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Streaming to PS3 or Xbox

Started by Borboski, January 15, 2010, 09:46:44 AM

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Borboski

Ok - I'm set up with wireless now; can anyone tell me the benefits of streaming from my PC to my TV.  It seems pretty cool, but on the other hand I have my laptop in the living room so not sure if it's worth it.

For example. I've got a tv series and some NFL games on the laptop, but I just stick them on a USB stick and put that in the PS3.  I wouldn't bother with accessing my music collection because I have some speakers which are probably better than the tv speakers and located in a better position.

I do sometimes watch streams on the internet; lately I've been plugging the laptop in the tv with a pc cable, the sound still comes from the lap top but it's not too much of a problem.


Oh, and it wouldn#t reallly work last night with my xbox, it started looking for the meia folders and got to say 6,000 and didn't progres, the xbox said the connetion was lost.

MojoJojo

Well, personannly I find having to plug the laptop into the TV a bit annoying if I just want to watch something. It's especially pleasing now I have a fancy remote so I don't need to dig up a controller. It also means I can look at porn at LOL NO same time a film, or if I'm feeling particularily frisky, have porn on the TV and my laptop.

It's annoying the support isn't as good as it could be, though. I have to rename Mr. Show episodes to .avi for some reason. And Wonder Showzen inexplicably plays really jerkily - although that might be fixed if I use an ethernet cable to cover the 1.5m from my media box to the router instead of wireless.

Johnny Textface

Is it pretty simple to stream from a pc to a tv? I take it you need something that plugs into the tv or a special new tv or something. Sorry I'm being a bit crap - I've not looked into this.

Whug Baspin

I used TVersity on my Windows PC, it's a bit of free software with a very easy set up. You point it to your media and it runs as a service in the background waiting to be found on the network, on the PS3 you search for media servers and it shows up. My PC is a bit old and shit so the results are frequently laggy, but it is impressive in terms of things to come, or what could be done if I had some decent equipment. If you have your telly plugged into some decent speakers and a S£ you could just keep all your media on a central PC and stream it when you neeeded. Having said that I ended up just buying an fast external hard drive and just copied all my media to that and plug it into the PS3 through USB.

TL:DR it's fun to mess around with, but I've found little practical use for it.

MojoJojo

Quote from: Johnny Textface on January 15, 2010, 10:19:27 AM
Is it pretty simple to stream from a pc to a tv? I take it you need something that plugs into the tv or a special new tv or something. Sorry I'm being a bit crap - I've not looked into this.

If you're PC is next to the TV, you just need to plug it in using the right king of lead. But that's not really streaming to your TV.

You can get some dedicated bits of hardware to do streaming. But a 360 or PS3 doesn't cost much more, so if you can put up with the space they take up, might be a better option. I think there are some freeview/freesat/pvr boxes which can stream too, but again you have to pay quite a lot for that feature.

Some high end TVs have network ports which can be used for streaming - again only the fairly highend models so far though.

biggytitbo

If you've got a PS3, wifi and a windows PC, just set your windows media player libraries to share and your PS3 will pick it up no bother, no software to install or anything.

niat

TVersity works well for me, streaming to the Xbox 360 from my PC. It handles the file types that the Media Centre extender doesn't, and the on-the-fly conversion works without any lag, unlike some other similar software I've tried.

chand

I use PS3 Media Server to stream files from my PC to the PS3, solely because my PS3 is hooked up to my nice big telly and I prefer that to watching on my monitor.

VegaLA

Netflix are converting so much media to DV my first port of call is the 360 for TV viewing, not just movies, and they are expanding their HD content too.
As for the classics I want to keep, I have a small form PC running XBMC with HDMI out under the TV hooked up to a 4 bay NAS. I've been banging on about that piece of kit for years now and once they allow you to fully customize the UI I'll be a very happy man. Some of the XBMC devs have been involved with Boxee which is worth checking out and Popcorn Hour have revamped their kit in the form of PopBox in order to win some viewers over as their original UI was complete dogshit.
Well worth checking out if you love your media at your fingertips.

Santa's Boyfriend

I'm using PS3 Media Server and I think it's the dog's bollocks, particularly as my PC is in the other room.  It allows you to select which folders in your PC you want to be accessible to your PS3, it automatically embeds subtitle files (which the PS3 can't do on its own), and if the PS3 can't read a file it can transcode it on the fly into a format that it can read.  It can also provide you with streams of tv and radio from the internet (although I haven't really found any worth watching yet.)

My computer is about 4 years old and was mid-to-low range when I got it, so it's pretty much ready for its pension.  When the processor gets busy it lags and it takes a while to find files, but even with this machine it's surprisingly good, and rarely lags in the middle of watching files - even hi-def ones.  It's a fantastic piece of software and I can't imagine why anyone wouldn't want to use it.

DJ Solid Snail

Has anybody ever successfully managed to get subtitles working with streaming videos on the 360 with TVersity? I can't work out what the problem is. Otherwise, though, it's an ace bit of software.

presta didwicks

I have downloaded PS3 media server but cant get it to connect to my laptop ?
I'm running Vista and wireless through a BT home hub.
I`ve portforwarded the router, but no joy.
Even Windows Mediaplayer 11 won't detect, or rather, it finds the PS3 but when PS3 searches for media servers, none found ??
PS3 is wirelessly connected to router, as is the laptop but why wont they talk to each other ?
I`ve tried all the obvious stuff like enabling sharing and network discovery ,i'm pretty sure it's the hub, but how do I -
Force the IP of the server ?
Force the port of the server ?
Do I need AVISynth ?

matt

Quote from: DJ Solid Snail on January 16, 2010, 12:11:07 PM
Has anybody ever successfully managed to get subtitles working with streaming videos on the 360 with TVersity? I can't work out what the problem is. Otherwise, though, it's an ace bit of software.

I had this problem, and the solution I found was to:

- make sure you've got the .avi file and .srt file in the same directory, with exactly the same file names (check that the subtitles show up automatically when played in WMP)
- in the tversity settings, in the transcoding section, make sure it's set to 'always transcode'.

If that doesn't work, there are some helpful threads on the tversity support forums which have various other fixes. Let me know if you're still having no luck and I'll try and find them again.

DJ Solid Snail

Cheers, but that was one of the many fixes online that I tried and that didn't take. I mean it's no major thing - I can use my DVD player instead for foreign films, it was just easier this way and I'm a lazy, lazy man.

Borboski

I'm using the ps3 media survey, it works fine.  You get a few more folders than you need to see; but it still works fine; put all my pics on there.  I haven't tried video yet.

matt

Quote from: DJ Solid Snail on January 18, 2010, 07:12:54 PM
Cheers, but that was one of the many fixes online that I tried and that didn't take. I mean it's no major thing - I can use my DVD player instead for foreign films, it was just easier this way and I'm a lazy, lazy man.

Ah, ok. A quick search has reminded me of another thing I did to get it working - in your codec settings (probably FFDShow?), make sure you've got the relevant box ticked for subtitles (might be 'transcode subtitles' or 'enable subtitles').

Nik Drou

I may as well use this thread to ask what media files the PS3 supports.  It'd be such a timesaver to just whack in a USB stick laden with Venture Bros episodes, but I can't find a format that works.

madhair60

I managed to play a CD of Metalocalypse episodes in AVI format.  Try AVI.

Nik Drou

Avi won't seem to play through a USB stick.

Little Hoover

I think you have to highlight the usb icon then press triangle to open a sub menu and then select display all. (or some process similar to that) For some reason if you just press X on the usb icon it says "there are no titles"

Nik Drou

Then I shall give that a go, and thank you.


Consignia

I've noticed that the PS3 is extremely finicky on what media files it can play, even with the right container and codecs. It won't, for example, play avc in an avi container, which I believe is supports. It's subtitle support is also extremely sketchy. MKVs are out of the question, but the lovely (but sadly windows only) mkv2vob will happily convert them properly for you. I also use avidemux to recode an avi files with incompatible codecs to compatible ones.

I also find that the PS3 doesn't stream particularly well for me, so I just download the files locally from my internal webserver, which is why all this conversion is necessary. I think most of this can be avoided with the perhaps mentioned PS3 media server.

I mentioned in another thread that I have my PC connected to my new TV over HDMI. Someone suggested I use this PS3 streaming stuff, as I bought one of those (primarily as a BR player). This thread is why I found it easier to just buy a 15m HDMI cable. Works great, was very simple to set up. It's just a secondary monitor. Most stuff can be done using Windows. I have a wireless keyboard and mouse, but I just got Boxee, so I should be able to use my iPod touch to control my media stuff (not set it up yet).

Of course, it's more practical for me as my computer is in the same room.

Borboski

Do you know if you download an HD movie, is the quality the same as if you played a Blu-Ray?  What if you stream it from the PC to PS3 - does it transfer it in a lower version?  It still looks quite HD-ish, the film I'm playing, but not quite as good as the Terminator HD I dl'd from PS3 the other night.

I got a new 40" Samsung last night to replace my old 32" Sony Bravia.  Fifa and Call of Duty look magnificent on it, oh and Madden, but I haven't got a Blue-Ray to test it out with.

jutl

Quote from: Borboski on January 20, 2010, 12:51:11 PM
Do you know if you download an HD movie, is the quality the same as if you played a Blu-Ray?  What if you stream it from the PC to PS3 - does it transfer it in a lower version?  It still looks quite HD-ish, the film I'm playing, but not quite as good as the Terminator HD I dl'd from PS3 the other night.

I got a new 40" Samsung last night to replace my old 32" Sony Bravia.  Fifa and Call of Duty look magnificent on it, oh and Madden, but I haven't got a Blue-Ray to test it out with.

Blu ray movies will tend to be between 10 and 30GB, and the rips you find online are usually half that. Something like TVersity is capable of transcoding to a lower bitrate on the fly if you tell it to and if your connection demands it. Rather than fucking about with streaming I just use one of those WDTV boxes that play mkvs at 1080p over HDMI. They're nice and quick, and I've had no problems with material from a variety of sources.

http://www.wdc.com/en/products/WDTV/

My 360 and PS3 are too picky about input formats and browsing large content directories over the network is always going to be slow.

Borboski

A-ha, well I'll look forward to seeing what the tv can really do - the film I have is about 9 gigs so there you go.  And even so the first couple of scenes looked impressive - I always look for the stubble on the actors faces.   And I bet the Terminator download wasn't true HD as well, then, because that was only 5gig, I think (unless the message it gave was I needed to create 5 gig space on the HD as opposed to that being the size of the d/l).

Do you find torrents of that size though?  I haven't, to be honest I've found few of hd at all.  But I'm quite happy to go to Blockbuster and rent them.

jutl

#27
Quote from: Borboski on January 20, 2010, 08:01:54 PMDo you find torrents of that size though?  I haven't, to be honest I've found few of hd at all.  But I'm quite happy to go to Blockbuster and rent them.

Usenet is awash with 720p and 1080p Bluray rips.

Santa's Boyfriend

Quote from: Borboski on January 20, 2010, 12:51:11 PM
Do you know if you download an HD movie, is the quality the same as if you played a Blu-Ray?  What if you stream it from the PC to PS3 - does it transfer it in a lower version?  It still looks quite HD-ish, the film I'm playing, but not quite as good as the Terminator HD I dl'd from PS3 the other night.

The quality is not quite as good, but with a good encode the difference is negligable, and the quality is still easily good enough to impress - it's just not quite pixel perfect.  In terms of streaming, my stream maxes out at about 15-20mbs, but most HD m2ts files stream below that.  I'm not sure if that's the wireless network or my computer processor that can't handle anything over that, but either way it's not bad.