A comparison of PS3 and 360 as media players

[AzBat]

I'm using PlayOn for the Xbox 360. Downloaded it specifically to watch Knight Rider off Hulu. It worked great! I've also played YouTube and ESPN videos as well. I'm seriously considering purchasing it to go along with my Netflix. I'll never need to pay for cable again.

BTW, wasn't there also some other alternatives? I may want to check out those before I put money down on PlayOn.

Tommy McClain

 

[patsu]

I think for the moment, PlayOn is the only one that focuses on Internet movies on the consoles (360 and PS3. Wii version coming).

The other media servers I tested are more home media centric. Some like Tversity also allows you to stream content from the net (like PlayOn); but because the focus is not there, the experience is poorer. The same can be said for using the web browser to view hulu, youtube, ... on PS3. It's doable out of the box but the experience is more clunky and less satisfying.


I have not tried DisplayShare. Can't comment on it yet (control scheme and such).

 

[patsu]

Just-in-time ! Improved Youtube viewing experience on PS3 and Wii: http://www.youtube.com/blog

YouTube for Television, initially available through the Sony PS3 and Nintendo Wii game consoles at www.youtube.com/tv. Currently in beta, the TV Website offers a dynamic, lean-back, 10-foot television viewing experience through a streamlined interface that enables you to discover, watch and share YouTube videos on any TV screen with just a few quick clicks of your remote control. With enlarged text and simplified navigation, it makes watching YouTube on your TV as easy and intuitive as possible. Optional auto-play capability enables users to view related videos sequentially, emulating a traditional television experience. The TV Website is available internationally across 22 geographies and in over 12 languages.

EDIT: It's a step in the right direction. Still more work needed to deliver a TV-like experience (i.e., one, two clicks from boot up to watching youtube video). A tight integration with XMB may be necessary, plus some sort of personalized guide panel.

 

[-tkf-]

You might want to try out PS3 Media Server new(er) open source media server to share data for ps3.

The PS3 mediaserver seems like a very very promising project. Aimed 100% at the PS3 it uses nothing but Open Source tools to power it´s PS3 ability.

This includes on the fly MKV serving and DTS to AC3 encoding!

Seems very promising, it even worked on a friends ripped Blu-Ray where it aparently does a on the fly encode of the movie. Only had one disc to test with since he only bought ANYDVD for that exact disc, yes it can be expensive to by Region Locked exclusive movies

 

[Nesh]

Anyone tried megabox? I think they made it functionable now and it can really turn the PS3 into a media hub.

Havent tried it yet

 

[Citrous]

The PS3 mediaserver seems like a very very promising project. Aimed 100% at the PS3 it uses nothing but Open Source tools to power it´s PS3 ability.

PS3 Media Server is simply amazing. From it's simplified file structure, to the fact that it just seems to work on ewverything I throw at it... I'm simply amazed. I did have to run an ethernet wire as my WiFi couldn't quite keep up with some more detailed 1080p/AC3 streams. I used to try to remux .mkv's into VOB files, but I swear it just works better to let my PC transcode them on the fly now. Rewinding/FF seems to work fien for me, you just have to give it a minute to enter the mode you want, and don't overburden it with commands. There's maybe a .5 to 1.5 second delay you have to account for. Again, that's only for transcoded material. If they add internal .mkv support in the next update my head might explode from overhappiness lol.

*edit: I used to use TVersity, I had it like pretty dialed in, most things would work, but I would run into showstopping problems on occasion.

 

[Citrous]

Anyone tried megabox? I think they made it functionable now and it can really turn the PS3 into a media hub.

Havent tried it yet

No HDMI output. =(

 

[holsty101]

What kind of spec is required for on the fly transcoding? My old 1.8ghz amd system struggles playing 720p mkv's (and 1080p is complete non-starter) so I guess real time transcoding would be a mess too?

 

[joker454]

Rewinding/FF seems to work fien for me

What hardware setup are you using? I've never been able to get Rew/FF to work properly with large files on the PS3 via DNLA to my 4 drive raid DNS-343. I even tried running tversity (all transcoding disabled) on a quad core machine, and our entire network is wired gigabit, still no luck. If "PS3 Media Server" really works then I may give it a try, but after trying so long with no luck to get it working I finally gave up and just switched to the 360 which handles it all just fine.

 

[patsu]

Did you try to tweak Windows' TCP stack to see if the 200ms ACK anomaly comes into play ?
http://forum.beyond3d.com/showpost.php?p=1252206&postcount=79

 

[joker454]

Did you try to tweak Windows' TCP stack to see if the 200ms ACK anomaly comes into play ?
http://forum.beyond3d.com/showpost.php?p=1252206&postcount=79

Nopers, googling TCP_NODELAY brings up lots of warnings, implying that messing with it may cause more problems than it solves so I didn't touch it. Basically I didn't want to risk wrecking other network performance when I've already got a working dlna video playback solution under default settings.

 

[Nesh]

PS3 Media Server is simply amazing. From it's simplified file structure, to the fact that it just seems to work on ewverything I throw at it... I'm simply amazed. I did have to run an ethernet wire as my WiFi couldn't quite keep up with some more detailed 1080p/AC3 streams. I used to try to remux .mkv's into VOB files, but I swear it just works better to let my PC transcode them on the fly now. Rewinding/FF seems to work fien for me, you just have to give it a minute to enter the mode you want, and don't overburden it with commands. There's maybe a .5 to 1.5 second delay you have to account for. Again, that's only for transcoded material. If they add internal .mkv support in the next update my head might explode from overhappiness lol.

*edit: I used to use TVersity, I had it like pretty dialed in, most things would work, but I would run into showstopping problems on occasion.

I tried it and it wouldnt work for some weird reason

 

[patsu]

PS3MediaServer v1.03 released

http://ps3mediaserver.blogspot.com/

Some fresh news from the development front, as there's a new version out there! Two interesting things: First, Windows users who owns multicores processors will be pleased to know that, this version includes a custom build of mencoder optimized for multicores and H264 content, based on the great work of the ffmpeg team. Benefits ? recent CPUs are now fully used, rather than the usual 60, 65% usage with the default mencoder build (that means a 30% performance gain on mine for example), so you can almost ditch your CoreAVC / AviSynth installs... Be careful though, this is somewhat very young, so you can disable it if any problems arise...

- Changes / Features

Customize encoding parameters (along with default ones) for any given container/codec/property combination (purpose: A/V sync, playback issues, and tweaking for advanced users)
Ability to select networking interface
OSX 10.4 Tiger support (Intel only)
Settings reorganization
M4V now streamed by default, you have to enter the #Transcoded# folder to force the transcode (like AVI files)
WMA now transcoded by default
Italian localization
WINDOWS ONLY: Use (only with 720p/1080p H264 content) an experimental mencoder build for multicores
New OSX icon (thanks to Jakob Karlsson)
Added a "Skip/Force transcode extensions" option added if default settings don't suit you
Possibility to only remux AC3 audio tracks and not reencoded them

- Fixes

Default platform charset issue
Transcode buffer optimization on Windows
Application crash on Windows when too many widechars filenames were parsed
Audio tracks sorted by track number (if present) in media library
Better filenames/subtitles management (m2ts/ts/dvr-ms issues, comas, widechars, etc.)
External subtitles not always loaded, again
DVD images are listed in the media library
Fixed RSS parsing for Youtube and maybe other feeds
AviSynth / VideoLAN not always detected on Vista 64bits
Unavailable engines exclusion on OSX/Linux
Fixed console mode on Linux

 

[DrJay24]

Does anyone have any experience with the Buffalo DLNA NAS drives with the PS3? I have a NAS HD on the network, but it's not DLNA and I was hoping a cheap Buffalo one would add that functionality.

 

[patsu]

I have a Buffalo TeraStation Live. The default DLNA server is not something to write home about. I patched it with a Twonky.

You might want to determine which DLNA server is bundled in the SKU. e.g., TwonkyVision is embedded in this Buffalo SKU according to Engadget.
http://gizmodo.com/377311/buffalos-petite-linkstation-mini-nas-has-1tb-storage-a-dlna-server


EDIT: My TeraStation is old and used Mediabolic's DLNA server. I did a quick check; the latter was sold to Macrovision. Their Media Player webpage is here:
http://www.macrovision.com/products...tform/media_player_software/overview_9034.htm

 

[-tkf-]

What hardware setup are you using? I've never been able to get Rew/FF to work properly with large files on the PS3 via DNLA to my 4 drive raid DNS-343. I even tried running tversity (all transcoding disabled) on a quad core machine, and our entire network is wired gigabit, still no luck. If "PS3 Media Server" really works then I may give it a try, but after trying so long with no luck to get it working I finally gave up and just switched to the 360 which handles it all just fine.

I don´t use the 120x speed forward anymore, i "discovered" the GOTO command, and that saves my day

The PS3 media server is pretty neat, it´s one download, when it starts it automatically shows all your PC´s harddrives. You dont have to use a media library ;-)

After ripping a few DVD´s to the Harddrive i found out that it also supports Captions

 

[BoardBonobo]

They've sort of fixed DisplayShare. I'm going to give ago now, seems the problem is to do with the UPnP service not starting in Vista due to dependencies issues.

I've stopped using TVersity now, unless I'm using the 360 (rarely) to stream to. PS3 Media server is far more robust and doesn't fall over when I try HD content. Using a Pre-N wifi setup is a dream though it clashes with the S-Air setup on my surround sound!

 

[joker454]

I don´t use the 120x speed forward anymore, i "discovered" the GOTO command, and that saves my day

Goto? Hmm I never saw that functionality, or maybe it was added recently? Right now I just use the right bumper button on the 360. So if I want to see the end battle in Commando I just press that button a few times to skip near the end instantly, then FF to get to exactly where I need and play from there. I presume with Goto you can skip to an exact time?

The PS3 media server is pretty neat, it´s one download, when it starts it automatically shows all your PC´s harddrives. You dont have to use a media library ;-)

Does Rew/FF work with PS3 Media server or is it still fubar'd? I hate to keep asking that but dammit I can't deal with the PS3 stalling for ages every time I press the apparently verboten FF/Rew buttons, it drives me nuts. Man I can't believe its 2009 and I can't get functional rewind and fast forward

 

[patsu]

Interesting...

The "Goto" feature allows you to jump to any point in the movie by adjusting the target chapter (if available), hour, minute and/or second. There is also a slider bar to indicate your target position. While the "Goto" feature is active, you can use L2/R2 to adjust the play rate. I should try this some day.

The (old) "Scene Search" feature allows you to layout all the frames in up to 5 minute intervals. It's more resource intensive because PS3 will try to show the frames. But it's probably more helpful if you are unsure.

They've sort of fixed DisplayShare. I'm going to give ago now, seems the problem is to do with the UPnP service not starting in Vista due to dependencies issues.

Thanks for posting. They finally gave me a download link but I guess I will wait for v1.1 under beta right now.

I've stopped using TVersity now, unless I'm using the 360 (rarely) to stream to. PS3 Media server is far more robust and doesn't fall over when I try HD content. Using a Pre-N wifi setup is a dream though it clashes with the S-Air setup on my surround sound!

Does Rew/FF work with PS3 Media server or is it still fubar'd? I hate to keep asking that but dammit I can't deal with the PS3 stalling for ages every time I press the apparently verboten FF/Rew buttons, it drives me nuts. Man I can't believe its 2009 and I can't get functional rewind and fast forward

I haven't tried after the firmware upgrade and PMS update. Will probably do a quick experiment soon.

120x works in the web browser if you use web view for Twonky media
But I'm going to say the "Goto" command is a step up compared to 120x FF. There should be a way for me to jump to the end in 1 click though (minor complain, but pressing the down D-pad button should skip to the end time -- if it's known -- instead of 99 or 59).

 

[Asher]

I tried Twonky (which is absolutely terrible) and TVersity (which is alright), but I also just tried PS3 Media Server. It's amazing, I kept having videos that wouldn't work in Twonky or TVersity and PS3 Media Server works flawlessly...

Love this app.