PS3 Friendly Movies
February 14, 2010 6:17 AM   Subscribe

Converting existing AVI files to play on the PS3 - What is the most efficient method?

I've been given some...video files...that I want to watch on my PS3. Some of them play fine, others either have messed up video, messed up or no audio, or don't play at all.

They all play fine on my laptop in VLC and are all around 700mb.

Is there an easy and efficient way I can convert the troublesome ones to ones that the PS3 will play? All the software I've seen takes forever and often involves increasing the file sizes.

Suggestions?
posted by lemonfridge to Computers & Internet (8 answers total) 3 users marked this as a favorite
 
Best answer: Option 1: Use PS3 media server to transcode and stream them in real time. This only works if you have a PC or Mac to stream them from, and aren't storing them locally on your PS3.

Option 2: Use Handbrake's high profile preset, and turn off the option to use the m4v extension.
posted by Mwongozi at 6:32 AM on February 14, 2010


The easiest way is probably http://www.playon.tv/playon or somesuch. Doesn't re-encode, plays from your PC/laptop and streams to the ps3. If you're on a mac, you probably do need to re-encode to PS3 MP4 via handbrake.
posted by CharlesV42 at 6:33 AM on February 14, 2010


Response by poster: I don't want to stream them as I have a 250Gb drive formatted to hold the movies and play them on the PS3 - don't really want to have my laptop switched on on the corner of the room just to watch a movie.

I'd also like a Windows solution if available.
posted by lemonfridge at 6:40 AM on February 14, 2010


Unfortunately it looks like re-encoding is the only way to go. The PS3 has relatively limited codec support, so you'll need to convert the files to be in the proper format. Much like re-saving a jpeg, most encoders probably are assuming (rightly) that you'll need to have slightly higher bitrate to retain the initial quality of the source file, so that may be why you see file size increases. With something like handbrake, you can add files to a queue and let it ride all night, so that might be the best bet.
posted by CharlesV42 at 6:43 AM on February 14, 2010


Handbrake works fine on Windows.
posted by Mwongozi at 6:45 AM on February 14, 2010


Handbrake is the best transcoder if you want to pre-convert the files. Note the resulting files may well be larger than the originals, like 1 gig instead of 700 megs. Just go with it. (For streaming, TVersity works great.)
posted by Nelson at 7:44 AM on February 14, 2010


Super is free, I transcode to the built in PS3 (mp4) setting. Their website is crap though.
posted by Duke999R at 3:56 PM on February 14, 2010


Response by poster: Thanks for the suggestions.

I found Handbrake to be the quickest, and actually reduced the file size down too without any noticeable drop in quality.

Super works, but took f....o....r.....e.....v....e...r to convert the files.
posted by lemonfridge at 4:09 PM on February 16, 2010


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