PS3 and frustration.

[heavyharmonies]

I'm new to the whole world of video streaming, but thus far I have found it to be an exercise in futility.

I've tried both TVersity and PS3 Media Server and am having pretty much no luck at all.

The media files in question are either WMV or MP4 (H.264) files.

On the computer, all the files play just fine through WMP 11.

TVersity:

WMV files play, but no thumbnails and cannot Fast Forward more than 1.5x speed. If not for the lack of FF, I would probably stick with this product (given my lack of success with PS3MS thus far).

PS 3 Media Server:

1. None of the WMV files play at all; message is "The data type is not supported (800288C0)"
2. Low resolution (320x240) MP4 files play, but with 640x480 MP4 files, I only get audio, no video.

Specs:

Local network: Gigabit wired
Computer: Dell XPS 410, Core 2 Duo, 4GB RAM, it's only duty is serving the video; not my primary PC
Computer OS: XP Media Center Edition
PS3 System: v2.60

I have no problem at all with connectivity; playback is the issue.

Trace:

[main] TRACE 23:09:59.296 Starting Java PS3 Media Server v1.03
[main] TRACE 23:09:59.296 by shagrath / 2008
[main] TRACE 23:09:59.296 http://ps3mediaserver.blogspot.com
[main] TRACE 23:09:59.296
[main] TRACE 23:09:59.296 Java 1.6.0_06-Sun Microsystems Inc.
[main] TRACE 23:09:59.296 OS Windows XP x86 5.1
[main] TRACE 23:09:59.296 Encoding: Cp1252
[main] TRACE 23:09:59.312 Temp folder: C:\DOCUME~1\Dan\LOCALS~1\Temp\javaps3media
[main] TRACE 23:09:59.531 Found AviSynth plugins dir: C:\Program Files\AviSynth 2.5\plugins
[main] TRACE 23:09:59.531 !!! It seems VSFilter.dll is not installed into the AviSynth plugins dir ! It could be troublesome for playing subtitled videos with AviSynth !!!
[main] TRACE 23:09:59.531 Registering transcoding engine AviSynth/FFmpeg
[main] TRACE 23:09:59.531 Registering transcoding engine FFmpeg Audio
[main] TRACE 23:09:59.546 Registering transcoding engine MEncoder
[main] TRACE 23:09:59.546 Registering transcoding engine Avisynth/MEncoder
[main] TRACE 23:09:59.546 Registering transcoding engine MPlayer Audio
[main] TRACE 23:09:59.546 Registering transcoding engine MEncoder Web
[main] TRACE 23:09:59.546 Registering transcoding engine MPlayer Video Dump
[main] TRACE 23:09:59.546 Registering transcoding engine MPlayer Web
[main] TRACE 23:09:59.546 Registering transcoding engine TsMuxer
[main] TRACE 23:09:59.546 Registering transcoding engine Audio High Fidelity
[main] TRACE 23:09:59.546 Executable of transcoder profile VideoLan Audio Streaming not found!
[main] TRACE 23:09:59.546 Executable of transcoder profile VideoLan Video Streaming not found!
[main] TRACE 23:09:59.546 Registering transcoding engine FFmpeg DVR-MS Remux
[main] TRACE 23:09:59.640 Scanning network interface lo / MS TCP Loopback interface
[main] TRACE 23:09:59.640 Scanning network interface eth0 / Intel(R) 82566DC Gigabit Network Connection - Packet Scheduler Miniport
[main] TRACE 23:09:59.656 Using address /192.168.0.101 found on network interface: name:eth0 (Intel(R) 82566DC Gigabit Network Connection - Packet Scheduler Miniport) index: 2 addresses: /192.168.0.101;
[main] TRACE 23:09:59.656 Created socket: /192.168.0.101:5001
[Thread-9] TRACE 23:09:59.656 Starting DLNA Server on host 192.168.0.101 and port 5001...

[Paulyboy]

Playback, just copy the files on your ps3 using Tversity and PS3 Media, either which. For Tveristy did you downlad the AC3 filters and AVI Synth? Those are the main codecs you need.

[heavyharmonies]

I'm sorry, I don't understand your response. What do you mean by "just copy the files on your ps3". Do you mean copy the physical files to the internal storage of the PS3? That defeats the whole purpose of streaming the video. If that's not what you mean, please elaborate.

The media files are visible through both TVersity and PS3MS, but when playback is attempted is when the data format error message appears.

I have all the codecs installed. See trace above, and as I said all of the files play in WMP11 on the host computer.

[shagrath]

I'm sorry, I don't understand your response. What do you mean by "just copy the files on your ps3". Do you mean copy the physical files to the internal storage of the PS3? That defeats the whole purpose of streaming the video. If that's not what you mean, please elaborate.

The media files are visible through both TVersity and PS3MS, but when playback is attempted is when the data format error message appears.

I have all the codecs installed. See trace above, and as I said all of the files play in WMP11 on the host computer.

I'm interested in that WMV failure... do you have any samples available so I can try as well ? (the ones I got works fine here)

[sonic_screw]

Hi,

Do you realise you need to browse to the ##TRANSCODED## folder and play the files from in there? Otherwise it just tries to stream the original unsupported format. Sorry if you're already doing that, but it wasn't obvious for me at first.

[heavyharmonies]

Hi,

Do you realise you need to browse to the ##TRANSCODED## folder and play the files from in there? Otherwise it just tries to stream the original unsupported format. Sorry if you're already doing that, but it wasn't obvious for me at first.

That was the problem, thanks. Wasn't intuitively obvious to me.

Next question: How do you make the browsing better? The folder with the original files (that don't play) all have nice thumbnails in the listing. In my case, that folder is completely useless and serves no purpose. Going to the ##TRANSCODED## folder, I get no thumbnails since there's nothing but more subfolders (one per transcoder type).

It would be great if you could just set an option to never show the original files and just show {INSERT TRANSCODED FLAVOR HERE} by default. Right now it's very klunky to navigate and you have to go by file name since you get no thumbnails for any videos.

[MidniteAssassin]

In the "Common Transcode Settings", put "wmv" in the "Force transcode for the following extensions" box.

[sonic_screw]

It would be great if you could just set an option to never show the original files and just show {INSERT TRANSCODED FLAVOR HERE} by default. Right now it's very klunky to navigate and you have to go by file name since you get no thumbnails for any videos.

I agree things could be made easier. Takes a fair bit of explaining any time I show one of my friends or housemates how to use it!

Whilst the option is there to force transcoding for certain extensions, that doesn't seem a great idea to me. Instead, can't the software simply detect which codecs are compatible, and just automatically transcode only when it needs to? Obviously certain file extensions will ALWAYS need transcoding, but others may or may not, depending on which codecs have been used in the container. And what about remuxing when the codecs are right but the container isn't? Since this is a ps3mediaserver, it'd be nice to make the whole transcoding process optimised and automated for that application. I know it's not easy, but something nice to work towards.

In that situation, maybe you could have a ##ORIGINAL## folder where all the untranscoded files can be accessed, in case there's a problem with any particular file.

But, I think at least displaying the thumbnails in the transcode folder might not be too difficult, I might have a little look at some of the virtual folder code later on.

[shagrath]

Hi,

Do you realise you need to browse to the ##TRANSCODED## folder and play the files from in there? Otherwise it just tries to stream the original unsupported format. Sorry if you're already doing that, but it wasn't obvious for me at first.

.

I found the WMV problem, I was sending the wrong mime type in some cases

[Electrifying]

Hi,

Do you realise you need to browse to the ##TRANSCODED## folder and play the files from in there? Otherwise it just tries to stream the original unsupported format. Sorry if you're already doing that, but it wasn't obvious for me at first.

.

I found the WMV problem, I was sending the wrong mime type in some cases

Shagrath, I compiled your latest SVN (R264) at the moment in the hope of fixing the WMV problem. But the problem still persists . Do you have any idea what might be the cause? I assume the compiled R264 build would have fixed this. Oh and a WMV-HD demo from microsoft (Coral Reef) works. But my other WMV files do not, while it used to work with 1.02.1. I used Sliksvn to compile the build and I deleted the original Win32 folder of 1.03 and just copied the outcome of the checkout to the original 1.03 folder. This should be the correct method right?

BTW: I am on Vista Ultimate 32bit and i haven't used "ant" which i have read, wouldn't be needed for Windows

Still: I am a big fan of your software, so thanks a lot for your effort.