PS3 Media Server / Universal Media Server Guide

[+Audioboxer Subscriber²]

Yep got the x64 version of Java but for some reason when I double click the exe it just won't load the app.

When I go to load the app, a new javaw.exe process is spawned and takes approximately 44mb and then disappears from the process list. I am guessing somewhere along the way the java app is crashing when it is launched through the exe, might try and hunt through the event viewer and work out if I can trace the problem.

At least I still have the main program though :)

Cheers for the guide by the way, very useful indeed :)

Have you got a firewall running? I had to add both PS3MS.exe and JAVA to it.

[jelli]

Considering I have the app running and working fine and just the launcher and plugin not working it would seem like an odd issue to be caused by the plugin.

Worth a try, Java was in the allowed list but PS3MS wasn't added both and still a no go :(

[+Audioboxer Subscriber²]

Considering I have the app running and working fine and just the launcher and plugin not working it would seem like an odd issue to be caused by the plugin.

Worth a try, Java was in the allowed list but PS3MS wasn't added both and still a no go :(

I can confirm when you start it from the jar file the movie info plugin doesn't work, you need to start from EXE.

What version are you running by the way, latest beta?

[jelli]

ok trying another approach using the PMS batch file I am able to get it to tell me that it is unable to find the main class: net.pms.PMS, guess this is why the launcher is crashing. Hmmmm...

Oh well getting windows to launch the jar file seems to allow the main program to work, guess I will try and fix it at some point.

Wonder if it's something to do with Windows 7 Build 7100?

EDIT

Using version 1.11.356

[+Audioboxer Subscriber²]

ok trying another approach using the PMS batch file I am able to get it to tell me that it is unable to find the main class: net.pms.PMS, guess this is why the launcher is crashing. Hmmmm...

Oh well getting windows to launch the jar file seems to allow the main program to work, guess I will try and fix it at some point.

Wonder if it's something to do with Windows 7 Build 7100?

EDIT

Using version 1.11.356

That's not RTM is it?

That will probably be the issue. I'm running RTM.

[jelli]

Yeah that's the RC, PC is due a format but I don't know if I can be bothered considering retail launches in October :/

HUZZAH! Got it working by opening a cmd window and launching the bat file that way... then I closed it and tried again and now no plugins... damn it!

Edited August 18, 2009 by jelli

[+Audioboxer Subscriber²]

Yeah that's the RC, PC is due a format but I don't know if I can be bothered considering retail launches in October :/

HUZZAH! Got it working by opening a cmd window and launching the bat file that way... then I closed it and tried again and now no plugins... damn it!

The only way to get it working is to get rid of that buggy RC build :p

[jelli]

The only way to get it working is to get rid of that buggy RC build :p

But I have had enough issues today already, my beautiful Samsung 32 LCD TV which I used as my monitor went the way of the dodo this morning and I am now using some crappy 19" 'thing' instead. :'(

Maybe I will have a shot at the RTM, might as well leave it downloading overnight.

EDIT, damn I love Sky Broadband, 1.2MB/s xD

[jelli]

Just a quick update, still running the RC build but if you follow these directions it should get plugins working if you have a problem like me with using the launcher.

Click Start and type cmd to launch command line.

Navigate to the install directory, if you used the default directory then type

32 Bit

cd C:\Program Files\PS3 Media Server

64 Bit

cd C:\Program Files (x86)\PS3 Media Server

Then type PMS.bat and press enter

Press enter again once the display from the batch file has appeared.

You should now have PMS working with plugins if you cannot use the launcher.

[Boz]

Please guys.. I'm at the end of my nerves.. I don't get this at all and what might be a problem.

Here's the situation.

1. I rip the BD movie

2. use eac3to to generate mkv and generate lossless FLAC

3. Run MKV Merge (MKVToolnix) and add mkv and flac to it. I set for H264/AVC stream the proper FPS. Not a lot of settings anyways.

4. When the muxing is done I have no errors

5. I use PS3 Media Server to stream to PS3.

The problem is that when the movie starts every second or two I get garbage video white/color lines etc, then I can catch a glimpse of proper video. The sound works great. I get lossless HD audio fine.

I would've thought that it is PS3 Media Server but the problems is that H264/AVC mkv alone works just fine through PS3 Media Server. So it's something that MKV Merge does to the stream to make it look crappy.

What's even more interesting is that when I rip BD with VC1. I go through same procedure. I eac3to to video.vc1 and audio.flac and MKV Merge to one mkv. That streams just fine to PS3 and I get great picture and HD lossless.

I know that not a lot of people are that savvy in this stuff but if you have any ideas or you read somewhere about these issues or something that might be the reason I would really appreciate it. I'm losing my mind. I just don't get it what's going on with MKVToolnix that h264/AVC with FLAC has these problems.

I have also installed:

AVSynth, Hali Media Splitter, ArcSoft Total Media Theater 3, ffdshow

Is there any other MKV+FLAC merging solution?

Thanks!

[+Audioboxer Subscriber²]

Try merging into a M2TS/TS container with TSMuxer instead? I don't know if you can use FLAC with those containers though.

I'm thinking when you're setting the FPS it's messing it up. Maybe try leaving it at default?

Another option is to try creating a permanent file with MKV2VOB instead of letting PS3MediaServer mux on the fly.

By the way Boz the PS3 doesn't support VC-1 through streaming (Unless it's in a WMV-HD container, I'm sure anyway), I believe PS3MediaServer will be transcoding when you're using VC-1 which might explain the okay video.

[Boz]

Try merging into a M2TS/TS container with TSMuxer instead? I don't know if you can use FLAC with those containers though.

I'm thinking when you're setting the FPS it's messing it up. Maybe try leaving it at default?

Another option is to try creating a permanent file with MKV2VOB instead of letting PS3MediaServer mux on the fly.

By the way Boz the PS3 doesn't support VC-1 through streaming (Unless it's in a WMV-HD container, I'm sure anyway), I believe PS3MediaServer will be transcoding when you're using VC-1 which might explain the okay video.

No you can't mux in FLAC into m2ts unfortunately.

MKV2VOB is not a solution. What's the point of using AC3 DVD type sound with VOB when you want BLu-ray and HD Audio. I want files that I can reformat later without losing quality, thus lossless HD audio in FLAC.

True PS3 doesn't support VC-1 unless it's from the disc, but PS3 Media Server works fantastic. That's all I need. MKV Merge decompressed the VC1 file ripped from Blu-ray into VC1 ES and combines with FLAC into MKV. PS3MS streams fine VC1/FLAC mkv and I get 1080p full with lossless audio that's about 4.6mpbs and the file sizes are very small. The biggest benefit though is that i don't have to re-encode anything. it's all muxing. I do a movie in like 30 minutes ready for streaming with PS3MS to PS3. :)

My problem now is with MKV Merge. That program somehow screws up the H264 video when muxed in with FLAC. I tried even without setting FPS because eac3to does that anyways but the video is all garbled every 2 seconds when I stream. It's very strange.

BTW a tip for your guide in the initial post.

Use Clown BD GUI for eac3to and TSMuxer. It's very simple and straightforwad interface that will take the difficult stuff out of beginners attempts.

[+Audioboxer Subscriber²]

No you can't mux in FLAC into m2ts unfortunately.

MKV2VOB is not a solution. What's the point of using AC3 DVD type sound with VOB when you want BLu-ray and HD Audio. I want files that I can reformat later without losing quality, thus lossless HD audio in FLAC.

True PS3 doesn't support VC-1 unless it's from the disc, but PS3 Media Server works fantastic. That's all I need. MKV Merge decompressed the VC1 file ripped from Blu-ray into VC1 ES and combines with FLAC into MKV. PS3MS streams fine VC1/FLAC mkv and I get 1080p full with lossless audio that's about 4.6mpbs and the file sizes are very small. The biggest benefit though is that i don't have to re-encode anything. it's all muxing. I do a movie in like 30 minutes ready for streaming with PS3MS to PS3. :)

My problem now is with MKV Merge. That program somehow screws up the H264 video when muxed in with FLAC. I tried even without setting FPS because eac3to does that anyways but the video is all garbled every 2 seconds when I stream. It's very strange.

BTW a tip for your guide in the initial post.

Use Clown BD GUI for eac3to and TSMuxer. It's very simple and straightforwad interface that will take the difficult stuff out of beginners attempts.

Daft question but have you tried more than one version of MKV Merge? Maybe an older version, maybe try running it through command line instead of GUI (if that's possible).

[Boz]

Problem solved. Latest beta build of PS3 Media Server solved it. He noticed MKV issues with H264/AVC NTSC video.

Now officially we have the highest quality BD rips support.

1. eac3to video to mkv and audio to FLAC (no matter if it's TrueHD or DTS-MA it works and it's lossless meaning no quality loss but MUCH smaller size)

2. MKVToolnix (MKVMerge) the mkv video and FLAC into one mkv.

Done.. full 1080p24 + lossless HD sound.

Shagrath even added hide TRANSCODE FOLDER so now you can assign that PS3MS automatically transcodes file extensions you need, set it and forget it. Works FANTASTIC. I get 4.6mbps HD audio, VC1 or AVC video untouched (muxed into MKV). My Blu-ray movies are now 10-15gb for the most part.

Finally time to transfer my whole BD and HD DVD collection to hard drives, make all covers and enjoy heaven.

Btw, the latest build has a better support for Xbox 360 as well.

Also something interesting. If you are not for MKVs, There's a very good solution too but it might be expensive (under the assumption you don't get the version somewhere on torrents ;) ) but it's so worth it.

eac3to audio to DTS 1.5mbps. Based on blind tests DTS 1536 is the ceiling for our ears and even the "golden ears" experts in isolated DTS lab couldn't really hear the difference between DTS 1536kbps and DTS-MA (around 6mbps-24mbps) on Blu-ray discs.

So if you want to save space nad make the files more compatible, you can find SurCode DTS Pro Encoder and install it. The final version was 1.029. It's pretty expensive though ($249) but it's up to you whether you buy or not. Eac3To recognizes the encoder and no matter whether your Blu-ray disc has TrueHD or DTS-MA you can encode to DTS 1536. Eac3to does the work for you. Of course for DTS-MA tracks you don't need to encode because you can just mux-out the DTS-Core track which is at 1536kbps. You only encode TrueHD and DD+.

The result is M2TS with normal video and DTS audio that should be compatible with many devices and usually a very good audio track in DTS 1536kbps is around 1.1gb which is excellent.

Edited August 28, 2009 by Boz

[Joel]

So how do you get PS3MS to SUCCESSFULLY run as a service in Win7RC1? My mind wants to know...

[Boz]

So how do you get PS3MS to SUCCESSFULLY run as a service in Win7RC1? My mind wants to know...

I'm on Win7 x64. Runs as a service.

Run PS3MS as Administrator. Click on Install As Service in the PS3MS control panel. That should do it.

Then go Start Menu/type services.msc and find PS3 Media Server entry. It should be stopped and set to manual. Change it to Automatic (Delayed Start) and you should be set.

[+Audioboxer Subscriber²]

There's issues with beta/RC builds of Windows 7 and PS3MS (one of the NW members can't even start the application).

I don't know if the issue lies within JAVA or the application itself, but I can only recommend you upgrade to RTM Joel.

[Joel]

Well, I got it to work today, after uninstalling every codec software I could and uninstalling TVersity. Either I got lucky, or some config was left over. One hurdle down. Now I need to solve my wireless problems when streaming; it's either my connection or my PC is not able to handle the processing (P4D 3.0, 4GB, Win7 RC 64-bit). Stutters like a mofo.

[+Audioboxer Subscriber²]

Well, I got it to work today, after uninstalling every codec software I could and uninstalling TVersity. Either I got lucky, or some config was left over. One hurdle down. Now I need to solve my wireless problems when streaming; it's either my connection or my PC is not able to handle the processing (P4D 3.0, 4GB, Win7 RC 64-bit). Stutters like a mofo.

You'll never get 1080p working over wireless, have to stick to 720p. Even then it might struggle a little bit :/

Are both your PC and PS3 wireless, or just one of them?

[Joel]

No, I'm not trying for 1080p. Not even 720p. I'm talking about lower-res AVIs and stuff like that.

PC is wired, PS3 wireless.

[way2quik]

Audioboxer: Since I'll probably get more info from you than from shagroth or any admin over at PMS - My router is probably 70ft away from the PS3. Sometimes I would get 100% signal, sometimes it'll stagger back down to 40-50%. My question is does signal strength have any effect on streaming?

I can perfectly stream rmvb/mkv/720p HD sometimes, assuming no one in the household is downloading, but then it would seriously struggle/stutter on certain days, or the video randomly stutter.

Problem happened when I installed Win7 RTM, no issue with Vista x64, running stable version of PMS.

[+Audioboxer Subscriber²]

Audioboxer: Since I'll probably get more info from you than from shagroth or any admin over at PMS - My router is probably 70ft away from the PS3. Sometimes I would get 100% signal, sometimes it'll stagger back down to 40-50%. My question is does signal strength have any effect on streaming?

I can perfectly stream rmvb/mkv/720p HD sometimes, assuming no one in the household is downloading, but then it would seriously struggle/stutter on certain days, or the video randomly stutter.

Problem happened when I installed Win7 RTM, no issue with Vista x64, running stable version of PMS.

Yeah wireless is pretty horrible for HD. Best you'll get is 720p and it'll probably be unreliable.

Maybe at 80%+ signal you'll get some 1080p videos playing (lower bitrate ones).

Best idea is to go wired, but I think there's things you can do to boost a wireless signal, someone else will have to help you there though, I don't know much about bridges or homeplugs or things like that.

[Rappy Veteran]

I can vouch that it looks amazing :D

great work AB! :)

[Joel]

I ran some tests yesterday, and I can say that 720p is definitely possible when my wireless signal is at 100%. Now to find the limit.

[Joel]

OK, I installed some of the codec stuff he asks for in the FAQ and my wirleless streaming is suddenly perfect at 50-65% signal. Before this, I was moving the desk (on wheels) down the hall to stream anything consistently. Weird.