Blu-Ray Question? [Archive]

hostage_85

21-07-2009, 11:55 AM

Hi Guys...

The Missus and I recently just purchased a Panasonic Viera 42" Full HD Tv.
At the moment i'm looking getting a blu-ray player. Just not sure which is the right way to go.
The Father-in-Law is a big techy geek, he believes that his PS3 plays a much better picture with a sense of depth to it on blu-ray as compared to his Sony Blu-Ray Player.

I've allready got a xbox360 and Wii, so im not sure if i wanna spend the money and get a ps3 or get a stand alone blu-ray player.
If the ps3 does look better then i'll probably end up getting that, but i just wanna know what anyones thoughts are on what looks better on there tv's?

Cheers

beefcake

21-07-2009, 12:18 PM

cables make a massive difference, make sure it a top quality cable you use.

Dunno about a game console being better quality than a blue ray, missus ole man gave me his good ole story that you cant play dvd on blue ray, old people tell strange stories:lol:

:edit, didn't realise ps3 has blue ray, stuffed if i know what he means then as they are same same :confused:

colt75

21-07-2009, 12:29 PM

get a good cable, but shit like monster cables rip you off.

i thikn if you google it, most people will say HDMI cables are all the same.

i think there might be a HDMI 1 or HDMI 2 (for example).
get the 2 but the cheaper one.

waxdass

21-07-2009, 12:40 PM

a hdmi cable 1.3 no matter who makes it is all the same shit.
get something cheap - as it does the same job.

read more about it on www.whirlpool.net.au home theatre section.

PS3 is a good buy as it gives you everything - however there are some newer stand alone blu ray players now that give a much better image quality.

I use a samsung unit - cant fault it.

Joe

21-07-2009, 01:19 PM

cables make a massive difference, make sure it a top quality cable you use.

Who fed you that garbage?

When you're talking about cables under 5m in length, a $10 cable is as good as a $500 one. Longer cables, you do get what you pay for... but up to a certain point i.e. no difference between a $200 and a $2000 cable in that length range.

Look it up on Google, there are heaps of reviews on expensive vs cheap cables.

Here's an example.

http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/upgrade/4235717.html

Another good cable resources..

http://www.bluejeanscable.com/articles/index.htm

Comes down to the fact that a HDMI signal is digital i.e. its a 1 or a 0, on or off. The cable either works, or it doesn't. There is no degradation of signal as such.

Paid $7 each for my HDMI cables on eBay... one for my PS3, one for my DVD player. Work beautifully.

1JZVL

21-07-2009, 01:34 PM

get a HDMI cable...and a PS3 (this is a bonus: it's a cheap quality blueray player/media server AND it plays games ;))

and don't pay 1billion dollars for some "fancy" one...that's the largest load of sh*t ever.

fsbk

21-07-2009, 01:39 PM

1. hdmi cables are ALL THE SAME. the signal either gets there or it doesn't, there is no loss.

2. a blu ray player is a blu ray player. they all read the same data and display the same data. i wouldn't bother wasting your money on a PS3 if all you want to do is watch some blu ray movies.

Brockas

21-07-2009, 01:40 PM

What Joe said. HDMI is digital, you're not going to get any interference from any other sources.

I use the ps3 as a blu-Ray player and I can't fault it. I would suggest keeping the other two consoles as strictly game playing machines and treat the ps3 as a media centre.

Not many people realise you can plug an external hard drive into them and play all your music/video off it from your ps3.

In my opinion, I'd fork out a little extra and get the ps3, as it is far better value in the end.

RGVFAST

21-07-2009, 02:23 PM

msy in balcatta do 10 metre hdmi for about 9 bucks. cant argue with that price

FitzyB

21-07-2009, 03:43 PM

Agreed, im running MSY hdmi cables with dads tv, runs without a hassle.

also massive up for the PS3 as your blueray player, sound advice gave it as the best blueray player for the money a few years back, and it plays games, and will read your external HDD and upscale your avi's to good quality for your big screen LCD. Deff need a HDMI cable to take full advantage of the sound / picture improvements of blueray though :)

McLOVIN

21-07-2009, 04:41 PM

The only issue with the PS3 is sound quality. It doesn't do TrueHD audio, but if you don't have a sound system that supports that it doesn't really matter anyway.

I've been using my PS3 for everything and can't fault it. My DivX dvd player has been relegated to the bedroom.

Syncope

21-07-2009, 04:45 PM

Yep, and PS3 is always bringing out firmware updates and codecs and stuff like that.

Have a look in the quokka for maybe a 40gb model or something like that, could be going cheap since they've brought out bigger capacity etc.

McLOVIN

21-07-2009, 04:47 PM

Be careful which model you buy. The 40Gb model misses out on a few features I think. Either way, you can always just chuck a bigger hard drive in it anyway.

beefcake

21-07-2009, 05:13 PM

Who fed you that garbage?

:lol: the guy that sold us the package , should guess they are only trying to rip us off:(
Statement retracted :slap:
Although i may be a bit forgetful as he may have been talking about using rca verses hdmi,

Brockas

21-07-2009, 05:17 PM

The only issue with the PS3 is sound quality. It doesn't do TrueHD audio, but if you don't have a sound system that supports that it doesn't really matter anyway.

PS3's have Dolby TrueHD, with an optical out connection.

Be careful which model you buy. The 40Gb model misses out on a few features I think. Either way, you can always just chuck a bigger hard drive in it anyway.

About the only important feature it misses out on is backwards compatibility.

hostage_85

21-07-2009, 05:33 PM

Well... Looks like PS3 is the way to go, was sort of leaning towards it anyway but all the posts here just confirmed it.

Thanks for the info guys :D

nickOH

21-07-2009, 05:42 PM

Well... Looks like PS3 is the way to go, was sort of leaning towards it anyway but all the posts here just confirmed it.

Thanks for the info guys :D

For current quality trends, PS3 is the best value for money. In a few years though, they will be making Blu-Ray players with far better quality.

hostage_85

21-07-2009, 05:43 PM

yeh, but im not going to wait a few years lol... im talking like in the near future so yeh :D

MMM

21-07-2009, 05:52 PM

As much as i agree with the cheaper cables being ok. I have had a negative experiance with one i bought off ebay. It was a 5m long and and didnt work(cost me 20bucks). The picture had fucked up colours and was very very blurry. so i went and bought a $50 3m one and it works perfect.

Fryman

21-07-2009, 07:50 PM

RGVFAST

21-07-2009, 07:54 PM

i do have a 5 buck hdmi cable that comes up with a picture on screen were all little white spots flicker constantly.

but for 5 bucks i just bought another one and its fantastic. rather go through 10 x 5 buck cables to get a good picture then pay 150 bucks for a monster branded one

Autopilot

21-07-2009, 09:34 PM

http://img524.imageshack.us/img524/1333/soclosesu5.gif

Seriously PS3 is an awesome gaming/bluray machine.

Whittie260

21-07-2009, 09:41 PM

:lol: the guy that sold us the package , should guess they are only trying to rip us off:(
Statement retracted :slap:
Although i may be a bit forgetful as he may have been talking about using rca verses hdmi,

RCA is an analogue signal, Just like not-hd TV, the better the signal, the less static on the screen (you've all tuned old TV's where you try and find the 'sweet spot'). With HD, as others have said, it's simply a bunch of 1's an 0's. Either they get received, or they don't (with a minor amount of interference if you are receiving some signal and not others, just get better cheap cables). With analogue, $50+/m cables are worth while, for digital, $5/m are the go. MSY do REALLY cheap prices on reasonable stuff so I'd give them a shot

beefcake

21-07-2009, 10:46 PM

thanks i get the gist of it now, and to make sure we are taking about the same thing, i meant the Component Video Connection jacks (rca plugs?) versus the hdmi plugs

Berny

22-07-2009, 07:11 AM

Get cables from this guy.

http://stores.shop.ebay.com.au/Ben-Memphis__W0QQ_armrsZ1

Great quality, reasonable price and he is located in W.A so you get them fairly quick.

I have bought HDMI cables and optical cables and have been happy with them.

And no, I dont have any affiliation with the guy so this is not some sort of advertisement :P

Sciflyer

22-07-2009, 07:16 AM

_S9_

22-07-2009, 07:31 AM

cables make a massive difference, make sure it a top quality cable you use.

Couldn't be more incorrect :(

The only issue with the PS3 is sound quality. It doesn't do TrueHD audio,
Wrong. The PS3 transcodes TrueHD/DTS-HD etc over HDMI as LPCM. So the actual "TrueHD" light won't illuminate on your reciever. However the quality is still the same as TrueHD (sample/bitrate etc)

PS3's have Dolby TrueHD, with an optical out connection.
Wrong. The maximum bitrate that an optical cable can handle is 1.544mbps - which is DTS 5.1 capable only.

You NEED HDMI to get the TrueHD output from the PS3 (or any blu-ray player for that matter)

Sidenote:

Dolby 5.1 = ~768kbit/sec (optical/coax)
DTS 5.1 = ~1.5mb/sec (optical/coax)
Dolby TrueHD = ~18mb/sec (HDMI only)
DTS-HD Master Audio = ~24mb/sec (HDMI only)

As you can see there's quite a bit of extra bandwidth available over HDMI than traditional optical/coaxial technology.

hostage_85

22-07-2009, 07:46 AM

Ok, so heres another question, whats the difference between HDMI 1.3a and 1.3b?

Cheers

Berny

22-07-2009, 08:04 AM

Gotta love Wikipedia!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HDMI

Scroll down, there is quite a bit of information regarding the different standards of HDMI.

So basically, there appears to be not alot of difference..

Brockas

22-07-2009, 08:09 AM

Wrong. The maximum bitrate that an optical cable can handle is 1.544mbps - which is DTS 5.1 capable only.

You NEED HDMI to get the TrueHD output from the PS3 (or any blu-ray player for that matter)

Sweet. Lucky I'm using HDMI to my receiver then!

HANS YOLO

22-07-2009, 08:10 AM

beefcake

22-07-2009, 08:32 AM

Couldn't be more incorrect :(

.
i know im far from being a spokesperson on the technologies of cables or anything electronic, but why do we have a few people in this thread already saying their cheap cable failed, then they bought another cheap cable to get it to work, sounds to me buying a decent cable (not expensive) we wont get the problem to start with , or is a 10th person going to do the quote on quote on quote why i failed in quoting a salespersons theory :lol:

Just seems this thread is getting repetitive

Berny

22-07-2009, 09:00 AM

Exactly, just get a decent cable, doesn't have to be the bomb shit, but just not some dodgy $5 cable....

Like I said: http://stores.shop.ebay.com.au/Ben-M...__W0QQ_armrsZ1 :D

fsbk

22-07-2009, 10:14 AM

im not trying to highjack the thread, but i didn't think this question warrents a new one...

i have a cheap (unknown type) HDMI cable that runs from a new Toshiba laptop to my LCD...it doesn't carry sound though??

Is it the cable or is my laptop not outputting sound through the HDMI port?

that could be a few things. your laptop might not be able to output sound through hdmi (google your laptop to see if it's possible).
also i'd check that your LCD's playback device is set to digital.
if you can, try and connect the cable from a dvd player (or something similar) to your LCD and make sure it's not the cable.

McLOVIN

22-07-2009, 10:26 AM

Wrong. The PS3 transcodes TrueHD/DTS-HD etc over HDMI as LPCM. So the actual "TrueHD" light won't illuminate on your reciever. However the quality is still the same as TrueHD (sample/bitrate etc)

Got a source for this?

Which PCM option should be selected to get the higher quality sound output? Looks like I might need an amp upgrade already :(

fsbk

22-07-2009, 12:31 PM

yeah i would also like to see the source of that, _s9_.

my understanding was that the PS3 couldn't support the higher bit-stream from blu ray discs that had been encoded with the newer lossless audio formats. the main reason behind this was the HDMI chip that was used on the PS3. i could be wrong, but i'd like to clarify it.

see: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/printthread.php?t=946095&pp=60

xr06t

22-07-2009, 02:04 PM

im not trying to highjack the thread, but i didn't think this question warrents a new one...

i have a cheap (unknown type) HDMI cable that runs from a new Toshiba laptop to my LCD...it doesn't carry sound though??

Is it the cable or is my laptop not outputting sound through the HDMI port?

i'd be looking at the laptop mate.

are you running vista? i had a similar problem, but was able to adjust the settings to output the sound via hdmi (this was a pc)

_S9_

22-07-2009, 02:52 PM

Got a source for this?

yeah i would also like to see the source of that, _s9_.

Sure :)

my understanding was that the PS3 couldn't support the higher bit-stream from blu ray discs that had been encoded with the newer lossless audio formats. the main reason behind this was the HDMI chip that was used on the PS3. i could be wrong, but i'd like to clarify it.

Unfortunately the answer isn't as clear cut as one would hope. You are correct. The PS3 cannot output bitstream TrueHD/DTS-HD. It however, can transcode this into LPCM (lossless) and output it through HDMI. There is no loss in quality, however the little "TrueHD" light will not illuminate on your receiver.

Check this: http://blog.webjak.net/tag/ps3/

More importantly this paragraph :)

Anyway, I digress. Long story short PS3 does have TrueHD and other HD audio format abilities, its just that it cannot output them in a raw format (bitstream). So what you have to do is go into the Bluray settings in the PS3 settings menu, and select PCM. PCM is a base digital format which is lossless and all the other good stuff you simply must have these days if you are ever to have sex again (or for you audiophiles out there, for the first time). The PS3 internally transcodes the TrueHD etc to PCM. Once this setting is enabled, the OSD on the TV says TrueHD!! Yaay.

Which PCM option should be selected to get the higher quality sound output? Looks like I might need an amp upgrade already :(
^ See above :)

As for the LPCM/Bitstream debate. See here: http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/04/11/poll-which-is-better-lpcm-or-bitstream/

Hope that helps :)

thrtytwo

22-07-2009, 03:41 PM

just throwing out a LOL at HD DVD. Blu Ray FTW

McLOVIN

22-07-2009, 03:41 PM

There are several PCM options in the output list though.

_S9_

23-07-2009, 06:54 PM

There are several PCM options in the output list though.

I don't actually have a PS3 myself, so can't help on the specific options. Google sir!