Then that's quite a shortfalling. I thought at least it supported that Sony released format, LocationFree. They'll need to add that for PS3 to work well as a media centre IMO. Otherwise its content is isolated from other devices.
Sony's PS3 download plans?
- Thread starter ninzel
- Start date
Location free is one of those things that ought to happen, but again refer to my "stupid sony" comment earlier. Location free is technology they already have but would require a software solution for PC´s if that what they wanted.
On the other hand, moutside the nerds one room world maybe Sony thinks that the PS3 is selfsustained, it support USB drives (most MP3 players should work with that) and read plenty of memory cards. The only thing missing is video which Sony should deliver as downloads
It needs networked storage. KK said as much - no HDD is big enough. Internal drives and USB doesn't cut it. I know one possible sale riding on the asumption that PS3 supports ethernet/wireless HDD's. Without that, there's going to be no sale, as the PS3 won't be able to use the existing media.
I've got all summer free so I'm thinking of writing a LocationFree media centre. So far though, only one site seems to have the basic protocol outline (and some GPL source Sony have used). Suggests it might use some encryption making the task a lot harder. If anyone is interested in such a venture though (and possibly writing WMP functionality too) send me a PM.
It is not just through iTunes.
It takes time to roll it out; my understanding is it's the entire EMI catalog, excepting the Beatles. Apple was savvy to position this as their doing, though I read somewhere else that EMI approached Apple with it. The effect is to portray it as a special deal between Apple and EMI, when in fact it was just EMI offering this to everyone.
The offering it to anyone has the little sidenote that of the "big ones" Apple seem to be the only one that has voiced and argued for DRM free music. Microsoft is the best example, they argued against it and just changed their tune after the EMI announcement.
And since Apple uses AAC and iTunes is the premiere music shop it´s possible that the next MP3 is AAC. Which alot of non iPOD players doesn´t support.
As a sidenote, the PS3 rips CD´s to AAC 160kbit pr default
We're getting way off-topic, but you should note the timing of Steve Jobs executive note urging record labels to move to DRM-less downloads; it was mere weeks before the EMI deal. This is not a coincidence--his pressure did not lead to EMI's decision, even though it now appears that way. That's the savvy political manuevering that Jobs has done. EMI will be releasing their music in AAC, WMA, MP3, or other format. But again, Apple has drawn the strong association that they are championing the way here, so now everyone thinks AAC when we think music and everyone thinks Apple when they think AAC.The offering it to anyone has the little sidenote that of the "big ones" Apple seem to be the only one that has voiced and argued for DRM free music. Microsoft is the best example, they argued against it and just changed their tune after the EMI announcement.
And since Apple uses AAC and iTunes is the premiere music shop it´s possible that the next MP3 is AAC. Which alot of non iPOD players doesn´t support.
As a sidenote, the PS3 rips CD´s to AAC 160kbit pr default
And I don't know that I've ever heard Microsoft push for DRM for DRMs sake. It was always in terms of "this is what the IP holders want". But they are definitely not thought leaders here. Instead, I think EMI isn't getting enough credit for this. They've been experimenting with DRM-less downloads for the past year and this is certainly a risky venture, though one that I beleive will benefit them.
In terms of who its available to, I'm not sure what you mean by "big ones". EMI's press release indicates that this deal is available to all their retailers: link.
Yes, i´m happy that i now can buy AAC music from iTunes transfer it to my PS3 without any stupid DRM stuff coming between. Steve Jobs letter was aimed at EU btw (one of the theories at least) but noone can take away from Apple that it was Steve Jobs that called for DRM to be removed even if it was bound to happen, not a Sony,IBM or Microsoft guy. I hope EMI has music i like btw
I couldn't agree more. I think this is a watershed moment in downloadable media. If EMI proves this is a viable market (DRM free high-bit rate music downloads), then we'll see more music and possibly movies follow this route. Then it doesn't matter if I want to play it on my PS3, Xbox 360, or computer; they all become simple playback devices... then that NAS feature mentioned above becomes even more important.
I recently put a 160gb drive in my PS3, it took just a few minutes and everything went smooth. I notice no noise difference. I tried using external usb drives but kept encountering problems. First, it wouldn't recognize my external drive at all. Turns out it's because the PS3 won't recognize a NTFS filesystem, apparently you must reformat external drives as FAT32. This is a huge problem though if you want to transfer videos to it because there's a 4GB size limit per file when using FAT32 ;( This should be a non issue for music, but if you are like me and have alot of home movies recorded on an HDV video camera, then it makes external usbdrives all but useless since the files are almost always > 4GB. Just something to keep in mind! The internal drive doesn't seem to have this limit though. I used Red Kawa to transfer 10GB+ files straight from my PC to the PS3 and they all play fine in their native .m2t format.
I personally would love access to NFS or SMB shares with PS3 GameOS.
But this is still solvable as you can set up a private web server and use PS3 browser to download your files. For me the real deal breaker is that PS3 browser doesn't seem to support any decent video format other than mp4.
Good question, i thought about the same thing since i figure the internal drive must be some kind of Unix formatted
The internal drive does seem to be formatted differently. Via the XMB, I can access and play large files ( > 4gb ) on the internal 160gb drive with no trouble. The PS3 formatted the internal drive on first power on after I put it in, it looks like that file system is more large file friendly. That makes sense since it would have to be if Sony ever decided to start offering downloadable HD movies.
Getting on my soapbox for a second, I really do hope they address this problem with external drives one day. It's frustrating that both of these consoles (360/PS3) could make amazing media players, but they always seem hobbled with a variety of limitations that get in the way ;( I'm starting to think neither will ever beat a PC for being a media machine because of the self imposed limitations they each seem to have. In other words, maybe Sony will never support stuff like NTFS or WMV, or maybe Microsoft will never support DivX, MOV, etc... It's particularly frustrating with the PS3, since that machine has the potential to be the ultimate home media machine.
I think WMV should stay on the windows platform and the 360 as well as Quicktime. I want MPEG on the PS3 in every shade that has been made and will be made, be it MPHOLO1 or MPEG1. Windows media and Quicktime is bastard formats created by Companies to keep lock on their users to their platform.
To my surprise my collection of Music videos turned out to be primarily MPEG so i´m happy. The fight right now is getting the few .AVI files turned into MP4 in the most quality sustaining and space saving way
I will turn my PS3 into the Center for my media stuff and thanks to AAC/MP4/MPEG2 the stuff can be played cross platform as well.
In regards to filesizes, i think one of the problems might be license cost, and since Microsofts monopoly on the PC requires whatever devices you may use on the PS3 to be supported as well, FAT32 may have been the cheapest way.
NTFS may be considered a server technology with the license cost* to follow.
*
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/cea4b0c4-e2e3-11db-a1c9-000b5df10621.html
