Hands-on: PS3 Slim as a Blu-ray player

(Credit: Sony)

With its new $300 price tag, the PS3 Slim has been selling like crazy, and the fact that it's an excellent Blu-ray player is at least part of the reason.

Since Blu-ray's inception, the PS3 has been our reference Blu-ray player, only recently getting edged out of the top spot by the Oppo BDP-83. Now that the new 3.00 firmware has been released, we've had some time to put the PS3 Slim through our Blu-ray testing suite.

Editors' note: This story has been updated since publication to reflect that the PS3 Slim can now stream Netflix.

The good

Blu-ray performance

Testing the image quality of the PlayStation 3 has always been a challenge, mainly because it does not deinterlace native 1080i content to 1080p at 60 frames per second. That means test discs specifically designed to assess Blu-ray image quality--like HQV, Spears and Munsil, and Qdeo--aren't helpful; they all feature 1080i content and the PS3 just passes it along without processing. The PS3 Slim is no different in this regard. Not much Blu-ray content is available in 1080i, however, so this quirk of the PS3 isn't a huge problem in real-world scenarios.

Without the comfort of our reliable test discs, we switched to our favorite challenging passages from actual program content. The kitchen scenes during chapter 2 of "Sunshine" are often difficult for lesser players, but the PS3 Slim had no problem rendering the ridged cups or striped shirts. It also handled the end of chapter 6 on "Ghost Rider," where we sometimes see moire in the grille of the RV on players with faulty 1080i deinterlacing. A couple of select scenes from "Spider-Man 3" looked flawless as well.

We also threw some less common content at the PS3 Slim. We looked at "Watchmen: The Complete Motion Comic," and although we saw some jaggies, we're pretty sure it's in the source material; the same jaggies were present on the Oppo BDP-83. We saw the same thing on "Seth MacFarlane's Cavalcade of Cartoon Comedy," with both players having some minor jaggies that likely aren't the fault of the players.

Although in our testing we saw virtually identical performance from both the PS3 Slim and the Oppo BDP-83, we'd still give the Oppo a tiny edge on Blu-ray playback because of its exceptional handling of rare content material. (See the Oppo BDP-83 review for more details.)

DVD performance

The PS3 doesn't have any problems with DVD test discs, so we started with Silicon Optic's "HQV" suite. The initial resolution pattern looked sharp, with full detail and absolutely no image instability. The next two jaggies patterns were mixed; the PS3 Slim handled a rotating white line, but we saw plenty of wavy edges on three pivoting lines.

The Slim aced several other test patterns, including a waving flag and a 2:3 pulldown test with race car driving past grandstands. The "detail" test looked just a smidgen softer than the Oppo BDP-83, as we couldn't make out as much detail in the marble stairs. The Slim also failed on some of the more obscure cadence tests, but since actual program material in those cadences is rare, we didn't don't put as much weight on those tests.

Moving beyond test discs, the PS3 Slim continued to hold its own. Few players can handle the difficult introductory sequence to "Seabiscuit", but the PS3 Slim looked jaggy-free. Same with the opening shot of "Star Trek: Insurrection"; the curved edges of the boat hulls and bridge railings were smooth, without any stair-stepping artifacts. Yes, when we flipped over to the Oppo BDP-83, we preferred its DVD image quality, but the differences are relatively minor on most film-based DVD movies. In other words, unless you need the best of the best, the PS3 Slim's DVD performance will suffice.

Gaming and media streaming

When comparing the PS3 Slim to other standalone Blu-ray players, it's easy to forget how much the PS3 can actually do. As much as we love all the streaming content available on LG's BD390, it's all easily outweighed by the PS3's gaming capabilities for us. It's also an excellent media streamer for music, videos and photos, and its built-in web browser offers access to YouTube as well as many other web sites (Hulu has been blocked, however).

Netflix streaming

One of the longtime knocks against the PS3 was that it didn't support Netflix streaming, like the Xbox 360 or several standalone Blu-ray players. That changed in November, with Netflix issuing a special Blu-ray disc that allows the PS3 to stream Netflix. For more information, see our hands-on report.

Bit streams Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio

This doesn't really matter that much, but the new PS3 Slim is capable of sending Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio soundtracks in bit stream format to a compatible AV receiver. The PS3 could always decode these formats itself, so you won't get any audible difference from using bit stream mode, but you're receiver will light up and say "Dolby TrueHD".

Reduced energy consumption

We compared the energy consumption of the new PS3 Slim to the older 60GB PS3 'Fat' and the results were definitive; the PS3 Slim uses about half the energy, no matter what task we were performing.

The bad

Uses much more energy compared to standalone players

The PS3 Slim is more efficient than the PS3 Fat, but it's still a power hog compared to all other standalones. When playing a Blu-ray movie, it uses a little less than four times the amount of power that a Samsung BD-P3600. You won't actually save that much money using a BD-P3600 with current energy prices, but it may be an issue for those looking to reduce their energy use.

No longer the speed champion

The PS3 used to be the undisputed king of Blu-ray load times, but the new crop of 2009 players has ended its run. So while the PS3 Slim is still relatively speedy, it's no longer best in class.

For example, we found it took 22 seconds to load "Mission Impossible: III" with the PS3 Slim already turned on; it took the Oppo BDP-83 13 seconds on the same test. When we started with the players off, the PS3 took a sluggish 42 seconds for us to get the movie playing; every other Blu-ray player we've tested this year is faster. It fared better with movie that had more elaborate menu systems. For example, "Spider-Man 3" took one minute, 5 seconds, which is only a little slower than the Oppo's 59 seconds on the same movie.

No multichannel analog outputs

If you have an older, non-HDMI receiver, you'll be stuck using the optical output on the PS3 Slim for your audio if you want surround sound. (The PS3 slim does have stereo analog output.) That means you won't get the full resolution of new high-resolution Blu-ray soundtracks like Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio. Granted, the differences between Dolby TrueHD and plain ol' Dolby may not be that large, but purists will appreciate the analog output available on some standalone players.

Does not include a standard remote or work out-of-the-box with universal remotes

As much as we love gaming on the PS3, we still like using a standard remote control when watching Blu-ray movies. You can get around this shortcoming by buying the Sony PlayStation 3 Blu-ray remote or getting the Logitech Harmony Adapter for PlayStation 3 if you have a universal remote, but we were secretly hoping that Sony would sneak an IR receptor on the PS3 Slim to solve this longstanding annoyance. It didn't.

The bottom line

With all of the functionality it offers, the PS3 Slim is the best value in home video today, and it more than holds its own as a Blu-ray player. If you can ignore its minor shortcomings and don't need the standard "disc player" form factor, it's easily the best-for-your-buck Blu-ray player for the majority of tech-savvy buyers.

Related content

PS3 Slim review
PS3 Slim: Everything you need to know
PS3 Blu-ray settings: Ask the Editors
PS3 Slim uses half the power of PS3 'Fat'
Confirmed: PS3 Slim bit streams Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio
Does a cheaper PS3 make standalone Blu-ray players overpriced again?
Best Blu-ray players
Blu-ray players with built-in Netflix streaming

[mgillespie2]

All the players I tested out excelled in some areas and sucked in others. The PS3 does everything extremely well, and excells in several areas. Given that it also does gaming, streaming, browsing and has a Freeview DVB-T tuner, it's unbeatable.

I say its a 10/10 without a doubt. A BD remote is $20, and the IR is a non-issue. I wish more companies allowed me to hide my AV equipment out of view! IR is 1970's technology, the sooner it's replaced by Bluetooth the better IMHO. It's not Sony's problem everyone else to slow to catch up.

[Fil0403]

According to this article, it does not do everything extremely well, but I do agree it's probably the best bang-for-the-buck Blu-Ray player available.

[chrkeller]

Honestly I just picked up a slim for my living room. I already had a ps3 for my theater where I do most of my gaming. I looked around and wanted a bluray player with on board memory and wifi. The ps3 for the money at $300 simply is a great deal. I certainly did not need a second ps3, but given I wanted a bluray player with certain features and quality, the ps3 is still king in my opinion. Not too mention the added benefit of being able to game in multiple rooms since the slim addition.

[henrychinaski26]

Good Idea! Why limit your self to a stand alone blueray player? The PS3 is way more bang for your buck. It's good to know you are wise enough to see the investment you just made, for the second time. I really hope more non gaming consumers in the market for a Blu-ray player realize this. My mother wants a BluRay player, and I'm thinking the PS3 Slim is going to impress her. Grant it she would never play a video game (my 57 year old ma has no interest) on the PS3, but with her CD's, MP3's, PICTURES, DVD's, BLU-RAY, PSN STORE, INTERNET, GOOGLE, YOUTUBE, & EVERYTHING ELSE THIS THING DOES... I think she'll love her new PS3. Plus it stands up vertically!

[Pacu102]

you'll have to buy a stand for the PS3 slim to stand

[make_or_break]

@henrychinaski26,
Why limit? Well, right now I can pick up a standalone BD player (Sharp, I think) down at Costco for $150. Seems to me that spending half the amount of a current PS3 and NOT paying for duplication of functionality I already own--in a PS3 Fat--is a good reason. For me, I don't see the need to add another PS3 for gaming so spending half as much makes REAL sense to me.

[chrkeller]

That $150 sharp player does not have on board memory, wifi and the picture quality isn't going to match the ps3. You get what you pay for. Buy cheap, you get cheap. Go over to CNET and check out some reviews, the top stand alone players are all pushing the $300 mark, not the $150.

[pmh1939]

This comment is in reply to CHRKeller 9/17. I have two blu-ray players: a PS3 and a Sharp'21. Without question, the Sharp provides a superior image when mated to a Sharp 120hz 10-Bit TV. I also find its audio quality with lossless codecs to be superior. Much of the differences of opinion on performance of equipment are due to the effectiveness of the interface between the playback parameters of the devices. Some pieces of equipment match-up better with certain other equipment. Neither blu-ray player is capable of matching the quality of the audio output of my HD DVD player. It all depends on the quality of the individual components that are inside and how the design parameters of the units match up when they are connected to each other. Everything in the reproduction chain influences what is ultimately reproduced. I enjoy each of my players. None of my three players is perfect. The Sony is the fastest to load, but it has the clunkiest remote and is the most difficult to instruct during play and turn off. The Sharp can be extremely slow to load, but has a much better remote once play is under way. The Toshiba is almost as fast as the Sony and has a more communicative remote than the Sony, except for the usual quirks of the "wheel" control. Soooooo . . . it's up to each of us to find what works best in our set-up. Frankly, there is no one best solution that will work for everyone. In addition, we all have our personal preferences that enter into the equation. I am amazed at the quality we get from players today that retail for less than $600. Many of them are greatly superior to what was available at 10x the price a decade ago. (p.s., my audio comment is based on multiple KEF Reference Floor Standing speakers augmented with Sequerra T1 Ribbon Tweeters and a Subwoofer, driven by electronics that swing 60 volts and increase power as resistance decreases down to below 1 OHM, connected with appropriate interconnects and speaker cables. With this set-up, audio differences are readily apparent.)

[Mikeybabes]

I just want to say that asides from the mentioned functionality, the PS3 also has video and audio streamining from my NAS so getting it as a second Blu-ray player (even when your first is also a PS3) is extremely worthwhile. Plus sometimes you want to game in the living room, sometimes in the study/bedroom so I don't see it as redundant.
I also want to say that whilst the PS3 is slightly inferior to some of the newer stand-alone players, there is no denying that it is a mighty fine Blu-ray player. Many numpties still insist they cannot tell the difference between upscaled DVDs and Blu-rays, but the difference between say a top-notch stand-along player and a PS3 is honestly barely noticeable.

"If you have an older, non-HDMI receiver, you'll be stuck using the optical output on the PS3 Slim for your audio. That means you won't get the full resolution of new high-resolution Blu-ray soundtracks like Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio. Granted, the differences between Dolby TrueHD and plain ol' Dolby may not be that large, but purists will appreciate the analog output available on some standalone players."

How is this the PS3's fault? I thought all players needed HDMI to get Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD.

[MoskovciakM]

A standalone Blu-ray player with 7.1 analog audio outputs and onboard decoding for Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio can output the soundtracks at full resolution over the analog outputs. So if you have an older, non-HDMI AV receiver with 7.1 analog inputs, you'll still be able to listen to the formats in their full resolution.

[chrkeller]

I would imagine those who own a bluray player along with a home theater 5.1 setup probably have a HDMI receiver. HDMI receivers are not new.

[jbaesman]

regarding "by chrkeller September 15, 2009 11:07 AM PDT
I would imagine those who own a bluray player along with a home theater 5.1 setup probably have a HDMI receiver. HDMI receivers are not new."

Audiophile technology doesn't churn at the same rate as almost any other market segment. There are plenty of receivers out there still running vacuum tubes for the past 20 or even 30 years. Granted, they won't be running 5.1 or 7.1 surround sound -- but there are still plenty of non-hdmi receivers installed that do handle surround sound quite well. Upgrading a great receiver, or even better amp/pre-amp system, is generally several thousands of dollars -- not something to throw away just because the latest and greatest has just been released.

[DannyEngesser]

I have an old Sony receiver from the mid-90s (with no HDMI or optical input/output). I was able to use the HDMI to send video to my HDTV, AND use the standard-def AV cable (supplied with the PS3 Slim) to bring audio in to my receiver via the RCA connectors. There is a setting in the PS3 Slim settings menu to switch the audio output path. I believe there was an update in the latest PS3 firmware that even allowed multiple audio output paths at the same time!

[jmcelhan]

Don't forget about the Blu-Link universal remote. I saw it a couple weeks ago on Crave. It's cheaper than any Harmony remote (though it doesn't have all the bells & whistles) and the reviews are pretty positive so far. I'll be getting one of these.

Here's the link to it on Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Blu-Link-Universal-Remote-Control-PlayStation/dp/B002LARYGA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1253038152&sr=8-1

[Beerfuzz]

Yeah.. and the Blue-Wave remote which add IR to your PS3. You don't even need the remote. Just the USB dongle that gives your PS3 IR.. then use your own Universal IR remote. 16 bucks

http://www.amazon.com/Blue-Wave-Infrared-Remote-For-PS3/dp/B0018MEBFY/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1253040157&sr=1-2

The Fuzz
www.thefuzznetwork.com

[sav1981]

As a bluray player I would rate the PS3 a B+. I love the blutooth standalone remote. You don't have to worry about pointing accurately at the IR sensor to have it work. So what is the fuss over blutooth remotes. I've owned both the LG BD 370 and the Samsung P1600 and although they are both good, the manufacturing quality is not there. Sony is a much more reliable brand. It had no trouble playing Iron Man or Hellboy II unlike these players from LG and Samsung. Just read some of the reviews for these players and find out yourself. Both players have been returned and I was going to purchase the Panasonic model instead, but luckily the Best Buy rep told me that Sony is releasing the BDP-N460 in October which will have the Bravia widgets and along with the ability to stream Netflix. All for $250. Trusting Sony to make a more reliable bluray player unlike LG and Samsung I am anxiously waiting for the reviews to come out for this player. I hope Sony doesn't dissappoint. I'm saving money to buy it. At the mean time the PS3 is my on stop shop for HiDef games and movies.

[paulimusmaximus]

Maybe now that the PS3 is $299 and such a great blu ray player, standalone blu ray players will drop in price. That's my hope. I was looking at a nice samsung at costco that had netflix streaming for $200, and I had a $30 off coupon, but I figure with the ps3 price drop, players like this will surely have to come down to at least half the price of the ps3 in the near future to remain competitive. If I didn't already have an xbox 360, I'd definitely go for the ps3, but i don't want or need two game players, so I'm waiting in hopes the prices go down.

[ropo153]

does Netflix not work on the PS3's built-in web browser?

[jpsaply]

No it doesnt. Netflix has its own player that installs into a compatible browser on first use (Firefox or IE browsers). Since there is no way to allow third party programs to install to the PS3 browser, and most likely wouldnt be compatible, it will not run.

[mathcreative]

netflix requires silverlight to stream. I don' t really know if you can or cannot install silverlight.

[DMBoricua]

Make a partition on the PS3's hard drive in the PS3 menu, install Ubuntu OS and stream Netflix on Ubuntu's Firefox browser :D Haha, or is it not possible?

[saintsfan71]

but you can get a disk from Netflix and it works perfectly.

[cheapguru]

Now that the PS3 slim is out and selling for $299, maybe other sellers will have to drop their price to entice people to buy their bluray players.

[bluraymaven]

The new PS3 slim is also not backward compatible as indicated in other reviews on the net.

[ropo153]

they stopped making PS3's backward compatible with PS2 games a while ago. its still PS1 compatible though

[hakeis1]

Who cares, once you get playing PS3 games you won't ever go back to ps2 games anyway.

[Daniel-Castaneda]

I just got my PS3 slim Last Friday and I love it...Its great!

I have been watching movies and playing games it great!

[j_a_s_p_e_r]

I am amazed that PlayOn keeps coming up everytime Netflix is mentioned with the PS3. VERY FEW people are able to watch Netflix on it, because most people have switched to the silverlight version.

PS3 is still king of Bluray Players, Why? well, it only does everything.

[C433Z]

Gosh, i hate myself for buying my PS3 only like a month before the 'slim' rumors started popping up. :(

[inverseion]

Good article, but I'm surprised you didn't mention that the slim model works with Sony Bravia sync. Not a cure all, of course, but still a feature that some may benefit from who want a remote.

[CDubber]

Remote controls - how archaic. Why can't I get a PS3 remote control app for my iPhone???

[-shane-]

now that you all have ps3's, buy Modern Warfare 2 on 11/10/09 so i'll have more people to dominate....muhahahaha

[BazzBro]

Plain and simple...I love my new PS3 Slim. No need to hate on other systems, cause Im EXTREMELY happy with my purchase 2 weeks ago. =)

[Fil0403]

If only everyone will be like you, there would be less ignorance and non-sense in these console-related comment sections (ditto for Mac/Windows comment sections) and more intelligent, insightful, interesting content.

[Fil0403]

Continuing: Last consols I bought were Xbox 1 and PSP 1. None of them is/was #1 and I still love them. I do not own any of the new-generation consoles, but I probably will soon and I'll probably buy a Wii because I think it's the best one overall (mainly due to the original controls, of course), but I can easily see the value of both PS3 and Xbox 360, both great consoles of their own IMO.

[Fil0403]

I think it's fair to say the PS3 is easily the best bang-for-the-buck Blu-ray player ever: good quality (it's a Sony, afterall), many extras (it's a PS afterall), and good price (still cheaper than most standalone Blu-ray players).

[shryx86]

i find it interesting that the PS3 NETFILX STREAMING is listed as non existent. its available just not without a disk for now.

[RRosal]

Ummm...this information is somewhat dated. The PS3 does indeed stream Netflix movies, albeit at the moment one has to use a Netflix streaming disc to access the Netflix service. I'm pretty confident that the built-in ability to stream (probably directly as an app from the PS3's XMB) will be in a not-too-far-in-the-future firmware update.