The slim PS3 may play the latest high definition games, but it’s more than just a console: Sony’s machine is a media juggling set top box that more than matches the best PVRs, media streamers and Blu-ray boxes in the same price bracket. Can the slim PS3 help cut the cables and the clutter underneath your telly? Read on and find out in our full media and storage slim PS3 review.
Read the rest of our slim PS3 review
Slim PS3 review: Six months on
Slim PS3 review: Design and build
Slim PS3 review: Online abilities
It’s worth pointing out that beyond a more spacious hard drive, the slim PS3 offers little extra in media skills over the original PS3, but that means it’s one trailblazing box nevertheless. Undoubtedly the biggest selling point for the slim PS3 beyond its game catalogue is its Blu-ray skills. Connect the slim PS3 to your HDTV via an HDMI cable and you can watch Blu-ray movies in glorious high definition.
Blu-rays look eye poppingly glorious, and there are very few Blu-ray players in the same price bracket with as many other media skills. You’ll find things much easier to control if you buy the £15 PS3 Bluetooth remote control though, as pausing and playing with a slim PS3 gamepad can be more than a tad confusing.
Slim PS3 review: Six months on
If you’re a gadget early adopter, the slim PS3 has one more trick up its Blu-ray sleeve too: it’s 3D future proofed. The first dedicated 3D Blu-ray players are only starting to slip onto shelves now, but the PS3′s extra graphical skills means a software update is all that’s required to play the new format, and Sony has confirmed the feature is coming soon. Whether or not 3D Blu-ray movies will be a selling point remains to be seen, but it’s an extra feature you’ll be getting for free so we can’t complain.
The slim PS3′s home entertainment skills go one step further than just disc playback, of course. You can view photos set to music in the Photo Gallery app, although the slim PS3 lacks the camera card slots of earlier models, so you’ll need to slap them on a USB stick or DVD first. There are plenty of video on demand options online (See our slim PS3 review online breakdown for more on that), but our favourite option has to be PlayTV. It’s an extra add-on, and costs as much as £60, sure, but if you’re moving into a new place it’s well worth considering over another set top box.
It picks up Freeview TV channels with twin tuners, so you can pause live TV, record one while watching another, or play a game while it stores a programme in the background on the slim PS3′s 120GB hard drive. And if you have a PSP, you can even stream TV straight to it, at any Wi-Fi hotspot in the world.
As you’d expect, media is easily accessed from Sony’s instantly recognisable XMB menu system. You simply skip along to the right category and scroll down to launch. As well as media you’ve downloaded on to the hard drive, you can also fire up media from USB sticks, or home servers. The former does work fairly easily, but you’ll need to remember to put files in the right root folder (IE Video for video) or they won’t immediately show up on the XMB, and ensure that the USB stick is formatted in FAT32 rather than NTFS.
The hard drive boost on the slim PS3 (120GB or 250GB) however means you won’t forever be relying on memory sticks. Whereas you’d struggle to install more than a few games and downloads on a 20GB PS3, only the most voracious of consumers will fill up a 120GB hard drive: most standard definition movies on the PlayStation Store are around 1.5GB, meaning you can fit as many as 80 on at one time. It also means you can breathe easy using it as a Freeview PVR with PlayTV too.
Of course, even if you do fill up the hard drive on the slim PS3, its DLNA skills mean you can simply sling media to it from other computers on your home network. Wi-Fi streaming works a treat on the slim PS3, just as it does on the original model. There’s free software readily available for PC and Mac to turn your computer into a media server and let you chuck music and video straight to your console, and it’s easy to set them up.
You can happily stream full HD video if you’ve got a hardwired connection, and even 720p video over Wi-Fi in most cases, and while rewinding or fast forward through flicks is surprisingly efficient, the options on the slim PS3 are now starting to look a bit limited.
Slim PS3 review: Design and build
Firstly, the file format support is restricted to just AVI, MP4, AVCHD and WMV. There’s no option for increasingly popular MKV HD video files, which many new media streamers now offer, and there’s an irritatingly unfixed glitch which prevents MP4 files from streaming in realtime over Wi-Fi. Given DVD ripping software Handbrake no longer lets you convert to AVI, this will be a major headache for some users. You can simply bung videos on a USB stick, sure, but it’s nowhere near as convenient as streaming.
If you’re looking at splashing out on a console for more than the games it plays, we’d certainly pick the slim PS3 over the Xbox 360. It’s got Blu-ray, future proofing and no sneaky annual charges for services. If you’re not fussed about HD TV channels, the slim PS3 is the only set top box you’ll ever need.
Read the rest of our slim PS3 review
Slim PS3 review: Six months on
Slim PS3 review: Design and build
Slim PS3 review: Online abilities
