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Question for owners of both ATV and PS3

W

wmealer

macrumors regular
Original poster
May 7, 2006
173
0
Rather than just pile on to the enormous "PS3 Rules" thread, I thought I'd ask a new question here to everyone who owns both, and streams movies to both...

All my movies were transcoded with either Handbrake or VisualHub, the majority of which using the unmodified AppleTV presets. Should they all be playable on my PS3, as well? Or should I start transcoding my future stuff with the PS3 presets so they are playable on both?

What I'm trying to determine is the lowest common denominator, if that makes sense. Or if someone has found a "sweet spot" to transcode their media to play on both, please share...

Thanks in advance.

Edit: I'm more concerned with Hi-Def movies in VH, than DVD rips in HB.
 
I have both and at first I tried encoding so that I could play my files on both the PS3 and appleTV and it worked fine but after a while I found myself just streaming to the appleTV because it had a better interface and was easier to navigate the files. This became especially true as my library became bigger.

Encoding in handbrake got to be another headache. Trying to tweak the pre-sets and not break functionality with one or the other devices was a real pain. I could never get a surround sound (5.1) file to play on both. Now I just go with the appleTV preset and add in dual pass and bump up the bit rate a little and I get great DVD quality files with surround sound. If you are using handbrake I'd recommend just encoding for the appleTV since it seems to get a bit more attention than the PS3 with handbrake so it's easier to find out what settings will work best.

Just my $.02
 
rWally said:
I have both and at first I tried encoding so that I could play my files on both the PS3 and appleTV and it worked fine but after a while I found myself just streaming to the appleTV because it had a better interface and was easier to navigate the files. This became especially true as my library became bigger.

Encoding in handbrake got to be another headache. Trying to tweak the pre-sets and not break functionality with one or the other devices was a real pain. I could never get a surround sound (5.1) file to play on both. Now I just go with the appleTV preset and add in dual pass and bump up the bit rate a little and I get great DVD quality files with surround sound. If you are using handbrake I'd recommend just encoding for the appleTV since it seems to get a bit more attention than the PS3 with handbrake so it's easier to find out what settings will work best.

Just my $.02
Click to expand...

Thanks for the opinion. This would be a no-brainer if I didn't own a PS3. But since I do, I want to squeeze every last drop of functionality out of the $450 I spent on it. Plus I want to have them in separate rooms, so I can stream all my media to either one, without restricting my movies to only play on one or the other. Or worse yet, transcoding everything twice.

Seeing the promise of NullRiver's MediaLink has just gotten me wondering...
 
wmealer said:
Thanks for the opinion. This would be a no-brainer if I didn't own a PS3. But since I do, I want to squeeze every last drop of functionality out of the $450 I spent on it. Plus I want to have them in separate rooms, so I can stream all my media to either one, without restricting my movies to only play on one or the other. Or worse yet, transcoding everything twice.

Seeing the promise of NullRiver's MediaLink has just gotten me wondering...
Click to expand...

Yeah, I was in the exact same boat as you. I just got to a point where I was sick and tired of trying to keep up with the updates on the PS3 and appleTV so I could keep my files working on both. Once appleTV added 5.1 audio I just went with that and didn't look back.

I've got the MediaLink running too and it's great for everything but it just got to a point where I was really sacrificing to try and get it so video files would work on both devices. If I would have decided to go with encoding for the PS3 my appleTV would essentially become useless whereas by going with the appleTV I'm just out the functionality of the MediaLink (I can still use it for music, though). You also have blu-ray player and game machine so the PS3 is still very useful to you.
 
Don't bother with either, get a Popcorn Hour A-100

Seriously... I've tried (very hard) to be happy with an Apple TV, then an Xbox 360 w/ MCE 2005, and finally a PS3. None of them are worth the effort for video playback (although I do appreciate the Apple TV rentals).

Take a look at http://www.popcornhour.com/. It's small, cheap (<$200 shipped), and plays ANYTHING... 1080p H264 material? No problem!

The interface isn't as "classy" as any of the other options, but it works (really really well.)
 
growlf said:
Seriously... I've tried (very hard) to be happy with an Apple TV, then an Xbox 360 w/ MCE 2005, and finally a PS3. None of them are worth the effort for video playback (although I do appreciate the Apple TV rentals).

Take a look at http://www.popcornhour.com/. It's small, cheap (<$200 shipped), and plays ANYTHING... 1080p H264 material? No problem!

The interface isn't as "classy" as any of the other options, but it works (really really well.)
Click to expand...

This doesn't even come close to answering my question... But hey! Thanks! :rolleyes:
 
rWally, when you say you were sacrificing, do you mean picture quality?
 
wmealer said:
This doesn't even come close to answering my question... But hey! Thanks! :rolleyes:
Click to expand...


Sorry - good point. I've spent the past few years building a home theater room and trying to find the perfect playback solution. I just wanted to share some happiness at finally being pleased with a video hardware purchase!

Best wishes,
John
 
The PS3 plays back encodes nicely, but the lack of 5.1 and the interface sinks it, to me it's all about the experience and browsing thru movies, especially now that they added Genre capability makes the ATV hard to beat.
 
Problem with trying to do what you are suggesting is you will end up compromising quality as you cannot optimise for both. You might try using both presets on Handbrake and seeing what the difference is then experimenting. I have both :apple:TV and PS3 but I've never streamed video to the PS3. I understand the desire to squeeze as much use out of the PS3 but seriously is the extra time and loss of quality worth it? I'd just get a second :apple:TV.
 
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