PS3 & USB HDD

[admin_exported]

Hi all, hope you can help me,

I'm curruntly ripping cd's to ps3's harddrive(ACC at 320kbps) and i'm hoping to use an external usb hdd plugged into my ps3 to give me more space, is this possible or do i have to go down the wireless route? the reason i ask is that i only listen to music in my lounge and don't need it round the rest of the house.

Thanks in advance

Alan

 

[fr0g]

al30tsm:
Hi all, hope you can help me,

I'm curruntly ripping cd's to ps3's harddrive(ACC at 320kbps) and i'm hoping to use an external usb hdd plugged into my ps3 to give me more space, is this possible or do i have to go down the wireless route? the reason i ask is that i only listen to music in my lounge and don't need it round the rest of the house.

Thanks in advance

Alan

It works just fine, but for some reason the playlists etc dont work.
And when you browse, you need to select all first.

But yes, for listening to music it's just fine.
You could of course swap the drive out for a 320 Gb one. (Which is easy, and doesnt invalidate the warranty).

For an external, I would recommend the Western Digital Passport drives. I have one, and its tiny, and is USB powered.

 

[professorhat]

Well, don't have a USB drive (it died a while back and I never replaced it!). However, just tried my USB stick drive and this works fine. You need to have content in the relevant folder on the drive e.g. music goes in a folder called MUSIC, photos in a folder called PHOTO, videos in a folder called VIDEO etc. etc. for it to work though and you can't use subfolders under these folders. The normal sorting options for the PS3 menu bar apply though.
As far as ripping on the PS3 is concerned, you can rip to the internal drive, then move music off to the USB drive afterwards.

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks gents,

frog, want sort of hdd do i need? do i lose all my settings etc?

professorhat, do i have to format the usb hdd or just plug it in and the ps3 will see it.

Alan

 

[professorhat]

Just plug it in and the PS3 will see it. I plugged it into my Mac, created a folder called MUSIC, copied an MP3 to this folder, then plugged it into the the PS3 and went to the Music section on the crossbar and there was the USB drive and under that, the MP3 I'd copied. I'm positive it would work the same on a PC as well.

 

[fr0g]

professorhat:Well, don't have a USB drive (it died a while back and I never replaced it!). However, just tried my USB stick drive and this works fine. You need to have content in the relevant folder on the drive e.g. music goes in a folder called MUSIC, photos in a folder called PHOTO, videos in a folder called VIDEO etc. etc. for it to work though and you can't use subfolders under these folders. The normal sorting options for the PS3 menu bar apply though.
As far as ripping on the PS3 is concerned, you can rip to the internal drive, then move music off to the USb drive afterwards.

Not true...

You can have it organised as you wish...(as I do)...But you need to do a 'view all' first (triangle, and View all...I think)
Might be easier with the above, but it doesn't stop you...(wonder if thats why my playlist adding doesnt work... must check in the morning...)

 

[professorhat]

Ah yes, just noticed that myself - was going by what I read on a website which said it had to be in this format. Just tested and can't add anything on the USB stick to my playlists, even if it is in the correct format, so I'd say your best bet is to get a new bigger hard drive installed in the PS3 (do a Google search for "PS3 upgrading hard drive" for loads of sites with instructions on how to do this). Of course, you'll need to make sure you backup everything you want to keep first (including any game saves). You can do this by using a USB hard drive (ironically enough!) and using the triangle button to copy the items across to it, then copy them back once upgraded.
Otherwise, you can just keep the data organised in folders on the USB drive and do as fr0g says i.e. press triangle, then "View all".

 

[Anonymous]

Great, thanks again fella's

Will check out the interweb for suitable drives of both kinds then let you know how i've got on.

Alan

 

[aliEnRIK]

Most hard drives will be (rightly) formatted NTSF. For it to work on the PS3 it MUST be formatted FAT32! I have no idea what sony were thinking there (Though id hazard a guess its so that people dont start watching ripped hi def films direct off a hard drive)

If you struggle with the formatting give me a nudge as I remember finding it difficult finding a program at the time that would do it.

Ive also upgraded the hard drive to 250 gig which was WELL worth it (And very simple to do) 🙂

 

[PJPro]

Yes, I think I might also go down this route ie increase the size of the HDD in my PS3. While I have got the streaming of my audio from my PC working a treat, it is slightly annoying to have to go upstairs to turn my PC on....and there's the electrical cost too.

Rather than re-rip my CDs, I suspect that I will save the files served up by TVersity (transcoded to .wav from .flac) from my PC to my PS3 across my gigabit network. It will also serve to provide an additional backup of the files.

Others considering this approach will clearly need to consider the size of their music collection and ascertain whether it will actually fit on the 2.5" HDD in the PS3 when transcoded to .wav. I suppose the trancoded software could be modified to trancode to MP3 (max kbsp to suit the HDD) to reduce the storage required (TVersity can do this). However, the sound quality will be impacted if you go too low.

 

[professorhat]

aliEnRIK:
Most hard drives will be (rightly) formatted NTSF. For it to work on the PS3 it MUST be formatted FAT32! I have no idea what sony were thinking there (Though id hazard a guess its so that people dont start watching ripped hi def films direct off a hard drive)

If you struggle with the formatting give me a nudge as I remember finding it difficult finding a program at the time that would do it.

Ive also upgraded the hard drive to 250 gig which was WELL worth it (And very simple to do) 🙂

Funnily enough, I'm upgrading the HDD in my PS3 today in preparation for using it as a PVR once I get the PlayTV unit. The software you're thinking of is called Swissknife and allows you to format FAT32 partitions bigger than 32Gb which Windows is limited to - just used it to format a 500Gb USB drive to backup my PS3 - once this is done, the USB drive will be then become the backup device for my Mac (about time I got this sorted really!).

 

[aliEnRIK]

professorhat:aliEnRIK:
Most hard drives will be (rightly) formatted NTSF. For it to work on the PS3 it MUST be formatted FAT32! I have no idea what sony were thinking there (Though id hazard a guess its so that people dont start watching ripped hi def films direct off a hard drive)

If you struggle with the formatting give me a nudge as I remember finding it difficult finding a program at the time that would do it.

Ive also upgraded the hard drive to 250 gig which was WELL worth it (And very simple to do) 🙂

Funnily enough, I'm upgrading the HDD in my PS3 today in preparation for using it as a PVR once I get the PlayTV unit. The software you're thinking of is called Swissknife and allows you to format FAT32 partitions bigger than 32Gb which Windows is limited to - just used it to format a 500Gb USB drive to backup my PS3 - once this is done, the USB drive will be then become the backup device for my Mac (about time I got this sorted really!).

Thats what I used too. I have a NORTON program which was SUPPOSED to work but it just wouldnt have it.

I havnt got the information yet on the PLAY device. I dont suppose theyve made it to work with freeSAT have they? (They really should have and im going to be gutted if they havnt)

 

[professorhat]

Haven't heard officially yet but the video on the PS3 store the I saw the other day says about hooking up to your aerial so I'm 99% sure it'll only be Freeview. This is all I have at the moment though and I'm expecting the picture to be quite a bit better than my existing PVR due to the HDMI connection and the upscaling either in the PS3 or through the Onkyo 905 (I'll have a test and see which is better).
I'm also hoping it's going to be easier to transfer films I record off the TV to my NAS than my current PVR is.

 

[aliEnRIK]

Yeah

Thats the impression I got too. Im just a bit concerned ill buy one then at a later date they release ANOTHER version that will take both (As I have an old sky dish connected up already so would be ideal for me)