Sony Playstation 3 Slim Blu-ray Disc Player Review
It can play games, but can it play BD and DVD well?
That was the question posed by AVForums reviewer David Mackenzie in his in-depth review looking at the PS3 Slim and it’s BD/DVD playback quality…
The Playstation 3 is a very unusual product. Unlike the consumer electronics industry, the technologically competitive games industry sells powerful videogame consoles at a loss and attempts to profit on software and accessories. In this context, the PS3′s speed and cutting-edge scaling are still surprising (because we don’t normally associate attention to detail like this in a non-AV product), but not inexplicable. It’s an unusually powerful piece of AV hardware hiding in a plastic shell, made affordable by the financial differences between the gaming and AV industries. And, moreso than ever now thanks to its slim revision, it’s a perfectly good Blu-ray Disc player as far as the majority of film titles are concerned.
Its appeal with the AV crowd will be fading now that standalone players are getting cheaper, faster, as well as better at playing back DVD-Video and 1080i Blu-ray content, but to the best of my knowledge, the PS3 is still the fastest overall player in terms of disc loading and operation – and let’s also not forget about its media playback capabilities, which could be an article in itself. If you’re into gaming and high-def movies, it’s an absolutely excellent proposition: it’s as good a BD player as any other for the vast majority of titles, and its unique scaling algorithm means it delivers a nice image from SD DVD, too. On the other hand, if you don’t care for games, then you can save some money by choosing one of the many excellent budget BD players out there.
You can read the full review at AVForums.com/Reviews
