External hdd to tv for watching amv's:)

DJ_Izumi · Post by **DJ_Izumi** » Tue Apr 10, 2007 2:28 pm

Yes, while the PS3 certialy would have the juice to be a personal video box, that's a bit overkill since it's fairly costly. You'd do better to built a PC for less or just shell out like $200 for a former corporately leased PC used at some PC store that sells em and use it as a multimedia PC.

lister007 · Post by **lister007** » Wed Apr 11, 2007 9:13 am

I'm thinking multimedia pc is the way to go here, not only will it be easily upgradable spec wise if I get the money, but codec wise it is the best option, really just find alot of media conversion timely and costly (reducing quality) ( putting things on dvd from any format takes alot of time imo and converting to mp4 for other things seems to suck also, even the best multimedia players I've seen will not play an mkv or vp6 files) can't think of a better way to go than a media pc.

Just out of interest how programable is the ps3, like for codecs and os? if I get one how easy is it to make modifications? Also is the 360 an option, trying to get away from windows though.

Willen · Post by **Willen** » Thu Apr 12, 2007 7:02 am

lister007 wrote:I'm thinking multimedia pc is the way to go here, not only will it be easily upgradable spec wise if I get the money, but codec wise it is the best option, really just find alot of media conversion timely and costly (reducing quality) ( putting things on dvd from any format takes alot of time imo and converting to mp4 for other things seems to suck also, even the best multimedia players I've seen will not play an mkv or vp6 files) can't think of a better way to go than a media pc.

If you have some spare parts lying around, and assuming that they are up to snuff, a multimedia PC is the best solution. You'll probably want a quiet, small case to put it in. And the processor should be powerful enough to handle H.264 decoding for the increasing number of MP4 videos available that use that codec.

lister007 wrote:Just out of interest how programable is the ps3, like for codecs and os? if I get one how easy is it to make modifications?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PlayStation_3#Linux

Among other Linux distributions, Ubuntu, Fedora Core 5, Gentoo, Debian, and Yellow Dog have been run on the PS3.

http://www.t3.co.uk/news/247/games/play ... ns_windows

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid ... 0606286092

(Warning, the google video is long, at almost 16 minutes.)

If you want a bigger hard drive, you can easily swap out the internal one with a standard 2.5" SATA 'notebook' drive like a 200GB 4500 rpm Toshiba model or a 160GB 5400 rpm one from WD, Seagate, or Hitachi. It will also recognize external USB 2.0 hard drives.

lister007 wrote:Also is the 360 an option, trying to get away from windows though.

Unless you are willing to do some actual hacking, not really. http://www.hackaday.com/2007/03/20/xbox ... -released/
Plus, if the Xbox 360 gets updated and patched (which happens every few months if you have it connected to the network, or load a recently released game), then you're boned.
http://news.com.com/2100-1002_3-6164515.html

DJ_Izumi · Post by **DJ_Izumi** » Thu Apr 12, 2007 4:41 pm

However, can't the Xbox 360 connect to a windows machine and use some sorta Microsoft produced software that does live conversion and stream WMV3/VC-1 video to the Xbox for video playback?

I know the Xbox had the 'Xbox Media Center Extender' produced by Microsoft but I have no experiance with it.

Willen · Post by **Willen** » Fri Apr 13, 2007 6:59 am

DJ_Izumi wrote:However, can't the Xbox 360 connect to a windows machine and use some sorta Microsoft produced software that does live conversion and stream WMV3/VC-1 video to the Xbox for video playback?

I know the Xbox had the 'Xbox Media Center Extender' produced by Microsoft but I have no experiance with it.

Yes, but to use it with the Xbox 360 the computer must be running Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 with Update Rollup 2. And you can't upgrade any computer to WinXPMCE as MCE is only available pre-installed or as an OEM version.

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/medi ... cefaq.mspx

And currently, it only supports streaming these formats:

What types of media stored on my Media Center PC can I access through my Xbox 360?
Live and recorded TV, digital photos, digital music, home video, and exclusive online multimedia content such as news clips, downloadable music, local weather, RSS feeds, and more (through Online Spotlight).

Video formats

* MPEG-1 with MPEG audio
* MPEG-2 with MPEG audio or AC-3 audio
* WMV 7, 8, & 9 with WMA Standard or WMA Pro audio
* WMV Image 1 & 2 (Photo Story 1, 2, & 3)

Audio formats

* Windows Media Audio (WMA) Standard
* WMA Pro
* WMA Lossless
* MP3

This may change due to upgrades expected in the next spring update which includes:

* Added H.264 video support: Up to 10 Mbps peak, Baseline, Main, and High profiles with 2 channel AAC LC.

* Added MPEG-4 Part 2 video support: Up to 5 Mbps peak, Simple Profile with 2 channel AAC LC.

http://www.xbox.com/en-US/community/new ... 408-im.htm
http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=6870

These changes may not affect Xbox Media Center Extender functionality so you may still be stuck with MPEG and WMV streaming.

lister007 · Post by **lister007** » Mon Apr 16, 2007 9:46 am

If a vga or dvi connection is available I think the best option is a cheap (quiet laptop) with p3 or better or a mac mini. additional hardware and codecs can be added. I saw the ps3 video and doesn't look quite there yet, with some firmware up grades and development of linux on the machine that could, in the future be an option for this task. Do you know if you can hook up any external hard drive to the ps3?
The apple tv look relatively good, but I was surprised on the video formats it will and wont stream, though it is one of the better ones I've seem it is still limited, is there nothing that can just stream the entire screen, like a wireless vga connection?

Willen · Post by **Willen** » Mon Apr 16, 2007 10:53 am

I believe that the current Linux builds for the PS3 don't use the SPEs (Synergistic Processing Elements) of the Cell processor well and primarily rely on the PowerPC-based PPE (Power Processing Element) embedded in the CPU. As the development community gets more familiar with the PS3 architecture, performance should improve. Also, you have to keep in mind that the video(s) showing Windows running on the PS3 (through Linux) was done by emulating a x86 processor on the system so performance is bound to be sluggish. Not to mention that the amount of RAM available in those applications is just 256MB - not good for running WinXP. If the RSX chip can be utilized for Linux applications the performance should increase, but this is assuming that Sony and/or NVIDIA provide access to it.

As for your question about external hard drives connecting to the PS3, any USB 2.0 hard disk drive will work. USB flash drives will also be recognized. This also includes such devices as USB memory card readers and MP3 players such as an iPod. Whether or not the standard PS3 operating system will recognize and playback video and audio you store on the drive will depend on the specific format it's in. If you are running Linux on the PS3, playback of files will depend on what media player software you can install and what file types it will recognize. VLC has been compiled and will run on a PS3 via Linux (http://forum.videolan.org/viewtopic.php?t=27456). MPlayer and other Linux applications can also be installed and run (http://www.tbreak.com/forums/showthread.php?t=38117). If you aren't willing to live on the bleeding edge, I'd wait a bit for the price of the PS3 to drop and the software developers to work out the rough edges and bugs.

DJ_Izumi · Post by **DJ_Izumi** » Mon Apr 16, 2007 2:35 pm

In testing out 'Xbox Media Center' as of yesterday, which is an open source project for the original Xbox but requires a mod to operate... The software is disturbingly well made and elegent. It's like an Apple product, only not limited to only supporting Apple crap! :O

It can set sizing boundaries for video playback so overscan doesn't cut off subs. It can navigate your local network and play video directly off LAN machines or network attached storage. Play stuff off burned DVDs. It can even parse sites like apple.com's trailer section or even youtube, display their thumb nail and synopsis in it's own gui, not even needing a true web browser and play them full screen like any other media.

It honestly leaves you wondering why Microsoft didn't find these guys and make it a retail Microsoft product. IT's that well freakin' made. Except that XBMC means access to the Xbox's hard drive from outside computers, which means easy modification, even easier than the task currently is.

Only downside is libavcodec/FFMpeg for h.264 and a 733mhz Celeron processor... Yeah, the h.264 playback is a bit lackluster, certian complicated scenes drop frames like a mofo.

lister007 · Post by **lister007** » Tue Apr 17, 2007 9:04 am

Maybe they will try running the basilik 2 emulater for old mac os, it would surely perform better than the emulated version of xp. If linux will play the file types required I am happy with that, ps3 has great potential and I think I will wait and get it. The problem with using an existing pc with the media centre comes down to fan noise which puts me of the idea. I think that as the ps3 progress we should track it in the video section here as it could be a great asset, at the very least for prevuing amvs.