Hey all,

Quick question, I have both a PS3 and an Xbox 360. The 360 is already set up as a media extender and I am happy with the way that it handles my media. However, I have noticed that the PS3 also has this functionality and I was wondering if anyone has used both systems for this and which do they prefer and why? Thanks in advance.

Hey all,

Quick question, I have both a PS3 and an Xbox 360. The 360 is already set up as a media extender and I am happy with the way that it handles my media. However, I have noticed that the PS3 also has this functionality and I was wondering if anyone has used both systems for this and which do they prefer and why? Thanks in advance.

+1 I would like to know as well.

I'm a HEAVY media extender user. I've got both the PS3 and 360 connected to multiple PC's as well as my 1Tb NAS and have used my 360 happily as my media extender since its release...but I switched to the PS3 several months ago for a couple reasons. For me, the deal breaker was the fact that I may go inbetween streaming video and music for several hours a day most days of the week--because my PS3 runs quieter and cooler, it an easy decision. In fact, my PS3 essentially functions almost solely as a media extender and bluray player since I much prefer the 360 forgaming.

360 Media Ext-
Pros: Interface is better IMHO. Can stream in the background while gaming (a huge plus).
Cons: Runner hotter and louder.

PS3 Media Ext:
Pros: Cooler and quieter. Bluetooth remote. Better visualizations.
Cons: I HATE the XMB and interface. Can't stream while gaming.

I have both consoles as well but only using the PS3 streaming media from my linux server with using mediatomb. It's still early days, very little organization, especially for videos and no support for mkv. One has to extract h264 video, extract AC3, convert to 2ch AAC and then put it all back into a MP4 container. Time consuming but at least not lossy in terms of video.

Not a big fan of the Xbox other than games, it's crappy hardware, too noisy, too hot. Besides, it only works with Windows, I only have Macs and linux machines.

Thanks for the info Stang55 and nefilim.

It's still early days, very little organization, especially for videos and no support for mkv. One has to extract h264 video, extract AC3, convert to 2ch AAC and then put it all back into a MP4 container. Time consuming but at least not lossy in terms of video.


mkv2vob will do that automatically for you and keep the AC3. 'Converting' a 4GB mkv takes 5 min at most.

... Besides, it only works with Windows, I only have Macs and linux machines.

Actually, it works fine with macs, or really anything that can stream media. Lookup Twonky, Tversity, or Connect360.

I have both as well, and have never even bothered with the PS3 as a media extender. Probably due to the fact that all of my media is done via Vista 64-bit Ultimate edition using only Media Center. I love the interface and have never had any issues with it. I mostly use the PS3 as my Blu-Ray player, as well as several games over the 360 since the online play is free. While the Xbox Live! service is not expensive by any means, it's just nice to hit the power button and get gaming. :D

I usually watch some movies or shows on the 360 since that is where I do my gaming. Then when enough friends are online I stop and join in on the muliplayer action.
Have a HP Mediasmart server that both consoles see. I downloaded the platinum version of hd dvdcrypter which will convert to the media of your choice. I have done both avi and wmv and can't really tell the difference.

I have all 3 consoles. But forget the Wii for obvious reasons

Words can not express how much I hate the 360 for a media device. I originally bought it for media just after launch, hoping to replace an aging mod'd xbox1 with xbmc....LOL. It's gotten better with updates, plays divx for some time now of course, but I just gave up fighting with it. I got the Ps3 in Feb, and it is now my media machine, and I never turn on the 360 for media anymore.

I do not consider the ps3 a "media extender" like the 360. It's more of a media center on it's own. Granted you will still want to connect to a pc for media but you do have the choice of sticking whatever you want onto the HD and not using a PC at all

My main issues with the 360 were: the way it uses only id3 tags for music, and it's buggy at best, with half of my music never showing up right, and the only way you can arrange it is artist/title/album etc.... I HATE HATE HATE HATE this method and wish it would go far away. The Ps3 can use a folder view, you can even get a PSP to control it remotely. For the 360 to have a folder view, you can get a folder tree plugin through Windows media center that allows a folder view but it's slow and clumsy....which pretty much sums up my other issue with the 360. It relies too heavily on network and your PC's speed. Laggy menu's using the media center render it frustrating for anyone else in the house but myself. Whereas the Ps3 is as fast as you can hit the button. The dashboard option on the 360 is obviously better and more responsive then it's media center nonsense, and almost works well for media, but connectivity issues, cartoony interface, and blade system as a gui just kinda bugs me.

Also, the 360 just doesn't always work. I had troubles with it seeing certain songs, certain Pics, certain video's, and media center was just plain crap. After using XBMC for many years, the thought of calling the 360/or it's "media extender" ......a media anything is a bad joke. I can't believe the muti-billion dollar company and it's thousands of engineers came up with the crap interface that is the media center on the 360, and even the dash is just plain odd. The 360 has enough horsepower on it's own to run media, it doesn't need to be a "remote desktop" of sorts to a PC.

I use my ps3 for everything. I use mkv2vob to convert my mkv's in just a few mins with one click of a button. It's flawless, google it, find it on doom9.org. I use tversity on my PC to share files to the ps3, which for some reason seems to actually work with the ps3 but I could never get it to work right with the 360. Now I rarely use the xbox 1 with xbmc for anything. Media player on Windows works too, but I hate how it indexes files, and when you add a new file it takes forever to show up.

Add to that, after going through 4 xbox's, and now even my 4th is on the fritz...I think, I would NEVER recommend to anyone turning the 360 on for anything but games as it's just a pos console that is going to break at some point, so why age it watching vids? That being said, noise was never an issue for me with the 360. For media, and DVD, the 360's I have had are no louder then my 80gig ps3. It's playing games on that loud dvdrom that makes it loud, everything else isn't too bad.

The irony here is that the 360 is my fav. gaming rig, and when it does die again, I will want another one. Stupid or wha?

Lets not forget the ps3's obvious audio advantages, 7.1 etc.

Actually, it works fine with macs, or really anything that can stream media. Lookup Twonky, Tversity, or Connect360.

Nullriver Media link also works well for Macs. Or you could just boot up Windows on a Mac.

I have both consoles and originally I used the 360 because many videos I had were WMV but eventually I switched to the PS3 for music playback since it was easier to scroll through my somewhat large library and it played many of my videos (but not all). I tried using programs like Nero Home and Tversity but they never seems to work right for me on my 360 or PS3 so in the end I gave up and just built a good HTPC to play everything. I did recently get a PSP and use the remote play to stream from the PS3 across the internet, lots of fun there.

i have not seen the PSP remote in action. I would love to pick up a second hand one just to use as a music remote.

Thanks for all your time guys, I appreciate your opinions and I think I will stick with the 360 for the time being. Judging by your comments it seems that they both have their own pros and cons and I was mainly wondering if the ps3 was able to handle the task a lot better or not. It seems that they are about on par with another and it would be easier for me to stick with what I know. Although, I was impressed that the Psp will be able to control the media on the ps3, I'll have to look further into that. Later.

For any who are interested, I use my PS3 as a media extender constantly. But that's not my point. After loading several DVD's into my hard drive on my pc I tested the remote play system on my psp. Went across town to a wifi hotspot and set up the PSP. connected to the PS3, and streamed one of the DVD's across. It works ok, but depending on the hotspot, can get choppy. It was enough to watch the movie, but I would probably get frustrated if it was "important."

Just fyi.

I stream my DVR videos (GBPVR) through TVersity to my PS3 and even sometimes to my PSP. It is way cool.

mkv2vob will do that automatically for you and keep the AC3. 'Converting' a 4GB mkv takes 5 min at most.

Windows only and I understand the resulting vob doesn't support seeking?

I have both consoles and originally I used the 360 because many videos I had were WMV but eventually I switched to the PS3 for music playback since it was easier to scroll through my somewhat large library and it played many of my videos (but not all). I tried using programs like Nero Home and Tversity but they never seems to work right for me on my 360 or PS3 so in the end I gave up and just built a good HTPC to play everything. I did recently get a PSP and use the remote play to stream from the PS3 across the internet, lots of fun there.

very tempted to do the same but unfortunately unless you use windows on said HTPC you won't have hardware accelerated h264 decoding... not even on OSX... incredibly weak apple/nvidia/amd!

other than that osxmc looks awesome!

Windows only and I understand the resulting vob doesn't support seeking?

Windows only but the resulting file does support seeking, all fast forward speeds work fine (that wasn't the case in the earlier versions though).

Can someone post or link screenshot of the PS3 GUI browsing a server? movies and photos if possible :)


360 Media Ext-
Pros: Interface is better IMHO. Can stream in the background while gaming (a huge plus).
Cons: Runner hotter and louder.

PS3 Media Ext:
Pros: Cooler and quieter. Bluetooth remote. Better visualizations.
Cons: I HATE the XMB and interface. Can't stream while gaming.
Are there any plugins or mods to get a different UI?

Actually, it works fine with macs, or really anything that can stream media. Lookup Twonky, Tversity, or Connect360.

I have both as well, and have never even bothered with the PS3 as a media extender. Probably due to the fact that all of my media is done via Vista 64-bit Ultimate edition using only Media Center.

so, the server can run "any" OS?? mac, vista x64, x32, linux, win server 2008, etc... ???

Windows only but the resulting file does support seeking, all fast forward speeds work fine (that wasn't the case in the earlier versions though).

do videos have to be in mkv for the PS3 to browse/playback?

I have a PS3 hooked on my network to a NAS (promise Technologies) NS4300n and 2 VISTA media center PC's. The NAS has DLNA setup and is running and the PS3 can see the NAS but can't see the media in the folders, whereas the VMC pc can stream video and audio perfectly.

Anyone have any have any ideas on how I can get my PS3 to stream media from my NAS?

Thanx!

jumping in here...

i am about to set up a server for this purpose, too. though i was thinking of using fuppes. it looks to be everything we need...


http://fuppes.ulrich-voelkel.de/features/

I prefer the ps3 over the 360 b/c I prefer the interface and it is so quiet compared to the 360 which is loud enough to be heard at the volume I usually listen/watch at.

i only use the ps3 because I only care about HD media and with mkv2vob it makes it very easy to get high def movies/tv shows onto the ps3. as far as i know, there is nothing like that for the xbox360, plus the xbox360 gets very loud and almsot all movies have a quiet scene and you can hear that loud sound of the xbox360.

Doesn't the 360 play MP4 files? GOTsent converts mkv files to that format nicely.

I stream my DVR videos (GBPVR) through TVersity to my PS3 and even sometimes to my PSP. It is way cool.

Yes, it certainly is. After having horrid luck with other programs, Tversity works beautifully in w2k3 x64 server. Hehe, I'm running it off a 4TB array, love it.

jumping in here...

i am about to set up a server for this purpose, too. though i was thinking of using fuppes. it looks to be everything we need...


http://fuppes.ulrich-voelkel.de/features/

Fuppes was nice in terms of speed, but a huge PITA to get videos up and going. I never could get AVI's to play.