I have a confession to make. I’m a gadget geek, through and through. In the main living room I have a Mac Mini running the awesome Plex hooked up to a Drobo and HDTV, along with an Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 and various other audio/visual toys. Unfortunately this meant the only way I could watch my media in bed was via apps such as StreamToMe on my iPad. Seeing as how I was using my PS3 less and less for gaming, I decided to move it upstairs and hook it up to my (ancient) CRT TV. And thus my frustrations began.

Streaming media to the 360 and PS3 from a Mac is made simple by Rivet, but only after tweaking every network setting on the PS3. But eventually I could connect to the Mini and stream files to watch. Family Guy at 3am, it would be brilliant!

And for a time it was. Normally fifteen minutes. Then the fans would cut in and drown out the sound of the TV, and road traffic, and air traffic. I knew the PS3 was loud having heard it spin up when playing games, but when watching a show with the volume down low it became unbearable. And this was streaming a low-quality avi file, what would it be like with a 15Gb HD film?

Unfortunately I didn’t get to find out. Like most, I store my high-def films in MKVs and believed after reading online these would be supported. Oh no, only a few select sub-formats are supported. So no high-def films, okay, they’d only be shown on an SD TV anyway. I can live with that. Let’s watch a normal film!

And here comes my biggest gripe: the PS3 is no looker. The interface is general feels unpolished and ill-thought out. But the entire video section? Monkeys. That’s what Sony hired when they thought this through. Maybe I’ve been spoilt by using proper controls in Plex, but even the 360 is usable. Instead the PS3 presents a basic interface, the controls and menus are a bugger to navigate and I’ve resorted to just starting something and leaving it. The 360 presents a simple horizontal bar showing your current progression and the most common controls that are easily visible. The PS3 by comparison has three rows of a dozen or so little icons that are barely visible against a light background. And then there’s the small things one takes for granted such as accidentally quit a file and re-open it, no auto-jump to where you were.

All in all, the PS3 does as advertised: it plays videos. Why anyone would choose one as their primary media centre is beyond reason. It will do because I only use it for the last few minutes of the day to relax. But for anyone who is serious about watching their media, get a Mac Mini and bung Plex on it.