Review of the Sony PS3 Remote Control for Blu-Ray and DVD

Review of the Sony PS3 Remote Control for Blu-Ray and DVD
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Blu-Ray on the PS3

I love watching high definition Blu-Ray movies on my HDTV, and I watch them using my PlayStation 3 video game console instead of a standalone Blu-Ray player. Did you know that the PS3 is considered one of the best Blu-Ray players you can get because of all the built-in hardware it uses to run the video games? The only downside to watching movies on the PS3 is that the controller doesn’t make that great of a remote control. That’s why I bought the Sony PS3 Remote.

Setup (5 out of 5)

Setting up this remote just requires you go into the PS3 system menu and look under Accessories to where you will tell your PS3 that you have a new device. It’s all included in the manual and takes about 10 seconds to complete. After that, the PS3 will treat the remote like another controller, and you can use the remote to turn on the system. Since it features all the same buttons, plus more, as the controller, I suppose that you could technically use the remote as a controller, but you’d have to be truly hardcore for that.

Sony PS3 Remote

Button Layout (4 out of 5)

The layout of the buttons is pretty much like most remote controls. The bottom half has the Play, Stop, Pause, Fast Forward, and Rewind buttons. The top half deals with menu controls, plus it has buttons labeled to correspond with the different shaped buttons on the PS3 controller. My only complaint about the layout of this remote is the placement of the stop button. It is below Play and above Pause, and it’s very easy to bump the Stop button accidentally. If you do, it’ll kick you back out to the menu screen, and that’s really annoying. If you look at how pretty much every other remote control is designed, they don’t use a button placement like how Sony did this PS3 remote.

PS3 Remote vs. Controller (5 out of 5)

Rather than recharge like a PS3 controller, this remote runs off a pair of AA batteries. That’s another reason why it is better to get this remote because it uses its own batteries and won’t run down the power of a PS3 controller while it sits there idle as you watch a movie. I constantly had to recharge my controllers because of running them down while watching movies. This remote costs half of what a controller does, and AA batteries are pretty cheap. You do the math.

Sony is Best (5 out of 5)

There are a few different remote controls available for the PS3, but this one made by Sony is the best because it uses Bluetooth technology to wirelessly connect to the system. Some of the other remotes make you plug a little USB adapter into one of your front ports on the PS3, so they don’t have as great a connectivity as the Bluetooth, plus it takes up one of your USB ports. This Sony brand one is usually just 5 dollars more than the other brands, and that little bit of extra cost is very much worth it.

Overall (5 out of 5)

In order to get the most out of Blu-Ray movies on your PS3 and HDTV, don’t forget to use an HDMI cable. I found this Sony PS3 Remote to be far superior to using the PS3 game controller as a remote control for watching movies. It retails for approximately $20.