View Full Version : PS3 noob. My views.
Roy Munson
23-12-2008, 19:24
I've resisted both of the current consoles. Mainly because I'm a PC gamer and will continue to be. However, I recently bought a PS3 for it's media hub and BD abilities.
I'm VERY impressed so far. It's almost like a mini-PC that can stream and link over my home wi-fi network pretty much out of the box. It's also a great BD player, especially with the remote. I know the pusits would no doubt point out some geeky reason why a stand-alone would be better, but frankly I'm amazed, and I'm pretty far from a Sony fan.
I'm going to try Bioshock tomorrow, and might buy Little Big Planet. I know the x360 is allegedly better for actual games (I prefer a PC) but as an overall home media package for £290, I'm well impressed with the PS3.
I guess I only feel the need to post this because I've been pretty much anti-console (especially Sony) for a while. I'm happy to admit I've been turned :clap:
LouBarlow
23-12-2008, 19:28
If you are looking for a media streamer, then you could have bought a Popcorn Hour or similar streaming device and saved yourself one hundred notes. As a BD player, I still hang on to my PS3, despite being able to sell it, buy a standalone, and still come out on top, as I know it will always be supported and it performs excellently.
The Popcorn Hour is the finest thing I have EVER bought though (yes even beating the Pio plasma)
If you are looking for a media streamer, then you could have bought a Popcorn Hour or similar streaming device and saved yourself one hundred notes. As a BD player, I still hang on to my PS3, despite being able to sell it, buy a standalone, and still come out on top, as I know it will always be supported and it performs excellently.
The Popcorn Hour is the finest thing I have EVER bought though (yes even beating the Pio plasma)
Interesting, even better than XBMC?
dannywonderful
23-12-2008, 19:44
Interesting, even better than XBMC?
Much better, my PopcornHour has been my buy of the year.
LordoftheDance
23-12-2008, 19:52
I got my PS3 as part of a deal with AOL back in May, and am happy with it.
I can't get the streaming side of tings to work at all and I've tried Tversity, TwonkyMedia and all sorts - felt like smashing it up after about 3 weeks of trying to get the damn thing to see my PC.
Apart from that, I like the games (LittleBigPlanet is ACE), used it to play Blu-ray movies on, and is an excellent DVD upscaler too, much better than my standalone Blu-ray player.
My friend has a Wii, I just think it's too family-orientated and a bitt kiddie-like for me. I don't know anyone who has a 360, I've never actually played on one either, but it looks just as good as the PS3 for games, especially as the console itself is half the price!
I also use my PS3 to create music playlists and play music while I do the ironing.
Very pleased overall.
Never heard of this Popcorn Hour thing - what does it do?
dannywonderful
23-12-2008, 20:02
Never heard of this Popcorn Hour thing - what does it do?
Media streamer. www.popcornhour.com
PS3 remote is nice but why isn't it backlit like the 360 one is :(
I'm VERY impressed so far. It's almost like a mini-PC that can stream and link over my home wi-fi network pretty much out of the box. It's also a great BD player, especially with the remote. I know the pusits would no doubt point out some geeky reason why a stand-alone would be better, but frankly I'm amazed, and I'm pretty far from a Sony fan.That was my first impression when i first got mine a while back, has a real 'mini-pc' feel to it, seriously solid bit of kit. Enjoy!
Tom Whitaker
23-12-2008, 21:37
I'm VERY impressed so far. It's almost like a mini-PC that can stream and link over my home wi-fi network pretty much out of the box...Almost being the operative word, because you'll always be beholden to Sony in terms of what they'll allow you to have it play.
It certainly is a nice bit of kit and they've made it a lot more open as a system than the 360, which has to be applauded, but they're making a loss on each system and as such they have to protect their revenue, which is based on making sure that people who buy one are also going to buy games or at least BD discs.
As it stands, it sounds like you're pretty much the ideal user - will dabble in the odd game but mainly want it for media - but for anyone else I'd strongly recommend a 360 (if you want gaming) and a Popcorn Hour or HTPC with a Blu-Ray drive, which can be built for less than the PS3 and do more in terms of media.
Glad you like it though - if it suits your needs, then it's a lovely machine.
Media streamer. www.popcornhour.com
Bit pricey for my liking.
Hi Roy, welcome to PS3 land :)
Pleased you are happy with your purchase, do not let the naysayers give you second thoughts, PS3 just keeps getting better and better and some just want Sony to fail.
I am using mine in much the same way you are, as a media and gaming hub, we even use ours for internet use in the living room from time to time.
Cannot recommend Twonky Media enough, best streamer out there although some get the transcoding funtionality of TVersity working better than I could. :?:
callmecheez
23-12-2008, 23:41
Sorry to HiJack-
You popcorn hour owners:
- Does it play 720p MKV files easily?
- Can you get it to download tv episode information like XBMC?
Cheers
Roy Munson
24-12-2008, 02:27
Yeah, I've heard about this Popcorn Hour thing but have not researched it too much.
I decided on the PS3 mainly for the BluRay and media box abilities but also for a sprinkling of games with mates post-pub. In that role, I think it's a bargain. I will continue to build & maintain (serious) games PCs, but I wanted a one-box solution for the living room. At £280 including the remote, two games and a movie, it was better value than a stand alone. It's a very impressive machine. Not played any games on it yet though.
LouBarlow
24-12-2008, 03:13
Sorry to HiJack-
You popcorn hour owners:
- Does it play 720p MKV files easily?
- Can you get it to download tv episode information like XBMC?
Cheers
It plays all HD material flawlessly, though it is better to play 1080P media from either the internal, or an external HDD - you can ftp files from your PC to it no bother at all. 720p media streams fine though.
Also yes, it is well supported by modders out there and one skin/jukebox, does that very thing - it can also download the television shows for you onto it's drive, if you so wish via methods we can't talk about here.
It's a seriously excellent piece of kit and well worth the £175.
Roy Munson
24-12-2008, 03:38
It does sound like a great machine :)
Quick question about the popcorn hour, can you transfer files from an external hard drive to an internal hard drive (if you've installed one) ? Does it have some sort of file mode for transferring etc ?
Mine's not going to be hooked up to a network so I will be using an external (and hopefully internal) hard drive.
Fatbloke
24-12-2008, 05:12
I'm 50-50 about a PS3 or a replacement for my Showcenter. Where can you but the Popcorn over here? The price stated there is $250. Would it come with the UK power rating I assume?
tobiasboon
24-12-2008, 07:03
For a good bit of media streaming/transcoding software for the PS3 I highly recommend PS3 Media Server. It's only in beta atm but i already works very well and transcodes better than TVersity and is more simple to use (just run an exe and allow it through the Vista, in my case, firewall and it showed up immediately on he XMB). A semi decent Core 2 Duo based cpu is apparently enough for 1080p transcoding on the fly and it supports Core AVC for efficient use of multi core systems.
Does it stream multichannel audio? Will it transcode dts to DD?
tobiasboon
24-12-2008, 08:11
Does it stream multichannel audio? Will it transcode dts to DD?
I'm pretty sure it does stream multichannel audio, although my PS3 isn't setup in multichannel mode atm as my room layout isn't particularly ideal for it atm. :(
Hopefully you will find the info you need somewhere in this lot:
Thread at GAF (thanks nsb for the link) (http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=346520)
PS3 Media Server Blog (inc most recent update) (http://ps3mediaserver.blogspot.com/)
Binaries at Google Code (http://code.google.com/p/ps3mediaserver/)
Thread at AVForums (http://www.avforums.com/forums/ps3-media-streaming/854635-new-media-server-ps3.html)
PS3 Media Server
PS3 Media Server is a DLNA compliant Upnp Media Server for the PS3, written in Java, with the purpose of streaming or transcoding any kind of media files, with minimum configuration. It's backed up with the powerful Mplayer/FFmpeg packages.
Current features
Ready to launch and play. No codec packs to install. No folder configuration and pre-parsing or this kind of annoying thing. All your folders are directly browsed by the PS3, there's an automatic refresh also.
Real-time video transcoding via MEncoder, tsMuxer or Avisynth
DVD ISOs images / VIDEO_TS Folder transcoder
OGG/FLAC/MPC/APE audio transcoding
Thumbnail generation for Videos
You can choose with a virtual folder system your audio/subtitle language on the PS3!
All formats PS3 natively supports: MP3/WMA, JPG/PNG/GIF/TIFF, and all kind of videos (AVI, MP4, TS, M2TS, MPEG) the ps3 is willing to play
ZIP/RAR files as browsable folders for pictures/audio files
Preliminary support for pictures based feeds, such as Flickr and Picasaweb
Preliminary Internet TV / Web Radio support with VLC, MEncoder or MPlayer
Windows Only:
Lossless 5.1 PCM transcoding with DTS movies
How do you install this software on your PS3 ?
Or am I missing the point here, the way I understood it reading this thread is your using your PS3 as your media server, so other devices can connect to it to watch stuff over the LAN.
Dave
My PS3 is an excellent Blu ray player, and I like Motorstorm 2 a lot.
But it wont stream anything across my network for some reason. My 360 will, my internet radio will, but the PS3 wont.
MarcusUK
24-12-2008, 09:19
Otherway round, you install it on your PC so you PS3 can connect to it to stream media from your PC.
Almost being the operative word, because you'll always be beholden to Sony in terms of what they'll allow you to have it play.
It certainly is a nice bit of kit and they've made it a lot more open as a system than the 360, which has to be applauded, but they're making a loss on each system and as such they have to protect their revenue, which is based on making sure that people who buy one are also going to buy games or at least BD discs.
As it stands, it sounds like you're pretty much the ideal user - will dabble in the odd game but mainly want it for media - but for anyone else I'd strongly recommend a 360 (if you want gaming) and a Popcorn Hour or HTPC with a Blu-Ray drive, which can be built for less than the PS3 and do more in terms of media.
Glad you like it though - if it suits your needs, then it's a lovely machine.
that's just not true. half a ps3 is £140, blu drives are £80, so you're saying you can build an HTPC for £60? no chance! (posted via ps3) :)
Grandmaster
24-12-2008, 11:55
Er, not sure you read that right. He's saying you can build an HTPC with BD drive for less than the cost of a PS3. Or you could buy a 360 and Popcorn Hour, which is a pretty unbeatable combo for the cash IMHO.
Roy Munson
24-12-2008, 12:10
Can anyone build a BluRay player, media hub, and games console in one box for £290?
I doubt it. That was the only point of this thread. It's not Console Wars ;)
Tom Whitaker
24-12-2008, 12:26
No, they can't, but that wasn't my point. In fact, it's exactly the opposite. I was saying it's ideal if you want a bit of gaming and a media server that's good but not perfect. If you just want a media server, a £300 HTPC will give you a better experience because you're not limited by anything Sony don't allow, and you don't need to fiddle with transcoding apps on your PC, which always sound great but, as we've already seen in this thread, some people get them working better than others. And there's also been a comment on here about a PS3 bought for games but not yet used for one, which is a rather familiar-sounding comment, I must say.
If you have to have games, media and Blu Ray all in one box for £300, then the PS3 really is your best option (unless you're happy with MAME for games :D), but if you're happy to drop either games or Blu Ray from that equation, I think there are better options out there.
And in fact, if you're happy with a (slightly more-)limited media player but want Blu Ray and games, you could get a standalone Blu Ray player and an Xbox 360 to use for games and media.
(This all comes from someone who owns a 360, built an HTPC and has owned and sold a PS3 twice now. My other kit renders the PS3 redundant but the PS3 was unable to do the same to either my HTPC or 360, although I'm happy to admit that that combo came to more than £300 - then again, as with many HTPC-builders out there, I had a lot of stuff lying around from previous PC builds that kept my costs way down)
SIMON ADEBISI
24-12-2008, 12:29
:nuts: I thought a popcorn hour was an actual popcorn maker.
What a lemon.
Off topic a bit, but I wish they would bring out the old Resident Evil games on the store. :(
Thread here discussing the Popcorn Hour.
http://www.thedvdforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=515791
Had a look at the PS3 Media Server and its pretty good I wil admit although I think it needs a faster workstation than my current media server (Athlon 64x2 - 3gbRam)
Apart from the stuttering the transcoding is the best I have seen so far.
What I prefer though is the way you can replicate the same directory structure in Twonky and it is presented to the PS3 as a Single directory set for example...
Movies/Animation could be on multiple drives and the PS3 just sees one directory tree rather than each instance each with its own drive letter. Its like kinda striping your media across several volumes.
LordoftheDance
24-12-2008, 13:35
:nuts: I thought a popcorn hour was an actual popcorn maker.
What a lemon.
Don't worry mate, that's what I thought too. :)
All these new-fangled gadgets still confuse me. :thinking:
Tony Ferrino
24-12-2008, 15:14
I managed to set up the PS3, PSP and laptop with external hard drive into a streaming network this morning. It was surprisingly easy using PS3 Media Server. I just need to go to a WiFi hotspot to make sure my router is letting Remote Play through properly, then I'll be nicely set up to stream whatever I like to Ireland during my upcoming long weekend. Sweet!
It's still annoying that the PS3 wants an external drive to be FAT32. I wouldn't have to faff around with all this server malarky if they did the sensible thing and allowed NTFS.
IAmATeaf
24-12-2008, 16:04
I got the PS3 for my son last year after almost a years worth of nagging from him and I have to admit we use it more as a media player then a console. I've swapped the 40gb HDD out for a 500gb so we just throw all films/song/pics onto the HDD. I've also recently found out how to repackage a DIVX/AVI film to include selectable subtitles which prior to this was the only real thing I missed about watching DIVX/AVI films.
For me personally the media playing capabilities made it worth the cost, being able to play MSG/PES/.... is a bonus for my 2 boys. :)
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