SONY: BDP-570? BDP770? or the PS3 (160GB)?

[Yesfan70]

i have the older nyko version (http://www.amazon.com/PS3-Charge-Base-Playstation-3/dp/B000X2H8UA/ref=dp_cp_ob_vg_title_1 this one...

i never got to use it that much, because im always on it.

anyways, you rarely will use it to be honest, unless you're on fallout games....

have you set up your netflix yet yesfan?

That's the one I'm thinking about getting. I like how it has contact adapters so you can just drop the controllers in the charger like a cordless phone. They have something similar for the Move controllers.


Got netflix, just waiting on my ISP to upgrade my service.

 

[Haywood]

In all fairness, very few people have internet that slow anymore. The average ISP runs around 12-14mbps these days. 3mbps should work for Netflix and maybe for Hulu, but is too slow for 1080p content from Vudu.

I wish we could get 12-14 mbps, the fastest we can get in our new neighborhood is 3mbps on dsl. They do offer a 6mbps connection, but for some reason, our neighborhood does not have the infrastructure to handle it.
Rob

You and me both. Where I'm at, I still got to have my sunshine piped in, so I'm a bit limited in bandwidth.

Like Huey 6Mbps is available, but just not in my neighborhood yet. When it becomes available, I'll probably upgrade. Uverse is also in the works which has me intrigued. According to the salesman I talked to on the phone, the lines for Uverse should allow me speeds up to 12-15 Mbps.

You guys are in the same boat with people in a lot of rural areas. I was simply pointing out that the majority of the population is well covered with higher speed options. My parents live in a small town no more than 20 minutes from two different cities and cannot get either DSL or cable broadband. They went with slow and expensive Hughes satellite internet before I had the chance to direct them toward mobile broadband as a better option. Speaking of which, have you looked into that?

I ran my entire house off my smartphone for a month when I first moved here. We had 7mbps download speed and the wifi router in my phone easily covered the entire house. Several providers now have mobile hotspots. The only thing to beware of are plans that have monthly limits on total use (my T-Mobile plan doesn't).

 

[Yesfan70]

I thought about that. I tried getting on Speedtest.net via my phone, but I have to first update my flash player. Doing that now........


I have a feeling it's not going to make a difference. I have 3G and the signal is a bit weak at my house.

 

[Kazaam]

Sorry to hear things haven't been going as well with the PS3 as you had hoped, Yesfan. Do what you feel is right, though.

That said...

Were you able to get your PS3 working as a media server? I don't know anything about the fancy programs that Haywood mentioned, but I did experiment once with streaming Windows Media [Edit: I meant Windows Media Player] to my PS3. (Basically, I think stuff that was available in WMP on the PC was supposed to be available to stream to the PS3, but it didn't work nearly as good as physically attaching an external HD or thumb drive with same said files. But maybe your luck would be better? I might be able to remember how I did it if you want to give it a try for kicks and grins.

Also, I wouldn't bother with charging stations. Save your money. You can charge your controllers via a PC while you surf the net and it only takes at most a couple of hours and the charge might last for weeks if you don't game much. (Note, too, that I don't think the USB on the cable box would work, though, because the PS3 is pretty picky about charging. It's either charge it with the PS3 while it's on, use a computer, or buy one of the special charging stations.)

If you haven't done so already, try viewing digital photos on your TV via your PS3. You don't even need to use their special photo program. I prefer to just plug in an external WD 2.5" drive with a FAT32 partition and some JPEG files. It'll probably be done the same way you played the music files from you flash drive: Go to photo > highlight USB drive > hit triangle > select "display all" > and then sort through the folders.

 

[Haywood]

I actually run multiple DLNA servers. I use TVersity for local content and PlayOn for online content. I have a lifetime subscription to PlayOn Premium, which gives me the ability to stream Hulu (not Hulu Plus), Amazon VOD, Netflix (pointless now that the PS3 has it natively), ESPN, Comedy Central and a ton of other online content to my PS3s. There are a lot of plugins for PlayOn covering a very wide range of material, but some work better than others. PlayOn works by running a custom browser in the background on your PC that transcodes video content to a format useable to the PS3 and a variety of other devices. The main downside is that it is processor intensive on the PC side and cannot yet handle HD content, which would require a minimum of a quad-core CPU. We mainlyl use PlayOn for watching anime from a variety of sources.

With the right server configuration, you can stream local video content in high definition, lossless music (transcoded to uncompressed PCM) and photographs. With a decent internet connection, you can stream video ranging from standard definition with stereo to 1080p high definition with Dolby Digital Plus surround from companies like Netflix, Hulu and Vudu. You can get additional standard definition content from dozens of other places.

 

[Kazaam]

PlayOn works by running a custom browser in the background on your PC that transcodes video content to a format useable to the PS3 and a variety of other devices.

It's interesting that you mention that PlayOn "transcodes" stuff. Back when I experimented with streaming WMP to my PS3, I found that some "home-made videos" that played in WMP still didn't work on the PS3. So, the PS3 still needs to be compatible with the format when using that kind of media server connection. (The videos, if I recall correctly were simply Motion JPEGs in an MVI container that the PS3 likes, but the audio was some strange format that the PC can do, but that the PS3 doesn't---as such if I wanted to view it on my PS3 I still had to first convert my home movies to H.264 with AAC audio (using Handbrake on the PC) in order to get them to play.

So if PlayOn can transcode on the fly, then I can certainly see the appeal of it. Though I doubt I'll ever buy it as I don't think I'd use it enough considering the price; plus my PC is kind of wimpy.

 

[Kazaam]

I use the service USB port from my Comcast cable box to charge my Wii controllers as it's always on.

Note, too, that I don't think the USB on the cable box would work, though, because the PS3 is pretty picky about charging. It's either charge it with the PS3 while it's on, use a computer, or buy one of the special charging stations.

I was absolutely wrong. Just checked my cable box and it does, indeed, charge the PS3 controller. Thanks for the tip, B.

One thing, though, is that my current cable box says it's only USB 1.1. Although it's charging, does anyone know if it's going to charge really slow as a result of not being 2.0?