PS3 and steaming videos

jas72

jas72

jas72

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Since the PS3 only has 40GB is it easy to stream files wirelessly from PC to PS3?

What like is the quality of say a ripped DVD?

I've searched sites for information but most of them talk only about firmware update 1.8 in May 2007 so really old news.

Any PS3 users out there that stream DVDs from their PC can tell me what type of files can be streamed and how they do it please?

Is WM11 still the best method or are their other better solutions?

Can AVI files be played?

I have a 360 and I'm impressed at it's streaming and upscaling qualities (32" sammy) I wondered if the PS3 is the same as after a brief flurry of gaming on the xbox I prefer the PC for gaming (mainly due to free vent and free gaming and the ability to type obscenities at other players when I die :p )

However, with Blu Ray winning the format war and me sitting with a nice HDTV and my videoshop stocking new titles in Blu Ray I think the time is ripe for the swap.
 
I got my PS3 on Friday and tried to get this working over the weekend.

While most DivX/XviD files play, quite a few of them didn't. x264 content was a bit of a hit-and-miss affair even after using mkv2vob to convert them to a format that the PS3 likes. The x264 content needs to be encoded with the L4.1 profile which is only starting to happen now.

Windows Media Player 11 only catalogues filetypes it recognises, so .mkv's don't show up unless you hack the registry. Twonky Media Server worked much better for me but it costs 30 euros.

I won't be getting rid of my HTPC anytime soon. If only Sony would let the homebrew guys develop apps that rival XBMC :(
 
So many new ps3 owners, so many questions, so many already answered in the FAQ, so little time.

Dunno If i can muster the energy to search my old answers to this question or not.....


rp2000
 
rp2000 said:
Dunno If i can muster the energy to search my old answers to this question or not.....


rp2000
Click to expand...


Well I've got another question :p, I'm using 'Tversity' atm to stream videos/music to my PS3 but what I hate about it is the fact that you have to refresh the shared folders on 'Tversity' for the PS3 to recognize any new files put or downloaded into the shared folders that I've setup, is there any app that doesn't require doing this, when I had the 360 I used 'media connect 2.0' and shared my downloads folder, any new files that appeared in that folder the 360 could browse then no problem without me having to update (refresh) the shared folder or even reboot the console to enable it to see the new files.
 
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lowrider007 said:
I don't want that, 'Tversity' already has that feature, I want the PS3 to recognise the new files in my shared folders in real time like the 360 does, can this be done ?
Click to expand...

I will check mine later (I think I still have tversity installed somewhere).


rp2000
 
rp2000 said:
So many new ps3 owners, so many questions, so many already answered in the FAQ, so little time.

Dunno If i can muster the energy to search my old answers to this question or not.....


rp2000
Click to expand...

sorry forgot to look however when i did a search on this forum for ps3 streaming the FAQ didn't appear. :confused:

/goes away to ponder life's mysteries and read the PS3 FAQ that of course has been updated recently?
 
jas72 said:
sorry forgot to look however when i did a search on this forum for ps3 streaming the FAQ didn't appear. :confused:

/goes away to ponder life's mysteries and read the PS3 FAQ that of course has been updated recently?
Click to expand...

If you are streaming to you 360 via WMP11 then it is done exactly the same on the ps3 (more or less) from the "pc" side of things.

You can stream back any file that will currently playback on the ps3 natively (off the hdd, usb stick etc). Currently this includes a lot of divx 4 and 5 content. xvid, mpeg2, h.264 (in some containers) and some other stuff as well.

Being as vague as possible those files of movies and tv shows you hear about people downloading from the internet tend to work if that is your thing. I would go as far as to say it will playback anything you can on the 360 (except possibly wmv and/or asf which are propriety MS formats?).

as "thewanted" mentioned you have to change a registry setting affecting WMP11 to get it to show up some files. I did it, as it just creates some file types for WMP11 to catalogue and does no harm to your system (I have read the file briefly before importing it). But I think this is a worthwhile step as it will increase the things you can stream to your 360 as well from WMP11 (I am assuming the 360 cannot see the full list of files without the reg file).

Any of these mkv files with ac3 audio can be converted to a file your 360 and ps3 will playback (through streaming or hdd,usb) the conversion is not long (much much quicker than realtime as I recall). I have had success with this so can't complain either.

Edit1: Maybe this thread will help: http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=17829701
Edit2: Maybe this thread will help: http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=17841097


rp2000
 
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lowrider007 said:
Well I've got another question :p, I'm using 'Tversity' atm to stream videos/music to my PS3 but what I hate about it is the fact that you have to refresh the shared folders on 'Tversity' for the PS3 to recognize any new files put or downloaded into the shared folders that I've setup, is there any app that doesn't require doing this, when I had the 360 I used 'media connect 2.0' and shared my downloads folder, any new files that appeared in that folder the 360 could browse then no problem without me having to update (refresh) the shared folder or even reboot the console to enable it to see the new files.
Click to expand...
I think TVersity has the option to change the refreshtime of the media files, doesn't that help you?

I stopped using TVersity when I bought a 2.5" external drive and now use that for video files and MP3's
 
rp2000 said:
I would go as far as to say it will playback anything you can on the 360 (except possibly wmv and/or asf which are propriety MS formats?).
Click to expand...

The PS3 now has wmv and i think asf playback now too, basically they're identical in terms of codec support.

Good post there, very helpful.
 
You could install linux on your ps3 and get samba to use your windows shares, that will refresh automatically. Far better then Tversity, I cant seem to get Tversity to play any video files on the ps3. So I gave up, got a HTPc anyway.
 
Oxy said:
You could install linux on your ps3 and get samba to use your windows shares, that will refresh automatically. Far better then Tversity, I cant seem to get Tversity to play any video files on the ps3. So I gave up, got a HTPc anyway.
Click to expand...

I assume by your post that you have set up linux. How well does it handle high bitrate h.264 stuff (ie 720p or higher), curious since i know a large amount of the SPUs are disabled in linux.
 
rp2000 said:
I would go as far as to say it will playback anything you can on the 360 (except possibly wmv and/or asf which are propriety MS formats?).
Click to expand...

The PS3 doesn't play everything the 360 can, I was trying to play something before I left for work today from a memory stick and it wouldn't play on the PS3, worked fine on the 360 though.

It was nothing special, just a standard divx .avi as far as I can tell.
 
wyrdo said:
The PS3 doesn't play everything the 360 can, I was trying to play something before I left for work today from a memory stick and it wouldn't play on the PS3, worked fine on the 360 though.

It was nothing special, just a standard divx .avi as far as I can tell.
Click to expand...

Ah Ok, I think in terms of divx they do both actually support different "versions" (I think one supports divx 3.x content and the other doesn't or something like that).


rp2000
 
I had some DIVX files that would not play on the PS3 and looking for an answer I found that the PS3 is very picky about framerate, in the end I converted them with PS3 Video 9 to MP4 files that have the same quality with a slightly larger filesize.
 
wyrdo said:
The PS3 doesn't play everything the 360 can, I was trying to play something before I left for work today from a memory stick and it wouldn't play on the PS3, worked fine on the 360 though.

It was nothing special, just a standard divx .avi as far as I can tell.
Click to expand...

you sure it wasn't XViD? You have to copy the file to the PS3's HDD to play xvid files.
 
Joebob said:
you sure it wasn't XViD? You have to copy the file to the PS3's HDD to play xvid files.
Click to expand...

Are you sure? 90%+ of files these days are encoded in xvid. Whilst I have not checked an individual file (by using g-spot or something) I am certain I have streamed files from WMP11 and am 99% certain they were xvid encoded and not divx.


rp2000
 
Joebob said:
you sure it wasn't XViD? You have to copy the file to the PS3's HDD to play xvid files.
Click to expand...

I didn't know that, seems a bit silly having to copy it to the HDD though. I haven't checked the file but in the file name it says divx.

I'll give that a go later though. It's not big deal, I just wanted to check some files on my memory stick before I left for work and the PS3 was the machine I had on at the time.
 
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