Tag: ps3

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Tech Stuff – Top Ten Posts of 2011

Here are the top ten blog posts (by views) for 2011.

10. Joikuspot s60 limitation

This blog post which described a major limitation with Jokuspot on the Nokia N95 was the principle reason I bought a MiFi.

9. No joy with Sony PSP and JoikuSpot Premium

This was quite an old post, from nearly three years ago, when my primary method for mobile internet was using Joikuspot on a Nokia N95. Since then I have used a MiFi and now in the main use the portable wireless hotspot on a Google Nexus One.

8. Insufficient Bandwidth

This post described how a problem with my FTTC was causing me to have issues with iPlayer streams. I think in the end it was more of an issue with BBC iPlayer than an issue with my internet connection.

7. New Sony Tablets, the Tablet S

In this blog post I was looking forward to the new Sony Tablet. Having now seen the Tablet for real I am slightly disappointed. It didn’t feel like a Sony product and seemed overpriced for what it was.

6. Instagram on the Desktop

My sixth most popular post looked at a couple of Mac apps that allowed you to view Instagram images on your desktop. I really like Instagram, but sometimes feel disadvantaged when I want to see a feed of Instagram images on my Mac.

5. ITV Player and 4OD on the PS3

An update to the PS3 provided access to the watch again services from ITV and Channel 4.

4. iPhone Portable Wifi Hotspot

Back in January Apple announced a new feature for the iPhone, that allowed you to turn it into a portable wifi hotspot, something I had been doing for a while using my Froyo Google Nexus One.

3. I don’t like BT FON

My third most popular post was a rant about BT FON, well actually it wasn’t a rant about BT FON itself, it was rant that BT routers configured for BT FON also broadcast a BT Openzone SSID which wasn’t a real BT Openzone and so as a result my iPhone (which has free access to BT Openzone) couldn’t use it.

2. BT Openzone-H

This post was a follow on to my BT FON rant, it was apparent that BT were aware of the problem I discussed and are in the process of changing the settings on the BT Homehubs so that instead of broadcasting the BT Openzone SSID they have renamed it to BT Openzone-H. I should say that though I posted this in July, here nearly six months later my neighbour’s BT HomeHub is still broadcasting BT Openzone and not the new Openzone-H.

1. Live BBC TV on the iPad

My most popular post was not really a post more of an addendum to another post reviewing the BBC iPlayer app for the iPad.

The addendum mentioned that the main advantage of the app over the web interface was that you could access live TV through the app.

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ITV Player and 4OD on the PS3


Noticed after my recent update to the PS3 that as well as BBC iPlayer that the PS3 can also access ITV Player and 4OD too.

The quality isn’t fantastic compared to the higher quality of BBC iPlayer, but certainly watchable. The interface is the same as on the ITV website so slightly challenging to navigate on a TV screen, but once you find what you need you can watch the programme in full screen.

I didn’t have any problems with the programme stream, however the adverts did buffer! One of the “issues” with both ITV Player  and 4OD is that yes you do have adverts, however you can’t fast forward through them!

My Sony TV which has built in access to BBC iPlayer however doesn’t yet have access to ITV Player and 4OD but does to FIVE on Demand. It’s now getting easier to view TV content when you want to not just when it goes out live.

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BBC iPlayer launches Wii channel

According to BBC News

The BBC iPlayer is relaunching on the Nintendo Wii in the form of a dedicated Wii channel on 18 November.

The BBC iPlayer has been on the Wii since April 2008 but many console owners reported problems with the original interface.

Will check this out on the 18th November.

I have tried using BBC iPlayer on the PS3 and that works okay, though actually prefer to use iPlayer with an iPod touch connected to the TV.

Though my main issue with iPlayer has to be that fact that my broadband connection is too slow to take real advantage of the service.

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Clearing room…

Before installing Adobe CS4 I decided that I better clear out some free disk space so that it will not only install fine, but run fine as well. I had bought it for my new iMac, but that’s on hold at the moment.

So what’s on the hard drive?

Well though my files, photos and music take up a fair bit of space, it is EyeTV recordings which take up the most space. I have been a little lax (because I had the space) in editing and exporting recordings.

Generally I only export the recording in the native MPEG2  format, partly to avoid loss of quality, but in the main as it is very quick. After exporting I might copy the Wi-Fi access version into iTunes so I can then put it onto the iPod pretty quickly, but that’s not always done, it depends on the recording.

Of course if I don’t want the recording, it never gets exported and just gets deleted.

After exporting, I try and move files to an external hard drive, to free up space, but it shouldn’t and it does still surprise me by how much space the recordings take up…

Now I know I could export as a DivX format and reduce the file size significantly over the MPEG2, however then I will have a later problem if I want to export into a different format for a different device.

Until we have a consistent video file format then I would rather maintain the high quality large file size of the native MPEG2 recording then try and mess about with a smaller DivX recording for a different device.

I watch the recordings on a variety of devices, the iPhone and various iPods, the PSP, the PS3 and an Archos PVR device. The iPod h.264 recordings for example would not play on the PSP (always) likewise they would not play on the Archos unless I paid €20 for the “extra” to allow the Archos to play h.264 files, if I was willing to pay that I would pay the €20 to allow the Archos to play MPEG2 files natively!

So at the moment I am editing, exporting and in some cases realising that I am never going to watch that special which went out at Christmas and I am deleting!

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BBC iPlayer on your PS3

Amid all the news about BBC iPlayer on the Mac and Linux, you may not realise that it is possible to watch BBC iPlayer on a range of devices, including the Playstation 3 (PS3).

You need to be running the latest firmware, I upgraded mine to version 2.53.

Find out more here.

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EyeHome stopped

I really do like my EyeHome media streamer and it look like it has stopped working (again). It’s at time like these why I remember why I blog, when it didn’t work before I was advised by Elgato to leave it off for a long time, so at the moment it is unplugged and (probably) cooling down.

The EyeHome is now four years old (which is a long time in consumer electronics) and starting to show its age.

Sadly Elgato no longer make the EyeHome device, so I will need to look for a possible replacement. The key issue will be, can it play the raw MPEG2 recordings from Elgato?

In the interim I am using MediaServer from Twonky and streaming to a Sony PS3, but this doesn’t work with MPEG2 files, works fine with the MP4 iPod versions which the EyeTV creates, but these take a long time to export.

So if I can’t find a media streamer which works with MPEG2, I may just invest in one of the Elgato turbo.264 USB devices to speed up the encoding.

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Serving media through the home

I really like my EyeHome device. I’ve had it a few years now and even had it fixed in Germany one time when the power supply failed. Changing to 802.11n made it much better and more capable of showing content from my Mac on my television.

It’s such a great concept I did wonder if I would be able to serve media to other devices and not just the EyeHome.

This came up recently when I put a Sony PlayStation 3 (PS3) under my television which can act as a uPnP device and serve content from an appropriate media server. Not only that, but you can pair a PlayStation Portable (PSP) with the PS3 to be able to access the PS3 remotely.

A plan was starting to form…

If I could get the PS3 to access content from the Mac, I could then watch it remotely on the PSP. The PSP didn’t like accessing content direct from the Mac, so this could work, couldn’t it?

The first issue was getting some media server software running on the Mac, the EyeHome software didn’t work; and though Elgato make a uPnP software product, EyeConnect, it appeared from the Elgato website that the PS3 as a media extender was not in the list of supported extenders, and there were a few reports in the Elgato forums which kind of put me off. There is a 30 day trial, so I might give it a go later.

What did come out in my research was Twonkymedia.

The PacketVideo MediaServer enables you to share your multimedia throughout your home. It is available for many different platforms and interworks with a large variety of client devices including XBox 360™, Sony PS3™ and Sony PSP™. TwonkyMedia requires fewer resources and is faster than other UPnP media servers, and provides more features that help users enjoy large media collections.

Installed and ran it…

Worked very well.

The PS3 picked up the iMac which I was running the software on.

The PSP picked up the PS3 – though I believe that the PSP can access the media direct, but I was trying to be clever!

I tried a few other devices.

The iPod touch through the web interface could access the media.

My Nokia N95 could access the server, and the media.

A Nokia N810 could access the media, it just couldn’t play it!

Overall I was impressed, very likely to pay the €30 it costs.

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Blu-ray “wins” the HD format war

Well if you read the BBC technology blog you will see that they are seeing the end of the HD format war and Blu-ray has won!

The HD DVD camp turned a crisis into a disaster when it cancelled its scheduled press conference at the show and then – perhaps unsurprisingly – cancelled all media interviews at the show. It’s left observers with the impression that the HD DVD group is in disarray and on the verge of collapse.

Where as Blu-ray

Blu-ray, on the other hand, is only to eager to parade spokespeople talking up its own format.

The BBC blog seems to indicate that the reason for the victory was the Sony PS3.

The PS3 comes with a Blu-ray player as standard unlike the xBox whose HD DVD drive was an additional extra and it was getting that Blu-ray player into people’s homes via the PS3 which has allowed Blu-ray to if not win the war certainly make that last march to victory.

I suspect if Apple release new Macs at MacWorld Expo with Blu-ray drives then this will be the final blow to HD DVD and Blu-ray will be declared the victor of the HD format war.

Then us consumers can go out and buy the Blu-ray player knowing we are not buying the HD Betamax or MiniDisc.

Photo source.