New Bluray Player vs. Using P3S Slim

[Chitown2477]

I am considering buying another Bluray player with the primary reason being my wife wants a Bluray player for the bedroom. I just bought a new Samsung TV for the front room where I have a Sony Bluray player (BDP-S360). So, I figure I can get new Samsung Bluray player for the front room so I can eliminate one remote. The Sony would go into the bedroom. However, I have the PS3 slim in the front room as well.

My question is this: How well does the PS3 compete with Bluray players in the $200 price range in terms of overall picture quality? If the PS3 is on par with such Bluray players I guess there is no need to buy another Bluray player. About 80% of my collection is Bluray so I am not too concerned with upconverting too much.

 

[j_garcia]

The PS3 is still one of the better Blu-ray players on the market. Constant firmware updates pretty much guarantee this. Nothing at $200 is going to be noticeably better.

With almost all TV or BD remotes, you can usually control one with the other. I use my Panasonic BD player remote to control the TV as well as the volume on my receiver, so you can almost always eliminate remotes either with or without a universal remote.

 

[Chitown2477]

Thanks for the post. I will have to read up on the remotes I have.

 

[Cruise Missile]

The PS3 requires an add-on to be controlled with an universal remote. They do sell a Bluetooth remote for about $20 bucks though.

As far as quality of Blu-ray playback goes, there are few if any players that match the PS3 for load speed. I never had a single glitch during playback either. The picture is 99.9% percent as good as any top tier player and the sound is just behind that (my personal experience, not scientific data).

It is a LOT louder than most blu-ray players due to the fans. That you already know, but in a bedroom it may be more obvious and distracting.

I sold my PS3 as a mini protest and replaced it with an oppo bdp-93. I didn't see or hear any significant improvement with the swap. Netflix playback on the PS3 trumped all other devices I've used for it.

(Save your money, use the PS3)

 

[j_garcia]

As far as quality of Blu-ray playback goes, there are few if any players that match the PS3 for load speed.

That isn't true anymore. Nearly all players, even the least expensive, are as fast as the PS3 to start discs now. Companies realized people wanted players to load faster, so now they do, but it took them 3-4 generations of players to get to where the PS3 was from the beginning.

I sold my PS3 as a mini protest and replaced it with an oppo bdp-93. I didn't see or hear any significant improvement with the swap. Netflix playback on the PS3 trumped all other devices I've used for it.

Agreed, if you stream via netflix, the PS3 is easily the best device for it, and currently the only one capable of streaming 5.1 audio. PQ won't be dramatically different among BD players, so I don't think that would make much difference. I've owned/own a few different BD players and PQ is pretty similar across all of them. Audio wise, if you are using HDMI, there won't be any difference. Analog audio is a very different story.

 

[PENG]

Netflix playback on the PS3 trumped all other devices I've used for it.

(Save your money, use the PS3)

I thought I was imagining things when I noticed Netflix playback on the PS3 actually seems sharper than that on my Oppo 95. I have no idea why though.