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Wow, streaming from PC to PS3 sure is a major pain in the arse...

Cuda1447

Cuda1447

Lifer
I'm curious if anyone else has gone through these ridiculous situations trying to get their streaming to function properly.

First the specs:

New laptop. Quad Core Sandy Bridge - 6 Gigs RAM - Wireless N
PS3 hardwired to wireless N router. Wireless N router hardwired to FIOS Modem. PC wireless connection to wireless N router. PS3 hooked to tv.

Software: PS3 Media Server and Win 7 media player.

Files:

1080p (and some 720p) .mt2s and .mp4.


On the laptop the files play absolutely fine, no problem, ever.


Sometimes they stream absolutely fine to my PS3 using PS3 Media Server. Sometimes my ps3 cannot be detected. Sometimes I use the windows media player to stream them to the PS3. Sometimes that doesn't work either. Sometimes they will both work. Sometimes it will work but then start lagging in the middle of the movie. Sometimes it'll work perfectly. At times it works during the day and then gives me DLNA protocol error (many different kinds) at night. Sometimes it works great at night.

Basically its unfuckingpredictable and I can't seem to figure out what causes it to work sometimes and other times to be a bitch.

Right now its working great. But that was after restarting my pc, restarting the PS3. Reconnecting. Restarting the PS3 again. Trying again. Then turning on and off PS3 Media Server. Trying again. Restart Ps3 again. Oh now it works. Fantastic. Until I try to watch another movie.


Have you guys had these problems? Should this really be that freaking difficult?
 
it could be something as random as a bad network cable.

i'd start there as it should be easy enough to swap out some cables and see if it improves. I'd also try to keep both the laptop and the PS3 wired. perhaps also try a different network switch if you have a spare one lying around.
 
My setup is like yours and I don't have the same level of issues that you seem to be experiencing. Is there any way to hardwire the PC into the network? That'd be the easiest test...if that works fine, then your wireless is too slow.
 
I never has success with 1080P and wireless i had to go wired. After i went to wired i have had no issues and my server PC is not strong its only a AMD 7750 with 4GB running Ubuntu server, also using PS3 Media server software.

I would wire it and not screw around with wireless, wireless just does not have the capacity to stream 1080P yet.
 
I think you've got more than one problem going on here. Sounds like your network is causing the biggest headache. Just to clarify:

PS3 is hardwired to the router, correct?
PC is wirelessly connected to the router, correct?
What software firewall fo you have on the PC?

Is your PS3 set to use the "wired" connection instead of the built-in Wireless G? Happens all of the time. Someone hooks the cable into the PS3 and doesn't change the setting so the PS3 keeps chugging along via the Wireless G and anytime the movie gets over 35mb/s, it lags/gets choppy/appears to lock up. Sony should put some kind of auto-detect on there so that it automatically asks you which connection you'd like to use when it senses an ethernet cable being present.

I wouldn't worry too much about the DLNA Protocol Error. Anytime I pause a movie, it pops up when I restart. It's a known bug with the PS3, but other than the message, it's meaningless for performance.

The next thing I'd look into is whether transcoding on the fly is being done. Your PC should be able to handle any SD and 720p/1080i content, but true 1080p content being transcoded in real time can tax any system, especially if there's stuff running in the background.

Your PS3 should be able to playback pretty much any .m2ts files as long as the HD video stream is level 4.1 or lower. MP4 can be trickier and the PS3 is rumored to be picky about them. I have only seen a couple of .mp4/.m4v that it had any trouble with, though. It will be a case by case basis. If you can flag the .mp4s down that aren't working, PM me and I'd love to look into it. The surest and least expensive (time and money) thing to do is demux the .mp4 using YAMB or something similar and the remux to an .m2ts with tsMuxer.

I've used the PS3 as my media streamer and Blu-Ray player for more than two years now. It's never even seen a video game. Except for the fact that it doesn't recognize .mkv files as a playable format, it is the perfect streamer for me. I have a similar network setup to you just reversed a bit. Works great up to about 80-90mb/s.

PS3
|
| wired
|
Wireless Bridge
^
^ wireless
^
"N" Router
|
| wired
|
PC

gar655 is right, Apple makes a really simple, reliable and easy solution, but it is rather limited.

You just need to get a simple workflow going and you'll be aces. The biggest problems I have had were non-PS3 related and usually due to the network, firewall or streaming software. It was frustrating till I got the bugs worked out, but it's a dream now.

This is what I would do:

1 - Find a basic .m2ts video file that you know is 720p avc/h264 level 4.0 or 4.1 with an AC3 audio track. Copy it to a flash drive and play it back locally. If it plays fine from the USB port, it'll play fine through the network.

2 - Turn off your PC's and router's firewalls.

3 - Turn transcoding completely off in the PS3 Media Server

4 - Stream the verified, compatible file.

If it works, your problems are network and/or file related. My money says it will. Troubleshoot from there.

There are lots of solutions. I'll help you out. Let me know if you need more help.

If the PS3 is driving you nuts, you should try an Xbox 360 some time. 😉
 
Last edited:
ps3 media server works good for alot of files. Not so much for gigantic 1080p sort of files though.

set a static ip address. mine finds the ps3 every time it's on.
 
Last edited:
airdata said:
ps3 media server works good for alot of files. Not so much for gigantic 1080p sort of files though.

set a static ip address. mine finds the ps3 every time it's on.
Click to expand...

I never really got the hang of PS3 Media Server. I always seemed to have better luck with Tversity. I just switched to Mezzmo and while it took a little more effort to set up the profile, and wasn't free, it is by far the most customizable and best option I've worked with.

I had never thought of assigning a static ip address. It seemed like since the last PS3 firware update, it was taking way too long to find the media server (up to 5 minutes after turning it on). Being a networking amateur, that's something you do on the router side, right then assign it in the media streaming software, right?
 
I had a hard time maintaining a wireless connection between my PC and PS3 while testing Windows 7 Media player with my PS3. I live in a condo so I have people sharing three of my walls. I also found out that my wireless N network served by a linksys router would get jammed in frequencies and go down if I used a cordless (not cell) phone.

So I am planning to go wired all the way for my media server.
 
VorpalBunny said:
I had a hard time maintaining a wireless connection between my PC and PS3 while testing Windows 7 Media player with my PS3. I live in a condo so I have people sharing three of my walls. I also found out that my wireless N network served by a linksys router would get jammed in frequencies and go down if I used a cordless (not cell) phone.

So I am planning to go wired all the way for my media server.
Click to expand...

Wired is definitely more secure and reliable than wireless, but I have had no trouble with interference or hacking if I keep it on the 5 gHz band and WPA on.
 
sometimes i get a Empty Folder when browsing from my PS3 to my Win7 box.
other than that, it's pretty easy considering how it auto detected any media servers on my LAN.
 
I've had similar issues. It's slow, though it's been more consistent in terms of reliability. What I don't like is it's inability to play a folder, regardless of how many other folders are nested in it IE play a whole artist. Though, maybe I'm just stupid in that regard.

I have similar issues when using my receiver or TV.

So, I have something Logitech had a few years ago. I just fire up iTunes or whatever and I can easily control it with its remote. There was also a plugin for Winamp that allowed you to output to both this and your local output simultaneously.
 
r, that's something you do on the router side, right then assign it in the media streaming software, right?
Click to expand...

Yeah.

There's somewhere in the settings when you open the media server program where it has the interface you're using and allows you to enter an ip address for the media server ( your computer ).
 
I'd try hardwiring the laptop into the network. Originally I had my PC hardwired and my PS3 on wifi and HD stuff was pretty much out of the question. I ran a cat5 to the PS3 and haven't had an issue in the past 2 years or so with anything I've played through ps3 media server/win7 wmp (currently on version 12).
 
TVMobili is working excellently as a DNLA server for streaming files to my PS3 and my DNLA-enabled Samsung TV from my Windows 7 desktop.

The only problem is the PS3's lack of support for some common video types (h.264 in MKV, for example). I haven't looked into on-the-fly transcoding. MP4 worked fine though, haven't tried M2TS.
 
evilspoons said:
TVMobili is working excellently as a DNLA server for streaming files to my PS3 and my DNLA-enabled Samsung TV from my Windows 7 desktop.

The only problem is the PS3's lack of support for some common video types (h.264 in MKV, for example). I haven't looked into on-the-fly transcoding. MP4 worked fine though, haven't tried M2TS.
Click to expand...

TvMobili is one I hadn't heard of, yet, I'll have to try it out, just cuz. Really, really happy with Mezzmo now, after a couple of tweaks to their custom profile.

I actually prefer .m2ts to .mp4 cuz it allows me to package the subtitles into the file. Then if PS3 ever supports .mkv I can just remux and have the subtitles. My DirecTV boxes support .m2ts playback and not .mp4 as well. Just seems like .m2ts will play on just about anything if you don't need subs.

I abhor on the fly transcoding and do whatever I must to avoid it.
 
I think the vast majority of problems with DLNA streaming is configuring wireless networks to play nice with the setup. It's really not hard to install Tversity, select the media library and then turn on your PS3 or WD Live. It's the networking part that can be a real crapper. Probably 3 out of 4 problems I've seen have been router and/or firewall issues.

If you can wire it up, please do. If you need to go wireless, get ready to do some reading and put in some time.
 
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