PS3 + tversity + wav/flac = grins

bruss
bruss Posts: 1,039
edited March 2009 in Video Games
I installed tversity on one of my unused workstations this weekend. I was interested in tversity because it can map network and external drives to the ps3 for streaming. it also encodes .flac for ps3 playback as PCM as the ps3 cannot read .flac.

You can even stream internet audio/video to the ps3.. I am using a program called uXM to stream XM radio.

All in all i am very impressed with the setup as i have all my music on my 500 GB WD external drive and didnt want to move it..

Anyone else gave tversity a try?
Post edited by bruss on
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  • Sami
    Sami Posts: 4,634
    edited March 2009
    Yes, many of us do. Search for tversity on CP returns 23 threads.
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  • AsSiMiLaTeD
    AsSiMiLaTeD Posts: 11,728
    edited March 2009
    I'm actually glad you posted this...

    I've been using tversity for music stuff for a while now, and have recently begun using it for DVD playback. The only issue that I have is that tversity doesn't like big vob files. If I put the movie into 1 big vob file it'll play but has hiccups and pauses at times. If I take that same movie and break it up into multiple vob files it plays fine, but then I have to manually stop and start each vob file, which kinda distracts from the viewing experience...

    Overall I like it alot and can't complain since it's free.
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  • bruss
    bruss Posts: 1,039
    edited March 2009
    Have you tried encoding to divx? Ive transfered some of my movies to divix and they play fine. ill have to start messing around with video some more.. I really like the fact that i can play my dvd's from my directv recievers also.
    AsSiMiLaTeD wrote: »
    I'm actually glad you posted this...

    I've been using tversity for music stuff for a while now, and have recently begun using it for DVD playback. The only issue that I have is that tversity doesn't like big vob files. If I put the movie into 1 big vob file it'll play but has hiccups and pauses at times. If I take that same movie and break it up into multiple vob files it plays fine, but then I have to manually stop and start each vob file, which kinda distracts from the viewing experience...

    Overall I like it alot and can't complain since it's free.
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  • Sami
    Sami Posts: 4,634
    edited March 2009
    You could try ripping the DVD's with Handbrake, or putting the small VOB-files into a playlist. Ripping would save you space but 5.1 output might require some work (I haven't tried this myself as I only need stereo sound for DVD's).

    http://tversity.blogspot.com/2006/07/playlists-in-tversity.html
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  • timlitton
    timlitton Posts: 289
    edited March 2009
    Sami is correct. I've not tried it, but you can create an XML playlist that will load the VOB's rather than having to do it manually. Although there's still a pause between files. But it's time intensive if you have a lot of files.
    Slowly emerging from the 90's
    Fronts: Polk LSi15's
    Center: Polk CS350ls
    Pre: Sony STRDA555ES
    Amp: Rotel RMB-1075
    Sub: Velodyne SPL-1000
    TV: 46" Sharp Aquos LCD
    Dust magnet: Sony PS3
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  • AsSiMiLaTeD
    AsSiMiLaTeD Posts: 11,728
    edited March 2009
    The playlist is a great idea, didn't know that was possible with vob files. I'll give that a shot, if I'm reading it correctly it should be fairly straightforward and solve my problem.
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  • AsSiMiLaTeD
    AsSiMiLaTeD Posts: 11,728
    edited March 2009
    When you say time intensive, what do you mean?
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  • timlitton
    timlitton Posts: 289
    edited March 2009
    Well, I've found that VOB files aren't always VTS_01.VOB when you make a full copy. Sometimes they bounce around and it takes time to manually write a playlist for, say, 40 DVD's.

    But if you want to do it, playlists can be PLS, M3U, RSS and ATOM.

    Here's what a video playlist file in PLS format looks like:
    VTS_03_1.VOB
    VTS_03_2.VOB
    VTS_03_3.VOB
    VTS_03_4.VOB
    VTS_03_5.VOB
    VTS_03_6.VOB

    Just give it some name and save it in the same folder as the items inside it and it will work as expected.

    If you want to put the playlist in another folder you'll want to include a full or relative path:
    c:\movies\VTS_03_1.VOB
    ..\movies\VTS_03_2.VOB
    c:\movies\VTS_03_3.VOB
    c:\movies\VTS_03_4.VOB
    c:\movies\VTS_03_5.VOB
    c:\movies\VTS_03_6.VOB


    RSS files will look like:
    <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
    <rss version="2.0">
    <channel>
    <title>A Test RSS Playlist - Be Cool</title>
    <link/>
    <description>Nothing in particular</description>
    <item>
    <title>Be Cool - 1</title>
    <enclosure url="D:\My Movies\BE_COOL_WS\VIDEO_TS\VTS_01_1.VOB" length="" type=""/>
    </item>
    <item>
    <title>Be Cool - 2</title>
    <enclosure url="D:\My Movies\BE_COOL_WS\VIDEO_TS\VTS_01_2.vob" length="" type=""/>
    </item>
    <item>
    <title>Be Cool - 3</title>
    <enclosure url="D:\My Movies\BE_COOL_WS\VIDEO_TS\VTS_01_3.vob" length="" type=""/>
    </item>
    </channel>
    </rss>



    Here's an Atom feed, taking into advantage the fact that each entry can have more than one link associated with it:

    <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
    <feed>
    <title>Test Atom with Enclosures</title>
    <entry>
    <title>Be Cool</title>
    <link rel="enclosure" href="VTS_03_2.VOB" length="162344448" type="video/mpeg" title="Bee Cool 1"/>
    <link rel="enclosure" href="VTS_03_3.VOB" type="video/mpeg" title="Bee Cool 2"/>
    <link rel="enclosure" href="VTS_03_4.VOB" title="Bee Cool 3"/>
    </entry>

    <entry>
    <title>Some other Movie</title>
    <link rel="enclosure" href="..\other\VTS_03_2.VOB"/>
    <link rel="enclosure" href="..\other\VTS_03_3.VOB"/>
    <link rel="enclosure" href="..\other\VTS_03_4.VOB"/>
    </entry>
    </feed>


    In all the XML files, the title, length, and type are optional.

    Note: I got this information from a TVersity blog.
    Slowly emerging from the 90's
    Fronts: Polk LSi15's
    Center: Polk CS350ls
    Pre: Sony STRDA555ES
    Amp: Rotel RMB-1075
    Sub: Velodyne SPL-1000
    TV: 46" Sharp Aquos LCD
    Dust magnet: Sony PS3
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  • AsSiMiLaTeD
    AsSiMiLaTeD Posts: 11,728
    edited March 2009
    That's the same blog that Sami linked to above. So would i just put the names of the vob files in a text file and just save it as .pls?
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  • timlitton
    timlitton Posts: 289
    edited March 2009
    Hmmm... I guess I should follow the links other people leave before pasting large chunks of text.

    It seemed that way from the blog we referenced didn't it? But here's some more detailed info from Wikipedia that seems more complicated although still pretty straightforward.


    The format is essentially that of an INI file structured as follows:

    Header
    • [playlist] : This tag indicates that it is a Playlist File
    • NumberOfEntries : This variable indicates the number of tracks

    Track Entry
    Assuming track entry #X
    • FileX : Variable defining location of stream.
    • TitleX : Defines track title.
    • LengthX : Length in seconds of track. Value of -1 indicates indefinite.

    Footer
    • Version : Playlist version. Currently only a value of 2 is valid.

    Example

    [playlist]
    NumberOfEntries=3

    File1=http://streamexample.com:80
    Title1=My Favorite Online Radio
    Length1=-1

    File2=http://example.com/song.mp3
    Title2=Remote MP3
    Length2=286

    File3=/home/myaccount/album.flac
    Title3=Local album
    Length3=3487

    Version=2
    Slowly emerging from the 90's
    Fronts: Polk LSi15's
    Center: Polk CS350ls
    Pre: Sony STRDA555ES
    Amp: Rotel RMB-1075
    Sub: Velodyne SPL-1000
    TV: 46" Sharp Aquos LCD
    Dust magnet: Sony PS3
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  • AsSiMiLaTeD
    AsSiMiLaTeD Posts: 11,728
    edited March 2009
    Has anyone been able to get tversity to work on windows xp? My PC isn't showing up on the PS3 after setting up tversity, is there a sharing setting somewhere in xp that I'm missing?

    It works fine in Vista, but I'm wanting to move it to another pc.
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  • AsSiMiLaTeD
    AsSiMiLaTeD Posts: 11,728
    edited March 2009
    Hmmm, and as soon as I post that it miraculously starts working, with absolutely no action on my part...
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  • AsSiMiLaTeD
    AsSiMiLaTeD Posts: 11,728
    edited March 2009
    I can't seem to get the playlist thing to work, I created the pls file but it won't add to the tversity library...
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  • bdaley6509
    bdaley6509 Posts: 1,167
    edited March 2009
    Guys...have you tried ps3mediaserver yet? I much prefer it over Tversity.
    ps3mediaserver.blogspot.com
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  • bruss
    bruss Posts: 1,039
    edited March 2009
    can you mount external drives?.. i guess i could go read about it
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  • bdaley6509
    bdaley6509 Posts: 1,167
    edited March 2009
    Yep...it cooks, it cleans...it rocks. They released a new version yesterday.
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  • AsSiMiLaTeD
    AsSiMiLaTeD Posts: 11,728
    edited March 2009
    What do you prefer about it? Does it make playing vob files easier?
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  • bdaley6509
    bdaley6509 Posts: 1,167
    edited March 2009
    To be honest, I only watch HD movies with it (as well as stream music), so I'm not sure about making vob files easier, but just give it a try. You can even have both Tversity and PS3MediaServer running at the same time and do a comparison on which works best for you.
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  • AsSiMiLaTeD
    AsSiMiLaTeD Posts: 11,728
    edited March 2009
    I got it installed quickly enough. One thing I notice right off. I'm running this on an older machine, Tversity has no problems whatsoever streaming vob files to the PC, but this one seems to be trying to transcode on the fly, which the computer it's on isn't fast enough to handle. I do like the fact that it does present me with the one movie option instead of the list of vob files, so I'll have to play around with settings to get it to run smoothly.
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  • bdaley6509
    bdaley6509 Posts: 1,167
    edited March 2009
    Yeah...you do need a decent PC and network to handle the transcoding. I upgraded to an I7 and gigabit network so it's smooth all the way around. Go into task manager and see what's spiking when you are streaming (either CPU or network).
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  • AsSiMiLaTeD
    AsSiMiLaTeD Posts: 11,728
    edited March 2009
    That is one advantage that tversity has, the fact that it doesn't have to transcode vob files to get them to play. Really, if I could figure out how to get the playlist files to work with Tversity Id be all set.
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  • bruss
    bruss Posts: 1,039
    edited March 2009
    bdaley6509 wrote: »
    Yeah...you do need a decent PC and network to handle the transcoding. I upgraded to an I7 and gigabit network so it's smooth all the way around. Go into task manager and see what's spiking when you are streaming (either CPU or network).

    Ive been using both apps on a average machine with no problems.. Now this is a dedicated box just for media streaming.. But it is by no means a hoss PC.. I went back to running both apps because I couldnt see ps3mediaserver with my directv DVR's and they pick up tversity no sweat.. I think PS3MediaServer is the better app but i need to be able to get to my files in the rooms with the Directv boxes.
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