PS3 plays BlueRay?

[Bambus]

I have heard rumours that the new PS3 that comes out soon will have the technology to play BlueRay DVD. If thats the case, i guess the sound by optical cable would be the same as from the DVD player. If thats correct, why would N E body invest in a regular DVD BlueRay Player and not the PS3??
Im guessing the price difference wont be much, and you get to play sick games.
Am I missing something????

 

[Nomo]

On the surface it appears to be a no brainer. Not for me. Putting a game console in with my HT set-up only garantees that the kids will never let me watch TV or a movie.
When the time comes to invest in either a PS3 or HD player, and I'm in no great hurry, I'll be looking for both.

 

[billy p]

No brainer but

Will PS3 be able to pass hi res sound?

 

[BMXTRIX]

It is not a rumor - but has been in the specifications since day one!

The PS3 will be the first piece of consumer electronics with HDMI 1.3 specifications and will be the first game system with a built in HD disc format as standard equipment. It should be able to pass HD sound formats over the HDMI cable to HDMI 1.3 equipped receivers (there are none right now). It likely won't have analog multi-channel outputs and won't be able to decode those audio formats internally, but you may get some versions over the optical audio connection as well.

It's a great post above from Nomo - and it is a no brainer for certain people. But, the actual quality of Blu-ray Disc (not DVD) playback from the PS3 has yet to be seen and reviewed. If it holds its own as a good Blu-ray player, then that should really bolster sales by those who want both the gaming and HD aspects of the system but can't stomach the thought of a $1,000 HD disc player.

In the next year, I really expect that Blu-ray players will begin to see models at the $500.00 and under price point start to emerge to compete directly with HD-DVD on pricing, though that still puts it at the same price point for a PS3 base model.

For those who haven't heard: The PS3 base model will now also include HDMI 1.3 output. This changes things for me because I felt obligated to get the nicer model so I could have the HDMI connector. Now, I don't need to.

 

[Bigsilvs]

The only thing I am really worried with the PS3 is that the Blu-ray drive is two speed (2x). Can you imagine the loading times on games? If the loading times is anything like the PSP I think I will wait until a new PS3 model comes out with a faster Blu-ray drive. I could be way off base here, what do you think?

With only 300,000-400,000 PS3 units available at launch for the U.S. good luck getting one...

 

[BMXTRIX]

The only thing I am really worried with the PS3 is that the Blu-ray drive is two speed (2x). Can you imagine the loading times on games? If the loading times is anything like the PSP I think I will wait until a new PS3 model comes out with a faster Blu-ray drive. I could be way off base here, what do you think?

With only 300,000-400,000 PS3 units available at launch for the U.S. good luck getting one...

2x Blu-ray is not like 2x CD or 2x DVD - it is far more data. Overall, it is just shy from X360 levels. But, my understanding is that is the main reason that a hard drive is standard on all PS3 models. The hard drive is utilized for game play since hard drives are MUCH faster at reading, tracking, and loading new data. The game disc will feed the hard drive which will cache the upcoming files then load them on the fly far faster than any gaming system before it ever could. Yes, still likely to have some loading delays at times. But, not nearly on the level that you may be imagining.

As for the units available at launch... Thanks, I'm going to need that luck in getting one!

 

[Bluesmoke]

Will PS3 be able to pass hi res sound?

For BluRay, yes (Dolby HD), for games, they will use DD+ which is still amazing!