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DVD Players Sony Playstation PS3 FW 2.1
DVD Players Sony Playstation PS3 FW 2.1
DVD Players
| Sony Playstation PS3 FW 2.1 |
| Written by Kris Deering | ||||
| Friday, 29 February 2008 00:22 | ||||
Last year, I put the Sony Playstation 3 through our DVD Player Benchmark™ testing and it didn’t fare very well. In fact, it turned out to be one of the worst players I had tested to date. Later in the year the PS3 got a firmware update (v1.8) that supposedly revamped the DVD performance of the gaming console. I was bombarded with emails from our readership asking me to retest the console claiming they were seeing a huge difference in DVD playback after loading the new firmware. At the time the new firmware came out, I did not have access to a PS3 anymore. Later on I was able to acquire one and run it through the tests. The only problem is, it didn’t seem to do any better. The Results Our cadence tests consist of very high detail test patterns. Some may call this a disadvantage for some players, but we’ve always used the same patterns for our tests, and we’ve seen a wide range of results regardless of price point. Nearly every player I test has no issues at all with some of the more basic tests, such as de-interlacing content with perfect 2-3 flags. Since even most inexpensive DVD players are flag based, this test is passed nearly 99% of the time. The Sony PS3 continues to have extremely poor results in our SD DVD tests. The fact of the matter is, it just cannot lock onto a high resolution test pattern for any of our cadence tests. This is worse performance than we see with even sub-$50 players at your local big box store. One could argue that the player will probably do just fine with real world content since it probably doesn’t have as high detail as our test patterns, but I think that argument would mainly come from those trying to justify their purchase. If I can get nearly every DVD player out there to pass these tests, why won’t this one? Specifications
The PS3 still remains one of the best Blu-ray players on the market today, mainly because of its reliability, future proof design, and ease of use. But even on the HD side, this is flawed in terms of video processing. The PS3 is not capable of doing any correct I/P conversion of 1080i material and merely passes along the 1080p content of the pre-recorded disc (albeit very well). With standard DVD playback, the PS3 offers upconversion to 1080p or various other resolutions via HDMI including 720p. Its core video performance is commendable though. This player outputs correct video levels, including below black and head room.
There is no pixel cropping or chroma errors, and the player is easy to navigate and quick to load. It’s when you start evaluating video processing that the PS3 crumbles. The PS3 reminds me a bit of a flag-based video player. It passes all of the video based tests because the player literally stays locked in video mode. The PS3 has a video mode available in its setup menu, but the performance didn’t change regardless of what mode I was in. It fails all of our cadence tests, which again consists of high detail wedge patterns encoded with different cadences and breaks.
In the table, 3=Pass, 2=Borderline, 1=Fail, 0=Not Tested Conclusions Like most game consoles, the PS3 is not what I would call a preferred video playback solution for standard DVDs. However, it is far and away one of the best Blu-ray players on the market today and an outstanding value for those looking to add HD support to their home theater system. But I would still recommend a higher quality stand alone DVD player for the more demanding home theater enthusiast. Comments (36)
Article Format Messed
written by Josuah , February 29, 2008 The article format is all messed up for me. After the specifications block, the rest of the article's text appears inside the specifications block as well. It even looks like the images are inside there too.
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written by JEJ , February 29, 2008 Hit (Ctrl) (F5) which will clear your browser cache. There were some typos in the database template that messed up the formatting, but I have corrected them.
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written by TRT , February 29, 2008 Well, I guess your review begs the question: Is there a BD player that passes Secrets test? How 'bout the new Denon's?
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written by JEJ , February 29, 2008 The new Denon Blu-ray player is supposed to be available in the next few weeks. It will be one of the first players we use for the new HD Benchmark tests.
BD that passes
written by KDeering , February 29, 2008 The Samsung 1200 did a good job in our tests. So did the Panasonic DMP-BD10.
do some blu-ray tests
written by Rich , March 01, 2008 Why spend the time, effort, and money on an reviewing older gerneration technology. I am looking for another website that is more progressive. My eyes said the PS3 DVD playback has gotten a lot better, since the numerious updates. It has replaced my lesser Denon 557 for playing SD DVD. HDTV LCD don't do well with the DVD standard period, they looked great on my old HDTV tube. My eyes also said the PS3 and my Toshiba HD-A30 plays DVD at the same level.
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written by JEJ , March 01, 2008 We are preparing for the new high def benchmark tests which obviously will be Blu-ray players. The PS3 had to be reviewed with its updates because readers requested it. The DV-983 review is exclusive to us right now. The player is not even available to consumers yet. The entire benchmark is being updated, and will include audio tests.
Bad picture ?
written by Twix , March 01, 2008 I think the picture is better in the new 40 G version of my playstation 3, than my other dvd-player, Oppo 930. Especially when you look at upscaled 720p material. Maybe its the " core" performance, which was very good in the playstation 3, that does it for me.
Keep doing the SD DVD tests and add HD tests
written by Steve in Manitoba , March 01, 2008 I am building a home theater and want to save money by buying a good HD player that will play my collection of DVD's as well. At the rate of decline for HD players doing a good job at SD DVD though, it looks like I will end up with 2 separate machines in the end. I am not buying a game console just because it comes with a Blu-ray drive in it. There will be far better machines on the horizon now the format war is over that will be worth waiting for and will likely be more cost effective as well.
Something ain't adding up here.....
written by James , March 02, 2008 I have a PAL PS3, so unless the PS3 does better with PAL material than NTSC then something doesn't add up. The SD performance from the PS3 is worlds above the Panasonic S97 I have which has now been relegated to another room. The thing that doesn't add up is that you benchmarked the S97 with a score in the 90's. So how can the picture be better on the PS3 but score less??? I'm thinking a lot of these cadence tests are irrelevent. In real world use with store bought DVDs you would rarely come across some of these cadences. The SD performance really is a lot better than it's being given credit for.
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written by Kieran , March 02, 2008 What the market needs is a player like the Samsung 1200, at the price (or below that) of the PS3. I was a little disappointed at the pricepoint of the Oppo 983 (same price as a ps3). I know it has some top notch components inside, but I was hoping that when they come out with a BRD player it would be around that pricepoint, with excellent SD-DVD capabilities.
These results do not ring true
written by Mark , March 02, 2008 I am a AV fanatic, and it took me quite a while to come around to the idea of having my PS3 do all my AV source needs (BD, DVD, SACD, Streaming). However, I finally jumped, and pleased I did. In read world tests, my PS3 with latest 2.10 firmware is clearly better on DVD upscaling than my old HD-XA2 with the Reon upscaler. I think your method of testing is not comparable with real world viewing.
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written by JEJ , March 02, 2008 You need to remember that many of the benchmark tests are for what a player does when the DVD has been encoded incorrectly, in other words, how the player does when there is a problem. Incorrectly encoded material is not the norm. It occurs perhaps only about 1% of the time when you are watching any particular DVD. So, most of the DVD is encoded correctly, then along comes a bad edit, or some other short term issue in the movie. We are testing what the player does when that little problem occurs during the movie. And, I suspect that, most of the time, we don't even notice it when the player does not handle the problem correctly. But, the point of the Benchmark is to help manufacturers in getting all the issues solved, so that we can get the very best performance during a movie, and iron out those last little things.
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written by Frode , March 03, 2008 Right JEJ, but what these test results show is that the PS3 doesn't even have a film mode, which means it will be deinterlacing everything, correct? With film DVDs being the majority of the content out there, that would mean that this is a 99% issue not a 1% one. A lot of people are surprised, given that the PS3 is supposed to score pretty highly on the HQV tests, and those should be testing for some of the same cadence stuff. This directly contradicts some articles out there, like this one: http://crave.cnet.com/8301-1_105-9722853-1.html Could it be that something is faulty with the test sample you used, or that film mode has been removed from the later firmware? Given other people's experiences with the player, something definitely sounds wrong here. Could you please double-check?
Re-test the 360?
written by ZPrime , March 03, 2008 If you're re-doing the PS3, you owe MS a re-test of the 360. Some of the more recent software updates have improved DVD playback. Also, if you use the VGA connection you can run a full 1080p picture to a compatible display. I'd like to see if they've gotten any better since the last test.
Am I missing something? alot.....
written by Michael , March 03, 2008 How about some actual specs on the PS3's Blu-ray performance? I mean it is not a DVD player that happens to play Blu-ray discs; it is a Blu-ray/game machine/computer that happens to play DVDs. If you are going to review something, then how about actually doing a complete review? I mean this article is comparable to seeing a review for a car, and then you find out all that was actually in the review are how comfortable the seats were...
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written by JEJ , March 03, 2008 I want to take this opportunity to announce that Kris Deering has taken a job with Home Theater Magazine. Two of Kris' Benchmark reviews are still in the que and will be published shortly. We had a get together several weeks ago here in Redwood City with Kris, Adrian Wittenberg, Sandy Bird, Steve Smallcombe, Sumit Chawla, Colin Miller, and myself. We went over all the tests and discussed new high def tests for the Blu-ray players. Adrian Wittenberg is taking over the DVD Benchmark for the immediate future and is beginning his tests on players next week. There will be more than one person involved with performing the benchmark tests as time goes on. This includes Brian Florian and Gabe Lowe. We wish Kris well in his new affiliation.
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written by JEJ , March 03, 2008 The DVD Benchmark was originally set up to test video performance in SD DVD players. Audio was not included. That is being remedied in our new benchmark layout coming soon. This was also before high def DVD players were available. When they came along, we did not have high def benchmark tests set up nor did we have 1080p displays available to us. Now we have all that, and will be including high def tests for Blu-ray players (along with the audio bench tests) that will be published with Adrian Wittenberg's first Blu-ray player benchmark review (Kris Deering's last two reviews, which are Blu-ray players and are still in the que for publication, are only for SD playback and no audio). We hope you will be patient as we change over to a new staff member handling the benchmark and also as we work on perfecting the high def benchmark tests. Feel free to make any suggestions you wish, as we want to include tests that are of particular interest to all of you.
Good bye, Kris
written by rogerr , March 04, 2008 Kris is leaving? That's too bad. Adrian will have some very large shoes to fill. Kris's Benchmark series was amazing -- he actually could show the difference between good performance and bad, and more than that, actually explain why it was so. If models didn't measure up, he said so, and if they happened to cost $1000, so much the worse for them. JEJ, this testing may have been for the benefit of manufacturers, but ultimately it created a new class of informed customers making intelligent choices. You, Kris and Secrets deserve a lot of credit for keeping manufacturers honest and creating a market for good equipment. Thanks for all your hard work!
I believe the cadence tests may not reflect the reality
written by Allan Cesarini , March 04, 2008 I hav ebeen using the PS3 as a DVD player for some time, and I did some basic cadence tests with DVE, HQV and a couple other knows, non-professional cadence references. The PS3 was the first player I had that scored 100% on all those tests. If it fails on these tests, then they are probably too complex and not necessarily comparable to any real world examples. I agree that the methodology is correct, and that the tests cannot be ignored, but concluding, based on those, that the PS3 is a crappy DVD player is a big mistake...
Kris left?
written by Rich , March 04, 2008 That is why there has been more reviews on SD DVD for the movies renter section. His paragraph on the technical aspect is a lot better then Johnston. It was more indepth and "technical". I look for these things now when I watch blu-ray moies. I am guessing why the PS3 does so much better then regular DVD players (in my eyes) is the cell processors, regular upcovert players has a simple chip. The PS3 removed the blocky edge and blended the color that the Denon 557 was producing on a LCD screen, You don't see this blockiness on a tube/crt TV. The PS3 is a tad sharper then my Toshiba A30 for SD DVD, but that could be my settings are set for the PS3. The movie "300" on HD looks the same on both formats. For the reviewer calling the PS3 a gaming machine, I used it mostly to watch movies and stream mp3 to my audio system. It is a great quality AV device for the price and looks high-tech. Sorry about my rant eailier, I been visiting this website for a while now and it is still tops for high end AV reviews. All the charts are great, but do a picture by picture image comparisons like what cnet used to do with digital camera image comparisons.
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written by JEJ , March 04, 2008 I review movies differently than Kris, yes. I focus on the story in the movie, Kris focused on the high def technicalities. It is just a matter of particular interests. Otherwise, for me anyway, I might as well just watch discs of test patterns and see how sharp they turn out. I am really more into audio than video anyway. For those reviews (audio), you can see that I really emphasize the bench tests.
Oh, I get it
written by JeffD , March 07, 2008 You guys mixed up your consoles and were actually testing the XBox360's DVD capabilities, right? We already know about its poor performance, we want to know how the PS3 performs with DVD. By all other accounts and tests it does extremely well with film cadence.
Xbox 360 passes the benchmarks!!
written by Mark Smith , March 12, 2008 AS a matter of fact 360 HD-DVD and SD DVD pass the tests almost as well as some of the top of the line players. It scored in the high 80's and since the deinterlacer update to the 360 DVD playback is the best upconverting player I have seen on the market to date and I personally have have owened 12 upconverting players and this including the XA2 and Oppo. It is so good it makes me question even buying HD movies occasionally. Depending on the DVD because some are just low budget DVD recordings that nothing could help.
Why Not Contact Them?
written by Jeff Lynn , March 12, 2008 Have you contacted a Sony representative about the problems? I'm sure if you explained the issues you had during testing they could be addressed in a future firmware update.
Benchmark Score?
written by Kieran , March 26, 2008 Did I miss the score? With the old format, there was a score for each benchmarked player. The PS3 originally got 61/100. What does it score now with the new firmware? You must still tally a score, because the Oppo 983 just received a 100. Maybe I'm just missing it?
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written by JEJ , March 26, 2008 The scores are in the old format and I will manually add them to the latest benchmark reviews here. Thanks for pointing out they were missing.
Scores
written by Kieran , March 27, 2008 Thanks. Where will you put the scores? Maybe in the info box where msrp and other data are? Also a suggestion: If you're going to have two bar-graph charts for the benchmark results, why not organize them into "core" and "progressive scan" capabilities? As it is, it seems to me like it's kind of mixed-up (unless I'm confused about what constitutes core vs. prog-scan tests). Core performance is still important to some who might have an excellent outboard de-interlacer/scaler and not care about the prog-scan scores as much. With the tests grouped like that it'd be a nice "glance" to see how a device faired on each area.
LOOK
written by Brian (brian32672) , September 08, 2008 Seriously guys, get over it. It is by no means a good upscaler (and I own a 120 version). My HDXA1 is MUCH better, as well my BD-P1200 (granted the 1200 only on 16:9 material, as it does not do 1.33 correct) The PS3 is great for my main uses (for it) games, BD, music storage, pic storage. But DVD I don't even use the upscale most of the time (look at older movies, and you will see what I am saying - B&W movies especially) But I bought it for the uses I have said, so I do NOT need to validate my purchase by OVER emphasising its DVD scaling.
RE: LOOK
written by J , September 15, 2008 What's a "120 version". I'm by no means a HT videophile but, with the new 2.42 firmware release and some other advantages the PS3 brings I've decided to remove my Panny RP-56 and just use the PS3. Do I think the PS3 is better than the Panny? No...but, it reduces clutter in the HT and does well enough for my everyday movie viewing. It seems to display everything correctly in Video Essentials and, after calibration looks pretty good to my eye. Not trying to justify my PS3 purchase but, just pointing out that for "most normal DVD viewers" (i.e. the general population) it's "good enough". Plus the removal of one more piece of HT equipment passes the WAF Test everytime!
difference btw a hi-fi system and a home theatre system
written by silas kegode , February 06, 2009 what is the difference of this two i want to buy something when i tune the radio it plays well and play audio cd or dvd cd and watch soccer with a best sound
update on my post
written by Rich , February 08, 2009 Update, the PS3 is the second best DVD players I got. I the Toshiba HD-A30 is a tad sharper, but the PS3 still put the Denon 557 to the goodwill. My eyes is my only factor here. But the best image quaility I get through my LCD is definity Blu-ray via PS3. Closeout at Circuit City is now 30% off the 80gig PS3 and there are a few left.
PlayStation Bang for the Buck?
written by Ron Lenz , March 02, 2009 I'm putting together a new HT. I consider myself as a value conscious shopper/user. The HT consists of: Samsung HL61A750 LED DLP HDTV, Onkyo TX-SR876 receiver, Cambridge Newton Series II speakers (yes, many choices there, but "big" enough for the room), a one year old and now semi-defunct Toshiba A30 HD DVD. I don't own a Blu-ray yet. I'm considering a PlayStation as an all around addition to the system and as a "draw" for the grandkids. I also like the PS3s WiFi and picture capability. Am I on the right track, or would a NetFlix streaming Samsung 2500 be better? Ron
re:PlayStation Bang for the Buck?
written by Rich , May 28, 2009 Ron, Don't be afraid to get a gaming system as an AV media player. A lot of AV enthusiasts have made the leap to the PS3 and are shocked at what it can do and the quailities. Web browser, playing window media stuff, divx, CD, DVD, Blu-ray, card reader slide shows, online chat(if you make PSN game/friends). Streaming music and you can put mp2 on the hardrive, which you can upgrade yourself. Bluetooth for mouse, keyboard and headset too. It updates the firmware all the time online. Streaming netflix on a HDTV is not that great right now. OK quality on the computer, but I don't like it on a TV. You can rent blu-ray movies from net-flix. I do have a Toshiba A30 and it is a little better on DVD movies, but that is to save on the wear and tear on the PS3. There are better blu-ray players out there, but the PS3 is a better value with all the features. Write comment
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