Criterion Collection's reference Blu-ray player is a PS3

[Mr Kleen]

Criterion Collection's reference Blu-ray player is a PS3

It goes without saying that the folks who work at Criterion Collection are film buffs. And anyone who has watched one of the company's lovingly remastered DVDs can attest to the fact the company really cares about making films look as good as they can. That's why we took notice when a poster at AVS Forum pointed out an interesting tidbit in Sound & Vision's recent profile of Criterion Collection's new high-def home theater--Criterion's reference Blu-ray player is a PS3.

We're not exactly surprised. We've been using the PS3 as our reference Blu-ray player at CNET since it was released, and you'll notice that it tops our best Blu-ray players list by quite a margin. Furthermore, it's worth noting that video quality expert Joe Kane help set up Criterion's new home theater room. When we checked out Joe Kane's demo of the truly awesome SP-A800B at CES, we specifically asked what Blu-ray player he thought had the best image quality, he immediately said the PS3. So if you're worried about the image quality of a "game console" versus a high-end standalone Blu-ray player, it's worth rechecking your assumptions when CNET, Criterion and Joe Kane all vouch for the PS3's excellent performance.

Another interesting piece of gear we noted from the S&V article is a DVI Gear HDMI cable. That's right, the image quality experts at Criterion opt for the relatively cheap DVI Gear brand rather than splurge on a $275 Monster cable. Again, that's no surprise to us, as we even recommended a $2 DVI Gear cable in our Quick Guide to HDMI cables. If the image quality experts at Criterion and CNET both agree that inexpensive cables generally perform just as well as more expensive cables, we're betting those cables are okay for your home theater too.

[Sabre]

Not too surprised here. It's one of the few players that gets constant updates and was made by the company who helped create the Blue-Ray standard. I'm a big supporter of monocable myself