PS3 or HTPC with Bluray drive?

[Jugernot]

Looking at getting a Bluray player and was wondering if HTPC drives are upto snuff with a the very upgradeable PS3 at this point?

Here is the setup I'm looking at:
AMD X2 5000+ BE CPU
2GB DDR800 memory
Seagate Barracuda 500GB
Liteon Bluray DVD ROM drive
GIGABYTE GA-MA78GM-S2H 780G motherboard with Optical output with HDMI
HTPC case with 500watt PS
Wireless keyboard/mouse (still looking for an affordable IR remote?!?!)

All together I'm looking at around $530 shipped for the above system, which isn't bad at all.

My other option is to get a PS3 and lose the ability to browse the website, etc. that the computer will provide in my Home Theater.

Assuming I'm using the bundled PowerDVD 7.3 that is included, would this work pretty well as a Bluray player?

 

[Quasmo]

I really enjoy having an HTPC, I'm having a hard time deciding if I want to go with a CableCard PC because I can't build it. I love the ablity to surf the web and play games, and the ability to use the HTPC as a TV.

EDIT: Oh yeah, they work great as blu-ray players, you just can't get the trueHD audio yet.

 

[rsd]

HTPC will be more work tweaking/fixing frankly. I know I just built a new one with an HD DVD/BD drive. It works great now and can play any file type. This is after 40+ hrs I would say tweaking/testing the software. I'm using Vista MCE with an HDHomerun to do QAM recordings. I use the MyMovies plugin to play ripped movies from my 1tb server over the network. Can play h.264/x.264 files within vista mce too (no HA because I'm using coreavc, but my processor is plenty fast). Ideally I want to do everything controlling it from the remote and not having to play with a kb/m. Unfortunately that isn't always the case.

So I think it depends on what you want, if you want hassle free go with PS3, if you want the power and flexibility to play anything plus do other things (web surf) consider an HTPC.

Also for PDVD, the OEM version is limited in some ways (audio wise I think but it depends on how you connect it).

 

[Captante]

Fyi, a PS3 has the ability to browse the web (albeit with a less then perfect browser) and will also support a Bluetooth or wired keyboard & mouse ... overall it will be less capable then an HTPC but will also cost less & be far less work.

 

[rsd]

Originally posted by: Captante
Fyi, a PS3 has the ability to browse the web (albeit with a less then perfect browser) and will also support a Bluetooth or wired keyboard & mouse ... overall it will be less capable then an HTPC but will also cost less & be far less work.

True, i used the web surfing as a (bad) example.

HTPC is basically a hobby. When it works, its pretty great but when it doesn't it sucks!

I don't regret building the HTPC since I intentionally wanted an "all-in-one" type device or something close to it, and have no interest in the PS3 for gaming (have a Wii360 already).

 

[Pacfanweb]

HTPC if you always want to be working on it. PS3 if you want to actually watch movies.

 

[Schadenfroh]

Originally posted by: Pacfanweb
HTPC if you always want to be working on it. PS3 if you want to actually watch movies.

(PS3 owner here) But, with the HTPC you will actually be able to watch Hulu, Fancast, and NetFlix Instant watch. The flash on the PS3 browser (and via gnash in Linux) only seems to work with Youtube and flash advertisements. Hulu and Fancast say that I have an in old version of flash and refuse to play. NetFlix will never work on a PS3 in its current state as it requires Windows Media Player.

 

[Jugernot]

I hadn't really thought about using it for Netflix instant movies... good idea though!

I'm kind of split between the two. PS3 would be nice because it works out of the box and my wife won't have any problems.

HTPC is more flexible though.

 

[Captante]

Originally posted by: Schadenfroh

Originally posted by: Pacfanweb
HTPC if you always want to be working on it. PS3 if you want to actually watch movies.

(PS3 owner here) But, with the HTPC you will actually be able to watch Hulu, Fancast, and NetFlix Instant watch. The flash on the PS3 browser (and via gnash in Linux) only seems to work with Youtube and flash advertisements. Hulu and Fancast say that I have an in old version of flash and refuse to play. NetFlix will never work on a PS3 in its current state as it requires Windows Media Player.

Supposedly its possible to install Win2k or even XP on a PS3 (using a VM) although I've never tried it & have no plans to do so ... might be interesting to see if Netflix or similar services would work on it.

 

[SonicIce]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16896135024

 

[wetech]

Originally posted by: SonicIce
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16896135024

Can you run Linux on that?

 

[Midnight Rambler]

Newegg's charging pretty steep shipping on that $22 toaster ...

 

[erwos]

Originally posted by: Captante
Supposedly its possible to install Win2k or even XP on a PS3 (using a VM) although I've never tried it & have no plans to do so ... might be interesting to see if Netflix or similar services would work on it.

Realistically, that would never yield anything resembling good enough performance to run these video services. The PS3 has 256mb of RAM. That's the limitation here.

Also, the web browser on the PS3 isn't just "less than perfect" - it pretty much sucks for any site with more than a bit of flash (which is more sites than you'd think these days).

IMHO, HTPCs are also all about the Live TV, and the PS3 has no real way of accommodating at this point.

 

[Schadenfroh]

Originally posted by: Captante

Supposedly its possible to install Win2k or even XP on a PS3 (using a VM) although I've never tried it & have no plans to do so ... might be interesting to see if Netflix or similar services would work on it.

NetFlix requires WMP 11, IIRC. Windows 2000 only supports up to WMP 9. Bear in mind that the PS3 only has 256mb of ram, not sure if that is enough to run Yellow Dog Linux + VM Software + Windows XP + streaming video. Unless Yellow Dog has some kind of "ready boost" like feature, but even then that would take a nasty performance hit (assuming it works).

 

[Genx87]

I am thinking of going this route as well. I dont need it for TV tuning and recording. However I'd like to watch Blu-Ray and HD movie files recorded from my TiVo.