Playstation3 MKV support, found a way...

iv-tecman

iv-tecman

iv-tecman

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For those who have a PS3 and would like to play back MKV, well that's not possible natively, but a little program call MKV2VOB will open the container and convert to m2ts, a file format that the PS3 can use..

Sadly, if your MKV was in DTS, it downstreams to AC3 5.1 digital, however better then no playback at all...

Sorry if this has been posted before... Oh and also got yellow dog 6.0 for PS3 now working, so got myself a nice Linux install, and just formatted an external drive (500GB) into FAT32 (only format the PS3 can use for external HDD) and now I've got a nice little media playback device, that can, sometimes be used for games...

lol I dunno, got a PS3, spent more time trying to make it into a Network Media Tank, or a full fledged Linux computer.... I just like to tinker...
 
Thought this was common knowledge but thanks anyway :)

Linux on the PS3 is severely crippled though and can't run some HD media properly.
 
Kreeeee said:
Thought this was common knowledge but thanks anyway :)

Linux on the PS3 is severely crippled though and can't run some HD media properly.
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Yeah first time I've ever had a play on a PS3, however I was happy when it worked so thought I'd share, in case someone else doesn't know what I've just learnt...

And, that explains why VLC with HD content is poor, reason I went with the MK2VOB convert, as Linux with MKV works on the PS3, but its poor. Very choppy.
 
As kreeee said most people knew this already, however, it is always nice to have someone make an informative post every now and then so these things can be easier to access for those that don't know this information.

MKV2VOB is fantastic, especially for most television show encodes as they already use codecs that the ps3 supports, so a 10 second remux is all thats needed (this applies to some movie backups too). The problem with MKV is that it is simply a container, there is a huge collection of codecs for audio and video that could be held within, the PS3 COULD play many MKVs (the aforementioned tv-recordings) however, there would just be too many it couldn't for them to feasibly allow MKV playback.

Maybe one day they will add support for the majority of codecs and enable MKV support, the hardware is capable, but it might be viewed as condoning piracy as those norty people that put their backups on the internet tend to use MKV.

[EDIT] Other great tools people should know of are:

Tversity - a media server that reencodes media files on the fly to be PS3/360 compatible on the fly, you need a quad core PC to transcode high definition media reliably though.

HFS or Redkawa: HTTP media servers that, using the PS3s built in internet explorer, allows users to transfer larger files over their network. This is fantastic for transferring media files over 4gig in size due to the FAT32 external drive limitation.
 
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Ooo thanks for the recommendation in regards to RedKawa... I'll have a play with this, the FAT32 4GB limitation is a problem with full length movie files....

After all said and done, the PS3 is a lot of console for your money. I'm amazed with what it can do if you search and unlock the hidden potentials..
 
iv-tecman said:
After all said and done, the PS3 is a lot of console for your money. I'm amazed with what it can do if you search and unlock the hidden potentials..
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Couldn't agree more, i bought it purely for MGS4, FFXIII and the next team ICO game whatever that may be yet i am continually impressed by little things i didn't know it was capable of.
 
Streeteh said:
HFS or Redkawa: HTTP media servers that, using the PS3s built in internet explorer, allows users to transfer larger files over their network. This is fantastic for transferring media files over 4gig in size due to the FAT32 external drive limitation.
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Have you actually tried this? Because IIS doesn't let you and also fails due to a file size limit. The best way to do this is to use Windows Media Player sharing, that gets around the 4GB limit without having to install any software.

ps3movie.jpg
 
philds said:
Have you actually tried this?
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Yes with 8gig 720p mpeg files, worked fine, maybe 13gig is just too big?

[EDIT] Further reading shows that MP4 is limited to 4gig, but no mention of a limit for MPEG, someone claiming to have transferred and played a 12gig video
 
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Right, Red Kawa didn't work for transfer of large files over 4GB, it only for some reason sees my USB HDD, and that can only support 4GB or lower... Due to being FAT32..

So I tried HFS, and that worked, it allowed me to transfer the file to the internal HDD. It told me I had 20GB free?? Thought it was a 40GB HDD internally...

Take it, the system comes partitioned off or something? I need to get a larger internal HDD, I'm going to have this filled in no time at all...

Some more google searching to see if you can fit larger drives... You know, I 'might' actually play a game on this console, before I've tried to get myself a freebie HTPC.. lol
 
Streeteh said:
You can fit nearly any laptop SATA harddrive into the PS3 without invalidating the warranty, instructions to do so are outlined in the manual, it's very easy.
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Cool... Nice to see Sony was forward thinking and allowed users to upgrade the drive without voiding the warranty...

Now, need to find me self a nice 320gb or larger SATA drive. :D Well, if I'm going to upgrade, might as well go big, no point in getting 80GB or something.... Way I consume disk space, that'll last like a week...

edit

Hmmm that was easy

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-016-FJ&tool=3

Went with 5400rpm, not sure if anything faster would overheat the PS3 unit.....
 
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So couldnt a converted MKV to m2ts be recorded onto a Blu Ray disc and played back as a single file if lets assume it is over 4GB.

Is this possible?
 
Mr Latte said:
So couldnt a converted MKV to m2ts be recorded onto a Blu Ray disc and played back as a single file if lets assume it is over 4GB.

Is this possible?
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Yep but it's cheaper and easier to just use Windows Media Player to share the video across the network, access it from the PS3 then press Triangle to copy it to the PS3 and play back as normal.
 
Mr Latte said:
So couldnt a converted MKV to m2ts be recorded onto a Blu Ray disc and played back as a single file if lets assume it is over 4GB.

Is this possible?
Click to expand...

As stated above, streaming is the cheapest way to play back HD media files, if you must burn stuff to a disk that is possible however you seem to have overlooked writable DVD9s which hold over 8GB which is more than enough for most 720p films and cost a fraction of the price of a writable blu-ray disk.
 
Mr Latte said:
So couldnt a converted MKV to m2ts be recorded onto a Blu Ray disc and played back as a single file if lets assume it is over 4GB.

Is this possible?
Click to expand...

I have copied them to DL DVD's and got them to play back but they seem a bit stuttery so you really need to copy them across to the HDD.
 
iv-tecman said:
Cool... Nice to see Sony was forward thinking and allowed users to upgrade the drive without voiding the warranty...

Now, need to find me self a nice 320gb or larger SATA drive. :D Well, if I'm going to upgrade, might as well go big, no point in getting 80GB or something.... Way I consume disk space, that'll last like a week...

edit

Hmmm that was easy

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-016-FJ&tool=3

Went with 5400rpm, not sure if anything faster would overheat the PS3 unit.....
Click to expand...

3.5" HDD's are cheaper and come much bigger... I'm still toying with the idea of getting a terrabyte drive to sit alongside my PS3 :D
 
I wouldn't recommend streaming, just a straight copy to the PS3 HDD, assuming you have free HDD space. Save some power by turning off your PC while watching 1.5-2hr movies!
 
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