PS3 an alternative to all these media players?

[thevortex]

Well, the only way the PS3 can compete with mainstream players is if you also have a powerful computer/laptop to take care of the transcoding part of it. With software such as PS3MediaServer, there is virtually no limit to what you can get your PS3 to play as long as you have a physical, wired connection. It is with the wireless part that you run into issues. I have successfully played 8 GB Blu Ray rips over the network from my laptop to the PS3.

The biggest advantage that the PS3 has over other media players such as Xtreamer is that it presents one solution for both digital content (as in video files) as well as for DVDs, CD's and Blu Ray Discs. Considering this only Popcorn Hour C200 and Dune Prime can truly compete with the PS3.

Of course there is information that the PS3 may not upscale as well as some of the media players available. But I am not sure that there is conclusive information on that. I am quite happy with the upscaling of the PS3 - but that may be because I have not experienced too many other options.

 

[santhosh]

This thread has been brought back into the forefront up just when I was thinking of bumping it. So, very timely for me.

Well, the only way the PS3 can compete with mainstream players is if you also have a powerful computer/laptop to take care of the transcoding part of it.

@Bala/Others: I have a Slim PS3 and a Xtreamer. I am happy with the Xtreamer except that it is unable to do HD Audio. So, I need one more Network Media Player (which can do HD audio), so I can move the Xtreamer to my bedroom where I currently have a HD Ready Plasma TV and no AVR. So, don't need HD audio or even 5.1 capabilities. What kind of powerful computer are we looking at? Will a netbook not do?

With software such as PS3MediaServer, there is virtually no limit to what you can get your PS3 to play as long as you have a physical, wired connection. It is with the wireless part that you run into issues. I have successfully played 8 GB Blu Ray rips over the network from my laptop to the PS3.

I am interested to know if it can play full BD copies. Could you please test with a full BD copy (~35 to 40 Gb) file over the network?

The biggest advantage that the PS3 has over other media players such as Xtreamer is that it presents one solution for both digital content (as in video files) as well as for DVDs, CD's and Blu Ray Discs. Considering this only Popcorn Hour C200 and Dune Prime can truly compete with the PS3.

Add to it the fact that it can also play SACDs. I really hope ^statement is true as I have almost decided to buy the PCH C200.

Of course there is information that the PS3 may not upscale as well as some of the media players available. But I am not sure that there is conclusive information on that. I am quite happy with the upscaling of the PS3 - but that may be because I have not experienced too many other options.

I can live without this one.

One of the main drawbacks I see with using the PS3 is power consumption. Add to it the fact that you have to keep a powerful PC or a powerful laptop powered on for transcoding.

 

[shailenderb]

also one question still remains unanswered.. does the ps3 play flac and wav formats.. and how does it perfomrm on those?

It plays wav and not flac. PS3 has a got its own audio ripper at various bit rates. And, at least for me, the wav files sound great when played on PS3.

Regds / Shailender

 

[thevortex]

This thread has been brought back into the forefront up just when I was thinking of bumping it. So, very timely for me.


@Bala/Others: I have a Slim PS3 and a Xtreamer. I am happy with the Xtreamer except that it is unable to do HD Audio. So, I need one more Network Media Player (which can do HD audio), so I can move the Xtreamer to my bedroom where I currently have a HD Ready Plasma TV and no AVR. So, don't need HD audio or even 5.1 capabilities. What kind of powerful computer are we looking at? Will a netbook not do?

Nope. Sorry to disappoint you. Forget a netbook. Even one of those old laptops may not cut it. A Core2Duo would probably be pretty necessary. Transcoding is very processor intensive. Especially when you are talking about HD files.

There are a lot of file formats for which transcoding is not required such as DivX, Xvid, avi etc. In those cases you could use Tversity and ask it to not to do any transcoding. This would work if you do not want subtitles. However if you do, there are a specific set of hoops that you must jump through. I was not in the mood and have not as yet done that.

I am interested to know if it can play full BD copies. Could you please test with a full BD copy (~35 to 40 Gb) file over the network?

I do not have such files, I am afraid .

Add to it the fact that it can also play SACDs. I really hope ^statement is true as I have almost decided to buy the PCH C200.

Is it true that the PCH C200 can play SACDs? The player itself comes without any drive. So whatever drive we fit is what matters. Not too sure that would be a cost effective proposition though. In such cases, the Oppo BDP83 would shine through in my opinion.

I can live without this one.

One of the main drawbacks I see with using the PS3 is power consumption. Add to it the fact that you have to keep a powerful PC or a powerful laptop powered on for transcoding.

Both these downsides are still valid, santhol. You need to keep the PS3 running (in my case, noisy fat PS3) and a reasonably powerful computer. Plus a wired connection is pretty much required.

 

[anm]

PS3 used to have sacd capability in earlier models, it doesn't have it any more. I have checked the packaging of both fat (recent one) and slim models being sold @ jumbo, both did not mention SACD capability.

 

[BJ159]

It plays wav and not flac. PS3 has a got its own audio ripper at various bit rates. And, at least for me, the wav files sound great when played on PS3.

Regds / Shailender

Well, seeing as how I already have the PS3...

I have an Oppo connected to a projector for movie duties. My PS3 is only connected to a 42 in plasma and I dont play any game. I'm now primarily using the PS3 to play music. I'm still in the process of archiving my music in the machine, so I'll just ask some questions regarding this.

For importing audio files, there are AAC (max bit rate 320) MP3 (max 320) and ATRAC (max 352). Which do you use? I dont see any wav or flac...


How do you import cover art for the disc? Using Windows Media Player on the PC the image is automatically downloaded from the net. Here, I find you can get the music infor for most english cds but not the cover art.

Its almost impossible to get any info for tamil cds. I find the only way is to manually enter the info which is soo tedious...

Please forgive my ignorance...

 

[thevortex]

MP3 at 320 kbps is the only choice if you prefer to play off the PS3. The better option would be to have your laptop or computer connected to the PS3, keep the files as FLAC and use something like Tversity or PS3MediaServer to transcode and play the files on the fly.

 

[preet27]

Okay i have a 50" Plasma, i have my 80GB fat ps3 PAL version, and an outdated pentium 4 PC, now first i was thinking of going for a media player, but then i came across this thread, so here is my problem, i want to play blue ray rips downloaded via utorrent from demonoid on my new 50" Plasma, i know my PC is outdated but i am ready to upgrade it rather than spend the same 10k on a stand alone media player, my only requirement here is that i want to play those movies and they should not stutter, can anyone help me regarding this, i mean what would be the minimum requirements for the PC to be able to deliver the above, also i have my pc my ps3 and my plasma in the same room so i can easily run a wired connection to my ps3 from my PC, i wanna know whether i can play 1080p movies via this setting provided i upgrade my PC to a very high end one, and i apologize beforehand for my novice questions

 

[thevortex]

The answer is if you do upgrade your processor to at least a Core2Duo, then you should be able to transcode your videos and play them through your PS3. Especially off a wired connection.

 

[suprateep]

Okay i have a 50" Plasma, i have my 80GB fat ps3 PAL version, and an outdated pentium 4 PC, now first i was thinking of going for a media player, but then i came across this thread, so here is my problem, i want to play blue ray rips downloaded via utorrent from demonoid on my new 50" Plasma, i know my PC is outdated but i am ready to upgrade it rather than spend the same 10k on a stand alone media player, my only requirement here is that i want to play those movies and they should not stutter, can anyone help me regarding this, i mean what would be the minimum requirements for the PC to be able to deliver the above, also i have my pc my ps3 and my plasma in the same room so i can easily run a wired connection to my ps3 from my PC, i wanna know whether i can play 1080p movies via this setting provided i upgrade my PC to a very high end one, and i apologize beforehand for my novice questions

well mention your specs in a different thread - a cheaper AMD Athlon X3 would be a better buy in all counts for transcoding. Yes a PS3 deliver on quite a few counts but honestly keep it to video playback only (HD SD etc) - Ps3 not too good for music though. Analog outpout sucks bigtime.

For audio purposes keep the chain simple and short.

 

[reignofchaos]

There is no transcoding when using PS3mediaserver. it only packs data in a different container. An amd 2800+ from 2004 works just fine with 1080p content.

 

[thevortex]

There is no transcoding when using PS3mediaserver. it only packs data in a different container. An amd 2800+ from 2004 works just fine with 1080p content.

Beg to disagree. Here is information from the ps3mediaserver home page:

Current features

* Ready to launch and play. No codec packs to install. No folder configuration and pre-parsing or this kind of annoying thing. All your folders are directly browsed by the PS3, there's an automatic refresh also.
* Real-time video transcoding of MKV/FLV/OGM/AVI, etc.
* Direct streaming of DTS / DTS-HD core to the receiver
* Remux H264/MPEG2 video and all audio tracks to AC3/DTS/LPCM in real time with tsMuxer when H264 is PS3/Level4.1 compliant
* Full seeking support when transcoding
* DVD ISOs images / VIDEO_TS Folder transcoder
* OGG/FLAC/MPC/APE audio transcoding
* Thumbnail generation for Videos
* You can choose with a virtual folder system your audio/subtitle language on the PS3!
* Simple streaming of formats PS3 natively supports: MP3/JPG/PNG/GIF/TIFF, all kind of videos (AVI, MP4, TS, M2TS, MPEG)
* Display camera RAWs thumbnails (Canon / Nikon, etc.)
* ZIP/RAR files as browsable folders
* Support for pictures based feeds, such as Flickr and Picasaweb
* Internet TV / Web Radio support with VLC, MEncoder or MPlayer
* Podcasts audio/ Video feeds support
* Basic Xbox360 support
* FLAC 96kHz/24bits/5.1 support
* Windows Only: DVR-MS remuxer and AviSynth alternative transcoder support

 

[preet27]

1. Okay in layman terms transcoding will be in play when i download some HD content on my PC HDD and then want to play it via ps3, right? and streaming is when it is being played and downloaded at the same time from the internet which in turn requires a very fast connection ?

2. Also my only purpose here is to play HD movies from my PC via ps3 on my new Plasma, i am not much of a music buff, and that is the only reason i thought upgrading my PC would be a viable and logical option since doing that benefits me in every way, as in the process i get to upgrade my outdated PC, plus i can utilize my PS3 for more than gaming, also i can make use of my unlimited internet connection and download a good amount of movies online saving me tons of money than buying those over inflated blu rays which i probably would have watched a couple of times at the most had i bought them. So i think this is the right thing to do for me here.

2.Also what all cables and connection will be in play here, i mean can someone explain the connections between my PC,PS3 and plasma to view downloaded HD movies from my PC on my Plasma using my ps3 as a media player, sorry for the n00b questions but i am new to all this and that's why i am asking.

 

[thevortex]

preet - I think you got your answer earlier. Just upgrade your processor and RAM. Load XP on it. Make sure you have a cool chassis. Connect your PC with the PS3 through an ethernet cable. And thats it.

The PS3 natively supports DivX and AVI files (many of them). So, in these cases, you can lighten the load on the PC by using Tversity (with transcoding disabled). In other cases, you can use PS3MediaServer. This has worked fine for me till date.

 

[preet27]

okay correct me if i am wrong here, the ethernet cable goes from my PC to ps3, and HDMI is used to connect ps3 and plasma, and so most of the newer motherboards come with onboard ethernet cards, or will i have to buy that separately.

 

[thevortex]

okay correct me if i am wrong here, the ethernet cable goes from my PC to ps3, and HDMI is used to connect ps3 and plasma, and so most of the newer motherboards come with onboard ethernet cards, or will i have to buy that separately.

The newer motherboards come with HDMI ports as well. Even if yours is an older chipset you would still be having an ethernet port. So dont worry. You should be able to connect the PC to the PS3, do some basic network settings on the PS3 (if yours is a dynamic IP address, then this is very easy) and go ahead with the media server installation on the PC.

 

[preet27]

Now although it was said that all i needed is a faster processor and higher RAM, but by what i have been reading i think i require more than that, i assembled my PC back in 2003 and never upgraded it since mostly i used it for stuyding purposes, here is my configuration, i have a pentium 4 processor 2 Ghz, intel motherboard845GBV, 160GB HDD with IDE connectors, ATX cabinet, creative sound blaster 24bit sound card, g force 5200 256MB graphics card, LG flatscreen 17" CRT monitor, Ethernet card, bee-tel wifi router.

Now can anyone tell me out of the above what are the components that i need to upgrade in order to use ps3 as a media player, so that i can atleast have some basic ground to work on, since i have been out of touch with all the latest tech, and the amount of products are just mind boggling, i am utterly confused, someone gave me this link on this forum itself http://www.thinkdigit.com/forum/showthread.php?t=96218 and i am trying to read as much as i can, but that will take forever, can someone chip in so that i know which areas (components) i need to concentrate on, and which i can leave out.

Thanks

 

[thevortex]

You only have to change your processor and RAM. But if you have to change your processor then you have to change your motherboard as well.

Thats about it, unless you want to add more hard disks - which is something you can always do.

 

[preet27]

okay so it's processor motherboard and RAM, what about my graphics card and soundcard, do they come into play while using this setup ? Also would i need a better cabinet like those cooling one's that i have been reading about? Also will my old Power supply unit do the job, also most of new hard disks use SATA, wouldn't i need a new HDD as well because of the new motherboard. Also i am not going to do any gaming on my PC, that's why i am asking about my grapics card, i have my ps3 for that, my sole purpose here is to be able to play downloaded 1080p HD movies & full blu ray rips (large sizes) from my PC without any stutter.

Do new motherboards come with IDE connectors like the old ones ?

 

[teky]

IMHO - For the amount of money you're spending on upgrading your PC just for this purpose I would buy a stand alone media player which consumes less power & plays anything you throw at. Leaving the PS3 to just play games & BD's.

For people who already have a capable PC it's a different ball game.