Disk file formatting for the PS3 discussion

[richteer]

Originally Posted by manikin

Paidgeek would it be possible to request support for ntfs format support for addon drives instead of fat32 only.

NTFS? God forbid. OpenSolaris' ZFS would be better: superior design and open source (read: no nasty royalty fees to worry sbout).

ZFS is the Blu-ray of file systems! :-)

[PeterTHX]

Originally Posted by richteer

NTFS? God forbid. OpenSolaris' ZFS would be better: superior design and open source (read: no nasty royalty fees to worry sbout).

ZFS is the Blu-ray of file systems! :-)

That may be but the majority of media center ready PCs out there are NTFS. Say what you will about Microsoft and HD DVD but I use Windows Vista Ultimate and would love for the PS3 to be able to read the files on my external hard drives.

[L or S of Perfect?]

Originally Posted by manikin

Paidgeek would it be possible to request support for ntfs format support for addon drives instead of fat32 only.

NTFS for the ps3, drivers for varied photo printers (versus only epson), support to connect bluetooth phones (to transfer pictures, etc), support for more than 1 bluetooth headset, support for more video formats.

These would be nice as well. The DNLA server option is cool, but it's too bad a lot of the video formats aren't supported by the ps3

[darkedgex]

Originally Posted by PeterTHX

That may be but the majority of media center ready PCs out there are NTFS. Say what you will about Microsoft and HD DVD but I use Windows Vista Ultimate and would love for the PS3 to be able to read the files on my external hard drives.

Yup, NTFS support would be very cool and make a lot more sense.

I'll also join the choir asking for/about DivX/XviD support (obviously inside an AVI container). Even better if it supported HD resolutions in this format.

[Iceman_II]

Originally Posted by darkedgex

Yup, NTFS support would be very cool and make a lot more sense.

I'll also join the choir asking for/about DivX/XviD support (obviously inside an AVI container). Even better if it supported HD resolutions in this format.

I think I asked about containers MANY pages ago, specifically the MKV containers

[NutsAboutPS3]

Originally Posted by manikin

Paidgeek would it be possible to request support for ntfs format support for addon drives instead of fat32 only.

So that is why my USB hard drive isn't recognised!!! I'd been thinking of buying a bigger CF card to be able to play larger video files on the PS3 but clearly that isn't going to work as it will be limited to 2GB files anyway if it only supports FAT32 not NTFS.

I'd like to add myself to the list of people requesting NTFS support, then. And decoding of more formats, particularly mkv to allow full 5.1 audio with avc video.

[Hussla]

Originally Posted by NutsAboutPS3

So that is why my USB hard drive isn't recognised!!! I'd been thinking of buying a bigger CF card to be able to play larger video files on the PS3 but clearly that isn't going to work as it will be limited to 2GB files anyway if it only supports FAT32 not NTFS.

I'd like to add myself to the list of people requesting NTFS support, then. And decoding of more formats, particularly mkv to allow full 5.1 audio with avc video.

FAT only supports a max of 2gb

FAT32 will support much larger, trust me!

I use a portable 20gb USB HD which is fat32 with my PS3 and it works just fine!

[H9k_]

Add me to the list that wants better support for other filesystem that can handle larger files (and formats)

Having big (and legal) hd files split into thosand parts and no playlist option, having to use the remote every minute to try and watch something is living hell.
The DLNA helped ALOT, but stil...

[blubb]

Originally Posted by H9k_

Add me to the list that wants better support for other filesystem that can handle larger files (and formats)

Having big (and legal) hd files split into thosand parts and no playlist option, having to use the remote every minute to try and watch something is living hell.
The DLNA helped ALOT, but stil...

The max file size of FAT32 is 4GB, not 2GB.

NTFS is not an open format and can not be easily supported by anyone but MS.

[Iceman_II]

Sorry about the off topic post, but if I put this over in the discussion thread, no one will see it.

For all that are concerned about big files on your USB devices on the PS3, simply stream the files over your network, and you don't need to concern yourself with file sizes.

Feel free to return to your regularly scheduled topic.

[frank_t]

Originally Posted by Iceman_II

Sorry about the off topic post, but if I put this over in the discussion thread, no one will see it.

For all that are concerned about big files on your USB devices on the PS3, simply stream the files over your network, and you don't need to concern yourself with file sizes.

Feel free to return to your regularly scheduled topic.

Sure. But I have an external 500GB USB drive, which I do stream from over the network. On the other hand, I don't want to format it NTFS because I want to be able to keep it portable. NTFS ties me to Windows.

Fat32 of course is limited to a max file size of 4GB (please correct me if I'm wrong here; lots of FUD around about Fat32). And of course, there is the windows constraint when formatting Fat32 (use another format utility folks!)

[Hussla]

Really really odd! I thought fat32 handled much larger than 4gb ?!?!?! I retract my previous comments then


weird the 20gb HD i have worked fine with the ps3 ....

[Iceman_II]

More off-topic - Sorry in advance


Hussla, you are confusing partition size with file size, yes FAT32 handles HUGE partitions (8TB or 16TB with 64k clusters), but it only allows a maximum of 4GB per FILE. I have a 500GB external hooked up to my PS3, but I had to format it to FAT32 to do it.

[Bombthroat]

Originally Posted by frank_t

Sure. But I have an external 500GB USB drive, which I do stream from over the network. On the other hand, I don't want to format it NTFS because I want to be able to keep it portable. NTFS ties me to Windows.

Fat32 of course is limited to a max file size of 4GB (please correct me if I'm wrong here; lots of FUD around about Fat32). And of course, there is the windows constraint when formatting Fat32 (use another format utility folks!)

If you have your portable drive connected to a PC you can use any filesystem you want and just stream the data to the PS3 via DLNA.

[jon s]

Originally Posted by blubb

The max file size of FAT32 is 4GB, not 2GB.

NTFS is not an open format and can not be easily supported by anyone but MS.

Actually, FAT32 is a very confusing format.

Microsoft designed Windows XP, 2000 to allow only a FAT32 partition up to a maximun of 32GB in a move to force users to migrate to their NTFS file system, but Windows 95/98 originally supported a 127GB FAT32 partition.

Technically, FAT32 supports a total of approximately 268,435,456 (228) clusters, allowing for drive sizes in the range of 8 terabytes with 32K clusters, but the boot sector of a hard drive uses a 32 bit field that limits volume size to 232 sectors (2TB on a hard disk with 512 byte sectors) As mentioned earlier, tho, there is a limit on each file of 4GB (minus one byte). A big issue with FAT file systems is that it takes a long time to determine free space as it must look thru the entire FAT linearly.

Typical of Microsoft, they design something that looks great on paper only to screw up the implementation (X-Box 360 anyone?).

[Iceman_II]

Originally Posted by jon s

Actually, FAT32 is a very confusing format.

Microsoft designed Windows XP, 2000 to allow only a FAT32 partition up to a maximun of 32GB in a move to force users to migrate to their NTFS file system, but Windows 95/98 originally supported a 127GB FAT32 partition.

Technically, FAT32 supports a total of approximately 268,435,456 (228) clusters, allowing for drive sizes in the range of 8 terabytes with 32K clusters, but the boot sector of a hard drive uses a 32 bit field that limits volume size to 232 sectors (2TB on a hard disk with 512 byte sectors) As mentioned earlier, tho, there is a limit on each file of 4GB (minus one byte). A big issue with FAT file systems is that it takes a long time to determine free space as it must look thru the entire FAT linearly.

Typical of Microsoft, they design something that looks great on paper only to screw up the implementation (X-Box 360 anyone?).

More off topic - sorry again...

ACTUALLY EP and 2000 recognize FAT32 partitions over 32GB, you just need to format the partition under OTHER than the OS

[scott1256ca]

Question to Paidgeek:

While I understand Sony might have issues with NTFS support on the PS3, I just tried to format a USB disk as ext2 (linux) hoping that would be supported, since linux can be installed on the PS3. Could you please ask those in a position for ext2 (or ext3) support on PS3?

Thanks

[MrBogey]

I say go ZFS as stated above. Allow MKV container support too. Both open source.

Blu-ray's better because it doesn't hold onto the past in order to shoehorn itself into today. Putting NTFS support into it just helps MS increase their revenue streams. For Mac users it wouldn't be much of an issue at all. Give ZFS a good reason for existing in the PC environment and force them to accept our standards.

Same with MKV.