Best media functions, 360 or PS3

PhilGQ

PhilGQ

PhilGQ

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I am trying to decide which to have a 360 or a PS3. My major concern is having a decent hub for media in the living room.

I have a decent PC, so which ever console a I choose I will have range of games I can get between it and the computer, so this is not my biggest consideration.

I don't want to get a media extender or a media centre PC and I definitely want an HDMI port.

This makes it a choice between, the elite 360 and PS3. If I go for the PS3 it will be the 60GB. My Wife hates the Halo 360 and its her living room too so that is not an option.

Which should I choose?
 
For media playback I'm saying PS3. Comes with the blu-ray drive and wifi built in. It looks a lot more beautiful next to an LCD (as they are usually black with the chrome style finish).

I think you can stream stuff from your pc to your 360 via WMP but you can also do that with the PS3 with what ever media server program you pick.

The PS3 also has the different picture and song playback options. E.g. different slideshows and the effects on the music playback.
 
Depends what you are streaming as well - the 360 will stream WMV HD video which the PS3 wont, and neither will playback MKV/DivX/XVid (currently anyway)
 
McDaniel said:
and neither will playback MKV/DivX/XVid (currently anyway)
Click to expand...

The PS3 can playback those if you install Linux onto it, not really what the OP was asking but still worth pointing out.

Playback of HD Content on Linux isn't recommended though, its rather choppy.
 
I would probably be streaming mostly mp3 files, probably some mp4 videos. Maybe mpeg 2 as well. None of my media is in Windows formats.

The wireless would be needed, which I should have put in my first post.

I was drawn towards PS3 myself. Seems better value with the bundles you can pick up.
 
I have both and I use the PS3 for media because it's very quiet and I use it sometimes for Blu-Rays.

It's also very quick at loading DVDs, they also look superb upscaled and the menus are very sleek.

You say you need wireless so you just get a PS3, it costs around £50 for a wireless adapter for the 360.
 
Actually it's a difficult decision.. and it depends on it's usage with media..

Just plugging a HDD into or storing media on the device, then neither natively play a great deal.. Music formats are covered, video is lacking, DivX/XVid being the obvious.
However, you can install linux on the PS3, and run VLC/MPLayer or any other popular linux media player. The onlydown side is having to boot to linux, and use the utlilitarian VLC interface, it's easy enough if you use PC media players, but it's not family friendly.

It often works out more flexible to 'stream' media from your PC to your console..
The first level of this is to use a good uPnP server running on your PC, for example, TVersity
This allows you to play more media formats (XVid/DivX for example) through on the fly transcoding, and both console support these with little real issues.
The downsides are that the console uPNP interfaces are quite clunky and utilitarian, they will do the job, but not always the easiest to navigate, and some media needs fiddling with to get it to stream properly.
On this level, since both consoles will stream the same type of stuff, the BR player on the PS3 would make it slightly better.

Going one further, if you installed Win XP MCE or Vista Home Premium and used the 360 as a media extender (despite you not wanting to ;), this will give you an uber slick media front end on your console, and with a modicum of setting up, you can stream pretty much anything you want to the 360, all indexed beautifully with nice menu's, even my 4 year old can use it!..

I'd not recommend either as a stand alone media 'centre'.. the PS3 with Linux would be the best solution, but it's no where near family friendly.. there are better standalone media streamers for £150 or less that would do a better job (other then BR/HD-DVD obviously)..

I personally still use my HTPC (£280 PC) sat under the TV, it's quieter then even the PS3, plays everything and using a free media front end (Media Portal), the missus can use it when I'm not there!... BR and HD-DVD drives are easily added, and it's upgradeable..

Some food for thought, if you give more details of what you would like it to do, we can probably offer more tailored advice..
 
Inoshishi said:
The PS3 can playback those if you install Linux onto it, not really what the OP was asking but still worth pointing out.

Playback of HD Content on Linux isn't recommended though, its rather choppy.
Click to expand...

Aye true but as you say when in Linux it only uses 2 (i think) of the processors and thus isnt the best for HiDef stuff.

I still use my xbox with XBMC for all non HD stuff
 
PhilGQ said:
I would probably be streaming mostly mp3 files, probably some mp4 videos. Maybe mpeg 2 as well. None of my media is in Windows formats.

The wireless would be needed, which I should have put in my first post.

I was drawn towards PS3 myself. Seems better value with the bundles you can pick up.
Click to expand...

Well you can stream all those file formats and more to BOTH consoles using TVersity Media server (both PS3 and 360 do it just as well as each other). I would personally go for the PS3 if my main goal was for media, simply because its all in one package (wireless, blu-ray).
 
Thanks for the info.

I have Vista, but its the basic version, so rules out being a media extender. The linux thing seems like it could be good. Ubuntu do the PS3 version and do Mythbuntu, I haven't yet seen Mythbuntu for PS3 though, this would seem like an obvious progression. Particularly if they get the bluray working (as if)! I also duel boot Ubuntu on my PC so this gives me some potential for front end back end stuff.

Yes I think PS3 seems like the best bet for me.
 
* Im not 100% sure on it, but I've read somewhere that TVersity works with Vista
* i believe transcode360 does also if you go down the 360 route of course

Both true I believe.

My experience is with MCE+Transcode, and PS3+Tversity.

Transcode has given me less problems, and the whole MCE interface is as mentioned much nicer. Tversity (on PS3) is utilitarian, but does the job. I've had more pauses/skips with this than on 360 though (virtually never).

Fast forward/skip is better with MCE, even with transcoded AVI. It's hit and miss, but with tversity anything above x1.5 speed is a no go full stop.

I find myself using PS3 more now though for the quieter operation. Not that the 360 bothered me much, but in comparison it is a lot more noticeable.

If I could only have one, and only taking media streaming into account, it would be 360.
 
Do you have an All-In-One type remote control for your system? If so, then that causes a problem for PS3 as its remote is Bluetooth, whereas 360's is IR.
 
Deffinitly the PS3 for media, as a lot of the other posters have already pointed out. Also as the above post mentions being able to swap the HDD on the PS3 also is a big bonus if your going to have a lot of media on there.
 
kalanium said:
Well you can stream all those file formats and more to BOTH consoles using TVersity Media server (both PS3 and 360 do it just as well as each other). I would personally go for the PS3 if my main goal was for media, simply because its all in one package (wireless, blu-ray).
Click to expand...
This is where my PS3 gets the most use, it's great for media.
TVersity is an absolute gem of a program, it's not perfect, but considering it's 100% free, there's really very little to grumble about.

kalanium said:
Im not 100% sure on it, but I've read somewhere that TVersity works with Vista
Click to expand...
Yup, I'm running it fine under Vista HP x64.
The only bug in that is some fiddling you have to do to get the sound working properly on mkv files, but it's easy enough to fix.
 
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