PlayStation®3 General Discussion

[SAiLO]

Screensaver interrupts watching the iplayer.

It kicks in after whatever time you set it to. Annoying as hell, had to completely disable it from the Display Settings menu

[RingforService]

You *can* use a media server to stream MKV files.

However, what exactly is the point of a media server for streaming?  If I had a PS3 in multiple rooms I could see the point, but as it is it's far easier to turn the PC off, and stick the hard disk straight into the PS3 via USB.  Just play the movies directly.

Sadly though - you run into a problem with MKV files.

Sony need to update their H264 too, their's is a little old  - and MKV would indeed be a good addition.

[Aceline]

some nice person has posted up a few solutions for some issues mentioned here (mine anyway lol):

http://community.eu.playstation.com/playstationeu/board/message?board.id=62&thread.id=1558856&view=b...

 sorted out my issue with playing music and using xmb or browser!! 

Message Edited by Aceline on 08-09-2009 10:04 PM

[E4RLIES]

Hi - I have over 30gig of music on my ps3.  It is supposed to be a media center after all.

Can we please have a way of sorting this properly instead of havng to scroll down through every Artist?  It takes about 5 minutes to go through them all!!  

One day it might be possible to group Artists by LETTER??? Just imagine......

VIDZONE ADVERTS

Now it is unfortunately extremely annoying with a forced ad shown after virtually every track.  Will there now be a 'premium; option where we will have to pay to avoid ad's?? Think I'd probably pay a small fee than have to keep hitting the MUTE button every 3 minutes!! 

Keep up the good work though Sony, you are getting better (slowly)

x 

[Scorchio]

I posted my ideas for improving the XMB here:

http://community.eu.playstation.com/playstationeu/board/message?board.id=62&thread.id=1576611

Thanks

[SuperDre]

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RingforService schreef:

You *can* use a media server to stream MKV files.

However, what exactly is the point of a media server for streaming?  If I had a PS3 in multiple rooms I could see the point, but as it is it's far easier to turn the PC off, and stick the hard disk straight into the PS3 via USB.  Just play the movies directly.

Sadly though - you run into a problem with MKV files.

Sony need to update their H264 too, their's is a little old  - and MKV would indeed be a good addition.

---

Uhm.. I don't find it easier to turn off my pc and stick the harddisk straight into the PS3 via USB, my cables run behind my computer as I don't move my external harddrives a lot, and why all the hassle if my PS3 is already connected to my computer anyway, and my computer is on anyway.. and as you say it yourself, the problem is that the PS3 doesn't recognize mkv (or a lot of other codecs/subtitlehandling), at the moment the PS3 isn't a good mediacenter at all, it's so so.. and what about my internal harddrives where i've got a lot of my movies stored, you can't connect them easy to the PS3...

Sony just isn't serious about the mediacenter-part of the PS3 otherwise they would have put some more effort into it.. The only thing I see them putting effort in, is getting as much options into the XMB where you as consumer would propably buy stuff..

Like dynamic backgrounds, nice feature (but IMHO useless), but don't count on any free backgrounds (except maybe afrika)..

[Bigairy]

i just have problems with uncharted freezing on the loading screen since the update   

and i dont seem to be the only one

[RingforService]

Superdre: 

Each to their own mate.  If using your computer suits you, then that's all good.

For me the computer, in this case, is an uneccesary component.  As I said, if I had PS3's in multiple rooms, yes, but if not it's not worth it, imo.  

it's not like I have to move the hard disks back and forth every hour - or even every day.  I do it just once in a while when I have batches of new movies to copy over.  I don't have any movies on my internal hard disks, I use all externals (1tb drives are cheap, after all).

Also - I used Tversity for a long time, and it's not without its own problems.  I once spent an entire day messing with it (and codec settings) to get ONE MOVIE to play.  Frankly, it's a waste of time.

No - I cannot play MKV files.  If the movie is something I desperately want I either a)  convert it on my PC, or b)  GO find another copy of it in AVI format.  Quite why anyone uses MKV is beyond me to be honest, and this hasn't proven to be a real problem.  MKV is relativelty rare for things I've grabbed.  Worse case I do without one movie - which just leaves me hundreds and hundreds of others wot watch.  --LOL--

Subtitling isn't a problem on the PS3.  I have a utility that can add subtitles to my AVI's in a matter of minutes.  No problem at all.

And of course, you don't have to tun off your computer to unplug a USB drive....

My PS3 isn't "connected to me PC" either.  

But as I say, each to their own.  My method works perfectly well for me.  I have 1.5tb connected right now - and they're full to capacity with movie goodness.  So I'm not complaining.

Tversity looks goods, and it does okay.  Like others though, when transcoding the performance was rubbish on my setup.  Without transcoding it worked well.  Which leaves me, in many ways, with the same problem as I have with MKV files - sometimes I can watch a movie, and sometimes not - because the transcoding causes problems.

No perfect solution, but switching a cable is much better - imo - than messing with additional codecs and software.  There is no solution to me trancoding problems other than buying a new PC.  I'm not going to do that when I can just plug a hard disk in.

And oh!  The length of time to start a movie with a connected hard disk is much much faster than Tversity was ever able to do.

Tversity - cool technology, but just not neccesary for me at all.

[fleinn]

The point with mkv is that it supports several video and audio streams. So you could include different tracks, depending on where you're playing your file. Sure, it's esoteric, and it's probably going to take some years until a mac- user finally wants to make home- videos with multiple angles - before we will gain any traction for introducing this commercially. At which point this no doubt will be a closed source implementation full of bugs, that demand you buy a specific development tool that costs an arm and a leg.

But apart from that, it's actually very useful. Not just for multiple language tracks and subtitles - but also multiple video- streams. If videos could be released like this professionally - I would pay dearly for a "video- service" like that. Just like I enjoy, immensely, the region free BD releases with multiple audio and subtitle formats. Specially in regions where it's not "uncommon" to travel to other countries, this is a huge advantage. Never mind buying movies while on vacation, or off somewhere - why in the world do I have to default to foreign languages like that, instead of my preset choice?

It's just stupid. It's underestimating the customer, and holding back where it doesn't make sense technologically, economically, or practically. But I guess that's what you get, when you don't smear it into SCEE's face, that the biggest asset to the ps2 was the mod chip. And that this is why they're at all selling local region boxes.

But by all means, do carry on..

[RingforService]

I have several AVI's with multiple soundtracks (some with German and English, some with English and a seperate Commentary track).  So I guess mutliple audio tracks aren't unique to MKV.   Right?

Multiple video streams?  Not sure why I'd want it for movie watching.  I grab a movie, I watch it, and that's it.  Still - I guess you never know if I saw how it might be useful.  

I still think ripping a DVD to MKV is a bit silly in this day and age.  None of the MKV files I've seen have used multiple audio tracks or multiple video streams - they've been bog standard rips.   Personally i just avoid them. As you say, it's esoteric, and that's the last thing you need when trawling through movie downloads - compatibility and portability is key.  MKV just isn't that portable.

Same with subtitles.  I appreciate others might want something different,  but I just need Engish sometimes.  I don't need French, Germany, Chinese or whatever else.  An d subtitles are easy to do with bog standard AVI.....

Region coding......... don't get me started.  It's what started my downloading in the first place.   It's so easy to buy a region free DVD player I own three of them!  

Blu-ray being region encoded is what made me stick with standard DVD and not convert over.  Yes, BR quality is better, but I couldn't be bothered with the hassle.   And this is coming from someone withmore than 2000 STORE BOUGHT DVD's in my collection.  With region coding BR is dead to me.  I know there are increasing ways around it  - but there's a point where you stop caring.  They really made a mess of the hu-def launch, and with region coding they sunk the boat for me.