| Title: |
PS3 H.264 Conversion Guide |
| Description: |
This guide shows you how to convert DVD/AVI/DivX/XviD/MOV files to a PS3 compatible H.264 file that can uses AAC or AC3 5.1 audio, covering 3 methods for making MP4, VOB or a M2TS stream |
| Author/Publisher: |
DVDGuy |
| Ease of use: |
Intermediate |
| Software Used: |
MeGUI, mkv2vob, Nero Digital Audio Decoder/Encoder, tsMuxeR, TVersity |
| Page Viewed: |
435874 times |
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Step 8: TVersity: Playing the H.264 file on your PS3
There are two main methods to getting the MP4/VOB/M2TS to play on your PS3. The first is to use a USB drive/CD/DVD and play it from these media on your PS3 - this is the easiest way to set up, since you all need to do is to copy the MP4/VOB file to the USB/CD/DVD, and then insert it into your PS3. When using the USB method, make sure you put the video file in a folder named "VIDEO", otherwise you will have to select the USB drive, open up the options using the triangle button, and then select "Display All".
The other way is a bit harder to set up initially, but it will make it easier in the future to play your MP4/VOB/M2TS files, since you can play them directly from your computer. Basically it involves setting up a UPnP server on your computer and then telling the PS3 to connect to the media server - the PS3 will then be able to read all the media files on your computer and play them back by streaming it across the network.
We will be using TVersity as our media server, mainly because it includes built-in support for the PS3 and supports H.264 MP4/VOB/M2TS files quite well. I'm using the latest Release Candidate (not final release) version of TVersity due to it being able to support the latest PS3 firmware updates.
First, download and install TVersity. Go through the installation (keep an eye on installing the Ask.com toolbar, because that's totally optional). Near the end of the installation, you are asked to run the TVersity configuration wizard. Check that option and click next.
The wizard should launch and you are presented with several options. You can choose to have TVersity start automatically at boot time, disable Windows SSDP service which may be required under Windows Vista due to TVersity using it's own SSDP service and it conflicting with the Windows one. Check the "Windows Firewall should allow ..." option to configure the Windows firewall (if you're using it) so that the required ports are opened for you (more on that later). Then finally, you can set up which of the default Windows media folders are selected for including within TVersity for media sharing. Press "Configure" when you're done and then continue until the wizard is closed.
Back to the original TVersity installer, there's now a bunch of options related to web content, which has nothing to do with this guide (but select them if you wish). On to the next section, here should now be an option to "Install Codecs", which will install some video and audio codecs that are needed by TVersity. However, if you already have a ffdshow based codec pack like K-Lite Codec Pack (highly recommended) installed, then you probably don't need to enable this option at all (and enabling it might cause further problems - installing codecs over your existing setup might cause everything to fail). If you do run into codec related problems, then you can re-install with the "Install Codecs" option enabled, or install the K-Lite Codec Pack which is my preferred method. No codecs are needed for H.264 playback on the PS3 though, since we are not using transcoding and only transcoding requires the installation of codecs.
Otherwise, installation is pretty straight forward, but if at the end you get an error message about TVersity not being able to start, ignore it. Reboot your system when the installation is completed, although not required, it is recommended. Also be sure to check the TVersity system requirements page to ensure you have met all the requirements (Windows Media Player 9 or above and Flash 7 especially). The last screen of the installer will ask you if you wish to start the TVersity sharing service and the main interface program, do so.
Make sure the TVersity server is now running (look for the TVersity tray icon, right click on it and choose "Start Sharing" and wait until the icon turns green - if the TVersity tray icon is not shown, go to your Start Menu and start TVersity from there).
TVersity Setup
TVersity by default uses the port 41952 (this can be changed later on), and you will need to open up your personal firewall to allow this port to be used by TVersity. There was an option to enable this for you in the configuration wizard that was part of the installer, but if you didn't use that, here's the exact procedure on how to do this in Windows Firewall. If you use another firewall software, you will have to look up instructions on how to allow TVersity to use port 41952.
- Click on the "Start" button -> Control Panel -> Windows Firewall
- Go to the "Exceptions" section of the Windows Firewall configuration tool to see the exception list
- Click on "Add Program" and use the "Browse" button to locate the TVersity executable file (default location is: C:\Program Files\TVersity\Media Server\TVersity.exe) - you can also use the "Change Scope" button to limit the scope of the exception (eg. to block out access from outside your own network). Click OK until you're back to the exception list.
- Click on "Add Port" and add 41952 (TCP) to be opened, again you can use the "Change Scope" function to limit access. Press "OK" to save the exception and close Windows Firewall.
Right click on the TVersity tray icon and select "Launch" or go to your Start Menu and start TVersity from there. In Tversity, go to the "Settings" section and ignore any warnings you might get about TVersity not being started.
In the "General" settings section, you can set the following options:
- Media Playback Device: Set this to "Auto" or "Sony Playstation 3" (I have it permanently set to "Sony Playstation 3" because that's the only device I use with TVersity).
- Media Sharing Service: This is where you start, stop or restart the sharing service - if it is not started yet, you can click on the "Start Sharing" button to start it. The "Automatically start sharing ..." option when checked will automatically start the service whenever you start the computer.
- Temporary Media Files: This specify the amount of disk space to use for caching/buffering purposes - the default 8192 MB (8 GB) setting should be more than enough.
- Home Network: You can specify the port that TVersity will use (if you change the port settings, don't forget to change your firewall settings to match it), and also specify the IP address you wish to share content with (or leave it blank to allow sharing from all devices on the network).
- HTTP Proxy and Maximum Timeshift are not important, so leave the default settings there.
Press the "Save" button to save the settings.
Go to the "Transcoder" settings section, you can set the following option:
- When to transcode? Set this to "Only when needed" (technically, H.264 playback won't need transcoding in any case, but transcoding allows for unsupported file formats to be played back too). You don't need to enable the "Decrease the bitrate ..." option unless your network connection from the computer to your PS3 is limited (eg. wireless) - enabling this option has the effect of causing even natively supported H.264 files to be transcoded when their bitrate is higher than the network limit, which will decrease quality, so don't select this option unless you have a slow network (a wired connection should be fast enough for most video, even HD video).
- Maximum Video and Image Resolution: These settings allow you to specify the maximum resolution video that TVersity will transcode to (if your video has a higher resolution, it will be converted to this maximum resolution - if your video has a lower resolution, the lower resolution will be used). Setting these settings to the resolution of your TV/display panel is recommended, unless you run into performance problems, in which case you can use half the resolution of your TV/panel (eg. 640x480) for lower quality video. Note that this only affects transcoded video - natively supported video (eg. H.264) won't be affected.
- Windows Media Encoder: This option does not apply for the PS3
- Optimization: Set this to "Quality", unless you have a slow computer.
- Connection Speed and Quality: Change this to match the speed of your network. Increasing this above the speed of your actual network won't help, and will only make playback buffer all the time.
- Compression: Set this to "Minimum" for maximum quality and better performance (but might overwhelm your network connection if it is not fast enough - a wired connection should be fast enough for most video, even HD video).
- Decoding Speed: Leave this option checked.
Press the "Save" button to save the settings.
Adding media to the Library
We will now add our media files (images, audio, video files) to the TVersity library, so that these can be accessed from your PS3. Click on the "Library" button at the top to go to the sharing section.
Click on the "Add Item" button and select one of the options to load in your media. My preference is to store all the media that I want to share in the same folder, as opposed to having them spread out across the hard-disk. This way, you won't unnecessarily load in a bunch of media files that you don't plan on sharing. You can click on the advanced button to set if the files in this folder should be transcoded to a PS3 friendly format if they are in a format that's not compatible with the PS3, or simply ignore these types of files.
Once you have added in all your media, the "Sources" tree view on the left hand side should list them. You can click on items to change their options, as well as use the "Update" button to update the folder when new files are added.
PS3 Setup
We must first set up the PS3 so that it accepts the media server connection. Go to the Settings -> Network Settings -> and make sure the "Media Server Connection" option is set to "Enabled".
As mentioned before in the MeGUI audio encoding section of this guide, if you have equipment to either decode AAC audio or to accept a PCM 5.1 audio through HDMI, then you can enjoy 5.1 channel audio from your H.264 MP4 file, but you will need to configure the PS3 to output the required audio. If you followed the guide with the alternative VOB/M2TS file technique, then you don't need to select AAC or PCM 5.1 from the steps below, you only need to ensure AC3 is selected.
If you have an AAC/AC3 compatible decoder/receiver, go to the Settings -> Sound Settings -> Audio Output Settings -> select the type of audio output you are using (HDMI or Optical) and then proceed until you get to the screen that ask you which audio formats your TV/decoder can accept - make sure AAC and/or AC3 are selected.
If you don't have an AAC compatible decoder/receiver, but you do have one that supports PCM 5.1 through HDMI, then go to the Settings -> Sound Settings -> Audio Output Settings -> HDMI -> proceed until you get to the screen that ask you which audio formats your TV/decoder can accept - make sure one of the PCM 5.1 options are selected (depending on which is supported by your decoder).
Connecting to TVersity from the PS3
We finally move on to playing our MP4/VOB/M2TS file on the PS3. This tutorial assumes you've already setup the PS3 for network and Internet connections. Start TVersity and make sure sharing is enabled.
Now on the PS3, go to the "Video" section. The TVersity icon should show up as one of the video options, with the name of your computer and the words "TVersity Media Server" next to it. If you do not see this, use the "Search for Media Servers" option to get the PS3 to find your computer that is running TVersity.
Select the TVersity server you want to connect to (you can have multiple TVersity servers running, one per computer) and then browse the folders until you get to your sharing folder (eg. Video -> My Video -> Folders -> ...). Your H.264 files should show up and you can simply select them and they should play. You can bring up the "Display" option during playback (using the "Display" button on the Blu-ray remote control, or using the controller to bring up the options select screen and select the "Display" option there) to display information about the current file - the screenshow below shows an AVC (H.264) file playback with the current bitrate at 20.8 Mbps and with AAC 5.1 48 kHz audio.
TVersity also shared pictures and audio files, and you can browse for those as well if you added them into the TVersity sharing section. Audio and image playback should be much more compatible than video playback, so you shouldn't run into any problems there.
We're done 
Got more questions? Post them in our H.264 Conversion/Encoding or PS3 forum and get them answered by other expert users.
If things didn't go well, then try these troubleshooting tips:
- If you are unable to connect to the computer running TVersity, double check your firewall settings again. Also make sure the TVersity media sharing is actually enabled on the computer.
- Make sure that the PS3 is not already connected to another media server or media center. Use the "Search for Media Servers" function to re-scan for new servers..
- If all else fails, then you might want to post your problem in the official TVersity support forum - remember that TVersity is still in beta, so problems are bound to be present (it's also free).
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