PS3 codecs & video media question...

Forums › Home Theatre (including HTPC and EPG Collector) › PS3 codecs & video media question...

testing123

176 posts

Master Geek

#25556 25-Aug-2008 13:52

I wasnt sure if this would go in the "Gaming" or "Home theatre" sections, but given its more about media playback than actual games here i am...

I have a 40gig PS3, a 500gig 3.5inch external USB drive and a 160gig 2.5inch USB drive. Running up to date firmware on the console itself.

Without streaming via TVersity, WMP11 etc, what is the best way to get around "data not supported" type messages? If i installed another OS on the system, is there a package readily available containing media players/handy tools? (i know thats not only a bit naive to ask for, but extremely lazy) I have next to no knowledge of OS's outside of OSX & Windows so ay pointers here would be fantastic.

playing them off the native HDD wouldnt make any difference, i assume. Would that be correct?

At first this didnt bother me so much, but as time goes on i seem to be getting more and more frequent errors with new video media.

As always, any help/hints/tips/strictly-platonic-handholding is much appreciated.
Stu

stevonz

397 posts

Ultimate Geek

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#159586 25-Aug-2008 14:46

It's a pain I know... interestingly most of my movies work fine, but I do get a few that haven't been encoded to just play on a PS3.

There's a couple of programs that will resolve & it you google GZ I'm sure you'll find options. I personally use Super C (dreadful website, but the software works & its free); download link: http://www.erightsoft.info/GetFile.php?SUPERsetup.exe

Cheers, Stevo

garvani

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#159587 25-Aug-2008 14:46

What type of files are you trying to play?? You can install linux on the ps3 and thats about it. At the moment linux play back is very limited as they don't have access to the RSX (ps3 graphics card) so basically SD videos will play but you wont get any HD content to play.
I recently purchased a surround sound system to go with my 42" lcd, i was using xbox media centre on my original xbox but wanted some HD and dolby digital 5.1 goodness, problem being that all my movies are in MKV format which the ps3 laughs at and wont play.. Transcoding the movie wasnt an option as i didnt want to lose quality. I found an awesome program called mkv2vob, it will keep the quality of said HD movie including dolby digital, and basically just change the container the movie is in too a format the ps3 will play (in this case mpeg2) and best of all it takes about 15 mins per 4.5gb movie on my core2duo laptop, it will also split the movie at 4gb to get past the 4gb fat32 limit of external drives
Theres another program made by redkawa that will transcode your movies to ps3 format, can take a while, i wouldnt do this for mkv, but have had success with avi's that arnt quite right for the ps3, best of all both programs are freeware

bazzer

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#159593 25-Aug-2008 15:17

garvani: What type of files are you trying to play?? You can install linux on the ps3 and thats about it. At the moment linux play back is very limited as they don't have access to the RSX (ps3 graphics card) so basically SD videos will play but you wont get any HD content to play.
I recently purchased a surround sound system to go with my 42" lcd, i was using xbox media centre on my original xbox but wanted some HD and dolby digital 5.1 goodness, problem being that all my movies are in MKV format which the ps3 laughs at and wont play.. Transcoding the movie wasnt an option as i didnt want to lose quality. I found an awesome program called mkv2vob, it will keep the quality of said HD movie including dolby digital, and basically just change the container the movie is in too a format the ps3 will play (in this case mpeg2) and best of all it takes about 15 mins per 4.5gb movie on my core2duo laptop, it will also split the movie at 4gb to get past the 4gb fat32 limit of external drives
Theres another program made by redkawa that will transcode your movies to ps3 format, can take a while, i wouldnt do this for mkv, but have had success with avi's that arnt quite right for the ps3, best of all both programs are freeware

Red Kawa's PS3 Video 9 doesn't transcode MKV, it can be set to pass through to mpeg-4. You wouldn't want to transcode it to mpeg-2, I doubt mkv2vob does that?

garvani

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#159597 25-Aug-2008 15:33

bazzer: You wouldn't want to transcode it to mpeg-2, I doubt mkv2vob does that?

Thats basically what i said wasnt it? you wouldnt want to transcode mkv, it would take an eternity and you would loose quality, and no mkv2vob dosnt transcode it, it changes the container, mk2vob is the fastest and best of the three applications at doing this that i tested (being gotsend, video9 and mkv2vob)

testing123

176 posts

Master Geek

#159604 25-Aug-2008 15:57

thanks for the tips: at this stage it's still a small enough amount of content that i can still be bothered re-encoding so will give that a go

:D

bazzer

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#159606 25-Aug-2008 16:07

garvani:
bazzer: You wouldn't want to transcode it to mpeg-2, I doubt mkv2vob does that?

Thats basically what i said wasnt it? you wouldnt want to transcode mkv, it would take an eternity and you would loose quality, and no mkv2vob dosnt transcode it, it changes the container, mk2vob is the fastest and best of the three applications at doing this that i tested (being gotsend, video9 and mkv2vob)

Just that you mentioned mpeg2? Might been a mistype?

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bazzer

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#159608 25-Aug-2008 16:08

testing123: thanks for the tips: at this stage it's still a small enough amount of content that i can still be bothered re-encoding so will give that a go

What kind of files are they, out of interest?

garvani

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#159615 25-Aug-2008 16:27

bazzer: Just that you mentioned mpeg2? Might been a mistype?

Nope no mistake here. It takes a MKV, seperates the audio and video files. Then joins the two into a mpeg2 file (that wasnt the most technical description!).. . Hence the name mkv2vob.
You can select different file types for the output file but it recommends mpeg2. Mp4 etc are options.

testing123

176 posts

Master Geek

#159617 25-Aug-2008 16:29

bazzer:
testing123: thanks for the tips: at this stage it's still a small enough amount of content that i can still be bothered re-encoding so will give that a go

What kind of files are they, out of interest?

i have the odd MKV, but i'm well aware PS3's dont like em.

usually just AVI's that bring up an 8001846234q29834568345 (or similar :D) message, or simply say "file not supported"... guessing its the codecs. The ones taht REALLY annoy me will play till about half way through THEN give me the message... argh...

bazzer

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#159620 25-Aug-2008 16:38

garvani:
bazzer: Just that you mentioned mpeg2? Might been a mistype?

Nope no mistake here. It takes a MKV, seperates the audio and video files. Then joins the two into a mpeg2 file (that wasnt the most technical description!).. . Hence the name mkv2vob.
You can select different file types for the output file but it recommends mpeg2. Mp4 etc are options.

It's my understanding that MKV usually contain H.264 video (i.e. MPEG-4). Why would mkv2vob transcode it to mpeg2? And would it really do 4.5GB in 15 minutes? Not to mention the loss of quality. I'm guessing it's doing the same as PS3 Video 9 and remuxing to mp4?

bazzer

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#159625 25-Aug-2008 16:44

garvani:
bazzer: Just that you mentioned mpeg2? Might been a mistype?

Nope no mistake here. It takes a MKV, seperates the audio and video files. Then joins the two into a mpeg2 file (that wasnt the most technical description!).. . Hence the name mkv2vob.
You can select different file types for the output file but it recommends mpeg2. Mp4 etc are options.

OK, so I had a look. You're referring to the resulting VOB as "a mpeg2 file", right? Fair enough, even though in this case it doesn't actually contain mpeg-2 video. Are you able to seek through the resulting vob?

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garvani

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#159631 25-Aug-2008 16:51

Yes i am talking about the resulting file which the ps3 see's as a mpeg2, im aware it is infact a x264 video as i stated in the first post its only changing the container the video is in, if i had of said remuxing it may have been easier to understand, my bad!
Ive only played them on the ps3, you can fast forward at anything including 120x, when you do this the file will go out of sync, however if you just tap the rewind button for a split second it gets the audio synched.. Ive done 3 HD movies and all have turned out awesome. And at 15 mins a movie you cant really go wrong.. I tried gotsend which does the same thing, but the resulting file kept disapearing (knowen and unsolved problem)

DMC

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#159708 25-Aug-2008 20:57

Another program that I use with great success is tsmuxer.

It will take vobs and mkvs and put them in a TS (or m2ts) container which the PS3 then plays when streamed to and can seek forwards and backwards at will, and the PS3 also reports the proper time length of the file when hitting select. Previously I was renaming vob to mpg and the seeking was awful and timestamps did not work.

I have used this same approach for files with mpeg2 (DVD), mpeg2 (blu-ray) and h264 (bluray) - no transcoding done. VC1 is still causing me problems as I have tried to transcode with several difference programs and settings but always end up with files considerably smaller with consequent hit on picture quality thus defeating the purpose.

Also had sucess with ripbot264 transcoding mpeg2 to hs264 in an mkv, then running through tsmuxer. Ripbot was the only program I found which was idiot proof enough for me to be able to burn subtitles into the file so that I could see the subtitles when streaming to the PS3. Makes watching the odd foreign language film I have that does not have burned in subtitles watchable, and also those movies with forced subtitles such as The Da Vinci Code.