PS3 To Media Haven. Part 1: The Plan
I’ve been using my PS3 for a couple of years now, updating the firmware frequently, adding to my blu-ray collection (suck it HD-DVD) and testing out various streaming media solutions to make my cable-tv free television a source of viewing pleasure.
Although my final conclusion after much trial and error has been to use Windows Media Player 11 as my DLNA compliant media server, I have to thank the updated PS3 browser/flash player for making that an acceptable option. While I can download movies etc. and stream them through WMP, watching Hulu is a valuable part of the experience. Before recent firmware updates, flash on the PS3 was a joke, now it’s a moderately stable and slightly reliable resource.
Sunday’s announcement from MediaMall Technologies regarding the latest ’stable’ release of its PlayOn media server caught my attention. Hulu, Netflix, CBS, ESPN streaming media all on my PS3 in one solution? First question: Is that ESPN 360? Second question: does it really work?
While you can muck about and try to get all of these things working one way or another, they usually don’t come packaged nicely in one solution for you, nor do they work in a stable fashion. I need answers to some important questions, like will Hulu also work in HD? Will it all be in full screen? Am I going to see some lag? I suppose the only way to find out is to try it on my own. I’ll be utilizing the free 14 day trial period to experiment and torment this service, with the hopes of some decent sort of conclusion for the masses.
I also find it pointless to test this without Netflix, so I’ll be signing up for a trial account. While the plans vary, I’m not interested in physical DVD’s, so I’ll be signing up for the cheapest ($8.99) option that offers unlimited streaming media from Netflix. If all goes well, Netflix can thank PlayOn for my subscription rather than TiVo or Roku.
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