Netflix Officially Coming to PS3

[ChadTower]

Yeah.  What I need I guess is for XBMC to get ported to some of those 1,000,000 banned 360s.   

[Ginsu Victim]

There's a PC version of XBMC, in case you didn't know. You can find a decent free PC just about anywhere these days.

Friday, one of the bosses asked if I wanted two free computers and I said yes sight unseen. Took 'em home and they were both:
Pentium 4 2.4Ghz
256 MB RAM
40 GB HDD

So I popped in a gig of RAM I had lying around, an old Geforce 5200 FX 128 AGP, and put together a console emu box.

[ChadTower]

Nice.  I looked into the PC version a little when they first announced it.  Can't say I want to go back to the days of running a PC next to my TV.  Might be worth considering, though, if the flexibile system specs mean you can get better upscaling or play 720p native content.  I think that's the native res on both of my televisions.


EDIT:  I had not seen XBMC Live... that might be worth trying out.  I could use my laptop and a boot CD, it would take two seconds to attach to the TV... though I guess then it's over VGA which may or may not be better.

[shmokes]

Chad . . . here's a silent little $200 box that will run XBMC, including 1080p content, just fine.  And by little I mean about the size of an external hard disk enclosure.  If you want something a little more powerful, say a full-on Windows 7 media center with DVR capabilities, Dell just released a new little box called the Zino.  It's about the size of a Mac Mini but has an option for a Bluray drive, which would be nice in a media center.  But once you add Bluray and a few other essentials you start pushing $600-700 with that thing.

Also . . . Boxee, an XBMC derivative with some cool added social features, is about to release its very own dedicated set top box.  No details yet, but I expect it's gonna be around $200.

[ChadTower]

That's pretty cool... thanks, shmokes.  $200 is definitely still too much for the upgrade it provides over an upscaling XBMC.  That little box is awesome, though.  That thing actually moves beyond what my TV can do (no 1080p for me).

[shmokes]

Coincidentally the same team just put together a tutorial for building a cheap Boxee box with different hardware.  

[ChadTower]

Ooh.  I dig the web streaming stuff.  That is one thing XBMC sorely lacks.

EDIT:  wait, this references the fact that XBMC can stream Hulu?  I have never seen that.  Mine freezes up if I try to get to youtube with it nevermind Hulu.  Maybe it's time to upgrade the XBMC first.

[shmokes]

I think XBMC has mostly just outgrown the little Pentium 3 inside the Xbox.  The software is capable of much that the hardware isn't.  Modern (non-ion equipped) netbooks have trouble streaming Hulu and the atom processor is clocked more than twice as fast as the 733 mhz chip in the Xbox, not to mention it probably has a lot of other advantages like larger cache and so on.

[ChadTower]

Yeah.  Moving up to native 720p may not be a big deal but I hadn't given much thought to externally sourced streaming.  I'm going to have to look around to see what is out there.

[shmokes]

The newer versions of XBMC come with some really cool skins that the Xbox tends to choke on in HD.  Yeah . . . just the skin.  It's too bad, cos I've been using my Xbox as a media center for nearly as long as XBMC has been available.  It was so far ahead of the curve that for an amazing number of years absolutely nothing could touch it at any price.  I've actually become kind of emotionally attached to it.  I kinda feel bad retiring it for something better because it has been so good to me for so many years . . . performing light years beyond expectations.

Oh well . . . that's just the nature of technolust and our disposable, A.D.D. culture, I suppose.  Once a stronger drug is out, the status quo just won't give me my fix anymore.

[ChadTower]

I'm definitely not a compulsive upgrader.  I tend to sit behind the cost curve and upgrade either for specific functionality or for a good jump in the value/cost ratio.  It saves me money but does tend to leave me spending effort supporting older equipment when most people have moved on.

[shmokes]

I am a compulsive upgrader saved only by my chronic lack of disposable income.     XBMC will have to suffice for some time to come. 

I did, however, just win a PS3!!!  Not much of a media center . . . but pretty freaking exciting. 

[HaRuMaN]

Not much of a media center . . .

Why not?

I stream my music, videos, pictures, hulu, netflix, youtube, etc to my PS3.

[shmokes]

Because it has terrible codec support.  You have to use Tversity or the like which is cool, but it compromises video quality and is more likely to introduce stuttering and audio/video sync issues to streams.

[Ginsu Victim]

I stream my music, videos, pictures, hulu, netflix, youtube, etc to my PS3.

Hulu? I thought they took PS3 support away? Does it work again?

[Grasshopper]

Chad . . . here's a silent little $200 box that will run XBMC, including 1080p content, just fine.  And by little I mean about the size of an external hard disk enclosure.  If you want something a little more powerful, say a full-on Windows 7 media center with DVR capabilities, Dell just released a new little box called the Zino.  It's about the size of a Mac Mini but has an option for a Bluray drive, which would be nice in a media center.  But once you add Bluray and a few other essentials you start pushing $600-700 with that thing.

Also . . . Boxee, an XBMC derivative with some cool added social features, is about to release its very own dedicated set top box.  No details yet, but I expect it's gonna be around $200.

I've been toying with the idea of buying one of those. Over here the Linux version retails for about £150. To put that into context an Xbox 360 costs £200 and a PS3 £250. Admittedly you get far more powerful hardware for your money with a console but I'm put off by all the DRM crap.

I think the main problem with the original Xbox is not the processor but the lack of memory. My Xbox can upscale pretty well but almost crashes when you try to play a genuine HD video. That to me suggests a memory issue.

[HaRuMaN]

I stream my music, videos, pictures, hulu, netflix, youtube, etc to my PS3.

Hulu? I thought they took PS3 support away? Does it work again?

Who took PS3 support away?

I use tversity & playon on my PS3.

[Ginsu Victim]

I was referring to this

http://gizmodo.com/5315896/hulu-speaks-on-ps3-blocking-its-the-content-providers

but I guess Playon takes care of that problem.

[shmokes]

Does anybody else have issues of having to reactivate the PS3 over and over again?  I'll be in the middle of browsing the Netflix library and suddenly a screen pops up saying that my box is not activated and it gives me a code to go activate it.  I've activated my PS3 like 10 times now.  It's annoying.

[HaRuMaN]

Does anybody else have issues of having to reactivate the PS3 over and over again?  I'll be in the middle of browsing the Netflix library and suddenly a screen pops up saying that my box is not activated and it gives me a code to go activate it.  I've activated my PS3 like 10 times now.  It's annoying.

Only had to activate mine once, and it's been fine ever since.

[Dartful Dodger]

Does anybody else have issues of having to reactivate the PS3 over and over again?  I'll be in the middle of browsing the Netflix library and suddenly a screen pops up saying that my box is not activated and it gives me a code to go activate it.  I've activated my PS3 like 10 times now.  It's annoying.

Only had to activate mine once, and it's been fine ever since.

Same here.

I've watched a movie every night I didn't have a DVD.  I've only had an issue once(last night), during the opening credits the movie paused to allow buffering, but once it started playing again I didn't have anymore problems.

[shmokes]

Well . . . I just called Netflix.  It was the first the guy has heard of the problem.  He found an issue of a device losing it's activation but the solution was to have the customer reactivate.   The problem did not contemplate a device that has already been activated upwards of ten times in a few weeks.

Anyway, he had me delete the file on my PS3 that keeps activation information and then we reactivated it (again).  Hopefully that works.  If not, hopefully the firmware solution will be finished soon and that will cure the problem.  If not, judging by how uncommon the problem is, I'm afraid maybe there's something wrong with my PS3.

[SNAAKE]

Because it has terrible codec support.  You have to use Tversity or the like which is cool, but it compromises video quality and is more likely to introduce stuttering and audio/video sync issues to streams.

"ps3 media server" plays any and all movie files. no codec problem, struttering or sync issues at all. ps3 is an excellent media player. you also can convert 99% of the mkv movie files to play directly on ps3 if you dont like real time streaming. tversity sucks tho I will give you that. PMS is much better.

[shmokes]

From what I've used of it so far, it's not very good.  The interface is downright prehistoric compared to XBMC.  Rewind, Fastforward, 30-second skip . . . all that stuff is vastly inferior to XBMC.  Worst of all, it doesn't support Samba shares, so it can't even see any of my media.  Why any sane person would purport to create a media center but leave out Samba is an utter mystery.

At any rate, I'm in the long and tedious process of converting all my media into stuff the PS3 can read, i.e., fixing file formats that are incompatible and moving everything onto a box that can do DLNA shares so that I can use the PS3 as a media center on my main TV and move the Xbox into the bedroom.  It's a PITA.  It's capable of HD.  Otherwise it is vastly inferior to XBMC in every conceivable way.

Oh yeah, and in addition to PMS degrading quality and sucking at rewind/ffwd, etc., it also means that you have to leave your computer on all the time instead of just streaming from a low-power NAS.  Again, PITA.  It's better than nothing, but it's a very inelegant solution all around.

And it's worth mentioning again because it's so important:  The interface sucks.


edit:  I should note that I have hardly used PS3 media center.  I am still working out kinks and getting it to simply function.  While what I have seen so far does not even begin to make me think it will happen, I am open to being proved wrong about its shortcomings.  I would love it, in fact.

[shmokes]

BTW, the Netflix guy I spoke to confirmed what everybody already expected, Netflix is currently working on getting Netflix streaming embedded into the PS3 firmware so we won't have to deal with the discs anymore.  I really don't know why they didn't do it from day one.  It's not like they didn't have time to develop it.  He said that the exclusivity agreement with MS for the 360 ended in October and they started distributing the disc solution on that very day.  But I doubt the agreement would have prevented them from even working on PS3 firmware so long as they didn't release it before the agreement had expired. 

[ChadTower]

But I doubt the agreement would have prevented them from even working on PS3 firmware so long as they didn't release it before the agreement had expired. 

Actually it very well may have.  Exclusivity contracts don't usually just the end product.  They include development and licensing of source as well.

[shmokes]

Hmm . . . I don't know much about it.  I think I was more or less basing it on a lecture I attended by the founder of JetBlue.  He had a 5-year non-compete clause included in his severance package from Southwest Airlines.  He spent the next five years securing funding, buying and painting planes, hiring a workforce, etc.  JetBlue opened for business on the first morning after his non-compete clause expired.

Also I've seen videogames before that were released on one system with a 6-month or 1-year exclusivity contract and then they come out for other systems immediately when that year is up -- no extra delay for the porting process.  Resident Evil 4's exclusivity to the Gamecube is a good example, but there have been many others.

But I suppose the contract could say whatever they wanted it to say, so I guess it's neither here nor there.

[ChadTower]

But I suppose the contract could say whatever they wanted it to say, so I guess it's neither here nor there.

Yeah, there are bunch of common ways, but I have definitely worked on products that had exclusivity such that we couldn't even start developing until the license expired because there was a basic technical requirement that we needed that they couldn't provide.  Think source code or service interface documentation.