A comparison of PS3 and 360 as media players

[Arwin]

Is this still working for people? I get the old website, and every time I enter eu.playstation.com, I'm taken to PS3-SD.uk.playstation.com. I'm outputting 1080p.

On ps3 or on PC? On PC the nl.playstation.com link works fine (and is up to date with Playstation Plus free trial of Prince of Persia HD stuff etc). On PS3, the default homepage gives me the nice new layout as well, even though I run at 720p.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

PS3. It's loading the wrong page. Tried 720p too and it remains broken.

Okay, just deleted the cache and cookies, and it's working.

 

[patsu]

For those who rent Blu-ray from RedBox:
http://www.homemediamagazine.com/redbox/coinstar-cfo-redbox-upping-blu-ray-footprint-23304

Redbox is increasing the number of Blu-ray Disc titles in kiosks, in addition to incorporating user-interfaces that enable consumers to view either high-definition or standard-definition rentals, the CFO of parent Coinstar Inc. said.

Speaking March 9 at the Wedbush 2011 Technology, Media & Telecommunications Conference in New York, Scott Di Valerio said Redbox would up Blu-ray kiosk penetration to more than 10%, with title selections based on the most popular genres and total market demand.

The CFO said Redbox management had expected Blu-ray to do better in the fourth quarter and, as a result, has taken steps to better understand the format, including determining what new high-definition releases make the best rentals — typically action films.

“What we’re really trying to do is focus on genres that are more rentable from a Blu-ray perspective, and buying at the right [purchase] levels so we can get the levels of turns needed on those discs,” Di Valerio said.

...

The executive said Redbox is adding 5,000 to 6,000 new kiosks in 2011 to an install base of 30,000 units in 26,000 retail locations nationwide at the end of 2010. Di Valerio said 60% of the U.S. population lives within a five-minute drive from a Redbox kiosk.

The executive said Redbox continued to work on product management — an issue the company said undermined fourth-quarter results. DiValerio said “more robust” analysis on disc inventories and product performances continue, while adjusting purchasing more in line with consumer trends.

He said the data would help with title and quantity purchase decisions typically made six to eight weeks before a movie is put into a kiosk.

“We do a post-mortem on every DVD that is in our kiosk to try and determine how it performed,” DiValerio said.

 

[AlphaWolf]

http://www.1up.com/news/iptv-features-coming-holiday

360 IPTV Features Coming by Holiday 2011

 

[patsu]

http://news.cnet.com/8301-31001_3-20040235-261.html

If you've ever wondered why some movies disappear from the video services of Apple, Amazon, and Netflix, the likely reason is the HBO blackout. When a new release is aired on HBO, often the company has acquired the exclusive right to distribute the movie electronically. That means the title must come down at other outlets, including Web stores. HBO has this kind of blackout agreement with three of the top six major film studios: Warner Bros., 20th Century Fox, and NBC Universal.

But HBO is expected to soon agree to relax the blackout requirements, according to multiple film industry insiders. This is good news for the film studios. Without the cooperation of HBO and parent company Time Warner, the studios' plans to create new cloud video services and reignite movie sales would be severely hobbled.

...

DVD sales are sliding and the studios want to create a new format that they hope will entice consumers to buy and collect movies again. The studios want Web content to offer as much freedom as movie discs. They want consumers to have confidence that whatever video they download or stream, it will play on any player. The UltraViolet standards were created by a consortium of entertainment, software, and hardware companies, along with several online and offline retailers.

Another way UltraViolet's backers want to make collecting movie downloads more appealing is by offering them digital shelves to store them on. UltraViolet's standards will enable consumers to store their digital media on the servers of third-party service providers and play the media even if they decide to hop to another service. The film sector's interoperability plan has received high marks from many tech pundits and analysts.

The real hero for the studios could be Time Warner. HBO's agreements posed a significant obstacle to the studios' UltraViolet plans. Conceivably, a person could buy a movie, store it in their digital locker, and then be blocked from accessing it during HBO's blackout period. The studios recognized that this was a non-starter and began negotiating.

The talks with Time Warner and HBO have gone well, the sources said. They expect Time Warner to agree to make an exception for cloud services sometime by the summer, in time for UltraViolet's launch. This will then allowing people to access their cloud content during the blackouts.

Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes mentioned UltraViolet during an earnings call last month, according to M&E Daily. He said that all theatrical new releases from Warner Bros. would be UltraViolet enabled.

 

[patsu]

These features might be interesting for GoogleTV and Kinect-enabled services. It is being offered to iTunes now:
http://iptv.tmcnet.com/topics/iptv/...-additional-features-select-itunes-movies.htm

Sony Home Entertainment on Wednesday added a number of new features to some of the Hollywood films that it sells through iTunes.

Users who purchase select movies through Apple's (News - Alert) online store can now search for specific scenes by typing keyword terms into a query box. Utilizing the advanced search function's facial recognition and speech-to-text technologies, movie owners can identify all the scenes with their favorite actor or even the specific dialogue that they find amusing, according to the Hollywood Reporter.
Sony has also rolled out a new clip-and-share feature, which lets users send out certain film clips to their friends and followers via Facebook (News - Alert) and Twitter.

The final new feature is an interactive playlist, which provides users with a full catalog of the song titles that are included in the film, including those that aren't available on the soundtrack. Not surprisingly, each song identifier includes a link to the iTunes page where it can be purchased.

So far, Sony has only made the features available with a handful of titles. "Burlesque" and "The Others Guys" offer all three enhancements, while "Salt" and "Resident Evil: Afterlife" only provide the advanced search and clip-and-share functions. Both of the aforementioned features will also be available on "The Tourist" when it is released on March 22. "How Do You Know," which also debuts on the iTunes store on March 22, will only provide clip-and-share functionality.

 

[patsu]

Earthquake disrupted Sony's Blu-ray disc production: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-...-assessing-damage-from-miyagi-earthquake.html

Companies including Sony Corp. (6758) and Toyota Motor Corp. (7203) halted output at plants after an 8.9- magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of Japan, damaging production facilities and causing power outages.

Sony halted and evacuated six factories in northeastern Japan, said Yasuhiro Okada, a spokesman at the Tokyo-based company. He said the company was assessing the impact of power outages and damage to its facilities in the region, which make Blu-ray discs, magnetic heads and batteries.

 

[-tkf-]

So, what are the alternatives to PS3 media server, while i really liked this program and still use it, i wondered if there were a more supported and easier program out there.

The newer versions seems slower to me.

 

[ShadowRunner]

Mezzmo is the best i have used.

 

[(((interference)))]

Watched a couple of DVDs on my PS3 over the weekend, I have to say that the 1080p upscaling is really fantastic, I would be hard pressed to tell the difference from Blu-ray unless they were side by side.

It does depend on the quality of the DVD transfer though, certain films (eg. 28 Days Later) look like crap (and films shot in anamorphic 2.35 widescreen work better than regular 16:9)

Like audio playback, this is another area where the 360 lags behind.
Though it is a pity the full upscaling is only reserved for DVDs and won't work for videos stored on the HDD or external memory.

And does anyone know what the "Frame noise reduction' option actually does?

 

[Npl]

Watched a couple of DVDs on my PS3 over the weekend, I have to say that the 1080p upscaling is really fantastic, I would be hard pressed to tell the difference from Blu-ray unless they were side by side.

It does depend on the quality of the DVD transfer though, certain films (eg. 28 Days Later) look like crap (and films shot in anamorphic 2.35 widescreen work better than regular 16:9)

Like audio playback, this is another area where the 360 lags behind.
Though it is a pity the full upscaling is only reserved for DVDs and won't work for videos stored on the HDD or external memory.

And does anyone know what the "Frame noise reduction' option actually does?

Actually I just bought 28 days later on Bluray, and I have a hard time imagining the DVD looking worse. The source was a DV-Camera, so there not much "high-def" going on (wish I knew this before) but its then upscaled truly horribly and a noisy grain filter is added on top (Which kinda invalidates the claim that the DV-Cam is for style reason, why try making it look like film by adding "film-defects")
Looks really horrible and most upscaled DVDs look better.
Ironically there is a making-of with film-scenes in SD, and those do look better upscaled by the PS3 than the 1080p version on disc, so I have a hard time imaging the DVD version could ever be worse[/offtopic rant]

 

[(((interference)))]

Actually I just bought 28 days later on Bluray, and I have a hard time imagining the DVD looking worse. The source was a DV-Camera, so there not much "high-def" going on (wish I knew this before) but its then upscaled truly horribly and a noisy grain filter is added on top (Which kinda invalidates the claim that the DV-Cam is for style reason, why try making it look like film by adding "film-defects")
Looks really horrible and most upscaled DVDs look better.
Ironically there is a making-of with film-scenes in SD, and those do look better upscaled by the PS3 than the 1080p version on disc, so I have a hard time imaging the DVD version could ever be worse[/offtopic rant]

Well, 28 Days Later is pretty much the worse looking DVD i've seen, films like Cloverfield which were also shot using handheld cameras look far far better.

 

[-tkf-]

Actually I just bought 28 days later on Bluray, and I have a hard time imagining the DVD looking worse. The source was a DV-Camera, so there not much "high-def" going on (wish I knew this before) but its then upscaled truly horribly and a noisy grain filter is added on top (Which kinda invalidates the claim that the DV-Cam is for style reason, why try making it look like film by adding "film-defects")
Looks really horrible and most upscaled DVDs look better.
Ironically there is a making-of with film-scenes in SD, and those do look better upscaled by the PS3 than the 1080p version on disc, so I have a hard time imaging the DVD version could ever be worse[/offtopic rant]

28 days later was shot on DV, that is a 25Mb MPEG2 based SD format with 4:2:0 color sampling.
Then it was edited and color graded, which "everyone" knows is very hard on such low grade material.
Gaining anything by upgrading noisy contrast heavy video with few details is near impossible.
A standard movie shot with plenty of resolution and color depth have way more details and looks way better upscaled.

In other words, the source material for that movie was extremely sub-par compared to the Blu-Ray specs.
The only thing that could have gained anything was the final scene (shot on film) and the sound.

 

[mrcorbo]

I just wanted to mention that since I last weighed in with my opinion that PS3 and 360 are both sorely lacking as media players when compared to even a basic PC, I built a 2nd home theater setup and moved my 360 and an "old" laptop I had into that setup. I then bought a PS3 and added that to that setup as well. I needed to re-purpose the laptop for a while and spent extensive time working to replace the laptop's functionality with both the 360 and PS3. It's not even close with the one exception being the PS3 can output multichannel PCM to my receiver while the laptop is limited to re-encoding multichannel sound to AC3 @ 640kps.

Other than that, even with developments in the system software for both consoles and support software like PS3 Media Server, there is still no comparison in either functionality or ease-of-use. And you can do everything my laptop can do, without the multichannel PCM restriction, on a <$500 laptop today. I'm disappointed that neither of the 2 console manufacturers have stepped their game up more

 

[jonabbey]

I just wanted to mention that since I last weighed in with my opinion that PS3 and 360 are both sorely lacking as media players when compared to even a basic PC, I built a 2nd home theater setup and moved my 360 and an "old" laptop I had into that setup. I then bought a PS3 and added that to that setup as well. I needed to re-purpose the laptop for a while and spent extensive time working to replace the laptop's functionality with both the 360 and PS3. It's not even close with the one exception being the PS3 can output multichannel PCM to my receiver while the laptop is limited to re-encoding multichannel sound to AC3 @ 640kps.

Other than that, even with developments in the system software for both consoles and support software like PS3 Media Server, there is still no comparison in either functionality or ease-of-use. And you can do everything my laptop can do, without the multichannel PCM restriction, on a <$500 laptop today. I'm disappointed that neither of the 2 console manufacturers have stepped their game up more

So, ah, what exactly did the consoles not do that your laptop does? I think I missed that in your post..

 

[Shifty Geezer]

And you can do everything my laptop can do, without the multichannel PCM restriction, on a <$500 laptop today. I'm disappointed that neither of the 2 console manufacturers have stepped their game up more

Certainly not in the UK. A laptop capable of BRD playback isn't to be picked up for less than something like £700, doing a quick search for BRD enabled laptops. Outside of that though, you're definitely right. As long as you can't rip DVDs to HDD on the consoles, you're immediately at a huge disadvantage. But I don't think these consoles were ever trying to be standalone, PC free media servers, but media extenders of sorts. In that respect you aren't making a fair comparison, unless your complaints are solely about media support etc.

 

[-tkf-]

I just wanted to mention that since I last weighed in with my opinion that PS3 and 360 are both sorely lacking as media players when compared to even a basic PC, I built a 2nd home theater setup and moved my 360 and an "old" laptop I had into that setup. I then bought a PS3 and added that to that setup as well. I needed to re-purpose the laptop for a while and spent extensive time working to replace the laptop's functionality with both the 360 and PS3. It's not even close with the one exception being the PS3 can output multichannel PCM to my receiver while the laptop is limited to re-encoding multichannel sound to AC3 @ 640kps.

Other than that, even with developments in the system software for both consoles and support software like PS3 Media Server, there is still no comparison in either functionality or ease-of-use. And you can do everything my laptop can do, without the multichannel PCM restriction, on a <$500 laptop today. I'm disappointed that neither of the 2 console manufacturers have stepped their game up more

Lets not forget ease of use, the PS3 is very easy to use, the only issue is supported formats. But aside from the classic pirate formats, it play nice with most family equipment.

And afaik there is plenty of issues in regards to HTPC ,deinterlace, framerates and sound. I look forward to fighting them all when i finally buy a Sandy Bridge HTPC

 

[BadTB25]

Lets not forget ease of use, the PS3 is very easy to use, the only issue is supported formats. But aside from the classic pirate formats, it play nice with most family equipment.

And afaik there is plenty of issues in regards to HTPC ,deinterlace, framerates and sound. I look forward to fighting them all when i finally buy a Sandy Bridge HTPC

If your PS3 is jailbroken, then this might interest you
http://psx-scene.com/forums/f6/showtime-mediaplayer-ported-ps3-83488/

It is still in a BETA, but it already plays most formats in some form. With more optimization, it could be as useful as XBMC.

 

[Arwin]

I've recently added a 1TB network drive to our network, that can be accessed from all our PCs and consoles. I've been ripping some of our DVDs to it (my wife loves to rewatch a lot of stuff frequently), but I'm already seeing that for a half decent rip you're looking at 688 for, say, one episode of House (in good quality 720x480 with 5.1 sound). We have six seaons of 22 episodes, so if I do all of that, we've already filled up that 1TB. So this kind of use does not make much sense for us yet, even if it would otherwise be pretty convenient. And these are just DVDs - we also have various BluRays including a few TV series on BluRay.

So either storage needs to be in the order of 50GB to even consider being able to put all of our stuff on there (even just our TV series), or we need a cloud service with good streaming (and subtitle options).

So for now, although I would like it in theory, we personally are still quite far away from getting rid of physical media here.

Also, since I don't generally download anything illegally, that probably explains why I am not missing a lot of 'functionality' in the consoles either. The PS3 still does pretty much everything I want. The only nice to have would be to have a shoutcast client on it, but we generally do that in the kitchen with our phones that is docked to our radio there.

 

[joker454]

It's been a really long time since I tried, but the last time I did the consoels were incapable of playing back .m2ts and .mts files with 5.1 or better audio over a network, which to me was a severe handicap since they are used for two of the most prominent hd video sources today namely blu-rays and hd video cameras. Hence why I long abandoned the consoles for media playback and instead use a htpc downstairs and a popcorn hour c-200 in the bedroom. Has that situation changed at all on console, can they now stream common media from hd camcorders and blu-ray movies? I don't want any hack transcode type fix, or have to keep a pc on full time to support this, I just want the consoles to be able to do what my wimpy c-200 can do namely play m2ts and mts hd video/audio media right from my raid drives. Last I checked this was not possible but that was a long time ago, if that's changed then I'll try them again but somehow I doubt it.