Tech site
Engadget and AV site
Home Cinema Choice have just published two reviews of
the
Slim PlayStation 3,
including its performance as a Blu-ray player. One of the reviews' findings
is that the new PS3 is noticeably slower when loading a Blu-ray disc. On
the other hand, improvements such as reduced power consumption and
lower noise are confirmed.
Load times
The Engadget crew was surprised by the slower BD load times. They
measured two sets of data: the time between inserting the disc (listening
for that last little "click" sound) and having it register in the XMB; and the
time it takes to get a non-loading once you click on the disc and actually
launch into the movie. Disc recognition time was virtually the same, but
actual loading took a few seconds longer on the slim PS3. For example,
'Watchmen' took 27 seconds to show the first disc screen on the slim,
versus 23 seconds on the original. The smallest difference recorded was 2
seconds with 'Air Force One', and the largest was 10 seconds with 'The
Nightmare before Christmas'.
Home Cinema Choice confirmed that the slot mechanism on this model is
inferior to that of the first-gen model, and concludes that "few will be
impressed by the grumpy mechanical noise it makes when loading discs."
BD-J Performance
Engadget didn't cover this, but Home Cinema Choice found Java loading
speed to be "phenomenally fast. 'Crank 2: High Voltage' "bedded-in faster
on the PS3 Slim than it did on a high-end Sony BDP-5000ES."
Power consumption
The power drawn when watching a Blu-ray was drastically reduced, even
beyond Sony's announcement. The slim PS3 drew 75 watt during Blu-ray
playback, versus 167 watt on the classic 60GB PS3.
Noise
Engadget confirmed its initial findings: the PS3 is up to 10 decibels quieter
than the classic 60GB PS3 while watching Blu-ray movies. In their own
words, "during the quieter, more suspenseful moments of 'Watchmen',
there wasn't any loud whirring noises this time to ruin the mood."
Home Cinema Choice confirmed that the slim PS3 is "quieter still" than the
original. However, it was noted that heat builds up quickly during use and
the fan noise accelerates accordingly. The reviewer relates, "Midway
through 'X-Men Origins: Wolverine', I noted that the console was
disgorging a lot of heat through its rear vents, and at that point, in terms
of fan noise it did not seem to be an improvement on what's gone before.
The huge 95mm,17-blade fan beneath the hood clearly has its work cut
out..."
Bitstreaming of Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD
This feature was confirmed, but the Home Cinema Choice reviewer
encountered some compatibility problems: with an Arcam AVR-600,
bitstream mode resulted in "some horrible buzzes and pops", whereas an
Onkyo TX-NR906 recognized the stream without any hiccups. The reviewer
concluded that there were issues regarding HDMI handshaking between
the PS3 Slim and the Arcam.
Bravia Sync
Engadget tested this feature, connecting the console directly to a 32-inch
BRAVIA L-Series TV via HDMI. The reviewers were able to do some basic
tasks like navigate the XMB menu and control video playback, but not much
more - you still need a controller or BD remote to operate the PS3.
Miscellaneous
Engadget also mentions that unlike the classic PS3, the new console
doesn't have a physical on/off switch.
The Home Cinema Choice tech lab measured the drive in the slim PS3 and
it rated much worse than the original with CD and DVD. For example,
measured audio jitter was 461.7ps, while the original deliverd only
137.9ps. And as a DVD player it's "poor", with a measured high frequency
response of -6.14dB. But the reviewer remarks, "does anyone really care
about DVD playback on the PS3 Slim?" [Well, going from the comments to
this post, a fair number of people do, and they should bear this information
in mind if they are thinking of buying a new PS3.]
The Home Cinema choice reviewer thought that the new power-on and
disc eject push buttons were way better than the "infuriating" soft-touch
buttons on the original machine.