Major Distraction
Posted on | February 21, 2008 at 11:20 pm | 8 Comments
Got my PlayStation 3 today. I rushed right home after work to set it up, and I’ve been playing with it all evening (aside from a break to watch tonight’s Lost, which had another didn’t-see-that-coming ending). What an amazing machine! I haven’t even really done much with it yet gaming-wise (aside from testing out Motorstorm), and even without the gaming I can tell it’s worth it. The built-in WiFi is really nice, as I was able to download and apply the system update through that right away. That also makes it automatically connect to the Internet, so that it can (for example) display the artist/album/song information of a CD you stick in it to play – just like a regular ol’ computer hooked up to the Internet. I haven’t tried the browser yet.
The bluetooth wireless controller works great, and I was also able to plug in a USB keyboard and use that right away. That really saved a lot of time when signing up on the PlayStation Network.
As I mentioned before, one reason I got the 80GB unit was because it could play SACDs. I have a significant investment in SACD discs, as well as that other Advanced Resolution format, DVD-Audio. The SACD playback works perfect and the discs sound great. Too bad the PS3 can’t play those DVD-Audio discs too, but all DVD-Audio discs I’ve got have a DVD-Video Dolby Digital surround/multichannel mix, and it plays those just fine. I’m more interested in multichannel than Advanced Resolution anyway (at least I can get both from the SACDs). Now I can ditch my combo SACD/DVD-Audio player. The other cool thing about SACD playback is that the multichannel SACD sound is through the digital HDMI connection instead of an analog one like the combo player.
But where it really shines is as an upconverting DVD player and a Blu-Ray player. I put one of my DVDs in it and it looked sharper than when played on my other players. I took out the Lost Season 3 Blu-Ray set that I pre-bought a few weeks ago and played with that too. The picture does look better on my 1080p plasma TV than the original HD broadcasts. And oh… the sound! That’s much better too. I could really tell the difference with the uncompressed PCM.
So, see you guys in a month or so. Who has time to post blog entries now when I’ve got games to play and discs to watch?
Jogged Today: Yes (@ 30°F)
Songs That Came Up On The iPod While Jogging:
- “Hammer In Your Eyes” (Robert Pollard)
- “Star On Wheels” (The Maggies)
- “Goodnight Sweet Night” (Jason Falkner)
- “Shockwave” (Ash)
- “Rattlesnakes” (Lloyd Cole)
- “Fight” (Art Brut)
- “Under The Paving Stones” (The Like)
Latre.
Comments
8 Responses to “Major Distraction”
February 22nd, 2008 @ 5:28 am
In an unrelated story, N announces she’s accepting applications for interim male companions – term: 30 days (with option to extend), benefits: negotiable, previous experience a plus. Apply via blog comment.
February 22nd, 2008 @ 12:26 pm
Hey, isn’t there a PlayStation Widows Club she could join?
February 22nd, 2008 @ 4:20 pm
So…Steve’s plan to buy you a Playstation will give him the victory. Steve FTW!
February 22nd, 2008 @ 4:47 pm
I’ve had my PS3 for a little over a month now and really love it too. I also hunted down an 80 GB version for the same reasons. The network is awesome; I download the demo to Resistance: Fall of Man which is a great looking first person shooter. Looking forward to Destroy All Humans: Path of the Furon later this Spring.
February 22nd, 2008 @ 9:28 pm
Excellent, Greg! We’ll have to do some online gaming. Any of my other buds out there got a PS3?
February 23rd, 2008 @ 5:30 am
If you’re going to ditch that SACD/DVD-A player, please ditch it in my direction
You may want to play around with the bit settings, also for CD playback, e.g. upsampling to high-res PCM. After that, give your good old red book CDs another spin. Bit mapping type 3 (applies to SACD as well as upsampled CD) gets rave reviews.
February 23rd, 2008 @ 9:57 am
I just got a HDTV and an upconverting DVD player. I don’t know what DVD audio formats it plays, but it also has an iPod dock which is very convenient.
February 23rd, 2008 @ 2:59 pm
Thanks Steven, I’ve switched to Type 3 – we’ll see how it goes!
Yellojkt, I thought about getting an iPod dock. The one that integrates with my Onkyo receiver has gotten a lot of bad reviews though.