PS3 loves the scratched DVDs the 360 hates

[Zeus]

It seems as though the PS3 has a higher tolerance for scrathced discs. PS3 & 360 owners have noticed that DVDs that the 360 spits out due a scratch or two play absolutely fine on the PS3. Does the PS3 has a much higher tolerance for damaged discs or has MS just been stingy with the with the 360 DVD drive?



Yesterday was the "decorate the tree" day at my house, and Jess ran to the library while the kids were napping to grab some Christmas movies. I don't have a regular DVD player hooked up... with both the 360 and the PS3 in house, I thought it would be a little redundant. So we put a movie into the 360 and started watching Bob the Builder save Christmas. Of course, after a few minutes it jammed up and gave me the "OMG THE DISC WON'T PLAY" achievement notification that the 360 pops up when your disc has a scratch or two on it.

Frickin' discs from the library. It's like they let just anyone check 'em out.

So on a lark I moved the disc over to the PS3, and to my surprise it played fine. The rest of the movies did as well. All the discs that the 360 choked on, the PS3 played without a problem. While I was talking about this with some of the other Ars editors, it turns out that Ken has noticed this as well. His one-year-old loves to destroy discs, but the PS3 plays on when the Xbox 360 chokes. Of course Ken also raised a good point, which is the fact that the PS3 is also quieter during playback


News Source: <a href="http://arstechnica.com/journals/thumbs.ars/2006/12/10/6237" target=_blank">arstechnica</a>

[thePANICHIOteam]

Same for me. The question is how will the ps3 cope with mangled blu-ray discs.

[{{909}}]

from what i read, the bluray format is alot more prone to errors from scratched disks since the tracks (or whatever theyre called) are so close together, so maybe the drives have to be produced at a much higher quality to compensate for that, resulting in better dvd reading. Would be a first for a playstation to have a better than average lens ;)

[wigsplitta]

I believe that manufacturers make the lens sensitive on purpose. It's another way to control piracy to some extent. Tweak the laser and it's fine.

[LordX]

it depence on cash memory ( buffer ) for video data.
this is just software, PS3 have bigger buffer for video.
easy to fix this on XBOX360 , just dashboard update and it will update the buffer to 20sec, if now it is 5sec .

[mattrb]

This is not news for people who have both. I have a 360 that doesnt just have problems reading scratched disks, it scratches them from high spin. I modded it to make pads on the inside of the drive but it just made it worse. Thank God I can just use alcohol and a pad to take the pad streak off.
The Playstation series has always had good Drive readers.

For all that dont know, Blu-ray disks have a NEW coating that protects disks WAY WAY more then the average disk. To the point where one can use a sharp edge and scratch the disk with little or no damage. Superdisk.

This issue doesnt matter to me because the my Xbox 360 is way better then my PS3 because there are shytty games for the PS3. Maybe ill wait til the PS4, when sony gets the next gen console formula right!

[loliix]

Slower drives have better fault tolerance.. What's the news?

[cory149]

Slower drives have better fault tolerance.. What's the news?
True, but faster driver are capable of going slower too, and should technically do so when they come to data that has to be re-read a certain number of times (instead of just ejecting the disk).

Anyone know off hand what speed CD/DVD (RPM and xCD speed) media is read on the PS3 BR drive? Is it actually slower than the speed blue ray is read? 'Cause I know my PS2's drive spins a HECK of alot faster when reading CD media than it does reading DVD media (and thus should be more prone to errors reading CD's than DVD's by loliix's logic).

[MadonnaProject]

OH COME ON NOW....

in the beginning i heard rumours of thomson drives for the xbox breaking down on people after only a week. My xbox has lasted with the same thomson for ages, and reads dvdr and dual layer dvds and single layer dvds, cds and everything else. the only thing it doesnt read is cdr, which thomson actually blocked out.

anyways, my xbox has also been the worst most mistreated console i have ever had, its been kicked, kept without being cleaned once, causing mountains of dirt to form on it and inside it and its still going fine. *knocks wood*.

with sony's track record for maiing the worst dvd drives in the universe, EVER. with the ps2 lense breaking down simply because you happened to look at the ps2 the wrong way, i think i will be extremely careful before believing the ps3's lense is any good. no thanks.

[deadsoulasis]

the blu ray laser is alot better then 360's...thats all you need to know

not to bash 360 ...old ol red laser is old already ...time for Blu for the real next gen. (besides the laser is quad coated for maximum readability unlike the double coated red)

[anthrox]

Sony designs it playstation drives to do these and this is why so many people buy another playstation everyone i know has at least got 2 ps2 in there lifespan becasue unlike nintendo and microsoft systems where if they hit an error thats too hard to read it errors sony will just keep at it even thought it might degrade/kill the lazer more over time

its easyer to replace a $20 dvd than replacing a $1000 system same goes for games but remember sony is a hardware company the other are software

this is why Nintendo is smart with the wii it could play dvd's but they dont becasue they know that a dvd players better and cheaper to replace than a 399 system FOR GAMES

you could also look if from this kinda point aswell you have a package thats 50cmx50cmx50cm easy fit into a my little shitbox 4cyl car it cheaper on petrol aswell but i could take the same package in my V8 TURBO GSR CLUB SPORT TRUCK but im not becuase it would cost me **** Loads more in the long run and also the shitbox cars easy to replace that the v8 so dont use you console to play dvd it will fucking last longer

[KainXS]

the blu ray laser is alot better then 360's...thats all you need to know

not to bash 360 ...old ol red laser is old already ...time for Blu for the real next gen. (besides the laser is quad coated for maximum readability unlike the double coated red)


yeah i think your right at that one

and for the last time
the 360 drive isn't even faster than the ps3's blu ray drive when it comes to dvds
the ps3 drive reads slower with blu ray format dics

[Scorpion3]

yeah i think your right at that one

and for the last time
the 360 drive isn't even faster than the ps3's blu ray drive when it comes to dvds
the ps3 drive reads slower with blu ray format dics

Oh...I guess this explains the bad framerates in PS3 games. :rolleyes:

But back to the subject, I've NEVER noticed my 360 not play a game due to a scratch. Even with my Original Halo game, and I mean original. (Bought on November 15'th)

[yusky03]

my xbox (not 360) chokes on everything it will not play any burned cd and it gets stuck on any scratched cd but my ps2 will play eveything i throw at it

[technosexual]

yea br discs are supposed to have a pretty scratch resistant coating, and the drives were supposed to be a bit more fault tolerant. this isnt really news.