Questions for PS3 owners

[rhester]

(Note: I do not own a PS3, but I am contemplating one over an Apple TV depending on the answers to the following.)

- Does the PS3 play back iPod-intended encodes (i.e. 640x480 H.264 L2.2 @ 1500kbps ABR, 160kbps CBR AAC stereo audio)?

- Does it support anamorphic encoding?

- Does it support multiple audio streams? (For instance, if I have a single video track and two AAC audio tracks, can I switch between them?)

- Do you have to hack the firmware to play back user-created content or does it work "out of the box"?

- How does one go about getting content onto the PS3? Can it be streamed over a LAN (if so, using what protocol?) or must it be burned to DVD-ROM? If the latter, can it be a DVD+RW, and must the filenames follow any particular pattern or can they be arbitrary?

Sorry for the rather off-topic post, but I'm not sure where to look for this sort of detailed information about PS3 playback - if there are online resources/FAQs PS3 owners can suggest, I'd be grateful.

My primary reason for this is that I am a big fan of putting natural audio + director commentary into rips, which regrettably are unsupported on any Apple playback device (which ignores every audio track except the first one). The lack of decent dedicated home H.264 playback devices limits my options, but if the PS3 can do what the Apple TV cannot, I would consider it a serious contender.

Rodney

[Kurtz]

Questions i can answer

anamorphic encoding works out of the box

user created content is playable without any kind of hacking

as for getting content onto the PS3, there are several options.
you can use a dvd, stream if you have a compatible program or device.(UPnP works), or an external HD or thumbdrive.

file names dont seem to need any particular pattern. a nice thing is that the names have the mp4/m4v so it makes the XMB more tidy.

ill test some other things your interested in to see if they work.

[rhester]

Thank you!

I am most interested in knowing how the PS3 handles switching between multiple audio streams in a single MP4 wrapper, since that is the Apple TV's greatest liability (in my opinion).

Rodney

[PuzZLeR]

How about the higher complexity CABAC encoded H.264 files?

Great thread BTW. I'm watching it closely.

[Kurtz]

Ok so tested a few things

the PS3 accepts the MP4/m4v but i cant find a way of selecting the second audio format from the menu.

I use Cabac on my PS3 and it plays great. it can also use high profile H.264 according the specs. I haven't tried it as it takes ages.

on another note i made a mistake on my previous post. the MP4/ M4V is not shown which makes it more tidy.

ok so ill try the Ipod preset, also ill try more dual audio files to see if it works.

[rhester]

Thanks for the testing...very disappointing about the audio, though. It boggles my mind that there appears to be no stand-alone hardware player that supports this trivial function.

Rodney

[PuzZLeR]

Kurtz, thank you for your posts. Nice of you to help out.

I use Cabac on my PS3 and it plays great. it can also use high profile H.264 according the specs.

the PS3 accepts the MP4/m4v but i cant find a way of selecting the second audio format from the menu.

@Rhester:
Yes, it sucks and I'm disappointed too. I would venture to say though that the hardware devices of the near future will adapt and recognize multiple audio tracks real soon. It *IS* becoming more standard.

[MGSteve]

I'd agree and I suspect it won't be long before Sony expands support for Video files to include AVIs and probably MKVs. The problem with surround (AC3) within MP4 files is that apparently the MP4 wrapper doesn't support it. The 6 Channell AAC option I guess is an option.

At the end of the day, Sony want to make the system THE home entertainment hub, so they'll have to expand video format support sooner rather than later.

I've got loads of movies in AVI format and I'm not re-encoding them all to MP4 BEFORE they sort out the surround sound issues.

[blahblahbloo]

I just encoded the Arrested Development extended pilot episode using the following settings:

- same as source fps
- x264 main @ 1280 kbps
- 2-pass encoding w/ turbo first pass
- 48 kHz AAC audio @ 160 kbps
- chapter markers on
- the following advanced x264 options:

level=41:subq=6:me=umh:analyse=all:8x8dct=1:ref=3:mixed-refs=1:bframes=3:direct=auto:weightb=1:brdo=1:bime=1:trellis=1:no-fast-pskip=1

It plays back beautifully off of a USB flash drive. However, the file was a little large for my tastes if I'm going to be ripping lots of stuff and making it available to the PS3 via UPnP, so I'm trying again with 1024 kpbs average data rate on the video, but otherwise the same settings.

As has been mentioned, the specs do say that the PS3 can play back H.264 High Profile, so it might also work with pyramidal B-frames turned on, but I wanted the file to work in QuickTime as well.

I have never done anything weird to my PS3's firmware, so it isn't necessary, as has been mentioned.

To feed video to the PS3, one way is to copy it to the hard drive. The stock hard drive is either 60 or 80 GB, though, so that's not so good. However, you can install and format a larger off-the-shelf laptop hard drive. Perhaps that will give enough storage space.

Another option is to use UPnP. You can run a UPnP server on your computer, but then the computer has to be on and awake for the PS3 to be able to access the files. There are also dedicated UPnP servers available. LaCie is coming out with a new 500 GB one soon.

[NKAWTG]

Since I didn't see anyone finish up with the question on multiple audio streams, here it is! Yes, you can switch between to different audio streams using handbrake. I just finished testing this out with a DVD that had English and Spanish Dolby Surround. If you go to the options menu (triangle button) during playback, just select "audio" until you see "Left+Right 2" and it will advance to the second stream. If you have the Bluetooth remote, just hit the audio button a couple of times until you get the second audio source.

Thanks again to all the developers, and this program is a wonder! My USB external HDD is getting filled up with wonderful video straight from handbrake!

[wjohn13]

Hello everyone. I was so happy to see a thread on the PS3. I was going through the sticky about best settings and didn't see anything in there that had to do with the PS3. I'm using the software from Nullriver to stream wirelessly from my Mac to the PS3, and hoping maybe someone on here can offer some suggestions. I'm ripping using Mac the Ripper, and want to shrink the movies down to around a Gig using Handbrake. Can anyone offer some setting suggestions that give them their best quality they have achieved. If I come up with anything that I think is good, I will post it. Thanks for your help in advance.
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Here are my specs: Intel Core Duo iMac 2 GHz, 2 Gigs of Ram, 667 MHz Bus ATY Radeon X1600 Card w/256MB

If there is anything else that could be of use, just let me know.

[BucksSaddler]

Hi wjohn13,
These are my current settings that work great:
level=41:ref=6:mixed-refs=1:bframes=6:direct=auto:me=umh:merange=24:subq=6:deblock=0,0:trellis=2:no-fast-pskip=1:b-pyramid=1:analyse=all
For audio i'm using 6 channel AAC

However, HDD space isn't an issue so i'm maxing out quite a bit (3000 kbps bitrate) and on average my films tend to be 3Gb. I'm also streaming from Medialink to the PS3 with no problems at all.
Just to throw a spanner in the works on other posts i've seen on PS3 coding - i'm encoding with chapter markers on and these play with no problems at all on my PS3 (however i can't use them as the PS3 doesn't yet support them - c'mon Sony). On the flip side, previous posts show some people using 8x8 DCT no problem, yet when i use this i get the "sound with blank screen" issue that others see when using chapter markers.

[rhester]

i'm encoding with chapter markers on and these play with no problems at all on my PS3 (however i can't use them as the PS3 doesn't yet support them - c'mon Sony).

Sony supporting an Apple/QuickTime-specific construct? That'll be the day.

Rodney

[BucksSaddler]

Do you know what the PS3 does support for chapters? Everytime i start up a film it shows the chapters option at the bottom of the screen but it's obviously blank because, as you say, Sony will never support Apple's specific constructs.
Ta

[rhester]

It might support isomedia chapters, I have no idea to be honest.

Rodney