Goodbye Apple TV, Playstation 3 rules!

[err404]

I just downloaded this little application called TVShows.app and Transmission. I subscribed to my favorite TV Shows using TVShows.app, and then Transmission automatically downloads and categorizes them.

Are you seriously comparing the cost of buying episodes to pirating? For most users $1.99 is a comparable price to cable. Also many season passes for shows include a discount. As for yearly cost, the TV saves me a lot of money vs having cable. For the yearly cost of cable I can buy ~18 full seasons of content.

I understand that if your shows are not in the catalog, your out of luck; but don't use that as a justification to BT the ones that are.

I don't want to get in to a debate over the ethics of pirating, but this tread is about the merits of the PS3 and TV for viewing content on your TV. The avocation of pirating that content does not have a place in this discussion.

 

[am1971]

Has anyone found medialink not working since the last PS3 update?

I can see films from a specified folder but none of the iPhoto or iTunes stuff works at all...

 

[petvas]

Has anyone found medialink not working since the last PS3 update?

I can see films from a specified folder but none of the iPhoto or iTunes stuff works at all...

It works fine here

 

[Warfel005]

i just bought a ps3 and cant wait to try this out ... i was debating to get an apple tv or ps3 but i do a lot more gaming so it makes sense... now if they made apple tv with a dvr function i would totally buy it no questions asked..

 

[Tweeksy]

Just found out that rather than streaming media from your pc/mac you can just dump it onto a USB drive and plug it into the PS3, how much does that rock!?!

If anyone out there has one, is it easy to see this drive over a network, or to add an additional drive?

This is crazy, my setup will be a 1TB drive into a 40gb PS3, when it comes out PlayTV to.

Already have a PSP and will buy a small cheap LCD TV and plug it into that for the bedroom. When I travel (a lot) I will get skype, access to my entire library (encoded dvds, and tv shows pvr'd) and access to live TV (won't miss any of the F1 races! and of course I will also have skype through the PSP.

Can encode the vids on my laptop (Wintel) or may get an imac for the office, and will be able to backup the USB drive plugged into the PS3. This is genius, aside from the rentals on the TV I can't see any reason to go with it!

Was going to pick up an ATV when I travel to the US next month, but the PS3 seems like the device that will sit under my TV now!

 

[petvas]

Just found out that rather than streaming media from your pc/mac you can just dump it onto a USB drive and plug it into the PS3, how much does that rock!?!

If anyone out there has one, is it easy to see this drive over a network, or to add an additional drive?

This is crazy, my setup will be a 1TB drive into a 40gb PS3, when it comes out PlayTV to.

Already have a PSP and will buy a small cheap LCD TV and plug it into that for the bedroom. When I travel (a lot) I will get skype, access to my entire library (encoded dvds, and tv shows pvr'd) and access to live TV (won't miss any of the F1 races! and of course I will also have skype through the PSP.

Can encode the vids on my laptop (Wintel) or may get an imac for the office, and will be able to backup the USB drive plugged into the PS3. This is genius, aside from the rentals on the TV I can't see any reason to go with it!

Was going to pick up an ATV when I travel to the US next month, but the PS3 seems like the device that will sit under my TV now!

Just be careful, because the drive has to be formatted in FAT to be recognised by the playstation. That means that you cant have files bigger than 4GB in it. It sucks actually..
Streaming works beautifully, much better than the Apple TV.

 

[chazmangus]

PS3 - AppleTV

I Bought the AppleTV First day it came out. I have been using it sense then, only running what apple wants on it meaning it has not hacked friends of mine has ran NitroTV and he can play all kinds of files he has downloaded off the internet or however he gets them. I however have about 1000 Movies in MP4 format i have been compressing and tagging all my Movies sense Handbrake came out. I have clients do same thing. using a strict guideline for Compressing

ANYWAYS

The Apple TV is Great for Archiving Movies the PS3 is Great for Impressing friends. But for everyday Use i use the apple tv to RENT HD Movies and use my PS3 for Must own HD Movies and Racing Games.

Both are a Must have and have there own purposes i believe.

My two cents..

 

[anthonymoody]

I'm waiting for one of 3 things to happen:

1) Netflix and/or Amazon Unbox begin to offer HD downloads (whether to purchase or rent) to my TivoHD. If/when this happens, I won't buy either an ATV or a PS3.

2) Apple offers WAAAAAY more HD titles, and preferably ups the content to 1080p (or at least offers high bandwidth 720p than they do now - I've seen the current HD content and while it's "nice" it's not nearly as nice as it can get). If this happens next I probably get an ATV.

3) Sony adds HD movie purchases/rentals to the PS3 store. My guess, based on the quotes from the Sony guy (mentioned about halfway through this thread) wherein the Sony guy basically says it will be a service unlike any of the others, is that they will in fact offer 1080i (if not p) content. It might be slow but it'll be freakin awesome. If this happens next I get a PS3.

My guess is that 1 or 3 happen first. I think 3 happens when Sony releases the redesigned PS3 with the newer, cheaper/smaller/cooler chips that have been developed. They'll use that release to offer all sorts of other new stuff...

TM

 

[kasi]

Does the Playstation 3 play VOB files?

The Playstation plays almost all formats including m2ts, vob, mp4 (not all profiles though), h.264 (main profile), divx (all bit rates)...
The AppleTV plays only h.264 and mpeg4 up to 5000kbit/sec...Now that is what I call limited.

Hi Petvas -

does the PlayStation 3 play VOB files?

kasi

 

[petvas]

Yes, it does play vob files

 

[gdeusthewhizkid]

im going the ps3 route

Im definately going the ps3 route. I think my current bedroom setup the apple tv would be a waste of money. The mac mini option i currently enjoy allows me to surf the web ,go to you tube, watch hd movies from itunes, watch avi movies from my external and listen to itunes. It's so sweet and efficient. The ps3 would be a great blue ray option.

I just have one question im out of hdmi inputs on my tv it only came with two. Will i still get a good picture out of the component connections??

 

[pjarvi]

Im definately going the ps3 route. I think my current bedroom setup the apple tv would be a waste of money. The mac mini option i currently enjoy allows me to surf the web ,go to you tube, watch hd movies from itunes, watch avi movies from my external and listen to itunes. It's so sweet and efficient. The ps3 would be a great blue ray option.

I just have one question im out of hdmi inputs on my tv it only came with two. Will i still get a good picture out of the component connections??

Depends on what your TV supports via component (1080i, 720P, 480P, 480i)? HDMI will have a clearer image in general.

 

[mscriv]

I just have one question im out of hdmi inputs on my tv it only came with two. Will i still get a good picture out of the component connections??

Just buy an HDMI switcher from monoprice. I got mine for less than $40 and it works great. I now have future expandability and with the remote I don't have to leave the couch. It's simple and functional, which makes me happy.

 

[Terry Smith]

ATV HD doesn't compare to BluRay... end of story

I read every single post here... wow lots! Gonna put in my 2 cents...

There isn't a good answer to anything. The PS3 rocks as an (almost) media station. It's interface is cludgy, MediaLink is twitchy, and there aren't (in Canada anyway) a way to get movies PPV. AND there is no tuner (again, there is in the UK now apparenlty).

ATV plays 720p movies that technically are HD, but the compression is heavy to get it through your pipe. It too doesn't have a tuner, so you can't use it as a PVR. Interface is great.

The right answer if anyone could make it is:

Make a MacMini with a bluray player in it, throw in a digital cable input, put the ATV interface in it (along with the streaming abilities from Apple), along with PVR capabilities. Rip movies at full resolution, have the thing upscale regular DVD's, and push out signals automatically at 480P, 720P, or 1080i/1080p.

However nothing like this exists yet (PlayTV in North America might make it very close - whenever it might come to fruition) but you still have the PS3 Interface which is a little idiosyncratic at best.

And back to my original statement, you CANNOT compare 720p ATV heavily compressed HD - to Bluray HD. If you think they are comparable in image quality, you seriously need a new TV.

 

[Bye Bye Baby]

Price Change

It only costs twice as much in the US. In Germany the AppleTV costs 299 Euro. Now I think the PS3 costs 399 Euro, if not less. In Australia the PS3 costs $600 the AppleTV costs $450.

The PS3 plays games, full HD and can stream almost any music or video format using Medialink. The AppleTV is overpriced for the functionality it offers. I say this as a Apple 'fanboy'. In Australia, no one is buying AppleTVs because of the price.

Can't quite agree. The Apple TV in Aus costs $329 (40 gig). However, a few moths ago if you bought a 1080P Sony TV you got a PS3 free. It was a fantastic deal and I got two PS3s. I also bought the ATV in the US when the Euro was very strong against the $US. It cost be something like about 140 euros.

That was a bargain.

 

[Sol]

Apple TV is an elegant and focused product; it syncs to your computer's iTunes library and lets you rent and buy movies online. Saying it is limited because the PlayStation 3 can do a hundred more things is pointless. One is specifically for video and the other is a games console with video functions. If you are going to make straight comparison here is one that's worth considering: the power consumption of an Apple TV is 19 watts while a PlayStation 3 is 135 watts (down from 1st gen PS3s' 200 watts).

http://willmonwah.blogspot.com/2007/07/apple-tvs-power-consumption.html
http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/30/40gb-ps3-features-65nm-chips-lower-power-consumption/

 

[MagnusVonMagnum]

And back to my original statement, you CANNOT compare 720p ATV heavily compressed HD - to Bluray HD. If you think they are comparable in image quality, you seriously need a new TV.

Implying your cannot "compare" a simple step up in resolution with less compression is patently ABSURD. Of course you can compare them and I dare say the results aren't nearly as different as you would have people believe. As far as signal quality goes, Apple HD rentals are a grade above ANY broadcast or cable HD signal out there (the vast majority of ALL HD content on the planet). I had the Olympics on last summer with an OTA tuner showing the maximum possible broadcast HD signal and could directly switch between it and the local cable feed of the same channel and the differences were nearly non-existent, which either says Armstrong Cable uses very little compression compared to other companies or compression artifacting is highly exaggerated.

This is not to say Blu-Ray isn't capable of producing a superior picture to AppleTV HD rentals, but what your message IMPLIES is a wholly different story. You would make it sound as if the differences were night and day and this is simply not the case. I've got one of the best rate 720P projectors out there, the Panasonic PT-AX100U with a 93" screen and I sit 8' away with better than 20/20 vision correction and there is nothing objectionable about Apple's HD picture (no noticeable artifacting during normal viewing). So while Blu-Ray MIGHT be a bump up in quality (many titles were NOT shining examples of 1080P, especially early on), it's not the night and day difference between NTSC and 720P. It's a distinct bump in resolution that is more noticeable on larger screens than smaller ones due to resolving depth. And speaking as someone who owns a VERY large screen relative to seating distance, this implication that somehow Apple's HD picture isn't "really" HD is just pure bologna. Most people watching 50" or smaller sets at over 8 feet away would be lucky to see the difference at that resolving distance. People with a 100" or larger screen at less than 10 feet? Yes, they could easily see a sharpness/resolution increase, but it's a progression of evolution, not a revolutionary change like NTSC to HD is. And given the ONLY current source of HD material at 1080P is Blu-Ray, the idea it's somehow "needed" is just as absurd. Some will want it, some will be happy with cable or streaming sources.

 

[Terry Smith]

Semantics on comparable vocabulary aside...

If you had a 1080p projector, you would see the difference... but glad you are enjoying movies in whatever format you see them!

 

[ugacdawg]

First, I do have a US iTunes Account and I have rented lots of movies. Secondly, of course I knew that uncompressed video is better than compressed but didn't know that the difference would be that obvious...
Who told you that I wouldn't want to download uncompressed Blu-Ray movies? The Internet can't handle it right now but Apple could offer an Apple TV with an integrated Blu-Ray player. The problem is the CPU of the Apple TV. It cannot handle such video files and it will probably never will unless it gets upgraded...

Anyway, the question we should all ask is if quality is important. If yes, then the Apple TV is a mediocre solution for people that do not need more than it offers.

Quality comes at a cost - I find that the 720p resolution I get from ripped Blu-Rays is a good compromise on cost versus space. Most of my library is DVD so it's not an issue - but storing a full-blown, uncompressed Blu-Ray would require many Terabytes of data for a decent collection. I have over 300 original VIDEO_TS folders from DVDs ripped into about 2.5TB but once I started converting Blu-Rays (I don't buy them, I borrow or rent them) the space got nuts so I'm only storing 720p versions now. If you can afford to put a PS3 at every HDTV you have (I have three so far in the house) and you can afford to buy all those discs and don't mind moving them around or you can rip them to a monster data array then more power to you.

I got three AppleTVs for under $200 each (40gb) and I got a refurb N router for $70 and I can stream to all three HD (720p 5k bitrate) streams simultaneously with no lag or hiccups any movie in the library... including all the music, photos, etc. and the ability to preview new movies, etc. in a device that's completely silent, has a simple interface that my 5 year old can use and is dead reliable (and since it's the same at every TV there is no learning curve). And my iPhone allows me to manage all three of them remotely. I run the whole back-end on a 5 year old P4 that sits headless serving up iTunes and Orb (for the iPhone on the road).

For me it's a good compromise. We also have an XBox 360 and it's great for games (the Netflix streaming is cool too) but it's big, loud and runs hot. My brother in law has one large HDTV and one PS3 hooked to it so for him his works. Glad it works for you too.

 

[harcosparky]

OK, after a year of having the Apple TV and almost a year of having the PS3 I can say around here at least, the Apple TV sees much more use than does the PS3. The PS3 only gets used for Blu-Ray playing and one game my son plays online. If it wasn't for him playing that game, I'd be tempted to sell the PS3 and get another Apple TV.

But that's just how we use them, and in all honesty we do not spend a lot of time in front of the TV to begin with.

 

[mohanman]

Have fun having a girl come over and playing a movie on your ps3, or even better have her figure out how to use it. Trust me.. no girl.. no girl cares about your stupid ps3. On the otherhand, a simple UI like appletv, and they will probably be impressed.

I prefer to have girls come and over and be "happy". Happy ends with good stuff.

Mo

 

[minik]

Have fun having a girl come over and playing a movie on your ps3, or even better have her figure out how to use it. Trust me.. no girl.. no girl cares about your stupid ps3. On the otherhand, a simple UI like appletv, and they will probably be impressed.

I prefer to have girls come and over and be "happy". Happy ends with good stuff.

Mo

I hope you're joking.

 

[mohanman]

I hope you're joking.

Actually .. I am not. Girls + ps3/xbox 360 = no mix. Girls + wii = maybe .
Girls + appletv = probably

Sorry guys, hate to break it to you like that. Bottom line, like I said no girl cares about your stupid ps3. And trust me, no girl is going to be "turned on" when they see you turn on your ps3 to watch a movie.. haha!

Mo

 

[Halon X]

Actually .. I am not. Girls + ps3/xbox 360 = no mix. Girls + wii = maybe .
Girls + appletv = probably

Sorry guys, hate to break it to you like that. Bottom line, like I said no girl cares about your stupid ps3. And trust me, no girl is going to be "turned on" when they see you turn on your ps3 to watch a movie.. haha!

Mo

Wow!!!

Not sure if it's the type of girls your bringing home or the fact that you probably still live at home with Mom and Dad, but I think your going to find yourself very much on your own with this!

Once you have your own place and start bringing women home, you'll see what I mean!

 

[P-Worm]

Actually .. I am not. Girls + ps3/xbox 360 = no mix. Girls + wii = maybe .
Girls + appletv = probably

Sorry guys, hate to break it to you like that. Bottom line, like I said no girl cares about your stupid ps3. And trust me, no girl is going to be "turned on" when they see you turn on your ps3 to watch a movie.. haha!

Mo

You base all of your purchases on whether girls will like it or not?

P-Worm