PS3 as media player

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My son wants to replace his PSP with a PS3. From a gaming point of view this makes alot of sense - big screen, big sound blah blah blah.

I'm interested in its other media qualities namely DVDs and digital music. I've currently got a F-S Scaleo E Media Centre that I'm fast losing interest in (rubbish picture quality, always freezing) and wondered if the PS3 would be a good replacement. My thoughts would be to store my music and downloaded videos on an external HDD and run them through the PS3, and use the PS3 for web browsing. I would then have to get a digital TV recorder such as a Humax PVR-9300T for my telly viewing.

Am I looking at this correctly or am I completely barking up the wrong tree?

Mr Lenny
 

matengawhat

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by the ps3 and drop a 500gb hard drive in it and then by the play tv add on - all sorted

don't think you can connect an external hard drive directly to the ps3 (someone please correct me if i'm wrong) so will still need a pc/laptop

as for using as a media centre connects to a pc easily and can run music and divx files without to much of an issue if you have a wireless home network

if your son keeps his psp he can connect to the ps3 and watch tv on it in his room
 
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Anonymous

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matengawhat:

don't think you can connect an external hard drive directly to the ps3 (someone please correct me if i'm wrong) so will still need a pc/laptop

No you can't at the moment! Really annoys me as my xbox 360 does but its soo dam noisy! :S
 

d4v3pum4

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I thought you could connect an external drive to the PS3 as long as it was formatted in FAT32 and not NTFS and that your folder structure (names) was correct. Was this disabled or why does it not work now? I don't think any of my drives are formatted in FAT32 so can't try it.
 
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Anonymous

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must be my hard drive then :S But it wouldnt work on the PS3 only on the 360 :(
 

blakenhall

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The Drive my son uses with the PS3 is a Medion drive & Go - 320GB, (no power cable) - powered through the USB, formatted NTFS, not partitioned, it works with no problems.
I've just tried my NTFS partitioned hard drive that has a separate power cable and the PS3 did not recognize it. So I don't know if thats a problem when the drive is partitioned.
 

carter

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i put a 500gb seagate on mine it wouldnt work till i formated it to fat32 worked ok but in the end i just upgraded the internal hardrive
 
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Anonymous

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The PS3 does not recognise NTFS at all - only FAT32. This is still the case.

However I have a 750GB NAS drive which connects wirelessly and I just store all my movies/ music on that - very good alternative.
 
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Anonymous

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matengawhat:

by the ps3 and drop a 500gb hard drive in it and then by the play tv add on - all sorted

don't think you can connect an external hard drive directly to the ps3 (someone please correct me if i'm wrong) so will still need a pc/laptop

as for using as a media centre connects to a pc easily and can run music and divx files without to much of an issue if you have a wireless home network

if your son keeps his psp he can connect to the ps3 and watch tv on it in his room

So, if I'm understanding this correctly, the best option would be to replace the PS3's internal drive with a bigger one (say 750Gb)? Question: is the HDD the same as a regular PC HDD?

Do I still need a computer if I put music onto the new enlarged PS3 HDD? Or does the PS3 act as the music player?

The play tv add-on effectively acts as a dual tuner freeview+ box so it can record one channel whilst watching another? The recorded TV is stored on the PS3 HDD? So I wouldn't need to buy a Humax PVR?

So many questions eh?

Cheers Guys
 
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Anonymous

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matengawhat:
don't think you can connect an external hard drive directly to the ps3 (someone please correct me if i'm wrong) so will still need a pc/laptop

A PS3 can access media files stored on an external NAS drive that is DLNA compliant. I currently have all my iTunes music stored on a 1TB Iomega Home Media Network Hard Drive that is hooked up to my router via an ethernet cable. Simply enable DLNA media server on the music folder on the hard drive, tell the PS3 to search for Media Servers and you can play all your music through the PS3, and there is no need for a PC to be on. It also works for movies and photos.
 
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Anonymous

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Gary, I'm being thick.

Are you saying that the PS3 WILL play my music if it's stored on the internal hard drive (or an external NAS drive that is DLNA compliant) and that I don't need a PC? Cos that's what I'm aiming for - to rid my living room of my existing media center pc.

Cheers
 

matengawhat

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if you want to replace the internal drive and store all to that - that would be the simplest way to do and prob easiest way for your son - otherwise you are talking pc or nas drives

gary thanks foe update - not messed with any of this for a while and seems the sony is becoming more flexible than it used to be
 

GJ

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I have my NAS drive in the study connected to my router and stream my music and movies to the PS3 which is connected to my amp in the livingroom. Don't need to have my laptop on to do this. The only propblem is that the PS3 wont recognise the itunes lossless format, normal tunes play ok.

hope that helps.
 
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Anonymous

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Thanks man

is it an easy task to replace the hdd? Like in a pc? Would it take a 1TB drive do you think?

And as you mentioned the play tv add on in your first post, can you tell me if it acts just like a dual tuner freeview+ and so records to the PS3's hdd?
 

matengawhat

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you will have to check the physical size (height) of hdd to make sure will fit in

have a look at the what hi fi review for play tv but what i will say is there have been a few updates since that review and picture quality/features amongst other things have been improved.

its a dual tuner but you can only record one channel and watch another not record two as far as i am aware - you can record a channel and do other things like play games watch a blu ray ect - there is no aeriel out so you may need a spliter to run an aeriel lead to your tv unless it hasn't got free view in it.

i have only just order the play tv add on should receive early next week so can update then with how well it works
 
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Anonymous

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Cool.

Son's PSP is on ebay for a few days, so i'll wait for your further comments on play tv.

Thanks for your help so far.
 
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Anonymous

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Hi Lenny,

I own a PS3 (60 gb) and I too was skeptical if I should get it or not but the ps3 boasts some major advantages.
  • Blu ray player.
  • Upgradeable hard drive.
  • OS (depending on model and if you want it or not).
  • If you have an existing AV system that has HD sound and visual capability then this takes full advantage for movies, games and music.
  • The ps3 is extremely quiet (especially when compared to xbox360)
  • possibly its biggest advantage PS3 MEDIA SERVER.
PS3 media server allows you to stream audio, video and picture content from a laptop/computer and it can still offer HD content even over wifi although I highly recommend using a hard wired connection. Another huge advantage is through the media server it can convert files on the fly without much slow down at all almost seamless when I was watching a full BD50 movie. So even if the file is not in a format that the PS3 would normally recognise i.e ogg or xvid etc the ps3 media server will convert the file and fire it down to the ps3 giving it the ability to play just about any file. It also looks into ISO's so you don;t even have to extract.

I simply can't think of a better way of to stream not just SD but HD content with so little work.
 
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Anonymous

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I wouldnt have got rid of the psp, because the ps3 is able to intergrate many games on the psp to their counterpart on the ps3. GT5 will do this i think and currently Assassins Creed 2 does this also. Theres also an F1 game that does this i believe where the psp becomes a rear view mirror!
 
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Anonymous

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Thanks Brolly

Don't suppose you know the max size of HDD that it'll take do you? I can only see that the HDD can be upgraded on the forums, but nothing about the capacity.

Also 2 other things - what outputs does it have to connect it up to my amplifier for music playback, and is there a way to play FLAC files (or is that the job of ps3 media server?)

I do hope all this will work - I'm looking forward to ridding my living room of my noisy Scaleo E!
 

PJPro

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Ginder:I wouldnt have got rid of the psp, because the ps3 is able to intergrate many games on the psp to their counterpart on the ps3. GT5 will do this i think and currently Assassins Creed 2 does this also. Theres also an F1 game that does this i believe where the psp becomes a rear view mirror!
Can I browse music streamed to the PS3 on the PSP?
 

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