A few PS3 questions

[drfsupercenter]

So, my PS3 finally arrived!

I did the initial setup and it's all hooked up via HDMI now. But I had a couple questions that I couldn't figure out right away.

I got the Blu-Ray remote with it, since my parents don't know anything about using controllers to control movies. It's far nicer than the Xbox 360 media remote, since it uses Bluetooth I can aim it anywhere and it still works. However, I noticed a lot of the buttons are redundant. About 4 of them pause the movie, and at least a couple do fast-forward/rewind, etc. Can those buttons be changed? Or disabled?

Now, as far as actually playing Blu-Rays goes. I only have two Blu-Ray movies (and a couple I rented from Blockbuster that I haven't tried yet), Terminator 2 and Transformers. And it came with one that had some trailers and stuff. With Transformers, one time I tried it, it said "loading" for about 5 minutes, I got fed up and in order to get the menu to show I had to delete the user data from it. Now it seems to work fine. Is that a mistake or does that problem happen a lot?
And one thing I noticed with Terminator 2 is that on some of the bumpers, like the THX logo, my TV was actually showing 1080i or some non-1080p resolution. Additionally, it seems like for each movie, I see the little "HDMI1" box on my screen about 5 times before the actual movie starts. (And the screen flickers black) Is this due to HDCP? Or changing resolutions? Is it possible to make it so it JUST goes to the menu and not flashes my screen a bunch of times?
And I couldn't find this option - but can I force it to upscale everything to 1080p, whether it's natively that way or not? (DVDs were upscaling fine)
(By the way, I ended up buying Transformers on Blu-Ray just because I got fed up at the HDCP problem with the Xbox 360... I'll just sell that HD-DVD off to somebody or give it away... if you're reading this and are interested let me know )

Now, for updating. BD-Live didn't work of course, as I haven't updated it. I do have it hooked up to my wireless network. Is it safe to install the newest update now? Or should I wait a bit?

I'm sure I'll have a lot more questions when I try it out some more, with more BD movies. Does anyone know if the newest 80GB model will play PS1 games? I know they don't do PS2 now due to Sony crippling their models, but what about PS1? Unless I find $60 lying on the ground I probably won't buy any PS3 games - that is, until they have some for $20 or less like they do for Wii and Xbox 360.

[doctorhardware]

On the remote question I would say no, that is not possible. But there might be one way to disable the buttons. The remote will have to be taken apart and put scotch tape on the buttons that you want to stop working. That is the only way I can think of to turn them off with out destroying the remote.

[admin]

You can't customize the remote, but it does feature pretty much everything you can do with the controller, and the PS3 is limited by the controller's number of buttons.

The long loading times are probably normal, although it is usually related to either BD-J (the Java based interactive stuff) or BD-Live trying to connect online (some movies allow you to skip it I think).

As for the changing resolutions, that happens to me too - don't know why. But one problem with the PS3's Blu-ray playback is that it does not upscale content on Blu-ray that's not in the 1080p resolution - so if there is SD content on it, it will play them at SD resolutions by switching resolutions on your TV. At least this is the case on my 2.53 firmware.

As for updating, I think you should attempt it, but again, read the PS3 forum if you're unsure:

http://boardsus.playstation.com/playstation/board?board.id=ps3updates

And all PS3s play PS1 games.

[drfsupercenter]

Well, Transformers HD-DVD has a "cancel" button for the "Loading Online Features" screen, while the Blu-Ray just says "Loading" and there's no way to skip it at all. I tried all the buttons. But when it isn't acting up that screen only shows for a second or two.

How come the remote has a L3 and R3 button? There's none such button on the controller, nor does it do anything...

And is there a way to get the "Audio/Subtitle/Angle" buttons to work with standard DVDs? There's really no reason why they shouldn't work - they just don't, and pop up with a screen saying the operation isn't allowed.

Also, is there some way to get rid of that stupid play button that shows in the lower left corner? Literally, every time a title starts that flashes... whether I press play or not. And it gets annoying, fast.

[admin]

The L3 and R3 buttons are activated when you push down on the analogue controllers.

The audio/subtitles buttons work for me just fine. Obviously, the DVD in question must support subtitle operations, some of them do not due to UOP.

Nothing that can be done about the on screen display, but you'll get used to it.

[drfsupercenter]

I tried it with Terminator 2: Ultimate Edition, to compare the quality to the Blu-Ray.

It does of course have multiple audio streams and subtitle streams. The remote just didn't work for those - I had to do it through the menu.

[admin]

I think this is the one with the seamless branching of the different versions of the movie? If so, that's probably why you have to go through the menu to select subtitles.

[drfsupercenter]

Yes it is. But it doesn't make sense, on my DVD player or Xbox 360 I can use those buttons just fine. (It's actually marketed as only the director's cut, but apparently the OTV is on there as an Easter Egg.)

And yet the PS3 says "This button can't be used here"... or something to that effect, I'm not sure really.

Now, are there different options for upscaling DVDs? I used the same DVD as a point-of-comparison between the PS3 and Xbox 360... and while they looked the same from my couch, up close there was quite a difference. The PS3 was clearer but more pixelated, the Xbox 360 looked like it should be higher quality, but was a tad fuzzy.

I'll have to get a video of my TV flickering with the HDMI1 thing... it does it once or twice for every Blu-Ray I've tried, and with Transformers it did it about 10 times before the actual movie started. (Is Transformers super-picky about HDCP or something? If so it doesn't seem to DO anything... I turned my TV off and came back 5 minutes later and it was still playing)

And does anyone know anything about installing Linux on the PS3? I actually noticed the "Install OS" option, which surprised me that it's an official feature. I thought Linux was a hack like Homebrew Channel to the Wii.

[BR7]

Did you set the XMB ?

[drfsupercenter]

Nope. Thanks for the link, though, I'll give it a try.

[BR7]

Your Welcome

It does make a difference in picture quality

[drfsupercenter]

Ah, well, it wasn't perfect, and I think it still looks a little different than the Xbox 360.

But I sat on my couch (about 10 feet away, the TV is 50"... so an average to close distance) and the DVD I watched (City of Ember... I loved the book and wanted to see the movie, and AFAIK it wasn't released on Blu-Ray) looked just stunning. Honestly, I don't see what the big deal is about buying movies on Blu-Ray. They look amazing close-up but so do my DVDs when I sit at normal viewing distance.

Also, it appears the audio/subtitle buttons did work for that DVD. Must have just been some fluke in the T2 disc.

I don't have any PS3 games so I really have nothing to compare it with, I'd assume Blu-Ray is Blu-Ray and it wouldn't matter for that stuff.

[admin]

I assume you've gone into the Blu-ray/DVD settings and set "upscaler" to "normal"?

Using HDMI, there's also a bunch of other settings related to RGB/YUV settings, and enhancements for those. These are the ones that I always set after resetting my PS3 settings (or getting yet another back from Sony tech support).

[BR7]

Calibrating your HDTV properly is very important as well.Use this or have the geek squad come out an do it

[doctorhardware]

If the geek squad would come and do that simple calibration you are looking at least $200. To set up the colors properly with a HD color generator, you looking at $350.