Definition quality). Fortunately, this has now been corrected, and the machine can now accomodate a wider range of HDTV owners for its Blu-ray Disc playback.

During the setup process, the system asked us to select what resolutions our HDTV could accept, from a possible list of 480p, 720p, 1080i, and 1080p. If you're lucky enough to own a 1080p TV set, you can check every one of these boxes. The "Display Settings" menu also features an option called "Cross Color Reduction Filter", which would only be applicable to Composite video output. We're not even sure why it appears when using HDMI. All this does is simply horizontally blur the picture in an attempt to stop rainbow effects appearing on fine details (by removing the fine details entirely). That said, anyone spending this amount of money on a PS3 and connecting it through Composite video would need to have their head checked!


The "BD/DVD Settings" menu also contains options for "Cinema Conversion", which allows you to change the Deinterlacing mode for SD DVD playback between "Automatic" (recommended) or "Video". Selecting "Video" will force Video deinterlacing, even on Film titles, which will result in a loss of resolution. The menu also lets you change the HDMI video output colour space between Y/Cb/Cr (Digital Component video) and R/G/B (which should be selected if you're connecting to a device that has a DVI input instead of an HDMI one, like a computer monitor or an older HDTV).

Standard Definition DVD playback on the PS3 allows the user to open a window called "AV Settings", which features "Frame Noise Reduction" and "Block Noise Reduction", both enabled by default. These effects are very subtle and on first appearance appeared to do nothing at all, leaving us wondering if they had even been implemented yet, but we later saw their effects and can therefore give the unsurprising recommendation that they should be turned off.

One improvement we'd like to see added here is an adjustment to actually reduce the Sharpness of the picture. This sounds counter-productive, but while reviewing the Panasonic DMP-BD10 standalone Blu-ray player, we appreciated this function to help soften the harsh look of DVDs that have edge enhancement applied. Done correctly, it can remedy this irritating look without significantly blurring details.

Whilst setting the system up, we were pleased to see just how sleek and smooth the system's menu screens are. It uses Sony's "XMB" (Cross Media Bar) interface, which organises categories and options horizontally and vertically, allowing you to easily keep track of where things are. The Playstation Portable system also uses this interface, as did the Japanese versions of some of the high-end Sony HDTVs. This interface is one of the rare examples of minimalism done right - there are no clunky, pixellated fonts and simple graphics that are standard fare on typical set-top disc players, no intrusive animated effects, and no over-the-top transitions, either. Everything is glossed just enough to look and feel great, and no more. The interface is flawless both in terms of visual presentation and usability.

In-depth Quality Analysis: Blu-ray Disc

As I own a 1080p native HDTV that displays the video output 1:1 mapped, I was able to begin the Quality Analysis safe in the knowledge that no details were being lost or obscured.

Blu-ray FILM: 1080p/24 (output as 1080p/60)

The first disc we tested the PS3 with was the incredibly impressive "Silent Hill" (USA release from Sony). Reviews on this title have been mixed due to the fact that there are sometimes compression artefacts visible, but nevertheless, it is an appropriate test disc thanks to the incredibly high level of detail present, as well as its inclusion of a hidden resolution test card (gained by typing the numerical equivalent of "SONY" – 7669 – on the menu screen).

Prior to testing the PS3, we had had experience of playing this same disc in a considerably more expensive standalone Blu-ray Player. On the standalone, some fine details during the film and the test card twittered up and down lightly due to the internal 1080i-to-1080p conversion. This fault was not present on the Playstation 3, which keeps the signal as 1080p from start to finish, allowing much less room for error.

Using the red Warning screen at the beginning of a Twentieth Century Fox Blu-ray Disc, we also confirmed that the BD playback does not suffer from the Chroma Upsampling Error as some standalone players do. Although the error – which results in the edges of colours appearing jagged – is hard to spot at HD resolutions, the fact that it is not here is still excellent.

The test card allowed us to confirm that the PS3 was not adding any additional edge enhancement, or other intrusive video processing, during playback. The fact that it doesn't, and that we could detect no other problems with the playback, means that we are confident that the PS3 is up there with the best Blu-ray players in terms of video quality.

Blu-ray VIDEO: 1080i/60 output as 1080i/60

When we played the Panasonic Blu-ray Test Disc in the Playstation 3, the video was output exactly as it was stored on the disc – as 1080i/60. Some standalone players, such as the Panasonic DMP-BD10, use their own internal deinterlacing circuitry to convert the signal to 1080p/60 before it reaches the TV. The PS3 outputs exactly what it plays from the disc, meaning that there is nothing more to add in this area – the quality of the rare 1080i/60 content will depend entirely on how your TV set Deinterlaces it.

In-depth Quality Analysis: Standard Definition DVD

The PS3 features Region Locked DVD playback, which is even more limiting than Blu-ray Region Locking (as it carves the free world into six zones instead of Blu-ray's three). On top of this, the current NTSC territory models won't play any PAL discs – which is almost certainly an intentional limitation to try and deter imports rather than a lack of capability. As such, this will be a fairly short analysis.

Unfortunately, we currently don't have a PAL version of the Playstation 3 to test the quality of PAL DVDs.

Using an NTSC version of the THX Optimizer test, we confirmed that the Playstation 3 now does pass the darkest shades of Black (known in the AV world as "Blacker than Black"), as the shadow behind the THX logo was visible. This means that the system is displaying maximum tonal detail in dark areas.

NTSC Films with Progressive Flag

The PS3 now upscales DVDs all the way up to 1080p. Even when it didn't, there was little wrong with its Standard Definition playback, but upscaling is a nice touch for owners of displays that don't treat SD content well.

We also connected the system to a PC monitor using an HDMI-to-DVI cable and used the Sharpness pattern on the AVIA Guide to Home Theater DVD to confirm that no additional edge enhancement was being added to the output. At 480p, the pattern was completely natural, and as usual, upscaling added some very, very slight ringing. (I should add here though, that in this regard, the PS3 actually performed better than one dedicated £1999 video processor I've recently tested). The monitor also allowed us to confirm that there is absolutely no Pixel Cropping going on at all, meaning that the PS3 is doing a fantastic job of reproducing exactly what is fed to it and an equally brilliant job of upscaling. Extremely impressive.

Lastly, like the BD playback, the PS3's standard def DVD output is free of the Chroma Upsampling Error (CUE), meaning that edges of colours are smooth and pleasing to the eye - great news for anyone who enjoys animated films.

NTSC Film without Progressive Flag

Using an animated disc with a near-flawless transfer, "Ren & Stimpy: The Lost Episodes!" – a TV show that conforms to the 3-2 Pulldown pattern - we confirmed that the PS3 properly detects and reverses the pattern without discarding any detail or breaking into jagged lines. It is also free of the Chroma Upsampling Error, which was the expected result, as the other SD DVD functions of this player are as well.

NTSC Video (60i)

Using a DVD of a documentary shot on NTSC Video Camera, we were extremely pleased with the PS3's video deinterlacing abilities. The scene in question featured a lot of shaky camera movement, as well as fast driving cars, so was challenging material. Although it's impossible to achieve perfection in this area, the footage was largely free of excess combing defects that result from poorer deinterlacing, which left us very impressed.

We also tried an American animated TV show that originated on NTSC video, and were again happy with the results. We compared the same sequence on a DVD Player using the renowned Faroudja deinterlacing chipset, which features Faroudja's proprietary DCDi™ technology, designed to smooth jagged lines. The PS3 was almost but not quite as good as the Faroudja chipset's efforts to smooth the lines, but did feature a little more twitter.

PAL Film

Not tested – Unsupported on model used for review

PAL Video (50i)

Not tested – Unsupported on model used for review

Usability and Responsiveness

The PS3 responds to remote control commands literally instantaneously, and Rewinding and Fast Forwarding are by far quicker than on any other disc player we've recently used.

Boot-up times are also quicker than most standalones we've tested, coming in at 30 seconds from power on to images appearing on screen (for both SD DVD and Blu-ray Disc). Once again, the waiting is eased by the slickness of the interface, as users are at least treated to a "Sony Computer Entertainment" screen and brief glimpse of the System Menu, rather than a black screen. (When turned on with a disc loaded, the PS3 will automatically play it rather than requiring the user to start BD or DVD playback manually).

When stopping a Blu-ray Disc (or DVD) playing, the PS3 did allow us to resume playback from where we stopped it, which was a most welcome feature. Perhaps a future firmware version could make use of the system's hard drive and allow for placing Bookmarks at any point during the film to supplement this?

After using several High-def video disc players that were slower to boot and took their time responding to user commands, the Playstation 3 is a total joy to use.

Sound

We connected the PS3 to a home cinema system via the Optical output, and found no problems with the quality of the audio output from Blu-ray Disc or DVD movies. One usability annoyance we found with the PS3 is that it can't simultaneously output sound via the HDMI connection and the Optical audio output. This means that if you have a home cinema system and connect the sound via Optical, but occasionally use your TV speakers for more casual viewing (or if you're in a Power-Saving mood), then you'll need to take a trip back into the Audio Output menu and manually flip between the two methods.

At present, the PS3 system supports the next generation Dolby TrueHD audio codec, but only one Blu-ray Disc title actually carries this audio format (it's currently found mainly on the HD DVD platform). Currently, it doesn't fully support DTS Master Audio, but supposedly support for this codec will be added in a March firmware System Software update. Currently, the PS3 accesses the "Legacy" portion of the DTS Master Audio track, so you can still hear sound from these titles – just not in full quality.

If you have an older HDTV (or video processor) with DVI connections (which only send video, not sound), and want to hear sound through the TV speakers without the use of an additional sound system, you can connect the Composite video and Stereo Audio proprietary Playstation-style AV connector cable that comes with the PS3 to the TV.

Conclusion

All in all, the Playstation 3's media playback capabilities impressed me very much. Almost everything about it is completely refined and works exactly as it should – in terms of functionality, it's exactly what a Media Player should be.

Although the types of games that eventually become available on the PS3 will probably never greatly appeal to me – the same way the titles for the PS1 and PS2 didn't – I simply can't deny how impressive its other functionality is. The fact that this one piece of hardware, admittedly an ugly and expensive one, can achieve so many things, and do them so well, is incredibly impressive. In addition, it's price and almost complete superiority compared to standalone Blu-ray players is remarkable.

The only thing missing that would well and truly get me raving about this machine is a way to remove the Regional Lockout restriction from DVD playback (and BD playback, but that perhaps is being too hopeful). I'm firmly of the opinion that Region Coding does nothing but aggravate die-hard film fans and promote software piracy by forcing users locked out of playing discs to acquire their content through less wholesome methods (something I do not in any way support but can begin to understand). Were an easy method of removing this to appear, the PS3 would become my DVD player of choice. As a region locked unit, it's something of a missed opportunity.

As a games system that should hopefully be around for a good few years yet, the PS3 is not about to be abandoned at any time soon. Sony seem committed to delivering firmware updates for the unit to improve its functionality, and we may even see 1080p/24 output added in the future. As a result of this and its already high quality and ease of use, anybody looking for a Blu-ray player should look no further than this unit.