The PS3 can play any format....

Providing you install a LINUX partition.

(just upgraded mine to YELLOW DOG 6)

you can plug the ipod directly into the 360 and access all the music, the same way if it was through a network.

PS3 is Divx certified and the 360 is not. People who have both say that the PS3 can play back more Divx/Xvid files than the 360 can. I don't think either one can play Quicktime files. The PS3 can use Windows Media Player 11 or Nero to stream just about any file to your TV screen.

The biggest advantage the PS3 has is that it can play more files and you can connect an external HDD to it. I share my internet with four people, and cable has crap for upload, so streaming is out of the question for me. The 360 CANNOT connect to an external HDD.

Once you plug in the external HDD to the PS3, you just hit triangle and click display all on the drive and you can play files directly off it or copy them to your hard drive.  Very seamless and, at least for me, more convenient than streaming everything off of your PC.

I don't think either one can play .VOB files.

The PS3 can copy stuff right off of a burned DVD/CD directly to the HDD.

Overall the PS3 has better options because it doesn't lock out as many third-party peripherals. Older Ipods work fine with the PS3 (the only ones that don't are the Classic models and the 3G Nanos and maybe the Touch).  You can install Linux as well (pretty simple process), and then you can play absolutely anything.

akuma, you are making stuff up.

360 CAN connect to an external hdd, i do it to play videos all the time. they only things is that the external hdd MUST be formatted in fat32 at most, it won't work with ntfs, but that is exactly the same with ps3 because ntfs is only recognisable by windows xp and vista. like i said, i own both consoles and i use the external hdd for both of them.

ps3 plays more file formats, BUT, divx is better supported by 360, only 2/3 of my divx collection work on ps3, but they ALL work on my 360. yes, ps3 is divx certified, but that only means they can use divx technology in games. 360 does divx better through my experience.

my girlfriends 2g ipod nano doesn't work well in both mine and her ps3. they work flawlessly on my 360.

you are correct about ps3 being able to rip/transfer music/videos/pictures from any media source to and from it's hdd, whilst the 360 can't, which i find strange and annoying.

You are making stuff up as well. I've kind of skimmed over, but I'm willing to bet you stream your DivX files to your 360 from your PC. If that's the case, it's something like TVersity. It doesn't support the actual DivX format itself, but the Windows Media Player 11 or TVersity converts the file in real time to a format supported by the 360. Same with the PS3 using TVersity. TVersity converts my DivX files into MPEG-1 in real-time when using it with my PS3.

I don't have a 360, but doesn't it only support WMV directly? That's what I've read, that you can only play WMV without streaming. I've looked around online to see if I can get DivX to work on the 360 without streaming because my friend doesn't have the wireless adapter for his 360 to connect to his router and doesn't want to waste his time converting files, but I haven't found anything that doesn't have to deal with streaming the files to the 360.

You can put DivX files directly on the PS3s HDD or external media and play it from the PS3. As well as MPEG-1, MPEG-2, and MPEG-4. I don't have a 360, so I'm sorry if I have misinformation on it.

wait, what? you're telling me i'm making stuff up when i OWN a 360, and you dont? the 360 supports divx NATIVELY. microsoft themselves stated that it does, i play divx files off my external HDD aswell as network streaming, and i don't use tversity, i use windows media center extender, which DOESN't convert. now unless my external hard drive is converting my divx files for me, im pretty certain that 360 supports divx directly. 360 DOES support divx directly.

what? proof i hear you say?

http://www.xbox.com/en-US/support/systemuse/xbox360/digitalmedia/videoplaybackfaq.htm#avi

 Jeez, no need to get your panties in a wad. I said I didn't own a 360 and that I was sorry if I had some misinformation about it. Not like I said you were stupid or anything. Just said I was googling it out and all I found was on how to stream the damn things, not how to play them directly. As for the PS3 supporting DivX, it supports the format fully. I have yet to see my PS3 not recognize a DivX file.

I've gotten files that wouldn't play, but if you go to information, the PS3 recognizes that it's a DivX file. More often than not, DivX files that won't play on the PS3 are from unsupported audio formats (since the avi format is pretty much a container) or different lengths in the audio and video. That's pretty much the only problem I've had with DivX files on my PS3, some are encoded to where the audio length is longer than the video length so the video only plays for a short time on the PS3.

Not something VirtualDub can't fix though, just put a direct stream copy for the video and audio and change it so the frame rate matches the audio length, and the process is done in like 10 seconds. Pretty easy fix. The DivX format itself is fully supported by the PS3, just can't really handle some weirdly encoded files. 

Did they change the 360's ability to use external HDD's, because I swore I read in many different places that it couldn't use them? It is a good thing if it can, since that is the easiest way for most people to watch their stuff. Can it copy files directly from an external drive to the internal drive?

I have encountered some Divx files that the PS3 couldn't play.

i didn't appreciate the fact that you said i was making stuff up, when you had no proof that i was, and i had clear proof that i wasn't. i apologise for the way i reacted, but not for what i said. the ps3 may recognise it but the fact that it doesn't play it is a pain, where as the 360 will play it regardless. all my divx files actually PLAY on my 360, some of the same files don't on my ps3, even though it is recognised as a divx file. i can understand that the audio codec in the file container is the problem, but that's why i said divx is hit and miss with ps3.

it can use them, if the hard-drive is formatted to fat32 file system. exactly the same requirement for the ps3. and no you can't copy files to the 360, which is a major flaw in my books.