Sometimes film grain is just more visible in HD releases.

In the early days of DVD, they would digitally remove film grain and then sharpen the image so that it looked good on SD (standard definition) TVs. But people started noticing the problems that excessive edge enhancement and grain reduction caused on DVD, mainly halos appearing around objects from excessive sharpening and people's skin looking like plastic from grain reduction.

So with Blu-ray they are cutting back more on the use of edge enhancement and grain reduction. Some people prefer that Blu-rays look like the original film material, and that includes the grain. The movie "300" was digitally filmed, but they actually added a grain effect later to make it look more like traditional film.

To find out if it's just the grain that you are seeing, and not some other problem, rent "Cars" or "Ratatouille" on Blu-ray. They were both rendered directly to a digital image, so there should be no grain. How do they look?

You also might want to tune your TV's settings (there are calibration discs that walk you through it). Your TV might be set up to exaggerate contrast and brightness, they do that to make them stand out at the store. A simple fix might be to just change the automatic picture settings from "Vivid" to "Film" or "Standard".

I have a projector and a 60GB launch PS3, and they do tend to heat the bedroom up. The projector is near one of the room's windows, so I can crack a few windows and the bedroom door slightly open and get some relief, the ceiling fan also helps move some air. In the winter I don't mind the warmth, my room gets a bit cold here in Milwaukee.

The big thing is getting the heat out of the room somehow, moving it around faster with a fan on the PS3 won't help you much.

The cable will either give you no signal or a signal. There's no kinda of signal or meh signal, its all or nothing. Twig978

The digital signal in an HDMI cable actually can deteriorate in distances over 50 feet when using cheaper cables. The lost data appears as "sparkles" or dropouts in the image: http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/other/cable-benchmark/hdmi-cable-benchmark.html .

Some older devices can be prone to HDMI handshake issues. A handshake is when two HDMI connected devices communicate with each other to determine that copyright protection is actively working (HDCP). If it's possible to upgrade the firmware on your TV, that may solve it (check the manufacturer's website to see if it is an option).

Another option is to use a component connector instead. Component connectors can support up to 1080p output for games, but max out at 1080i for Blu-ray movies (1080p is disabled to prevent copying of the disc's native video data).

Just change the settings BEFORE you switch TV's...

Buttons1990

So how is he supposed to switch the PS3 to use HDMI output while it is connected to a TV that has no HDMI input? Buy really long cables and attempt to switch them around during the 30 second interval?

When you change the video output mode to HDMI, the PS3 switches to HDMI output for the TV and then requires approval for the mode by navigating to "Yes" with the controller. He would not be able to see any menus to navigate to complete this step.

It's easier to just connect the PS3 to the other TV and then do a video/audio reset when turning it on (hold down the power button until it beeps a second time), it only takes a few seconds.

If you don't do that, you will need to reset the PS3 to factory default settings by holding the button on the front every time you switch TV's...

Buttons1990

Holding the power button down as described does not reset the PS3 to factory default settings. It sets the video output to 480i, and then walks you through the steps to automatically choose any other supported resolutions and audio modes. All the other system settings remain unchanged.

How big of a jump is it using an old (4-5 years) DVD player with old red, white, yellow cables to PS3 upscaling on an HDTV? Is it significant enough to be called a major feature that would warrant the purchase of a PS3?

thirdykal

If you can connect your existing DVD player with a component cable (and use the player's option menus to set the player to output in widescreen and progressive output), instead of using of the composite cable you describe, you will already see a vast improvement in picture quality on your HDTV, and also a more correct aspect ratio (true widescreen from widescreen DVDs instead of stretched pseudo-widescreen).

Or you could also just buy a new DVD player very cheaply and connect that with component cables (if the player supports it, most do now) to also see the improvement. Either way, the TV can do the upscaling from a component signal, you don't necessarily need an upscaling player, the quality of your TVs scaler might be just as good as the one in an upscaling DVD player. The key is to start correctly by sending it a 480p signal through component cables, instead of the 480i composite signal that goes through the yellow jack of an RCA cable.

The PS3 is a very good upscaling player, but you could still be happy (and keep your money for now) with a DVD player that can output in 480p through component cables.

Some of the online modes in GTA4 attract more players than others. I usually play Bomb da Base 2 and Hangman's Noose and there isn't much of a wait. Also those modes only support four players so that decreases the waiting time. Cops and Crooks really dropped off since launch, I get tired of waiting to get enough players for that.

I just got the Tritton AXpro headphones that have 4 speakers in each ear.

rougewarrior198

Those headphones look interesting. I bought a wireless pair of Sennheisers when Circuit City liquidated, but have been thinking about moving them to the TV room and getting surround headphones for gaming.

There are some reviews for surround sound headphones here: http://reviews.cnet.com/headphones/?filter=1000036_275413_500267_5026378_&tag=mncol .

Make sure you know what the connection type is, some are USB for use with a PC only.

Some headphones simulate surround while others claim to have "true 5.1 surround". True surround is also somewhat of a misnomer. They may be using three speakers on each side of the headset, which makes for a total of six, and the front center channel has to be represented by two of those side speakers.

If the connector for the headphone is a headphone jack or a pair of stereo plugs for it's wireless base, then it is really simulating the surround effect and not true surround. But I have read that some of the true surround headphones don't sound much more impressive than a stereo headphone with simulated surround, so you might want to try before you buy.

Whenever i switch my Audio settings to HDMI i get no sound. When i switch back to the regular cable input i get sound. Can anyone help?

bigboss1203

What do you mean by "regular cable input"? Do you have both an HDMI cable and a PS3 cable (composite, S-Video, or component type) connected to your TV or home theater receiver? It's possible that connecting a secondary audio supply to your device is forcing it to only listen on that input and ignore the HDMI output.