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Goodbye Apple TV, Playstation 3 rules!

Exactly!

AppleTV + BluRay Player + TiVo Recording capability

Basically a PS3 without the gaming stuff...

I'd buy that in an instant. Give it a nice name and clean interface and combined with the iTunes library Apple would rule the market like they do with iPod and iPhone!
 
GermanSuplex said:
Agreed. Its kinda like saying the X-Box 360 can play Blu-Rays... as long as you convert the video on the disc to a format the 360 can understand.
Click to expand...

That's a bit of an exaggeration, since the XBox can't play any commonly used format at HD resolution. The PS3 Media server is transcoding the video at probably very similar bitrate and resolution to the original. And that's only necessary because it was encoded at settings optimized for AppleTV, if you already have a large library of such media.

You can't do it the other way, if you have say 1080p content for your PS3- it has to be transcoded at lower resolution for AppleTV.

But at the end of the day, obviously both devices have their fans and optimal usage. I do hope Apple updates the ATV soon with some beefier hardware.
 
I'm a huge fan of media centres and streaming devices have given many hardware and software combinations a test.

I find xbmc far and away the best solution to managing and playing media round the house - the 'wow' factor my setup gets from guests is unobtainable with anything else on the market.
 
madmaxmedia said:
That's a bit of an exaggeration, since the XBox can't play any commonly used format at HD resolution. The PS3 Media server is transcoding the video at probably very similar bitrate and resolution to the original. And that's only necessary because it was encoded at settings optimized for AppleTV, if you already have a large library of such media.

You can't do it the other way, if you have say 1080p content for your PS3- it has to be transcoded at lower resolution for AppleTV.

But at the end of the day, obviously both devices have their fans and optimal usage. I do hope Apple updates the ATV soon with some beefier hardware.
Click to expand...

Then it's kinda like saying the 360 has the ability to play Blu-Ray movies, but at standard resolution, as long as you take the time to transcode them to a format the 360 understands :D
 
Ulkesh said:
Exactly!

AppleTV + BluRay Player + TiVo Recording capability

Basically a PS3 without the gaming stuff...
Click to expand...

Apple TV can already do most of that, with a bit of effort.

BluRay playback: If you have a computer with a BD drive, you can rip and encode BluRay movies with MakeMKV + Handbrake. Apple TV will play properly encoded 720p movies with AC3 (there is a lengthy thread on this, just search).

TV recording: Get EyeTV, it supports automatically importing recordings into iTunes library, so your recordings will show on your Apple TV(s).

No need for PS3.
 
hitekalex said:
Apple TV can already do most of that, with a bit of effort.

BluRay playback: If you have a computer with a BD drive, you can rip and encode BluRay movies with MakeMKV + Handbrake. Apple TV will play properly encoded 720p movies with AC3 (there is a lengthy thread on this, just search).

TV recording: Get EyeTV, it supports automatically importing recordings into iTunes library, so your recordings will show on your Apple TV(s).

No need for PS3.
Click to expand...

With the add ons you describe, the AppleTV package is more than a PS3. When it comes to bang for the buck, you can't really beat the PS3. But I keep my AppleTV because the interface is much better.

P-Worm
 
With that playstation network launching films on demand soon to rent or buy there's even less need for Apple TV for someone like me who already has a PS3 :)
 
So unless a new :apple: TV is released or mentioned at this media event (doubtful from the looks of it) I'm considering picking up a new PS3 slim for $300.

I'm borrowing my buddy's PS3 now and am running PS3 Media Server. I'm actually pretty impressed. Sure the GUI isn't as nice as the :apple: TV but I've seen worse. I'm even able to transfer a 9gig 1080p Divx movie to the PS3 hard drive and watch it perfectly.

I was looking into a new Popcorn Hour C-200 but for the same price I can get a PS3 with a BR player and a HD (which I'd probably swap out once the 1 TB notebook drives a small enough to fit). I don't game much but at least I'd have the option. It would be great if Sony put a little more focus into the media server aspect of the PS3 because from what I can tell it could absoultely wreck the competition at this new price point. An MKV codec would be a start :confused:.

Here's my dilema though. I own an :apple: TV already which I'm happy with asides not being able to play 1080p on my 54" plasma (I'll move that to the bedroom). I have about 50 movies encoded from Handbrake using the :apple: TV setting that won't play on my PS3 without being transcoded with PS3 Media Server. Does anyone know an easy way to make these work for the PS3 and :apple: TV? There's a thread in the Handbrake forums where they discuss it but I'm not very savvy in the tech language they're talking. Whatever they're doing doesn't seem like it involves too much time but again, I'm confused as to what they're talking about. I posted on that thread too but sometimes they can be a bit snooty :(.

Also, going forward does anyone know what setting I would use in Handbrake to encode MP4s compatible with both?? I saw something about using the :apple:TV preset and unchecking the "Large File Size" box. I'm at work now so I'll try it tomorrow unless someone posts they're findings before then.
 
Dapness: PS3 Media Server kicks some serious butt. I have had some issues with it to some extent, but nothing that isn't resolved. Just make sure it actually is muxing MKV content instead of re-encoding it. I had to move the tsmuxer option to the top to get mine to do it without fail everytime. It works like a charm as my lower end CPU on my media server isn't enough to re-encode 720p and above without stutters.
 
Hmmm, I've tried PS3 Media Server, and I can still only play the same videos as before. If I try any others, I get "the data is corrupted" for all of them.
 
Said goodbye to Apple TV too and hello to PS3 too!

Had lots of artifacting with everything on the Apple TV (purchased in Canada) for $299. Canadian and the price for Playstation 3 was $279. Cdn. Okay,
then we got going with the set up and that was no easy task. Tried PS3 media server which we couldn't seem to get recognised, so, long story short purchased Null Rivers' Media Link and PS3 recognises my Mac 0S X with no difficulty. My troubles are that I don't seem to be able to stream anything@!@!@ without getting a DLNA error message #2104

This is what CNet says about Null River Media Link V. 2.02
# Fixes upgrades on Mac OS X 10.5 systems
# Fixes DLNA errors due to application hang
# Fixes hanging on some systems when streaming video files withouttranscoding
# Video transcoding bug fixes

Anyone out there know what I should do?:(
 
I also tried the PS3 route but it was too much of a headache getting HD media to stream properly. I ended up returning mine and just forking over the extra cash for a Mac Mini. Load Plex on that puppy and all your prayers are answered. Only gripe would be that Plex doesn't recognize forced subtitles in my ripped Blu-ray MKVs yet.

I know this doesn't answer your question and I apologize for that but I wrestled with the PS3 for a while and couldn't get it to work the way I wanted it too. It's a shame sony doesn't truely harness the capabilities of the PS3 as a media server. It certainly has the muscle.

The Mac Mini, although twice the price, improved my quality of life.
 
i have both a PS3 and AppleTv owning both of them from the start however regarding interface and ease of use the AppleTV wins hands down. On the rental side of things once again the Apple wins, its downloads are much much faster.
I wish to keep both because i favor the appletv for rentals and stored media that is in my itunes, I place my AVI files to watch on the PS3 rather than converting them or use nullriver. I keep both cause I can :)
 
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