At $675, the PlayStation 3 is by far the most expensive device in this Labs. Of course, you’re not simply getting a video streamer for your money, though. The gaming capabilities are potentially Xbox 360-beating (but game choice is still incredibly poor by comparison), plus it incorporates a Blu-ray drive, so you can watch HD movies, and the drive also supports Super Audio CD.

Another bonus is built-in 802.11g Wi-Fi – an optional extra on the Xbox 360 – and Bluetooth. It’s good to see an HDMI port in addition to a proprietary AV output, and there are also optical S/PDIF and Gigabit Ethernet interfaces. At the front are four USB ports, which can either be used to charge the wireless controller or to plug in a USB hard disk or flash drive. A flip-up cover conceals useful media-card readers.

Inside is a 40GB hard disk (twice the capacity of the Xbox’s and easily upgradeable) and you can use this to store game data, music, photos and videos. Format support is wider than the Xbox, with MPEG1, 2 and 4 (H.264 and AVCHD) on the menu.

Sadly, it can’t play DivX or XviD, but you can stream these and other formats from a PC if you use TVersity.

Menus aren’t quite as easy to navigate as the Xbox’s, particularly when browsing the PlayStation store. To stream media, you have to select the server from either the Photo, Music or Video menus, but in each case it incorrectly offered us a submenu of all media types, even though it would only let us access the type of media we’d selected from the main menu. Menus are, however, vastly more attractive than the Philips’, showing thumbnails for photos, music albums and videos. Photo slideshows are stylish as are music visualisations, and it’s easy to fast-forward and rewind videos.

Like the Apple TV, it’s simple to watch movie trailers, and there’s even a built-in web browser, which works surprisingly well with the wireless controller; you can even plug in a standard USB keyboard and mouse for a more PC-like experience. The PS3 isn’t silent, but it’s certainly quieter than the Xbox.

viewed simply as a video streamer, the PS3 is poor value, but if you already have a 1080p HDTV the Blu-ray player alone could make it worth the price. If not, the Xbox is over $200 cheaper and – when paired with a Media Center PC – offers the best video-streaming experience on test.
Copyright © 2008 Dennis Publishing

Comments: 10

nix Mar 27, 2008 5:02 PM	You are, of course, getting the best Blu-Ray player money can buy... and it's worth noting the PS3 is significantly less likely to break. What do you think about the PC Authority article Sony PlayStation 3? Video support isn’t the best, but the PS3 remains a superb piece of kit What do you think?
juzzman Mar 28, 2008 9:29 PM	The Playstation 3 Is the best Boon to the price of Playstation 2 Games ever. I can finally own all those games i've wanted :-)
Alistor Mar 28, 2008 10:01 PM	Me, I'm more a Xbox 360 kinda guy.
chao Apr 5, 2008 3:35 PM	They need to slim down the PS3, at the moment it is like PS3XL
kevin_watters May 13, 2008 11:42 AM	I'm poor... could only afford the 40GB model :( and only once I got it home realised it would not play Playstation 2 games. Oh well.. :(
charonis May 13, 2008 1:21 PM	Well there is no other model.... (not in Australia anyways) I was kinda pissed about the lack of PS2 support, but I'm kind of over it now. I've finished all the PS2 games I want to finish, and if I ever want to go back to them, I'll just plug in my PS2. Not that big a deal really.
nix May 13, 2008 1:26 PM	There are a few PS2 games I'd still like to play, but I don't want backwards compatibility as they have it... give me downloadable PS2 games (like MS do on the 360 with their original Xbox games) and I'll be happy. They can provide the functionality in a software update. Do it Sony!
a_nervous_tic May 19, 2008 6:16 PM	i didn't buy my ps3 to play ps2 games... thats make no sense... narr... i got it for it being the cheapest BD-Live player, for 'Play TV' (coming soon), for it's great support with TVersity, for it's stability, for the great brand association 'It's A SONY' (i hate windows ...why would i support Microsoft..)... oh yeah... the game are good 2...lol.. on a side note read this... http://blog.tmcnet.com/blog/tom-keating/home-entertainment/hd-dvd-rip-long-live-blueray.asp
jeremytse Jul 7, 2008 5:20 PM	PS2 Compatibility becomes an issue when there is content being released for the PS2 that is still not available for the PS3. Specifically I am referring to Singstar .. where a lot of the good songs are still PS2 only :(
DaFiz Jul 18, 2008 5:25 PM	And it seems that with the latest system update, that it now supports video upscaling for all video. Why would you watch DVD's on a normal old DVD player when you can watch them upscaled on a PS3, they do actually look noticeably better.

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