22 Amazing PS3 Tips - Part 2
28th Mar 2007 | 09:50
12) Upgrade your hard drive We took the drive out of our PS3 and found it to be a Seagate Momentus 5400rpm 60Gb 2.5inch SATA drive. We swapped ours out effortlessly for a Seagate Momentus 120Gb 2.5inch SATA drive and it worked perfectly. Remove the cover flap on the bottom of your PS3 with a fingernail. Undo the blue screw and slide the drive over to the right and out of your PS3. Undo the four screws on the 'caddy' and remove the old drive. Put your new drive in the caddy (it should be exactly the same size, of course) and re-do the four screws. Slot it back in and slide to the left to make the connections. Re-do the blue screw, pop the cover back on and restart your PS3. Say 'yes' the message on screen and voila - new super-size hard-drive. (Go to Settings, System Settings, System Information to check.
13) Play any video format on PS3
Download PSPvideo9 to your PC. It's available for free from www.pspvideo9.com. Use the program to convert your AVIs, MOVs, DivX and WMA files to MP4 format. You can even convert VOB files (which you'll find in the Video TS folder on your DVDs). Now make a folder on a USB stick called 'PS3' and inside that one make a folder called 'VIDEO'. Drag your new MP4 files to this folder and put the stick in your PS3. Head to the Movie folder on your PS3 and select the stick. You'll see your (formerly banned) files there ready for playback.
14) Store all your stuff
Want to back up your data? Perhaps in readiness for a spot of Linux (see later). Head to Settings, Backup Utility. Your PS3 will now try and find devices connected to your PS3, to use as a back up location. Any cards inserted in slots (USB sticks, Compact Flash, MS Pro Duo or SD card) will be found. Likewise any external hard drives plugged into USB.
Forget about backing up movies and game downloads - they're enormous and you can always download them again - unless you've got an external USB hard drive plugged in there.
15) Share your downloads
You can download anything you've bought from the store to five PlayStation 3's. This is useful if you've got more than one PS3 (of course) and also if you've wiped your hard-drive and don't fancy paying for the same download twice... However, you can also choose to share your download with your mates. The PlayStation Store logs how many times each download has been downloaded by each user. On your mate's PS3 Create New User and log onto the store with your ID. You'll now be able to go to your download and see that you've already downloaded whatever it was that you paid for. You can now download it again, using another of your downloads and giving it to your mate for free. Or a small optional charge...
16) Have a light show
Select a music track from your Music menu then press Triangle to bring up the control panel. Choose the second icon in on the top row and press Cross (it looks like a planet - two interlocking loops). This will full-frame the 'music visualizer'. Sit nice and close to the screen and chill out to the lava-lamp grooves...
17) Customise your slide shows
During a photo slide-show move the right stick on the Sixaxis to zoom in on images and to alter the speed of the playback.
18) Hack any password
Using a PS3 that has been locked out of internet access or movie playback? Go to System, System Settings and choose Restore Default Settings. This will reset all settings, including setting the password back to '0000' (four zeroes).
19) Manage your online cash
Go to Friends and choose Account Management to see all your downloads so far and be given the option to add more funds to your online wallet - useful if you're using your parents credit card rather than having a wallet-less account of your own registered...
20) Force PS3 to show your stuff
Put your photos in a folder called 'PICTURE' or your videos in a folder called 'VIDEO' or simply *force* your PS3 to look at your files on your stick regardless of what you called them or where you put them. Insert your stick and go to the menu option you want (Photos, Music, whatever). Press Triangle to bring up a menu and choose Display All. This will show every file on the stick. It even works for a plugged-in iPod, though the multi-folder structure you'll reveal is a bit baffling. Still, your songs are in there if you've got the patience to find them.
21) Get your PS3 game saves onto your PS3
There's only one thing for it: The official Sony PS3 Memory Card Adapter. Plug this small box into your PS3 and you can then plug your cards into it and copy the saves on board across. Phew - you don't have to replay that 100 hours of San Andreas... The £10-to-£15 price tag seems steep but once you've copied over your card(s) you'll never need it again, meaning that you can sell it on. Why not club together with your mates and buy one.
22) Change your album art
When you import a music CD your PS3 automatically pulls down the album art and stores it with the tracks. Occasionally it gets it wrong, however, or it may simply not be able to find the art of your hipper, less commercial tracks. This is easily fixed however. Download a pic of the art you need as a jpg on your PC and put it onto a stick (in a folder called PICTURE, ideally). Copy it to your Photo menu (press Triangle). Now go to Music and select the album folder with the offending art. Press Triangle and select Information. Go to the Photo menu and select your new picture. Bingo.
And that's it. Tomorrow - your questions answered. In the meantime, head over to the PS3 Tech Forum and talk about how you're finding PS3 tech-wise.
