What's the PS3 like as a media center?

[GodlessAstronomer]

I'm thinking of getting a PS3 for casual gaming with my flatmates. Just wondering what it's like as a media center? We're currently running a 360 over wireless with media center connected to my PC, but it's not very good. The interface is slow and it can't play a lot of my files, particularly HD stuff. Is the PS3 any better? Is it possible to buffer files on it if they're too high-bandwidth to play over Wifi? Does it play most formats?

 

[GodlessAstronomer]

Also I guess while I'm asking about the PS3 I may as well keep it all in one thread. What are the killer apps/games for the PS3? What can I play on it that I can't play elsewhere, and that I really want to play? What capabilities does it have over PC/360? Basically I'm trying to see if a PS3 purchase is justified. I have always been a 100% PC gamer so I'm not up on what's on consoles these days. My flatmate also has Kinect so I'm not especially interested in Move(?).

 

[warcrow]

To answer your second post, here are some heplful links:

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?p=30572678&highlight=super+stardust#post30572678

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?p=29185180&highlight=super+stardust#post29185180

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?p=30590885&highlight=super+stardust#post30590885

 

[GodlessAstronomer]

Also I have one more question, and this will probably sound really stupid, but I'm not a console guy. What's the purpose of the hard drive in the PS3? Can I use it for arbitrary file storage/playback? Or is it just for updates, or what? Is it worth getting one with a large HDD?

 

[zinfamous]

Also I have one more question, and this will probably sound really stupid, but I'm not a console guy. What's the purpose of the hard drive in the PS3? Can I use it for arbitrary file storage/playback? Or is it just for updates, or what? Is it worth getting one with a large HDD?

you can "install" PS3 games to make them load faster. also for demos and anything else you download via PS network. such as PS2 games.

 

[drbrock]

I have a htpc and a ps3. I think the ps3 is worth it but I am also a console gamer. I don't deal with the pc games. As a media center the ps3 is great. however it does not take mkv files and the file size limit is 4gb. If you are buying the ps3 for media only and have a solid pc/htpc I would pass on it.

I don't see anything the ps3 can do media wise that a pc can't.

 

[RedRooster]

HD(particularily 1080p) isn't going to work very good over wireless anyways.
Why not download TVersity or some other uPNP program? It'll stream/transcode everything, even to XBox.

 

[Chapbass]

I have a htpc and a ps3. I think the ps3 is worth it but I am also a console gamer. I don't deal with the pc games. As a media center the ps3 is great. however it does not take mkv files and the file size limit is 4gb. If you are buying the ps3 for media only and have a solid pc/htpc I would pass on it.

I don't see anything the ps3 can do media wise that a pc can't.

As far as the 4gb limit and MKV, download PS3 media server, install it on your PC, and store everything on the PC.

Granted, the OP will need a wired connection for that, but I can stream 1080p mkv's with 5.1 PCM sound perfectly, never a stutter.

 

[GodlessAstronomer]

So if I don't care about demos the HDD is essentially worthless? This is good news for me because the price difference is substantial.

 

[Ross Ridge]

So if I don't care about demos the HDD is essentially worthless? This is good news for me because the price difference is substantial.

Well. you can also install games and keep media files on it, as already mentioned in this thread. But the hard drive on the PlayStation 3 is user upgradable, so it may not be worth buying the higher capacity version regardless.

I don't think a PlayStation 3 would funamentally give you anything over an Xbox 360 with hard drive as far as using it as media center goes.

 

[mugs]

I'm thinking of getting a PS3 for casual gaming with my flatmates. Just wondering what it's like as a media center? We're currently running a 360 over wireless with media center connected to my PC, but it's not very good. The interface is slow and it can't play a lot of my files, particularly HD stuff. Is the PS3 any better? Is it possible to buffer files on it if they're too high-bandwidth to play over Wifi? Does it play most formats?

I'm not sure if you're referring to using the 360 as a Media Center Extender, or as a DLNA/uPnP media player. If the former, the PS3 doesn't do that. If the latter, the PS3 does it. The interface is faster/better than on the 360 IMO. It sucks for me over wireless though. Half the time it doesn't recognize the media server, and when it does it usually stutters a lot (just watching SD video). I've tried using 3 different routers of different brands, and I tried using Tomato firmware. I've tried putting the router in the same room as my PS3. I believe I've ruled out the possibility that the router is the problem. I know from googling that I'm not the only person with this problem, but from posting here it seems that I'm the only person on this forum that does (or at least I'm the only one willing to admit that it doesn't work well).

Not sure about formats, I don't stream HD stuff to any of my media devices.

Both the PS3 and Xbox 360 will buffer some amount of the video you're watching, but you can't just pause it and let it buffer for an hour so you can watch a whole movie at a higher bitrate than your network can handle.

 

[DivideBYZero]

Don't stream to a PS3 over WiFi G, even with SD content it will choke. I use some 200mbps HomePlug devices to supply enough bandwidth to stream HD content from my Windows Home Server.

 

[Beev]

I use my PS3 as a media center, and I love it. I use a program on my PC called PS3 Media Server and it works great. It plays practically everything.

 

[Shack70]

i have Windows 2003 server with PS3 Media center. It transcodes everything ahead of time and works great with PS3 and XBox

 

[magomago]

So if I don't care about demos the HDD is essentially worthless? This is good news for me because the price difference is substantial.

If you are not sure if you need it, just pass on it. Its just an HDD. I have a ps3 loaded with atleast 50 demos + 5-6 game installs and I have barely broke past 70 gigs on my slim. It'll probably take you a long time to fill up even the base model.

The other main reason I say pass is that let us consider the day you want a bigger HDD......just buy a pc HDD and swap it in; there is nothing special about the actual HDD and you could probably get a much larger HDD in the ps3 for a LOT cheaper than the price differential between 160/320 gig ps3.

And IMO unless you wanna play games on the PS3, I wouldn't buy it for this purpose. I agree with other users that a dedicated PC would probably do a much better job and be more verstaile in general. But if you want to play games on it as well, then it is a good idea. Just keep that in mind...but there are plenty of great PS3 games depending on the flavor of games you are interested in. I don't play my PS3 much because I have to drive an hour to get to it, but I do have a blast each time I play it regardless of whether or not they are PS3 exclusives

 

[ChaoZ]

Don't stream to a PS3 over WiFi G, even with SD content it will choke. I use some 200mbps HomePlug devices to supply enough bandwidth to stream HD content from my Windows Home Server.

SD content is fine. HD will definitely have problems, though.

 

[calyco]

I had the fat PS3 before and sold it (and a 360). Came back to the PS3 slim now and really like it for gaming and media center. Streaming HD with PS3 Media Server (wired)and on the one month netflix trial now, covers everything I need.

 

[IcePickFreak]

Use to just watch SD content over wireless using WMC and never had any issues. HD content I did have to go wired, but works great. As for not playing .mkv's, I just convert them over to mpeg's which goes really quick - that will vary depending on your cpu though obviously. Either way it doesn't have to actually re-encode the video so it shouldn't be too bad.

Hdd space is really only needed for save games, dlc, downloaded games from psn, or if you copy a game on disc to the hdd. You can also copy files from a media server, but then the 4gb limit will apply (fat32 limitation.)

 

[DivideBYZero]

SD content is fine.

This is not a hard a fast rule. I had stuttering with high bit rate SD.

 

[Occ]

I have both a 360 (an original, with RROD fix) and a PS3 slim. I prefer the 360 as a media center, but use the PS3 because of Netflix/Blue Ray/quietness. I just use WMP or whatever to share files.

• 360 loads files from the media center much faster, particularly lists. For example, using my PS3, trying to get a list of all my music files takes several minutes. On the 360, this operation takes about 5 seconds. This is a general trend, the PS3 is just slow browsing files apparently.

• 360 can play music while you play games (tangential).

• 360 is way louder. I believe the new ones are quieter, however.

• PS3 gets free Netflix. What I mean by that is on the 360 you need a gold membership to use Netflix on it. On the PS3 you just need to install the app and you're rolling.

• PS3 has Blue Ray Player. It seems pretty good. No complaints.

• PS3 has the PS3 Media Server. Good app, can trans-code stuff on the fly. However, when using this you won't be able to fast forward or rewind.

• PS3 has wireless. However, it's basically worthless for a media center. Even SD content will skip a ton. You have to get an ethernet cable to experience smooth streaming. I don't have a wireless 360 so I don't know if it does better in this respect. Curiously, Netflix works OK through the wireless.

 

[speedy2]

I have my PS3 hooked up wirelessly. And I too, noticed that even poor quality youtube videos stream terrible, yet excellent quality Netflix stuff streams without any hiccups.

 

[thegimp03]

I use my PS3 as a media center to stream things from my computer in the guest bedroom out to the living room. Have not yet found a file that it can't play.