Scott Posted September 19, 2008 Share Posted September 19, 2008 Ok so i finally bought myself a PS3. I've been doing a bit of reading around and notice that it is now XviD and DivX compatible. Anyone got any experience with using the PS3 as a media center? I'm going home today to have a play with it but i would rather know the possibilities rather than stumbling along myself. I read that it supports 1080p DivX files, which is a bonus, but i also read that most XviD files cannot be streamed even though they can be played from DVD or HDD. If its as good as i hope, i may have 2 mediacenter PC's for sale. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
michael Posted September 19, 2008 Share Posted September 19, 2008 I just run TVersity on a server and the PS3 goes to that for it's files: http://tversity.com/ AFAIK it handles Xvid/DivX OK too. I didn't really want the actual PS3 handling such things, I don't trust it enough Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thorin Posted September 19, 2008 Share Posted September 19, 2008 Yeah I use TVersity too. Playing back xvid/divx files is fine, but I've got a lot of movies encoded using MKV/H.264. TVersity is supposed to transcode the video files on the fly if the PS3 can't support them, but in my experience it just doesn't work. If there's anything better out there though, I haven't found it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnny g Posted September 19, 2008 Share Posted September 19, 2008 Michael, what problems are you having with the PS3 not supporting TVersity streams, I don't have much of a problem. Can you play back the MKV/H.264's on the TVersity host machine? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caseys Posted September 19, 2008 Share Posted September 19, 2008 Scotster would advise you upgrading the HDD before you have the hassle of filling it, having to back it up to a USB drive etc, save your saved game files. There's a guide in the box about replacing the HDD... just put a 320Gb one in mine for £59 the 60/80Gb just doesn't cut it IMHO. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott Posted September 19, 2008 Author Share Posted September 19, 2008 I just run TVersity on a server and the PS3 goes to that for it's files: http://tversity.com/ AFAIK it handles Xvid/DivX OK too. I didn't really want the actual PS3 handling such things, I don't trust it enough I read about that program and it seems like a good bit of kit. Certainly better than WMP. However, i also read that some of the quality is lost? Is this the case? Have you tried 1080p divx video? How do you find the quality compares to the original file? I've read there have been a few upgrades with regards to the PS3 handling video files, according to some forums its more than capable. All depends what you read though, some say "yay" some say "neigh". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott Posted September 19, 2008 Author Share Posted September 19, 2008 Yeah I use TVersity too. Playing back xvid/divx files is fine, but I've got a lot of movies encoded using MKV/H.264. TVersity is supposed to transcode the video files on the fly if the PS3 can't support them, but in my experience it just doesn't work. If there's anything better out there though, I haven't found it. I read that MKV support is around the corner for the PS3. I think the mediacenter capabilities of the PS3 are really going to come on in a big way. Just hope the rumours are true, could be one hell of a machine if they open up the possibilities. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
michael Posted September 19, 2008 Share Posted September 19, 2008 I used Twonky before TVersity, I liked it more but you have to pay for it and for the limited use it gets the free stuff works OK for me. Might be worth a try though: http://www.twonkyvision.de/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott Posted September 19, 2008 Author Share Posted September 19, 2008 Scotster would advise you upgrading the HDD before you have the hassle of filling it, having to back it up to a USB drive etc, save your saved game files. There's a guide in the box about replacing the HDD... just put a 320Gb one in mine for £59 the 60/80Gb just doesn't cut it IMHO. This is one of my plans for the future. I'm not really worried about it at the moment as i use my main PC for storing all the files. Thats the main reason for getting the streaming up and running properly. I know that i can copy the files over to the HDD wirelessly but i already have a lot of seasons etc set up in my main PC. I understand that games can take up a LOT of space on the HDD. Take that and MP3's etc into consideration and i guess it would fill up quite quickly. Its definitely on the list anyway, cheers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wez Posted September 19, 2008 Share Posted September 19, 2008 Tversity here as well, use it for films, music and pics, works really well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thorin Posted September 19, 2008 Share Posted September 19, 2008 Michael, what problems are you having with the PS3 not supporting TVersity streams, I don't have much of a problem. Can you play back the MKV/H.264's on the TVersity host machine? Yes I can play the MKV files on the PC fine, it just says something like "unsupported file" (I forget the actual message), when trying to play it on the PS3 though. Works great for everything else though, music, photo's, XVid/DIVX, streams etc. I read that MKV support is around the corner for the PS3. I think the mediacenter capabilities of the PS3 are really going to come on in a big way. Just hope the rumours are true, could be one hell of a machine if they open up the possibilities. MKV support out of the box would be brilliant. You can always just install Linux on them though, would play anything you wanted then. I used Twonky before TVersity, I liked it more but you have to pay for it and for the limited use it gets the free stuff works OK for me. Might be worth a try though: http://www.twonkyvision.de/ Might give it a go, if I can be arsed. Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wez Posted September 19, 2008 Share Posted September 19, 2008 I always keep an eye on the PS3 avforums section for info http://www.avforums.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=247 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JustGav Posted September 19, 2008 Share Posted September 19, 2008 I used Twonky before TVersity, I liked it more but you have to pay for it and for the limited use it gets the free stuff works OK for me. Might be worth a try though: http://www.twonkyvision.de/ Another vote here for twonky , I bought it as it is one of the only uPNP servers I found that could handle a large amount files. It isn't expensive and does what it says on the tin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott Posted September 23, 2008 Author Share Posted September 23, 2008 Ok, bit of an update. I tried to go ahead with WMP 11 but it would only play certain files. It didn't want to know with a lot of them, especially XviD. I then moved onto twonky, as I assumed the one you pay for would be the best. It did exactly what it said on the tin, and very well, but it still didn't transcode so I moved onto TVersity. I downloaded the latest version but couldn't get the configuration screen to work. I read its something to do with flash or something on Vista so I gave up on that. I then moved onto Nero home but couldn't get that to work properly either. I was about to tear my hair out when I decided to start from scratch. I removed all codecs and all unnecessary installs, as by this point there were a few. I then read up on TVersity and found that there were no problems with the earlier versions so I downloaded one of those. I installed it, along with the supporting codecs listed on the homepage and, hey presto, it worked a treat. I had a bit of computer trouble on Friday and without going into it, ended up with spyware on my PC. So armed with the knowledge of how to setup TVersity I reformatted my PC and started from scratch. My PC is now as minimalist as I want it and running perfectly with TVersity. It has, so far, played everything I have thrown at it, although I still need to try MKV. For anyone else wanting to use the PS3 as a mediacenter, I can't recommend TVersity highly enough. Even the earlier versions of the software run fine and it’s FREEEEE. So.... now onto my next problem. The only gripe I have with the PS3 regarding video, at the moment, is the fact that I can't find a way to search. Is it possible? I have over 7000 karaoke songs on my PC, for drunken nights in, but I can't see any way around scrolling through them all to find a song you want. Is it possible to plug a keyboard in or something like that? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
penguin Posted November 13, 2008 Share Posted November 13, 2008 get a bluetooth keyboard Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
3LL Posted November 13, 2008 Share Posted November 13, 2008 ps3 as a media centre kicks a$$ .. I also like the fact you can alter the video files to improve the display quality, doin this you can get virtually dvd quality playback from a 700MB avi file. Rock on ps, Tversity rocks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wez Posted November 13, 2008 Share Posted November 13, 2008 I also like the fact you can alter the video files to improve the display quality, doin this you can get virtually dvd quality playback from a 700MB avi file. Really, how? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thorin Posted November 13, 2008 Share Posted November 13, 2008 Really, how? You can just alter "sharpness" and noise reduction I believe? I've never fiddled with those. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wez Posted November 13, 2008 Share Posted November 13, 2008 Ahh I see, I never looked into that, always found the quality to be OK without any fiddling Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott Posted November 13, 2008 Author Share Posted November 13, 2008 I just use TVersity to upscale them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gaz Walker Posted November 13, 2008 Share Posted November 13, 2008 I have over 7000 karaoke songs on my PC Can't believe you just admitted to that Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Todd Posted November 13, 2008 Share Posted November 13, 2008 Used my old PS3 as a MC but the whole folder structure thing really sucked, especially when dealing with large amounts of files Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott Posted November 13, 2008 Author Share Posted November 13, 2008 Used my old PS3 as a MC but the whole folder structure thing really sucked, especially when dealing with large amounts of files Yeah thats the problem i'm having. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott Posted November 13, 2008 Author Share Posted November 13, 2008 Can't believe you just admitted to that Yeah i know, was a last resort lol. Wife loves karaoke, in fact most people i know do. Every time we have a night in here it ends up blasting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
3LL Posted November 13, 2008 Share Posted November 13, 2008 Yeah the quality is fine on most dvd rips, i just find it gets it a bit smoother, specially on larger dispays and you can also go into settings to alter the image processing more to Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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