Oh how far consoles have come since the release of next gen machines, I remember when I got my mega drive it was a beast of a machine clocking in at an eye watering 16 MB onboard graphics and outputting an earth shattering 256 pixels. At the time it really was something special, most noticeably it was a games console and only a games console, the same can't be said for modern consoles and thank god for that. The PS3 is not just a console it is everything, it's literally omnipotent. It will play games, DVD's, blu ray's, surf the net, play TV, keep you in touch with your friends, do your taxes, chop some onions and wipe your arse.....OK............. it wont surf the net to well. One thing to really get excited about the PS3 is the ability to stream media from your lap top or PC directly to your console, this means you can watch or listen to anything you have on your computer. This is where you really get to utilise the potential of your PS3 and it's only the beginning. To do so you need to use a media server, one that is compatible with the PS3.
Currently I'm sporting the much used but barely functioning TVersity program which is free to download from their site (http://tversity.com/). It's still a beta version and with good reason, there are a few things that need to be addressed before the official version is released. For example TVersity will download programs it thinks you might enjoy without your permission or knowledge, I personally had 8 GBs' of my hard drive cluttered with episodes of "that 70's show" which is pretty disgusting. However, I have heard horror stories on forums of people loosing double that on their hard drive….pretty shocking aye.
But this is something that can be rectified easily, simply change the amount hard drive space Tversity is allowed to download to zero. Actually finding the downloaded content is a lot tougher, you may have to go back to basics and use the windows search function to locate the unwanted canned laughter sitcoms.
As a laptop user, I am generally an on the go person, or so laptop adverts would have you believe. When I say on the go, I mean I like to move around my shared flat using my computer and not sat at a desk with a finite amount of leg room. The point is I stream my media WIRELESSLY, I know this is a scary concept to some people and it obviously didn't cross the minds of the Tversity makers to accommodate for this, but it being 2009 and the age of glorious High definition, keyhole surgery and stem cell research I thought wireless media streaming would be a doddle. Its not.
I can't begin to describe how bloody frustrating it is to be watching an episode of 24 for it to cut out at the point at which Jack screams "DAMMIT CHOLE DO IT FOR ME NOW" because the god damn media server is buffering. What's worse is there is no options in the tools menu to change this around, to reduce picture quality or widen the bandwidth used by the program. It's like it or lump it...I personally chose to launch it.
Frustrated, I searched for better software and having listened to the recommendations of the Playstation Nation Podcast I downloaded the PS3 media server. And I've got to say, what a difference this light piece of software made, it's what all software used for this purpose should be like. light, simple, and most importantly WORKING.
There's a few things that set the PS3 media sever apart from TVersity, firstly; the PS3 media server tells you if it has found your Playstation, it tells you if it is currently communicating with your system so you know if your wasting your time or not. There's no staring into the abyss with this, your either connected or not, which is refreshing.
Secondly, if you are wirelessly streaming media and it begins to get choppy take a step back, inhale and enjoy the media servers vast array of options to improve streaming quality. To choppy? Not a problem. Reduce picture quality and bandwith! Streaming well? Don't concern yourself. Be adventurous and up picture quality...hey you only live once. This may seem like a small thing to get excited about, but when your "ctrl/alt/delete" keys have worn because you have tried in vain so many times to reduce the amount of programs running just to free up some CPU power you'll understand. I personally thought the days of not getting an explanation for why something isn't working died an unexplained death with windows 2000. NOPE.
I had a biiiiiiiiiiiiig erection when I discovered the "transcoding" function. Automatically the media server will transcode all of your videos into a playable PS3 format which means there will be no more "this data is corrupt" tripe. Hats off to the software developers, they had some foresight and overcame many previously unresolved problems in the media server world and ended up producing this blood cooling piece of genius.
I'm sure there are plenty of other media servers' out there but I simply haven't bothered to look, I am more than satisfied at the moment but if anybody is crazy enough to read this then I'd really like to know what your using and how you'd rate it. After all I can't always be right……..or can I? More on that next week.
McGregortron
Currently I'm sporting the much used but barely functioning TVersity program which is free to download from their site (http://tversity.com/). It's still a beta version and with good reason, there are a few things that need to be addressed before the official version is released. For example TVersity will download programs it thinks you might enjoy without your permission or knowledge, I personally had 8 GBs' of my hard drive cluttered with episodes of "that 70's show" which is pretty disgusting. However, I have heard horror stories on forums of people loosing double that on their hard drive….pretty shocking aye.
But this is something that can be rectified easily, simply change the amount hard drive space Tversity is allowed to download to zero. Actually finding the downloaded content is a lot tougher, you may have to go back to basics and use the windows search function to locate the unwanted canned laughter sitcoms.
As a laptop user, I am generally an on the go person, or so laptop adverts would have you believe. When I say on the go, I mean I like to move around my shared flat using my computer and not sat at a desk with a finite amount of leg room. The point is I stream my media WIRELESSLY, I know this is a scary concept to some people and it obviously didn't cross the minds of the Tversity makers to accommodate for this, but it being 2009 and the age of glorious High definition, keyhole surgery and stem cell research I thought wireless media streaming would be a doddle. Its not.
I can't begin to describe how bloody frustrating it is to be watching an episode of 24 for it to cut out at the point at which Jack screams "DAMMIT CHOLE DO IT FOR ME NOW" because the god damn media server is buffering. What's worse is there is no options in the tools menu to change this around, to reduce picture quality or widen the bandwidth used by the program. It's like it or lump it...I personally chose to launch it.
Frustrated, I searched for better software and having listened to the recommendations of the Playstation Nation Podcast I downloaded the PS3 media server. And I've got to say, what a difference this light piece of software made, it's what all software used for this purpose should be like. light, simple, and most importantly WORKING.
There's a few things that set the PS3 media sever apart from TVersity, firstly; the PS3 media server tells you if it has found your Playstation, it tells you if it is currently communicating with your system so you know if your wasting your time or not. There's no staring into the abyss with this, your either connected or not, which is refreshing.
Secondly, if you are wirelessly streaming media and it begins to get choppy take a step back, inhale and enjoy the media servers vast array of options to improve streaming quality. To choppy? Not a problem. Reduce picture quality and bandwith! Streaming well? Don't concern yourself. Be adventurous and up picture quality...hey you only live once. This may seem like a small thing to get excited about, but when your "ctrl/alt/delete" keys have worn because you have tried in vain so many times to reduce the amount of programs running just to free up some CPU power you'll understand. I personally thought the days of not getting an explanation for why something isn't working died an unexplained death with windows 2000. NOPE.
I had a biiiiiiiiiiiiig erection when I discovered the "transcoding" function. Automatically the media server will transcode all of your videos into a playable PS3 format which means there will be no more "this data is corrupt" tripe. Hats off to the software developers, they had some foresight and overcame many previously unresolved problems in the media server world and ended up producing this blood cooling piece of genius.
I'm sure there are plenty of other media servers' out there but I simply haven't bothered to look, I am more than satisfied at the moment but if anybody is crazy enough to read this then I'd really like to know what your using and how you'd rate it. After all I can't always be right……..or can I? More on that next week.
McGregortron
FYI.
ReplyDeletePS3 is even better than we once thought. Those with Windows Vista will find that your PS3 will automactically scan your entire HD for any media falling under many of the4 formats compatible with PS3 without the need for any additional software. Buffering speeds are fantastic and without the need for fussing about importing it into any other player. Using bittorrent, as soon as the file is downloaded it is watchable (or listenable) instantaneously on my massively over-sized televsion and optical surround. Brilliant
That's cool I didn't actually know that
ReplyDelete