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Sony PlayStation 3 Slim

Florian Friedrich The Sony PlayStation 3 Slim is a games console and Blu-ray player, on the market since September 2009, and currently selling for around 250 GBP.

Florian Friedrich, tested on December 18, 2009

HD films look superb.
Excellent DVD picture.
HD audio as bitstream or PCM.
Integrated hard disk.
It’s also a games console.
BD-Live and internet downloads.
Sophisticated network and multimedia functions.

High power consumption.
Audible fan.
No conversion of 1080i Blu-rays to 1080p.

The new slim version of the PlayStation 3 outperforms its predecessor — as well as being smaller and cheaper! On the wider market too, the wide range of functions makes it nigh-on unbeatable — so long as you don’t mind high power consumption and audible fan noise. And for anyone who’s cursed the older model’s lack of bitstream, HD-audio output, you can rest assured that the Slim has rectified its predecessor’s folly.

Multimedia

Like its predecessor the new PlayStation really is something special in this respect: You get unrivalled versatility for various internet applications, PC streaming via DLNA-compatible networks, and wireless data transmission via WLAN. The PS3 Slim also meets BD-Profile 2.0 for BD-Live, and offers a picture-in-picture (PIP) function, although there’s no direct PIP button on the remote, so you’re forced to access the function via the menus of corresponding Blu-ray discs. AVCHD-format videos play back on the PS3 Slim either from a DVD-ROM or via one of the two USB ports — to which you can also connect an SD-card reader, for example.

One especially practical feature: The PS3 Slim automatically recognises HD camcorder videos with a playlist file and plays back the videos all in one go — as well as allowing you to select individual videos manually. MPEG-2 and DivX videos also play back via USB, but DivX sometimes displays in the wrong aspect ratio and with bars on the sides. The only thing Sony’s wonder-console won’t play back is HD videos in H.264 format if you input them via USB.

Especially amateur photographers will love the PS3 Slim, which loads high-definition photos, and the corresponding previews, faster than all other players. The user can access attractively animated slideshows and zoom/crop functions via the console’s controller, making it easy to present photo albums in style. Photos also display in impressive quality; in fact, there’s just one tiny weakness: Within a large series of images, you have to start at the first image, instead of jumping to the most recent. With hundreds of pictures, therefore, navigation can take a very long time.

Other Features and Operation

The PlayStation controller: Great for trying your luck at video games, but not for menu-navigation. A separate remote-control handset is available at extra cost.

Speaking of navigation, the PlayStation’s speed surpasses that of all other players — regardless of whether you want to skip chapters, rewind or fast-forward, or just generally move through the menu system. Start-up time from standby and disc-loading times, on the other hand, are fairly average. And although the “Xross Media Bar” menu design turns out to be very versatile once you’ve got the hang of it, the large number of icons and windows appear confusing at first. One advantage of XMB is that it allows Sony to extend the player’s functionality at any time — in Europe, for example, Sony is currently (late 2009) introducing video downloads via its PlayStation Network.

on-screen menu

One of many submenus: the audio-output settings.

The Slim version has almost halved the power consumption of the original PS3, thanks to a change in the chip manufacturing. Still, even the new version needs way too much energy: Some new Blu-ray players draw just 15 watts; the PS3 Slim guzzles 93 watts!

Nevertheless, the Slim finally earns the PS3 the status of a fully featured Blu-ray player, since it can now also output HD audio as a bitstream. Most “normal” BD players have been able to do this for some time. Older HDMI receivers without decoders for HD audio also don’t go away empty handed — the PS3 Slim can decode HD signals and output them as PCM audio.

The Slim has fewer connections than the earlier version, but still gives you plenty of options. Via the Ethernet socket (left), for example, the console can connect to the internet or a DLNA network.

Time for a real novelty: You can control the Slim via your TV using the HDMI-CEC system. This worked best in combination with a Panasonic plasma (the TX-P42 G15 E) — here, for example, we could turn the PlayStation on and off via the HDMI connection, simply by switching the TV on or off, or to a different video source. But that’s not all: The TV’s remote control’s yellow button even allowed us to access the disc menu and the PS3 menu itself. Neither the old PlayStation 3 nor any other current player offers similar functionality.

Picture Quality

Blu-ray:

video frequency

Perfect — the slender new model’s video frequency response gives not even the slightest cause for complaint.

You should set the Slim’s HDMI format to “Y Pb/Cb Pr/Cr”, as well as activating the “Super-White” mode, in order to get the best dynamics out of Blu-rays. In this setup, the tested model outputs accurate levels for black, white, blacker-than-black, and whiter-than-white. Like the earlier version, this console displays films perfectly, sharply, and with no flicker in 1080p format at both 24- and 60-hertz.

But one weakness of the old PS3 remains in evidence here: HD documentaries still output as they are stored on the disc, namely in the interlaced 1080i format at 50 or 60 Hz. In these cases, the display or projector must then de-interlace the signal — and will therefore need a high-quality de-interlacer. One exception is AVCHD videos (profile High@4.0) burnt onto DVD-ROM in 1080/50i format, which one reader sent to us — with these recordings from Eurosport HD, the PS3 Slim surprised us by outputting progressive pictures in the Full HD format 1080/50p. Unfortunately, the Slim also lacks picture controls for improving poor-quality Blu-ray discs.

DVD:
Up-scaling of DVD video to 1080p produces an attractive picture. If you set the “BD / DVD Cinema Conversion” mode to “Automatic”, the console de-interlaces both TV pictures and films into accurate progressive material. In DVDs with a progressive flag, such as the epic “Gladiator”, the Slim displays a sharp, flicker-free image throughout. On the U.K. “superbit” release, which lacks a progressive flag, the results are almost identical: The numerous camera pans and tracking shots show no flicker for long periods of time, but the especially challenging beach scene on the DVD “Six Days Seven Nights” does trip the player up slightly — here, the sun loungers briefly flicker. In test patterns, we occasionally noticed slight blur on the finest vertical structures. This disappears if you output in the SDTV format 576p, but then the colours no longer match the HDTV standard BT 709 — this causes greens to look slightly oversaturated. DVD playback also provides three noise filters and the option to switch off picture-cropping (overscan).

Sound Quality

The new model transmits all high-bitrate audio formats correctly as a bitstream to modern HDMI receivers. This means you can enjoy the full dynamics of 7.1-channel sound. If you want, you can also switch the console to output PCM audio, but you’ll need to make a few adjustments in the audio menu if you want to get full, 7.1-channel PCM instead of lower-bitrate, 5.1-channel sound: You should not only activate the 7.1-PCM format, but also deactivate the 5.1-channel formats “Dolby Digital 5.1 Ch.” and “DTS 5.1 Ch.”. Analogue stereo sound outputs via an adapter, but only achieves an average signal-to-noise ratio of 94 dB.

Summary