I take video from my Tivo Series II, feed to my PC, and convert to pure MPEG-2. (Basically, the software just strips out all the .tivo wrappings.) These files are 480x480 mpeg-2. They reside on my ReadyNAS Duo NAS, which has uPnP streaming. When I stream them to the PS3, they are "squished" horizontally, as if the PS3 is not properly stretching them like all my PC video players do. I suspect this is a PS3 codec issue. Any ideas out there? I really don't want to transcode all the video to 720x480!

As always, any help is appreciated. Thanks!

Hmmmm... so I am guessing the files are actually anamorphic 480x480. It sounds like your PC players are correctly interpreting the WSS data (wide screen signalling) whereas the PS3 is not. Is your software putting these files in a MPEG-2 transport stream wrapper? Who is the manufacturer of the MPEG-2 codec? Tivo?

I would try and transcode one of the files to MPEG-4 or something you know the PS3 will play just fine, load it up on the hard drive and see if the PS3 correctly interprets it that way. That will give you a clue as to what step in the process is causing a problem for the PS3 here.

While I don't claim to have the absolute lowdown on this scenario, here is what I offer from my personal experiences- the ps3 media player will generally handle and scale videos in standard aspects (4:3 and 16:9) just fine, but it will not know what to do with "oddball" resolutions that do not naturally fit the screen. If you want a proper 4:3 presentation, then the resolution needs to reflect a typical 4:3 relation (it should be able to scale smaller and larger resolutions, as needed, to fit the screen). It should also be able to scale anamorphic content to an appropriate widescreen format as long as the widescreen flag is present (I haven't done extensive tests if this is true with just any resolution, though).

An exception to this is if the mpeg-2 content is authored into a genuine dvd disc format (on a physical disc). In that case, the integrated dvd player should be able to properly scale any of the "nonstandard" standard resolutions that could be found on a dvd disc (320x480?, 320x240?, etc.). These sort of resolutions are typical for dvd recorders operating in a lower bitrate mode. Naturally, 720x480 anamorphic is also supported.

So it seems to me that while further experimentation could be useful in delineating ps3 playback behavior, you will most likely be looking at re-encoding to a more standard resolution to get the playback you are seeking.

Most likely Sony made no allowances for such an odd resolution. You might want to investigate wether there is a software solution that will scale and transcode the videos on the fly. Otherwise you can only scale and reencode them or wait and hope Sony adds support somewhere down the line (unlikely).

Well, converting to MP4 didn't solve the aspect problem. Guess I'll need to transcode to 720x480. Does anyone know of a free program to transcode from MPG to MP4 (and expand to 720)? One that could do batch files would be sweet. I've searched all afternoon. (And I'm sick of "Free" being defined "free trial download of our non-free software.")

I suggest you try running mediainfo on your MPEG-2 files to make sure your converter tool is putting the right headers on. The problem might just be in the conversion tool you're using.

I got MedioInfo and ran it on my sample MPG-2 file. Here's the output:

MPEG-PS: 87.3 MiB, 3mn 15s3 287 Kbps (9 000 Kbps), 480*480 (4/3), at 29.970 fps, MPEG Video (NTSC) (Version 2) (Main@Main)192 Kbps, 48.0 KHz, 2 channels, MPEG Audio (Version 1) (Layer 2)

In Tree mode, it says 480x480, 4/3 aspect, Bits/(pixel*frame) 1.303. Looks to me like the headers specify 4:3, but the PS3 isn't stretching it?

I would guess that the PS3 won't play a 480x480 file. Everything else looks "legal" from a NTSC spec standpoint. You might want to give TMPGxpress or MainConcepts a shot... both will do what you need, however they are not free. They will still transcode the file for you, but will put a watermark in the video. At least that way, however, you can determine if the 480x480 resolution is your issue.