AVI playing on PS3

[Norfolk'n'Clue]

If I plug my USB memory stick into a PS3 with some AVI files on it, it doesn't see them or play them. If I do the same on my 360, it does.

Also, when I play files directly from my PC hard disk via the PS3 (onto my TV) over the network, the PS3 has sometime a bit of trouble chucking the data at the screen fast enough for it to not jerk and shudder. My 360 does this pretty much flawlessly, despite using the same 'on the fly' encoding software on my PC. this shows that my PC is powerful enough to do such 'on the fly' encoding of the media to chuck down the wire to the chosen player. I don't use the PS3 wirelessly.

So, I have two questions: Has anyone managed to the the USB method to play AVIs to work on the PS3?

...and has anyone managed to get flawless media playback from their PC over the network to their PS3.

The encoding programs I have used on PC are Orb, TVersity and one other that escapes me. Orb worked, once I'd strangled it's suspicious 'phoning home' type of business (it really is very noisy out to the internet and tries very hard to contact its home servers), whereas TVersity doesn't work quite so well because I have locked my PCs services down to harden the OS from attack, and TVersity needs insecure services running everywhere (over LAN and internet).

Why do I want to use the PS3 in preference to the 360? Because the PS3 is near silent, and the 360 is a noisy bar steward.

[Sideshow]

I use TVersity to stream video to my PS3, and for most files it works flawlessly. I find that most people use nice clean divx (or xvid) encodings these days, which the PS3 can play natively. Provided this is the case, you want to set your TVersity server up to never transcode (which is what I do). If you have files which the PS3 can't play natively, then you either have to enable transcoding in order to watch them, or recode them yourself to a format the PS3 can handle.
If you have tvseristy set to transcode then the quality will be poorer, and you'll run into problems forward/rewinding and skipping.

For playing video off a usb stick: in the video column of the xmb, go to the usb stick icon and hit triangle->show all files.

[Norfolk'n'Clue]

Thanks for your reply.
I think I may have misconstrued the title a little, and called them AVI files, when in fact they are divx or Xvid files. I thought the PS3 could play these - which you have confirmed.

However, I've never got TVersity to work properly; the server starts, runs for a few seconds, then shuts down - I believe this is to do with the security controls I have imposed on my PC.

With regards the USB thing - even if you show all files, will it play them, as it doesn't come up in the playable files list?

I will give it a go this eve anyway! Cheers dude.

[Sideshow]

.avi is a container format, while divx and xvid are encodings. The avi will usually contain: a video stream, an audio stream, and could also have a subtitle stream (or extra audio streams for different dubs). So usually when someone encodes as divx they use an avi container, hence why 99% of files you get are .avi's.

When you 'show all files' it should list it like a standard directory tree view - you can see / 'go into' folders, or activate files. I think the problem is that when the update hit that allowed you to watch divx, they never updated the menu system, so the video menu only looks on the usb stick for .mpg files (or whatever the original format was), and I think it only looks on the root folder of the drive. Basically, just try it. Post back with your results :)

I'd look into getting tvsersity to work - I think it's great. I take it you tried the most up to date version? I'm not sure what services it might require. When it shuts down does it exit cleanly/silently/with an ms report debug window? If you install tversity as administrator then it's service should run with full priviledge.

[Norfolk'n'Clue]

Well, the 'find all files' thing works perfectly! The files play and everything, so thank you very much for that! I was wondering if I missed something simple :P One less thing I need to use the 360 for. :banzai

As for the services, I think it needs SSDP and its dependants (HTTP), and perhaps the DCOM, although I might be wrong on that last.

[Sideshow]

Checked the tversity service; it claims to need "AFD" and the TCP/IP Protocol Driver components, but doesn't rely on any services.

[Norfolk'n'Clue]

I think I discovered that it relies on things provided by services for example SSDP enables the use of UPnP on the network.

However, if I'm wrong, then my machine, router or *something* steadfastly refuses to let TVersity work. :frown:

[Sideshow]

I could probaby help if I could see it, but diagnosis via internet forum is too tricky :) If you want to try yourself then what I'd recommend doing is getting Microsft Virtual PC (ir's a free download); this is effectively a PC emulator you can run on your PC, which gives you a sandbox to mess around in without worrying about damaging your real files. If you do a fresh install of XP (or 2k/vista/ehatever you're using) on the virtual pc, and install tversity on it, whether it works or not will tell you if it's a hardware issue or if it's something you've done to your OS setup that's making it not work normally.
Or you could just stick to Orb, if you got it working :)

[Norfolk'n'Clue]

I rebuilt my machine recently, so I haven't selected a media distribution method - currently using USB stick - which I can now use on the PS3 thanks to your tips.

I will have a think :)

[Norfolk'n'Clue]

Hey Sideshow... Was talking to a friend about the PS3 not recognising video files properly. He said to make it find the files, you need to create a folder called 'VIDEO' [all caps] in the root of the USB stick... Then you don't need to 'find all files'.

[Sideshow]

Makes sense - have you tried it? Will it recognise AVIs this way?

[Norfolk'n'Clue]

Yeh we tried it that night. Popped up in the list.