Why the PS3 Does Not Do Everything (and How Sort of Fix That)

You've seen the commercials. You've read our library of hacks and tweaks. However, after 2 1/2 years of dedicating our lives towards trying to make the Sony console a multimedia bliss-box, we've decided there is one major flaw that keeps it from being the greatest set-top box that ever lived...

Contrary to what you might have heard, the PS3 does not do HD streaming very well over wireless. The reason? It's the god-forsaken wireless-G card Sony has decided is "enough" for a next generation gaming console that's suppose to last for 10 years.

The problem is that wireless-G technologies weren't made to handle today's highly demanding HD streams. DVD quality streams, no problem, but HD? The average compressed 1080p HD stream runs an average of 25Mbps. 720p HD streams are usually around 8-10Mbps. If you've ever tried Tversity, PS3 Media Server, or PlayOn, you'll quickly realize that 4Mpbs is pretty much the cap for wireless HD streaming without having it choke and do all sorts of weird things. 4Mpbs?! That's half of 720p. That's not next-gen, if you ask us.

The Vox PS3 Group took a shot at it and found that there is a very, very convoluted way of upgrading the PS3 to wireless-N since 1) it does not support wireless-N natively and 2) the PS3 does not support usb-wireless sticks.

Pretty much the only workaround is to follow this tutorial which basically asks that you set up a 2nd access point as a repeater, wire the PS3 up through ethernet, and manually set up the IP. It's a pain in the ass, but supposedly, it works.

One change we would recommend, however, is to experiment around a bit with some gigabit routers instead of the one Asmodeus (the Vox PS3 group blogger) used in his tests. Gigabit allows for much more data to pass through and may raise the bottleneck on the PS3 even further.

While a workaround is nice, we still do find it fairly stupid on Sony's part to not include a wireless-N upgrade feature, forcing users to go out of their way and come up with elaborate solutions like these in order to get something as simple as HD streaming to work properly. Shame on you, Sony!

Comments (11)

So basically, to stream hd movies via wifi you need an ethernet wire ?

...

what else ?

Interesting article.

4 Mbps is low for 54G. You should be seeing up to 10-15 Mbps.

.11n will give you about 150-200 Mbps, assuming you're running 40 MHz channels and 2 spatial streams (pretty much the top of the line in current consumer gear), so upgrading to a gigabit router will indeed remove the 100Mbps wire bottleneck. Either one should be sufficient for HD streaming, though.

A much more important issue (and one that can even be addressed on an 802.11g network) is contention. If you've got 5 laptops and your PS3 all connected to the same WLAN, the PS3 has to fight for airtime. This can be remedied by using a WMM-capable AP, enabling WMM on the PS3 and making sure that your media server program supports 802.1p/WMM tagging. This allows the media server to "tag" outbound packets as video, which then get prioritized over other packets by your AP.

yeah i mean i just plug mine in to the router using an ethernet cable. not a problem for me as my router is in my media console. personally i think the one big problem with the PS3 is the crap internet browser and lack of RAM which makes streaming content from hulu and stuff really hard. if only you could get boxee on it without having to put playon through a 3rd party PC. I don't have a desktop.

4Mbps is low, but I notice I get really low speeds too, so for some reason wireless on the PS3 is even slower than it theoretically should be.

A real shame - I thought when they released the slim PS3 they would have upgraded the wireless card...

You can cut through all the crazyiness by buying a inline/ac type router like SLING sells.

Its basically two routers in the kit. One is connected to ur wired connection on ur main router, then u plug it in to the wall ac outlet.

The ac connects the connection close to wired speeds.

The second router u plug ur ps3 into. Voila / easy.

I paid 120 bucks for it and I can stream the biggest 1080 p file with no hiccups and there are no wires because it takes it through the ac current in the home.

@ToeKnee Thanks for the link! I'm totally gonna check this out!

Just get a 360.
It's probably the one device made by Microsoft that actually does what it does really really really well.
Between my 360 and my Windows Home Server, my media needs are well met.

"So basically, to stream hd movies via wifi you need an ethernet wire ? "

And another full PC that's capable of decoding 1080p movies on the fly. This is the reason I didn't end up getting a PS3. It says it can play HD, but sony is very sneaky in claiming this. If I had gone with a PS3, as I *almost* did, I would have had to upgrade my media server to something that can decode 1080p in real-time. Suddenly purchase price goes from $300 to $300 new PC.

When someone releases a console that can decode 1080p h264 content, not just stream it from a media server, I'll be all over it with a fist full of money.

As I'm not a new-school gamer (Nintendo 64 rocks!) I went with an XBMC box. Snatched up an Acer Revo 1600 from WorstBuy and slid in another gig of ram. Installed XBMC live and BAM--it plays anything I throw at it. Granted, its connected via ethernet to my wireless-N router. However streaming 1080p content from my iMac (wireless) works very well.

I had issues streaming even over a wired connection until I disabled UPNP on my "slim" PS3... I can understand Sony not putting a draft-N WiFi chip in the "fat" PS3 - not so sure about leaving it out of the newly released "slim".

For me, the media streaming was a bonus since I got the PS3 mostly for gaming and Blue-ray playback. Using PS3 Media Server on an older dual core 3Ghz PC in the office works perfectly with a 100Meg wired connection.