A comparison of PS3 and 360 as media players

[London Geezer]

You must be browsing some highly objectable site(s) for your router to kick you out !

A good catholic girl like me??? Never!!

Seriously, I think the router is the most likely suspect for the moment. That comment talks about some added security feature. What exactly does it do ?

Well let's see, on the Mac sometimes it drops the wi-fi connection completely - but not the internet connection - so when it re-connects a few seconds later, it's online straight away, and not going through the internet negotiation again, which would take a lot longer.

Then, pretty much every time i use the PS3, i get some kind of error message, either about the PS Store or about some connection error. Pretty much every time i connect through the PS3 Media Server, at some point it will drop out while watching a video, screen goes black with either a 'cannot play media' or 'file corrupted' kind of message. After this, it will just not reconnect to anything until i turn the PS3 and the router off (i usually turn the Mac off too, just to be safe).

It's just messy and not cool at all, especially because i never had any problems, even when the router was on the other side of the flat - now it's in the same room of the PS3 and the Mac, and i have problems!? Not good.

PS: I should add that my Mac sees at least 15 other networks in my buildings, can interference affect my connection so much?

 

[patsu]

What happens when you run Internet Test on the PS3 ?

 

[London Geezer]

What happens when you run Internet Test on the PS3 ?

PS: I should add that my Mac sees at least 15 other networks in my buildings, can interference affect my connection so much?

I haven't run that... Thing is, when it's connected, it's perfectly fine. It will just drop out randomly... The router is also usually friggin hot, if that helps...

 

[patsu]

PS: I should add that my Mac sees at least 15 other networks in my buildings, can interference affect my connection so much?

I haven't run that... Thing is, when it's connected, it's perfectly fine. It will just drop out randomly... The router is also usually friggin hot, if that helps...

Nah... you old router worked fine right ? Those 15 other networks should be harmless to you. The best cause of action is to get Shifty to visit your crib and fix it for ye

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Nah... you old router worked fine right ? Those 15 other networks should be harmless to you. The best cause of action is to get Shifty to visit your crib and fix it for ye

I *hate* networking! Plus last time I visited LB's crib, he took those photographs...

 

[London Geezer]

I *hate* networking! Plus last time I visited LB's crib, he took those photographs...

Hey it's not my fault you advertise yourself as The Highly Competant and Polite Handyman!

*Classified information removed*

 

[patsu]

:facepalm: Poor LB's router !

 

[patsu]

I came down with a flu last night. Found time to watch District 9 and try out MovieIQ. Wanted to see how it can be adapted to integrate with PS Move (like that PrimeSense promo video).

MovieIQ has a cool concept (Gracenote's owned by Sony now). It's pretty fast but the implementation is impeded by the dated PS3 controller and TV remote UI. It's too clunky to use. Will definitely help if they let us control the Blu-ray player with the motion controller (or bare hands). It should also pause the movie automatically if I decide to navigate deeper into the MovieIQ pages.

I remember some BD-Live developer made an even more elaborate tag database for his Blu-ray production. I can't remember what Blu-ray movie that is anymore. Does any one remember ?

I believe in that movie, the developer basically incorporated all the production notes into a browsable tag menu that you can recall in a scene. It even included details on the props used.

 

[London Geezer]

Hey it's not my fault you advertise yourself as The Highly Competant and Polite Handyman!

*Classified information removed*

Shifty... it's competent

Anyway, i've plugged the PS3 with an ethernet cable and the whole system is so much faster that i'll never plug it off. Sorted, innit!

 

[patsu]

at "classified information"

 

[patsu]

I remember some BD-Live developer made an even more elaborate tag database for his Blu-ray production. I can't remember what Blu-ray movie that is anymore. Does any one remember ?

Found it !

Before MovieIQ, Van Ling added scene tags and in-movie markers to the ID4 Blu-ray movie:

432 Chapter tags: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1KLxcN25Zo
In-movie Scavenger Hunt: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yc3maivq0oI

The Cellius Gundam video project would also be similar to this kind of in-movie navigation and transaction.

EDIT:
Come to think of it, PlayTV/Torne, VidZone, NetFlix and MLB.TV are also ready for a natural interface upgrade (because program guides, game schedule, song list, etc. require human interaction):

e.g.,

I remember Microsoft's Window Media Server has been used to deliver video streaming + embedded online shopping service in Europe. So they should be able to incorporate similar features into Natal as well. Unfortunately for MovieIQ and Van Ling, their systems do not really have an added revenue stream like interactive marketing.

 

[patsu]

Rumor: Live TV Coming To The Xbox 360
http://www.gamefocus.ca/?nav=new&nid=9225

GameFocus has learned from a trusted source that Microsoft is ready to announce the arrival of a live television broadcasting service to the Xbox 360 platform by 2011.

Xbox 360 users in the U.S and Canada will get something similar to Europe’s Sky TV but it gets even more interesting. Our source told us that the Xbox 360 will be used as a digital television set-top box with PVR capabilities in Canada by an important telecommunication company. While we know the name of the company behind this project in Canada, we haven’t been able to get official confirmation on who will offer the same service in the United States.

 

[RudeCurve]

Sound interesting....just in time for Natal to be used to navigate shows/channels without a remote control.

 

[Npl]

One thing that annoys me with the PS3`s media playback is that there is no conversion to "limited range" TV`s outside of DVD/Bluray Playback.
Means AVIs will be dark with alot black on top, and demos seem to have the same issue .

 

[Arwin]

One thing that annoys me with the PS3`s media playback is that there is no conversion to "limited range" TV`s outside of DVD/Bluray Playback.
Means AVIs will be dark with alot black on top, and demos seem to have the same issue .

How do you mean? This is what the Full RGB display setting enables/disables. If you have a limited range TV, this setting should be off (as should the Super White setting). That should do the trick for just about everything.

Then besides that there are some additional settings you can apply during DVD and BluRay playback, but these are only so you can deviate from your default settings for a specific disc if you want to.

At least that's how I understand it.

 

[Npl]

How do you mean? This is what the Full RGB display setting enables/disables. If you have a limited range TV, this setting should be off (as should the Super White setting). That should do the trick for just about everything.

Yes I know about that and naturally I dont have it enabled. But it doesnt affect all features, I used a Full-Range Monitor before so I can say what looks similar and what doesnt.
DVD/Bluray playback is (range-)corrected and so are games, but alteast some demos (Heavy Rain and GOW) arent and playback of media-files (AVI,MP4,etc) certainly isnt aswell. It seems like every game/app needs to read the setting and adjust the output for itself - its nothing the OS does transparently, and demos apparently arent checked as thoroughly as games.

Then besides that there are some additional settings you can apply during DVD and BluRay playback, but these are only so you can deviate from your default settings for a specific disc if you want to.

There arent options for adjusting AVI-playback, certainly nothing affecting brightness or even better mapping between full->limited range.

 

[Arwin]

Yes I know about that and naturally I dont have it enabled. But it doesnt affect all features, I used a Full-Range Monitor before so I can say what looks similar and what doesnt.
DVD/Bluray playback is (range-)corrected and so are games, but alteast some demos (Heavy Rain and GOW) arent and playback of media-files (AVI,MP4,etc) certainly isnt aswell. It seems like every game/app needs to read the setting and adjust the output for itself - its nothing the OS does transparently, and demos apparently arent checked as thoroughly as games.

I really, really doubt that this is something left up to the games. Games always output 0-255, and the PS3 either maps that or it doesn't.

 

[Npl]

I really, really doubt that this is something left up to the games. Games always output 0-255, and the PS3 either maps that or it doesn't.

Its not "left up to the games", I wasnt implying that. I meant the game is required to correct the range (by Sony), but it aint done automatically - ie. the developer has to add code for it. AFAIR its similar with scaling as some of the first games failed to output 1080i - only the games who addressed this directly had no problem.
If the PS3OS would do it automatically, then the "Full Range" switch wouldnt leave out some demos and AVI-playback.

You probably could test it for yourself if you dont believe me, disabling the switch should make your game/DVD/Bluray look wrong (no deep black+bright white) while AVI-Playback should be looking just like before. With demos its prolly a hit and miss, as unlike games they arent rigorously checked !?

 

[Arwin]

Its not "left up to the games", I wasnt implying that. I meant the game is required to correct the range (by Sony), but it aint done automatically - ie. the developer has to add code for it. AFAIR its similar with scaling as some of the first games failed to output 1080i - only the games who addressed this directly had no problem.

But for scaling we know there's no automatic correction available. For games though I've never heard of it. That doesn't mean that you're not right of course, but it would surprise me to say the least.

If the PS3OS would do it automatically, then the "Full Range" switch wouldnt leave out some demos and AVI-playback.

Please give me an example at least of a demo you're finding not to be affected, then I'll test at home.

 

[Npl]

But for scaling we know there's no automatic correction available. For games though I've never heard of it. That doesn't mean that you're not right of course, but it would surprise me to say the least.

Did you expect the PS3 to not have automatic scaling? I was surprised bout that aswell
What other reason for the inconsistent behaviour (if you give me the benefit of doubt) could there be.

Please give me an example at least of a demo you're finding not to be affected, then I'll test at home.

"Heavy Rain" and "God of War 3". Its particularly bad with Heavy Rain`s FBI investigation scene (if you got a "limited" TV), but you can adjust the gamma there as workaround (talking about gamma at default).