Watch YouTube videos from your PS3

I have bitched a lot about the performance and usability of YouTube on the PS3. It is very very bad. It is abismal. There are two ways of watching YouTube videos from your PS3. From the normal YouTube site or from the YouTubeXL. The first choice simply does not work. The javascript on the site is very heavy for the lame PS3 browser and you cannot even click on the search button to look for something. Abandon this way altogether. The YouTubeXL service is badly implemented and it does not allow you to view all the videos on the service. Official music videos, for example, are out as the service informs you that you cannot play this video from your device (the TV). It is the same thing that happens with certain media players that have an embedded YouTube player. In addition the XL site rarely renders correctly or in full screen.

But wait, there is a third method that actually works! Thanks to a friend of allroundgeek Mac Perlinski I can now watch YouTube videos from my PS3. Mac suggested to use the www.youps3tube.com service which removes all fancy javascript stuff from the page and thus allows the crappy PS3 browser to render the page correctly. At the same time it allows all the videos to be played since it is not the XL version. The video quality from the PS3 browser is not great but I can live with that since it actually works. If you are having the same problem with me give www.youps3tube.com a try and be a happy camper.

YouTube on PS3 sucks!

YouTube on PS3 sucks donkey ass. It is as simple as that. I am a PS3 owner for more than 2 years now and from the very beginning one of the main subjects I was complaining about was that YouTube's performance on the console was abysmal. In fact abysmal cannot even begin to describe how awful watching YouTube videos on the console is. I mean, you have a big screen TV you have the most powerful console in the gaming industry and you are still unable to properly watch even the most simple of videos. HD content is out of the question...

Browsing on the PS3 browser is bad but I don't care since I do my browsing from my computer. Thus, render glitches here and there, bad controls or even slow rendering would not bother me as long as it would properly render YouTube, either the normal or the XL version of it. I will lower my expectations even more. I would not care about proper rendering of the YouTube site as long as it would playback the videos properly. It doesn't even do that.

The interface is okeyish when it renders correctly

When you load a video, the video quality is really bad. It is worse than my mobile phone. It is not only that though, it is that the video is jerky, it is that the audio and video very rarely synchronize, it is that the playback would sometimes stop even though the whole video has buffered. That happens either on the normal site or the XL site. Normal site is even worse since you cannot navigate properly, since you have to play "hide and seek" with the buttons and the cursor. The XL site is not better though, since many times when you go from full screen to normal window the site will not resize properly and will only render on half the screen.

Obviously the rendering problem is due to a bad html rendering engine of the PS3 browser. Use another engine like WebKit goddamn it. It is open and free and used by everyone with excellent results. You do not need to use the sucky engine written inhouse probably by a couple of japanese undergrad students working as interns in Sony. The playback issue is obviously a problem of the really, really, really, bad flash player of the aforementioned crappy browser. The whole of Sony cannot implement a proper flash engine? You are a multinational. Work with Adobe like everyone else if you cannot do it on your own, i don't care.

To top all that many of the videos are restricted from XL version. Music videos for example that can be viewed normally from the normal view are not even searchable from the XL version. What shoddy business takes place behind that?

As it seems this is not going to happen anytime soon on my TV screen

Such things 4+ years after the launch of the console are inexcusable, plain and simple. Supposedly PS3 is more than a gaming console. It is marketed and used as a media center as well, and not being able to use the most popular video service on the web is stupid. Low badget media servers that cost, no more than, 60-70 euros support Youtube much better. In every new update of the system I expect it to be fixed allas with no results. I think it even got worse than 2 years ago. GET IT FIXED ALREADY!!

God of War 3 new trailer

Kratos is the ultimate pissed off anti-hero. God of War 1 and 2 redefined what fun is in video games giving us puny humans the chance to experience Olympian God ass kicking.

God of War 3 will be the biggest release for PS3 so far. Atheist has a whole new meaning with Kratos. He is not a guy that does not believe in the Gods. He is a guys that sets out to kill all Gods.

Words like epic, brutal and awesome are too little to express the God of War franchise. Olympian Gods your ass is mine.

A few days ago a new trailer was released to that keeps us drooling. Note that all the battle moves in this trailer are playable.

YouTube for the PS3 and the Wii

YouTube announced that they will release a new service for the PS3 and the Nintendo Wii that would allow the users to use the service to view video from their TVs. For the Wii this is a first but i have been viewing YouTube videos from my PS3 since day one.

It is a, nevertheless, nice addition since YouTube surfing through the PS3 web browser was not without its problems. The flash player of the web browser, especially a couple of updates ago, is a bit slow, the interface is not optimized and the video quality is not the best. All these are going to be addressed which makes me happy cause I view lots of videos from the comfort of my couch through PS3.

XBOX360 is left out....Google(youtube owner) probably lost the Microsoft's telephone number and could not get them on the phone to create a version for them as well....

PS2 vs PS3: How does the PS2 hold up two years after the Playstation 3 launch?

It has been, a little, more than two years since Sony launched its next gen console, Playstation 3 (PS3). It was not a easy launch. It had more than its share of problems such as shortages, hardware problems, and even deaths. It was a very expensive console at launch day (around 600 euros), way costlier than its main competitors, namely XBOX360 and Nintendo Wii. To this day PS3 has sold around 17 million units placing it behind XBOX360 and Nintendo Wii with 22 million and 35 million units sold respectively. None of these consoles though, is even close to reach the 140+ million units PS2 has sold worldwide. This is no small feat to achieve. Someone might say that PS2 has been in the market for 8 years and the rest of the consoles 3 years (XBOX360) or less. At this point though, in its life-cycle, PS2 had sold one third of what it has sold until now.

Arguably, next gen consoles have a lot more competition than PS2 had when it came out, when it was the undisputed king of electronic home entertainment. My opinion is, that PS2 still remains the undisputed king in console games and it is a far better choice to buy a PS2 now than a PS3. Someone might call me a heretic, a fan boy or even and idiot. All I can say is read on...

Price:
These days you can buy a PS2 bundled with two controllers and two PS2 flagship games for just 120 euros. For the same amount you can buy 2 PS3 controllers to play on your imaginary PS3 and imaginary kick-ass game. To buy a PS3 you will have to spend around 400 euros bundled with 1 controller and 1 game. In addition if someone wanted to see the difference in graphics between the two consoles he would have to buy an HDTV as well which would push the total price to, at least, 5 times the price of the PS2.

Game Library:
Game library is the single most important factor when buying a console. Games are the reason someone would buy one, right? Even if a console is light years ahead technologically, it is no good if it has very few good titles to show for. PS2 has been on the market for 8 years. It has largest game library of any console ever. Some of the best games of all time have a PS2 port or were created just for it. All genres have many representatives on the system. You can find excellent RPGs, plaformers, first person shooters, adventures, action games..you name it. There are literally thousand games for you to choose from. On the other hand, PS3 titles number in dozens and not in thousands. During the last two years some very good titles were released but these cannot number more than 10 or 15. Of course in the following years new titles will come out but this is not now, it is the future. In addition, recently (the last couple of years) released PS2 titles are superior in graphics (God of War 2 anyone?) than early PS3 titles. This will change, of course, in the following years, as the programmers will get used to writing for the PS3 and will be able to take advantage the console's full power. The same thing happened with PS2 that the programmers are now able to squeeze-out every ounce of processing power from it. There is still no Final Fantasy for the PS3, no God of War, the Pro evolution Soccer version for the PS2 is better than its equivalent for the PS3, there is is still no Tekken for the PS3 and most titles for the PS3 seem to be First person shooters. Need I say more?

Game price:
In order to buy a PS3 title, one has to shell out more than 50 euros, or some times even 60 or 70. I wanna buy myself Tom Clancy's End War, but there is no way in Hell I am going to give 70 euros for a single game. As simple as that. On the other hand, one, for the same amount, can buy three or four top notch PS2 titles such as Grand Turismo 4, God of War 2, Final Fantasy 12 or Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.


Multimedia capabilities:
Ok, PS3 is far superior to the PS2 on that, being able to play all kinds of videos including Blue Ray Disc, use it for web Browsing or play our MP3. Lets not forget though, that PS2 is capable for DVD playback, CD playback and can connect to the Internet for multiplayer gaming. There are not many Blue Ray movies out there (more will come in the future) and web browsing is better done with a PC than with a console. I have to admit though, that PS3 is an excellent Home entertainment system. Having a spare PC you can stream all your videos, such as, series or movies to PS3 and enjoy them from your couch.


PS3 is the most technologically advanced console today but it is still expensive and with not many games to show for. This is sure to change in the future though. On the other hand PS2 is cheap with the most complete game library of any console ever. PS2 games are cheap compared to PS3 and can you play your DVD collection or rental titles on it. If you own no console and you do not have a lot of money to spend, this is a no brainer. If you do not own any console and you are all about gameplay, not caring a lot about High definition graphics, then it is still a no brainer. If however, you own an HDTV and you want to invest for the future, a PS3 is a good choice. Note though, that for an additional 10 euros you can buy the PS2 Component cable that manages to output 480p signal so you could enjoy crystal clear PS2 graphics on your HDTV. With more than 140 mllion PS2 units sold, developer houses still develop games for it. PS2 is far from dead and earns its place rightfully in your living room. The PS3 can wait until it earns the crown.

PS3 stops reading disks

As we were preparing ourselves, last night, for a Soul Calibur IV marathon disaster stroke. We had already played a match when suddenly the game froze. I rebooted the console and I found out, to my horror, that the PS3 would just not read the game disc. I ejected it and tried a different game, nothing, I ejected that game as well and I tried a dvd...nothing again, nada,zip..At that point I started to feel a little more than horror, It was horror with frustration. I tried rebooting the machine again with no effect.

Fortunately it will not come to that

I did a little search on the Internet and found out that this is a common 40GB PS3 failure. I was furious but somewhat relieved to know that this is a known issue. I mean, a known issue does probably have a remedy that could be performed by me right? Wrong. I tried all the procedures explained in various forums with people having a similar problem but at the end I gave up admitting the fact that my beloved PS3 had a serious hardware failure. I had heard about the XBOX360 hardware failures and I was somewhat happy that I had a console that was strurdy build with no known issues, but I guess I was wrong. Knowing the XBOX story I knew that Microsoft was replacing machines for people that reported problems, so I thought that the same procedure would be followed by Sony. For once, fortunately, I was right.

This morning I called Sony and they told me to send the PS3 back and that they will replace it for me at their expense, they will even pay for the currier company to send it to them. Despite the whole discomfort of being left without my main media center device I feel relieved. I mean PS3 is no cheap console and if I had to replace it myself I would not be happy at all. The guy at support told me that they would extend the warranty for another three months, but what happens if the same thing happens after the warranty ends. I do not even want to think about it...

Stream videos and music from the PC to the PS3

I got a PS3. Hoorey! A very good piece of harware, that gets better with every update of its system software, which is not excellent, if you ask me. Since I am the guy that wants to relax and I do not realy enjoy watching series, movies etc on my desktop, I prefer to do that on the TV. Ever since...well ever... I have been connecting the laptop on the tv and watch it from there. I got bored of doing that. I have to connect and disconnect all the same cables I have to get up from the couch to pause/play etc and it is just plain stupid.

Ok, I thought I have got a behemoth of a machine sitting next to the TV that can play videos, music and so on. The problem with that is that PS3 cannot handle all kinds of video formats and has very limited storage(mine is 40 GB but there are 80GB versions as well). Only my TV rips are more than 100 GB and are on various formats. I had to find a way to stream video on the PS3.

After a litle googling I settled for Tversity. Tversity is an excellent media server that streams video to all kinds of devices including PS3 and is completely free. Unfortunately there is only a Windows version. Setting it up is fairly simple. In order to get it working uninstall all codecs from Windows and install the latest version of ffdshow. Then install Tversity witout installing the build-in ffdshow. After that, it is just a matter of adding videos and music on its media library using Tversity interface. Make sure though from the settings to select to allways transcode the media before streaming. Provided that both the computer and the PS3 are on the same network grab a beer and sit back on the couch to enoy your videos. All of the media that you added on the Library can be found on the video and music sections of the PS3 interface.

A slight discomfort was that since my girlfriend wants to have subtitles I tried, with no success at first, to get the subtitles to work. The subtitles are handled from the fdshow and I had set them to be transcoded as well. They did not show on screen though. After searching on the net I found that subtitles do not always work. In order to get them to work you have to start the media server manualy from command line with the debug flag on (>mediaserver -debug). Odd but anyway it worked.