233 replies to this topic

[philby85]

Hey All,

I have been using my ps3 to stream media files for a few months. I bought a QNAP ts-109II server, a great piece of kit. I store all my media on that. It has twonky media server installed, so the ps3 connects via that. I tried tversity,medialink and the new ps3 media server all with occasional stutter. I went with the server because it's small quiet no fan and only uses 14W. So much quieter and easier than a pc. The downside is all the media must be compatible with the ps3. So I had to convert a few movies. Now I just convert them to mp4's or if i have hi def mkv's i just run them through mkv2vob.

The ps3 xmb is quick but spartan. I have an appletv so I am use to that pretty interface. I found that if you embed the cover art into the metadata of the file the ps3 will display it. The QNAP combined with the ps3 is great, no stutter and simple to use. I am waiting for playtv so I can use the ps3 for almost everything.


cheers

Phil

[bonehead]

drake, on Jan 8 2009, 01:27 PM, said:

Thanks guys, if this is the case then I feel better about spending some money on a PS3.

1 word of warning, a wireless home network can throw up some challenging surprises from time to time.  Hard wired is more stable.

[50MXE20]

bonehead, on Jan 8 2009, 12:31 PM, said:

1 word of warning, a wireless home network can throw up some challenging surprises from time to time.  Hard wired is more stable.

Agree 100%.

[Doobsy]

philby85, on Jan 8 2009, 01:28 PM, said:

I am waiting for playtv so I can use the ps3 for almost everything.


cheers

Phil

Hey Phil,

Have you (or anyone else...) heard anything about an Oz release for playTV?

[drake]

Lyle, on Jan 8 2009, 02:16 PM, said:

The higher end Denon's allow one to stream direct to the AVR. But I believe yours is a lesser (?) model that probably doesn't. Another option for you to consider is the Squeezebox or the PCH.

On another matter, I have found win amp remote to be a bit more efficient than TVersity.

wow, wish I'd known that before, thats an awesome feature for an AVR to have.
Mines a 1909, no Ethernet, so no streaming.

Squeezebox looks pretty, I like that it has it's own display, I run AMP to projector, so not very efficient to turn the projector on so I can select MP3's to play. I was considering getting a mini lcd screen to plug into the amp as a second screen, but something like this might be better, and solve my streaming needs.

[jordang]

Lyle, on Jan 8 2009, 01:16 PM, said:

On another matter, I have found win amp remote to be a bit more efficient than TVersity.

???  never even heard of that one!!  might have a looksee tonight at that.  when you say 'more efficient' - do you mean at pc resources for transcoding or something?

bonehead, on Jan 8 2009, 01:31 PM, said:

1 word of warning, a wireless home network can throw up some challenging surprises from time to time.  Hard wired is more stable.

+1.  And don't think the ethernet-over-power plugs are your answer either.  learnt that lesson the hard way.

[50MXE20]

jordang, on Jan 8 2009, 01:16 PM, said:

???  never even heard of that one!!  might have a looksee tonight at that.  when you say 'more efficient' - do you mean at pc resources for transcoding or something?

Far less connectivity issues.

[philby85]

Doobsy, on Jan 8 2009, 01:35 PM, said:

Hey Phil,

Have you (or anyone else...) heard anything about an Oz release for playTV?

Sorry Mate I haven't. Last report was Jan/Feb which could be very true as freeview starts then.

I bought a Playtv from UK but because I live outside the metro area I can't pick anything up.

cheers

Phil

[Brad..]

i use TVersity  works very well

[Brad..]

Error - Could not get media url for http://202.45.153.50:8940/  what does that mean

[fd3s]

is used to used Tversity but now i use PS3 media server.... little be quicker and more stable..... but still not the best

[Purpleax]

Neon Kitten, on Dec 19 2007, 08:25 AM, said:

I once again must warn against Tversity, as it still installs by default with "sample feeds" that automatically suck down VERY large amounts of data with neither your approval nor knowledge.

They cut down on the amount of feeds in the most recent version - the previous one would happily steal 8GB+ of your data allowance in a day - but as it stands now, it still uses your connection to download data you did not ask for, do not want and will probably never use, taking up hard disk space and stealing your bandwidth and data allowance (and by default, it STILL takes 100% of available bandwidth when doing this).

Turning off these "feeds" in preferences stops it - but ONLY after you completely exit Tversity, stop its service and restart. And the options to adjust or disable these "feeds" are obscure to say the least.

That, combined with the fact that it's programmed in Flash and is thus a CPU hog, means AVOID.

Thats interesting. I havent seen any of these issues. I have it running in the background and never really ever know its there.
Also, I thought the feeds were streaming rather then bulk downloads since they are based around RSS. I will double check, but I am pretty sure thats right.

I personally think Tv versity is the best thing since sliced bread, and can't recommend it strongly enough! but I am going to double check the feeds thing!!

[Purpleax]

sulimo, on Jan 2 2008, 12:51 PM, said:

Yeah. I thought I'd be able to retire my XBMC, but the flakeyness of Tversity (it seems to bluescreen my PC fair frequently when it tries to transcode) plus without 100% support for divx or xvid  with either the 360 or PS3, TVersity gets confused about what to do.

Plus of course neither can handle FLAC or Apple Lossless. And even on the 360 wma Lossless was flakey.

Whilst I still use my PS3 to stream content, the current flakeness of the system has me sticking with the XBMC and looking at boxes aimed solely at streaming media. Of course Sony will hopefully fix some of the issues I'm having.

XBMC has to be the best media centre program on the planet. Incredible what they have done with it on the old xbox, and they are porting it to OSX and Linux as well.

I cant wait until the OSX version is stable and convert my MAC Mini into a media server.

[andrew81]

My friends loan me plenty of movies / anime but they are all stored on DVDs in divx, xvid and mkv formats. I have to watch them on my crappy computer monitor.

So I'm looking at getting some kind of media centre to hook up to my TV.

Is the PS3 my best option for the price? (it has blu-ray too).

Ive lost track of the PS3 recently, are there any major file types that the PS3 still doesn't support or play well? Does it properly support divx, xvid and mkv with no problems?

The other thing is that as I only have a VCR, sometime in the near future I will need to upgrade to a PVR or HDD recorder. Is there an option that does all three (ie. blu-ray, divx etc and record HD)?

And what is the latest with the PlayTV for PS3?

Edited by andrew81, 15 January 2009 - 02:42 PM.

[ozpanda]

andrew81, on Jan 15 2009, 03:40 PM, said:

Is the PS3 my best option for the price? (it has blu-ray too).

I have a PS3 and for MOST of the time it works well with the HD stuff I record from my PC tuner cards streamed over my home network. I am using TVersity with it. When it doesn't work, I have no idea why!!

If you are only viewing SD content, I still think the best option is the good old X BOX with a software mod running XBMC. They will play ANYTHING you can throw at them!

Pick one up at EBgames right now for $40ish. The best media centre you'll get for anything close to that price!!

Edited by ozpanda, 15 January 2009 - 03:30 PM.

[DaveH1]

andrew81, on Jan 15 2009, 03:40 PM, said:

My friends loan me plenty of movies / anime but they are all stored on DVDs in divx, xvid and mkv formats. I have to watch them on my crappy computer monitor.

So I'm looking at getting some kind of media centre to hook up to my TV.

Is the PS3 my best option for the price? (it has blu-ray too).

Ive lost track of the PS3 recently, are there any major file types that the PS3 still doesn't support or play well? Does it properly support divx, xvid and mkv with no problems?

The other thing is that as I only have a VCR, sometime in the near future I will need to upgrade to a PVR or HDD recorder. Is there an option that does all three (ie. blu-ray, divx etc and record HD)?

And what is the latest with the PlayTV for PS3?

Hi Andrew81,

Was in the same position as you and picked up a PS3 a little over a week ago.

Would recommend the PS3 for HDTV playback amongst other things but the PS3 won't playback your mkv files without conversion. I record HDTV on my PC's (el cheapo $40) TV card and stream it across a wired network without problems, but that's in MPEG-PS containers which the PS3 supports (I convert them from ts containers to ps after I chop out the ads so I can play the AC-3 audio).

I've been using TVersity and have had no problems at all and would recommend it as others have. I started off with WMP 11 but quickly abandoned it as new files would be streamed for a few seconds and then stop (I think it was having a meltdown after updating the library each time).

Good luck! There are great deals to be had on the PS3 at the moment!  

Dave

[ozpanda]

DaveH1, on Jan 15 2009, 05:49 PM, said:

Would recommend the PS3 for HDTV playback amongst other things but the PS3 won't playback your mkv files without conversion. I record HDTV on my PC's (el cheapo $40) TV card and stream it across a wired network without problems, but that's in MPEG-PS containers which the PS3 supports (I convert them from ts containers to ps after I chop out the ads so I can play the AC-3 audio).

I would love to hear from others as to what format they find is best for media files to playback via PS3. I also have a couple of Winfast HD tuner cards in my PC that do all the recording for me in MPG format (using Web Scheduler Pro - great software).

Happy to change to another file format if I can be educated of a better option! I sometimes get a 'corrupt file' message on the PS3 when starting playback of some MPG files and I don't know why!

[adjac]

DaveH1, on Jan 15 2009, 05:49 PM, said:

Hi Andrew81,

Was in the same position as you and picked up a PS3 a little over a week ago.

Would recommend the PS3 for HDTV playback amongst other things but the PS3 won't playback your mkv files without conversion. I record HDTV on my PC's (el cheapo $40) TV card and stream it across a wired network without problems, but that's in MPEG-PS containers which the PS3 supports (I convert them from ts containers to ps after I chop out the ads so I can play the AC-3 audio).

I've been using TVersity and have had no problems at all and would recommend it as others have. I started off with WMP 11 but quickly abandoned it as new files would be streamed for a few seconds and then stop (I think it was having a meltdown after updating the library each time).

Good luck! There are great deals to be had on the PS3 at the moment!  

Dave

Hi DaveH1,
              What do you use to chop out the commercials?
Cheers,
Adjac.

[DaveH1]

adjac, on Jan 16 2009, 10:02 AM, said:

Hi DaveH1,
              What do you use to chop out the commercials?
Cheers,
Adjac.

Hi Adjac,

I use Avidemux which is a freeware program that you can download here:
http://avidemux.razorbyte.com.au

There's a link to the forum for Avidemux on that site which has tutorials about how to get up and running. There's only a few steps from start to finish:

1. Record your program - I record HDTV from my Leadtek tuner with Media Portal in ts containers
2. Open Avidemux
3. Open and index your file (takes a few minutes)
4. Re-sync the audio
5. Chop out the ads with the cut feature (the forum has tutorials to show you which frames to cut so the audio stays in sync)
6. Then you save the audio and video in the format you like and in the container you like. I usually just copy both audio and video without conversion or compression because it's quicker and then save the file in an MPEG-PS container (with .mpg extension), as the PS3 supports more audio formats in ps than in ts containers, and Avidemux has a problem saving audio in ts files > 70 minutes (known bug).

The other option I've found is saving your MPEG-TS file with an .m2t extension and the PS3 will then play your AC-3 audio even though it's not supported (you don't even remux to M2TS, just save the TS file with that extension). If you save the MPEG-TS file as .mpg it won't play your 5.1 audio, only stereo and only if you convert your audio to MP2 format as that's what's supported by the PS3. I think .m2t is what Play TV will use, maybe that's why this option works, but someone correct me if that's wrong.

I've only owned the PS3 for a bit over a week so there may be better ways of doing it.

Good luck. Dave  

[mr_jinx]

fd3s, on Jan 9 2009, 06:42 AM, said:

is used to used Tversity but now i use PS3 media server.... little be quicker and more stable..... but still not the best

Same, except i found Tversity worked really bad for me. Really slow streaming.
PS3 media Server however loads straight away and i can fast forward or rewind straight away.

my 2 cents

Cheers
jon

[BertRito]

DaveH1, on Jan 16 2009, 03:52 PM, said:

I use Avidemux which is a freeware program that you can download here:
http://avidemux.razorbyte.com.au

Can't you just use Virtualdub? Or is it in a different format that Virtualdub can't work with?

[DaveH1]

BertRito, on Jan 21 2009, 07:55 PM, said:

Can't you just use Virtualdub? Or is it in a different format that Virtualdub can't work with?

Hi BertRito,

Had never heard of Virtualdub. Is it easy to use? What video you been streaming to the PS3 following editing?

Cheers, Dave

[tcn33]

andrew81, on Jan 15 2009, 03:40 PM, said:

And what is the latest with the PlayTV for PS3?

This is what I'm wondering too... particularly since Wikipedia lists 21/02/09 with no source.  Does anyone have any reliable info, or are people making stuff up again?  

[jordang]

tcn33, on Jan 22 2009, 10:01 AM, said:

This is what I'm wondering too... particularly since Wikipedia lists 21/02/09 with no source.  Does anyone have any reliable info, or are people making stuff up again?  

There is no news at all officially.  the last official word is that we're getting it when the freeview EPG standards get set in stone.  Freeview is looking at april (again, not official, but word from the other forums here) so i'd expect sometime after that maybe?  

shame.. after watching the playtv interface on youtube i'm dying to get it.  looks awesome.

[mattls]

mr_jinx, on Jan 20 2009, 03:54 PM, said:

Same, except i found Tversity worked really bad for me. Really slow streaming.
PS3 media Server however loads straight away and i can fast forward or rewind straight away.

my 2 cents

Cheers
jon

Wouldn't that be more to do with the bitrates on your network and their max settings in tversity than just using ps3mediaserver?