The other topic is getting very long and probably hard to follow.

Japan to See Exclusive Blu-ray Titles in March

Retailers have updated their listings in Japan, and some surprising titles have made an appearance. On February 22nd, the Luc Besson films 'Unleashed' (HD DVD exclusive in the US) and 'Taxi 3' will be released, along with the already released Transporter films in a 2-pack. On March 5th, Sony Pictures will release 'Almost Famous: The Extended Cut' and on March 21st, 'Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind' (HD DVD exclusive in the US) will get released.

These titles have not be confirmed for any other country at this time, and may be regionally locked to Region A (same as the US). Being that 'Almost Famous' is a catalog film, it should not be regionally locked, and will most likely receive distribution in all regions this March. Keep an out for official confirmation soon.

-- Blu-ray.com

Cyberlink PowerDVD Receives Profile v1.1 Certification

Cyberlink has announced that their PowerDVD Ultra software for PC Blu-ray playback has received Profile v1.1 certification from the Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA). This upgrade will allow BonusView material to be viewed on a PC with a Blu-ray drive and compatible hardware. The updated version is expected to ship soon.

-- Blu-ray.com

Quoting Dr. Killpatient:

Quote:
Seems like every time I start PowerDVD, it tells me that an update for better support of HD content is available.

I am right there with you... funny thing is, my regular old DVD player cannot benefit from the upgrade.

I did 2 upgrades in the last 2 months (version 7.2) and both times it broke the installation and Cyberlink's response was to reinstall the product and they gave me link to already patched version.  Quite a pain in the neck for no benefit, but alas, now I have learned my lesson and will not upgrade in the future.

Maybe he has been banned because people gave him the red arrow?

When you're now the only format in town, what's the rush to bring out new tech?  Now they can take their time introducing new features, increase prices, and basically do whatever they want.

Yeah, glad this silly war is over. 

I don't remember where I talked about going blue in the many new threads started recently.  But I finally did it last night.  Picked up a 40GB PS3!

First of all, I have to say that I'm really impressed with it so far.  I didn't have a lot of time to play last night, but it seems to be an awesome player.  In fact, I watched an episode on Carnivàle last night (on DVD) and can easily say I prefer it to my HD DVD player for watching DVDs so far.  It might be my imagination, but it seemed just a hair more responsive.

Another HUGE benefit (to me) is that it has a much better runtime display.  On the HD DVD player, you can see how far you are in the movie on the player display.  If you do the onscreen display, it will show you the total time left on the player display (but not on your TV).  It was ok, but not great.  The PS3 on the other hand will display (on your TV!!!) the total time, total time remaining, time into the current chapter and the time remaining in the current chapter.  This is just awesome!

Another plus (for me) might sound a bit wierd, but when the PS3 is playing at 1.5 speed, it still plays the sound and subtitles.  I wouldn't watch a movie this way, but I've been known to watch text commentaries this way or even bonus features.  The Toshiba would drop subtitles and sound forcing you to watch at normal speed.  Probably not a big deal for some, but I appreciate it.

Another thing I liked was being able to switch video settings on the fly.  I could pause (or not) the show and turn upscaling on and off for example to see it in action.  To change settings like this on the Toshiba (where you actually can't turn off upscaling, although I'm not sure why you would), you have to stop the player and go into the setup screens.  It was fun to compare.

Another plus is I already setup TVersity for my DirecTV DVR and the PS3 picked up on that with no problem.  Once it was connected to the network, it automatically found all my pictures and mp3's on the computer and played them just fine.  And it works 1000x better than the DVR.  It (the DVR) was extremely slow and never would find everything past a certain point (my wife has thousands of photos on our computer).  Now when we want to show someone the photos we took at their birthday party or whatever, we can show them on a 56" widescreen instead of people crowding around our computer.  And my wife will love being able to play mp3s when I show her how to.

Finally, it's the first device I've seen (though I'm sure they exist) that actually functioned correctly when advancing frame-by-frame in reverse.  The Toshiba didn't do that at all.  My TiVo does, but it's crap as it has to jump to the previous p-frame (or is it i-frame).  Whatever the case, I was surprised at how well I could do this on the PS3.  It worked great.

But it's not all rosy.  What the hell is up with not including a proper manual?  There's a massive "quick start" guide, but if you want to really dig into menu options, you have to use some online manual.  I guess that always keeps the manual up to date, but I really wanted something I could browse through at my leisure.

And I couldn't get it to work with my wireless.  It didn't seem to like the letters in my WEP HEX key.   It wanted me to change the key to have all numbers.  That in itself is easy enough.  But then I'd have to change all my sons DS games, my laptop, my wireless bridge, etc.  Fortunately I have a wireless router behind my entertainment center, so I just had to track down a cord and plug it in.  From there it was a piece of cake.  But that was a stupid flaw as far as I'm concerned.

And of course there's the issue with the Bluetooth remote and my universal remote, but I have a solution on the way for that.

Anyway, I didn't get a lot of time to play with it last night, but from what I did see, I'm really impressed.

Sorry, one more link for you, Mark

http://www.usbgear.com/USB-Infrared.html

If you can't find a PS2 remote with the external IR, one of those might work.

Quoting Mark Harrison:

Quote:
Quoting schultzy:

Quote:
Mark, may not be the best solution, but here is a link.

http://www.remotecentral.com/articles/ps3-ir-remote2.htm

EDIT: also don't forget to update the PS3 with the latest firmware.

I alread found (and ordered) a solution here: Nyko PlayStation 3 Blu Wave Remote

But thanks for the advice anyway.

You will have to let me know it works out for you.