Re: First time PS3 buyer
 

It came in a day late (today), and I'm still at work. I guess they had a slight oversell of PS3s and weren't able to ship mine on Wednesday. The real kicker is that they ended up sending Uncharted, Dark Knight, and the Bluetooth Blu-Ray controller on Wednesday. SO... I had everything to enjoy the PS3... except the PS3.

But at least it shall be a nice way to finish off the week and to start my birthday weekend!

Re: First time PS3 buyer
 

I would have to agree with you on that! Enjoy!

Re: First time PS3 buyer
 

I bought College Hoops 2k8 from ebgames for $9.99 and I'm enjoying it more then Madden and GTA4.. go fig! I hope the NBA licence is never taken from 2k sports like how the NCAA BAsketball and NFL ones were. That'd be a tragedy.

Re: First time PS3 buyer
 

Ok, impressions. Let's start with the Blu-Ray:

Dark Knight is awesome, and the IMAX scenes look great. But...

Ok, have any of you seen one of the newer HDTVs with Automotion Plus? Basically all the 120Hz LCDs have it now, Samsung and Sony do it best, but I think all the rest have pretty much caught up. When I first saw it at a store, THAT was when I knew HDTV had really arrived, because that's the first time it stopped me (and my girlfriend for that matter) in our tracks. It's cliched, but it's true -- it's like looking through your front window out at the movie happening right in front of your house. It looks like reality. For those who haven't seen it, it actually kind of looks like you're watching a soap opera.

Some people don't like it (since it's not the director's original intent blah blah blah). But for me, that is what HDTV is all about.

So, back to the Blu-Ray: the Samsung HDTV I have along with the Automotion stuff already made DVDs look amazing. The Blu-Ray, while definitely noticeably better, wasn't as big a jump for me since the DVD already looked so damn good. But I'm glad I got Blu-Ray, if just for the IMAX Dark Knight scenes.

Btw, Dark Knight: even more chilling the 2nd time watching it. The themes really sink in, and they are chilling thoughts.

On to the game: Uncharted.

Now this was impressive. The only other current-gen games I've played are TF2 and Bioshock, and both only on PC. They look good, but not as good as Uncharted, and not with the punch that a 46" HDTV gives.

Fortunately the gameplay is good, too. The controls can be a little wonky, especially with the platforming, not seeing an edge that you immediately fall to your death over, and jumping from one cover position to another (or just getting out from cover so you can start punching a guy). But I enjoy the cover and fire mechanics. I do not, however, enjoy going back to analog stick aiming. Balls on my face with that shit. But I'm sure I'll get a little better at it.

Verdict: Very good choices, both of them.

Thanks again guys!

Re: First time PS3 buyer
 

Good to see you enjoyed our picks.

And I am waiting for official confirmation, but it seems like Best Buy may have a similar sale for the PS3 next week as it had for the 360 this week, which means buy 1 get 50% off the second with potential on working w/ pre-orders.

Would use it for Uncharted 2 and Ratchet a Crack in Time.

Re: First time PS3 buyer
 

That automation stuff looks like crap. When I saw it at Best Buy they were using it with the Dark Knight and I think that when things aren't moving quickly (like Batman driving in the Batmobile) it looks too fake (like when Joker was being interviewed by Batman/Commissioner Gordon).

Re: First time PS3 buyer
 

Well I can't speak for the specific TV you were watching (mine is a Samsung 120Hz), but to me it looks superb. It looks like you're standing in front of the actors watching them in person. The detail is amazing.

But you're not the only one to not like it. Also note that the Samsung and I imagine most of them have different levels from low to high (or off) so you can get some happy medium.

Re: First time PS3 buyer
 

I saw an article once that read "HD Better than real life?"

I think I agree with that.

Re: First time PS3 buyer
 

In a sea of gimmicks, as long as you're happy with whatever you have, nobody else's opinion matters.

I'm kind of glad I got a 37" 1080p Aquos when I did, though. Personally, on every 120Hz set I've seen, everything just looks fast-forwarded. It's adding information that isn't there and it will never look right to me. 240Hz TVs are just confounding the problem, not fixing it.

The next TV I buy will be a laser or plasma TV, but that won't be for a while.

Also, I was playing the InFamous demo today and I really enjoy it.

And if you haven't been suggested Valkyria Chronicles yet, you better get it. Or else.

Re: First time PS3 buyer
 

Could anyone explain what Auto Motion Plus does? Google isn't very helpful.

Re: First time PS3 buyer
 

The explanation as I understand it:

First off, there is some confusion that 120Hz = Auto Motion Plus stuff. That is not true. The confusion arises because they both first appeared on the same TVs at the same time, and were often advertised together. They are in fact two separate things.

1. 120Hz:

First, consider that the previous standard was 60Hz for LCDs. Then consider the refresh rate of all the typical sources these days -- they boil down, at least here in North America, to either 24 frames per second, 30 fps, or 60 fps. 30 and 60 fps are as I remember typically relegated to TV sources, while 24 fps I believe is typical of DVD and Blu-Ray movies.

The problem is that 60 Hz is not equally divisible by 24 (60/24 = 2.5). And since 24 fps is the standard for the most high quality source out there -- Blu-Ray movies -- it's rather important when it comes to HDTVs.

Since you can't just put up half a screen and expect people not to notice, you have to do some trickery. The math is a little hard to get my head around, but the essence of what happens is that some of the frames of the 24 get stretched out and are played longer in the 60Hz cycle than the other frames (technically the technique is called telecine). This usually goes unnoticed, but can be very obvious on long slow pans, where it looks like the camera jerks along instead of making one smooth pan.

So basically the complaint comes down to you're not getting the original source to play as it was meant to be played. The source has to be changed to make it work on 60Hz. And the change can introduce some very noticeable problems into the film.

You may already be ahead of me at this point, but now think about 120Hz. It is equally divisible by 30, 60, and 24. So every frame is simply doubled (120Hz/60Hz = 2), quadrupled (120Hz/30Hz = 4), or quintupled (120Hz/24Hz = 5). There is no changing the source to make it fit into the LCD's cycle.

So, that is all 120Hz does. It plays every 24, 30, and 60 fps source exactly as it was meant to be played.

(Note that some will say that 120 Hz is also simply better than 60 Hz because it will reduce motion blur and make watching something appear smoother, I guess the same idea with games where 60 fps is better than 30 fps. While this is true if the source material actually went up to 120 Hz, I think it's entirely bullshit when the source material can only go as high as 60 fps. Watching a 60 fps source on a 60 Hz cycle should look exactly the same as watching it on a 120 Hz cycle because the source is still only 60 fps.)

2. Auto Motion Plus (or equivalent)

My understanding of Auto Motion Plus is that it uses an algorithm to interpolate between two frames of the source material to figure out what that frame would have looked like if it had been captured in the original source, and then shows those extra frames. It's like taking a 24 fps film and using an algorithm to fill in the frames in between each of the 24 to make it a 120 fps source. (That's a rough description.)

Think about it. With a 24 fps source and a 120Hz cycle, you are now showing each frame five times in that 120Hz cycle. That's a lot of extra time in there that you can do some fancy stuff in.

The upside is that it sharpens the source and brings out the detail that you wouldn't see without it. The downside is that you're making up frames that aren't there, and as with any algorithm it can introduce very noticeable artifacts into the image. But on the good TVs the artifacts are hardly every seen.

The other downside (for some anyway) is that you're not seeing the director's original intent. The director only wanted you to see the 24 fps, not what the TV can interpolate in between. While this premise is arguable to begin with, I'm on the side that prefers to see the extra detail when, in my opinion, it looks that good.

Re: First time PS3 buyer
 

What?

Re: First time PS3 buyer
 

Too hard to understand? Maybe I'm reading too many science books lately...

Here's I think a simpler explanation pulled from a thread at avsforum:

Re: First time PS3 buyer
 

So yeah how's the system holding up.

Haha any further in Uncharted?
Next Blu-ray?

Re: First time PS3 buyer
 

I definitely think you should jump on Wall-E or Planet Earth. Spectacular.