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Video Game Hardware

PS3 1.8 firmware streams music, photos, and video from Vista

Update: Go here for instructions on how to stream MP4 and M4V video files to the Playstation 3 from Windows Vista and XP.

Update 2: We have tested Media Streaming capabilities with Windows 7. Streaming just got a lot easier!

When I woke up this morning, I spotted a PR release from Sony regarding their upcoming 1.8 firmware update. The thing that stood out about this update was that it would allow streaming media to a PSP over the internet. I wrote about that immediately, but until the next firmware arrives for the PSP, we won’t be able to check it out.

The 1.8 firmware arrived for me about an hour ago (being Thursday afternoon in Hong Kong, I guess they are rolling the updates based on local time). I left the firmware to install, and went back to work on some other things.

Then this popped up:

PS3 as a streaming media device in Windows Vista

Huh? A new media device on my network? Could it be that the PS3′s new support for DLNA works in Vista too?

I ran over to my PS3, and sure enough, there it was. I have Vista set to share my media to the network, so I can watch and listen to it on my HTPC and XBOX 360. Well it turns out I have another choice, and the PS3 supports streaming media from Windows Vista now! A bit of digging around, and I found that Vista supports DLNA after all… I guess I wouldn’t have been shocked had I known this, because it was mentioned in the PR yesterday. Oh well…

If you’re curious, here is what the streaming media interface looks like on the PS3. The more I use the XMB interface, the more I like it. It definitely feels snappier than the clunky XBOX 360 Dashboard. The PS3 uses 175 watts while playing music.

Oh, one thing I have to mention: The Playstation 3 does NOT play lossless WMA files. That screws it up for me, as I have me entire music library backed up in lossless WMA. Hopefully a future update will remedy this.

Streaming media from Windows Vista on PS3
It even has the Windows logo!

Streaming media from Windows Vista on PS3
You can list your media by artist, album, composer, etc

Streaming media from Windows Vista on PS3
This is what it looks like when you play a song

Streaming media from Windows Vista on PS3
You can even copy media over to the PS3 hard drive

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  • Jayson

    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

  • http://www.hardcoreware.net/ Carl Nelson

    I am testing video streaming as we speak ;)

  • http://www.hardcoreware.net/ Carl Nelson

    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…

  • Jayson

    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 ?

  • http://www.hardcoreware.net/ Carl Nelson

    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 :)

  • http://www.hardcoreware.net/ Carl Nelson

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

  • AJ

    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.

  • Jak

    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.

  • http://javapapo.blogspot.com papo

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

  • http://www.hardcoreware.net/ Carl Nelson

    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

  • http://javapapo.blogspot.com papo

    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!

  • mmcg

    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 :(

  • http://www.propertyselect.com luke wd

    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!!

    • Rico

      Luke, i can not believe my eyes, are you still fumbling around with divx!? oh you misguided one… Haven’t you heard there is a new sheriff in town, it’s called h264, aka mp4 video. It blows divx and xvid away. And ofcourse, well playable on the ps3. Good luck!

  • http://javapapo.blogspot.com papo

    thanks midnight I will give a try, tonight!

  • Jak

    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.

  • http://www.hardcoreware.net/ Carl Nelson

    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…

  • http://javapapo.blogspot.com papo

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

  • Brian

    “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.

  • midnight

    RE: Mac Users

    You’ll need to install TwonkyMedia…

  • rene

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

  • Simon

    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..

  • http://www.hardcoreware.net/ Carl Nelson

    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!

  • Rebigulator

    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

  • http://www.invertedpixel.com Rick

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

  • supfifi

    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?

  • Scott

    supfifi:

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

  • Murray

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

  • Scott

    follow up:

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

  • mike

    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

  • Murray

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

  • buzz

    Will this work with AAC files?

  • RuCrazee2

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

  • Martin

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

  • aa

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

  • Joshua

    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?

  • http://www.spikedeffect.com SpikedEffect

    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.

  • shabamm

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

  • silverwolf

    You can stream AVI files as well. Here’s a link:

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

    http://www.tversity.com/home

  • Conor

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

    that might be helpful.

  • Ben

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

  • Pete

    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

  • Adrian

    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.

  • Luis

    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?

  • Jeff S

    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.

  • Jake

    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

  • Ein

    @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.

  • Alex

    @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.

  • Tonester

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

  • John

    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

  • bob villa

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

  • http://www.hardcoreware.net/ Carl Nelson

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

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

  • John

    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?

  • John

    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?

  • Steve P

    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.

  • marsupial

    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.

  • Melvin

    *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.

  • jackherer

    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?

  • Curty

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

  • jackherer

    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.

  • http://fotobram.eu Bram de Mooij

    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.

  • m

    >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

  • wayne

    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

  • Denzil

    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?

  • Jake

    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

  • saqlain

    how do you connect pc to the ps3?

  • Mr. Washington

    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!

  • http://www.hardcoreware.net/ Carl Nelson

    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

  • Mr. Washington

    You’re THE man, Carl.

    Cheers!

  • Max

    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

  • ICEMAN.s

    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.

  • http://www.hardcoreware.net nicholas

    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

  • chad

    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

  • Cass

    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

  • Vol

    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.

  • afiser

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

  • Fezza

    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

  • Eric S

    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.

  • mauro

    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

  • Chris

    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?

  • Daryl

    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

  • davida

    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?

  • randoo

    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

  • Derek Kier

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

    I’m a software and web developer and would like to eventially build applications for gaming systems.

  • snip

    Randoo, Fezzza. I had this problem turned out to be too many tracks in the WMP library, moved my music folder to a new location and deleted all items in the current library, then rebuilt in stages from the new location, works fine now. Still having problems showing artwork but am working on that now

  • Fezza

    Had a feeling it might bee too many tracks, thanks for confirming i will start rebuilding my library soon,
    Cheers snip

  • luis magalhaes

    i´ve a problem with that firmware because not a single dvd plays. it simply freezes the console……and i have to reboot. in blue ray everithing ok but dvd it cannot work.. any idea how to solve or its a hardware problem?????

  • PMF

    Hi all,

    I run XP pro with a completely up to date WMP 11 on a desktop that is hard connected to my Belkin Router. My PS3 and laptop are connected wirelessly to the same router.. so all devices are on the same subnet mask. And alas, I too after restarting, turning off firewalls (Symantec) etc simply cannot get WMP11 to recognize any devices to share my library to. I am getting desperate here, as I have no idea what is wrong and am now hopelessly jealous of everyone that is now getting full advantage of firmware 1.8. Any suggestions as to what might help ?

  • Bob

    XBOX 360 Dash board is clunky!!!
    XMB is Non-clunky!!!

  • Aethelstan

    I can’t get to listen to ANY music at all.
    I can view photos and videos, but I get a ‘no tracks’ message when try to open the PS3 ‘music’ folder

    I eventually managed to track down the listing of all my music files – going into the ‘playlists’ then hunting through various sub-folders.

    Doing this, I can see many of the album names – but not all, my any means – but get the ‘no tracks’ message when I try to open the subfolder.

    Most of my files are WMAs compressed at 96kbps, but I do have some music that is MP3. Can’t see those files either.

    what can I do?

  • PMF

    Hi Aethelstan,

    How did you configure your system to enable your PC to stream to your PS3 ? As you can see from my post yesterday, I have still to convince WMP11 to see any devices to stream to :-(

    • deraeler

      HAving same issue with XP SP3 % my PS3 seeing media server running under WMP11. I see no resolutin on this site – thought you might have found the solution. I’ve tried everything…many hours invested, nothing to show for it. Any help appreciated.

  • Aethelstan

    Hi, PMF,

    I can see the PS3 as an ‘unknown device’ in the share window of WMP 11 and sharing to this was enabled by default.
    It’s clearly working up to a point, since I can see videos and photos OK on the PS3.
    What’s annoying is that there is NOTHING at all displayed when’m in the PS3 ‘music’ folder and I have to poke around to even get a listing of albums.

    And I’ve also d/loaded and installed tversity but that made no difference.

  • Pete

    I am also having the same problem as Scott where the PS3 has detected my PC MP3 files on my PC harddrive, and when I try to play an MP3 it plays the one song and then repeats it.. and repeats it .. for a few seconds .. and won’t advance at all.

    Can anyone help?

  • Aethelstan

    Well, like Fezza I managed to get tracks to play via the playlists.
    So what I’ve done is create a playlist for every album in my library – and that’s done the trick!
    It’s a work around, but I suspect it’s a lot faster doing that than this business of deleting and rebuilding the library.

  • Aethelstan

    Well… that’s about a 70% improvement. I can now listen to my music.
    Only – the PS3 doesn’t recognise the correct track order in the playlists!
    In some cases that’s not too much of a problem, but with others it’s a royal pain in the butt!

  • Johnaussie

    I can see the PS3 as an ‘unknown device’ in the share window of WMP 11 and sharing to this was enabled by default.
    ANd the PS3 resognizes the Music stored in the root of “My Music” folder It’s clearly working up to a point, .
    What’s annoying is that the folders for each artist are not displayed. And worse it will not play any individual song. says that it does not recognise file format
    They are all ripped from CD’s at 192 and in WMA format.
    Can anyone get the PS3 to play songs? What about songs with DRM rights that are current (from subscription services like napster or yahoo music)

  • baz

    i can connect for music and photo i get folders for movies but when i try to play it says coonection to media server could not be established check settings for media server and network devices but every else works fine any ideas?

  • noz

    i have the same problem as baz. Photo and Music works great but for video its no go.

  • CMK

    Does anyone know about uploading songs from an ipod with the usb link, files show up in odd file names, and what about playing the songs during gameplay?

  • noz

    ok i tried an old xbox360 tool instead (Tversity) and it works perfect. Baz get it here ( http://tversity.com/home ).

  • Mauro

    Does anyone know if the OS Vistsa will run on PS3 ? – I dont want start to use Linux

  • http://www.hardcoreware.net/ Carl Nelson

    Vista will not run on the PS3.

  • Mauro

    Thanks Carl – What about XPpro – or no windows OS on PS3 ?

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  • Nadeem

    Hey guys sup?
    My PS3 works fine and eveything and i have WMP11 but when i go to my ps3 i can see all the songs but for some reason they wont play…XD
    if anyone knows what to do msg or email me at Nadeem_ishaq35@hotmail.com
    Thx!

  • http://www.james-lloyd.com James

    Vista and XP are never likely to run on the PS3 as it does not run on an x86 architecture. You should try and embrace the linux, its not ready yet IMHO but its deffinately the future

  • Aethelstan

    Well, the running order issue looks to be resolved by update 1.90, thankfully.
    I still have to play my songs via the ‘playlists’ option, but at least they are in the correct order now!

  • BAZ

    do you think if we installed windows as an operating system on the ps3 that it would be more streaming friendly when it comes to video, has anyone installed any other operating systems yet?

  • http://www.myspace.com/campfire_memory Drew

    NEED HELP! i want to stream movies from my computer to my ps3, it’s wireless and i have no problems streaming music or mpeg-2s, i read the ps3 can play mp4′s also and i’ve converted some avi’s to mp4 and it still doesnt recognize the stream, does anyone know what to do and/or have an option for a program to convert the videos to the right video type? avi’s dont work either, and the mp4s aren’t showing up, thanks!

  • Johnny_G

    Ok guys – someone will know the answer to this.

    I was thinking of getting a wifi hard drive, then thought why not use the PS3.
    So my question is this, can a external usb2 hard drive be attached to the PS3 with Media on eg Music vids etc which can then be streamed to PC or downloaded to from the PC over Wifi. Making the PS£ the media center and a backup utility?

    Sorry if its a stupid question but it seems most people are using the PC as a media center & streaming to the PS3

    Cheers

    John

  • Adrian

    VLC

    Can someone please post a guide how to stream a movie with VLC to the ps3 please? I tried million different ways, looked on the net and can’t make it work.

    Thank you in advance.

  • Chris

    Why will my ps3 only recognise my music if there are less than 10000 songs in the wmp 11 watch folder?!

  • Brett

    I can get pics and music to stream to my PS3…why can’t I get video. I’ve tried to stream mpeg-4 video files as well as WMV files to. I have Vista and Windows MP11???

  • me

    every body try nero media server excellent interface easy to set up it will even convert onfly movies as streaming. im using nero 7 ultra just updated and watching films converted to mpeg2 from dvi

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  • Alestor666

    ive been looking around the net about this whole media server deal with the ps3 and i have windows vista followed some of the steps up to the point that in the media sharing window the ps3 does not show up as an unknown device or at all for that matter would it be because its plugged into a router and how on earth would i go about getting this to work?

  • Mastormind78

    I have a ps3 and can not for the life of me get the ps3 to see the windows server. I have vista operating system. I have followed the steps as described. When i set it up on my laptop using xp it works fine. I think it has somthing to do with vistas permissions. Any help would be great.. Thanks!!!

  • alestor666

    well it turns out odly if the interent is down that is going into the router the server shows up but soon as the internet is on it dispeares from the ps3 any ideas?

  • Ray

    I just bought PS3 and I have a wireless network. I cannot find my media server both on my pc and PS3. I tried Wmp 11 and nero media home but both dont work.

    Please someone help!!!!

    Thanks

  • blah

    My ps3 plays games and videos fine everythings fine except one thiung
    There are these little white lines starting at the bottom and moving up then repeating its really annoying how do i solve it?

  • rkoporc2

    Ray

    I have mine set up and just set up one for my father this weekend…be sre to go into WMP 11 and tell it to share the library…you go under wmp 11 , library, then media sharing, allow it to share wiht your sony ps3 device which should show up…hope this helps…

  • Spud

    Does anyone have a definitive setup procedure yet?

    I have a PS3, and a desktop running Vista Ultimate. Both machines are connected wirelessly at present. I also have a USB2 external drive connected to the Vista desktop.

    1. I’ve allowed the PS3, via Vista, to share media with the computer.
    2. I’ve set sharing of all media on the Vista machine.
    3. I can see every media folder on the desktop (including the ext drive), but I always get an error that I can’t see any tracks within them, as Aethelstan did. However for me it doesn’t matter if it’s music, photos, or videos.
    4. My friend has the whole setup working perfectly, except his machine runs 2003 Server and Nero MediaHome.

    My guess is that Vista doesn’t have read permissions set on the files by default, just the folders. But I’ve tried adjusting the NTFS disk permissions on Vista and it makes no difference. Has anyone else solved this problem?

    Spud

  • Aethelstan

    Spud:
    I long ago gave up worrying about viewing music files via the straight ‘folders’ option.
    Just create playlists for all your CDs in WMP, and then use the ‘playlists’ item from the music menu.
    My wish now is that the PS3 would play files from ITunes, since I’ve got a nice new iPod and don’t use WMP anymore!!

  • eddie

    wmp11 and nero are sharing the files to ps3 but as soon as I try to play anything my pc(Dell optiplex 270) shuts down and I get a blue screen error. Please help, very frustrated……Thanks in advance, eddie.

  • Eric

    My ps3 and wmp11 do not see each other. However my wmp11 will detect other devices in my apartment building and my ps3 will detect other WMP11 servers. I can even ping the two, but they won’t see each other. Any help on this would be greatly appreciated because it is driving me MAD. I am using XP and both are using wireless connections to the internet. Thanks

  • shad

    any way to play games while listening to the playlists made or any music besides the games soundtrack????

  • Chris

    Any ideas if Sony will have a TV Show/Movie download service a la XBOX Live/Apple TV?

    Seems like this is the biggest component that it’s missing…and it’s making me think about buying an XBOX 360.

  • jfrdricks63

    Does streaming music mean coming from subscription services like Zune or is it only for actual songs downloaded to your hard drive?

  • RonnyM82

    All you guys with the WMP11 issues, stuff microsoft! use nero media server, worked instantly and is extremely good, i have yet to find out if it will stream 5.1 audio

  • leebaz

    can any 1 help i got my ps3 hooked up to my pc and can find every thing wirelessly but every time i go to play 1 of the files weither it be music or videos i get a media server error “80710028″ yet i can view pics……any ideas??

  • Mark

    I get a Aigo iSonic MP3 sunglasses, but I don’t know how to transform music on it… (i know with the firmware, but I don+t know which and where can I get it) so.. if who know that… please send me a answer on my email ( mark.selan@gmail.com )
    thank you :)

  • helpuout

    yeah, check your router firewall leebaz!

  • Sean L

    Since everyone is so nice in providing help I thought I would pass along a little piece of info for the Itunes folks. (Itunes play lists to PS3) Keep reading past my Xbox ramble

    I just bought a Xbox (which will be going back shortly). I was disappointed that they will not be adding a blue ray player and that u have to have a wmc pc in order to play much of the video content. Long story short … it’s going back in less that 30 days.

    What I did learn from my Xbox experiance is you can get Itunes playlists to import into WMP via and application called “Music Bridge”. It will do much more than import playlists but thats all I wanted it to do and it worked great + free.

    Since many of you have managed to get the PS3 to talk to WMP11 you should be able to get the Itunes play lists to work as well!

    I hope this helps! Maybe some one can help me out if I run into issues when I buy my PS3.

    http://www.download.com/MusicBridge/3000-2141_4-10530687.html

  • jfrdricks63

    Most modern PCs especially those that run vista already have MCE… except they dont call it that any more. It is just integrated into the experience. Too bad you are returning your 360 as most of the good games will be coming for that system and not the ps3..

    360 was designed to stream content over a network and does a much better job than the ps3. IMHO.

  • Sean L

    Not that I want to turn this into a console bashing forum, but I do think it’s interesting from the perspective of people who want the PS3 / Xbox for entertainment and media extender capabilities. Since I’ve only had the Xbox to date I can’t comment on how good (or bad) the PS3 is in this regard.

    A few Items I didn’t like about the Xbox.
    - No Blue Ray, and no plans to add it.
    - SD movies look bad on the Xbox. Once they figured out HDDVD was doomed they should have made the DVD drive at least up-converting.
    - Seems to have issues with the sound on some 5.1 movies.
    - Loud! Man that disk drive and fan are annoying.
    - Can’t run xbox MC without a WMC PC. This just seemed like a ploy to get everyone to upgrade to Vista.
    - Doesn’t play many of the video formats (.vob, avi, divx, etc …)
    - Number of on-line HD movies downloads is limited to about 5 newer releases (CAN site).
    - Can’t turn off visualizations (this was just plain dumb).
    - No internet browser.

    Considering it was Microsoft who developed this system I thought it would be better at many of these items. Like I said I am more interested in the media extender capabilities so I can’t really comment on game play.

    The two things Xbox did very well:
    1. The sound on my mp3 collection sounded excellent through the digital connection.
    2. It connects to my computer without a hitch.

    I have my hopes pinned on the PS3 to make up the difference, even though I know the PS3 does do a number of the above items either. I’m just hoping I don’t have the PC connection issues many have expressed on this thread.

  • jfrdricks63

    Although I agree with most of your comments about the media capabilities of the 360, lets not forget the fact that they have had streaming over the network since day one, a feature that Sony recently implemented. Also, the streaming is not as glitch free as on the 360.

    I do however admit that the 360 is LOUD compared to the ps3.

    • http://www.hardcoreware.net/ Carl Nelson

      In my experience, the PS3 streams more reliably than the 360. But I guess it depends on what type of files you’re using.

  • Sean L

    Has anyone had any luck having the WMP playlists work on the PS3?

    I have managed to connect my PS3 to WMP (Works perfectly fine). PS3 doesn’t see the WMP Playlists, sees all the music just no playlist. Has anyone managed to get this to work?

    • Sean L

      Sorry I blew it!

      Playlist were there the whole time. I was just a little too impatient with the connection as it took a little longer than I expected to load.

      Anyone who wants to have Itunes play list work on ps3 use Music Bridge. This will have no affect on protected files.

      I am fast becoming a PS3 fanboy. I had my doubts, but I’m fast seeing the light. They just need a few extra file types supported for video and this will be a kick ass media extender.

  • John Fredericks

    Do they have to be regular MP3s or can they be of the subscription variety? You know, songs downloaded off Napster?

    • http://www.hardcoreware.net/ Carl Nelson

      As long as they are free of DRM limitations, they’ll play.

  • melissa hughes

    i bought a sony viao laptop which has its sound card disabled i am a web designer and want to create music and stream it online though my website but as i have vista i am having problems doing this i donl;t know wheather it is sony or vista that is not letting me use the mixer device on my sound card can anyone help me please

    thanks
    Melissa

  • ray

    how can i get photos on my ps3???

  • rayray

    how can i get photos on my playstation 3??

  • ryan price

    i have a ps3 and a vista notebook, how do i transfer videos, i can do pictures and music but not videos?

  • CenturyBugs

    I have now downloaded Nero MediaHome 4 and it works great even for iTunes playlists, I did have problems to begin with though, the PS3 kept showing an error message every few minutes saying DLNA Protocol error 2110 but I solved it by changing the router settings under LAN> Advanced> and enabling UPnP and Multicast Streams

  • James Pearson

    I tried and tried to get WMP11 with Vista Business to stream to PS3. Worked sometimes, then not at all.

    Downloaded and installed Tversity…wow! what a difference. I can see all my pictures, listen to all my music (except for protected WMA files from Rhapsody) and watch my SD videos. Can’t watch HD video files probably because the file size is so large that the wireless network I have can’t keep up with the streaming video file.

    Otherwise, Tversity is perfect!

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  • Nick

    Hi there I just bought a new laptop and thought this would be a good time to build up a collection of films to watch and (HOPEFULLY) be able to stream to the ps3…

    Although on certain films the video jumps and pauses, like when a utube video hasn’t loaded properly can anybody help??? I have a sky Sagem f@st router…

    Does anybody know what my best options are to have seamless streaming??

    Please please get back to me, its soooo frustrating

  • http://www.raybattsbasearebelongtoyou.com Ray Batts

    I know that the thread is old, AND most people use PS3 Media Server now… but I’ve written a small tool that can get you to create playlists (Specifically random playback) for your PS3 connected to Windows Media Server.

    I am looking for more people to test it out before I publicly release it. Send me an e-mail if you are interested.

    Icephoenix231

    at

    yahoo

    you know the rest.


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    hardCOREware.net was founded in 1999 by the sole owner and author, Carl Nelson. The site's mission is and always has been to offer brutally honest coverage of the latest hardware and gadgets with strictly no BS. In the last 10 years HCW has grown to cover Video Games from the unique perspective of a hardware & tech junkie.

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