PS3 Media Server / Universal Media Server Guide

[fusi0n]

ps3 media server

[MediocreNoob]

Ok?

[MediocreNoob]

1.50.2-SB64:

* Switched from using SVN source to Git

* Synchronised with official r1131 (d9f34153dd) from r1088, changelog

* MEncoder video scaling code rewrite, details

SubJunk Windows Build / SubJunk Linux Build / Official Build

[+Audioboxer Subscriber²]

(Y)

[MediocreNoob]

1.50.2-SB65:

* Synchronised with official r1175 (0579dc80ff) from r1131 (d9f34153dd), changelog

Windows SubJunk Build / Linux SubJunk Build / Official Build

[MediocreNoob]

1.50.2-SB66:

* Synchronised with official r1228 (3b76460a29) from r1175 (0579dc80ff), changelog

* Updated MPlayer and MEncoder to SB24 from SB23, changelog

* Fixed video aspect ratios and subtitle positioning when using overscan compensation

* Clarified some MEncoder settings that were misleading/wrong

SubJunk Windows Build / SubJunk Linux Build / Official Build

[+Audioboxer Subscriber²]

(Y)

Wonder if this will get Vita support.

[MediocreNoob]

Does anyone use custom thumbnails? I've started making some for the movies and clips that I know for sure that I'm going to keep and have slopply threw some blu-ray images together to make it look like the all too common media case with media disc sticking half way out. What, if any, do you use?

[jerzdawg]

Does anyone use custom thumbnails? I've started making some for the movies and clips that I know for sure that I'm going to keep and have slopply threw some blu-ray images together to make it look like the all too common media case with media disc sticking half way out. What, if any, do you use?

bit late, but i get all my images from either bluray.com or amazon. most of my movies are either 720 or 1080 so i have no problems using the bluray coverart. Awhile back someone made a plugin that got the coverart automatically i think..

[MediocreNoob]

1.50.2-SB67:

* Synchronised with official r1241 (e257484166) from r1228 (3b76460a29), changelog

* Updated MPlayer and MEncoder to SB26 from SB24, changelog

* Fixed the display of SRT and embedded plaintext subtitles for the Hebrew language.

* Made font scale larger by default.

* Stop disabling certain options since the logic wasn't good.

SubJunk Windows Build / SubJunk Linux Build / Official Build

[MediocreNoob]

1.51.0-SB68:

* Synchronised with official r1253 (f1bc902f83), changelog

* Updated MPlayer and MEncoder to SB28, changelog

* Updated MediaInfo to 0.7.54, changelog

* Updated ImageMagick Convert to 6.7.6, changelog

SubJunk Windows Build / SubJunk Linux Build / Official Build

[Scorbing]

I still can't understand why Sony is being so stupid and not updating the PS3 to accept NTFS drives. That is ridiculous. Nobody uses FAT32 anymore and you would think that Sony, knowing this, would update the PS3 to accept NTFS.

[+Audioboxer Subscriber²]

I still can't understand why Sony is being so stupid and not updating the PS3 to accept NTFS drives. That is ridiculous. Nobody uses FAT32 anymore and you would think that Sony, knowing this, would update the PS3 to accept NTFS.

You have to pay licensing fees to MS to use NTFS.

[Scorbing]

You have to pay licensing fees to MS to use NTFS.

I'm sure Sony can afford them. They have deep pockets. Every other multimedia device out there (Roku, WDTV, Etc) support NTFS and they have less money than Sony does.

[+Audioboxer Subscriber²]

I'm sure Sony can afford them. They have deep pockets. Every other multimedia device out there (Roku, WDTV, Etc) support NTFS and they have less money than Sony does.

For the gaming side of things it has absolutely no consumer value. The system Sony uses for their hard drives (forget it's name right now) supports files with a size over 4GB, so what use is NTFS other than a money bleeder? I assume it's loyalties to MS on every PS3 sold if they were to use NTFS.

The devices you listed are dedicated media products, this is not.

As much as I'd like NTFS as well for USB drives, it was never going to and never will happen. If there's anything over 4GB I want to watch I either stream it, or copy it to my PS3 hard drive through my PC.

[Yusuf M. Veteran]

For some reason, I couldn't get the latest version to work with Windows 7 64-bit. I looked at the FAQ area and found a guide to compile my own build (see here).

I've uploaded it to Dropbox so here's the link: http://dl.dropbox.co...dows-1.50.2.exe [PMS-1.50.2]

I'm almost 100% sure it'll work with any 64-bit Windows OS. It's supposed to be the latest beta version but it isn't. I'm still trying to figure things out but If anyone knows how to get the latest version to work with Windows 7 64-bit, please let me know. I'm guessing I have to use the right version of Java. Anytime I try to run the latest version, a window comes up that says something along the lines of "The download could not be completed."

Anyway, I seem to have found a sweet spot for streaming HD content to my PS3. My main PC is connected to my wireless N router with a PCIe x1 wireless N adapter (which is on the second floor of my house). My brother's PS3 is in the living room which is obviously on the main floor. It's connected directly to my wireless router via ethernet. I can stream 1080p content without any issues whatsoever. I recently changed my wireless network to N only so that may have helped. In the past, 720p content would stutter a lot which made the viewing experience unpleasant. I've seen the current bitrate go as high as 109 Mbps. It never went past 75 Mbps when my wireless network was in mixed G/N mode.

[+Audioboxer Subscriber²]

Smart move :p

I would recommend you try the Subjunk beta builds if you ever feel adventurous or have issues with the main trunk.

[MediocreNoob]

1.52.1-SB69:

* Synchronised with official r1305 (03bfb207f5), changelog

* Updated MPlayer and MEncoder to SB29, changelog

SubJunk Windows Build / SubJunk Linux Build / Official Build

[Wakers]

Having some problems with PS3 media server.

First off, it won't resume a file like the 360 does. If I stop watching something half way through, then I have to manually get back to where I was before. Now, the problem here is that if I use the scene selection tool (square) to select a scene, the rest of the playback will be stop / start no matter how long I leave it to buffer. This applies to videos that are being transcoded and ones that aren't.

I can skip through using the search feature but that's often very time consuming and the controls are slow to respond to when I want to play.

If I just use the PS3's built in video player - then I can use the scene selection and playback is smooth. But this also won't remember where I got to in the video.

Anyone else have these problems? because I'll be going back to the 360 soon, even if it does mean I have to have a cable across my living room.

[jerzdawg]

Having some problems with PS3 media server.

First off, it won't resume a file like the 360 does. If I stop watching something half way through, then I have to manually get back to where I was before. Now, the problem here is that if I use the scene selection tool (square) to select a scene, the rest of the playback will be stop / start no matter how long I leave it to buffer. This applies to videos that are being transcoded and ones that aren't.

I can skip through using the search feature but that's often very time consuming and the controls are slow to respond to when I want to play.

If I just use the PS3's built in video player - then I can use the scene selection and playback is smooth. But this also won't remember where I got to in the video.

Anyone else have these problems? because I'll be going back to the 360 soon, even if it does mean I have to have a cable across my living room.

I have a wired cat6 connection between my PC/Router/PS3 and I always have issues with anything other than Pause and Play. If I attempt to FF/RW or even Skip to the next video I always get network error - its annoying but most of the time im watching a movie or sitcom so pause is usually used.

[DirtyLarry Veteran]

Having some problems with PS3 media server.

First off, it won't resume a file like the 360 does. If I stop watching something half way through, then I have to manually get back to where I was before. Now, the problem here is that if I use the scene selection tool (square) to select a scene, the rest of the playback will be stop / start no matter how long I leave it to buffer. This applies to videos that are being transcoded and ones that aren't.

I can skip through using the search feature but that's often very time consuming and the controls are slow to respond to when I want to play.

If I just use the PS3's built in video player - then I can use the scene selection and playback is smooth. But this also won't remember where I got to in the video.

Anyone else have these problems? because I'll be going back to the 360 soon, even if it does mean I have to have a cable across my living room.

To answer your question directly, correct, if you are doing larger rips, resume and fast forward really do not work on PS3 media server. Actually sometimes it resumes for me, but not very often.

My own experience is fast Forward actually never worked on the 360 for me in a usable manner, all that did was resume and rewind. And resume only worked around half of the time. Fast forward was never all that smooth on larger rips. Since I tend to only watch 1080p rips, I just think neither console is all that capable of fast forwarding 1080p rips. And my network is Gigabit capable, so I am getting great streaming speeds, so I know it is not that. I basically except it as one of the drawbacks of watching rips, but I like having all of my content digitally on a media server.

The above combined with the fact the 360 does not play DTS either, and well I have learned to live with pausing movies. Honestly I was never a big fast forward or rewind person while watching a movie anyway, so I do not really miss these features, hence why I can live with it. I also find the ps3 plays all of the different file types I throw at it, I literally have only had like 2 avi's since I have been using PS3 media server not work, and the 360 when I used it was hit or miss with playing all content.

So I live with the PS3 not having rewind and fast forward as DTS definitely enhances my viewing experience more.

And actually I just realized something, you are saying going back to the cable with the 360, which obviously means you are streaming wirelessly to the PS3, so yeah, you are going to run into a ton of issues. I do it wired. I tried wirelessly, and I could not stream 1080p. Average of 8-12GB file size. Wireless just did not really work.

[Wakers]

I don't watch files that are that big - 3gb at most. They're in 1080p most of the time, but they're only TV episodes so never more than an hour long.

Regarding wireless, the PS3 is less than a metre away from both the router and the PC that is streaming without any obstructions - it's on a wireless n network and the speeds are about 97% when it reaches the PS3 so I don't think that's the issue.

It's just a flaw in the software I guess - I've actually found fast forward to be much more reliable than scene selection, although sometimes it knocks the sound out of sync.

It would be great if it could learn to resume files though.

[DirtyLarry Veteran]

I don't watch files that are that big - 3gb at most. They're in 1080p most of the time, but they're only TV episodes so never more than an hour long.

Regarding wireless, the PS3 is less than a metre away from both the router and the PC that is streaming without any obstructions - it's on a wireless n network and the speeds are about 97% when it reaches the PS3 so I don't think that's the issue.

It's just a flaw in the software I guess - I've actually found fast forward to be much more reliable than scene selection, although sometimes it knocks the sound out of sync.

It would be great if it could learn to resume files though.

Hmmm, yeah a 3GB file should work then, it is not the resolution that is the issue with me, it is always the size of the file. Odd. Just out of curiosity did you ever try it wired to see if it performs any better than wireless? I would be interested in hearing the results. What version of PS3 Media Server are you using?

[richardsim7]

I've found that FF/RW is pretty useless, so I use the "go to" feature and just change the time :)

[Wakers]

Hmmm, yeah a 3GB file should work then, it is not the resolution that is the issue with me, it is always the size of the file. Odd. Just out of curiosity did you ever try it wired to see if it performs any better than wireless? I would be interested in hearing the results. What version of PS3 Media Server are you using?

I tried wired when I first encountered the issue, it made no difference. If I use the scene selection feature the video will stop and start regardless of anything else.

I can use the fast forward feature to pick up where I left off - but this is not very accurate and can often make the audio out of sync.

Neither console is particularly good at streaming content to be honest.