Computers & Electronics

PS3 as home theatre component

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  • Mar 20th, 2010 11:15 pm
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Deal Addict
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Aug 12, 2007
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Waterloo

PS3 as home theatre component

I'm looking to replace my aging Sony BDPS500 Bluray player and noticed that Sony had some time ago included DTS HD & Dolby True HD ( which was missing before )audio support with a firmware upgrade so am wondering if someone has used it as a home theater component and has some comments on this.
One of the shortcoming I noticed is that its DAC is 96K/24 bit ( as opposed to 192 kHz / 24 bit in my current receiver / Bluray player ) . Is that really relevant as from what I understand the signal would be taken to the receiver using optical out anyways . So would it matter if this was was to be decoded by the receiver or am i not understanding something here. If this is still indeed relevant please correct me, and provide a brief description.
My primary use of this would be as a Bluray player and occasional games ( since its there already ) .
Also Ive seen some reviews knocking the PS3 for its picture quality. Is it the same for the PS3 slim?
any advise is welcome. If this has already been discussed feel free to point me to the thread.
6 replies
Deal Fanatic
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Nov 7, 2006
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Why? Is the S500 broken??

I have no idea what you're trying to achieve...except for the gaming part which PS3 it is.

What receiver do you currently have ? You do know PS3 has NO discrete 5.1 analog output...right?
Deal Addict
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for the bdps500 it works fine aside from being a 2nd generation with no support for Bluray 2.0 profiles it has no network support which i would like to add for streaming media.

If the capabilities of PS3 are indeed comparable to other Bluray player then it would mean they will likely be comparable for the next generation as well ( 3d Bluray and would mean don't have to upgrade again if that format ever makes it mainstream) and of course bonus would be having an gaming station available.
Deal Fanatic
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Nov 7, 2006
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Get a Patriot Box Office (or something similar) is what you need if you want streaming capability. Adding a PC is even better but it is more work to setup and maintain.

If you already have a Blu-ray player, it makes zippo sense getting PS3 unless your main intention is playing games.
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aside from the fact that getting a mediabox would add another component ( + cables + cable management + some more yelling about too many ugly cables )n I still want to replace my Bluray player due to the fact its aging and lacking bluray 2 profiles . From what I can make out most of these media players do only 720p and although some claim to do 1080p or 1080p the picture quality leaves much to be desired.
Support for DTS Audio is limited as far as I can tell.
Deal Addict
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Jan 14, 2005
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I bought a PS3 Slim before ever owning a bluray player so I don't know how image quality compares. Movies like the Dark Knight look brilliant while artsy "film-like" movies look kinda soft, so I dunno..

Since my receiver is pre-HDMI, the PS3's (and any modern player) ability to decode DTS-MA and Dolby TruHD is crucial. DTS-MA and Dolby TruHD are both downsampled to regular DTS and DD 5.1 respectively then sent through the optical output as bitstream. Without decoding, only the front left & right HD audio channels are sent through the optical output so you lose the surrounds and center speech.

I haven't watched any blurays with 7.1 LPCM yet so I don't know how that will behave.
Sr. Member
Oct 5, 2005
635 posts
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yeah, just get the ps3, i doubt you or 90% of the blu-ray watchers out there can truly tell the difference between players in terms of picture and sound quality. i don't mean to sound like an ass, but that's the truth.

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