PS3 or a media centre PC?

[winko]

I have loads of movies/TV files on an external drive and I was going to build a media centre beast in a shuttle case but the PS3 has caught my eye. I own an xbox 360 but its just too noisy and i dont really want to stream the stuff over wireless. The PS3 interests me as its Blu Ray, some games i might buy, its got internet and you can play stuff from an external if you format a partition to FAT32. I cant decide what to buy a PS3 or build a PC? please help. Also the PlayTV seems pretty decent anyone got one?

 

[sneeks]

The PS3 seems to tick most of the options that you are looking for so is probably worthy of consideration. Alternatively a MacMini would be worth looking at and combining it with Boxee/XBMC.

 

[Aluco]

I just plug a usb HD into my 360.. quiet enough when not using the disc drive.

 

[oska]

Buy the new Samsung spinpoint 500GB drive and PlayTV for one and you're sorted.

 

[McBunny]

remember you will have problems with HD stuff on a fat32 drive due the 4gb file limit


a pc is a much much better option wait a month or so then pickup a ion motherboard that will decode 1080p content flawlessly and can run without fans or with just one quiet one depending on cases etc

 

[winko]

The PS3 option does sound pretty good, if i build a media centre PC with the specs of a PS3 I'm sure it will come to more than £300.

 

[McBunny]

nope it wont and the pc will always be better as its always more flexible will always support ANY video you chuck at it etc

basically something like this would do you right

 

[JonnyK]

you might have problems playing lots of the movie files, depending on the codec/s used to encode some of them...

i used a ps3 in the front room, then all the movie files are on a pc on my network that is a tversity server.

 

[Munson]

Interesting point about FAT32 file size limit. Interesting because, I have had a few 12GB+ HD movies stored on my PS3 itself and is that not also FAT32? I guess it splits the file? I stream all my 720p content over wireless, and copy the 1080p gubbins to the PS3. Done.

 

[McBunny]

roy dunno but

The maximum possible size for a file on a FAT32 volume is 4 GB minus 1 byte (232−1 bytes)

 

[Munson]

Yeah I know dude, that's why I said it was interesting. I'd never thought about it until now but, my PS3 definitely stores files bigger than 4GB. I guess the OS must split them.

 

[McBunny]

i doubt it but the internal disk in the ps3 wont be fat32 as its running linux isnt it so it will be one of their fats formats wont it ?

 

[oska]

So if you do an HD swap and the PS3 formats it, will it be FAT32?

 

[McBunny]

seems it is fat32 internally

 

[McBunny]

and sony say it cant store files bigger than 4gb so dunno how you manage it lol

 

[oska]

I'm sure I've got files recorded from PlayTV that are bigger than 4GB.

I dont know where you got the 4Gb PS3 limit from. Its wrong.
I think you might mean FAT32 that has the 4GB limit and that only applies to external HDD's or USB sticks. There is no file size limit to what the PS3 can handle AFAIK and you can certainly store them or stream them to the PS3.

No there doesn't seem to be a file size limit. I copy over 20GB mpeg2 HD movies to watch all the time.

From doing some digging the PS3 won't accept MP4 files over 4GB but MPEG etc work fine.

 

[McBunny]

its very strange unless it hacks the fat 32 system and modifys it some way

 

[McBunny]

evrything i read says you cant get around the 4gb limit :S

 

[oska]

I dunno then, I'll see if I can test it at the weekend. The quotes above weren't using Linux either.

*edit* Another one.

It appears the 4GB limit is for MP4 files only, or at least the 4GB limit does not apply for MPEG files. I have several MPEG files > 4GB that play back perfectly. Any MP4 file > 4GB shows up in the file system as corrupted.

 

[rory182]

Western Digital HD Media Player is on my shopping list, plays most files and you can update the firmware too:

Just plug in a USB stick or USB hard disk, under £90 now too

http://www.google.co.uk/products/ca...r&cid=2120719439666818976&sa=title#ps-sellers

 

[oska]

That actually looks pretty good but wouldn't a cheap HDMI DVD player with USB etc do the same job? Like this?
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Sumv...Jpeg-Player-inc-USB-plus-Bulit-In-Card-Reader

 

[winko]

+1 that western digital media player is a big maybe, but the PS3 seems to tick all the boxes, its got everything i need and with playtv i could get rid of my POS freeview recorder. dam i cant decide!

 

[sneeks]

May be worth considering a Popcorn Hour which can pretty much play all formats you throw at it.

http://www.advancedmp3players.co.uk....3519.html?amp3sid=d043nquhg47sjrc35g4o6rngc4

 

[Munson]

Ja. Popcorn Hour is meant to be very good. Personally, I went with the PS3 for various reasons based on the kind of kit I already had, and what I wanted it to do, or be capable of doing. Tricky choice, really. IMO the PS3 is amazing all around value. To others, something like the PH is a better option.

The PS3 is also much better if used with PS3 Media Server, rather than TVersity, as it transcodes on the fly. My entire 720p mkv TV collection is available on my PS3 at the touch of a button. Obviously any avi files play just fine too, as does pretty much everything I personally need to watch. You can't go far wrong with the PS3 as an all rounder. If the gaming aspect is important (which it isn't to me) then it makes even more sense

 

[JonnyK]

i thought tversity transcodes on the fly too!?

 

[McBunny]

it does

 

[rory182]

That actually looks pretty good but wouldn't a cheap HDMI DVD player with USB etc do the same job? Like this?
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Sumv...Jpeg-Player-inc-USB-plus-Bulit-In-Card-Reader

The WD is very good value for money adds an interface for browsing your media too unlike looking at folders in a usb stick on a dvd player and plays the vast majority of file types.

A lot of people go for it over the Popcorn, loads of threads on HUKD

 

[Edit]

Popcorn Hour looks good, I havne't seen those before.

 

[Munson]

i thought tversity transcodes on the fly too!?

it does

Oh I see. I didn't know that

I personally still prefer PS3 Media Server for various reasons. It seems more trimmed down, less bloat, quicker and just generally nicer.

 

[Brazo]

nope it wont and the pc will always be better as its always more flexible will always support ANY video you chuck at it etc

basically something like this would do you right

That lil' box looks ace!

 

[McBunny]

it is basically fantastic dual core atom 330 nvidia 9400 graphics not sure one that small will get released but mini itx is already coming

 

[Adam K]

http://www.hexus.net/content/item.php?item=18066

that would be pretty good too depending on what you are gonna do with it.

 

[FiDoDiDo]

its very strange unless it hacks the fat 32 system and modifys it some way

The PS3 isn't running FAT32, it's a proprietary file system and it's called SPUFS or "Synergistic Processing Unit File System".

 

[McBunny]

hmm strange sony said it was fat32


oh and adam thats the same thing as i posted but a bit limited due to no optical out and no built in wifi etc

 

[Adam K]

hmm strange sony said it was fat32


oh and adam thats the same thing as i posted but a bit limited due to no optical out and no built in wifi etc

why do u want optical out if it has hdmi?

 

[McBunny]

if you dont have an amp that supports hdmi you need optical or coaxial

+ you may not wish to put the video through an amp