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Updated Dec 12, 2008 by ps3mediaserver
Labels: Phase-Deploy
FAQ  
Frequently Asked Questions

Frequently Asked Questions v0.20

1. PS3 Media Server does not appears on XMB


First of all, you need to make sure UPNP network discovery is enabled on your computer. On Windows XP, it's a service called "SSDP Network Discovery", on Vista, it's just called "Network Discovery". More infos here:

http://www.mydigitallife.info/2007/02/12/turn-on-and-enable-upnp-or-network-discovery-in-windows-vista/ http://www.bitwiseim.com/wiki/index.php?title=Using_UPnP_on_Windows_XP#Enabling_UPnP_in_Windows_XP

If it's the case, you may have a problem with your router, have you enabled port forwarding ? The default port of the application is 5001. You can also try to change this default port, or force the IP of your computer in the "General configuration" Tab (you need to restart, after modified and saved values) Also, the application isn't exempt of bug, see Help at the end of this file.

2. My video playback is stuttering. What can I do ?


The answer depends on the video type, your network configuration, and cpu power. For almost SD/DVD videos, transcode should be fine. But if you are using default settings, and willing to play HD videos (or very, very good looking SD videos) on a WiFi/CPL connection, the stuttering is normal. You'll need to set a limit to the bandwidth used by the program, in the "Transcoding Settings->Encoder settings ->Maximum Bandwidth" textbox. A value of 14, or 15 (in Mbits) is an average value for Wifi/CPL. But you can set more or less, depends on the strength of your network. Please also be advised that reducing the bitrate will stress even more your CPU.

That's why, if after setting a fair value for your network, or if you are on a wired connection, stuttering still occurs, it may be caused by an old (or not shiny anymore :p) CPU. Actually a Core2Duo CPU is enough to transcode 1080p with default network/quality settings, but a P4 is the very low limit in order to play a 720p video. If you stand between these two, you can adjust the video quality settings ("Transcoding Settings->Encoder settings") and test the examples provided in the drop down (you can also play with the parameters vqscale, vqmin, etc.) It's also recommended if you are on Windows, to try the AviSynth/Mencoder trancoding engine, as you could play your videos with CoreAVC, a fast H264 decoder (see Readme for instructions). Try also to reduce the number of channels. By default the application output a 5.1 channel video, so if you switch to stereo, the transcode will be a little faster. The good behavior of the transcoder is dependant on many parameters. It's up to you to find the most adapted ones to your configuration !

3. I've got picture quality loss compared to other conversion tools !


If you haven't changed any network related / quality parameters, and are playing some AVI/MPG/MPEG2/MP4 video files, I'm not sure there are visible differences with the source. But it can happens if your are playing some AVC/H264 files with the Mencoder engine, as there's an option here called SkipLoopFilter, enabled by default, which could slightly degrade video quality. This option allows Mencoder to decode H264 videos faster, but can also introduces some artefacts. If you CPU can handle it, it's recommended to disable it. Btw, it's only a matter of time before Mencoder supports multithreaded H264 frames decoding. Also, if you've downsized the network maximum bandwidth, you can also have a reduced quality (there's no free lunch, see question 1.)

4. I've got a black screen or "unsupported data" message when I launch a transcoded video file


4.1 with MEncoder alone

If this is happening with Mencoder, the culprit would be most likely the inter communication process between java and mencoder, as Mplayer/Mencoder is a great app who takes virtually anything you throw at it. So, either your video must be really messed up, or there's a bug or a wrong configuration/incompatibility with your system. In both cases, looking at the debug.log file is the only solution.

4.2 with AviSynth/MEncoder

You can first check if the video is playing in Windows Media Player / Media Player Classic. If yes, maybe you are using some srt/sub subtitles files and haven't installed VobSub (the VSfilter.dll must be in the path, elsewhere you can copy it in the AviSynth plugins folders). If this is not the case, you obviously met a bug, see question 3.1.

4.3 with tsMuxer

tsMuxer has not a large codec type support on PS3. It accepts AVC/H264, MPEG2, MP2, AC3, PCM codecs and MPG, TS, M2TS, MKV as input. Also, H264 encoded with level 5 or exotic settings (reduce to Level 4.1 is just a header change, with no success garanty) will not play on the PS3, hence your black screen maybe.

5. Can I transcode subtitles without reencode ?


Unfortunately you can't. PS3 does not support soft subtitles while streaming videos, expect for DivX and their proprietary XSUB format (managed by a program like AVIAddXSubs), which I think isn't very used by many people (maybe for a future release)

6. I've got A/V out of synch on some of my files !


5.1 with MEncoder alone

Try unchecking the "A/V out of sync correction" checkbox in the "Transcoder settings->Mencoder Player Tab".

5.2 with AviSynth/MEncoder

You should have the same out of sync when playing the file in Media Player. Check your video. Try also to uncheck the convertfps parameter on the AviSynth settings tab (useful only for variable framerates).

5.3 with tsMuxer

Try unchecking the "Force FPS" checkbox in the "Transcoder settings->tsMuxer Tab".

5.4 with any Web streaming engine

Could be. Not really focusing on web streaming right now

Help


You can drop an email at ps3mediaserver@gmail.com, but if you are joining a debug.log file, please indicates your computer configuration, network type, name and type of faulty video/audio, etc.


Comment by hjk.tda, Dec 15, 2008

Subtitles don't seem to work for me...

Comment by kaischarwies, Dec 17, 2008

Nice work - transcoding works quite good.

Although a thought has crossed my mind if it would be possible to do realtime transmuxing: A mixture between mkv2vob and ps3mediaserver. So you could play MKVs without transcoding.

Also playing files with multiple audiostreams I was not able to switch between them.

Comment by daniel.wiberg, Dec 19, 2008

How about adding a howto for Ubuntu?

Linking to: https://launchpad.net/~rvm/+archive and a good howto for compiling ffmpeg under Ubuntu.

Anything else required to get it running good under Ubuntu?

Comment by mduijm, Dec 22, 2008

I want to add the following, I was reading the FAQ and README, but to play Web Streaming you NEED to install Videolan yourself! So goto: http://www.videolan.org/ and download the latest VLC player and you cannow play web content!

Comment by itmajjen, Dec 24, 2008

My Vista64 cant se the PS3. I close all firewalls and allows everything but still cant see anything. I have speedtouch, can that be the problem?

Comment by exitjen, Dec 26, 2008

works perfect on my vista64.

Excellent job!

Comment by brett.hales, Dec 26, 2008

Great work - quick question, is there a way to start it in headless mode. I have worked around this by using Xvfb but it would be great if there was a --headless switch.

Comment by AKansal1521, Dec 26, 2008

Hey do you need to have a wireless card built for your PC? Or is the router fine?

And, does it display all the videos on the computer? Or just the ones in a specific folder.

Comment by wg1337, Dec 27, 2008

Hi! Love PMS! Using on Windows and was wondering if there is a way to remove the "Web" folder in my PS3 without dealing with the source?

Comment by ytifle, Dec 28, 2008

Woot! Gonna give it a shot today. Does it support .MKV video and HiDEF codecs? h264,vc1,flac,etc...?

Comment by wg1337, Dec 29, 2008

If someone wants to remove the Web folder (like me) then it's really simple - open WEB.conf and add "#" in front of line that hasn't got it. PMS supports MKV!

Comment by cornergasjunk, Dec 29, 2008

This is probably against DLNA rules or something, but it would be very awsome if you were able to delete files from the PS3 when you are finished watching them.

Comment by mduijm, Dec 30, 2008

Hi, I would like to see to play WMV files with WMA PRO 10 in it. WMA 9 is no problem, but WMA 10 files are playing without sound, can those files not be reencoded on the fly?

Comment by dqhpmp, Dec 30, 2008

I can see the mc on the ps3 but when i go to play a file it treats it like a slideshow. and it says there is no data. Help

Comment by spiran66, Jan 02, 2009

How do i stream from my Dreambox DB7000 via PS3 Mediaserver? It works in VLC and from the dreambox meny i got a file cald video.m3u. sample (http://192.168.91.200:31339/0,0100,0201,0288,0289,028a,028b) Help :)

Comment by ytifle, Jan 02, 2009

Whoo MKV! More optimisation shoud be done for WIFI streaming.

Comment by itmajjen, Jan 05, 2009

I put an old hub before the router and voilá!! It workes..

Comment by dru.the.fu, Jan 05, 2009

Will this app provide an interface to stream from Hulu or Netflix to the PS3? If so, how is this done?

Comment by r_c_patt...@yahoo.com, Jan 08, 2009

dru.the.fu - try PlayOn? - it's server software that does just that. works great.

Comment by Wael.y.k, Jan 09, 2009

i got an error in ubuntu-amd64

Thread-13? TRACE 15:21:46.439 Receiving a request from: 192.168.0.8 LOG: 0x0000000040f45950? mutex_lock: pthread_mutex_lock failed: Invalid argument

when i start playing.

Comment by theophile.david, Jan 13, 2009

Hello, first: sorry for my english ;-)

when i launch the .sh, i've got this message in a terminal: Exception in thread "main" org.apache.commons.configuration.ConfigurationException?: Cannot locate configuration source PMS.conf at org.apache.commons.configuration.AbstractFileConfiguration?.load(AbstractFileConfiguration?.java:217) at net.pms.configuration.PmsConfiguration?.<init>(PmsConfiguration?.java:113) at net.pms.PMS.main(PMS.java:876)

Do you know how to fix that please...?

Comment by EssieK, Jan 15, 2009

Just a quick tip for people struggling with stuttering video on a Vista-machine. I switched to wired from wireless to no avail - then I ran the following command:

netsh interface tcp set global autotuninglevel=disabled

After this (you should do this from a command prompt): no more stuttering! Haven't gone back to wireless though - as I see I'm peaking now at around 70mbit/s.

Comment by andydumitrescu, Jan 15, 2009

Can anyone give me a pointer on the subtitle options for Mencoder. The reason I am asking is because playing an ISO DVD auto plays with subtitles and the option to not load srt files does not affect it. I saw the option for subtitle language priority and it says "fre,eng" and it seems to load french subs if available, if not then english. If i remove those two from the box, will it no longer play subs for DVD? But will it keep srt subs for avi files? Same for the language setting, it says "fre, jpn, ger, eng" does that mean it will prioritize the other three before english for a DVD if available?

Is there a mencoder wiki somewhere with all those options and an explanation?

Comment by dorkiedorkfromdorktown, Jan 18, 2009

I have a mac and when I run it PMS server it says it doesn't see the PS3.

I checked the trace log and the only thing I see that could be an issue is this line:

Unable to retrieve MAC address for UUID creation: creating a random one..

That's the only thing. Later on it says:

It's ready! You should see the server appear on XMB

Comment by zzidaric, Jan 20, 2009

Is this supposed to work on Win XP 64?

PS3 Media Server is running in background since I can see it on the PS3 BUT I can't run the application to configure it on the computer. What I get when I try to run the app is that it sort of opens half way and then it hangs and I can't configure it. On the PS3 I see all my drives.

Comment by belkapatrycja, Jan 23, 2009

To: dorkiedorkfromdorktown I installed parallel on OSX and in the network connections i have 2 extra interfaces. Try change the network card in PS3MS settings.

Comment by espinosa001, Jan 27, 2009

I love PS3MS and worked (mostly) right out of the box. The only thing I can't do is surprisingly play mp3 or wma files. I can browse to my music folder, see all the album folders, but when I go in, it says there are no image files. I can use Media Player Server to play music, but would love to be able to turn that off and use PS3MS exclusively. Anyone have a suggestion?

Also, I've tried multiple configurations to turn off subtitles when playing DVD ISOs and cannot for the life of me get it to stop. Any words of wisdom?

Great piece of open source software. Kudos to everyone who has contributed. Yo

Comment by coffeepostal, Jan 27, 2009

To: belkapatrycja, are you saying you installed Parallels the app that allows you to run Windows, then ran PMS as a Windows app?

Comment by zoostation07, Jan 30, 2009

Great program no problems really. any support for adding google video? also will searchable terms be added at some point so we can search for media on youtube/google video etc.. great.. cheers.

Comment by hugo3000, Feb 06, 2009

I wasted so much time with other (hard/sofware) media servers with I had always problems. Now I installed this application and it's truly amazing. I have hundrets of movies, it encodes everyone and the subtitle function is the best. You did a great job! In the next version you could add a feature that automaticly downloads subtitles from opensubtitle.org. There are already video playback programs that do that, so I think it's not a big problem to implement it. Thanks.

Comment by hugo3000, Feb 06, 2009

it works perfect on Windows 7

Comment by rnsha...@yahoo.com, Feb 08, 2009

According to the "Current Features",t this media server is capable of streaming internet radio and TV to the PS3. Can anyone explain how to do it? Apparently, it involves using VLC, MEncoder or MPlayer, but I haven't figured how it's done.

Comment by eugenm001, Feb 09, 2009

Why does mencoder transcode mkv (H.264+DTS) to mpeg2 video when PS3 supports mp4? I would expect for the conversion to be to mp4 or m2ts with AC3? That would ensure that both the A/V quality is preserved AND that the LAN throughput required is LOW, which allows it to stream 1080p over wireless.

Is there any setting that I can access to force the transcoding to the above, for mkv files?

Thank you.

Comment by jd.fitzgerald, Feb 16, 2009

Excellent stuff. Congrats on releasing something that "Just Works(tm)". Couldn't believe that it was just a case of running the thing and zero fiddling.

Comment by jonroig, Feb 17, 2009

This thing is awesome!

Comment by akinimail, Feb 20, 2009

Quote: Comment by rnsha...@yahoo.com, Feb 08, 2009: "According to the "Current Features",t this media server is capable of streaming internet radio and TV to the PS3. Can anyone explain how to do it?"

You edit web.conf file to publish rss feed sources, audiofeed, videofeed or imagfeed. You can use premade feeds or programmers can create a simple conversion tool to publish non-rss sites. See this topic about creating a customized rss conversion tool. http://ps3mediaserver.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=666

Comment by amin.weber, Feb 24, 2009

First of all: Thanks for developing such a great and useful application.

Somehow I the application crashes quite often on Vista64 on a quadcore Intel during ffwrding. I'm not quite shure if it has something to do with Java, it runs stable on my XP32 notebook.

Cheers and keep up the good work!

Comment by goreman, Mar 10, 2009

This software is just AMAZING! I run it on a old Dell 4550 with 2.4ghz and 768mb of ram and it works just fine. It doesn't lag like tversity or any other sw i tried.

I just wanted to give credit where credit was due.

This software holds GODLY status :D

Comment by sweatyrich, Mar 18, 2009

This software is tops! I'm experiencing one small problem though - the video is ahead of the audio by maybe 50-100ms. I can compensate with my amp if the audio is ahead (i.e. delay the audio by x milli-seconds, but not the other way around).

Is there a setting to allow me to do this? (I could set a negative delay in VLC)

Comment by Patrik.Kluge, Mar 24, 2009

hey the PS3Mediaserver does also work perfect on Windows 2003 Serve! keep up the nice work!

Comment by stejamtr...@yahoo.co.uk, Apr 08, 2009

Hi, great piece of Software, I watched the whole of a recording (1/2 hr) with no Network errors or anything which I was never able to do using Mythtv - I'd always get a network error in the last five minutes of a show which impressed (not !!) my technophobe Missus no end - and enabled her to dis my hobby: Computers with me having no come-back. I've recently gone Mac after using Linux for years (trying to cut down my carbon footprint AND most important of all my electricity bill) and PS3MS works great for OSX 10.5 on EyeTV recordings. Bit of a worrying thing was I saw loads of entries for "Star Trek the next generation" in the list of shows available on the server when viewing from the PS3. Now: none of these shows managed to record under EyeTV for some reason I've not been able to fathom as yet, and there are no entries in the EyeTV directory for them on the Mac Mini, so where is it (The PS3 that is) getting these entries from ? Cheers and hope I've given you enough info to go on.

Comment by mus...@assettrust.com, Apr 08, 2009

Awesome work - this is by far the best PS3 media server.

I'm sure it should be possible to stream a 1080p h264 .mkv file to the PS3 without transcoding as long as it is presented in an appropriate container and has a codec version the PS3 can understand. I've tried various media servers and transcoder settings without success - has anyone had any luck with this?

Comment by ronsmansdirk, Apr 27, 2009

Super application, finally able to stream to my PS3 over wifi without stutter ^^ Keep it up man!

Comment by dylan.j.fahey, May 03, 2009

Because I'm wired, I use keyint=1:vqscale=1:vqmin=1 to max out the network. I also use the 6 channels 5.1 and 640Kbs setting. I check the box 'definitely disable subtitles, and I'm trying the DTS/FLAC -> LPCM remux today to see how that works on stereo stuff. This media server just plain ROCKS! The network maxes about 60-70MBs when playing high-end rips. I love it! I get a few errors from badly encoded old movies/shows, but I can put up with that, it's not PS3media's fault. I play MKV, AVI, MPG, MP3, FLAC, MP4s, effortlessly! I'm in heaven! I thank the developers for their hard work on this one, it's a masterpiece!

Comment by alomamabobo, May 10, 2009

Hello, just a word to say thanks for this awesome prog ;) Running well on Ubuntu 9.04(x86).

Comment by RabidXero, Jun 09, 2009

i got the unsupported data ever since i switched to ubuntu ....... i cna submit the debug file but idk what to look for

Comment by Jacob.Cowan, Jun 09, 2009

Not running smoothly on higher quality video, but I just want to say thank you! Providing this is just terrific. If I get the higher quality video working, expect a nice donation.

Comment by randomly.weird, Jul 08, 2009

For me, it can't find each other! What do I do? I'm using the Mac-specific beta.

Comment by lagumi, Jul 16, 2009

I just installed PMS and the video streaming works fine but the pic-viewing and audio listening does not. I can see the pics and music folders on my PS3 but when I open them there are no files showing. Anyone who can give me a hint? /M

Comment by ExSportCZ, Jul 16, 2009

Bad category on PS3? ;-) Definitely you will not see pictures or music in "VIDEO category"

Comment by ben.tilley, Aug 01, 2009

To espinosa001: Make sure you're looking under the "Music" option. While you can see the music directories in the Video screen, no files are visible. I had the same problem last night until I realized that I had to switch 'modes' to play music. Hope this helps.

Comment by tenshin78, Aug 07, 2009

Installed yesterday, everything works out of the box as it should be, minutes after I was coping content into the PS3 HDD so I can see it without any lag or whatnot (then after watch, just delete), it was fast, the video quality top notch, subtitles working perfectly, I manage to see all my pictures in HD and to make my custom soundtrack playlist to listen in burnout, everything was done with no haste at all. Great, great job here guys.

Comment by siemvaessen, Aug 18, 2009

this is a wonderfull piece of engineering! just works straight from my macbook over a WIFI connection. Even skipping works on great. Thumbs up for this app. Keep up the good work.

Comment by bkratsch, Aug 19, 2009

Everything was working fine but I now get "Could not create the Java Virtual Machine" when I try opening the app. I have reinstalled the app and the java runtime environment and still no luck. Any suggestions?

Comment by ExSportCZ, Aug 20, 2009

I hope nobody waiting here that somebody will answer your question;-) It is not place for questions here. Trying to use forum is better idea;-) ExSport?

Comment by thomas.bachet, Aug 21, 2009

this is a great app. I switched from paid medialink user to this one. There are some features that can be the cherry on top of the ice cream. But the icecream itself tastes delicious! Keep up the good work!

Can you share you planning about the next release and the corresponding features?

Thanks so much!

Comment by oogunsanwo, Aug 23, 2009

I love you, man thanks

Comment by stephen.burning, Aug 31, 2009

Hi, I know divx plays natively on the ps3 so their is no transcoding/transmuxing but is it possible to using this program to have the divx file upscaled by the pc to 1080p then sent to the ps3. I do this with my mpegs and the results are better then just letting the ps3 do it.

Comment by Lua.Typhoon, Sep 05, 2009

Is it possible to make a direct connection pc->ps3 with ps3 MS, without the use of any routers,switches etc.

Thank you for a works out of the box product..

Comment by meskibob, Sep 05, 2009

Lua.Typhoon: yes, but you have to make sure the connection is active otherwise PMS isn't able to bind the port

Comment by vallurirajesh, Oct 01, 2009

Hey guys, thanks for a great program. I was wondering though,please don't chide me if it's a silly question. I was told that PS3 has the best 1080p upscaling available for playing traditional DVDs and Divx files. Are we not losing that by relegating the playback to this program. Or is the playing still done by PS3? Can you give me some clarity. Thanks in advance.

Comment by oliverlatus, Oct 15, 2009

hi from germany, i have a mac and the programm told me that a symbol should appear in xmb. but i dosent is it maybe that my router did not support upnp? i have a speedport w701v

Comment by danny.rosen, Oct 15, 2009

I'm running on Ubuntu and when i go into folders that do have files in them the ps3 show "There are no tracks" What am i missing?

Comment by lambo...@optusnet.com.au, Oct 21, 2009

i am trying to play a mp4 mp4 file and it does not seem to encode it to work on the ps3 because it says that the file type is not supported.

Comment by alain_me...@yahoo.fr, Oct 27, 2009

On Mac OSX 10.6.1 snow leopard, PMS 1.10.5 needs: - You change app running properties. To do this first open Finder, then look for "ps3 media server.app" (in application folder) and right-click on it. Select "Get Info" in General tab and tick "Open in 32-bit mode" and "Open using Rosetta" - Create a rule in the firewall setup and allow PMS app. To do this open System settings => security => firewall tab. Then uncheck "Block all incoming connections" and add a new app (click on plus button to choose it). Look for ps3 media server app then click OK. You won't need to force IP. Just restart your ps3 server.

Comment by henrytine, Oct 28, 2009

Hi,

Can this tool be installed on a linux NAS server? HJ

Comment by rnsha...@yahoo.com, Oct 29, 2009

I'm real pleased with how PS3MS plays internet radio. Thanks to whoever told me how to run it some time ago. However, the source only runs for something like 1 hour 56 minutes--then I have to restart. Any work arounds/fixes for that in the offering?

Comment by da...@losada.info, Nov 01, 2009

Can I use PS3ms to stream not into a PS3 but into another DLNA device, like a network enabled Philips TV certified for DLNA?

Thanks

Comment by ExSportCZ, Nov 01, 2009

Use forum and not FAQ for questions!!! ;-)


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