How can a PS3 improve my HT?

[Deleted member 4644]

I am thinking of getting a PS3. Honestly, I dont think I will use it for much gaming, but I have heard its great as a blueray player, and I also heard it can be used for Pandora.com music streaming.

Anyone know much about this?

What sort of audio output/processing does a PS3 have?

And yes, I game with it.. just not a lot. <3 my PC.

 

[zerocool84]

Bu-ray, DVD upconverter, stream music/movies, watch Netflix streaming movies, oh and play some games as well.

 

[MStele]

Imo its worth the money even if you use it purely from a media standpoint. Everyone knows it can do blu-ray and upscale dvds, but it is a great way to play digital music and videos. It also has media extender capabilities, and can stream music and video from other pcs/servers. Oh, and it games well also.

As for audio output, it will do bitstream through hdmi or optical. DTS is supported. It will do pretty much what any reasonably priced standalone blu-ray player will do.

 

[Rio Rebel]

At first, I was impressed with its capabilities as a media server, etc. But I have struggled with it more than any other aspect of my media streaming.

As a gaming console, it is what it is. As a Blu-Ray player, it does a fine job and gets firmware updates better than just about anything out there. If you want to use it primarily as a combination of those two things, I highly recommend it with only two small caveats - it's not shaped very friendly as a home theater component, and it's an extra hassle/cost to use something other than the game controller as a remote.

If your main focus is media playback/internet streaming, I'd look to one of the micro-computers out there, or a player like the O!play or WD media players. I find it much more convenient to simply store my movies as .iso and play them back on the O!play, rather than having to convert the format and stream them to my PS3.

 

[Rio Rebel]

I guess I should clarify - I'm not saying the PS3 is unreliable, just that I've been using simpler and more straightforward solutions that have come out recently. My struggles focused mainly around two things - having to use a media streamer that could read .iso files and stream them to the PS3 (there are several out there, I just never got it going consistently), and consistent network speeds to avoid stuttering and dropouts.

I eventually got the speeds where I needed by connecting to a bridge router. I guess the PS3's internal G wireless just wasn't strong enough for where I was placing the equipment. As to the second issue, I lost interest in getting it to work when I bought an O!Play. I'll eventually set something up to stream to my PS3, but right now it's not as high a priority.

 

[s44]

Just download PS3 Media Server.

 

[alyarb]

start developing an on-disk library of mkvs and use PS3 media server to stream them.

 

[ChaoZ]

As others have said, PMS is awesome. If you install Linux, I think you can just store files on a hard drive and play it without streaming and transcoding. I'm not totally sure on that I hope others will chime in.

You can also use PlayOn to stream Hulu (IMO, it's not worth it for the price). It seems Hulu disabled the service through the PS3's browser.

 

[biggestmuff]

The PS3 used to be a great BD player.
Just buy a standalone BD player. There are good players for under $200 now. Some of the players have built-in Netflix streaming.

 

[Deleted member 4644]

I am shitting my pants with happiness. The PS3 is the most amazing digital media hub/center/streamer I have ever used. Why didn't I get it years ago?????

When I get a mouse for it (have one on order) my life will be COMPLETE.

 

[sswingle]

The PS3 used to be a great BD player.
Just buy a standalone BD player. There are good players for under $200 now. Some of the players have built-in Netflix streaming.

Used to be a great player? Just because there are good standalones for less money now doesn't mean that the PS3 is no longer a great player itself.


To answer something the OP asked about streaming Pandora, yes this works, but I have noticed on mine when its been going for a while (over an hour) playback starts to get choppy, and I need to exit the browser and go back in to fix it.

 

[thomsbrain]

I love my PS3 as a media player.

I don't know if anyone mentioned, but it also up-converts all video files to 1080p. Netflix Watch-It-Now is not upconverted, though.

There might be cheaper alternatives, I don't know. But the PS3 gets the job done to my satisfaction.

The hard drive is also intended to be user-upgradeable without voiding the warranty.