Help setting up an external HDD for PS3

[norkusa]

Wifi streaming on my PS3 is very inconsistent, so I got a 500gb external Passport hdd to store all my videos on. It came formatted as FAT32 which the PS3 can read fine, but the 4GB file limit kills me because I've got a lot of 4GB+ mkv vids I wanna watch.

So I formatted the drive as NTFS but the PS3 is not recognizing it now. Can the PS3 only read FAT formatted drives or am I doing something wrong? I use OSX 99% of the time, so the whole FAT vs NTFS thing is a little confusing to me.

[diskoboy]

The PS3 only reads FAT32. Even the PS3's HD backup system uses FAT32.

If you can compress the files down any more, without sarificing too much quality, that would help. But you're pretty much stuck with the 4GB file size limit.

I usually encode my DVD/video rips to a barebones 2.1 stereo mix, instead of using the digital surround track. Unless you're hooking it up to your home theater, you won't notice any drastic change in the sound quality, simply running it through your TV.

[norkusa]

Wow, that's lame. I don't mind watching divx video rips on my setup, but some of my vids are 1080p bluray rips and over 7GB. Guess the only way to watch them is to fix my wifi stream. Or split them up into 2 parts. :(

Is there any way Sony could fix this in a future firware upgrade? Or is the PS3 locked into using FAT32 with the way it's designed?

[weirdguy]

I know this defeat the purpose of Wifi, but what about connecting the PS3 with a network cable ?

[IcBlUsCrN]

i had the same dilemma have hd movies on mtfs , good to know my ps3 did not read my hdd either. come to think of neither did the 360

[Flack]

Wow, that's lame. I don't mind watching divx video rips on my setup, but some of my vids are 1080p bluray rips and over 7GB. Guess the only way to watch them is to fix my wifi stream. Or split them up into 2 parts. :(

Is there any way Sony could fix this in a future firware upgrade? Or is the PS3 locked into using FAT32 with the way it's designed?

This is just an unresearched guess, but I suspect the biggest reason the PS3 doesn't support NTFS is because NTFS is owned by Microsoft (NTFS, as in Windows NT). I realize that FAT12/16/32 are owned by Microsoft as well, but I think the licensing fees are much less. NTFS is a pain in the butt for anyone not running Windows ... even some Linux distros still have trouble writing to NTFS partitions.

And while I don't know if it's related, if a way of playing PS3 isos ever comes about and the iso files are bigger than 4 gig ... that might slow things down. Again, just a hunch.

I don't think implementing NTFS is a technical hurdle as much as it is a political one, one that Sony isn't likely to fix any time soon.

[Kitsune Sniper]

Yes, the NTFS patent is owned by Microsoft. So no NTFS for you.

[norkusa]

Thanks for the info. Makes a little more sense now.

Is there any way to burn .mkv vids as data dvd's and play them on the PS3? This always works with my divx videos, but I've tried it a few times with .mkv vids and couldn't get them to play.

I should probably just do what weirdguy suggested and hook my PS3 up with a network cable. Would make things soooo much easier.

[Oobgarm]

I wonder if any of those spam links that keep popping up here will assist you in file conversion. LOL

[kupomogli]

I should probably just do what weirdguy suggested and hook my PS3 up with a network cable. Would make things soooo much easier.

Once you go wired you never go back.

[Trebuken]

It's been awhile but I used to use TVersity. Stored everything on the PC and streamed it to the PS3. I've gotten away from it but it may be an option for you...

[Shirokuma]

you know what works for me? i use my external HDD for pictures, music videos, tv shows, etc...

anything that big, i use Azureus as a file server on the PS3. works like a charm. :)

[skaar]

Can it read EXT3 filesystems?

[norkusa]

you know what works for me? i use my external HDD for pictures, music videos, tv shows, etc...

anything that big, i use Azureus as a file server on the PS3. works like a charm. :)

Well I already have that up and running on my PS3 but I've always had problems with it, so I stick with PMS or MediaLink. I tried copying the 4GB+ mkv video to my PS3 via wifi but it wouldn't quit copying once the file was completed. Video was 4.7GB and the PS3 wrote 6000+ mb before I finally shut it off.

Guess I'll just have to use a wired connection instead. :-/

[norkusa]

Okay, now I'm having trouble playing .mkv videos from my external HD. For some reason they aren't showing up on the PS3 XBM. The strange thing is that these same vids play fine when I stream them over my network via wifi.

Created a folder on the root directory called "Video" and placed them in there. Got two mkv's in there and one avi. The avi vid plays fine but the mkv's aren't showing up. When I look at the drive info, it says there's only 1 file in there (the avi file). Anyone know why it's doing this? They are all under 4GB's, so it's not a FAT issue.