# Home Media (with AVCHD) Bliss Thanks to PS3



## tangozebra (Oct 2, 2007)

My goal was to use my S3 Tivo as a media hub to play our music library (about 15K songs), show photos (about 9K files), and play our home movies (about 120 MPEGS and AVCHDs). I tried about everything, but the S3 just couldn't do a good job navigating through our music files, and photos. I could transfer our MPEG home movies, but with no way to group them on the S3, it made the now playing list unmanageable, plus I could not successfully transfer HD MPEGS or AVCHD files from our new camcorder (I tried about everything!) with Tivo Desktop or pyTivo.

My solution? I got a Playstation 3 and WOW WOW WOW it is the home media player that all others should aspire to. The key was using the Twonky Media server (http://www.twonkymedia.com/) which runs on my desktop to allow the PS3 to stream everything. It even goes into the files and organizes via the metadata. I can now play any song in our library in about 5 seconds versus the laborious scrolling on the S3 using Tivo Desktop. I can even stream HD MPEG and AVCHD home movies.

We still love our S3 as a DVR, but they need to play some major catch up to really be a usable home media player.

One note for those out there struggling with AVCHD files, the Ulead VideoStudio Plus does a great job of editing, and you can save your moves back to an AVCHD file for playing on a PS3 or blu-ray player. I was a long time Adobe Premier Elements user, but VideoStudio really blows it away, especially with the AVCHD files that Premier Elements doesn't even support.


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## stenman16 (Apr 18, 2008)

thanks for the tip! so happy to be able to recognize the AVCHD files on my computer with my PS3!
have you been able to resolve issues with choppy playback while streaming these video files? also, Twonky seems cool - are you sticking with it? is it worth the price? do you know of any other free programs that work as well?
THANKS!


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## BrianAZ (Aug 13, 2007)

TVersity works well for me. I like being able to tag my video files.


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## leeherman (Nov 5, 2007)

I used a Roku Photobridge until it died. Needs a power supply and I'll get around to fixing it eventually.

I replaced the Roku with a Netgear EVA 8000.

Both devices output HD, though only the Netgear can do so via HDMI. Both do audio, video and photos. The Netgear also allows some applications from the internet with client software installed on a PC.

MOST IMPORTANTLY...both devices do not require client software to access the files on my Network Attached Storage. No PC required for basic streaming of video, audio, or photos.

Navigation is much better on the Netgear than the Roku, and both are better than using Tivo. 

I do occasionally use the Tivo for music from my MP3 collection, but only if I want to hear a particular song as opposed to creating playlists.

Regards,

LH


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## miller890 (Feb 15, 2002)

tangozebra said:


> I got a Playstation 3 and WOW WOW WOW it is the home media player that all others should aspire to.


I picked up a PS3 to be used as a Bluray player; after seeing what the PS3 could do (yeah, WOW!) it has seems to have taken over as media server in the living room. I added a 320GB WD Passport (USB powered), setup three directories (PHOTO, MUSIC, VIDEO), and copied most of my media. Thanks for the tip on the Media servers...I will give them a try.


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## HDTiVo (Nov 27, 2002)

It has been a very long time since I first wrote about TiVo&#180;s opportunity to become the center of your in home media network/universe. Since then, TiVo has completely dropped the ball and shows no signs of being in the running.

For a long time I thought MSFT, with XBOX and Media Center, would get there. Now maybe it is time to look closely at Sony. No one is there, and the field is still quite open.


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## mikeyts (Jul 10, 2004)

Personally, I prefer the Xbox 360 for network video playing--I detest the PS3's XMB GUI with a deep and abiding hatred that will last the test of time and which will never grow dim. But to each his own . One strong thing in the PS3's favor for home theater is that, compared to any current model Xbox, it's relatively quiet in operation.

But I think that you're correct HDTiVo--no one's quite there yet.


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## jbcheshire (Jun 6, 2006)

I run TVersity through my xbox 360 for getting my movies, music and pictures up to my hi-def TV. It does an excellent job of transcoding my .avi files on the fly to watch on the tv. 

Has anyone been able to get TVersity to transcode .tivo files? Or do you have to unwrap them to their .mpg files before they will work? (hope I'm not doing hacking talk...)


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## miller890 (Feb 15, 2002)

I have never tried any of the Home Media servers above and I recently upgraded to Nero Ultra8 which includes a Home Media server. This solved the 4GB FAT limit of the external drive on the PS3 that I ran with uncompress >4GB video. From the PS3 you can either stream video or copy a video file from the Media server to the PS3 hard drive. I took a 720P/DTS MKV of Bluray, converted it to mpg/vob format and streamed it to PS3. What amazed me was how little CPU was used (2 - 5&#37 on older P4 3.2GHz PC vs what Tivo Desktop Software used (100%), before I totally gave up on it last version. This speed prompted me to upgrade the home network and replace the 10/100 hub with a NetGear 1GB switch, now everything is 1GB wired except for S3 which is 100MB. Wow...4.7GB file transfer/copy is pretty quick, only down side is that you can't background the transfer.


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