Ability to stream to a Mac

[ridgerock]

Hi -

I looked for possible solutions that would enable me to stream from PMS to a Mac, with the ability to browse files, but could not find anything. Tried using VLC but couldn't figure out how to reference a file on PMS. I've never had much luck using VLC to simply read a file off a network share directly (over WiFi - tend to get hiccups) so I'm betting streaming from PMS would be more reliable.

If anyone is aware of a solution for doing this, I'd love to hear about it!

Best -

Rob

[meskibob]

You want to stream files from one computer to another? I thought the name of the program was pretty clear in that it only streams from a computer (MAC, Windows, or Linux) to the PS3 (and possibly 360)....

Anywho, there are plenty of FTP and other solutions available for what you're looking to do.

[ridgerock]

As I understand it, PMS is a DLNA server that happens to do an excellent job transcoding for the PS3 - there is nothing that particularly ties it or limits it to the PS3 (although I believe it may not support multiple connections and may arbitrarily prohibit connections from non-PS3 devices).

(FYI, multiple connections can work if you run another instance of PMS inside a VM - you will have multiple PMS servers show up on your PS3.)

FTP? I don't think that's a very good network protocol for streaming. HTTP is an option (indeed, I think that's the protocol used by PMS) but it's a big hassle to setup an HTTP server to stream to VLC (I've never tried it), especially when PMS does an excellent and convenient job at this. And as I said in my post, network shares have never worked for me for HD content because of drop-outs.

You say there are plenty of FTP (FTP???) and other solutions but you don't give specifics - please do share if you have them working for yourself!

[meskibob]

As I understand it, PMS is a DLNA server that happens to do an excellent job transcoding for the PS3 - there is nothing that particularly ties it or limits it to the PS3 (although I believe it may not support multiple connections and may arbitrarily prohibit connections from non-PS3 devices).

Yes, DLNA is a general specification for media transfer between devices, but I believe there are specific socket and port requirements that vary from system to system. Yes, you could probably modify the PMS code to make it work for Macs, but PMS was created and optimized for the PS3. I'd prefer it stay that way instead of becoming bloated like TVersity (see below).

You say there are plenty of FTP (FTP???) and other solutions but you don't give specifics - please do share if you have them working for yourself!

I personally don't use them, but off the top of my head I can think of TVersity (which works well as a generic DLNA streaming client, but sucks for PS3 transcoding), Orb (nice for WAN access to your local media from anywhere), and (you guessed it) VLC. Try this for help with setting up VLC (http://dev.emcelettronica.com/diy-iptv- ... an-vlc-vls). Doesn't seem that arduous and will probably be the least resource intensive as far as just running the actual application.

And as I said in my post, network shares have never worked for me for HD content because of drop-outs.

This, I think, is also a big part of your issue. Sharing media between two computers on the same network via the native OS network share utilities should work just as well, if not better, than a computer connected via UPnP to a DLNA device. I'd try determining the actual specs of your LAN network before writing off basic network sharing as crap. For instance, if both computers are connected wirelessly to the same Wireless-G router, good luck trying to stream 1080P media between them.

[ridgerock]

Thanks for the tips - I'll give them a try!

[B4tm4n]

Media cloud is a UPnP player for the Mac.

http://users.telenet.be/bruno.keymolen/hmediamac.html

I haven't tried it, it might work with PMS.

[meskibob]

I completely forgot to ask: are you streaming from a Mac as well? If so, then, if I remember correctly, TVersity won't work since the host needs to be Windows. I believe Orb is cross-platform, and VLC definitely is.