PS3 as HTPC?

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Burnout01

Limp Gawd
Joined
Dec 11, 2006
Messages
153
Anyone using a PS3 as a HTPC? I'm wanting to be able to play rips of Blu-Rays, DVDs and Music from my PC to the PS3. I was thinking of building a HTPC, but if I can just buy a PS3 and have the features I need then I would do that. Is this possible and does anyone have any tips or thinks to look out for doing this?

Thanks for any info.
 
I use my PS3 as a Media Extender. Works great for me. I stream everything over a wireless G network with the inculded WMP11 extender thingy. Its pretty simple too Ive taugh my wife to use it without me being there.

Only grip is it dosent play MKVs out of the box. I remember reading something about DIVX working on that but never heard much about it after the article I read. So I just aquire AVIs and WMVs.
 
I use my PS3 for media as well. It's wired up through a wireless bridge to my network and grabs data off of Mediatomb running on my linux server. It works very well, if the bandwidth to stream is there. If I had a gigabit cable running, I don't see any problems with streaming full HD.

As mentioned, MKVs do not work out of the box, along with a number of other codecs. I got around that by transcoding the files on the fly with Mediatomb. I'm hoping to add a new HTPC to the system in the future to have the ultimate in media streaming.
 
You def can use the PS3 but because it does not support many codecs I recommend building a HTPC, it will work much better. I used first a 360 then a PS3 and got fed up with things not working right so I just built a HTPC and have never looked back.
 
Thanks for the help guys. Still not sure if I should spend the money on a HTPC or just get a PS3. :)
 
I use PS3 Media Server (freeware) on my PC to do all the transcoding to my PS3. Nice thing about it is that it handles MKV's and also ISO files, as well as all standard types.

Works great!
 
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I think you mean PS3 Media Server. That program is free and works great. Another option is to convert your files from mkv to m2ts using a free program called mkv2vob. It only takes a minute to convert. I think it just rearranges the file information. It only does some actual encoding if the audio track is not compatible with the PS3. Then you can even copy your movies to the PS3 hard drive if you want. That is what I use to do.
 
I just switched from a full HTPC to a PS3 and am enjoying it so far. I also use Media Server on my other desktop and I can just browse to whatever file I want to play. They're connected with a gigabit switch. I had issues trying to use wireless on my HTPC so I gave up on it.
 
It'll work for what you want, and it'll also allow you to watch netflix instant movies now. However, it won't let you do anything else you can do with an htpc, so keep that in mind. If you don't have an htpc now, you won't be missing it, but if you were to replace an htpc with the ps3, I think you'd be a bit disappointed unless you had a chance to use the ps3 first and make sure it's what you want.

As I use my htpc for OTA HDTV and some gaming (games not on ps3), I couldn't get away with just the ps3. It does make a good complement to the htpc for BD and DVD upscaling, along with remote play to the psp making all of my music, pictures and videos available anywhere in the house - in particular on my living room stereo. With some work I'm sure I could also get my tv recordings transcoded through ps3 media server and on the psp as well, which would be nice. For $299, you'll have a hard time specing out an htpc that will beat it, though.
 
another one to try is tversity. Works woth xbox 360 and PS3 and transcodes all movie formats to work.
 
Now using ps3 for all movie and video playback from pc as I think it does a much better job. Running PS3 media server max settings over gigabit. DTS pasthrough works great and full 1080p rips with DTS sound plays back looking and sounding amazing. Just need an hdmi soundcard now so i can listen to high res dvd audio and lossless surround music.

I have some very low res aqua teen vids that look way better on the ps3. It does a great job with upscaling. Much better than I have been able to achieve with the pc after trying many different players from VLC and Media player classic with advanced codec packs and tweak guides. The ps3 just looks better IMO.
 
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