Blu-ray upgrade from PS3 need some help making decisions

[ahblaza]

In terms of PQ(picture quality) Blu-ray is a Blu-ray you won' notice a difference now if it's PQ of a DVD that's when there's a difference how well is the PQ on the PS3 vs Oppo J is more qualified to answer that question since he owns both. In terms of audio quality I doubt there's a difference unless your using the analog outputs on the Oppo then this would be a point in their favor.

IMO if you want a stand-alone BDP just to cut down on the wear and tear of the PS3, also a lower power consumption vs the PS3 then I would suggest looking in the Panny models which would cost less than the Oppo and offer many features which are the standard among most models. Here is one I have been looking into for myself the Panasonic DMP-BD85 has pretty much everything except the ability to play DVD audio or SACD.

Ares, I have the Panny 85 and must say I am very happy with it. I use the MCH analog outputs to my legacy Onkyo receiver and am amazed at the audio quality of the lossless codecs with the MCH outs. I paid $180 delivered from Amazon. I also have the PS3 Slim and the picture quality IMO is about indentical with both units as a BD player and upconversion is also very close. I bought the 85 to take some of the load off the PS3, you can't go wrong with the Panny 85.
Jeff

 

[bommai]

You got me beat I never knew of any, finding a 20Gb owner is like finding Bigfoot, two snowflakes that are the same and the Ark of the Covenant all at the same time.

Hey I have the 20GB PS3! I bought it from amazon for $499 in February of 2007. It has been working pretty flawlessly all this time. I use it for Bluray primarily, then some SACDs and rarely for games. I have played motor storm on it - may be once every 6 months or so!! Lately, I heard a little rattling in it. What is that! I have heard other people's PS3 do that too. I also had an issue when I inserted a disc and it made a noise that should not be there. Almost like something rubbing. But my disc was not scratched. Since I rarely play games, I also thought of upgrading to an Oppo. Just haven't pulled the trigger. In the mean time, I bought a Panasonic BDT-300 for $200 store model though. It has been working well and I think the video and audio seems to be a little bit better than the PS3 - not by a lot but some. I also like the twin HDMI outputs of the BDT-300 because my receiver HK AVR 745 cannot pass through 1080p. I had to either set PS3 to 1080i or use a monoprice matrix switcher/splitter. While this worked properly about 80 percent of the time, I had to fudge with it the rest of the time. I also had to discount the projector before playing SACDs because without projector, PS3 plays at PCM 176.4kHz and with projector at 44.1kHz. Weird. Something to do with the eDID. Also, no deep color gets passed through.

Also Panasonic allows me to connect 7.1 analog - I did that and it also works well. But, all this for a small upgrade seems just too much. May be I will keep my PS3 until it dies - or since mine is a collectors item, may be I could sell it and then buy an Oppo! I wish the Panny did SACD.

 

[Crackerballer]

Good advice here. I researched upgrading from my OG 60gig PS3 for a new blu-ray and I CANNOT justify it until I have a receiver that does 7.1/7.2 and the necessary speaker setup. Aside from decoding HD audio formats, the PS3 still comes in very high on the list of exceptional BR players with the added bonus of a gaming device, networking, and looking dead sexy.

 

[Cruise Missile]

I Have recently replaced a PS3 slim as our primary Blu-ray with an OPPO bdp-93. If the picture is better on the OPPO it's not by very much. Keep in mind I'm shooting onto a 106" screen, so if there was some huge improvement I'd see it. It looked the same to me.

We ran all audio from both players as bit stream via HDMI to our receiver. This is where the surprise was. The OPPO sounds better in every way. This wasn't expected, I bought the OPPO simply to have a stand alone player.

I know the digital signal shouldn't be any different between the two but it is.

I never compared the pcm decoding between the two.

 

[Cruise Missile]

I know looks are subjective, but when did looking like a George Forman grill become "sexy"?

 

[darien87]

My old original 60GB PS 3 finally bit the big one, so I've got a 120GB slim coming. I'm kinda bummed about losing out on the SACD, and only having 2 USB slots, but honestly I can't remember the last time I listened to one of my SACD's. The funny thing is that I asked the guy at Sony Tech Support a few times if the new slim could play SACD's and he told me, "Yes. The new PS 3's play everything the old ones did."

 

[j_garcia]

No, the new ones don't play SACD. They haven't since the second generation as far as I know, but I haven't tried one in my Slim either. I got my 60G back from Sony a few months ago and it seems to be doing fine.

 

[PENG]

I Have recently replaced a PS3 slim as our primary Blu-ray with an OPPO bdp-93. If the picture is better on the OPPO it's not by very much. Keep in mind I'm shooting onto a 106" screen, so if there was some huge improvement I'd see it. It looked the same to me.

We ran all audio from both players as bit stream via HDMI to our receiver. This is where the surprise was. The OPPO sounds better in every way. This wasn't expected, I bought the OPPO simply to have a stand alone player.

I know the digital signal shouldn't be any different between the two but it is.

I never compared the pcm decoding between the two.

I compared the slim to the 95 in digital and I wouldn't say one is better than the other, but the slim has a much noisier fan for sure.

 

[PENG]

My old original 60GB PS 3 finally bit the big one, so I've got a 120GB slim coming. I'm kinda bummed about losing out on the SACD, and only having 2 USB slots, but honestly I can't remember the last time I listened to one of my SACD's. The funny thing is that I asked the guy at Sony Tech Support a few times if the new slim could play SACD's and he told me, "Yes. The new PS 3's play everything the old ones did."

I would love to try on in my slim but unfortunately everyone in my collection are hybrid that has the CD track in it so the slim can play all of them. May be that's why the guy at Sony meant.

 

[darien87]

I would love to try on in my slim but unfortunately everyone in my collection are hybrid that has the CD track in it so the slim can play all of them. May be that's why the guy at Sony meant.

Maybe. I asked the guy multiple times. He even got off the phone for a few minutes to check and came back and said it would play SACD's. I told him, "Are you sure because everything I've read says that it won't."

 

[PENG]

Maybe. I asked the guy multiple times. He even got off the phone for a few minutes to check and came back and said it would play SACD's. I told him, "Are you sure because everything I've read says that it won't."

Their latest BDP such as the 470, 570 all can play SACD so I don't understand why Sony took away that capability from the PS3, just to save a buck or two? If that guy at Sony was right then this would be among the best kept secret, but I really doubt it.

 

[Ares]

Maybe. I asked the guy multiple times. He even got off the phone for a few minutes to check and came back and said it would play SACD's. I told him, "Are you sure because everything I've read says that it won't."

As far as I know no Slim has the ability to play SACD's and the last Fat model that could was an 80GB with the model prefix CECHE. Unless they plan on releasing a new Slim model with it, but I think he either misspoke or he was clueless.

 

[darien87]

As far as I know no Slim has the ability to play SACD's and the last Fat model that could was an 80GB with the model prefix CECHE. Unless they plan on releasing a new Slim model with it, but I think he either misspoke or he was clueless.

Probably the latter. I just got the slim and there's no SACD logo on the front. Oh well, at least it will bitstream Hi-Def audio.

 

[Cruise Missile]

The difference we hear is real and repeatable. This could be any one of the pieces of gear in the chain causing this, hell it could even be the PS3 we have may have a defect. I don't know the reason.

Now on a side note, I'm pulling the PS3 out of the main system for a couple of reasons.

•Fan noise
•multiplayer on Xbox live is superior
•Bought an Oppo bdp-93 for Blu-ray
•PS3 requires an adapter of some sort for use with a universl remote
•Lately PSN has been offline as much as on

I'm not hating on the PS3, it is a great piece of hardware. Served us very well, but it's just collecting dust now.