PS3 Media Server Tutorial/FAQ

[chocolateboy]

Problem: How can I supply details to help diagnose my problem?

Solution:

First of all, please make sure you're running the latest version of Java and the latest version of PS3 Media Server (bottom post).

Then:

1. Restart PMS
2. Reproduce the problem e.g. try to play a failing file or wait for a connection
3. Wait long enough for the problem to be logged e.g. until the renderer or PMS reports an error
4. Either:
   
   • Upload your full debug.log (and any other relevant log/config files) to a public pastebin site (e.g. http://pastebin.com) and post the link.
   • Zip your full debug.log (and any other relevant log/config files) and upload the zip file to a public file-sharing site (e.g. http://www.mediafire.com/) and post the link.
   • Zip your full debug.log (and any other relevant log/config files) and post the zip file as an attachment. If you get an error indicating the attachment is too large, use one of the other methods listed above.

In some cases, a more detailed log will be needed. To enable full logging (AKA a "trace log"), change:

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<root level="DEBUG">


to:

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<root level="TRACE">


- in logback.xml (logback.headless.xml on headless servers) and restart PMS.

If you're not sure where the debug.log is, see here. Alternatively, use the Debug Packer plugin to locate and zip the files for you.

Please make sure you provide the other relevant details requested here.

[meskibob]

Problem: During remuxed or transcoded video playback your video either skips sections of the movie (forward or back) or the video crashes entirely. When you check the debug.log file, you find the phrase "Not enough memory", "OutOfMemory" or "Cannot grow buffer size from 50.000.000 bytes to ... bytes.".

Solution:
PMS is exceeding the available Java heap memory allocated when PMS starts. Newer versions of PMS handle this error by half-ing the transcode buffer (sometimes leading to skips or crashes depending on the renderer) while older versions just let the video crash.
The heap is the sum of the transcode buffer memory plus all of the overhead memory (the actual PMS application, media library, iTunes support, Radio plugin, etc), and the overhead memory can grow quite a bit if the "extra" features (iTunes, Radio plugin, etc) are enabled.

The quick solution is just decrease the size of the transcode buffer or disable some of the extra features. How much you need to decrease or what features depends on your system and may require some basic guess and check.

However, if you need the larger transcode buffer (better playback) or the extra features (or just want to better manage the memory on your system), then you need to increase the available heap size.

1. Locate the file "PMS.bat" (Windows), "PMS.sh" (Linux) or "/Applications/PS3 Media Server.app/Contents/Info.plist" (Mac OS X) and open it in a text editor
2. Modify the "-Xmx768M" value - http://blog.paulgu.com/2008/07/19/6-com ... heap-size/
3. Save and close the file
4. For Windows/Linux, you should now launch PMS using the modified bat/sh file. For Mac OS X, you can launch the application as normal.

Note: this will obviously take up more of your RAM, so make sure you set a value appropriate for your system
Example values (courtesy of Coltaine79 and ExSport):

• 32-bit JVM on a 64-bit machine with 4+ GB of RAM can safely use a heapsize value of 1536 with a 400MB PMS buffer and a few of the larger plugins enabled.
• 32-bit JVM on a 32-bit machine with 4 GB of RAM should at most use a heapsize value of 1200

How to Change the Heap Size If Installed as a Windows Service: (thanks lightglitch)

1. Locate the wrapper.conf (Windows) at win32\service
2. Modify the line:
   

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   # Maximum Java Heap Size (in MB)
wrapper.java.maxmemory=768


3. Save and close the file
4. Launch PMS using the service

[meskibob]

Minimum System/Network Requirements for Stutter-free Playback**:
Streaming (no engine) - audio codec, video codec, and container are all supported by client, no soft subtitles*

• no CPU (pretty much minimum any P4)
• slight network (wireless G probably not be enough, wired ethernet recommended)

Remuxing (TSmuxer) - video codec is supported, audio codec and/or container need conversion, no soft subtitles*

• slight CPU (minimum good P4, eg 3.0GHz P4 with HT)
• slight network (wireless G probably not be enough, wired ethernet recommended)

Transcoding (MEncoder, AviSynth, etc) - video codec not supported or soft subtitles*

• heavy CPU (minimum good dual core, eg 2.8GHz Core2Duo)
• heavy network (wired 100mbit ethernet will work for most, but wired gigabit recommended)
• Note1: there are actually two parts to the CPU. First is the individual core clock speed, which is more important for VC-1 videos as they aren't multi-core capable yet in PMS. The other is the number of threads/cores, which is more important for H.264/AVC videos as they are multi-core capable in PMS.
• Note2: the specs listed above apply to transcoding source 1080P or lower quality videos. Lower specs may still work for lower quality videos.

*Note: this excludes DivX AVI's with embedded XSubs on the PS3

**Related items not covered in this topic but should be elsewhere in this tutorial thread, the forum, or theGoogle:
What codecs/containers/specs your device supports
How to diagnose stuttering playback
Configuring PMS for optimal CPU and network usage
Proper network setup for maximum LAN bandwidth
Why soft subtitles need transcoding
General asynchronous playback
A/V sync issues due to a framerate mismatch

Edit: Upped clock speed for transcoding since 2.6 still seems to stutter on some intense files.

[chocolateboy]

Problem: PS3 Media Server won't start or display the GUI

Quick Fixes:

PMS won't start

• Make sure you're using the latest version of Java and the latest version of PMS (bottom post). If PMS is already at the latest version, uninstall and reinstall it to ensure it is installed correctly and that no files are corrupted.
• If you are on Windows 7 and have ClearType enabled, disable it and try again.
• If you're running PMS on a computer that has very little memory (e.g. less than 2 gigabytes of RAM), try configuring it to use less RAM.
• If you get a "Cannot create Java virtual machine" error (or similar) on Windows, try defragmenting the hard drive Java/PMS is installed on and reinstalling.

PMS won't display the GUI (ignore this if you're running it in headless mode)

• Make sure PMS isn't running in minimized mode (GUI not displayed by default). If PMS.conf contains the line "minimized = true", either remove it, or change it to "minimized = false".
• Make sure PMS isn't running in headless mode (no GUI):
  • If PMS.bat or PMS.sh contains a reference to "console", either remove it, or change it to "noconsole".
  • If PMS.bat or PMS.sh contains "-Djava.awt.headless=true" either change it to "-Djava.awt.headless=false" or remove it.

Detailed Solution (if none of the Quick Fixes apply/work):

This usually means that a) Java is not installed, or b) Java is not installed/set up properly.

First of all make sure Java is installed. Open a command prompt/terminal and type:

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java -version

If you get a "command not found" error, or similar, first make sure Java is installed. If you know the location where it is installed, navigate to the directory where the java binary is located and try the command again. On Windows, this will be something like:

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C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.6.0_23\bin\java.exe

If you're not comfortable navigating in the command prompt on Windows, you can use one of these approaches to open the command prompt in the right folder directly from Explorer:

http://www.ehow.com/how_5913445_open-fo ... lorer.html
http://www.techyard.net/drop-to-dos/

If the command works from the Java bin directory, but not elsewhere, then Java hasn't been configured properly. Two environment variables (PATH and JAVA_HOME) need to be set to ensure that the system can find the Java binaries and libraries. These are covered in detail here and here.

Once the PATH and JAVA_HOME variables have been set, open a command prompt/terminal and check that the java binary can be invoked from any location, and that:

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java -version

runs without error. If that command executes but returns an error (and PATH and JAVA_HOME have been set correctly as described above), then Java is not installed properly, or the installation has become corrupted. In both cases, Java needs to be thoroughly purged and then reinstalled. Tools and instructions for doing this on Windows can be found here:

http://singularlabs.com/software/javara/
http://ycsoftware.net/error-occurred-du ... indows-xp/
http://geekycoder.wordpress.com/2009/07 ... ion-of-vm/

If all of the instructions above have been followed and PMS still won't start, further details will need to be provided. Navigate to the PMS installation directory and run:

Windows:

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javaw -classpath pms.jar net.pms.PMS > output.txt 2>&1

Linux &c.:

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./PMS.sh > output.txt 2>&1

Then zip/attach or paste the output.txt file along with the debug.log, if any, and any relevant details requested here.

[chocolateboy]

Problem: How can I fix/reduce stuttering video playback?

Solution:

This is one of the most frequently-asked questions, and there is no one-size-fits-all answer. This post merely lists solutions that have been reported to work.

First of all, check the other FAQs:

1. Make sure your system meets the minimum requirements for stutter-free playback
2. For skipping/freezing, see FAQ: Video skips/freezes
3. Make sure you're using the latest version of PMS and the latest version of Java (bottom post)

If they don't solve your problem, the most important things are:

1. Use a wired connection if possible (and, if so, double check that it's being used, both on the PC and on the renderer)
2. Make sure the built-in optimizations are enabled where possible (e.g. number of cores, use tsMuxeR (e.g. via the #--TRANSCODE--# folder) &c.)
3. Make sure the settings in PMS have appropriate values (e.g. max bandwidth, MPEG-2 video quality &c.)

The following have been reported to work (don't forget to undo changes that don't work, and please report fixes that do work so that we can prioritise them):

Reported to work by more than one poster:

1. ASRock motherboard and/or Realtek NIC: disable "Large send offload" (alt; alt; alt; alt; alt; alt)
2. Update (or roll back) the PC's NIC driver (alt; alt; alt)
3. Set the max bandwidth to the actual max bandwidth reported by PMS, rather than 0 (alt; alt; alt)
4. PS3: configure the network to operate in half-duplex mode (alt; alt)
5. Reduce the size of the transcode buffer (alt)
6. PS3: configure it to handle network speed/duplex settings automatically (alt)
7. Linux: find/compile/enable multithreaded MEncoder/FFmpeg builds (alt)
8. Assign static IP addresses to the renderer/PC (avoid DHCP) (alt)
9. Modify the jumbo frame setting in the NIC drivers (alt)

Reported to work by one poster:

• Update the GPU driver
• Update the chipset driver
• Wireless: Modify the router's transmission rate
• Instructions for setting up smooth wireless 720p streaming
• Try using different ports on the router/switch
• Misc router/transcoding settings
• Sign out of the PlayStation Network
• Disable UPnP
• Use an MEncoder build that's compiled with support for hardware (GPU) acceleration
• Remove a switch from the network
• Add a switch to the network
• Restart the switch/router
• Mac Airbook: watch out for CPU overheating
• MP4s: remux them to be "optimized for streaming"
• Realtek router: disable "Green Ethernet"

[meskibob]

Problem: My cover art image for a video file isn't displaying on my device

Solution:
Check the following items:

1. Your device actually supports cover art
2. The cover art image file is named as follows: <video file name>.<video file extension>.cover.<image extension>
3. The cover art image file is a proper JPEG or PNG
4. The cover art image file is in the same directory as the video file or in your specified "Alternate videos cover art folder"

From the readme inside PMS:

Just drop an image in the same folder as your movie file (jpeg or png) called <mymovie>.jpg (or .png) /
also supported: <mymovie>.cover.jpg (or .png). For example, for a movie called 'tokyo.mkv',
the cover file can be named 'tokyo.png' or 'tokyo.mkv.cover.png'

In order to apply the same image to all videos, just drop a folder.jpg file in this directory.

[chocolateboy]

Problem: How can I use a custom renderer icon?

Solution:

As of PMS 1.22, it is possible to specify a path to a custom renderer icon inside a renderer .conf file. The icon can be specified via the RendererIcon option. This can take three different types of value:

A filename - this is looked up in the renderers subdirectory:

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RendererIcon = renderer.png


A relative path - this is looked up in a path relative to the PMS working directory:

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RendererIcon = images/renderer.png


An absolute path:

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# Windows
RendererIcon = C:\\Program Files\\PS3 Media Server\\images\\renderer.png


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# other platforms
RendererIcon = /path/to/renderer.png


Note: if a renderer icon can't be found, a built-in icon will be used.

When specifying a custom icon, it is a good idea to comment out the default RendererIcon setting so that it can easily be restored if the custom icon is no longer needed e.g.

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# RendererIcon=ps3.png
RendererIcon=images/ps3.png


Alternatively, simply drop a custom icon in the renderers directory with the same name as the built-in icon (e.g. ps3.png), and remove the file if it's no longer needed. That way the custom icon can be enabled/disabled simply by adding/removing the file.

The renderer icon should be around 200 x 166 pixels (width x height) and the format should be PNG (preferably 24-bit).

[chocolateboy]

Problem: How can I launch PMS with a custom profile?

Solution:

A collection of PMS configuration settings is called a profile. Profiles are stored in text files with a .conf extension. The default profile is saved as PMS.conf.

A profile can be created by launching the PMS profile selector (see below) and either navigating to a directory without a PMS.conf file (the profile will be saved there as PMS.conf), or navigating to any directory and manually adding the new profile filename (with a .conf extension) after the directory in the file name field. Alternatively, a new profile can be created by copying and editing an existing profile in a text editor (the options are documented here).

New profiles configured in the GUI should be saved via the Save button if they are to be reused, and each profile should use a different port if it needs to run at the same time as other profiles.

A profile can be loaded interactively by launching the PMS profile selector (see below), navigating to a directory with a saved .conf file and selecting it. For automatic loading options (e.g. via shortcuts), see below.

To distinguish between different profiles in the renderer, set the name option (this must currently be set manually in the .conf file) e.g.:

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name = My Profile

If no name is specified, the hostname is used.

Each profile must have a unique UUID:

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# this is just an example; don't copy it
uuid = abcd1234-1234-1234-1234-12345678abcd


A new UUID is created and saved automatically for profiles created and saved via the GUI, but profiles that are copied and edited in a text editor will need to adjust this identifier manually. Any alphanumeric character(s) can be changed as long as each profile's UUID is unique.

Profiles can be selected in three ways:

1. GUI

As of PMS 1.30.0, it's possible to select a custom profile or create a new one by launching PMS via the "PS3 Media Server (Select Profile)" Start Menu shortcut on Windows and Linux. A similar shortcut/launcher may be available in builds on other platforms.

2. Environment Variable (Advanced):

PMS also supports multiple profiles by means of the PMS_PROFILE environment variable. This is mainly useful on Unix systems where environment variables can be set on a per-process basis. It can also be useful on Windows to define a custom location for the default profile.

If this variable is unset, the default profile directory is used to locate PMS.conf (and WEB.conf, if used).

If PMS_PROFILE is an absolute or relative (to the working directory) path pointing to an existing directory, then PMS.conf is loaded from and saved to that directory. If PMS_PROFILE is set, but doesn't point to an existing directory, it is assumed to be a relative or absolute path to a profile file. Note: while the file doesn't need to exist, the directory containing it must exist if the file is to be saved.

Unix (Linux, Mac OS X &c.):

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PMS_PROFILE=PMS.conf ./PMS.sh
PMS_PROFILE=relative/path/to/profile.conf ./PMS.sh
PMS_PROFILE=/absolute/path/to/myprofile.conf ./PMS.sh


Windows:

• How To Manage Environment Variables in Windows XP
• How to Add, Remove or Edit Environment variables in Windows 7?

3. Property (Advanced):

The profile file/directory can also be set via the pms.profile.path property e.g.

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java -Dpms.profile.path=/path/to/PMS.conf net.pms.PMS

This is resolved in the same way as the environment variable.

On Windows, this property can be set in the PMS .bat launcher or via a shortcut. In both cases, multiple .bat files/shortcuts can be used to launch different profiles.

[meskibob]

Problem: You hear static instead of proper audio while trying to play a video with DTS audio (with "Keep DTS in stream" setting checked)

Solution: Configure the PS3 playback settings (this is also described in the pop-up that displays when checking the above setting):
http://manuals.playstation.net/document ... el.html#11 - Set to "L+R"
http://manuals.playstation.net/document ... el.html#26 - Set to "Normal +0"

[squadjot]

Problem: Movie picture gets stretched!, instead you want 16:9 with borders.

Solution: Note: this goes for transcoding with MEncoder only.
1. In PMS gui, go to transcoding tab
2. Select the mencoder settings
3. Click the button: "Expert Settings : Codec-specific parameters"
4. In the bottom inputfield insert following:

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(width/height < 1.7 || width/height > 1.8) :: -vf expand=::::1:16/9

5. Click "OK" to close the window.
6. Click "Save" in PMS top menu.

----
Subtitle issue (only older versions of PMS < 1.30) - Personally, i get problems on my Bravia W5500, with unstable framerate with some movies w/subtitles using above vf expand, but following settings seems to fix it:

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(width/height < 1.7 || width/height > 1.8) :: -vf softskip,expand=::::1:16/9,harddup

Edit: Panasonic users found this setting usefull:

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-vf softskip,expand=::::1:16\/9:4

Feel free to correct me.