Just bought a ps3

[sourceninja]

So I've owned a 360 for some time now. My wife wanted to rent blueray movies, so I figured why not and got a ps3 (80gig).

I have to say I am impressed. The thing is dead quiet. I can't hear it run in my living room. the controllers are awesome. I find that odd because I hated ps2 controllers. It came with motostorm and resistance fall of man. I also bought metal gear 4.

I plan to upgrade the hard drive to something larger (maybe 500 gig) and to use this as my media center for streaming from my computer as it is much quieter then my xbox 360.

Are there any must have games or tweaking suggestions for multimedia that I should be aware of? So far it looks great via hdmi on my 46 inch LCD.

Also, any media server software for linux or osx? For my 360 I have been using windows media player on a xp machine, but I want to move it off to my linux server or my imac.

 

[swbsam]

Connect360 works great for my iMac, but I'm not sure if it works for ps3s. All it is is a upnp server app, so I don't see why it wouldn't work

 

[mugs]

Why upgrade the hard drive if you're going to stream from your PC?

TVersity for Windows is really the media server to use. OS X has Rivet ( http://cynicalpeak.com/rivet/ ) and probably some others. I have no idea about Linux.

 

[sourceninja]

I only figured I needed to upgrade the hard drive because I heard the ps3 eats a lot of space once you start playing lots of games and using their online service for content downloads. I was kinda hoping to find a good real time transcoding media server app for mac or linux. http://code.google.com/p/ps3mediaserver/ looks promising.

This also looks very promising http://fuppes.ulrich-voelkel.de/ and one more http://mediatomb.cc/

 

[mugs]

Originally posted by: sourceninja
I only figured I needed to upgrade the hard drive because I heard the ps3 eats a lot of space once you start playing lots of games and using their online service for content downloads.

I suppose that depends on how many games you have and how much they install on the hard drive. I think the 160 GB should be plenty for just about anyone, and the 80 GB should be good too. DLC doesn't consume a lot of space. Usually ~1 GB for a demo and less for anything else. My 40 GB drive has been fine so far, but I don't have any games that require installation.

 

[Liberator21]

Good luck with the streaming aspect, I don't think it's up to the Xbox 360 level yet. I'm having a heck of a time getting my PS3 to recognize my Windows Home Server, and I'm having some sort of stuttering issue.

This is using no special software trickery though. I've heard good things about Twonky if TVersity doesn't work, but the fact remains: The PS3 could do this function (Media Center) easily with its connectivity and power if only the powers-that-be would enable it with a minor update or something... I'm speaking of hi-def content streaming, of which the PS3 is very particular on file formats and even then I don't think it transcodes like it should with all that Cell power.

 

[mmntech]

Originally posted by: sourceninja
I only figured I needed to upgrade the hard drive because I heard the ps3 eats a lot of space once you start playing lots of games and using their online service for content downloads. I was kinda hoping to find a good real time transcoding media server app for mac or linux. http://code.google.com/p/ps3mediaserver/ looks promising.

This also looks very promising http://fuppes.ulrich-voelkel.de/ and one more http://mediatomb.cc/

I use PS3 Media Server. It's one of the best freeware multi-platform DLNA servers out there. I have it set up on my old iBook G4 with a 160gb USB HDD acting as storage. Has built in transcoding as well though the iBook isn't fast enough for that. Universal Binary (PowerPC) is on Softpedia if anybody is interested. I have a 160gb HDD in the console itself, which is plenty of space. I like to store all my DVDs uncompressed though so it made more sense to have a dedicated server.

As for upgrading the HDD, I think it's worth it. I found 60gb getting a bit limiting but 160gb should be plenty of storage. 500gb will allow you to store lots of videos and such but 1tb external drives are just so much cheaper, it's easier just to store them on a server like I did. Just delete installs of games you're not playing. Doing that doesn't effect the save files so you're good.

 

[Shadowknight]

I use PS3 Media Server too; plays 720p videos fine, though it can't fast-foward past 1.5x without locking up the video, otherwise it's great.

 

[hans030390]

Originally posted by: sourceninja
the controllers are awesome. I find that odd because I hated ps2 controllers. .

This...doesn't...make...any...sense!!! *head asplodes*

 

[Grooveriding]

I second PS3 media server. It can stream h264 mkv containers, something tversity cannot do, which makes it useless imo. Just make sure your ps3 and the computer streaming the media are both connected via a wired connection, at least if you plan on streaming HD content.

I have all three of the current gen consoles and cannot see anything that makes the 360 physically anywhere near the quality of the ps3. The ps3 is a solid, quiet running, quality piece of hardware. The 360 is a pile of crap

 

[sourceninja]

ps3 media center it is then

 

[Baked]

There are some videos I can't stream using tversity, I think I'm gonna give PS3 media server a try. Any good setup guide I can use?

 

[mmntech]

Originally posted by: Baked
There are some videos I can't stream using tversity, I think I'm gonna give PS3 media server a try. Any good setup guide I can use?

It's actually pretty strait forward to use. Just install it and tell it what folders your media is in. It does the rest.

 

[IndieSnob]

Originally posted by: Grooveriding
I second PS3 media server. It can stream h264 mkv containers, something tversity cannot do, which makes it useless imo. Just make sure your ps3 and the computer streaming the media are both connected via a wired connection, at least if you plan on streaming HD content.

I have all three of the current gen consoles and cannot see anything that makes the 360 physically anywhere near the quality of the ps3. The ps3 is a solid, quiet running, quality piece of hardware. The 360 is a pile of crap

Considering you don't even know that TVersity can stream H264 MKV containers, I'll pass up your judgment about the 360 being crap.

 

[Yreka]

Why do you need a separate media server for PS3 ? I understand if you want to stream h264, but you mentioned using the 360 and WMP (which AFAIK cannot do it either)

I simply use WMP, and have pretty much the same streaming functionality on the PS3 as the 360 (dixv/Xvid, mp3, and jpgs).

Edit, also Hot Shots Golf for PS3 is :thumbsup:

 

[mugs]

Originally posted by: Yreka
Why do you need a separate media server for PS3 ? I understand if you want to stream h264, but you mentioned using the 360 and WMP (which AFAIK cannot do it either)

Windows Media Player doesn't run on Linux or OS X.

 

[sourceninja]

I want to use the ps3 for one reason. It doesn't sound like a tornado. I have been using my wife's windows machine for the 360 without issue for streaming, but it is loud and makes it hard to watch shows late at night without being a mood breaker. The ps3 is almost silent. Plus my wife's computer is becoming mine as I have given her my macbook pro. I plan to put linux on it and use it along side my new 24inch imac. It has 2 TB of storage, so I figured it would be perfect to make a media server out of. Currently, we don't have a proper media server after my last very old pentium 3 server had died. So it will be a big improvement over the usb hard disks that currently house my dvd collection (in mp4 form).

The idea is to build a server, dedicate 1tb to movie and music storage. Get itunes and the ps3 to use that storage (itunes for the music, ps3 for the videos) and to save me tons of time inside handbrake, make sure the app that does the ps3 sharing also does on the fly transcoding (her old machine is a AMD64 X2 4400 with 4 gigs of ram).

 

[Yreka]

Originally posted by: mugs

Originally posted by: Yreka
Why do you need a separate media server for PS3 ? I understand if you want to stream h264, but you mentioned using the 360 and WMP (which AFAIK cannot do it either)

Windows Media Player doesn't run on Linux or OS X.

whoops, I totally skimmed over that requirement

 

[mmntech]

Originally posted by: IndieSnob

Originally posted by: Grooveriding
I second PS3 media server. It can stream h264 mkv containers, something tversity cannot do, which makes it useless imo. Just make sure your ps3 and the computer streaming the media are both connected via a wired connection, at least if you plan on streaming HD content.

I have all three of the current gen consoles and cannot see anything that makes the 360 physically anywhere near the quality of the ps3. The ps3 is a solid, quiet running, quality piece of hardware. The 360 is a pile of crap

Considering you don't even know that TVersity can stream H264 MKV containers, I'll pass up your judgment about the 360 being crap.

The 360 is a bit like a Chevy. It's a fine car for a good value, when it works. Unfortunately it's in the shop half the time.

 

[guitarslingerchris]

Originally posted by: mugs
Why upgrade the hard drive if you're going to stream from your PC?

TVersity for Windows is really the media server to use. OS X has Rivet ( http://cynicalpeak.com/rivet/ ) and probably some others. I have no idea about Linux.

Tversity has horrible support for 1080 quality and some 720 video transcoding. I've gone back to it several times to see if it's gotten better, in almost a year it hasn't.

PS3 Media Server has served me EXCELLENTLY since I found it. Granted it does not do playlists, but that's something I like quite a bit. Depending on the content you plan to stream Tversity may be the better option, but if it's high quality MKVs you aim to stream then definitely try PS3 Media Server.

 

[guitarslingerchris]

Wow... Awesome, I should have read through the other replies. PS3 Media Server go!

Also to the snail-avatar'ed person that said the PS3 isn't up to snuff on streaming compared to the 360 you really need to compare the two side by side. I have NEVER had an easy time setting up the 360 to stream, granted a majority of that is due to codec issues, but I do like the Zune software quite a bit more than WMP11/WHS so far if you must use the 360.

 

[JackBurton]

Yep, I love my PS3. The thing feels solid and I really like the interface.

 

[Shadowknight]

Originally posted by: guitarslingerchris
Wow... Awesome, I should have read through the other replies. PS3 Media Server go!

Also to the snail-avatar'ed person that said the PS3 isn't up to snuff on streaming compared to the 360 you really need to compare the two side by side. I have NEVER had an easy time setting up the 360 to stream, granted a majority of that is due to codec issues, but I do like the Zune software quite a bit more than WMP11/WHS so far if you must use the 360.

Latest version of PS3 media server supports the 360 as well.

 

[pontifex]

can you play hulu and netflix videos off of the PS3?

 

[mikehartl]

I find the best thing to stream to the PS3 with is MediaLink... it is made by the same people that make Connect360. They do charge for it but it is by far the best program to stream from a mac with.