Glossy translucent black seems to be the Blu-Ray theme. In this part of the guide we’re looking at two of Blu-Ray’s most widely available players currently on the market, the PlayStation 3 and the Samsung BD-P1000 set-top box, and both are finished in jet-black plastic, the sort of finish forensics experts just love to see at a crime scene; it’s a fingerprint magnet.
But we’re less interested in sullying the décor and more interested in the results we get from both players. Why, if we’re comparing any players, don’t we compare them all? Because we’re most interested in how the PS3 – primarily a games console – handles Blu-Ray by comparison to a dedicated standalone player.
Navigation
When the PlayStation 2 was released in 2000 it became the first games console to incorporate a DVD player and for many consumers that meant it was the first DVD player in the home. But the cumbersome controls via the Dual Shock controller meant shelling out for a dedicated remote for the console was essential, and that meant losing one of only two controller ports for the IR receiver that was bundled with it.
Sadly for the PS3, six years of development have yielded little improvement to the onboard control system for Blu-Ray titles. The familiar on-screen controls remain for those using their SIXAXIS controller, which meant plenty of fumbling around just to do a simple task like bring up a menu.
This is a little disappointing when one considers the Cross Media Bar, adapted from the PSX media center (only available in Japan) and later employed on the PSP, that powers the PS3’s main menus. This is a simple, attractive and convenient way of navigating the many facets of the console and it’s a shame that such ingenuity couldn’t have been put to work updating the PS3’s Blu-Ray control system.
Remote Control
Of course this means that the only option, once again, is to pick up a Blu-Ray remote accessory and navigate with that. The good news here, though, is that it uses Bluetooth to talk to your console, not infrared, and that makes it infinitely more responsive than the PS2’s remote ever was. Technically, it’s a marked improvement on its predecessor, with all of the key functions to hand and a much better design and key layout.
If the SIXAXIS control system is the PS3’s biggest let-down, the upside is that, unlike the Xbox 360’s Universal Media Remote and the PS2’s DVD remote before it, both of which use IR and are temperamental to the point that they feel like afterthoughts rather than dedicated companions to the game systems they operate with, the PS3’s Blu-Ray remote is the first to provide hassle-free control to a games console player.
However its use of Bluetooth essentially means you’ll need to shell out for a Bluetooth capable universal remote if you’re looking to control the PS3 and your home theatre setup from the one device. At home, I use a Logitech Harmony 785 and rely on a single button press to power up my TV, amp and Xbox 360 and then map the other buttons on the remote to their particular device. But it’s an IR remote, which means I’d need to keep the Blu-Ray remote to one side at all times and swap between the two when necessary.
This may not seem like the biggest inconvenience in the world, but when you consider that the full benefit of Blu-Ray is in its ability to provide HD video and crystal clear audio, it’s ultimately designed to be used in conjunction with a home theatre system. We’ll explore this aspect more in the third part of the guide, as we compare big-screen projection of Blu-Ray to that of DVD and attempt to convince you that now’s the time to invest in a tub of reflective paint.
The Samsung BD-P1000, however, uses a traditional Infrared remote which communicates perfectly well with the player in an average-sized living room and is compatible with any number of universal remotes on the market.
Ease of Use
Other than the manner of execution and the necessity – with the PS3 – to shell out for a remote as an accessory, there’s little between the two devices in terms of ease of use. As a dedicated hardware player, the BD-P1000 makes playing a Blu-Ray movie somewhat easier; throw a disc in and it’ll start, whereas if the PS3 is on you’ll need to manually start the disc. But it’s surprisingly slower on the uptake than the PS3, with annoying progress bars popping up to let you know that the player is working. Load times for Blu-Ray and HD-DVD in general seem to be moderately longer than we’re used to for DVD, but that the set-top player struggled was strange considering it uses hardware designed to do just one job.
Quality
Technophiles will no doubt be able to argue the qualitative differences between the two devices. In our experience, using the latest available firmware on both systems, the differences were hard to examine, particularly with the current crop of titles we had accessible; only Open Season made use of new codec enhancements designed to improve the experience of Blu-Ray even further. Like the early days of DVD, Blu-Ray and HD-DVD alike will be on the market for some time before discs are encoded to take advantage of their full potential. Because ultimately, the only real determiner of clarity will be the method with which movies are transferred to disc to begin with, and we tried Open Season, Into the Blue, Black Hawk Down and Hostel on both systems with comparable results.
Using the Cell processor and its integrated software to display Blu-Ray movies is the one downside of the PlayStation 3’s delivery method over the BD-P1000. But Sony are optimistic that this could ultimately prove to be in the PS3’s favour. Its connectivity will allow for software upgrades to be rolled out with ease, enabling future developments to be incorporated into the software on the fly. Updates for set-top players are somewhat harder – although not impossible – and when you’re gambling with a £500 investment whichever way you look at it this makes the PS3 the slightly safer bet.
As we discovered as we explored Blu-Ray further, though, the real qualitative benefit of high definition content can, for most, be seen in the display rather than the hardware. In the third part of the guide we’ll explore the best ways to get the most out of Blu-Ray.
