Struggling to get PS3 to play AVCHD DVD

If you want it to play as an AVCHD disc (not a HD DVD; that is a dead format and you are not making one anyway) then you must use Toast with the Blu-ray plugin.

You can put a number of files on a DVD-R and open them in the PS3 media browser. As long as they are in the proper format and have a proper file extension, they will play but you have to select them manually.

For a disc to play automatically it has to be authored as a DVD, BD-R, or AVCHD disc. You just dropped a file on a blank disc.

For a PS3, I would recommend using a thumb drive.
Render your movie in h.264, but save it in a MP4 wrapper (not M4V).
Drag the movie to your thumb drive, and plug it into the PS3.

Doing this as a data DVD should also work. Try it as MP4.

I am copying below an old post from Dan Hawkins, which provides more detail.
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from Dan Hawkins:

I am using a PS3 to preview HD video edited in FCE-3.5.1HD with the following QT-PRO export settings:

1) export from FCE using Quicktime conversion
2) select format MPEG-4
3) select options:
a) under file format select MP4 (not MP4 ISMA)
b) under video tab select H.264
data rate in the range of about 10000 to 18000 kbits/sec depending on what filesize/quality you are shooting for
image size---select 1280X720HD or 1920X1080HD
frame rate---select 29.97 or "current" if already on a editing timeline of that type
key frame---select either automatic or every 24 frames
video options---select "MAIN" profile and single pass encoding (when I use "MULTI-PASS" encoding I get a "FILE UNREADABLE" error message on my PS3)
c) under audio tab select default AAC-LC
d) under streaming tab select default "not enabled"
I transfer the resulting high definition .MP4 file to the PS3 by one of the following methods:
ethernet network connection
iPod/thumb drive
SD-card

I have to hit the "alternate menu" under the PS3 video section and select "display all files" to see the video file and then save it to the local PS3 HDD (some dumb programming there!).

I have heard there might be an upper limit of 4Gb on the file size (if so, another dumb move), but have not come across that limitation yet (I just got the PS3 about a week ago and am working through some of the same issues you seem to be struggling with).

I think that some of the confusion regarding the PS3 relative to playing back HD from regular DVD-R is that the PS3 will hardware decode a properly encoded .MP4 HD video file from whatever media it is presented on and as such does not require a HD "authoring" container with menus and such. These so called "HD authoring tools" are currently in a pretty confused state at the moment and are the source of much incompatibility with many HD playback devices, but the PS3 bypasses all of that and plays the file directly through hardware decoding.
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To make an AVCHD disc, Toast and Final Cut Studio can author it. Yes, you need one of those. But don't bother encoding to H.264 if you are going to use Toast. Just export as a QT movie in the native format, and Toast will convert it for you.

AppleMan, you are correct, but the OP seemed to want a disc that plays automatically. This means it has to be authored as an AVCHD disc.

I would offer to the OP that making AVCHD discs can be a bit of a pain. You may want to do as AppleMan describes because of its simplicity and live with its inadequacies, or get a Blu-ray burner and make those.

To underscore what AppleMan said, you don't need to burn these to disc if you can live with selecting the files to play from the media bar. You could use a flash drive, stream them from your Mac with MediaLink server, or transfer them to the internal hard drive.

I gave up on AVCHD discs; too many little problems and some players don't play them well.

Jeremy

You don't need FCE. You can export using quicktime from iMovie and choose similar parameters in the QuickTime dialog boxes.

This seems to have stopped working for me with FCE 4.0.1 "Unsupported data" on PS3

Very helpful post!! Thank you AppleMan!!