Topic: An annoyance with the PS3, and a solution

[idolminds]

So I got a PS3 and I'm really liking it. I can't play multiplayer, at least not Blazblue, but I can download stuff from PSN. Already grabbed the demos for Age of Booty and PixelJunk Eden.

Those downloads are fine, they were small and I can do them in the background. You can pause them and restart them just the way nature intended. Sadly, and here comes the annoyance, game patches/updates can not be done in the background. You can't pause them. You have to get them all in one go and you can't use the system for anything else while this happens.

Which of course is something I really can't do. Especially something like Burnout Paradise which has a ton of large updates.

Thankfully, hackers have found a way around this. Using a program called "PS3 Proxy", the PS3 does all its connections through it and its all logged. So start a download or update and it will show the URL for the file! So I can now download that file away from my PS3 (like say, the book stores free high speed wifi). The proxy also allows you to redirect the url to a file on your local machine. So the PS3 will use the files Ive downloaded instead of trying to get them online (ie, my PC becomes the patch server).

I'll test this out and report back how well it works, but so far it seems easy enough. It'll even work for PSN demos and stuff so I can grab those off high speed instead of over days at home.

Hooray for hackers! Making Sony products work better since...insert year.

[Quemaqua]

Heh, that's pretty awesome.  Between that and PS Media Tunnel it seems like most things are covered.

I wonder why most people would want this, though?  Like who came up with it?  Was it a guy in a similar situation to you?  Because most people really don't need to look for a solution to that problem, I wouldn't think.

[idolminds]

Two reasons that I can think of.

1) Game updates can be huge (Burnout) and can not be done in the background, so you can't use your PS3 while they download. Using this you can download the update on your PC and use your PS3 in the meantime.

2) Not entirely sure, but it looks like people were downloading stuff like full games and installing them with this method. So potential piracy means program gets made.

[Quemaqua]

That sucks about the latter part.

[Ghandi]

The worst I dealt with in terms of forced downloading on the PS3 was with Burnout. It took maybe half an hour or so (dunno exactly) but that was with a lot of content. This is a godsend if you are on dialup but I'm willing to bet the majority of broadband users use it for illegal stuff.

[idolminds]

It works as advertised. I tested it with the update for Uncharted since its small (13MB). Was a fairly simple process, too. So now the updates and demo files I can either download on my PC with pause and resume possible, or download them quickly at the book store with my laptop.

Was a neat moment for me. I put Uncharted in and it wanted to update, so I said ok. It pops up and sits there...slowly downloading. I stop it, head to the PC, redirect the patch URL to the file I had downloaded before, then back to the PC to patch again. This time the progress bar just zipped by, installed, and the game started.

Happiness fills me.

EDIT

It looks like this might not be used for piracy after all. The game still has to be registered to you and such, so technically you could install it but not play it until you buy it.

[Ghandi]

Changing subjects, I loved Uncharted. Probably my favorite game I played last year, which is odd because combat isn't perfect and the puzzles aren't too challenging. But the game is fun. I'm looking forward to the next one.

[Xessive]

Awesome! That always bugged me about the PS3. I've suggested a change to Sony several times, specifically to add a "Check for updates" option in the game disc menu (when you push Triangle on the disc icon) and a download in background option if there is an update. According to some internet chatter, they do intend to change it at some point in the future but there's been no word on when exactly, but that's just talk right now.

[iPPi]

Interesting find. 

I also recommend picking up mkv2vob and PS3 Media Server if you intend to use your PS3 for media playing purposes.

[Quemaqua]

PS3 Media Server or PS Media Tunnel?  I don't know if there's a difference or if you just typed the latter one wrong.  Either way, I've used PSMT and I love it to death.  Highly recommended.

[iPPi]

PS3 Media Server. 

[Xessive]

PS3 Media Server is quite good, it gets the job done but you need to keep it running at all times.

I felt TVersity was better all-round, and you only needed the tiny background service running rather than the whole application for media to be shared. It's great for most devices too, not just the PS3. The great advantage it has over most other Media Server apps is the live transcoding. I could view practically any video file without having to convert it to any other format first. Luckily the PS3 natively supports DivX videos but with TVersity I could watch transcoded MKVs through the network. The one issue I came across is with heavy, high-resolution files; transcoding is just not enough.

[idolminds]

Cool, grabbing all of those to play with. Though I dont really have a lot of media to watch.

[ScaryTooth]

I tried and tried to get tversity set up with my xbox 360, but I couldn't get it to work. I wasted many an hour on it. For some reason, my xbox just couldn't find the server.

[iPPi]

PS3 Media Server is quite good, it gets the job done but you need to keep it running at all times.

I felt TVersity was better all-round, and you only needed the tiny background service running rather than the whole application for media to be shared. It's great for most devices too, not just the PS3. The great advantage it has over most other Media Server apps is the live transcoding. I could view practically any video file without having to convert it to any other format first. Luckily the PS3 natively supports DivX videos but with TVersity I could watch transcoded MKVs through the network. The one issue I came across is with heavy, high-resolution files; transcoding is just not enough.

PS3 media server does live transcoding as well.  Transcodes HD mkvs perfectly fine. 

I also had tons of trouble getting TVersity to work that I gave up on it.  I believe it was an earlier release though and it might be significantly better than it was beforehand, but I've already got what I need with PS3 Media Server.

[Xessive]

PS3 media server does live transcoding as well.  Transcodes HD mkvs perfectly fine. 

I also had tons of trouble getting TVersity to work that I gave up on it.  I believe it was an earlier release though and it might be significantly better than it was beforehand, but I've already got what I need with PS3 Media Server.

Oh sweet! I was using a much earlier version, so they must have added that feature in. Awesome!

TVersity was very troublesome, especially with their faulty GUI exe. The infrastructure is solid, it's just the GUI that has issues. I ended up using the command prompt for quick tasks like adding/removing a folder or refreshing. Alternatvely you can laod the GUI in the browser which functions perfectly compared to loading the exe.

[idolminds]

Another update. I went to the book store today and downloaded a bunch of Burnout Paradise patches. Luckily they were all on some PSN file link list I found. Unfortunately, some of the links arent labeled well. I got the 1.30, 1.40, 1.50, 1.60, 1.20, and 1.80 patches. 1.90 link (the newest version) is not available. And the 1.60 I downloaded was for the PSN downloadable version of the game. But I got it updated to 1.50 so far, so it has bikes, time of day settings, and trophies. Only I basically have to start over to get all the trophies for the things I've already completed. That blows.

The problem with using this method is getting the links. I can be certain of the link if I do it myself, but for Burnout there are a total of 7 updates and it only requests one at a time. So I don't know the link for the, for example, 1.90 update. The only way for me to get it would be to install the 1.80 update first.

Hmm...maybe I can get it out of the XML file that lists updates? Oooh, that might be possible. I have to check. *update* aww, fail.