Streaming Media to PS3

[SurfD]

Does anyone have any advice on streaming media to a PS3?

Im looking into the Winamp PS3 streaming utility, but any other tips or suggestions you experienced users might have would be awesome.

[taleril]

All I use is a Vista PC with Windows Media Player 11.  The setup was relatively painless.

This guy's instructions are a little more complicated then average since he was sharing from an external Fat32-formatted drive:
http://boardsus.playstation.com/playstation/board/message?board.id=ps3media&thread.id=47608

[bhodi]

I've been watching this for a long time and all but given up. I haven't found any streaming solutions to be adequate for my (video) needs.

Almost anything you'd want to watch on ps3 natively must be transcoded - translated on the fly to a format that the ps3 can read. MP3s generally play fine, but video is fucked. Transcoding also destroys video quality, since you're going from lossful to another lossful format. I haven't found transcoding to work with a lot of my media. I've tried several - tversity, windows media, and a host of others with little luck. Only about a half to three quarters has worked for me.
I found the native ps3 browsing on the dashboard to be clunky, slow, and almost unusable. I don't enjoy sitting for 10 seconds on each subdirectory while it queries and populates the media list.
You can't fast forward or rewind without the entire system freezing for a dozen seconds or more. It's basically unusable.

Alternatives to these are to load the media directly into the ps3 via flash or (if you're somewhat savvy), but that has a file limitation of 2 gigs (to prevent PIRACY!), or load linux on and use it to connect directly via samba to your media repository (windows/linux desktop/server/whatever). The downsides to this are that video is still virtually unplayable, thanks to the hypervisor restricting access to the nvidia video chipset. Plus, linux will not work with your ps3 wireless and bluetooth controllers out of the box; you have to do tweaks and kernel patches.

This is really frustrating, since my XBMC can't play hidef content (the CPU is just too slow). I'm still on the lookout, but for now I'm trying to get my macbook to work with OSXBMC (now called pure or something) connected via toslink and DVI->HDMI to my system.

[stray]

I don't really use it, but last I checked, Azureus was supposed to be able to communicate with the PS3 as well.

That said, I just burn shit on to a DVD and watch a video that way. Not that this answers your question.

[Stewie]

I use my PS3 all the time to watch video from my comp.
It plays avi/divx no problems. It was an easy set up and works great.
Seeing as the GF uses the pvr all the time (ok maybe not all but it seems like it) I tend to find that I download many of the shows I want to see and this is the perfect solution.

[fuser]

Two limitations out of the box WMP streaming (which by far is the painless and easiest way to go):

-No soft subtitle support
-No MKV support

Either then that it works quite well

[Lounge]

I've been watching this for a long time and all but given up. I haven't found any streaming solutions to be adequate for my (video) needs.

Almost anything you'd want to watch on ps3 natively must be transcoded - translated on the fly to a format that the ps3 can read. MP3s generally play fine, but video is fucked. Transcoding also destroys video quality, since you're going from lossful to another lossful format. I haven't found transcoding to work with a lot of my media. I've tried several - tversity, windows media, and a host of others with little luck. Only about a half to three quarters has worked for me.
I found the native ps3 browsing on the dashboard to be clunky, slow, and almost unusable. I don't enjoy sitting for 10 seconds on each subdirectory while it queries and populates the media list.
You can't fast forward or rewind without the entire system freezing for a dozen seconds or more. It's basically unusable.

Alternatives to these are to load the media directly into the ps3 via flash or (if you're somewhat savvy), but that has a file limitation of 2 gigs (to prevent PIRACY!), or load linux on and use it to connect directly via samba to your media repository (windows/linux desktop/server/whatever). The downsides to this are that video is still virtually unplayable, thanks to the hypervisor restricting access to the nvidia video chipset. Plus, linux will not work with your ps3 wireless and bluetooth controllers out of the box; you have to do tweaks and kernel patches.

This is really frustrating, since my XBMC can't play hidef content (the CPU is just too slow). I'm still on the lookout, but for now I'm trying to get my macbook to work with OSXBMC (now called pure or something) connected via toslink and DVI->HDMI to my system.

If you have a mac then get http://www.nullriver.com/products/medialink.  It does not transcode the video at all.  The upside is that your properly formatted video (use handbrake or visualhub) plays beautiful.  The downside is that not everything plays on the ps3.

[bhodi]

Yeah, see I'm just not willing to give my collection the rotorooter to convert it to 'playable on ps3' formatted shit. Converting that shit ALSO loses quality. I have a lot of x/h264 stuff and xvid stuff which doesn't play and won't.

Some people are willing to settle, or find it works for them, but until I can get PS3XBMC or the equivalent, where I can browse with no delay, pause, rewind, and play every format, I'm just not going to be happy.

In fact, for 'next gen' platforms, I think it's complete garbage that a previous generation tech made by open source tinkers is still light years ahead of 'official' players for media centers.

[stray]

Yeah, I use visualhub to convert stuff sometimes. Not so much anymore since divx/xvid support. Haven't bothered with media link though. I mainly just use the ps3 video playing feature to show friends TV show eps and shit (which means I'm lugging the ps3 around).

[Soln]

only problem we've had running things from the Winamp Orb to the PS3 has been the ports.  Sounds stupid but we have 2 routers and can't seem to reset the 2nd to accept the direct media streaming (port80 or 81, 554 or 555).  Any ideas?

[BitWarrior]

After trying quite a number of the DLNA servers on the market (TVersity, Winamp, Nero Homewhatever, etc), I have found that TwonkyMedia Server is the best out there for my needs.

It runs on your computer as a *very* transparent service, with a control panel accessible through your web browser. One of the most unusual benefits it has over things like TVersity is, get this, it actually can monitor a directory for changes and update as needed! TVersity was horrible for this, plus its configuration panel only ever worked seemingly 2% of the time for me. Twonky was a much, much better experience.

Now, regarding the complaints of conversion, it's simply going to happen, it's a reality with DLNA. It is no fault of the PS3 or any of the servers, it's simply a spec which is trying to reconcile the fact that we have many devices which use media, and many formats to encode media with. Giving every PS3, XBox, iPod, Computer, cell phone, DS, microwave and what have you the ability to process every single movie, music and image format with would simply be daunting. The list of formats alone I could list here would be overwhelming. The DLNA server idea says to give the server the ability to recode the formats into 1 standard movie, music and image format, and thus any client will only need to understand 3 formats, as opposed to 300.

Anyhow, give Twonky a shot, I'm sure you'll be pleasantly surprised.

http://www.twonkyvision.de/

[bhodi]

Now, regarding the complaints of conversion, it's simply going to happen, it's a reality with DLNA. It is no fault of the PS3 or any of the servers, it's simply a spec which is trying to reconcile the fact that we have many devices which use media, and many formats to encode media with. Giving every PS3, XBox, iPod, Computer, cell phone, DS, microwave and what have you the ability to process every single movie, music and image format with would simply be daunting. The list of formats alone I could list here would be overwhelming. The DLNA server idea says to give the server the ability to recode the formats into 1 standard movie, music and image format, and thus any client will only need to understand 3 formats, as opposed to 300.

You are so wrong.

Mplayer has been ported to god damned near everything. It runs EVERYTHING.

I refuse to use a "solution" that doesn't let me fast forward and rewind. I refuse to use a "solution" that has to think for 10 seconds before it populates a directory. It's not a solution. DLNA is a complete piece of shit.

[BitWarrior]

Mplayer has been ported to god damned near everything. It runs EVERYTHING.

I refuse to use a "solution" that doesn't let me fast forward and rewind. I refuse to use a "solution" that has to think for 10 seconds before it populates a directory. It's not a solution. DLNA is a complete piece of shit.

Now, there were a number of ways to respond to this. Immediately I began hostile, but I've decided to tone it down with the assumption you're not quite sure what you're reading here. You've accidentally interpreted things...about 10% correct. Yes, DLNA is about media. That's about as far as you got. You've missed the entire point of the DLNA spec, which is an attempt to allow transparent sharing between devices which, for example, might not have any business containing a hard drive (ie: a Television, a Stereo), and overall simply connecting devices to each other simply and easily.

Here are the goals of DLNA:

Find and play movies
Network attached storage to television

Your movie collection is stored on your network attached storage (NAS), a certified digital media server (DMS). Instead of watching the movie on the little PC monitor in your office, you want to enjoy it on the large flat-panel TV in your living room. Because your DLNA Certified TV is certified as a digital media player (DMP), you can use the DMP capabilities of your TV to find the movies on your NAS, and then play them on the TV.

Send and display photos
Camera to television

You have photos stored on your digital camera, a certified digital media controller (DMC). You want to look at them on your TV. With a DLNA Certified camera, you can send the photos to your DLNA Certified TV, which, if certified as a digital media renderer (DMR), can use those capabilities to display the photos.

Find, send and play music
PC to speaker

You’ve loaded all your favorite music onto your PC, a certified digital media server (DMS). Using your DLNA Certified personal digital assistant (PDA), which may be certified as a mobile digital media controller (M-DMC), you can find songs you want on your PC and send them to play on your DLNA Certified wireless speakers. In this case, the speakers deliver the capabilities of a certified Digital Media Renderer (DMR).

Upload photos
PDA to network attached storage

There are photos on your personal digital assistant (PDA), a certified mobile digital media uploader (M-DMU), you want to send and save to your newtork attached storage (NAS). Using a DLNA Certified PDA, you upload the photos to your DLNA Certified network attached storage (NAS), which operates as a certified Digital Media Server (DMS).

Download music
PC to MP3 Player

You want to transfer music from your PC, a certified Digital Media Server (DMS) in this scenario, to your MP3 player, a certified mobile digital media downloader (M-DMD). With DLNA Certified devices, you download the music from your PC using the MP3 player.

Send and print photos
WiFi camera phone to printer

You have a photo on your WiFi® enabled camera phone you want to print. Assuming the phone is a certified mobile digital media controller (M-DMC), you can send the photo to your DLNA Certified printer, a certified digital media printer (DMPr), to print.

Ok, now that that's cleared up, what you linked were...hehehe...yes, media players with their libraries. Thank you, we all know these exist, I myself use VLC. However, it's unlikely your television has VLC, eh? And your stereo? Additionally, when updates occur, it's going to be a pretty big pain in the ass to update your TV potentially. You get the point.

DLNA says "alright, let's use one codec that all the *clients* are required to know, they only ever need to know that one codec. If and when the inevitable occurs that a new codec starts being popular (heck, we've seen like 20 hit the market in the last 5 years) all that needs updating is the SERVER to understand how to convert these back to the codec that everything else understands".

Anyhow, so I hope you're beginning to understand the difference here - it's a big one, but it's hard to understand, so I sympathize with your misunderstanding.

Regarding rewinding and such, it works just fine with my setup. Largely that is a factor of two things - the processing speed of your server and your network bandwidth. Running a AMD X2 5000+ here you can correctly assume that rewinding, fast forwarding, etc works quite well. Of course, it does depend on the media and size of the media as that conversion is happening live.

So again, with a proper understanding of DLNA's goals, you can begin to see why certain conventions are currently in place. However, as technology and software improves, you're probably going to see the quality of what and how DLNA processes things improve. Time will tell, but its certainly a noble goal.

[bhodi]

No. Let's be hostile instead. I've had a really shitty week and I'm going to take it out on you and this stupid fucking format that you have apparently drunk the kool-aid for. Your condescending tone has just struck a chord with me and so now I'm going to eviscerate your pet format and, by association, you. Don't think my anger lessens my arguments; DLNA is a worthless piece of garbage doomed to obscurity that only exists because it's heralded by those who wish people (consumers) to have less control over their media.

The overuse of the word "certified" in all that detritus you quoted should tip you the FUCK off. "Certified digital media server"? Fuck you right in the ear. "Certified digital media controller"? Eat shit and die. Certified wireless speakers? Seriously?

Advocates of DLNA are pretending that TVs and other devices are all of a sudden going to start shipping with some sort of 'DLNA-enabled' circuit board where you can hook an ethernet cable (or wireless?) into their TV and be able to stream video to it. Get the fuck out of here. This is patently retarded based on previous experience. Remember the Sony smart card experiment? Remember cablecards and how no TV ships with them anymore? TV manufacturers aren't going to spend a DIME that isn't directly related to getting you the highest fidelity picture on the display screen they can, the cheapest way they can. This is true for speakers or any other device that are you are trying to rope into your clown carnival.

Accepting that premise, (you would have to be a drooling imbecile not to,) let's attack it from a different direction. I'll put it simply: There is no device worth streaming to that has the processing power to decode a DLNA video stream that does not also have the processing power to decide media directly using any number of available decoding and transmission methods, with gigantic advantages to doing so.

Any "certified digital media server" is small enough to hook directly into the fucking TV. There's NO need for this cludgy protocol that should have been strangled and left to die in a dumpster. Instead, it's being trumpeted by people who are holding it up like a stillborn baby to the crack in the media dike, frantically trying to plug all of the media leaks that are re-shaping the way people experience TV and movies. By this same logic, there is no 'raw' output device that will EVER suipport the DLNA protocol. TVs won't, speakers won't. It's not going to happen. It fails the "KISS" test.

The protocol was created for a demand that does not exist, to be run on products that don't exist, to be transmitted by hardware that can EASILY transmit and decode movies in a conventional, already existing format. SMB and mplayer is only one trivial example.

DLNA should be drowned in the bathtub. It is so incredibly inferior to what is already out there in both features, flexibility and responsiveness that it's a wonder that people are swallowing it at all.

The only reason that people are swallowing it at all, of course, is because there is simply no other option. The difference between XBMC and it's derivatives to this frankenprotocol is such that no one who has ever used one would even pretend the other is even in the same league.

Ever wonder why you get that video lag in guitar hero or rock band? Guess what fucking causes that: HDMI. If you hook it up to component, oh look, no latency. This is more of the same shit: inferior protocols being pushed by companies in the hope of controling the 'end to end' media in your home.

You can use it, just don't accept it. There are vastly better solutions if you were only allowed to use use them.

[fuser]

Necroing this thread for a question;

I have been using WMP11 + PS3 for a while now but it seems post  2.51 series of firmware I'm getting more and more stuttering of video streamed via wireless (xvid content). Basically seeing dropped video frames but audio continues.

Playback on PC is fine, nothings changed really besides my firmware. I have moved the wifi router close to test and changed channels good strength/noise ratio etc.

Anyone else having issues with playback recently?
 

[Big Gulp]

Honestly, if you're looking for a media computer just do what I did; buy a $200 eMachine from NewEgg.  Hard Drives have gotten cheap enough that you can pick up a 1TB drive for only a little bit north of $100, so I was able to convert the vast collection of movies I've been ripping from Netflix over the years to really high bitrates .avi files all sitting on my hard drives.  Then just buy a Windows Media Center remote and you're off to the races.  I currently have everything routed through Windows media center, my movie collection, Netflix's streaming service, my cable tv, and my music.  It's goddamned awesome to see it all come together.

ETA:  Last I heard Hulu was also working on a WMC interface like the one Netflix already has.  Once they have that, I'm in media-nerd heaven.

[BitWarrior]

Necroing this thread for a question;

I have been using WMP11 + PS3 for a while now but it seems post  2.51 series of firmware I'm getting more and more stuttering of video streamed via wireless (xvid content). Basically seeing dropped video frames but audio continues.

Playback on PC is fine, nothings changed really besides my firmware. I have moved the wifi router close to test and changed channels good strength/noise ratio etc.

Anyone else having issues with playback recently?
 

Let's first try to isolate the problem. By pressing the Select button on your PS3 controller while streaming a movie, you can see the current bandwidth the PS3 is receiving. It's quite possible your wireless router is intermittently stopping/pausing for whatever reason. If you're still getting full bandwidth but the stream is stuttering, you might be looking at a CPU bottleneck as your computer transcodes the format into something the PS3 enjoys. Let's see what happens.

[fuser]

Let's first try to isolate the problem. By pressing the Select button on your PS3 controller while streaming a movie, you can see the current bandwidth the PS3 is receiving. It's quite possible your wireless router is intermittently stopping/pausing for whatever reason. If you're still getting full bandwidth but the stream is stuttering, you might be looking at a CPU bottleneck as your computer transcodes the format into something the PS3 enjoys. Let's see what happens.

I'll copy over file tonight to see the bandwidth available. Also will switch it to Ethernet afterwords to further test for a few days to isolate wireless.

Systems:
q6600
4GB RAM
Vista 64bit

I just wanted to check first to see if anyone was having issues recently.

[BitWarrior]

I just wanted to check first to see if anyone was having issues recently.

Mine has been fine, even whilst using antiquated hardware (wireless-B, no less). Beyond that I'm using WMP 11 as well, and it's been quite fine on files which do not require more bandwidth than what the wireless-B can put out. I'll be grabbing a new router (probably a http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=21730) after Christmas.

But yeah, no problems.

[BitWarrior]

Just wanted to mention there's a *great* new cross-platform (Windows, Mac, Linux) client out there designed entirely for the PS3. This program actually makes me wonder why Sony themselves haven't produced something to take advantage of the addition to their product.

http://code.google.com/p/ps3mediaserver/

Anyhow, some notable advantages to this thing over the MANY others I have tried (and some just cool features in general)...

- By default, it allows you access to all your drives. You might not want this, it's easy to turn off. For some people it just makes it easier
- Automatic refresh (some DLNA servers do lack this)
- It actually allows you to stream DVD images / VIDEO-TS. This was great, I have a number of ISO's kicking around, so streaming these was made exceptionally simple
- Can descend into zip/rar files
- Does support things like Youtube and apparently some online radio. The really awesome potential here is streaming of Hulu.com...which suddenly makes the pair just incrediawesome.

I've been using this and loving it. Was previously using WMP11, and before then Twonky, but I disliked them sitting there as a service eating up 25mb ram. Might be a moot point with Windows 7, but in the meantime this is one excellent server for PS3 streaming.

[stray]

Sweet. Thanks for pointing it out.

[bhodi]

That is the best program that's come out yet.

Transcoding on the fly when necessary, no codec packs to fuck with, install, point it at your videos, and they just show up on the ps3. Everything pretty much magically works out of the box.

I streamed a random hi-def file, "Stargate Atlantis S03E01 720p x264 DD5.1-M794.mkv", which transcoded on the fly over my wireless G using the "wifi" settings. It stutters for the first few seconds as the buffer builds up, but after that it's smooth enough. The picture quality is only decent, but that's mostly because I downgraded it because of bandwidth (wifi is the lowest of 4 quality settings). There isn't a lot of bandwidth overhead available; fast forward and rewind doesn't work so well on HD though it seems to work OK on low-def stuff.

I'll be using this until XBMC comes along.

[BitWarrior]

Just found this...it keeps getting better...

http://arstechnica.com/journals/thumbs.ars/2009/01/12/wireless-tv-out-comes-to-the-pc-via-the-ps3

Basically, it streams whatever video is on your PC to your PS3. Unsure of performance, but of course the possibilities are endless. Gaming is unfortunately unavailable because (appropriately) it would require too much bandwidth. The software runs for $50, but I'm planning on waiting for some reviews until I pick something like this up. In the end, however, the PS3 is starting to flex some muscle from its flexibility and people's ingenuity.

[stray]

That is the best program that's come out yet.

Transcoding on the fly when necessary, no codec packs to fuck with, install, point it at your videos, and they just show up on the ps3. Everything pretty much magically works out of the box.

I streamed a random hi-def file, "Stargate Atlantis S03E01 720p x264 DD5.1-M794.mkv", which transcoded on the fly over my wireless G using the default settings. It stutters for the first few seconds as the buffer builds up, but after that it's smooth enough. There isn't a lot of bandwidth overhead available; fast forward and rewind doesn't work so well on HD though it seems to work OK on low-def stuff.

I'll be using this until XBMC comes along.

Same experience too, on wireless. Except... FLV (Flash) videos seem to be as slow on ffw/rw as HD. Otherwise, it's pretty nice (especially on Mac, since there weren't very many options before, let alone free ones).

[edit] Oh, but it's no good on my music library apparently. Doesn't even recognize the files.. I think the Mac, for some reason, sets up permissions on these files.. Hence, another computer might not be able to access them without some work.

[bhodi]

Just found this...it keeps getting better...

http://arstechnica.com/journals/thumbs.ars/2009/01/12/wireless-tv-out-comes-to-the-pc-via-the-ps3

Basically, it streams whatever video is on your PC to your PS3. Unsure of performance, but of course the possibilities are endless. Gaming is unfortunately unavailable because (appropriately) it would require too much bandwidth. The software runs for $50, but I'm planning on waiting for some reviews until I pick something like this up. In the end, however, the PS3 is starting to flex some muscle from its flexibility and people's ingenuity.

Meh, there are a ton of programs that do the same thing. Screenstream for one, and it doesn't require you to pay $50. It said there is serious latency issues as well, and no audio.


I edited my post above; turns out that things stutter on the default setting over my wifi when things get hectic and the bitrate spikes (moving scenes, a lot of action, etc.). I turned the setting down to the lowest of 4 and it runs fine but you can see the degredation in video quality. It's purely a wifi bandwidth issue and really isn't the program's fault. I'm going to drag a wire down just to see how things look on the highest, wired setting. I expect it to look pretty good.

I'd still like native decoding, but the thing that I miss the most from xbmc is being able to skip forward to any part in the video with the thumbstick. Even a 30s/1m/5m skip would be good but trying to manage the fast forward to get to the point you want is torture.

Dunno what to tell you about macs, security settings and all that. I do know it works fine with mp3s. Maybe you're using an itunes library or something and of course those files are DRMd so you can't stream them.

[stray]

I have few DRM files, but my music does lie in the default Music/iTunes folder.

By permissions, I meant UNIX style account read/write permissions.. and that's probably all set up automatically for anything in that folder. Just a guess though. And either way, it's not too important.

[Yegolev]

If what the oracles say is true and OSX is linux, you can try the "aww fuckit" setting of 777 on your media files.  Also o=rx the directory tree.  I don't know anything about Macs.