1. Independent resolutions for the Dashboard, Gaming, and Blu-Ray playback. I’d like to be able to set my Dashboard and Gaming to 720p, and Blu-Ray movie playback to 1080i. Developers can already force games to 720p regardless of dashboard resolution, so why not just expand the options and make them available to the user. This would be great because…

2. What’s the point of setting up the audio formats your AV amp supports only to have Blu Ray movies default to plain old DD 5.1 (640kps bitrate)? Should I really have to go into the options menu of my Casino Royale disc in order to enable uncompressed 5.1 surround (4.6Mbps bitrate)? How about making the PS3 a bit more intelligent – isn’t that Cell processor meant to be a super computer ? Let me choose my preferred audio and video options, then actually use them.

3. Let me stream movies from my Mac. In any format. And while your at it Mr Sony, let me also stream MP3s and Photos.

The biggest surprise was the Audio. Casino Royale has regular Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtracks and a full, uncompressed, linear PCM 5.1 surround track. The difference is very impressive. Regular DD has a bitrate of 640kps which works out at 106kps per channel, which is pretty much an average MP3. Linear PCM 5.1 has a bitrate of 4600kps which works out at 766kps per channel. That’s a 7 fold increase in definition, which I guess is like comparing low bit rate MP3 with CD. The difference is noticeable. It’s not just more detailed (though the rain in the opening jungle scene was most impressive) but also a much fuller, stronger, louder sound. It really is Hi-Fi. It delivers that cinema experience like never before. I look forward to experiencing the Matrix on Blu Ray one day as that has a particularly good soundtrack which can only benefit from HD audio.

The thing is, just like HDTV, the picture does look better than DVD, but it’s not knock-your-socks-off, blow-your-mind better. You won’t see the difference in video quality that you saw going from VHS to DVD, and as such I find it hard to see the masses flocking to either HD-DVD or Blu Ray in favour of DVD. Instead I see it as a format that only the most dedicated gadget lovers will buy, just like SACD and DVD-Audio, both of which ended up failing to replace CD. Still, I’d love to be proven wrong, and I’m rooting for Blu Ray over HD-DVD for no reason other than I have a Blu Ray player in my PS3. Check out the images below for a comparison (click to enlarge).

edit: I think I like it.

HD players such as the PS3 can decode the new HD audio CODECs (used on Blu Ray and HD DVD) and send them to an AV amp via HDMI as MPCM (Multi Channel Linear PCM data). Thus, if your amp can accept MPCM over HDMI then it doesn’t need to be able to decode the new HD Audio CODECs such as TrueHD or DTS HD. Instead these are decoded by the source (eg. PS3) and sent to the amp via HDMI. Which explains why my Denon AV3806 displays “MULTI CH IN” when I connect the PS3.

This link explains it way better than I could ever do.

The only disappointment on the hardware front is the pad, which is the worst I’ve ever used. The triggers are convex instead of concave… which results in your fingers insisting on slipping off the triggers. So you have to press harder than normal to keep a grip. Add to that the compact size of the pad and it just leads to arm and hand fatigue. This is lessened somewhat by using your middle fingers instead of index fingers on the triggers, though this feels so odd that you find yourself reverting to index fingers again.

The games I’ve bought are Motorstorm and VF5. First impressions of Motorstorm are very very good. It’s beautiful, smooth, and very hard. I love it. It’s a lot of fun, surprisingly deep for an off-road arcade racer, and has top notch physics and handling. Definitely the best launch game on the system, and one of the best next gen games on any console. VF5 is again a beautiful looker with a smooth framerate. Disappointingly though, you can’t choose a preferred resolution for the game, so it defaults to the dashboard resolution. Not a big problem, though games tend to run better at 720p whilst movies and the dashboard are better at 1080i. My one gripe after a short time with VF5 is around the controls. At times, pressing the buttons did nothing. Button lag? A bug? A one off? I don’t know, I’ll boot it up again tomorrow to see if it’s still there. It’s certainly a gamebreaker… so the jury is still out on VF5.

I’ve not tried any media playback yet, but like the 360, it only plays certain formats. Unlike the 360 you can’t stream though, unless you install Linux on the PS3, which I’m not inclined to do. When you first register your PS3 and select an online ID it makes mention of the Blu Ray Disc offer. A google suggests that the first 500,000 registered users get a free copy of Casino Royale on Blu Ray… so here’s hoping. For now, I have no Blu Ray Discs so can’t comment on performance. I’ll wait for the R2 version of T2.

All in all, very happy. It’s keeping me away from Crackdown on the 360 at the moment, which is telling as Crackdown is superb. I’m unlikely to be lured back to the 360 in a hurry, that is, until Forza 2 hits the 360 in May. Motorstorm rocks. Who said the PS3 didn’t have a killer app?

Update: I’m not seeing any button lag in VF5 today, so that must have been a one off. It’s a lovely game too, but very complex.

The Philips director, whom I’ve been dealing with over this matter, started out on this whole debacle as a nice guy trying to help. He even sent out some of his colleagues to look into the issues I was experiencing with the TV. Over the course of the weeks and months that followed he became less helpful and more aggressive.

One excuse followed another, with ridiculous claims as to the cause and that in fact the TV was functioning correctly. Each claim I debunked. Finally I sent photographic evidence of the problem (documented elsewhere on this site) and explained in detail what the problem was, such that it was undeniable. Again he came back with more painfully idiotic excuses before essentially threatening me not to take the action further.

Every single reason they gave for the issue was laughable and without foundation. I personally believe that Philips felt that repairing my TV would open the flood gates to more requests for repair as the fault exists on all PF9986 LCDs, not just an isolated few, and this would cost them money. It’s especially sad given that a firmware update might well have resolved the matter.

The PF9986 was Philips flag-ship TV. It cost a lot of money. It should have been fault free. Philips should have rectified the fault or replaced the set the minute the fault was reported. Instead they have a poor after-sales service, and are quite happy to leave the customer hanging with a faulty TV. I’d never buy from Philips again.

The fault, in case you’ve not been reading my blog, has to do with the way the TV displays a 1280×720p signal over component. It does a fine job over VGA, but over component it shifts the image off the side of the screen. Philips say that all you have to do is use the cursor on the TV remote to bring the image back onto the screen. Unfortunately, they don’t provide enough adjustment to do so, and you’re left with a 1cm wide strip of the picture missing on the right edge of the screen, this in addition to the unfortunate borders which you must live with if you buy an 9986.

The borders are one thing. I knew that when I bought the TV. But losing some of the image, even just that 1cm wide strip off the right side, is very poor on a ?