Yep, I was able to buy one of these at the local Target and it is all that it has claimed to be!  I am just getting around to testing all the features, so I will update this page as I get a chance to play around with it.

 

 

 

 

 

Below are some of my general feelings related to the PS3.  It is in no way complete, AND SOME OF MY OBSERVATIONS COULD BE USER ERROR, but I believe it offers a good start.  If you know of incorrect information in my informal review, please let me know via my guestbook!  I will update when I have more time and experience using the machine.

For those of you living in a cave, the PS3 is the new Blu-ray equipped gaming system from Sony.  Stand-alone Blu-ray players came on the market over the summer of 2006 and have been getting a beating because they fail to impress when compared to HD DVD.  The other advantage of HD DVD was the fact that their players were listed at HALF the price of the Blu-ray players!  Well, that was the case until this November when the PS3 came out and offered a combo player for $499 and $599, respectively.

There are a couple of differences between the two PS3 models.  The $499 version has a 20GB hard drive compared to the 60GB drive on the $599 model.  The other main differences is the $599 model comes with WiFi built in and the ability to read an assortment of memory cards.

The version I purchased was the 60GB model.  However, I am not using the WiFi because I have it plugged into an Ethernet jack.  When I first started up the PS3, it walked me through some configuration steps that make it work properly with my TV.  The machine and my Westinghouse 1080P HDTV did have some issues communicating/syncing over the HDMI port.  For many TVs, this would have been a disaster because they do not have an alternative other than component inputs and Sony downscales the video to 480P even when a 1080P source is present for those type of connectors.  For those that are unfamiliar, 1080P is the best option for high def programming now and 480P is the typical output of normal progressive DVD players.  Since my TV has two DVI inputs, I borrowed a DVI to HDMI cable that I was using for a DVD player in the living room and hooked it up to DVI2 on my TV.  It worked like a charm.

Below is a shot of the back of the PS3 unit:

I should mention that the setup options on the PS3 are not as forgiving with HDTV sets that do not have a 1080P input.  Currently, the choices for video do not include 720P.  This is a strange oversight since the game mode works with 720P without issue.  For those with 720P displays (which is what I have in my main system), the best bet is setting the default to 1080i for movies and then changing it back to 720P when playing games.   I do not have a 1080i HDTV, but the issues are similar.

Blu-Ray Movies

The ability to read Blu-ray movies was one of the main reasons I bought this unit instead of the Xbox360.  Of course, the XBox360 does have an add-on that will enable it to play HD DVDs, but I was not sold on it.  Also, Sony should have the ability to use Blu-ray for gaming and this could give them a huge advantage in the future.  The PS3 is one of the first, if not the first, player to include HDMI 1.3.  This will allow it to take advantage of future audio and video options that are not even available right now. 

Since Amazon was offering 10 percent off of all HD movie purchases over the next year for buying 3 BD (Blu-ray Disc) movies, I pulled the trigger on XMen3, Monster House, and MI III.  It helps that two of them also have a coupon that refunds $10 for each movie.  I have not watched any of them yet, so I will be back for a full review of the picture quality.  However, I decided to join Netflix and rent a couple BD flicks.  I watched "The Transporter" and it looks fabulous!  At this point, I can't really comment on sound quality because, like most people, I do not have an HDMI equipped receiver.  Over the next year, HDMI 1.3 should become available on many receivers and this will give the PS3 the ability to use advanced audio codecs.

The PS3 will play regular DVDs, but it will not upscale them to match with your TV.  May 24th update:  Sony has added DVD upscaling to the PS3 with a new firmware upgrade!  One last benefit that HD DVD had over BD now gone!

When I signed up on the Playstation website they allowed me to download several free trailers.  All of them looked fantastic:

Audio Playback

While I do not have the necessary HDMI receiver to get multi-channel sound from SACDs, I can vouch for the fact that the PS3 plays them via the composite (red and white) outputs.  The sound is great on my budget system in the bedroom.  I also put a CD into the player to see how it handles those.  I was a bit surprised when it allowed me to sign up to get the album info from the internet.  I had Sinatra's "Live in Vegas" CD loaded and it downloaded all the information in seconds.  I then tested its ability to burn the CD to the hard drive.  It had several choices that ranged from a variety of bitrates and formats (mp3, ATRAC, and AAC).  I did not notice a lossless format as a choice, so I went with 320 AAC.  It took about 6 minutes to burn the 22 tracks to the hard drive. 

I also had some mp3s on a compact flash card and I listened to those without any issues, as well.  This is probably the best way to move data from the computer to the hard drive without using a USB device. 

I will update this section as I test the device.  I did notice that it will not play FLAC files.

Games

To be honest, I have not played with this feature a lot.  The weakness of the PS3 right now is the lack of "must own" games.  Luckily, it is backward compatible with most of the PS2 and PS1 games.  Also, Sony has been generous with the amount of demo material that they have available for download on their website.  I downloaded "Resistance - Fall of Man" and several racing games.  I need a lot of practice to be able to conquer the demos, so I do not see much reason to buy the games.  When Tekken, Metal Gear Solid, and Devil May Cry are available, I will buy a game at that point.

Below is a shot of the Grand Turismo HD demo:

The controller has received a ton of bad press...for good reason.  We no longer have the dual shock that I loved with the PS2 games.  I have a USB to controller adapter on order, so I am curious to see if the dual shock will work with the PS2 games and controllers.  The new controller (see below) uses USB to charge via the PS3 and can be unplugged for wireless use.  It is also supposed to have motion sensitivity, similar to the Wii, but with the lack of games, I have not had a chance to try it out.

Photos

I mentioned above that it is possible to upload music via CF card (SD card or Memory Stick), but it is mainly to get photos from the camera to the TV.  Sony has put in a few options for viewing photos and has given the user a choice of different speeds for playback.  I like this feature a lot, but I would like to have the ability to assign music to folders and have them play back automatically while viewing photos.  It may be possible to start an album and then start a slideshow, but I still need to test that feature.   It has been rumored that they will add more features to this area in the future. 

Below is a shot of the flip up door and the slots available:

Internet Browser

Using the internet is fairly straightforward.  It has a few options on how to display the content on the TV, but I would like to see some option to make the fonts larger in the future.  From where I sit, it can be hard to read text in any of the available modes. 

Trying to type in email messages or website addresses can be a major pain when using the wireless controller.  Luckily, I had a USB wireless keyboard (Belkin Media pilot) laying around unused, so I plugged it in and it works like a charm.  Just plug it in and you are ready for action.  The downside is the fact that I need a way to assign the "PS" button to the keyboard and I have not figured that one out yet.  The button is needed to take the PS3 from sleep mode to action.

For www.youtube.com addicts, it is possible to play video on the PS3, but I could not get the video to change to full screen.

   General Comments

Many love the shiny new look of the PS3, but it really is a dust magnet and hard to keep clear of fingerprints.  Below are a few pictures I took of my PS3:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The shot below shows how reflective the shell can be.  See the wood grain reflection.  Also, the shot shows just how thick the machine is compared with the DVD player below it.  I would have preferred to to see a flat top for stacking, but I can always put it on its side next to my DVD and Tivo if I need to. 

The PS3 has a removable hard drive, so it will be easy to change out if desired:

Below is a shot of the USB ports:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This review is no where near complete, but I wanted to post my observations thus far. 

 

Upsides

Potential to do it all

Future ready with HDMI 1.3

Most inexpensive Blu-ray player on the market

SACD/CD playback

Web Browsing

Hard drive for saving files

Backward compatible with PS2 and PS1 games

Downsides

Lack of great games on new platform (They have released a few interesting games over the last couple of months, but they still need more.)

Lack of dual shock

Need an adaptor or Bluetooth enabled remote

Previous Downsides that have been fixed:

Will not upconvert DVDs (Fixed with Sony March 24th update)

Does not see media on a PC network via the Ethernet connection** (also fixed with the March 24th update - you need a media server installed on the host PC, but there are many (Tversity, Nero, Orb, Twonkyvision, etc.... that work with it or will eventually work with it)

Added 5/19:

** While it is not possible to recognize files on the network, there are a few ways to get music and photos (and some video) to the PS3.  Using software from Tversity or Orb, you can setup your files to be seen over the network.  Of the two choices, I prefer Orb.  It allows you to log in from any internet location using a password and allows you to see files on a host computer.  This allows you to run a photo slideshow or play any album that you have on the host computer or NAS (via the computer).  It will also plays video, but the downscaled image looks pretty crummy on my TV.  There is probably a way to upscale the video with Orb, but I still have to mess around with it to see if I can get the problem resolved.  Tversity allows you to access your files via a local IP address, but I have a problem getting the video to work at all.  It says I need a directshow filter to get it working.  I will update when I figure out which filter I am missing.

With the above features, the PS3 has more flexibility.  I can now listen to all of my music or see my photos without wasting hard drive space on the PS3 storing it all.  That is major step forward in my book! 

Added 6/3:

Tversity is now 100 percent compliant with my PS3 from what I can see.  I am now able to log into the PS3 and TVersity using the new PS3 media server update.  I now have access to all of my movies, music (even WMA Lossless), and photos that are stored on my computer and NAS. 

 

Added 7/4/11:

A while back I stopped adding Sony's newest additions to this page.  I am surprised that this page gets more hits than the rest of my site, but I hope the picture I took of the back of the PS3 has been helpful to all of my visitors.