Help - PS3 as media centre

Ecco

Ecco

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So i would like to setup my PS3 as a media centre - not sure if thats the right term.

But here is a rundown of what i want to do, those in the know let me know if this is possible.

I have several computers in the house connected to a wifi network with adsl, and i have a PS3 also connect to the wifi network, and a 1.5Tb external HDD.

Can I:

1) Connect my external HDD to the PS3
2) Be able to copy content to the external HDD (which is connect to the PS3) from the other computers over wifi, and play content from the external HDD over wifi on the other computers?
 
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1) you can do that and I'm sure you can play content off the external HDD
2) nope, as far as I know you can't copy things onto the external if its plugged into the PS3.


A better option would be to setup PS3 Media Server on one of the PC's and plug the external into that machine, then you can stream the content to the PS3 from that machine, and any other machine in the house.
 
ToxicBunny said:
A better option would be to setup PS3 Media Server on one of the PC's and plug the external into that machine, then you can stream the content to the PS3 from that machine, and any other machine in the house.
Click to expand...

How do i do this?
 
Speaking from experience, Wireless N is not good enough for HD Streaming... it may claim a throughput of 300mbps but it doesn't deliver that in the real world, unless you're willing to shell out a HELL of a lot for top end gear.
 
ToxicBunny said:
Speaking from experience, Wireless N is not good enough for HD Streaming... it may claim a throughput of 300mbps but it doesn't deliver that in the real world, unless you're willing to shell out a HELL of a lot for top end gear.
Click to expand...

Well soon it will. Read again about it in that specific links I gave. You would be pleasantly surprised. Normally the Netgear prices are not that steep either.

Reliably streams multiple HD videos throughout the home
The High-performance Wireless-N HD Home Theater Kit is a bundle of two High-Performance Wireless-N HD Home Theater Adapters. The adapter is a carrier-grade 802.11n system that supercharges the existing home wireless network to deliver multiple Blu-ray HD streams flawlessly throughout the home, providing wired equivalent reliability over wireless. It combines 4x4 multiple-input, multiple-output (MIMO), real-time spectrum analysis, and dynamic digital beamforming, besides using low-interference 5 GHz frequency band to deliver highest fidelity Blu-ray HD quality audio/video streams over wireless to every room in the home.

The Wireless-N HD Home Theater Adapter is recommended to be used as a pair. The first unit is plugged in to your existing Router or Gateway and the second one plugs in to home theater devices like Blu-ray DVD players, Ethernet enabled TVs, gaming consoles and Ethernet-enabled IPTV set-top boxes to reliably stream HD quality video from the network, Internet or from a IPTV service provider. Additional Adapters can be added to the pair if you intend to share to multiple rooms from a centralized point in your home.
Click to expand...

http://www.netgear.com/HDWiFi
 
As I said... be prepared to shell out a lot...a similar kit sells NEW on Amazon for $270... so make that a round R4000 and you'll have roughly what it will cost in this country, if we ever get it.
 
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I had a Netgear Wireless N router ... absolutley crap!

I'm hoping they've changed a little :/
 
Interestingly enough my thread regarding a wireless n/gigabit router in PC Hardware stems from me wanting a gigabit connection to my PS3. I've become lazy and instead of uncompressing and sorting my downloads I just open the rars straight from the seed folder. I'm hoping a gigabit connection will reduce the lag when watching longer shows/movies.

In regards to why this is relevant to the thread, what is the point of having a wireless n router when the ps3 does not do n? Also if reading from a rar file on a 100mbps line is anything to go by I doubt very much you'll have much joy with HD content. Cables ftw
 
Fudzy said:
Interestingly enough my thread regarding a wireless n/gigabit router in PC Hardware stems from me wanting a gigabit connection to my PS3. I've become lazy and instead of uncompressing and sorting my downloads I just open the rars straight from the seed folder. I'm hoping a gigabit connection will reduce the lag when watching longer shows/movies.

In regards to why this is relevant to the thread, what is the point of having a wireless n router when the ps3 does not do n? Also if reading from a rar file on a 100mbps line is anything to go by I doubt very much you'll have much joy with HD content. Cables ftw
Click to expand...

Yep. I am running now running 1G Ethernet cable direct. The PS3 do not support N via its usb natively (yet) but you can get a Ethernet N "gaming" device, trnsmitter and receiver, (as per my links) to link the PS3, Xbox or any other device with the PC to stream HD at 1080p flawlessly via wireless if so required.
 
I am Penguin said:
Yep. I am running now running 1G Ethernet cable direct. The PS3 do not support N via its usb natively (yet) but you can get a Ethernet N "gaming" device, trnsmitter and receiver, (as per my links) to link the PS3, Xbox or any other device with the PC to stream HD at 1080p flawlessly via wireless if so required.
Click to expand...

I'm assuming you swapped from wireless to wired, what was the reason?
 
Fudzy said:
I'm assuming you swapped from wireless to wired, what was the reason?
Click to expand...

Simply doing the Huge BR HD rips at full res did not fair well due to the bandwidth requirement. I do both inparalel, normally wireless but when watching the BR Full HD I switch to cable.

As soon as Netgear (Duxbury) have the new versions in stock I am getting the kit and go wireless only. The cable is a schlep.
 
I am Penguin said:
So I assume you replaced it with something better. Care to share?
Click to expand...

Yes - lucky they took it back the following day and I paid in a little more to get a Linksys WRT160N which not only was better when it came to signal and reception, but felt in an entire other league quality wise to the Netgear.

I kept the Netgear USB wireless dongle though.
 
The lag is also the big thing for me on Wireless.

When I used my wired connection, there is NO lag in opening movies etc etc.. but on Wireless... it will sit for 20 - 30seconds before starting to play.... drives me nuts.
 
I used to use TVersity back in the day, but you get problems on some of the files. Hopefully PS3 Media server soughts it out. See the thing about using a PS3 as a media server is that you need another PC to transcode unsupported formats (and mkv hd at 1080p requires alot of processing power); which is the main bottleneck in your setup. You need quite a fast pc if you are transcoding a 1080p file ...

My advice would be to use the ps3 as a last resort. If you have a tv that can do hdmi, then try to connect your pc to the tv instead; if you have a laptop with hdmi then use the laptop instead. Reason i say this is that you are limited to the processing power of your current pc then playing "non-PS3 compatible" video so you will always have a bottleneck.

I went from ps3 "wireless media center" -> ps3 "wired media center" -> media player -> PC connected to TV ... so i kind of now the ins and outs of the setups.
 
I also use the Linksys WRT160N , and Tversity, which works pretty good. I must say that I found on TVersity, it did not play all formats, but these days I get my videos at the same place, so formats are no longer an issue.

But yes, I removed my cables as it was running through the middle of the house, so now it looks better and works pretty good. If wireless is the only route, then yeah, take it, but cable will always be better
 
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