so we're thinking of getting some media centre sort of thing to watch stuff on what do you guys reckon, a media pc setup with a monitor/tft tv or a ps3 with a monitor/tft tv

we would be trying to spend about 1700 max (pc and tv or ps3 and tv)

what do you guys reckon would be the better option?

if all you want todo is play media then get a media pc as a ps3 wont play as many formats as a media pc.

if you want a gaming console with bluray and some divx/xvid playback then get a ps3.

Media PC ftw!

I got Xbox 360 which is okay for its extender capabilities but you can't beat a media centre PC. I have an LG Blu-Ray HDDVD drive in mine, there is nothing I can't play back. I even worked out how to use Windows Media Centre to playback Blu-Ray and HD-DVD files without using external players. Once its setup Media centre is awesome, nothing else comes close atm.

im a little bit biased in some regards... but heres my opinion based on exp.

ive had a media pc, and ive had an apple tv and my choice now is to go with a ps3 (haven't done it yet). media pc is biggish, clunky and sometimes noisy. apple tv 1.0 was great when hacked as it could play all my media formats and one of my favourite. However compared to the ps3 it lacks that blu-ray dvd support. I think the ps3 will get better support via way of firmware. It already does the majority of the formats i use, mkv is minor. Not sure on subtitles but i cant imagine this to be an issue.

ps3, i havnt come across anything i cant play on it yet.

You obviously haven't tried to play .mkv files then.

You obviously haven't tried to play .mkv files then.

If you remux the mkv files into m2ts (takes about 5 or 10 minutes), they play. Still depends on a few other things, but it's usually not a problem.

If you can afford it though, you're going to have less trouble with a media centre PC with a blu-ray drive. It'll probably be noisier (PS3s are near completely silent), but you've got a lot more freedom with a PC.

Of course, if you're only playing DivX and XviD AVI files, you're not going to have any problems using a PS3.

last edited by Midda at 13:38:30 19/May/08

Just got me one of these: http://www.popcornhour.com

Plays almost anything I throw at it..

Media Centre PCs aren't noisy if you build them right. The case I have mine in is smaller than my AMP and its near silent. It has 1 low speed 12mm fan and an 8mm fan in the psu, HDDs are mounted on rubber grommits, whole system is on rubber feet. Noisiest part of the system is the blu-ray drive (when spinning up and disk). At 1m you can't hear it. At 3m with TV on you go no hope. Does PS3 have built-in HDTV tuners for recording TV? If not then HTPC for easy win.

ps3, i havnt come across anything i cant play on it yet.

the majority of thigns i obtain from channel BT dont play on a ps3
generally because of the ps3 lack of decent sound codecs.

and i also refuse to re-encode media

I have a PS3, and it suits my needs fine (though my needs are only playing back divx/xvid files i have downloaded). It obviously also has a bluray player.

If you plan to play a couple of games on the PS3 as well (some good ones are now out/coming out - GTA IV/Rock Band/Guitar Hero/Haze/MGS4/Gran Turismo 5 etc), i would definitely go with the PS3.

However, if you aren't going to bother playing games or get much enjoyment out of them, a media PC would offer you a bit more.

Err.. let me recommend something I can't believe I haven't seen in this thread yet. Tversity + PS3.

Is it possible for a PS3 to play Real Media? I use that for a lot of stuff that doesn't really rely on visual clarity to save me on my bandwidth.

Just buy a $30 DVD player that reads mpeg4 from Aldi.

Viola.

Works for me :S

You play viola?

How well does your $30 Aldi DVD player handle HD? Not at all, I would assume.

If you remux the mkv files into m2ts (takes about 5 or 10 minutes), they play. Still depends on a few other things, but it's usually not a problem.

This is what i've been doing for the x360 (to .mp4 though) and while it is a working solution, it's less than ideal.

It keeps the video stream untouched, but the audio does get lossy transcoded (in the x360's case at least, 5.1 chan audio is stripped down to stereo).

since you'll probably want to keep the original/superior quality version but also not want to have to remux every time you end up having to keep 2 copies of everything, and HD media aint small.

Until the PS3/X360 get more comprehensive codec support, a media pc is the way to go imo. Currently just using a laptop with VGA out for this purpose.

beware of ps3/gta rage if you get one, it can sneak up on you when you least expect it

http://unix.org.au/~brett/storm/gtarage.jpg

lulz. I've almost snapped my controller in half a few times. It was tempting but I took some deep breaths.

Obviously that controller came like that out of the box. WARRANTY!

teq needs therapy

lol... "It has 1 low speed 12mm fan and an 8mm fan in the psu, HDDs are..."

Them some tiny fans, quiet sure but how much air do they move :P

Also teq, did you have a bottle of warm milk and a nap after your little tanty?

last edited by Red at 11:49:33 20/May/08

I sucked on some titty actually red, but yes I did take a nap after it

flaggers mum lol

obviously i dont doubt you can build a media pc that can be silent, but at what price point does that become worthwhile. I haven't checked out any figures as mine was a couple yrs ago now. But i cant imagine its cheap enough. I dont know.

Also in regards to hd tuner, ps3 is coming out with playtv which will be a hdtuner/pvr for HDtv content. The ps3 is definately trying to push itself to the centre of the home ent. space. So they will keep working at improves which focus on this.

It keeps the video stream untouched, but the audio does get lossy transcoded (in the x360's case at least, 5.1 chan audio is stripped down to stereo).

Yeah, you never use MP4, because MP4 isn't made to carry a 5.1 audio stream. I think you can get it to do it, but it wont play back on a lot of devices. The 360's support for h.264 is limited to MP4, I have no idea why, it's retarded.

Re-muxing to M2TS (this is the format BD movies are stored in, probably the best one to use), VOB, or a few others avoid that problem.

You're right, it's not an ideal solution, but it's a small amount of time to wait for a games system/Blu Ray player/media center that only cost me $500.