PS3 Video Server, Media Server Preliminary Setup and Tests

**Ray3** · **03-08-08, 05:54 PM**

Where are you now?

**wbassett** · **03-09-08, 01:23 AM**

Quote:

shine5555 wrote:

Just wanted to say thank you for this. I have started my back ups. It is great for TV Shows I have on DVD. I just bought a 750 gig My Book (150.00 form best buy). I successfully tried a few shows of Arrested Development, on a thumb drive and it worked great

I do have one question. My folder structure on the PS3 under Movies looks like Arrested Development --> Season 1 --> Eposide one, Eposide two, … ect. Has anyone figured out how to put any graphics on the folders? I would love to have pictures or DVD Covers instead of folder covers? Just a thought

Thank you again, for this
- Scott

No graphics yet, but the nice thing about the PS3 is that its a full blown computer, so whatever they decide to add down the road it can handle. So maybe later on we'll get this.

**wbassett** · **03-09-08, 01:24 AM**

Quote:

shine5555 wrote:

I grew up outside of Rochester, as well. I lived in Henrietta

I guess upper state means different things to different people... I am upper state from NYC... in the Albany area but a bit north east of there, near Bennington VT.

**shine5555** · **03-10-08, 03:33 PM**

Quote:

Ray3 wrote:

Where are you now?

Well, since Rochester... Orlando, FL --> Charlotte, NC --> and now Abingdon, VA (as far north as your going to get me)

**Ray3** · **03-10-08, 04:03 PM**

Quote:

wbassett wrote:

I guess upper state means different things to different people... I am upper state from NYC... in the Albany area but a bit north east of there, near Bennington VT.

I was hoping that you were closer. Would have been nice to see each other's set ups.

**Ray3** · **03-10-08, 04:05 PM**

Quote:

shine5555 wrote:

Well, since Rochester... Orlando, FL --> Charlotte, NC --> and now Abingdon, VA (as far north as your going to get me)

Kind of a small world thing. My folks lived in Charlotte and my daughter now lives in Annandale, VA.

**03-10-08, 06:41 PM**

Excellent thread!
PS3 seems a bargain even if you don't play any games, especially after the BR won the HD battle.

**wbassett** · **03-12-08, 11:41 AM**

I still may do this, but as of right now I put this project on the back burner, and that is building an HTPC that would play both Bluray and HD DVD.

I think it would be a thread that some people would be interested in, but I was looking at my equipment and asked myself 'Just what would I gain by building this?' The answer was nothing, in fact most likely I would lose a few features or quality.

The PS3 plays CDs, SDVDs, BDs, and movies archived on an external hard drive. My cable box provides DVR capabilities, the A2 plays SDVDs and HD DVDs... everything seems to be covered. It would be nice to have one box that does it all, but I have a sneaking feeling it would be a 'jack of all trades, master of none' type scenario.

My son bought the 40GB PS3 and also has a 360. He has two external USB drives hooked up to the PS3, and is loving it!

The only problem he's told me about is some movies have playback issues, but only they ones that he went nuts on and compressed them down to under 2GB in size. He's coming up for two weeks and bringing his PS3 and 360 and we'll check out his movies, but other than a couple the rest play fine and he's more than happy.

As far as the PS3, I am very happy with it myself, and seeing I bought it last year, it is one of the few players from that time period that will be able to make it to profile 2.0

So plin I agree, the PS3 is a very good deal as well as being a powerful system.

**03-12-08, 02:36 PM**

Do you know if PS3 can also play .mp3 and .mpg files stored in its external HD?

**jet757f** · **03-15-08, 12:37 AM**

I am new to this forum as you can see. I was referred to this procedure by someone else on another forum...........I think AVS.

Anyway I just got an external hard drive to use with my PS3 for a media server. I am following your procedure on how to do this. Unfortunately I am stuck on Step 2. I know this is probably pretty basic with most people but something I havent ever had to do on the computer. I placed my video file from DVD Shrink onto my B drive. How do I access this directory. How do I do the command prompt procedure to convert the VOB files? I went to C:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe but then how do I get to the B directory?

Can someone please give me a procedure on this?

**wbassett** · **03-15-08, 12:45 AM**

Quote:

jet757f wrote:

I am new to this forum as you can see. I was referred to this procedure by someone else on another forum...........I think AVS.

Anyway I just got an external hard drive to use with my PS3 for a media server. I am following your procedure on how to do this. Unfortunately I am stuck on Step 2. I know this is probably pretty basic with most people but something I havent ever had to do on the computer. I placed my video file from DVD Shrink onto my B drive. How do I access this directory. How do I do the command prompt procedure to convert the VOB files? I went to C:WindowsSystem32cmd.exe but then how do I get to the B directory?

Can someone please give me a procedure on this?

Are you sure it's the B drive and not the D drive?

Anyway, you'd type cd d: or what ever the drive letter is to get to that drive. Then type dir to list the directories and find the one the file is in then go to that directory- cd 'directory name'.

**jet757f** · **03-15-08, 12:56 AM**

Quote:

wbassett wrote:

Are you sure it's the B drive and not the D drive?

Anyway, you'd type cd d: or what ever the drive letter is to get to that drive. Then type dir to list the directories and find the one the file is in then go to that directory- cd 'directory name'.

I have a lot of hard drives on this computer. I put the DVD shrink video on drive B.
I have been typing cd b: but it wont let me in.

I cant get to the normal cmd prompt of C:\
Instead im at C:\users\XPS 720 User

How do I get out of this?

**wbassett** · **03-15-08, 12:58 AM**

Quote:

jet757f wrote:

I have a lot of hard drives on this computer. I put the DVD shrink video on drive B.
I have been typing cd b: but it wont let me in.

I cant get to the normal cmd prompt of C:
Instead im at C:usersXPS 720 User

How do I get out of this?

type cd ../.. and that should put you back to C:\ then try changing to the B drive.

**jet757f** · **03-15-08, 01:05 AM**

Quote:

wbassett wrote:

type cd ../.. and that should put you back to C: then try changing to the B drive.

Ok that got me back to the C:\
Now when I type cd b: it lists B:\ but then drops down a line back to C:\
It wont let me enter anything next to B:\

**jet757f** · **03-15-08, 01:09 AM**

Quote:

jet757f wrote:

Ok that got me back to the C:
Now when I type cd b: it lists B: but then drops down a line back to C:
It wont let me enter anything next to B:

Ok I think I got it.
Just went C:\>b:
and then it worked.
Now in directory. Hope I can get it to work now.

Thanks for the quick help.

**wbassett** · **03-15-08, 01:10 AM**

sorry, when you get to C:\ just type b: and hit enter

**jet757f** · **03-15-08, 01:17 AM**

Quote:

wbassett wrote:

sorry, when you get to C: just type b: and hit enter

Well I thought it would be easy now but Im still confused.
Im in the B directory and have the B:\> cursor right now. I see the DVD Shrink file.
How do I get to that specific file and make the change?

**jet757f** · **03-15-08, 05:00 AM**

I finally got it to work. I ended up putting 3 DVDs onto the hard drive. I am very happy with the way this is working. Thank you very much for working on this system and posting the procedure for us. I was torn whether to use the Vista Media Server with a hard drive already on my computer or the PS3 with a WD 1TB external Hard drive that I bought. Right now I am really liking the PS3 version.

So far it is working very well in principle but I do have some questions. The first DVD I installed froze on me. Is there anything I can do to prevent this?

With DVD Shrink which reading do we use to set the compression? I realize we have to keep the file under 4gb. So are we using the file size on the left side across from title or the size listed above compression on the right side. I am asking because I think one of the movies I installed is ending too soon so maybe I set the compression wrong.

Thanks again.

One other question. Do we have to use subfolders if we are not doing a series?

**Ray3** · **03-15-08, 02:38 PM**

Quote:

wbassett wrote:

I still may do this, but as of right now I put this project on the back burner, and that is building an HTPC that would play both Bluray and HD DVD.

I think it would be a thread that some people would be interested in, but I was looking at my equipment and asked myself 'Just what would I gain by building this?' The answer was nothing, in fact most likely I would lose a few features or quality.

The PS3 plays CDs, SDVDs, BDs, and movies archived on an external hard drive. My cable box provides DVR capabilities, the A2 plays SDVDs and HD DVDs... everything seems to be covered. It would be nice to have one box that does it all, but I have a sneaking feeling it would be a 'jack of all trades, master of none' type scenario.

My son bought the 40GB PS3 and also has a 360. He has two external USB drives hooked up to the PS3, and is loving it!

The only problem he's told me about is some movies have playback issues, but only they ones that he went nuts on and compressed them down to under 2GB in size. He's coming up for two weeks and bringing his PS3 and 360 and we'll check out his movies, but other than a couple the rest play fine and he's more than happy.

As far as the PS3, I am very happy with it myself, and seeing I bought it last year, it is one of the few players from that time period that will be able to make it to profile 2.0

So plin I agree, the PS3 is a very good deal as well as being a powerful system.

Bill - your timing is excellent!!!

I got my PS3 on Thursday and have been getting acquainted with it. What a piece of equipment (BTW - I agree with your assessment on your HTPC; the PS3 pretty much negates the need)

Anyhow, I’m hoping for some opinions/guidance before I start putting things in place. I have a PC in the 2nd floor office with a 500GB HD (450 GB available) and the PS3 in the basement HT (40GB HDD). Wireless network with good signal strength. I also have available 320 GB and 750 GB external USB HDDs that are pretty much empty, but I have lots of DVDs (500+ and BluRay on the way) I want to store.

I was going to start searching for possibility of attaching multiple USB external hard drives to the PS3 and here you mention your son does this already. I just ordered an IR remote control solution that will use one of my two available USB ports.

Can I use the remaining PS3 USB port with a powered USB hub and add some additional ports and then plug in two (or more) external USB HDDs (formatted in FAT32) and will the PS3 “see” both of them and allow me to get at my media?

The answers to the above gets me to the following alternatives:

1) Stream all my media from the PC

If I plug the two of the external HDDs into the PC, I will have 450 GB (internal) plus 320 + 750 GB. If I choose this solution, I will need to use Tversity or WMP11 as my media center software. Some questions:

-Can I load all of my media on the 3 HDDs and will the PS3 “see” all of HDDs and allow me to stream?

-Does streaming everything from the PC and it’s attached HDDs eliminate the need to format the external HDDs in FAT32?

2) Just use the PS3 and don’t stream from the PC

If I plug the two of the external HDDs into a powered USB hub, then into the PS3, I will have 40GB (internal), plus 320+750. I won’t need to use media server software (or will I?) and the PC doesn’t need to be on all the time. The PS3 would simply be a standalone entity. A question:

-Will the PS3 see both external HDDs if I plug them into a powered hub, then to the PS3 and allow me to get at the media?

3) Use the PS3 –AND-- stream from the PC

Plug one of the externals into the PC and one into the PS3. Load my music on the PS3 40GB and scatter the rest of my media around the externals and the PC. Need to use Tversity / WMP to get at the PC.

The advantages to item 1:

-Much easier to move / add/ delete files and media
-If I don’t need to do FAT32 formatting to the externals, my DVD .VOB files can be larger than 4GB
-I can use all of that storage for things other than media

The advantages to item 2:

-Don’t have the complexity of having the PC in the mix.
-Turn the HT stuff on and start enjoying.
-Can move / add / delete by taking the externals to the PC and plugging them in , then return to the PS3.
-Not dependent on a wireless network.

Item 3 is just flexible, but uses both pieces and is more complex.

Whew, I have such a headache! I could really use some input here, including some options I haven’t considered. The reason for all of this is that I want to get ALL of my DVDs (I have 500+ and BluRay is on the way) onto the HDDs I already own. I also want to make the process of using the PS3 as seamless as possible.

Thanks,

Ray

**jet757f** · **03-15-08, 06:45 PM**

Quote:

ALIENWARE wrote:

2.10,and I think is the best update.Also I discovered today that if you rip a dvd movie and copy to the ps3 at it is (.vob)with the new update it will play,so you dont have to reneame to .mpeg.THE PS3 NOW PLAYS .vob FILES,YEA BABY....

Is this true? You dont have to rename the VOB files? Does it affect anything else?
Im still learning how to do this so Im trying to find the best way with best PQ.

**jet757f** · **03-15-08, 06:48 PM**

Quote:

basementjack wrote:

Ok Guys, I just finished skimming this thread from start to finish.

A few things I can add:

Alternate DVD ripping program -

It's a program called DVDFAB - you can find it at http://www.dvdfab.com

in short, DVDFab is a decent 1 click solution for going from DVD's to other formats.
They seem to update the product regularly.

Some things DVDfab can do...
- Copy a DVD to your hard drive as an ISO or a folder of files
- Copy a DVD to a blank DVD
- Copy a DVD to 2 blank DVD's
- Copy a DVD to formats like divx, mpeg4, h264 etc.

Also - for those with windows media center machines - microsoft has a dvd library feature thats disabled by default - a simple registry change enables it.

the MCE dvd library works with files copied to the HD from dvd shrink or dvd fab - the nice thing here is you have the original dvd - full quality - all sound options - full menus etc...

- Jack

I couldnt get Vista Media Center to work no matter what I used. Tried DVDFab and then My Movies. The people in the My Movies forum told me to use AnyDVD which didnt work either.

**jet757f** · **03-17-08, 08:17 PM**

I installed a couple of dvd movies and also 2 TV seasons of Friends. It really works well especially with the TV episodes. It is nice being able to go onto the PS3 server and select a disc and get it to play immediately. I think I may use this with mainly TV series since it is so convenient.

There is only one problem. It does not scan or FF etc very well and sometimes freezes when you do it.
So the problem with the TV shows is that there are usually quite a few episodes on one disc which makes it hard to get back to where you left off unless you just watch the whole disc again.

Anyone have a solution for this?

Also does anyone know how to setup subfolders for TV series? As an example I would like to be able to have the folder Friends season 8 and then the 4 discs as subfolders. I tried this but they wouldnt show up on the PS3.
So now I have to have separate folders for everything. Friends Season 8 Disc1 and then Friends Season 8 Disc 2 etc.

**wbassett** · **03-17-08, 10:37 PM**

Quote:

jet757f wrote:

I installed a couple of dvd movies and also 2 TV seasons of Friends. It really works well especially with the TV episodes. It is nice being able to go onto the PS3 server and select a disc and get it to play immediately. I think I may use this with mainly TV series since it is so convenient.

There is only one problem. It does not scan or FF etc very well and sometimes freezes when you do it.
So the problem with the TV shows is that there are usually quite a few episodes on one disc which makes it hard to get back to where you left off unless you just watch the whole disc again.

Anyone have a solution for this?

Also does anyone know how to setup subfolders for TV series? As an example I would like to be able to have the folder Friends season 8 and then the 4 discs as subfolders. I tried this but they wouldnt show up on the PS3.
So now I have to have separate folders for everything. Friends Season 8 Disc1 and then Friends Season 8 Disc 2 etc.

As far as I know subfolders don't work. I wish they did.

What I do for TV shows is do each individual episode. Most only come out to a gig or gig and a half at the largestest. I haven't had any problems with fast forward, but yeah, there is no chapter search.

**jet757f** · **03-17-08, 11:09 PM**

Quote:

wbassett wrote:

As far as I know subfolders don't work. I wish they did.

What I do for TV shows is do each individual episode. Most only come out to a gig or gig and a half at the largestest. I haven't had any problems with fast forward, but yeah, there is no chapter search.

Well hopefully the PS3 doesnt have any limits on the amount of files it can display. I have many TV series that I want to install. I dont think I have enough patience to do each episode so will stick with doing each individual disc.

Other than that it works great..........thanks again!!

**03-19-08, 07:52 PM**

Man, this works really well, i cant believe it, i tried lots of different programs for a week and then i found this, really nice, i recommend it 10 out of 10, the only problem i am having is that on some movies it has 2 files in the main movie section, i know you said to pick the longer one of the 2 but the 2 files are needed to finish the movie ,when i compress it compresses the 2 files seperate and when the first is done i still have to open up the other manually, any ideas how to fix this to make it all one movie. and hey once again awesome job!

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