Playing downloaded HD content?

[wiretap]

I don't have any of those problems. My slim is not loud at all, and it uses far less power than the fat PS3, nor is it hot in any way. If you have a compatible TV, you can turn on HDMI control in your settings (slim ps3), and this will allow you to use your TV's remote to control your PS3. The PS3 will also turn on whenever you change the channel to the PS3's channel, and it will turn the TV on and turn it to the correct channel if you turn on the PS3. The transcoding is extremely painless. All that you do is install PS3 Media Sever, tell it where your videos are, and the PS3 recognizes it instantly... no ports to forward, nothing else to configure. I have no problems with the video lagging or slow transcoding. I haven't had any trouble with subtitles. It sounds to me like you don't even own a PS3 because I have not had any of those issues.

For $300, you cannot get a more feature-rich media player, let alone a media player that plays video games, and has a blu ray drive.

No.. it's very annoying and you have to jump through hoops.

- Rely on a HDTV that supports a certain HDMI feature for remote control or buy a special adapter for a remote.. no thanks.

- Noise levels on the PS3 slim were tested by Engadget: "The PS3 Slim averaged 53 to 56 db when in use / playing a game / installing data (in this case, Metal Gear Solid 4), compared to the 55 to 58 db of the original. Blu-ray movie playback is where it becomes noticeable, as the slim peaked for us at 60 db when the original was doing 70 db running the same disc." That's much louder than a passively cooled dead silent standalone player or a passively cooled ITX HTPC.

- Cost.. for $300 I can build a HTPC that is silent and will play any content you throw at it. Obviously it isn't a gaming machine. The same goes for standalone players. You don't need a Blu-ray player.. you just rip the content to your network share or selected means of data storage. No getting up every time to put a disk in.. and no updating for the latest Java/BD+ bull.

- Here's the process for subtitles in M2TS for the Playstation: http://www.networkedmediatank.com/wiki/index.php/M2TS_Subtitles_HowTo I do not want to do that with my 835 high def movies. It's much easier to use a MKV container which contains the subtitles and can be easily selected by many other standalone players like the WD Live or Popcorn Hour, or a HTPC using a media center app.

- For transcoding from a media server to the PS3, 1080p video requires pretty powerful processor or else it gets choked out. Having a home server running around the clock with a high end processor (C2Q or greater) is real nice for the skyrocketing rates on electrical bills. I'd rather run my 35w processor in the media server and let the HTPC do the hardware decoding on the graphics chip.. like the Nvidia ION mini-ITX systems which hardly consume 60w at full load for the whole system. My media server draws 120w from the wall with 9TB of storage.. adding a high end processor for transcoding nearly doubles that power usage because that's how I had it before.

It sounds to me like you don't have much experience in this field.

 

[0roo0roo]

yea, only certain encoding settings will play on ps3.
its really only a good solution if you already own one. otherwise the whole transcode thing is bs.
wdtv has its own issues, it has specific limitations on encode, but generally those are super high settings.
avs or whatever forums has a long thread hunting down the decode limits of that device.

 

[Phynaz]

Thanks all. I think the answer is the WD or Seagate device along with a PS3 for the Blue-Ray player.

 

[kalrith]

Thanks all. I think the answer is the WD or Seagate device along with a PS3 for the Blue-Ray player.

If you're going to get a PS3 anyways, I'd recommend trying it out as a media player first. As you can see from this thread, there are those who absolutely love the PS3 as a media player, and those who think the PS3 should be nuked from orbit.

If you fall into the former category, then it would stink to have the unnecessary expense, connections, space, etc. of another device. If you fall into the latter category, then you can keep the PS3 as a BD player/gaming machine and add a stand-alone media player to your setup.

 

[Phynaz]

Kalrith, yeah that makes sense.

Thanks.

 

[smitbret]

No.. it's very annoying and you have to jump through hoops.

- Rely on a HDTV that supports a certain HDMI feature for remote control or buy a special adapter for a remote.. no thanks.

- Noise levels on the PS3 slim were tested by Engadget: "The PS3 Slim averaged 53 to 56 db when in use / playing a game / installing data (in this case, Metal Gear Solid 4), compared to the 55 to 58 db of the original. Blu-ray movie playback is where it becomes noticeable, as the slim peaked for us at 60 db when the original was doing 70 db running the same disc." That's much louder than a passively cooled dead silent standalone player or a passively cooled ITX HTPC.

- Cost.. for $300 I can build a HTPC that is silent and will play any content you throw at it. Obviously it isn't a gaming machine. The same goes for standalone players. You don't need a Blu-ray player.. you just rip the content to your network share or selected means of data storage. No getting up every time to put a disk in.. and no updating for the latest Java/BD+ bull.

- Here's the process for subtitles in M2TS for the Playstation: http://www.networkedmediatank.com/wiki/index.php/M2TS_Subtitles_HowTo I do not want to do that with my 835 high def movies. It's much easier to use a MKV container which contains the subtitles and can be easily selected by many other standalone players like the WD Live or Popcorn Hour, or a HTPC using a media center app.

- For transcoding from a media server to the PS3, 1080p video requires pretty powerful processor or else it gets choked out. Having a home server running around the clock with a high end processor (C2Q or greater) is real nice for the skyrocketing rates on electrical bills. I'd rather run my 35w processor in the media server and let the HTPC do the hardware decoding on the graphics chip.. like the Nvidia ION mini-ITX systems which hardly consume 60w at full load for the whole system. My media server draws 120w from the wall with 9TB of storage.. adding a high end processor for transcoding nearly doubles that power usage because that's how I had it before.

It sounds to me like you don't have much experience in this field.

Sounds like you just hate the PS3 (which is fine). In fact, I'm willing to bet that Wiretap has never used a PS3 in this capacity or even owned one for that matter.

I can't speak for every PS3 out there, but I have the fat PS3 and it is anything but loud. I guess if I liked to watch movies with the sound muted and with subtitles on (that would explain wiretap's argument) then it could be an issue. Personally, I like to keep the volume up to a level where I can discern human speech and hear the sound effects the studios so painstakingly put in to movies nowadays. Any noise coming from the PS3 is thoroughly drown out by the movie itself. The only time my PS3 is louder than a whisper is when it first spools up a DVD. Once the menus load, it is no louder than any other DVD player I have ever owned.

The lack of an infrared RC is annoying. I did spring for the Harmony Adapter. Once I got over the fact that it cost $50, it has worked flawlessly, actually better than any other RC device I own. I can literally point the remote in any direction and not lose the signal.

I also wish that the built-in wireless was 'N' rather than 'G'. With wireless N, I can stream bitrates higher than 80mb/s which has been good enough for any HD video I have had to stream with the exception of one documentary that had about 10 seconds of footage that pushed into the 90s and chopped up on me a bit. It wasn't much of an issue since my tv and Dish receiver all needed to be hard-wired for internet connectivity anyway. I just wired everything into an 'N' capable wireless bridge. Problem solved.

Like most people, my PC is on 24/7 anyway. It's an old AMD 4400+ dual-core. It could be a 1ghz Celeron and it wouldn't make any difference. I just set my folders up on the HDD using Tversity as a media server. I never transcode on the fly, it's totally unecessary. It's not hard to run mkv files through mkv2vob as they are downloaded. No file has ever taken more than 2 minutes to convert, even with the audio being converted to AC3, and mkv2vob puts it in the appropriate folder when finished. Tversity updates the catalog every night automatically. How hard is that? Download/rip. Run through mkv2vob. Turn on tv and PS3.

Not only that, but the PS3 will be updated continuously for the next 5-10 years, long after your HTPC or any other hardware is long obsolete and you've spent three times the money replacing it on a regular basis. If you want future proof, get a PS3 and spring for the adapter. Call it a future proof, full-featured Blu-Ray player and streaming media device for $350.

 

[poofyhairguy]

I never transcode on the fly, it's totally unecessary. It's not hard to run mkv files through mkv2vob as they are downloaded. No file has ever taken more than 2 minutes to convert, even with the audio being converted to AC3, and mkv2vob puts it in the appropriate folder when finished.

Something tells me you have never tried to run a VC1 file through mkv2vob- it takes WAY longer than two minutes. Plus mkv2vob is NOT perfect- I can't tell you how many times I have run an mkv through it only for it to produce a file that stops halfway through playback (yet the original mkv on my XBMC box plays the whole thing through without issue).

Of course this doesn't even mention the fact that all this extra work of putting it through mkv2vob is a HUGE pain and an unwanted extra step if you are building a decent mkv collection, and that the files created are WAY less useful on non-Ps3 devices than the original mkv was (leaving you to keep both, which takes up twice the space).

No, the mkv2vob method is junk for a large library. I only use it to crank out what are basically pirate "Blu Rays" (burned on DVD9 disks of course) for my PS3 owning friends that drool over a movie in my large library (and even then I warn them the disk might not work!). If you are gonna use the PS3 as a media server with an mkv library a few hundred large, your only real option is a fast computer+transcoding.

Of course, once you have a few hundred movies you find out that Crossbar chokes on large media directories and all that time you put into getting the PS3 to be the center of your living room is wasted because the thing can't scale with you.

I love my PS3 for games, and it is a WAY better Blu Ray player than any I have had, but for playing downloaded mkv files it simply sucks. It is only good if you have a small library, and even then compared to XBMC (which has an AMAZING interface full of fanart for each movie that is very WAF friendly) it is a toy.

I would rather have my XBMC box, even if the hardware is "obsolete" by the time we see a PS4, that can actually play an unmodified mkv TODAY rather than my PS3 for the task. Sure in a few years when ION5 comes out my ION1 box will be old tech, but considering that my box can play untouched Blu Ray rips that are at the maximum of the Blu Ray standard I can't think of one thing that ION5 box will do that I need that my ION1 box doesn't.

 

[Raduque]

Thanks. No PC meant no pc in the room.

Drill holes and run wires through the walls. D:

Honestly, all of the alternatives for format shifted HD content are kludges. Save the Popcorn Hour.

I would just put a PC in a nice HTPC case and call it done. Or get a Popcorn Hour.

 

[JackBurton]

No.. it's very annoying and you have to jump through hoops.

- Rely on a HDTV that supports a certain HDMI feature for remote control or buy a special adapter for a remote.. no thanks.

- Noise levels on the PS3 slim were tested by Engadget: "The PS3 Slim averaged 53 to 56 db when in use / playing a game / installing data (in this case, Metal Gear Solid 4), compared to the 55 to 58 db of the original. Blu-ray movie playback is where it becomes noticeable, as the slim peaked for us at 60 db when the original was doing 70 db running the same disc." That's much louder than a passively cooled dead silent standalone player or a passively cooled ITX HTPC.

- Cost.. for $300 I can build a HTPC that is silent and will play any content you throw at it. Obviously it isn't a gaming machine. The same goes for standalone players. You don't need a Blu-ray player.. you just rip the content to your network share or selected means of data storage. No getting up every time to put a disk in.. and no updating for the latest Java/BD+ bull.

- Here's the process for subtitles in M2TS for the Playstation: http://www.networkedmediatank.com/wiki/index.php/M2TS_Subtitles_HowTo I do not want to do that with my 835 high def movies. It's much easier to use a MKV container which contains the subtitles and can be easily selected by many other standalone players like the WD Live or Popcorn Hour, or a HTPC using a media center app.

- For transcoding from a media server to the PS3, 1080p video requires pretty powerful processor or else it gets choked out. Having a home server running around the clock with a high end processor (C2Q or greater) is real nice for the skyrocketing rates on electrical bills. I'd rather run my 35w processor in the media server and let the HTPC do the hardware decoding on the graphics chip.. like the Nvidia ION mini-ITX systems which hardly consume 60w at full load for the whole system. My media server draws 120w from the wall with 9TB of storage.. adding a high end processor for transcoding nearly doubles that power usage because that's how I had it before.

It sounds to me like you don't have much experience in this field.

So what kind of video/audio card are you using in that $300 HTPC that will bitstream the HD audio codecs to an AVR?

 

[wiretap]

No need. When you rip the movies you just convert the audio track to FLAC. But of course, you could always go with a cheap passive ATI which supports it for around $40, figuratively speaking.

Actually.. http://www.engadget.com/2010/02/04/ati-radeon-hd-5450-focuses-on-multimedia-features-neglects-gami/

They're around $45 - $50 on Newegg.

 

[poofyhairguy]

So what kind of video/audio card are you using in that $300 HTPC that will bitstream the HD audio codecs to an AVR?

A i3 with an Intel GPU will do that:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/2901/3

Personally I think bitstreaming is overrated- I just decode on the box and pass along the 8 channel PCM. But if you catch deals you can build a HTPC for LESS than $300 and get what you want. Heck, start with this hot deal and you can get below $200:

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2074638