Does it make sense to buy a ps3?

February 20, 2010 2:51 PM

Should I buy a ps3 slim? Can I play backup or different region blu-ray/dvd discs on it?

So I have money burning a hole in my pocket and I want a blu-ray player. Also I like racing and shooting games. Is the ps3 a good idea? Can I play blu-ray and dvd movies of dubious authenticity acquired from pacific mall on it? What about chinese movies? What is this Upnp streaming thing all about? Are there going to be any upcoming package deals? Please hope me.

posted by captaincrouton to technology (9 answers total)

AFAIK, DVD's are region-locked on the PS3, but games and Blu-rays are not. However, the Blu-rays and games may only display 720p for some odd reason.
posted by InsanePenguin at 2:58 PM on February 20, 2010

Just so you know, if what you're talking about are illegal pirated copies of movies, that probably means you would have no qualms torrenting Blu-ray and DVD copies of said movies. This way, I'm sure that you could find formats which would work with the PS3.
posted by InsanePenguin at 3:00 PM on February 20, 2010

My concern is mostly with blu-ray movie bootlegs.
posted by captaincrouton at 3:03 PM on February 20, 2010

I have been using PS3 Media Server for a while to stream movies, music, etc from my computer to my PS3 via wireless internet. Works great if you're okay losing audio and/or video quality. Really, though, if your connection is strong enough and you configure the program correctly it can stream at a very high quality.

As far as actually getting a PS3, I would just suggest you make sure you actually want this thing before you buy it. I've had a PS3 for two years. I love it when I use it, but man I really don't use it much. I have one game and no blu-ray movies. Having said that, I have seen played blu-ray movies on the PS3 and it really is a fantastic player.
posted by deacon_blues at 3:16 PM on February 20, 2010

If you mean the dodgy Blu-Ray discs you can buy in Chinatown, then yes I have played those successfully on my PS3 -- an old-style 80Gb model.
posted by rokusan at 3:22 PM on February 20, 2010

Most blu-ray "rips" use x264 codec in the .mkv container. These will NOT play on the PS3 natively.

You will need to either covert them to a compatible container (mp4, m2ts or vob), or use PS3 Media server to transcode and stream them from PC to PS3.
What I do is use MKV2VOB, no loss of quality, simple and fast.

Here is a list of files playable straight from the PS3 XMB.

I'd suggest using the PS Media Server betas from here.

There are some great driving games on the PS3, I'm currently enjoying Racedriver Grid, and Colin McRae Dirt 2. Champing at the bit for Gran Turismo 5.
The Logitech G27 makes all the difference to racing games.

I need coffee.
posted by Duke999R at 3:55 PM on February 20, 2010

For those wondering what Captain Crouton meant by "pacific mall".
posted by modernnomad at 5:05 PM on February 20, 2010

Following Duke999R, the overwhelming majority of mkvs need to either just be unpacked and repacked as an avi, which takes a few minutes for a ~9G file, or need to be repacked and have their audio converted, which might take 10 or 15 minutes.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 6:15 PM on February 20, 2010

Given enough time, all questions of the format 'Can I * with a PS3?' will be rendered moot because of the recent PS3 crack.
posted by spamguy at 7:06 AM on February 22, 2010