PS3 and season 3

[Surf Monkey]

This actually effects some of season 7 as well. What's going on is that I'm streaming episodes to my Playstation 3 and most of them play fine. But season 3 and some of the season 7 episodes prompt the Playstation to report "file type unrecognized". Anyone else seeing this? Any ideas on fixing the problem?

[Zuhaib]

Does the PS3 support WMV files? As it seems all of season 3 are WMVs. As for season 7, i dont know. Are they the VUK rips or the 700mb ones?

[Surf Monkey]

They're .avi versions. It appears that the PS3 can't handle XVID encoded files for some asinine reason. What I need are DIVIX encoded .avis for season 3.

[MadCow809]

i got the whole of season 3 in .avi format....

dunno how i can send like 4gb of stuff over to you. Each ep is 700mb : (

[ESPNSTI]

I don't have a PS3, so I can't test this, but maybe this helps:
http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/ps3/plays...ork-335284.php

[Surf Monkey]

Hmmm. Interesting. I'm actually on a Mac, and they say at gizmodo that they should work for me even thought they don't. I'll try copying the files to the PS3's HDD and let y'all know if it worked...

[ESPNSTI]

You do have Firmware 2.10 on your PS3 though right?
http://www.us.playstation.com/PS3/About/SystemUpdate

[Surf Monkey]

Originally Posted by ESPNSTI

You do have Firmware 2.10 on your PS3 though right?
http://www.us.playstation.com/PS3/About/SystemUpdate

Yep. I've got the latest firmware on the PS3. Pretty frustrating situation since practically every other episode seems to work. Of the ten series, the only ones that have problems on the PS3 are three and seven. Obviously it's something about the encoding method on these particular episodes.

[db2450]

Season 3 and 7 are using GMC or QPEL inside XVID. I dont remember right now.
You have to have VUKs rips, just like I do, because the Scene bans QPEL and GMC encoding.

Both of these cannot play on the PS3, but nothing else that I know of has this problem. (VUK only did Season 3 and 7 with QPEL/GMC)

You can use this to reconvert the two season: http://www.redkawa.com/videoconverters/ps3video9/

[Surf Monkey]

Originally Posted by db2450

Season 3 and 7 are using GMC or QPEL inside XVID. I dont remember right now.
You have to have VUKs rips, just like I do, because the Scene bans QPEL and GMC encoding.

Both of these cannot play on the PS3, but nothing else that I know of has this problem. (VUK only did Season 3 and 7 with QPEL/GMC)

You can use this to reconvert the two season: http://www.redkawa.com/videoconverters/ps3video9/

That's about the most useful information I've seen on this issue so far.

And, sadly, I can't use that software to reconvert the episodes because I'm on a G5 Mac that can't boot into Windows.

[db2450]

Originally Posted by Surf Monkey

That's about the most useful information I've seen on this issue so far.

And, sadly, I can't use that software to reconvert the episodes because I'm on a G5 Mac that can't boot into Windows.

You could use: http://homepage.mac.com/major4/ (FFmpegX)
Or this: http://www.techspansion.com/visualhub/

Just make sure you use H.264 or MPEG4 in a MP4 file with AAC audio.
If you use H.264 I recomend using 1-pass encoding to speed things up and at a Video Bitrate of: ~768kbps
If you use MPEG4 I recommend using 2-pass, because it will still be faster then H.264 1-pass at a Bitrate of: ~1000kbps

AAC audio should be perfect for these encodes at: ~128kbps

[Surf Monkey]

Great advice! I'll give it a try and see what happens...

[db2450]

Originally Posted by Surf Monkey

Great advice! I'll give it a try and see what happens...

If you want some extra quality, for a virtually perfect rencode, reccomend using H.264 with 2-pass encoding at 1000kbps. This will give you about 450MB files at virtually the same quality.

The reason I didn't say to do this before was because I read you were on a G4 which from my experience are all terribly slow, but then I reread your post.

[Surf Monkey]

I'll probably try 2 pass because the quality of the image is pretty important when it's shown on my 43 inch LCD TV.

[Surf Monkey]

Success! The conversions work like a charm and look indistinguishable from the originals. Thanks so much for the help, db2450. You're a life saver! It'll take some time to re-encode all those episodes, but it beats the hell out of seeing them sitting there and being unable to watch them.

If anyone else is having the same problem, maybe this thread will come in handy for them too!

[Z102]

I had this same problem with my USB media player. It took me a while of googling around to find the solution. The same happens with two of Clarkson's DVDs (or at least with the rips I have): Back in the Fast Lane and Shootout 2003. Just in case you want to check them out.

[Surf Monkey]

Originally Posted by Z102

I had this same problem with my USB media player. It took me a while of googling around to find the solution. The same happens with two of Clarkson's DVDs (or at least with the rips I have): Back in the Fast Lane and Shootout 2003. Just in case you want to check them out.

Good to know. I'll be wanting to check those Clarkson DVDs out sooner or later.

[Texas_Hwy]

Good thread. I was coming in here to help, but reading through the thread, it looks like you've got it all sorted already

Just some more info/tips for people with PS3s like me:

*PS3 does take WMV.
*PS3 will take XVID h.264/x.264 as well.
*PS3 will take any standard Dixv file. (basically, if it is ripped using the recommended protocalls for Divx devices/Divx Web Player/Stage6 (R.I.P) it'll work on PS3.)
*MKV, some other container types, and non-standard Divx files are not supported by PS3, so you'll have to transcode.

For Mac users:

For transcoding files for PS3 on the Mac, If you have these three tools, you are basically covered for anything you'll likely encounter:

-Quicktime Pro with AVC and Perrian codecs installed. Using this in conjunction with FFMpegX is pretty powerful.

-FFMpegX is the main tool in your arsenal. Learn it, love it, if you are a Mac user.

-Divx Converter (pretty optional at this point, as FFMpegX will basically do what it does and more, but it's pretty conveniently laid out when you want to quickly make a PS3-compatible Divx file and not worry about messing with a lot of settings. Also, they tend to make the full program available for free on occasion, so just look out for that)

Before PS3 was capable of reading Divx, I transcoded to MP4 x.264 a lot. From what I've found, PS3 will choke on MP4 h.264/x.264 files ripped at AVC levels higher than 4.2. Keep this in mind when using FFMpegX. Sony is aware of the problem and may patch it in a future firmware. In FFMpegX, you'll find the setting for AVC level if you highlight the "Options" tab and then look in the lower right corner. Again, 4.2 is the highest you can currently go without problems. If you have an MP4 that won't play for some reason on the PS3, that's probably the problem.

[db2450]

AVC Level 4.2 is the highest even needed right now, it supports 1080p and 6 channel AAC audio (6 channels doesn't work on the PS3 for me).

If you do want above 2 channel audio, I reccomend you use VOB files or TS files. Both accept AC3 audio (Dolby Digital) up to atleast 5 channels. Make sure you are using MPEG2 or AVC with these.

Also, MP4 files can be shown as "Corrupted Data" if they are joined with any software. If you do join MP4 files you should reencode the files after the joining.
MP4 files that use MP3 or MP2 instead of the standard AAC audio.


I reccomend converting to MP4 with AVC (h264) and AAC or MP4 with MPEG4 and AAC for your PS3. These will almost always work. Some XViD/DivX files, like those in Season 3 and 7 don't work because of GMC or QPEL encoding.

[Nedus]

I'm having similar problems, but with my 360/Media Center...have any of you guys been able to watch TG on your 360 through Media Center?