HD playback via USB
If you're not able to stream, either wirelessly or wired, or you want THE most comprehensive playback support (depending on your Output Type), then USB might be the way you choose to achieve playback on your PS3.
Using either a USB stick or a USB External HDD (which MUST be formatted as FAT32 - the PS3 will NOT connect to NTFS-formatted USB drives) you can pre-convert mkv's using mkv2vob, load them up onto the USB device, and play off of that by connecting it to the PS3.
One thing of note : DO NOT set the temp folder for mkv2vob to be this external USB device, the transcoding procedure may produce large files (> 4GB) that may fail as it will try to store them temporarily on the USB device.
The method of pre-converting for USB playback is exactly the same as above, you need to set the File Splitting to FAT32 however. The same comments about the codecs and transcoding times apply.
The only difference is once you have your resultant files, you transfer them to anywhere on your USB device, connect up to the PS3, then play them back.
You need to enable
"Sequential Playback" via the PS3 settings to make sure it plays the files back one after another, otherwise you'll need to stop and select the next file manually.
Benefits :
Expands storage capabilities
PC does not have to be on during playback
Disadvantages :
Requires the "extra step" of transcoding then storing the file
Extra storage space needed
Manoeuvering the USB device to the PS3 all the time (easy with a stick, bit more cumbersome with an HDD)
Alternatively.....
This also opens up a new method of playback -
AVCHD. AVCHD-playback is, in essence, "tricking" the PS3 into thinking it's playing back a Blu-ray disc. AVCHD has built-in DTS support, as DTS is only supported via external media (i.e. USB or disc) playback. It also has selectable subtitles and selectable audio (if applicable). But the main benefit is
24p playback. This is, if your TV supports it, all to do with the framerate, resulting in a smoother motion on some TV's, eliminating "judder" in panning/fast-action scenes. Your TV must support 24p playback (this only works @ 1080p resolution) and you must enable it via the PS3's settings.
AVCHD and MKV files
The method of pre-converting for USB playback is exactly the same as above, however, you could now choose the Output Type to be
AVCHD - USB. This will automatically split the generated files up for you into chunks that are smaller than 4GB, so you can transfer them onto the USB device.
The resultant folder, called AVCHD, should be placed at the
ROOT of the drive, for example, if my external HDD was connected via Windows and assigned the "F:" drive letter, it should look like this :
F:\AVCHD
You can have other folders/files in the root, but the AVCHD folder MUST be there.
Multiple AVCHD instances in the same folder
There's a great piece of software that enables you to have MULTIPLE "AVCHD" folders at the root level, it's called
multiAVCHD. This software is excellent as it allows you to have lots of different movies, it can create bespoke menus for you, you can alter all sorts of things. This software does actually do a similar thing to mkv2vob if required, but i just use it to combine multiple AVCHD folders. When you load up an AVCHD created with this software, it can bring up it's own menu, with selectable movies using your own custom thumbnails etc, you can do a LOT of different things with it. There's a tutorial
here.
Say if you have lots and lots of different files you want to make into AVCHD folders, obviously these will only play correctly if they're under the same "root" AVCHD folder on the drive. You can achieve this by following these instructions using multiAVCHD (taken from the tutorial) :
1) You have an existing multiAVCHD compilation - named AVCHD
2) Rename it to AVCHD_old
3) Drag AVCHD_old to multiAVCHD
4) Add new files
5) Make sure you have [x] Move transitional files in Settings checked
6) Select TARGET and TEMP to be the drive where AVCHD_old is - this will speed up things.
7) Create your compilation
8) Close multiAVCHD and remove AVCHD_old folder
When you navigate to the "Video" area on the PS3 XMB, click on your USB device (once connected directly to the PS3 of course!), you should see an "AVCHD" folder appear. You need to
PLAY THIS FOLDER. Pressing
Start on the folder should initiate playback.
DO NOT navigate into the AVCHD folder. There will be lots of .m2ts files inside a "STREAM" folder, these contain the video and the sound. However if you play these directly, you are losing all the benefits AVCHD playback gives you. If you do this you are now playing back as a normal "file", thus not "tricking" the PS3 any more.
NOTE :
When using AVCHD, you will get a strange result (basically the picture moves up the screen and the black bar that used to be there goes to the bottom) with the following video heights:
< 584 = transcode, which will give you normal black bars at the top and bottom, video centered
>= 584 = no transcode, but will have video pushed up to the top and a black bar at the bottom (unless the file is exactly 1280x720 or 1920x1080. the bar will turn green if you stop/start the movie. need to restart to remove the green back to black) - a FULL transcode will center the image
1280x720, 1920x1080 = video is normal. no transcode, no video pushed to the top, no green/black bar at the bottom
AVCHD - Non-mkv
You can also use multiAVCHD when you have .m2ts/.mts files to start with. If you're not dealing with mkv files and have some other source files (either from a Blu-ray disc that you own and have ripped to enable playback without the disc, or you also find AVCHD folders on the new HD camcorders, or if you have .mts/.m2ts files from a different source) then you can use multiAVCHD to create a single PS3-friendly AVCHD folder, or you can use it to make multiple instances as above. It's fairly self-explanatory to use however there is a guide available
here. multiAVCHD will, in essence, prepare any other files to be in a state where they can be played-back on the PS3 using the AVCHD method. It will split up the files into 4GB chunks (it may do this automatically when you choose the PS3 as a target device, if not you can set this in the split options), and it will prepare the AVCHD folder to have the right files in the right places.
Original Blu-ray re-authoring to work on the PS3 via external HDD
When you have the original Blu-ray discs and want to make an electronic copy to be able to play them on the PS3 without having to load the disc and protecting the disc, multiAVCHD can also to do this for you. This will only work as-designed (with all the extras that AVCHD playback gives you) via USB HDD playback :
1) You load the blu-ray BDMV folder into multiAVCHD
2) Answer with [YES] to the prompt to enter RE-AUTHOR mode
3) Click start and select Playstation 3
You'll get a copy of your original blu-ray disc (with original menus) ready for your PS3 external USB HDD.
More info can be found
here and
here
mkv2vob - Helpful screenshots
The above image shows settings you can use when streaming via PS3MS.
Note:
Output Type set to "File"
Video Transcoding set to "Automatic"
Output File Extension set to "Automatic"
NO File Splitting (unnecessary when streaming or copying to internal PS3 HDD)
Transcoding Codec - x264 HB - this is THE SLOWEST codec to use, but provides the best quality. A 1080p transcode using this codec could take more than a day on a low-spec PC.
No other checkboxes checked, apart from auto-update
You can use the above when using a USB device connected to the PC, then copy resulting file over to the USB device and stream
Same as above, but this time, if you're only connected to your TV for audio, or your amp does not support DTS, check the "Always Transcode DTS" option.
All other notes from above apply.
You can use the above when using a USB device connected to the PC, then copy resulting file over to the USB device and stream
Same as above.
Only difference here is we're using "File Splitting - FAT32" - this is assuming you'll be copying to a USB device, and playing back directly off that when it's connected to the PS3.
There is no need to do this if you're using a USB device and just streaming when the device is connected to the PC.
Again, check the "Always Transcode DTS" if your amp doesn't support DTS, or you're connected direct to the TV
The above shows how you can use the AVCHD method of playback
Video Transcoding is set to "Always" - this will ENSURE that the video is aligned correctly when played back (otherwise you may have a big black bar at the bottom) - this however will mean EVERY conversion will take hours, depending on the codec you use.
No need to choose File Splitting as it's automatically split into < 4GB chunks
This method SHOULD NOT be used when streaming, this is only for when the USB device is connected directly to the PS3.