Liviu's blog

If you own a PS3 or going to buy one you must be wondering how does it work as a media center. The following article will go over the various options of watching movies and video files on the PS3 either locally or using local network to stream the content and the various tools needed to tackle the different issues you might encounter.

DVD & Blu Ray Disks - Generally all you need to remember regarding this one is the region, even though the Playstation 3 is not region locked when talking about games – when it comes to video – It’s a different story. The PS3 is region locked – meaning – a European unit will play only zone 2 movies , and American one will play only zone 1 (B and A respectively when talking about BluRay). Good news is that most Blu Ray disks are region free. In order to check for a specific disk – click the following link and look for the movie.

Streaming – The most simple method is in case you have your home computer and your PS3 on the same network, in this case – the PS3 supports streaming protocols that makes life very easy. 2 great programs exists for this – PS3 Media Server – a PS3 specific media server and Tversity.

I recommend you use PS3 Media Server – from my experience – it works better, has better compatibility, easier to transcode (convert video in real time) and more stable then TVersity. This programs take care of all kinds of formats, subtitles , multiple audio streams and all the goodies you might have encountered on the network. If you see any problems like the movies getting stuck – your usually either out of bandwidth (especially with HD and wifi) or computation power (especially with subtitles on HD movies).

Local Files through USB / External Drive – Sometimes it is not possible to stream the file and you want to copy it to the PS3 using a physical drive. Before doing that – Check that the drive you connect to the PS3 is formatted in FAT32 file format, NTFS will be unreadable. This imposes a 4GB per file limitation, that does not exist on the local drive (meaning you can stream more then 4 GB files to the drive).Most files are playable without taking any action – DIVX is officially supported and MPEG-4 and H264 are built in as well.

Sometimes you would like to use subtitles though and you will find out that just putting the .srt or .sub file just doesn’t do anything, this is why Sub2DIVX was created. Sub2DIVX is a small little program that does a wonderful trick most people don’t know exists. DIVX files support multiple sound streams and multiple subtitles built in the file, what the program does is just add the SRT / SUB inside the DIVX file – no re-encoding or CPU time required and the quality doesn’t change – the file only enlarges in a few megabytes. When watching the movie on the PS3 you just choose subtitles just like you would do in a DVD movie.

The Second issue you might encounter is with MKV, while widely used over the net for HD movies – they are not supported on the PS3, the good news is that MKV is just a container – which means there is only need to re-mux (rearrange) the files – not re-encode most of the time.  For this exactly MKV2VOB was created – a little tool that knows how to rearrange MKV files to MPEG-4 so the PS3 will play them – again – without re-encoding the file and lowering quality – It also knows to smartly divide the movie to 4GB files to get along with the FAT32 file system.

When Nothing Else Works – You went through all the steps – and still have problems with your movie? Only Re-encoding it will help. There are many video encoders with bombastic names and prices – however I found a great free one that does everything and worked 100% of the time for me – HandBrake – a free video encoder that originally came from the OS-X platform. Just use the classic profile, Constant quality on 100% and choose subtitles if you need any. It takes about 10-20 minutes per movie (depending on the computer) and has a queue list.

Well, hopefully this helped you with most of your video playing issues and from now on you will enjoy the PS3 as a media center as much as I do.

Liviu

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In 1946 Disney came out with a musical called Song of the South, based on the works of Joel Chandler Harris baring the same name. The Movie tells the story of Johnny – a 7 years old who is moving to the south (USA) with his mother. While he thinks he is heading for a vacation – he finds out that his parents are getting divorced. His solution for the matter – run away to the north back to his father. Before he runs away though he meets Uncle Remus – An old black slave that convinces him through short stories he tells (and wonderful animation sequences containing the brer bunch) to go back to his mother and grandmother. Up till the last part – everything sounds normal, however – being based on controversial source material – it did create some problems for the movie over the years.  With different blames of racial content (represented in the slavery that seems “natural” in the south post the American civil war era, the songs and the dialect chosen for some of the characters) it always carried some controversy everywhere it came and in recent years – Disney went as far as saying a re-release on DVD is not scheduled due to the racial content of the movie.

Ynet – Yediot Aharonot’s web site posted a nice article on the matter today which I found although a bit plain and chewed opinions (instead of letting the reader decide and bringing the facts and views) a very nice read for whoever wants to know a bit more about another fascinating bit of Walt Disney’s life – a very interesting story on its own.

You can find the article in the following link. I would love to hear your opinions on the article and the story in general.

My personal note on the movie – As a small kid I do remember seeing the movie, I guess that since the society I grew up in was historically a minority itself and had no slavery or slavery legitimization over the years – I did not notice the slight nuances in these matters and I always saw it in very innocent eyes. Only at a much older age I read about the entire controversy and noticed it isn’t as available as it was. I think the most interesting part of the issue is not re-releasing the movie on DVD and Blu-ray. For me it is a bit absurd – at the end of the day – It is pretty obvious Disney did not mean to encourage racist themes, and even if it was a poor politically correct wise movie – the art and the overall message are positive. Things should be a bit more proportional in my eyes and be taken in context. So yes – perhaps it shouldn’t be an E rating for everyone in the ESRB but rather an older age, but I have a hard time in believing in any kind of censorship.

Liviu

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James Cameron’s Avatar

Man always knew how to do one thing well – destroy natures work.

This weekend I saw James Cameron’s Avatar. In short – Ex GI gets to use an Avatar – a body made in the form of the locals in a far far away planet. His mission – to connect to them and gain information that will later help the Human army forces to force the locals, so they can mine the planet for precious minerals. Sure thing that during his first recon mission he meets the local tribe’s leader’s daughter and from there – everything starts happening.

While the story might sound a bit generic, it does exactly what you would have liked it to do, Ill let the movie tell you the story instead of me “ruining” it for you.

Even more impressive then the story though, are the visuals. I have to say this is definitely one of the prettier movies I’ve ever seen and definitely the best CGI used in a realistic manner.

This is a movie that definitely worth spending the money and seeing it in the cinema, especially in the 3d version. James Cameron – one of the “fathers” of 3d cinema definitely made a good job here, turning the 3d viewing experience from a Burdon (to me) to an experience.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0499549/

Currently 8.8 on IMDB, and for a good reason might i say.

Liviu

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