You should probably ask us in the PS3 thread (don’t worry; we’re nice, and we’ve been getting a lot of new users since the Slim launch), but here are some quick and dirty answers.
Yes, it’s still arguably the best BD player. It can do everything any other player can (and the Slim can even bitstream DTS-MA HD now, which was the one missing feature of the older PS3s) and more. It’s also the most upgradeable and most powerful player on the market because of its other features.
Arguably PS3 is the best. Again, it does everything any other player can do and more, and you get the option to play games and use PSN if you want. The PS3 itself can also do a ton of things no other BD player will ever be able to do.
I like the Hot Deals forum at Blu-ray.com. Otherwise, I just order from Amazon.
Does Anime get visual improvments on Blu-Ray? I heard Akira’s sound is fucking BRILLANT, but A) I don’t think Akira can get any prettier than it already is and B) I don’t have the sound system to take advantage of that.
It depends on its source material. If it was just for TV broadcast, it probably won’t get much more than some cheap upscaling. If it was originally a movie (like Princess Mononoke, for example), it will be way better (depending on the transfer, of course).
The thing about BD movies is that it’s not just a resolution upgrade from DVD (although that is the most obvious thing); there are also things like color depth, (lack of) compression artifacts, and stuff like that. Even really old movies look way better because they were all originally shot in higher definition than what DVD would allow. Casablanca looks absolutely amazing on BD.
^ you can bootleg the mkv files. they look great on ps3(converted with mkv2vob). I did side my side comparison of t2 and couldnt tell the difference between bootleg mkv and actual BD.
Who’s your provider? I find that Time Warner’s “HD” shit is so bad that it might as well be SD, and I have no qualms about just watching their SDTV, since it’s almost the same.
I dont’ care about the sound…I just got the speakers from my screen. But damn, I want to buy it (Ip Man) to support the effort…but YEESSH. I love me some donnie yen…but wow…
it’s really good on the regular channels, cable is pretty bad though except for ESPN
the only crappy thing is their HD DVR only records about 10 hours before its full. i’d get tivo or build a computer but i already got 27 things in my entertainment center, no room for it.
also their on demand is awesome but CBS is the only channel that has all their on demand in HD. every other channel I watch is SD only or only a couple of shows are HD.
all movie channels are HD/SD except HBO which is SD only
sure its not lose less audio but you still get dodby/dts surround sound and to me thats good enough.