Crave

(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.

The PS3 Slim may not have backwards compatibility, but owners of the newest Sony console can get a taste of what it feels like when the God of War Collection releases this holiday season.

The collection will include both original PlayStation 2 God of War and God of War II games on one Blu-ray disc. Also, each title has been completely revamped with antialiasing graphics (less jagged edges), 60-frames-per-second performance, and a 1280x720 resolution (720p). The disc will also enable trophy support for both games.

The God of War Collection is set to launch this holiday season for $40. God of War III is still on schedule for a March 2010 release.

Episode 47 of the Digital City, where we install Apple's new Snow Leopard OS update; discuss the current round of game console price cuts; check out some Netbooks with HD displays; and find out why Time Warner Cable's new "Mystro" cable box firmware update makes us want to give up on TV altogether.

Related links:
>>All things Snow Leopard
>>New price cuts upend console value landscape
>>Rise of the high-def Netbooks

>>Watch the Digital City live every Friday at 3pm EST on CNET Live!
>>Subscribe to Digital City on iTunes
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>>Need more? Follow Dan on Twitter!

Microsoft official confirmed the worst-kept secret in games: the Xbox 360 is receiving a price cut on its top-end Elite system starting Friday. In other words, the long list of leaked catalog circulars weren't fakes. What this means is that the 120GB hard-drive-toting Xbox 360 Elite that used to be $400 will now be $300--the same cost as a PS3 Slim.

The Xbox 360 Pro, with its 60GB hard drive, will drop to $250 instead of $300, and will keep being sold until it vanishes off shelves. Kudos, by the way, to Microsoft for actually lowering the price on a soon-to-be-discontinued model, as opposed to the fate of the PS3 Fat. The updates are official on the company's Web site.

Great value, or just fair?

(Credit: CNET)

The Xbox 360 Arcade, however, will continue to cost $200. While that's somewhat fair, considering it's technically the cheapest next-gen console on the market, it's a bad deal. A hard drive, however, is an absolute necessity. The 360's proprietary 120GB hard drive costs $150, so you're effectively saving 50 dollars on the purchase of an Elite. If the 360 had a removable standard hard drive like the PS3 does, we might be singing a different tune on the Arcade.

This only makes the sound of that ticking clock over at Nintendo headquarters even louder. Will the Nintendo Wii reduce its price this holiday season? According to Nintendo's Yasuhiro Minagawa, the company still has no plans to do so. This doesn't mean, however, that a similarly priced bundle with a Wii MotionPlus and possibly a new game (Wii Sports Resort?) isn't in the plans.

Now that the 360 and PS3 are cheaper, the landscape of gaming is shifting in terms of value. We commented on this in terms of handheld systems, but it's also true in terms of the Wii. It can no longer be called a budget system by any stretch.

Realistically, Nintendo probably won't lower the price until one of its rivals makes its fully fledged system even cheaper than a Wii, and that's not likely to happen soon...or ever.

The other question is, has the PS3 leapfrogged the 360 in terms of console value, even with the new Elite price cuts? The Slim consumes less power, has Blu-ray, and is already based on hardware that came out a year after the Xbox 360 hit store shelves. Meanwhile, the Xbox 360 has held the fort with a console that still lacks built-in Wi-Fi, a feature available on the Nintendo DS.

So, which is it...a $300 Xbox 360 Elite, a $300 PS3 Slim, or a $250 Wii?

Or, a $200 Xbox 360 Arcade?

(Credit: CNET/Sarah Tew)

Sony heralded the new PlayStation 3 Slim as more energy efficient than previous models, but that's an easy feat considering the older PS3 'Fat' models were some of the most power-hungry home video appliances available, with power consumption similar to that of a 50-inch plasma TV, for example.

To test Sony's claim, we put the PS3 Slim through a battery of power consumption tests and the results really are impressive: the PS3 Slim generally uses less than half the power of the original 60GB PS3, no matter what task it's performing. Check out the comparison:

All measurements in watts.

Whether the PS3 Slim is a "green-friendly" device depends on your perspective. As you can see from the chart, the PS3 Slim still uses much more power than a typical standalone Blu-ray player like the Samsung BD-P3600, so if you're going to do mostly Blu-ray playback, the PS3 Slim is a real power hog. On the other hand, the Xbox 360 uses about 187 watts while playing a game, which makes the PS3 Slim look like the HD game console for the environmentally conscious. The Nintendo Wii uses a paltry 19 watts, but is standard-def only.

If you've got an older PS3, you might be wondering how much this extra energy consumption is going to cost you over the course of a year. Unless you're playing a lot of video games, the difference isn't that much. If you generally play for about 20 hours a week, you'll save $13.74 per year using a PS3 Slim vs. an older model. If you're hardcore enough to rack up 50 hours of gaming per week, you'd still only save about $100 over a three-year period. In other words, the PS3 Slim may make you feel better, but it won't make much of a difference in your bank account. (Our cost estimate uses the average price of energy in the U.S. during 2008, which is 11.4 cents per kilowatt per hour according to the Energy Information Administration.)

PlayStation 3 Slim -- photos

Episode 46 of the Digital City, where we debate the merits of the PS3 Slim, show how to get your free Windows 7 upgrade, and discuss new games from Batman: Arkham Asylum to GangStar for the iPhone.

Related links:
>>Skip the PS3 Slim and get one of these Blu-ray laptops
>>Should I buy a new laptop now, or wait for Windows 7?
>>Are gaming handhelds too expensive?

>>Watch the Digital City live every Friday at 3pm EST on CNET Live!
>>Subscribe to Digital City on iTunes
>>Join the Digital City Facebook fan page
>>Need more? Follow Dan on Twitter!

(Credit: Matthew Moskovciak/CNET)

We've covered just about everything you need to know about the PS3 Slim, but the sleuths over at Engadget HD (via a translated version of AV Watch) found a chart that indicates the PS3 Slim can bit stream both Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio. That change actually isn't that surprising, since the original limitation on the "old" PS3s was due to an older HDMI chipset; newer HDMI outputs have no problem bit streaming the high-resolution soundtrack formats.

(Credit: AV Watch)

We have a PS3 Slim review sample onhand, so it was easy to confirm the rumor. We had the PS3 Slim connected to the Sony STR-DN1000 receiver via HDMI, and we loaded up "Appaloosa," which as a Dolby TrueHD soundtrack. After making a few tweaks in the XMB, were able to make the STR-DN1000's display say "Dolby TrueHD"--confirmation that the Slim was sending the soundtrack in encoded bit stream format. Next, we loaded up "Master and Commander," which has a DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack, and that worked as well.

Unfortunately, the practical benefit of this feature upgrade is minimal. The "fat" PS3 could transmit Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio in uncompressed linear PCM format, providing the exact same audio quality as the bit stream versions. There are some cases where an AV receiver may process linear PCM differently than bit stream, but its rare. On the other hand, it's at least nice to have the option, especially for those guys who just have to see the words "DTS-HD Master Audio" light up on their AV receiver.