2 years ago I made a post about how video streaming on my original 60GB PS3 was stuttering and jerky. Years of comments, comparisons, 131 replies and the “PS3 Slim” later and it seems the problem has boiled down to:
- Jerky video playback on the original “fat” PS3s can, in most cases, be fixed by increasing bandwidth well beyond what is logically necessary to stream the video. For wireless, this means a very strong Wireless-N connection and for a wired connection, this means an excellent 100mbps or Gig-E connection.
- HD streaming playback seems to only work without stuttering on a Gig-E wired connection.
- The PS3 Slim seems to exacerbate this requirement to such a degree that almost all video playback is jerky unless it’s a horrifically low bit rate or on a solid wired Gig-E connection (or you have copied the media directly to the PS3 Slim itself).
Most recently JimmyJames182 did quite a bit of A/B comparisons on his home network to find that his PS3 Slim is unable to play back anything streaming without jerking and stuttering unless the media is directly on the PS3 or on a USB drive connected to the PS3.
At this point in time we would have to come to the conclusion that something changed (hardware-wise) with the PS3 Slim that is making the shoddy streaming video playback even more unusable than it was before on the original PS3 and apparently no firmware update is fixing it.
We don’t know if Sony isn’t aware of this or it’s just not a high enough priority (which we understand, it’s a game machine primarily), but either way, trying to use the PS3 as a “all in home” home streaming media box like we all hoped, seems like a non-starter right now.
I am streaming HD (supposedly 720p/1080i) files created by the Hauppauge HD PVR and are mostly in the M2TS format to the PS3 slim without stuttering. The shows are recorded off of our Charter Cable system.
My setup:
Hauppauge HD-PVR
Gateway Dual Core Pentium
3 Gig RAM
Nvidia GeForce 9500 GT
PS3 Media Server
Linksys Wireless N card (on the computer)
Linksys WRT160N router
Trendnet Wireless N Gaming Adapter (TEW-647GA).
http://www.trendnet.com/products/proddetail.asp?status=view&prod=195_TEW-647GA
PS3 Slim
Phillips Ambilight 46” LCD
Typical file size is about 6-8 Gig for a 2 hour movie.
The encoding bit rate was 6 Mbps typically .The HD-PVR will go to 13 Mbps. In looking at the information on the PS3 for files to be streamed it lists the codec as MPEG-4.
This is a listing for a recently recorded version of “2012”.
Size 9777 Mb
Length 2:40′
Resolution 1280X720
Video Codec MPEG-4 8.7Mbps
I recently did some testing to look at effects the adapter had on copying movies from the computer to the PS3.
Using the adapter after 10 minutes 11% of the movie was copied to the PS3. Without the adapter 8% was copied after 10 minutes. This is not as big a difference as I have seen previously.
I also streamed the movie (2012 in HD) and compared the result with and without the adapter. Without the adapter no stuttering was noticed (signal strength 100%) until I fast forwarded. When the movie went back to normal speed it began to stutter. Hitting O to stop and then X to restart eliminated the stuttering (this will restart the movie at the point it was stopped). With the adapter there was no stuttering even when fast forwarding was engaged and normal speed was resumed.
I am not sure if this will help anyone and do not want to suggest that a wireless gaming N adapter is the universal solution. My own experience seems to suggest that signal strength when using wireless is the most important factor but my testing is not by any means comprehensive. I have found that simply moving the ps3 a little bit may improve signal strength and some have suggested improving it by placing tin foil around the antenna of the router for a small boost. These are certainly cheaper alternatives to a $50 gaming adapter.