HomeH.264 on PlayStation 3 – guide now available
After finally getting a PS3 last week, I got around yesterday to start testing the playback of H.264 files on the PS3, and today, I finished writing a guide for it. It is very much based on the Xbox 360 version of the guide, but with a few added things like AAC 5.1 audio, which the PS3 supports (sort of). Guide linky below:
The playback quality is excellent, and it’s fun watching the bitrate display show just how variable the bitrate is during playback. If you have an AV receiver that supports AAC decoding, or one that has HDMI input and supports PCM 5.1 audio, then you will be able to enjoy 5.1 channel audio as well.
If you don’t have any H.264 files to test playback, you can download some from our movies section – the ones marked “Xbox 360 compatible” will be PS3 compatible too.
More on my initial PS3 experiences later this week …
Update: A new version of the guide has been release, and it now includes instructions on how to get AC3 5.1 audio for those that don’t have AAC decoders. It uses MeGUI to make a MKV file, and then uses a tool called mkv2vob to remux it into a VOB file. Don’t ask me why, but it works and the PS3 plays it perfectly, even though VOB files are not designed to hold H.264 video.
December 10th, 2007 at 7:35 pm
“AV receiver that supports AAC decoding” do you know any ?
December 10th, 2007 at 9:03 pm
AWx: These apparently do exist, although from what I can gather, they are pretty rare. I do know that a Denon AV receiver supports AAC decoding through networked playback, but I’m not sure if it extends to SPDIF/HDMI inputs (although the same receiver I think can accept PCM 5.1 input through HDMI, so if the PS3 can truly decode AAC to 5.1 PCM as some users have claimed on forums, then you don’t really need AAC 5.1 decoding – if the receiver has AAC decoding, it probably also has HDMI PCM 5.1 input, and so AAC decoding is not needed in this case).
December 10th, 2007 at 9:04 pm
P.S: Apparently Sony’s TA-E9000ES supports AAC decoding
December 14th, 2007 at 1:34 am
I tried this VOB method on both a 720p x264 and a 1080p x264 mkv file, the 720p plays fine on the PS3 but the 1080p doesnt, any idea why?
December 14th, 2007 at 1:35 am
BTW the audio is playing, but video stays black
December 14th, 2007 at 11:28 am
Dave: I think this most likely indicates that your H.264 video stream was not PS3 compatible. This method doesn’t just convert any old MKV/H.264 to VOB, the video track has to be PS3 compatible first before it will show up. There is also the requirement that the height of the video must be divisible by 16.
My replies (as DigitalDigest) on this forum thread might provide more information, as somebody else had the same problem with black video playback:
http://forums.tversity.com/viewtopic.php?t=8348
August 8th, 2010 at 11:43 pm
I think it might be that your TV may only support up to 1080i and you had it 1080p? just a guess.