Long time reader, first time poster. I must say a really nice fourm.

So this is a question for the smart people around here. In trying to work around the lack of HDMI connection from a PS3 to the 990, I was thinking that the USB connection could be used. So I need to live vicariously through someone with a PS3 and a 990 to experment for me. Wife says no PS3 until I know it will work. A couple of questions about that...

Can the USB take multi channel uncompressed PCM or is it only a 2 channel input? My understanding is that it is only a 2 channel set up.

Can the PS3 output True Dobly HD as 5.1 (7.1) uncompressed pcm over one of its USB connections? I know they have head set that attache to the USB ports, but can you connect the 990 the same way?

So if someone would like to give this a try and let me know that would be great. You will spark the start of the new Home Theater Experiance. The wife says we can get a new TV and blue ray player but it has to work just so.

Thanks -

The USB connection will only support two-channel PCM.

As for whether the PS3 can output audio (PCM or otherwise, any number of channels) over USB, I don't have a PS3 to experiment with either but I've not heard any hints that this may be possible. My suspicion is that audio output from the PS3 to the 990 via USB is not possible. If I'm wrong, though, it'll be limited to two-channel PCM.

I have both the 990 and PS3. I follow PS3 forums regularly and have never heard about it having the ability to pass audio via USB, so I would not bet on it.
That being said, the PS3 has optical output which will pass audio at a higher bit rate than standard DVD. No it's not as good as the lossless audio, but it sounds great. Based on this I don't really understand your, (your wife's) reasoning for NOT getting a PS3 if you want one. My opinion is it's a great value and a great BD player. If you don't play games, then I'd just get a stand alone blu-ray player with 7.1 outputs to go with 990. This way the player can do the decoding and you can get the lossless audio.
My plan is to upgrade pre-pro's in the not too distant future in order to get lossless audio in 5.1 with the PS3. I hope that Outlaw releases the "new 990" by then...

Thanks guys. I appreciate the insit. Oh, I re-read my post. The wife thing is about playing music over the PS3 from the computer. I am trying to solve the whole anolog input thing for the 990 to use zone 2. Sorry I was confusing my topics there.

The optical output from the PS3 could be use for DVD, Blu-ray, games, and files on the PC when using the 990's main zone - Blu-ray content would be encoded on the fly to high-bitrate Dolby Digital, I believe (I'm pretty sure PS3 uses DD for this rather than DTS), but everything else would be in whatever its native format is. You could also connect the stereo analog output (using the included "AV MULTI OUT" composite video/stereo anaog audio cable) to the 990, which would allow you to have audio in the second zone if you needed it. If, for example, you set up VIDEO2 on the 990 to use Optical1 and DVI1 (assuming that the PS3 is connected to Optical1 for audio and DVI1 for video) and connect the left and right analog audio cables to VIDEO2 as well, at which point zone 2 would use that analog connection when set to VIDEO2.

The question that I wansn't sure about was that you could send audio out two different out puts on the PS3. It seemed that you could only do one or the other and that it required switching with in the PS3 to pick the output. The goal is to accomplish this with a universal remote with out the OSD of the PS3. Maybe I am getting too far ahead of myself.

Ahhh... The PS3's outputs... I do recall hearing at one time that you couldn't output component and HDMI video simultaneously, but disabling analog audio just because the optical digital output is in use would seem pretty odd. Of course, just because it seems odd doesn't mean that Sony didn't do exactly that - the audio output screen forces you to pick between HDMI audio, optical audio, or stereo analog audio. That's obnoxious. It simplifies their audio signal processing, of course (only downmix to stereo and push data to the DAC when you have to), but it does restrict setup options.

One thing to keep in mind about the universal remote approach: last time I heard, there is no official IR remote implementation available for the PS3. The only official remote that I've seen for the PS3 is a bluetooth device , and the PS2's IR-to-USB device and DVD remote apparently do not include all of the commands on the PS3's bluetooth remote. Maybe Iceman or someone else around here with a PS3 can offer some feedback on the differences between the PS3's bluetooth remote and the PS2's IR remote - or, if there is a decent IR solution for the PS3 yet, simply contradict my information.

The address below (sorry don't know how to do a link with this forum softwere) seems to be a perfect solution to the problem, if a bit expensive. The remote thing is the other part of the equation that I have to figure out as well. I just dream of one device simple intergration for my whole HT experiance and the ability to play guitar hero once and a while. The xbox might intergrat a little better, but Blu-ray seems to be the way to go. Who knows? I have to finish my basement first anyway.

Thanks for you in put. Very helpful.

http://www.zektor.com/mas71/index.html

The Zektor won't help you any because the PS3 lacks a multichannel analog output, so you end up in exactly the same situation.

Here's a question: what do you envision using the second zone for? If it were merely for listening to the radio, a CD, or maybe an MP3 file, you could leave the PS3 out of that equation entirely - just use the 990's tuner, any old CD or DVD player's stereo analog output, and maybe something relatively inexpensive like a Roku Soundbridge to provide those sources, then connect your PS3 or XBox (or both!) via optical for audio and HDMI (or component for the XBoxes that lack HDMI) for video.

Hey you are right, just a simple Linkys music bridge would proably do it for me. I guess then I could just use the PS3 for music in zone 1. I like your idea.

Now the question would be can you attach an external hard drive to a PS3 and get your computer to see it over the home network so I can store all my music lossless away from my computer?

We are in the middle of re-building our house so there are going to be some electronics bought once we get it put back together. It is nice to have some other to chew over these ideas with, as my wife doesn't like talking about it that much.

The PS3 does appear to support files stored on a USB drive (see this page for mention of this ability when playing back music), but I'm not familiar enough with it to know what file formats it works with. When you do this, though, I don't think there's any way to see the data from elsewhere on the network (short of moving the hard drive somewhere else) - so you wouldn't be able to store you music at the PS3 in this way and have that data available at your PC at the same time.

If you are remodeling and can add some wiring conveniently, I'd definitely suggest running some network cable to your entertainment center - I did that last year (thanks to the attic and one-story house) and have both an HD-A2 and a SoundBridge M500 on the network, making firmware updates for the HD-A2 painless and avoiding the need to ever worry about WiFi setup for the SoundBridge. With two more cable runs in place, I can add a PS3 and still have a free cable - and if I ever did need more network connectivity (can't imagine why I would now, but it's hard to tell what might crop up later), I could always stick a small network switch in the equipment rack.