Either way, I'll keep you posted – if nothing else, maybe someone else as frustrated as I am digging through the web to find an answer will be able to find one in this little thread, so I appreciate your input.

Hope Santa has a nice big box for you!

I would imagine the quality is pretty good, the file sizes are larger than the ones my ffmpeg command makes, since it seems to be using a higher quality setting.

Personally, I think the major issue is in the UPnP implementation in PS3, it seems to be very picky and I think that is where I was getting lots of trouble. I was using both mediatomb and PS3MediaServer, but gave up on both as they were really killing my PC and the audio kept on going out of sync. I am sure it is possible to get it working, but I just got so p!ssed off with trying to, I gave up and resorted to XBMC.

If I was you, I would try the files directly on the PS3 first and once you have a solution that works well, then see what it is like streaming it via UPnP. When playing these files, the bitrate can hit up to 3 MB/sec it seems on some movies, and considering I can never get files to transfer faster than about 1 MB/sec over my network, I would imagine that causes a lot of pixelation and lag when it comes to UPnP.

Thanks!

Thanks so much for the advice. Truth told, I'm a Mac user, but as such keep Windows in a boot camp partition for just such occasions. And I'm using a UPnP NAS device to serve up the files as well.

I've used Handbrake for years and playback on a Mac or PC is fool proof, or even feeding through to a TV hasn't been an issue at all. But trying to create an acceptable file for the PS3 is downright painful… as you said, the developers don't seem concerned about it, even though their newest version is supposed to have a preset that "just works". Only it *never* does, for me at least.

I'll check out the DVDFab info, and thanks for the discount tip. Last night I tried one of ffmpegX's basic MP4 presets, and it created a file that the PS3 accepted, but it was rather pixel-y on my 46" TV. I then ran through the same movie and selected Hi Quality in the encoding, changing NOTHING else, and the PS3 laughed at me, like how dare I try to stream THAT kind of file to it. That's what blows my mind about this as a media server – it's consistently inconsistent in what files it will play.

I'll try running FF in Windows and try out your code. Cut and paste is easy enough for this Mac head!

Thanks again, and I'll let you know how it works out.

In the end, I gave up trying to get files working for my PS3, it was soooo picky about what it wanted, and since I didn't wanna store them all on the PS3, but use a UPnP server instead, that added even more stress to the situation. So, instead I decided to buy a separate computer, install XBMC (http://www.xbmc.org) on it and that has been the perfect solution ever since. However, this doesn't help you.

There are two solutions I can offer, one is free, but not so easy, the other costs, but is very easy.

The Free Option:
Use Handbrake: http://handbrake.fr/ It has versions for most OS out there, you can rip a DVD using the program (though you need to sort out copy protection before hand), or it can covert files you give it. If you just choose the 'normal' preset and choose an MP4 container, it should create a PS3 compatable file. However, the handbrake devs don't seem that keen on the PS3 and don't officially support it, so I don't know how long this will work. Also, the options in handbrake are pretty confusing for the beginner.

The Non-Free Option:
Use DVDFab 'DVD to Mobile' (http://www.dvdfab.com/dvd-to-mobile.htm) This is about $30, but they are running a 20% discount till 20th December. Using this program is so easy, simply bung in your DVD, choose the PS3 option, select the Title you wanna copy and off you go. It does everything for you, creates decent sized files and most importantly, they work on your PS3. Its the option I use to rip my DVDs since it is so easy. Note, you have to buy the DVDFab DVD to Mobile, since just DVDFab on its own wont create a PS3 compatable file.

If you can work out how to use Handbrake (and it aint that difficult, reading the FAQs and Docs helps) it is a great solution. But if you are lazy and want to use something that you know will always work, use DVDFab DVD to Mobile.

Hope that helps you out.

If you did still want to use my command, I am not sure how to use the GUI for ffmpeg and you might make the wrong selection, so the easiest thing to do is, once you have installed ffmpeg in windows (since I am assuming you are using Windows) open a command prompt (Start>Accessories>Command Prompt) and then type the following:

ffmpeg -y -i "C:/full/path/to your file/here.mpg" -vcodec libx264 -level 41 -vpre normal -crf 24 -threads 0 -acodec libfaac -ab 128k -ac 2 -ar 48000 "C:/full/path/to where you want/the new file/to go.mp4"

So, after the -i part, you write the full path to your input file, so for example "C:/pruperting/My Videos/video.mpg" and then after the -ar 48000 you write the full path to where you want the output file to go, so something like "C:/pruperting/For My PS3/video.mp4" (you must keep it as .mp4 here).

My question to you is, as a total newbie in this realm, can you translate your preset into what I would choose from the GUI ffmpeg interface? Or can you offer a quick solution as to how I would import your preset?

From an incredibly frustrated user, many thanks!

- Dustin