PlayStation 5: Thread 04

[Neon Ignition]

What are the odds of a PS5 slim in the future?

I'm thinking of getting one towards the end of 2023, but I'm concerned because the unit is MASSIVE and literally might not fit in the TV unit I've got. It's not going on top (hardware design has to serve my needs, not the other way around) so when's Sony doing a smaller one?

Very likely, much more so than a Pro, but if the rumours are correct then it won't be that much smaller. Depending on how important physical media is to you, the existing Digital Edition isn't that far off size wise and will fit a typical TV unit DVD Player space lying down

[Asura]

Very likely, much more so than a Pro, but if the rumours are correct then it won't be that much smaller. Depending on how important physical media is to you, the existing Digital Edition isn't that far off size wise and will fit a typical TV unit DVD Player space lying down

I'd be tempted to get one with a drive, because I don't currently possess a device that can play UHD BluRays.

[Neon Ignition]

We ended up evtnually buying a dedicated UHD player, the UHD playback on XSX and PS5 is... okay. Not as much effort on quality on that front has been made as back in the day when PS2 included its DVD playback support

[dataDave]

What, like when it wasn’t possible to watch DVDs with RGB SCART? That was atrocious.

[fishbowlhead]

We ended up evtnually buying a dedicated UHD player, the UHD playback on XSX and PS5 is... okay. Not as much effort on quality on that front has been made as back in the day when PS2 included its DVD playback support

I’ve tried dedicated players and PS5, SeriesX side by side and honestly couldn’t see any difference whatsoever. Least not on my tv anyway.

[Golgo]

At the end of the day yes it’s big, but it’s quiet and cool.

Yeah I'm getting a Phat. Already decided.

[Neon Ignition]

I preferred the PS5's UHD playback of the two, the Xbox's app didn't impress much on our TV. Both weren't as clear as the dedicated player we have but mileage probably varies depending on the TV its running on too

[fishbowlhead]

I preferred the PS5's UHD playback of the two, the Xbox's app didn't impress much on our TV. Both weren't as clear as the dedicated player we have but mileage probably varies depending on the TV its running on too

Mines a QLED, maybe mileage will vary with the top OLED sets for picture quality variance. I’ve also never properly calibrated mine either to get it all just right.

[wakka]

I definitely get a better picture out of my Panasonic UB820 player than my PS5 (and certainly the One S I used before that). I use a Panasonic OLED TV.

The higher end players have various useful features, too, if you have lots of discs. For example, the UB820 enables you to configure a maximum brightness output for HDR based on what your TV can actually achieve. It then implements its own tone mapping which is particularly useful with preventing discs with HDR configured to go ultra-bright (like many Sony discs that are configured to go up to ~5000 nits) from presenting with blown-out highlights.

On the other end of the scale, there are cropping, zooming and scaling features that are helpful with old letterboxed DVDs. I've got a Claude Chabrol DVD set where some of the films are presented in the most astoundingly crap way and the features of a dedicated player go some way to help mitigating the presentation.

Also, minor thing, but you get to use a proper IR remote. Bluetooth ones are annoying!

[Atticus]

I'd like a dedicated player (would be nice to take advantage of DolbyVision) but can't justify one at prez. I'm using PS5 for UHD discs currently which I prefer over xbox (once I figured out how to enable Atmos in the audio options).

[Neon Ignition]

Ours is a 70inch LED. With the XSX the picture looked sharper than you'd get from Blu-Ray but you could see rough edges and blotches in the colours, the PS5 was crisper and suffered less from the issue but we didn't spend ages tweaking the setting either as with the kids and so many devices things get swapped and changed all the time so we'd be at it for ages. Running stuff via the PC or the dedicated UHD player has been no fuss though

[Lebowski]

I've not even considered that stand alone players where a big thing still, i haven't had a stand alone disk player for years, My viewing habits have changed from buying films to streaming them or on very rare occasions going to the cinema. i have cupboards full of dvds and Blurays but don't tend to buy them these days.

Coincidental i just watched a techmoan vid talking about the quiet death of cd players, he touched on standalone 4k bluray players, sonys website has a really limited selection of players and their advertising, Inferno on 4K Ultra HD a film from 2016 so it feels like they have mothballed these items and are doing really limited updates to the range.

[wakka]

Just like everything else physical media related, they are niche products now.

CD players are the same. I haven't watched the Techmoan vid but even by the time I was in my teens (in the 2000s) CD players were well on their way out in favour of iPods.

But if you want to go and buy a CD player, you can do so no problem at Richer Sounds. It'll set you back a few hundred quid, likewise with UHD players, because what tends to disappear is the very low end as that has been replaced by streaming services. You're left with the enthusiast audience who are happy to pay more as they want something that's better than something that just 'does the job'.

Should say, I love streaming too. When I was a kid what we have now with Prime Video was basically my ultimate dream!

[Cassius_Smoke]

The original PlayStation, if memory serves, was and still is one of the best CD players on the market.

[Lebowski]

The original PlayStation, if memory serves, was and still is one of the best CD players on the market.

my original ps1 got to the point where it would only play disks when it was upside down