While down at my local 7 story high Japanese electronic store, I noticed a clever new ps3 mod. So simple, I wonder why I didn't think of it.

Anyway, it's just a simple cable connector that plugs into the internal harddrive ports on the ps3. The other end of the cable you plug into a SATA external drive. Just slap the largest computer harddrive you can find, and the ps3 won't know the difference.

I suppose it lowers the temp of your ps3, but it wouldn't be by much. I'll try to get a pic of it the next time I roll down on the train.

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found some pics, plus what i have already for my external:

Why in Hell do you do with 1 TB?

Why in Hell do you do with 1 TB?
Well if he is like me he has plenty of movies and TV shows in Hidef. My Xbox with a 400GB HDD is filled with SD material. HD stuff that the PS3 is capable of playing back takes up a good amount of space.

To the op;
using an SATA cable to go out of the bay isn't new.

I would be curious to see pictures of that. I have almost 80,000 songs I would like to dump directly on to the PS3

Personally I wish there was a Network Area Storage solution that worked well and was affordable. That way you could stream the content to any computer or the PS3, etc.

From what I am reading, most home NAS devices suck when it comes to UPnP.

Well, you can't get HD movies to play back right now anyways, so I don't see what the point is? We know you can hang a non-notebook drive off the end of the PS3 with a cable, but I'd prefer to just stick a notebook drive in my 20Gb machine when the time is right. Right now there is nothing worth putting on the drive. What with DNLA just use your PC's drive for music files and assorted things. That's all you can really do with it now anyways.

Well, you can't get HD movies to play back right now anyways, so I don't see what the point is? We know you can hang a non-notebook drive off the end of the PS3 with a cable, but I'd prefer to just stick a notebook drive in my 20Gb machine when the time is right. Right now there is nothing worth putting on the drive. What with DNLA just use your PC's drive for music files and assorted things. That's all you can really do with it now anyways.


I have been playing X264 videos converted to MP4's in HD on the PS3 since the day I brought it home. They average about ~4GB per 1.5hrs, so it can really eat up space. Right now I have a 500GB external drive, and am hoping to double the size shortly...

i have a 500gb wd external and i'm gettin ready to pick up another one. prolly better to double back in case one crashes.

Well, you can't get HD movies to play back right now anyways, so I don't see what the point is? We know you can hang a non-notebook drive off the end of the PS3 with a cable, but I'd prefer to just stick a notebook drive in my 20Gb machine when the time is right. Right now there is nothing worth putting on the drive. What with DNLA just use your PC's drive for music files and assorted things. That's all you can really do with it now anyways.
??

You know that HOME will offer downloadable movies. As is evidenced here...
http://ps3media.ign.com/ps3/image/article/808/808194/playstation-home-20070726055422768-000.jpg
(you can't see it in this pic, but the board on the theatre has movie titles)
a bunch of extra HD space will come in handy.

Well, you can't get HD movies to play back right now anyways, so I don't see what the point is? We know you can hang a non-notebook drive off the end of the PS3 with a cable, but I'd prefer to just stick a notebook drive in my 20Gb machine when the time is right. Right now there is nothing worth putting on the drive. What with DNLA just use your PC's drive for music files and assorted things. That's all you can really do with it now anyways.
y can't u play hd files and movie? i have played a few. u need to convert them however .

And hopefully sony will allow either lossless WMA or FLAC playback. My lossless music files take up around 200gig alone.

I have been playing X264 videos converted to MP4's in HD on the PS3 since the day I brought it home. They average about ~4GB per 1.5hrs, so it can really eat up space. Right now I have a 500GB external drive, and am hoping to double the size shortly...

whats the source that uses x264, and what are you using to convert them to mp4?

I have seen this before and do think its a pretty cool idea. Besides adding a huge drive you remove he power requirements from the PS3 I think as you power it externally and also remove a large source of heat out of the PS3. I too have a 500GB external drive I meadia serve through my PS3.
Sounds like a win win to me.

And hopefully sony will allow either lossless WMA or FLAC playback. My lossless music files take up around 200gig alone.

There is a new option in system settings for "Enable WMA playback" Is that what you are looking for?

You know that HOME will offer downloadable movies. As is evidenced here...
http://ps3media.ign.com/ps3/image/article/808/808194/playstation-home-20070726055422768-000.jpg
(you can't see it in this pic, but the board on the theatre has movie titles)
a bunch of extra HD space will come in handy.


you can only download so many movies. Besides if its anything like the 360 download service, its worthless after 24hours after playing.

you can only download so many movies. Besides if its anything like the 360 download service, its worthless after 24hours after playing.

Honestly I think Sony may be cooking up something a little better than the "this movie will self destruct" option. Try to remember, Microsoft doesn't own the rights to a huge catalog of movies the way Sony does. I could be wrong though.

y can't u play hd files and movie? i have played a few. u need to convert them however .If I need to convert a whole movie over to get it to play then I feel it's not worth my time. Once they get it working where I can play a MPEG-2 HD transport file as is (still very buggy and doesn't work), .mp4 file, then I'll just play them off my PC's DNLA linked drive anyways.

If you install an internal 2.5" SATA-150, 5400 RPM notebook hardrive, how do you back up your 60G of all the downloaded games, demos, save games, etc? I know the main settings are saved on the PS3's motherboard EEPROM chip, but I don't want to re-download all my bought games (even though you can for free once you've paid for them up to 5 times I do believe) and demos (took a while to download all the demos available and install). I do have access to 500 gb USB 2.0 3.5" Hard Drive (obviously will need to format to FAT32 for PS3 to recognize using SwissKnife or something similar to overcome Windows XP 32 GB limitation of FAT32). Can I use PS3 backup utility to save ALL data on the 60GB HD over to the 500GB external HD and then restore it back once I installed the new internal hard drive? That's one of the reason (losing data and having to redownload and install all the games) I've been reluctant to upgrade my internal hard drive.

The advantage of buying an external adapter is obvious: cheaper, larger capacity, 3.5" SATA hard drive. Disadvantage is messy cabling and need for external molex type power supply.

If you install an internal 2.5" SATA-150, 5400 RPM notebook hardrive, how do you back up your 60G of all the downloaded games, demos, save games, etc? I know the main settings are saved on the PS3's motherboard EEPROM chip, but I don't want to re-download all my bought games (even though you can for free once you've paid for them up to 5 times I do believe) and demos (took a while to download all the demos available and install). I do have access to 500 gb USB 2.0 3.5" Hard Drive (obviously will need to format to FAT32 for PS3 to recognize using SwissKnife or something similar to overcome Windows XP 32 GB limitation of FAT32). Can I use PS3 backup utility to save ALL data on the 60GB HD over to the 500GB external HD and then restore it back once I installed the new internal hard drive? That's one of the reason (losing data and having to redownload and install all the games) I've been reluctant to upgrade my internal hard drive.



As far as the backup/restore process, you pretty much got it down. I upgraded to an internal 160GB drive a while back using this method and it was pretty seemless and painless. I used a WD 500GB external, but used it brand new out of the box to do the backup before reformatting it to NTFS and attaching it to my computer directly.

I would be curious to see pictures of that. I have almost 80,000 songs I would like to dump directly on to the PS3

I had all my songs on my PS3 and deleted them the second I was able to stream them from my PC. And until Sony comes up with some sort of global search on the XMB, you're going to have a fuuuuunnnnnn time scrolling through thousands of artists. No thanks.

As far as size. Hell yes, I'm down with TB hard drive but the burning question is WHY NOW? By the time HD DLC content is available on the PSN, i'm sure the prices of a TB hard drive will be alot cheaper.

I had all my songs on my PS3 and deleted them the second I was able to stream them from my PC. And until Sony comes up with some sort of global search on the XMB, you're going to have a fuuuuunnnnnn time scrolling through thousands of artists. No thanks.

As far as size. Hell yes, I'm down with TB hard drive but the burning question is WHY NOW? By the time HD DLC content is available on the PSN, i'm sure the prices of a TB hard drive will be alot cheaper.

Granted I'm using WMP11 but I can NOT STAND how it apears on the PS3.. The songs are out of order, and some start and stop in the middle of the song. I like the media feature, I just wish you could organize things diferently.

I am surprised nobody on this forum has mentioned all the other Upnp software media streaming programs out there. The best one out there is an OPEN SOURCE one called Tversity. This one kicks Microsoft and everyone down to the ground. It supports many formats and even internet streaming as well as high definition mp4 movies. I stream my whole collection of mp4, pictures, and movies to the PS3. I don't need a big hard drive at least not until there is a Boot app loader for playing full versions of the games right off the hard drive like modded xbox systems. Evox Evolution type of system. I can imagine 1 Terrabyte full of games and another Terrabyte full of mp3, pictures etc..

I am surprised nobody on this forum has mentioned all the other Upnp software media streaming programs out there. The best one out there is an OPEN SOURCE one called Tversity. This one kicks Microsoft and everyone down to the ground. It supports many formats and even internet streaming as well as high definition mp4 movies. I stream my whole collection of mp4, pictures, and movies to the PS3. I don't need a big hard drive at least not until there is a Boot app loader for playing full versions of the games right off the hard drive like modded xbox systems. Evox Evolution type of system. I can imagine 1 Terrabyte full of games and another Terrabyte full of mp3, pictures etc..

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=879850

That's one option. Externalizing the power supply would cool it off considerably. Well...I think I'll keep a big internal one and maybe use a usb external, or would that be slower?

The internal (or external + sata cables) use the sata protocol which is Much faster than usb. Also, since you can use a larger/faster "computer" grade harddrives instead of the smaller laptop harddrives, you will get a snappier ps3 experience.

Example:
WD Scorpio - 5200 RPM (Highest I'd advise using internal)
Capacity 250GB, Cache 8MB, Average Seek Time 12ms, Average Latency 4.2ms

HITACHI Deskstar - 7200 RPM (10,000 RPM would limit you to a smaller drive)
Capacity 1TB, Cache 32MB, Average Seek Time 8.5ms, Average Latency 4.17ms

The internal (or external + sata cables) use the sata protocol which is Much faster than usb. Also, since you can use a larger/faster "computer" grade harddrives instead of the smaller laptop harddrives, you will get a snappier ps3 experience.

Example:
WD Scorpio - 5200 RPM (Highest I'd advise using internal)
Capacity 250GB, Cache 8MB, Average Seek Time 12ms, Average Latency 4.2ms

HITACHI Deskstar - 7200 RPM (10,000 RPM would limit you to a smaller drive)
Capacity 1TB, Cache 32MB, Average Seek Time 8.5ms, Average Latency 4.17ms


All the tests show that there is zero difference between load times when using a 7200rpm drive and a 5200rpm drive and the PS3..

Cool, nothing new - and it will make your PS3 about 10x uglier. Just go with a large *truely* internal drive. I have a 250 gigger, it's plenty.

Cool, nothing new - and it will make your PS3 about 10x uglier. Just go with a large *truely* internal drive. I have a 250 gigger, it's plenty.
Yep. It's good enough for me, too.

I thought about this, but it's not needed. You can already attach an external drive to the PS3. but I didn't want that.

250GB internal was the only way for me to go.

Still, it's a cool idea, though.

Personally I wish there was a Network Area Storage solution that worked well and was affordable. That way you could stream the content to any computer or the PS3, etc.

From what I am reading, most home NAS devices suck when it comes to UPnP.


As long as your NAS solution is DLNA certified, you are fine. I have a Promise SmartStor (http://www.promise.com/product/product_detail_eng.asp?product_id=198) and is works like a dream! :)

I have a readyNAS NV+ and the DLNA is pretty good...improved with the later firmware. The fact that you can't have more than 4gb files on the harddrive is a deal killer.

for the ones streaming. Does movies work fine when streaming wireless?
I have a linux server that is wired, and the PS3 is wireless and mp4 files are unwatchable. Any special tips?

While down at my local 7 story high Japanese electronic store, I noticed a clever new ps3 mod. So simple, I wonder why I didn't think of it.

Anyway, it's just a simple cable connector that plugs into the internal harddrive ports on the ps3. The other end of the cable you plug into a SATA external drive. Just slap the largest computer harddrive you can find, and the ps3 won't know the difference.

I suppose it lowers the temp of your ps3, but it wouldn't be by much. I'll try to get a pic of it the next time I roll down on the train.

-----
found some pics, plus what i have already for my external:

The cage is a waste of $25. Why not just get a Sata to ESata cable and plug it directly into the PS3?
http://<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/30054933@N06/2809828707/" title="Sata cable plugged in by Jay_Slim, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3170/2809828707_93bbb7c38e.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="Sata cable plugged in" /></a>
click on the MY PS3 link below for more pics. I upgraded to 500GB because I wanted to store movies on it, but I'm just to lazy to convert them :p

I think the new update allows video playlists now so thats good news for me.
I'll have to try it out when I have more time.

Why in Hell do you do with 1 TB?

20 years ago people asked what the hell you would do with a 100MB HDD.

Why in Hell do you do with 1 TB?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNARJPNz2CA

The cage is a waste of $25. Why not just get a Sata to ESata cable and plug it directly into the PS3?
http://<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/30054933@N06/2809828707/" title="Sata cable plugged in by Jay_Slim, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3170/2809828707_93bbb7c38e.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="Sata cable plugged in" /></a>
click on the MY PS3 link below for more pics. I upgraded to 500GB because I wanted to store movies on it, but I'm just to lazy to convert them :p

I think the new update allows video playlists now so thats good news for me.
I'll have to try it out when I have more time.

Wow that's genuis. First time reading about fishing out a sata cable like that!

Wow that's genuis. First time reading about fishing out a sata cable like that!

Thanks, you have to cut the L piece on the Sata cable side but other than that, very easy and economic way to upgrade your HDD.