Playing anime/TV shows through my PS3.

[Eaglestrike]

So I just got a PS3 to play around with, got my network settings setup to share my external HD which houses all my anime and downloaded TV shows/movies. But when I go to try and view them first off only the "Anime" folder is detected (of Anime and TV folders) and then only about 7~ series have folders detected, of the 30 or so folders I have downloaded. And then in those folders it says there are no tracks available. So how do I get to watch my anime on my TV via the PS3? Is there a certain file type I need, is there some download I need to find for my PS3? Or is it just not possible? I'm sure it's at least possible for my TV shows, so how could I get that one working?

[Souj]

It can't read all file types. like pretty sure it cant read mkv.
did you try pressing the triangle button and selecting the "display all" option? that sometimes gets stuff to show.

[The_OG_Nelta]

Look up PS3 Media server program.

[Fistandantilus]

So I just got a PS3 to play around with, got my network settings setup to share my external HD which houses all my anime and downloaded TV shows/movies. But when I go to try and view them first off only the "Anime" folder is detected (of Anime and TV folders) and then only about 7~ series have folders detected, of the 30 or so folders I have downloaded. And then in those folders it says there are no tracks available. So how do I get to watch my anime on my TV via the PS3? Is there a certain file type I need, is there some download I need to find for my PS3? Or is it just not possible? I'm sure it's at least possible for my TV shows, so how could I get that one working?

I have this exact setup on my PS3, and it works great. There's no need to setup a media center or anything, you can play files straight from the hard drive.

There's a few things to check first. First is your file format, everything I have I keep in .avi, and the ps3 can run these perfectly. If you're using .mkv then you'll need to lookup a guide, I just googled it and it looks like there is plenty of guides out there if that is indeed what you're looking for.

If you're trying to play .avi's then good news, it's very simple. There's two ways (maybe more, I know of 2 ways to set it up). The way it was explained to me and how I learned honestly doesn't make a lot of sense to me in retrospect, so I'm just going to explain how I have mine setup because I think that is more simple. The ps3 isn't going to naturally recognize all the files and folders, typically what will happen is it will open the HD, and open folders, but not be able to see the actual files. To counter this when you first go to your video section on the Playstation screen, hover over your hard drive and tell it to "Display All" (Triangle). This will make it show folders you can't normally see, like mine has Autoplay and Trash can and some other weird stuff, but it also makes it so those folders with the movies or tv shows in them won't appear empty anymore.

Honestly, playing media from a HD on the ps3 is really simple so I am going to stop with that. I don't want to write a ton and make you think this is something complex. If you have any more questions feel free to post here or PM me though and I'll help you get it setup.

Basically to make it all simple:

hope your media is in .avi > turn on ps3, push triangle on your HD icon to display all > hit play on the show you want.

That's really all there is to it. How simple it is to run things from a HD is one of the reasons I love my ps3 so much. It's also really easy to copy files from your HD to the ps3 HD in case you don't want to plug in your HD each time.

[avelle]

I used to use TVersity for streaming media to my ps3 but I never could get mkv's to play correctly so I just said fuck it. I've spent so many hours trying to get it sorted out perfectly that it just isn't worth the effort. I think my ultimate solution will be setting up a pc next to or behind the tv and playing video that way.

[Fistandantilus]

What is the perks to using .mkv over .avi? I've never used .mkv, nor had any reason to switch.

[aers]

Proper support for MPEG-4 AVC-based codecs (h264), which are the replacement for MPEG-4 ASP-based codecs (DivX, XviD, etc). h264 supports a lot of advanced features that allow for encoded files to be smaller. The mkv container also supports soft subs, segment linking, ordered chapters, multiple video and audio tracks, etc.

[The Stig]

MKV (to my knowledge, I've not seen other files with them too often) dual or more audio, multiple subtitles, etc, all compiled into 1 file.

EDIT: what aers said, lol

[Calina]

PS3 media server app will let you play mkv just fine.

[Nitsuki]

i have a question about the ps3 media server now.

currently i have my pc connected to my tv as a 2nd monitor to watch my anime/movies/tv shows etc. what i like most about it is the fact that nvidia allows you to adjust the desktop scaling incase of overscanning issues which are common.

Does the ps3 media server suffer w/ overscanning issues when you watch any kind of video? Because if it doesn't then i'm definitely gonna download this.

[Izzy]

Unfortunately, most anime encoders have to use some obscure codec/dual audio/whatever bullshit codec that makes anything but PS3 Media Server unable to stream to your PS3.

The downside to having PS3 Media Server transcode everything to your PS3, is that you almost completely lose any fast forward/rewind capability.

To simply answer your question, just get PS3 media server.

[rezn0r]

sorry to hijack a thread but since we're talking about pms i have a quick question. i've set it up many times due to trying different windows versions on my server (ended up sticking with XP - i'd get many timeout errors on win7 and i am not sure why) - some times it would list DVDR ISOs as a single file with a DVD as an icon (instead of multiple VOBs) - how do you set that? because i can't seem to get it back to that way. thanks!

ps - i second what these guys said and recommend this program to anyone streaming media to their consoles

[Eaglestrike]

Unfortunately, most anime encoders have to use some obscure codec/dual audio/whatever bullshit codec that makes anything but PS3 Media Server unable to stream to your PS3.

The downside to having PS3 Media Server transcode everything to your PS3, is that you almost completely lose any fast forward/rewind capability.

To simply answer your question, just get PS3 media server.

Bumping my thread since I don't see the need to making a new thread for this.

About 30% of the time I can play anime perfectly fine through PS3 Media Server, but the vast majority of the time the anime will start to lag. Sometimes I pause the game (to attempt to let the buffer build up) and that can fix the issue and I complete the episode no problem. But most of the time it either starts to lag/skip right away again or after another 15-30s. Is this an issue with my connection speed/CPU power? Or are my settings just off in some way that can be fixed? I've tried looking on the PS3 Media Server FAQ for some answers and a couple of the things I've altered is what upped me to that 30% success rate, but it's still very low and I really prefer watching stuff on my TV.

Are there certain codecs that just aren't quite compatible with PS3 MS? And I should look into what fansub groups use certain codecs to make sure I'll be able to play them? Or is it a hardware issue on my side (I doubt this is the case since I can play the TV shows I download perfectly fine with no issues).

Also just for how yesterday went for me:

Turn on Spice and Wolf season 1: Blu-ray version, it's subbed and 1920x1080 x264 quality. It doesn't lag, but the subtitles don't actually show (they show on my computer).
Go to Spice and Wolf season 2: Mazui subs, .mkv, subtitles show fine, but I often get frame skips.

Season 1 is much higher in quality and size and doesn't skip while the lower quality skips constantly. Seems a tad odd to me.

[Caiyuo]

I'll share what I know of as a Tversity user, not PS3 MS, but as far as I know they serve the same functions, just alternatives to one another. Assuming PS3 MS transcodes incompatible formats so that the PS3 can play them, it could be that your computer can't transcode them fast enough, but it could also be that your network cannot stream the amount you're looking at, as would be the case in 1080p over wireless. That'd be a non-issue for ethernet, though, if that helps troubleshooting.

Did PS3 MS have you install any codec packs of any sort? I know Tversity had an issue displaying subtitles with .mkvs related to needing to have the default setting for ffdshow video decoder to handle subtitles (check next to the list when right-clicking the little red icon) as well as needing the Windows service (services.msc) being run with a username and password instead of being run under local account as many services are.

Hopefully that's not all confusing nerd-speak. lol

[Eaglestrike]

I didn't need to install anything other than PS3 media server. I have ffdshow and k-lite codec packs and such on this computer already. Unless you're talking about installing codecs to the PS3, in which case I don't know how to do that.

[Kurp]

Which CPU are you using?

[Eaglestrike]

Using a dual core E2200, I believe I have it overclocked to 2.56Ghz.

[Kurp]

It could be that your processor isn't fast enough to keep up with the transcoding. What does the buffer bar look like on PS3 MS when you're playing something?

One thing that helped me to get all my subtitles to display correctly is to force transcoding for certain extensions. There's an option for adding .avi or .mkv in PS3 MS.

[Caiyuo]

I didn't need to install anything other than PS3 media server. I have ffdshow and k-lite codec packs and such on this computer already. Unless you're talking about installing codecs to the PS3, in which case I don't know how to do that.

Yeah I meant codecs on your computer, and that sounds standard. I don't want to try and get too specific considering I'm basing all my advice off of an entirely different program. lol

[Tythera]

If you're having problems with the subtitles in PS3 media server it's because people don't know how to encode mkvs and leave the audio/subtitle tracks as und (undetermined) or something else retarded

Grab mkvtoolnix (http://www.bunkus.org/videotools/mkv...downloads.html) and install it. Open the mkvmerge GUI and then add one of the files in question.

It'll then show you the file in the pieces, you want to look at any of the ones labeled audio or subtitles and make sure they're set to a language:

http://imgur.com/yHfcA.jpg

You'll have to remux it afterward if you needed to change anything.