HCW Tech Blog

Hi,
One big Q, how about videos? any update on formats? will i be able to stream HD .TS formats? like i do on the xbox?
Thnks

I am testing video streaming as we speak ;)

Still won’t play native .ts files :(

Video works, but audio does not. So you will still need to demux, convert the audio to stereo, then remux again…

hmm so if i demux .ts files with mpeg2 or h264 codecs.. then mux again with stereo audio instead of dd5.1 it will play perfectly with ts format ?

I’m testing different methods right now. It seems to change with every firmware update. Keep an eye on our site, as a full article is forthcoming… subscribe to our feed, it is a full content feed :)

Hmm I have discovered something really good about this update. I’ll have to finish some more testing and get back to you :)

I want to know more about that really good something about this update.
I havent got a PS3 yet but soon I will.

greeting from good old germany.

What about for XP users?
What do we have to do to make this work?

I’m disappointed Sony haven’t updated updated the Help on their website - it’s not like they didn’t know the update was coming.

any hint for the mac users, on how we can achieve the same results?

AJ: Keep visiting this site then ;)
Jak: For XP users, upgrade to Windows Media Player 11
papo: No idea, don’t own a Mac. Sorry

thats ok Carl No prob many thanks!

Actually I came to this post through engadget. They were posting your story and giving links. So i thought to give it a try.If anyone has any idea, would be much appreciated for all the mac users. I am not sure if itunes or whatever supports DLNA . Engadget claims the is DLNA mac support! Lets see!

if i share atrac files on my pc - will i be able to stream them to the ps3? windows media player 11 doesnt import atrac so it looks like i might have to convert to mmp3.. should have just ripped as mp3 in the first place :(

RE: Mac Users

You’ll need to install TwonkyMedia…
http://www.twonkyvision.com/Products/TwonkyMedia/index.html

can you play divx, xvid and avi’s on the PS3??

if that works, combined with the features of this new firmware, i’ll go out and buy myself one today!!

thanks midnight I will give a try, tonight!

Wow.
I had WMP11, just had to fiddle a few settings - works fine now.
I love how Sony products just work - they do exactly as you expect of them
Cheers.

midnight: yeow! 30 Euros for that! Too bad the Mac doesn’t come with a free high quality media player with streaming :(

luke: Still no divx/xvid support. Put that credit card away!

matt: Haven’t fully tested that aspect yet. Been working on something else with this firmware…

true, 30 euros.If it works..then its ok..too bad there is not a free alternative.

“than the clunky XBOX 360 Dashboard.”

Not sure which dashboard you have, but the 360 dashboard on my 360 is far from clunky, and much easier to use than the XMB, especially for music…even after this 1.80 update.

@papo/Carl Nelson:
Of course there is: vlc (videolan.org). Works on both mac and win.
nothing better out there!

Carl,
can you check to see if watching a Blu-Ray movie at 720p still results in a 4:3 sized display using HDMI.

Thanks muchly..

It looks like Blu-Ray plays in 720p now, but I am waiting to hear back from Sony regarding the official status of this. Some people are reporting stuttering problems, and this would be an unannounced (yet important) feature if it really works…

Stay tuned!

Just tried it with orb…

Episodes of Scrubs work, they’re .avi files, but recognised as mpeg-2! yay!

Prison Break, n Heroes weren’t so lucky, maybe cos of higher bit rates

Midnight- Thanks for posting that. Rather easy way to get content on the PS3, at least for 30 days.

HELP on the streaming feature !
I got the download and the PS3 can see my PC, but as soon as I request a screening of the music folder -or pictures or videos - it gives me a message that rights/connection settings do not allow me to access files…..

I have Windows XP with WMP 11. In WMP I chose to enable media sharing and I can see my PS3 as unknown device…. I even granted folder network sharing in Windows Explorer…

Anybody got the same problem? Solution to solve it?

supfifi:

I am also having the same problem. Working on tryin to solve it know, if you work it out then let me know!

Hya how do I connect my pc (XP) with the ps3? iS IT WIRELESS OR DO i NEED A USB- OR NETWORKCABLE?

follow up:

i just restarted both my comp and my ps3 and worked fine! :)

General Q:
When will this be available in US?

Music Q:
Does it show album art?
Does it support playlists?
Does it have a “shuffle play” mode to shuffle from all songs?
Can I browse by year? genre? file type?
What music types does it support?

Photo Q:
Does it provide thumbnail browsing?
browse by date?
can you zoom and pan photos?
What rez to they display at?
Transitions?
Photoplaylists?

Video Q:
What codecs are supported? (MP1/2/4? H.264? WMV?)
What container types? (AVI, MKV, MOV)?
Does it have trick mode support?
Can you play protected content? What kind?

TIA

do I have to change setting on my pc? The Ps3 says no mediaserver found

Restarting the PS3 helped for me when I had that error! I also did a new search for media servers on the PS3.

Will this work with AAC files?

Did anyone notice the music folder names? “American Made Music to Strip By”? Where can I get that? ;)

Have you tested with 1080p material, like quicktime trailers from Apple?

So what’s this secret aspect of the firmware that you’ve been looking into? I’ve been waiting all day for some new info, but there has been none to speak of. Did this not pan out the way you were expecting?

You can stream AVI files as well. Here’s a link: http://www.gameswank.com/content/view/114/1

For windows XP you can stream to the PS3 using this free software:

http://www.tversity.com/home

Re: mac not having a free a free media player/ streamer

http://www.microsoft.com/mac/otherproducts/otherproducts.aspx?pid=windowsmedia

that might be helpful.

Just thought I’d mention for you guys, if you want support for DivX & XVid files via DLNA, you may want to have a look into Nero MediaHome (its part of Nero 7 Premium).

It works in a similar manner to WMP11’s sharing, except that it transcodes in real time files that normally wouldn’t be playable to a format compatible for the PS3 (e.g. XVid Divx) I’m playing around with it now and seems to be doing ok.

What about music files being accessed while in game play, Microsoft has this covered.

It appears as wireless doesnt work so well. Well not for me, where as a wired connection works first time.

Thanks for the info!

There’s a good guide here that shows you how to play video files such as .avi on the ps3 through streaming!

http://www.gamesey.com/page.php?t=1051

I’ve got a old Sony Vaio desktop. It has an application called Vaio Media server on it. Vaio Media ties together older Vaio products such as Gigapocket for TV recording, and SonicStage for music. Photo’s are simply shared through folder sharing.

The PS3 will see my vaio media server without any issues. It plays back video, music (inclusing album art) .. and pictures just fine.

It even plays back divx and xvid videos as well … however, although the files themselves are xvid/divx, Vaio media converts them in real time to mpeg, to stream them onto the ps3. Still works fine though, without any issues.

I have the windows media player 11 and i am connected with the ps3 to a wireless connection and my pc is connected to the same wireless connection but i cant share files, what can i do?

I am currently listening to music on my PSP, streaming from my PS3 400 miles away, which is pulling MP3’s wirelessly off my shared PC at home. That’s a pretty cool trick.

Sorry that I don’t have much knowledge on this topic other than what I am reading from this site and trying to learn… my question is only this… in order for my PS3 to connect with my pc (xp) do I have to have a router/hub … or can they connect if I run RJ45 cable straight from my pc to my ps3 .. with no internet connection obviously.

this is probably a silly obvious question… but before I buy a router I just want to know if this “direct connection” is possible…

please don’t flame me.. I’m really not stupid .. just learning as I go.

Thanks Jake

@Jake in order to connect PS3 and PC directly you need a “crossed” ethernet cable. Not sure if i named it correctly.
Ordinary ethernet cable might not help.

Jeff S - you serious with the 400 miles statement??? Is your PSP connected to some WiFi internet?

@Jake,

Routers are more pricey, a basic switch is just a few $$ or ££ depending on where you are. A 4 port switch is all you need for internal network connectivity of multiple devices.

So I’ve been looking at blogs all day and have probably spent about 3 hours total trying to get my PS3 to stream media. I have a 4 yr-old vaio laptop running xp and tried a number of things from opening ports in my router’s firewall to completely turning off all my firewalls, including windows. That said, my problem seems to be that my pc won’t recognize my PS3 AT ALL when I use WMP11 to try and share with it. My PS3 also doesn’t find anything when I try to search from the XMB. I have a 2 yr-old Belkin pre-n router and I’m not sure if that could be preventing the streaming, or XP, or some setting in WMP11 I haven’t come across. PLEASE, if ANYONE has any suggestions of what the problem might be or any suggestions on how to fix it, I’m open for replies. Thanks.
John

^Try using Nero Homemedia instead, as far as I can tell WMP11 doens’t work with both of them being wireless.

My PC and PS3 are wireless, and it works for me…

No idea what would be causing the problems you’re having…

Only my PS3 is connected wirelessly, my computer is plugged directly into the router. Is it possible that the version of WMP11 I have isn’t compatible? I downloaded it after it first was released.

Just to add, last night I went over to my buddies’ house and he has Windows Media Center set up for his 360. He also has a PS3 so we tried searching manually from the XMB for his computer running WMC… no dice. Then we tried using WMP11, as I had done, and for some reason two 360s showed up on the computer when I tried to select what device I wanted to share media with. I selected them both, went back to the PS3 and searched manually for WMP11 this time, and still found nothing. He has a year old Dell desktop running XP and BOTH the computer and the PS3 were plugged into the router…

WHY IS THIS HAPPENING!?!?! That’s two computers now that have basically done the same thing with completely different setups. If anyone wants to chime in, I’m all ears… does anyone know of a good place to post this question to try and get another answer?

Does XP just not work well with PS3’s DLNA media sharing? It seems that most of the success stories I’ve read about involved computers running Vista. Thoughts?

Got this working fine with Media Centre 2005 and PS3 via WRT54Gl router wirless connection to PS3 and wired connection to PC. Snap to setup video, music and photo’s worked perfectly on first try.

Im using XP with WMP 11 and have set the library setting to share with the ps3 (unknown device). I manage to browse the computer from the ps3, like viewing all the mp3 files. But when I press play, the ps3 get the message “access denied” or something like that.

*John*

Try to use WMP 11 with XP doesn’t work, you need vista is seems. Even though on the Sony website says you can use XP and WMP 11. Tried Nero media home works okay but need more time to try different files.

cool, just switched on my ps3 and saw an update available.. 1.8, thought id see whats in it whilst its downloading (42%at mo)
i was actually switching it on to transfer 8gb of music from my arcade/jukebox mame machine (with winxp and wm v11)
seems i wont need my usb stick and several journeys - but will be able to transfer it all over my wireless network..
and after a psp update eventually be able to also watch/listen to anything on my ps3 via my psp.

what i dont know is if ill be able to plug my usb camera into my ps3 and watch my camera from the psp?

booo only 48%, why cant i do other stuff on it whilst its downloading the update?

*John*
I’m having the exact same problem as John but i have vista. My computer just wont recognise my ps3 and vise versa.

Sharing of my files is OK now.
Only problem:
A lot of my MP3 not recognized as such …, though they are when loaded via USB stick.

http://www.fotobram.eu/wordpress/?p=34

have applied the update and can connect to my laptop. didnt try playing anything over it, but did play stuff through my psp now woohoo. my usb camera isnt recognised by ps3.
and i still have to close the browser session between playing youtube videos.

also, i dont like it that i cant play music off the ps3 in the background to doing other stuff on it - like playing games, or browsing the internet.

oh, and would be nice to guide round the visual music player in a sixaxis controlled object.

>also, i dont like it that i cant play >music off the ps3 in the background to >doing other stuff on it - like playing >games, or browsing the internet

that works fine for me. just select the music and then press the PS button : you should be able to select the browser, watch your photos etc with you music in the background

does anyone know if i can stream from a mac to my ps3 , ive downloaded the new firmware , tried to search for a connection on my ps3 nothing found , any ideas anyone , thanx

This sounds great and would really like to start streaming my media. how do i do thaat?

i have vista home premium, but when i search for network media devices on my ps3 it does not find anything.

do i have to set up media centre on my PC to do this? or is my router blocking a port that would enable this?

First off I just wanted to say thanks to the people who responded earlier to my question and I did eventually get my computer to connect to the PS3 VIA a straight through connection, turns out the long ethernet cable I have must be a “cross-over” cable.

I have been reading all the posts and I don’t know if this will help any of them but I just wanted to add that I am running Windows XP and WMP11 … no issues now … it seems that I had to actually turn the PS3 off and back on again after installing the update and connecting my PC … before the re-boot of the PS# it picked up nothing .. after the re-boot … no problem.

Jake

how do you connect pc to the ps3?

ATTN: Carl or any other tech user…

I have xp with wmp 11. I can detect my xbox 360 but no luck even discovering my ps3. Any tips or suggestions of options to change? I can’t find any tips by searching… Thanks for the help!

And thanks for the great article!

A couple suggestions for people having problems:

1) Make sure WMP11 is set up to share files (under the Library button, go into the Media Sharing section)

2) Try turning off your Windows firewall, or any other software firewall

3) Basically, try to make your PC as open as possible to your local network. Then when you get it working, start securing things from there until you find what is causing the problem

You’re THE man, Carl.

Cheers!

Hi guys, i have the same issue as John… i configured the UPnP on my Netgear DG834GT and it seems to work… it recongnize the ps3 and let to open ports on my firewall without any problem… my ps3 does access internet but still has “UPnP=Unavailable” so i can’t share anything with my pc…

please help,
thanx from Italy

Hi

I use TVersity 0.9.10.2 with the Path for Firmware 1.8 on Vista w/o wireless.
MP11 & MC is a joke without trans coding. Windows MC is rubbish after all.
TVersity has glitches, i hope the next version fix this things. But i can watch a 720p Anime now, thats something. My old Xbox with XBMC is to slow for that.

Sorry for my English.

when u put pictures on the playstation 3 how do u set your picture u want on the playstation 3 as a background. and how do u make it stay on

well it took me a while to get mine working but it does work with xp and vista just need to download the latest wmp11 and go into options > library > config. sharing button > click both boxes and then ok you should restart the comp than the ps3 for it to work may have to wait a few minutes for the MC to get into the cache of your roughter and it should auto Upnp if your router has Upnp enabled hopes this helps

OK. Lets see if anyone can help me. It seems that there are a lot of people who have figured it out, so hopefully.

I have Vista Premium. My Ps3 and comp are wirelessly connected to my linksys wrt54g router.
Both have no problems connecting to the internet.
I go into WMP and enable sharing, get to the next screen and it doesn’t show any devices whatsoever. I try to search with my Ps3, nothing. When I close out of the sharing window in WMP and re-open it, it tells me “Media sharing is currently disabled, either because the sharing service is not running, or the firewall settings have changed. To restart sharing, you must first confirm your sharing settings.”
So i confirm, still nothing. Tried restarting everything, nothing. Tried turning off firewalls. Nothing.
Checked that sharing is enabled in Windows and in my firewall, and they are.

This process sounds so simple and yet, it is not working for me at all.

I am trying Nero media home, and hopefully that will get me somewhere.

But, if anyone has any ideas as to why my WMP won’t work then please let me know!!!

Thanks!

-C

I think there are numerous problems with WMP 11 setups. I could never get it to work, then tried Nero’s MediaHome (which I had, but didn’t even know existed…) It works perfectly. If WMP 11 is NOT working for you correctly after restarting both machines, try uninstalling it and reinstall.
Also, as mentioned about VLC will stream and copy damned near anything you throw at it, it’s free AND multi-platform.
LAstly, you have to make folders to x-fer items on plug-in storage…Picture, Video, Audio. That drove me crazy until I read about it somewhere.

I have the EXACT same problem as “Cass”. i believe WMP cannot be on a wireless computer to work….so im trying nero

Hey ya guys,
Managed to connect my PS3 and PC over the wireless network. However the PS3 come up with an error if I try and open the music library. I can play videos and see photos no problems. I can also play music if its put in a playlist, but it can’t seem to get into my music library directly. Any Ideas?

Sam

I have WMP 11 on a computer that is wireless connected to my wired PS3. Having no problems with sharing music but am getting issues with some of my videos.

Thanx for the info on Nero MediaHooe everyone. Will publish an update if I can get ALL of my video to strean to the PS3.

hi ….i need help
i been trying to work ps3 media..every thing works except for my video it tells my file not supported,but my videos are all mp4…can enybody tell me what to do … my wmp11 can’t ether you can here the audio but not the pitcher…if i need codecs or need to convert my file plese someone tell my how to get what i need…thanks

Hi, I’ve gotten this working, but my PS3 will play one song, then restart that same song - or at least a couple seconds of it… repeatedly. I have to hit R1 to get it to play the next song.

Ideas?

just wondering if anybody had found a way to set a wallpaper to the PS3?, no option in photo file, or is it not available option with the current update 1.8

Hey, everything works fine for me.

windows xp
wireless through router

but only displays my songs etc. on my local laptop (my music). most of my media is on an external hard drive and the ps3 can’t see it. tried enabling sharing on the ext. hd but that doesn’t seem to work. also dragged the files into WMP 11 from the ext. hd. any ideas?

Sam Fezzza - having the same problem..found my pc perfectly allows me to look a pics , video, etc, but if i openthe music folder..i get ean error message, but can listen to music thru playlists only…..did you figure it out? help anyone

I was curious if PS3 will let you upload Flash programs to it.

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