I have to start by saying I'm very impressed so far at how easily external devices like USB drives integrate into the PS3.

I purchased a 400gb Western Digital My Book drive yesterday ($99 after discount and $40 rebate), backed up all my music, jpeg and video (mpeg4) to the drive. I placed the files in their respective directories on the WD drive (Music, Picture and Video). I then connected the drive to my PS3 and after about 3-5 seconds the PS3 saw it and it showed up as USB External Drive under each respective directory on the PS3. I can play everything on the PS3 except some of my Ipod music in .mp4 format. It obviously plays mp3s with no problem.

Now when I download a trailor from the Sony Store it allows me to select the PS3 drive or the External USB!

Here are some pictures of the unit downloading a movie clip to the external Western Digital 400gb drive. Sweeet!

Sweet! That's a nice setup you have there...

Can you download demos or install games to the external HD?

Can you download demos or install games to the external HD?

I should have created a Games folder. I was thinking of that last night. I'll try it and report back. Now if I can just figure out how to create folders from the PS3 on the external drive I wouldn't have to do it on my PC. I looked but couldn't find that option last night. I'm sure it will work but I want to create the directory first.

Since the PS3 has 4 USB ports, can it theoretically recognize four drives?


fuad

how's the new sxrd with the PS3 by the way? I'll be picking one up real soon, and a playstation by the end of the week if everything goes to plan.

Can you download demos or install games to the external HD?I don't think this is possible. When you download a game/demo it starts going to the HDD without giving you an option of where to save it. Also if you triangle a game or demo to bring up options, there's no option to copy the file anywhere.

I should have created a Games folder. I was thinking of that last night. I'll try it and report back. Now if I can just figure out how to create folders from the PS3 on the external drive I wouldn't have to do it on my PC. I looked but couldn't find that option last night. I'm sure it will work but I want to create the directory first.
give us a heads if possible that your external drive can hold the games information and what not instead of it being a multi media hard drive can it be a game drive also is a good questions.

I have 2 USB drives (400GB and 250GB) attached using a 4-port USB hub so that I'll only use one usb port. Worked like a charm.

In terms of downloading games and demos directly to the usb drive -- not gonna happen w/ this firmware unless you try doing it through Linux (and I don't think you'll be able to have full access to the ps3 store in Linux, though I guess I could try a little later since I have Fedora up and running).

FYI: Looking at your screen, you have the horizontal banding problem that I have as well.

Tried it and as stated above you cannot write a game to the USB drive with this firmware. I hope they open it up in the future. Dave, as for the horizontal banding issue I don't see it. Can you elaborate on this? No blob after warm up in case you are wondering.

You can see the banding especially in the store. Go to the store and look at the blue backgrounds. You will see dark black lines running along the screen. I see it in your 2 pictures.

I know its been mentioned before, but it would have been nice to have one or two USB ports on the back for this sort of thing. If I'm going to have a external HDD hooked up all the time I don't want to see the cable in the front. Not a big issue, but it sure messes up the clean lines of the PS3. Same goes for the EyeToy.

Now you just need to upgrade the internal drive to 120. :)

Does the external drive have to be formatted in fat32 for the ps3 to read data from it?

I don't know if it's the ONLY format it can recognize, but when I had the drives formatted in the usual default Mac format, they weren't recognized.

I should have created a Games folder. I was thinking of that last night. I'll try it and report back. Now if I can just figure out how to create folders from the PS3 on the external drive I wouldn't have to do it on my PC. I looked but couldn't find that option last night. I'm sure it will work but I want to create the directory first.can you select a directory to save to when downloading files from the PS3?

Can you save downloads from the marketplace onto the external?

Can you install games on the external?

can you select a directory to save to when downloading files from the PS3?

Can you save downloads from the marketplace onto the external?

Can you install games on the external?

All good questions.

And the answer to all (at this time) is 'NO'

Try formatting the drive in NTFS and see what happens. Probably won't read.

I don't know if it's the ONLY format it can recognize, but when I had the drives formatted in the usual default Mac format, they weren't recognized.
On the mac how did you format the drive to be read by the PS3? I'm on a PPC G5. All I see are Mac OSX Extended and one Unix option in the Disk Utility. Or did you end up having to format it on a PC? Thanks

:( when I plug my HDD in it says it's an unknown external storage device

or something like that

On the mac how did you format the drive to be read by the PS3? I'm on a PPC G5. All I see are Mac OSX Extended and one Unix option in the Disk Utility. Or did you end up having to format it on a PC? Thanks

I formatted it in Disk Utility as MS-DOS.

I formatted it in Disk Utility as MS-DOS.
So it's FAT16? I'm confused! :confused:

So you didn't use WinXP to format the drive so it's not NTFS.


fuad

I'm using the standard FAT32 with the Western Digital 400gb and it is flawless. It comes already formatted with FAT32 right out of the box.

You can pick a directory to download to on your external drive for all content on the Sony Store except games and game demos. Trailors are fine.

The PS3 does not give the option to download game demos or games to the external drive at this time. A firmware update would be nice but that remains to be seen if Sony would be so kind to issue one. I created a GAME folder on the external drive but the PS3 ignores it for downloading game demos.

The PS3 has a nice slideshow app for pictures and it has a nice app for playing your videos as well. The MP3 playback is fine too.

and this makes GAMES look or play better? :rolleyes:

I thought the PS3 formats the drive for you....

so can you fill the external drive with hidef movies, and the ps3 will play them in hidef?

so can you fill the external drive with hidef movies, and the ps3 will play them in hidef?

Yep. I downloaded a bunch of 1080p movie trailers from the Quicktime site, loaded them on my external drive (w/ my mac), and, though I had to use pass-through mode on QT Pro to get them to export in a format that was both a) lossless and b) played nicely w/ the ps3, they looked spectacular.

Yep. I downloaded a bunch of 1080p movie trailers from the Quicktime site, loaded them on my external drive (w/ my mac), and, though I had to use pass-through mode on QT Pro to get them to export in a format that was both a) lossless and b) played nicely w/ the ps3, they looked spectacular.

What format is that?

I tried x.264 movies with .AVI, .MP4, and .MV4 extensions and none of them played.

The PS3 manual states "MPEG2 (TS)", do they mean a Video_TS folder? Or a .TS (Transport Stream)?

We shouldn't need to transcode the movies at all. Eventually someone will figure out how to get the PS3 to play back files natively.

I converted a bunch of stuff to MPEG4 for my video Ipod and they all play on the PS3. I downloaded a bunch of 1080P and HD movie and game trailors from the Sony Store as well and they look spectacular on the PS3. They are all playing from my external Western Digital 400gb drive.

The PS3 manual states "MPEG2 (TS)", do they mean a Video_TS folder? Or a .TS (Transport Stream)? Transport Stream. Though from other users' experience, you won't get DD audio with it. I don't know.

Otherwise, your .TS files may need to be changed to .PS files to retain DD.


fuad

Ok, question to you guys who have this working.
I have a ton of music on my external WD MyBook, is there a way to do a shuffle or random play on the PS3?
Also, I plugged it in and the PS3 recognized it, but it sure is taking a long time for it to list all the folders.
Is it going to take this long everytime I power it on or just the first time?

If I'm not mistaken, Sony won't be allowing you to save the demos or games to the external/usb hard drive, something about them being worried about pirating or some such nonsense. I think it can be done through linux if you can get to the downloads in the marketplace.

I hope it's limited to fat32 because then your files are limited to 4GB and HD Mpg's that I make on my PC that would play on my PS3 typically run over 10GB.

So is anyone else having extremely long load times for these external devices? I have about 8000 songs on mt external drive. I plug it in and it takes about 10 minutes for it to load all the folders for each artist. Then I can click within an artist and I can see the albums in there. If I select the album to get to the songs, it just sits there and thinks. I let it go for 20 minutes last night and it still didn’t list the songs. Are they formatted wrong? Most of them are AAC, some are MP3s. Anyone have any ideas? Should I create a new folder on there with just MP3s?

Really nice setup. Where did you get the hard drive so cheaply?

What file format are you guys using for the name of the file itself. For example, do your files show the artist/album and song title like this...

Tool - Lateralus - The Grudge
or
01 Grudge

Im trying to figure out why, when I play some of the MP3 on the PS3, they list the Artist and album name and others just list the song. Yet they are all named the same in the root directory. Any ideas??

You can see the banding especially in the store. Go to the store and look at the blue backgrounds. You will see dark black lines running along the screen. I see it in your 2 pictures.


Where exactly on the screen on bleeds are you seeing the lines?

I converted a bunch of stuff to MPEG4 for my video Ipod and they all play on the PS3. I downloaded a bunch of 1080P and HD movie and game trailors from the Sony Store as well and they look spectacular on the PS3. They are all playing from my external Western Digital 400gb drive.


do you mean mpeg4 (divX) or .mp4 >?


and if you have a say a ripped 15 gigabyte movie in mpeg2 uncompressed pcm/mpeg2.. will it play natively?

So is anyone else having extremely long load times for these external devices? I have about 8000 songs on mt external drive. I plug it in and it takes about 10 minutes for it to load all the folders for each artist. Then I can click within an artist and I can see the albums in there. If I select the album to get to the songs, it just sits there and thinks. I let it go for 20 minutes last night and it still didn’t list the songs. Are they formatted wrong? Most of them are AAC, some are MP3s. Anyone have any ideas? Should I create a new folder on there with just MP3s?

I hope Sony is using USB 2.0. I can see it taking awhile for the first load, similar to iTunes that builds a large XML file to make snappy navigation and future starts.

If you have time, could you test to see if the ps3 play .ts, .iso, or video_TS files?

I hope Sony is using USB 2.0. I can see it taking awhile for the first load, similar to iTunes that builds a large XML file to make snappy navigation and future starts.

When I moved all the MP3s to one folder it goes a whole hell of a lot faster. But now my issue is the lack of artist and album info on some mp3s. So Im starting from scratch.

I'm gonna contact Sony today to see if they have a recommended file name structure to get artist and album name to appear. Some of my mp3s even had the album art appear, so Im assuming all of that info is within the ID3 tag. So why would some songs have it and others dont when they all do in iTunes? Im so confused.

Two questions.....

1. Can the external drive be directly connected to the PS3 via the USB port and formatted via the PS3? I do not have a working computer at home currently.

2. Can you transfer files back and forth between the two drives(PS3 and external drive)? :cool:

Two questions.....

1. Can the external drive be directly connected to the PS3 via the USB port and formatted via the PS3? I do not have a working computer at home currently.
You can connect any USB drive directly to the PS3 without formatting it first. The only issue you will have is that you can not create folders through the PS3. Once you connect it though you will be able to choose that as the destination for Music, Picture or Video downloads. You can download trailers from the PS store to the USB also. The only thing it wont let you download is demos or games.

2. Can you transfer files back and forth between the two drives(PS3 and external drive)? :cool:
Most files you can. I know I was able to transfer a few videos to my USB drive and some music from the USB to the PS3. Like I said above, games and demos no, everything else yes.

You can connect any USB drive directly to the PS3 without formatting it first. The only issue you will have is that you can not create folders through the PS3. Once you connect it though you will be able to choose that as the destination for Music, Picture or Video downloads. You can download trailers from the PS store to the USB also. The only thing it wont let you download is demos or games.


Most files you can. I know I was able to transfer a few videos to my USB drive and some music from the USB to the PS3. Like I said above, games and demos no, everything else yes.


I guess I am back to looking for an internal drive. Does not make alot of sense for me to hook up an external for trailers/music when the game demos/games will be my primary downloads. If Sony would allow you to use the external in the same manner one uses the internal, I would pick up an external in a heartbeat. I may wind up picking up the Toshiba 120gb internal drive. In the future, I can always pick up an external should the need arise. Thanks!!! :cool:

From the Mac, I tried formatting HFS+, UFS (Unix File System) and Fat32. The only format that the PS3 recognized was Fat32. This means nothing greater than 4GB. A huge bummer.

How do you format an external drive from the PS3? If someone could post instructions, that'd rock.

Thing is, I don't see where/how to format the external drive on the PS3. I would have preferred to do it that way, just in case the Mac wasn't kosher on its formats. Any hints in this regard?

Transport Stream. Though from other users' experience, you won't get DD audio with it. I don't know.

Otherwise, your .TS files may need to be changed to .PS files to retain DD.


For MPEG2 playback, you can use either TS or PS. They both need ".mpeg" extension to be recognized or downloaded from the browser. However, they are both problematic.

With TS, if you have a DD track, it will not play sound at all... silent movie mode!

With PS, if you have a DD track, it plays only as matrixed surround (Dolby Pro Logic). You do NOT get discrete 5.1. Both movies I tried ONLY had a 5.1 track, and they still arrived at my amp (via toslink) as Dolby Pro Logic.

One final issue, and the worse of all (not an external drive issue, though)...

MPEG2 PS playback ends prematurely on full-length movies. I tried both Star Wars Revenge of the Sith (9GB) and Serenity (11GB). The former halted at 17 minutes, the latter at 14 minutes. The info mode ("select" button) said the movies were 17 and 14 minutes, so that explained it. But all the data was on the (internal) HDD, and they both play fine via VLC on the Mac, so it looks like a bug.

-Pie

One final issue, and the worse of all (not an external drive issue, though)...

MPEG2 PS playback ends prematurely on full-length movies. I tried both Star Wars Revenge of the Sith (9GB) and Serenity (11GB). The former halted at 17 minutes, the latter at 14 minutes. The info mode ("select" button) said the movies were 17 and 14 minutes, so that explained it. But all the data was on the (internal) HDD, and they both play fine via VLC on the Mac, so it looks like a bug.

-Pie

Hello Pie,

Can I ask how you got any movie file over 4GB onto your internal PS3 HD? I've tried downloading some larger files and the PS3 chops them at 3.5GB.

Thanks...

FAT32 supports drives up to 2 terabytes in size, but only supports single files up to 4GB. Anything over 4GB must be split into smaller files, or it will be corrupted.

You will have to split all movies over 4GB up into smaller chunks for playback, if only Fat32 is supported.

FAT32 supports drives up to 2 terabytes in size, but only supports single files up to 4GB. Anything over 4GB must be split into smaller files, or it will be corrupted.

You will have to split all movies over 4GB up into smaller chunks for playback, if only Fat32 is supported.


So Pie's 9GB Sith and 11GB Serenity were split into multiple files?

Some of my mp3s even had the album art appear, so Im assuming all of that info is within the ID3 tag. So why would some songs have it and others dont when they all do in iTunes? Im so confused.

Have you got any closer to understanding this?

I have yet to figure out how to get album art on the PS3...

The mp3's that had album art on my computer copied over with album art. If you rip a cd using the PS3 no album art shows up, but you can add it manually. On the PS3, if you go to the information screen on the album (triangle) you can highlight the album artwork icon. From there you can load a JPG as the album artwork.

Another neat trick I read about. If you want movie clip thumbnails instead of the default icon some movies copy over with, you can start the movie (or at a desired location) and create an new movie clip thumbnail. Bring up the movie controls and there's an icon that looks like a cross. Use this icon to create a new thumbnail or replace the old one.