To those storing your mp3's on the PS3

[Groo The Perverted]

Couple questions.

Someone told me that the PS3 imports your mp3's and just sticks them all in one big folder, and doesn't separate them by album.

If that's true, I was thinking of just using an mp3 joiner program to combine an album into one long mp3, that way if I have five albums by one artist, it doesn't just mix all the tracks throughout with other albums.

Also, can you play the music while you are playing a game, or is it separate?

[tilapiah6]

Yes, it groups them all into one folder. No, you cannot play them while playing a game. The only thing you can do while playing mp3s is look at photos and browse the Internet.

It really is lame that they group them like that. You can re-arrange them by artist, year, or album (I think) but it really doesn't help much.

[witheygull]

You can change the organization of the mp3s in a number of different ways, including having them sorted by album. Press for the options menu and select whatever takes your fancy. In-game custom music is an option that developers can employ but rarely do, there are only a few games that support this option.

[caliblue15]

Originally Posted by tilapiah6

Yes, it groups them all into one folder. No, you cannot play them while playing a game. The only thing you can do while playing mp3s is look at photos and browse the Internet.

It really is lame that they group them like that. You can re-arrange them by artist, year, or album (I think) but it really doesn't help much.

Um, you actually can play mp3's during games, just depends on the game.

[vladittude0583]

Originally Posted by tilapiah6

Yes, it groups them all into one folder. No, you cannot play them while playing a game. The only thing you can do while playing mp3s is look at photos and browse the Internet.

It really is lame that they group them like that. You can re-arrange them by artist, year, or album (I think) but it really doesn't help much.

Wipeout HD is one game that I know of that allows you to play your "stored" songs via PS3 hard-drive while playing the game instead of the default music for the game.

[partridge]

Burnout Paradise is another, Motorstorm2 as well

You can make playlists then while they are playing you can press the PS button and go off and browse the net, look at photo's etc

[caliminius]

Originally Posted by Dreaming in Blu

Someone told me that the PS3 imports your mp3's and just sticks them all in one big folder, and doesn't separate them by album.

The PS3 has two different options, "Group By" and "Sort By." "Group by" is what is used to create the virtual folders that are displayed on the XMB. "Sort By" is then used to sort either the folders or the contents of the folder. The "Group By" option controls how you can sort and for most "Group By" options you have to go into a subfolder to get any "Sort By" options. Currently mine is grouped by album and sorted by artist. You can change the Group option on the fly using the PS3 controller's square button. The PS3 is also aware of the track numbers and defaults to sorting album tracks by the track number unless you override that by telling it to sort by track name.

The PS3 does a good job of managing media for you. There's no need to do anything funky like ripping a full album as one big mp3 file.

[DR BLU NEO]

Couple Things...

1. You can play mp3s while playing the new Mortal Kombat vs DC game too. I'm surprised I haven't seen that posted yet (or alot). The game seems very popular.

2. I prefer to use the PS3 as my MAIN ripper. But I don't stop there. I then stick in a usb flash drive and move the mp3 to my notebook computer. From there I use free realplayer software to add the artists name, add a picture to the song (I get most of the pics of the album cover from Amazon.com. I sometimes scan the cover the cd myself), change the album name, add a year, add web addresses, etc to each and every mp3 I ripped by the ps3. I've used many rippers in my time. The PS3 is the absolute best. It rips music from cds with hardly, if ever, any errors. This saves a tremendous amount of time because it avoids recording errors (like skips, etc.). I hate that. I think the increase in efficiency and quality of the ripping by the ps3 is due to the latest laser technology (Higher frequency/shorter wavelength blue laser vs older lower frequency/longer wavelength red laser technology) and software. Anyway, after I've renamed each mp3 file to my standards and a lot of other anal changes, I then move the mp3 files back to my ps3. I like my mp3 files to be accurate, complete, with a pic of the album, and detailed to my standards. The ps3 then organizes the files very well then.

I've got a ton of music stored on my ps3 now. I also have the unabridged version of Moby dick (all 18 or so discs) on my ps3. I'm trying to build a huge library of all kinds of music and audio books. The mp3 music sounds the best playing from a ps3 with the latest ps3 updates. My notebook computer can't come close to duplicating the tonal beauty coming from the PS3.

Another thing to consider. Storing your music on both your notebook and ps3 is also a good idea. If one of your machines goes down or crashes, you have your music library stored on another machine as back up.

The PS3 is an amazing machine. Besides it being the best blu-ray player on the market, it also is the best mp3 ripper too. I'm starting to use my ps3 for photos as well. I enjoy making photo albums with all kinds of high res HDR photos (Most of the time I get from Flickr.com or google). And then playing recorded mp3 music to them. The combination of mp3s playing to high res hdr photos provides a greater visual and audio experience than playing each separately.

[york weir]

Originally Posted by caliblue15

Um, you actually can play mp3's during games, just depends on the game.

I wish they would require all games to support this feature so it's consistent and not the sole choice of programmers.

[caliblue15]

Originally Posted by york weir

I wish they would require all games to support this feature so it's consistent and not the sole choice of programmers.

I actually like that Sony did that, because there are some games, that just do not need it.

[york weir]

Originally Posted by caliblue15

I actually like that Sony did that, because there are some games, that just do not need it.

If there is a game that you decide doesn't need it then don't use it. For every game that you think doesn't need it I bet there are 10 people that want it.

Obviously a game like MGS4 wouldn't work well as your songs would be interrupted so much with all of the cutscenes.

[Rike255]

Forcing developers to do things is a bad thing imo. Instead of concentrating on what they want to do, they work on some stupid gimmicks.

I like being able to play my own music in some games (like SSHD), but it's totally useless in MGS4 (for example), and thus would be a waste of time, effort, and money to put it in.

[caliblue15]

Originally Posted by york weir

If there is a game that you decide doesn't need it then don't use it. For every game that you think doesn't need it I bet there are 10 people that want it.

Obviously a game like MGS4 wouldn't work well as your songs would be interrupted so much with all of the cutscenes.

You didnt get what I meant. All racing games need it, it would work with shooting games (kind of), sports games (kind of).

But then there are RPG's, and other games, where the soundtrack makes the game.

There is a big debate about this in the field of video games, because it hurts the jobs of song/soundtrack writers.

I personally think only racing games should have it.

[CptGreedle]

As others have said, hit the triangle button once all your mp3s are in your PS3 and choose to arrange content by album. It is easy and you can even add album art to the tracks if you want. I only keep a few things on my PS3, since I prefer listening to music on my computer/radio.
With my iMac, I put all my music on there with iTunes, and with my Airport Express, I hooked up speakers upstairs to it which lets me play music up there. Normally this is not a great way of listening to music since you can only control the music from the computer, but with an ipod touch or iphone, you can download the Apple Remote App which lets you remotely control iTunes (including the remote speakers) from anywhere within the network. It works great! So when I want to listen to music when playing a game, I turn it on from my computer or iphone instead of on my PS3.

[york weir]

Originally Posted by Rike255

Forcing developers to do things is a bad thing imo. Instead of concentrating on what they want to do, they work on some stupid gimmicks.

I like being able to play my own music in some games (like SSHD), but it's totally useless in MGS4 (for example), and thus would be a waste of time, effort, and money to put it in.

Do the developers really have to do any more effort though? Couldn't it be all hardware based and come from a firmware update? I honestly don't know but don't see why not. Like on the 360 I'm pretty sure I can change games while listening to my own music.

[Rike255]

Originally Posted by york weir

Do the developers really have to do any more effort though? Couldn't it be all hardware based and come from a firmware update? I honestly don't know but don't see why not. Like on the 360 I'm pretty sure I can change games while listening to my own music.

I have no idea how it would work, but I'm positive it will take SOMEBODY a bunch of time to implement. Whether it's Sony, or the developer, or whoever.
Point is, why make it mandatory for a game that has no use for it. I'm all for having in game music, but making a developer put it in when they don't want to doesn't really make sense to me either.

[york weir]

Originally Posted by Rike255

I have no idea how it would work, but I'm positive it will take SOMEBODY a bunch of time to implement. Whether it's Sony, or the developer, or whoever.
Point is, why make it mandatory for a game that has no use for it. I'm all for having in game music, but making a developer put it in when they don't want to doesn't really make sense to me either.

I just think it makes for a more seamless experience when all things work the same. You could take the stance of not requiring any extra features and you could lose HD, voice support, trophies, in game music, online etc. Where do you draw the line? Difference of opinion really.

[Rike255]

I know what you mean. I'm glad they forced trophies for 2009, but I don't think in-game music should be forced.

I'm just hard to please

[york weir]

Originally Posted by Rike255

I know what you mean. I'm glad they forced trophies for 2009, but I don't think in-game music should be forced.

I'm just hard to please

LOL

[dk3dknight]

Originally Posted by york weir

I just think it makes for a more seamless experience when all things work the same. You could take the stance of not requiring any extra features and you could lose HD, voice support, trophies, in game music, online etc. Where do you draw the line? Difference of opinion really.

If they are forced to implement it, it would be like me going to your tv and painting a red box in a portion of the screen and telling you that you can not use that portion of the screen anymore....

Theres a cost for any api, and its the devs master piece, if film can have OAR why can't games have OAR or when did the directors opinion no longer mater..

So its okay to tell the directors we don't like that film stock only shoot in this film stock...

"We don't like widescreen style so only shoot films in full frame because we hate seeing black bars..."

Let the directors direct, and let painters paint thats my motto.