VLC stream with PS3 Media Server

[BV_Naughtysmacks]

I was attempting to get Apple Movie trailers to work on the PS3 Media server. I've added the site pages in the PS3 server config file and the links on the PS3 update with new trailers daily. However when I attempt to play them on the PS3 the screen just appears black, a direct3d window appears on my computer upstairs, and the trailer streams the video into that, instead of the PS3 in my living room.

Is there some setting I'm missing here that is preventing the stream from outputting to the PS3? Do I have to somehow configure VLC to output the stream to the PS3 Media Server IP, which will in-turn send it to my TV, or maybe just use the IP for the PS3 itself? It's very odd, but if it would output to the PS3 it appears it would stream the trailers using VLC just fine.

I have multi-cast set in the router also, if that makes a difference. I'm at another location and can't provide the log right now. I can update the post later if nobody has any other ideas. PS3 Media Server is a fantastic app though, nothing better out there right now to stream to the PS3 and I've tried them all at one point. Thanks for any help, it would be great to get this working.

PC - Dlink Gigabit Lan
Intel Quad Core 2.4 ghz
8-gig ram
Windows Vista Ultimate 64 bit
PS3 Media Server 1.10.5
VLC version 0.9.9

[Misled3k]

Bump. All of a sudden I have this problem too, it didn't use to happen. Any advice on what settings I need to check/unchheck on VLC to make it output the video to the media server, and not to a popup window?

[misterbbq]

same issue here.

[shagrath]

support of recent (0.9.9+) VLC versions is currently broken, no fix ETA yet

[Misled3k]

Thanks for the info

[RoadHazard]

support of recent (0.9.9+) VLC versions is currently broken, no fix ETA yet

I've tried 0.9.8a (which is supposed to be the last version that works with PMS), but nope. I just get negative numbers in the transcoding buffer and a black screen on my PS3, and then nothing more happens (except for the playback failing).

[chocolateboy]

I've worked around this problem by writing a VLC wrapper that fixes the user agent and framerate. I use this on Linux, but the same solution should work on Windows under Cygwin (or possibly Strawberry Perl), and should be easy to set up on a Mac. Alternatively, it should be easy to port the wrapper to your language of choice.

• Download ps3vlc, save it somewhere sensible e.g.

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   ~/bin/ps3vlc

  and make it executable:

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  chmod +x ~/bin/ps3vlc

• Install the Perl prerequisites: File::Which, URI and IO::All. e.g. under Ubuntu:

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  sudo aptitude install libfile-which-perl libio-all-perl liburi-perl

• Edit PMS.conf: set the vlc_path variable to the path to the vlc wrapper e.g.

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  vlc_path = \/home\/jdoe\/bin\/ps3vlc

• Restart PMS

That's it! Do what you want with the script and feel free to share any other workarounds or ports here.

Once you have it up and running, you might be interested in some MRSS feeds I created of Apple's trailers:

• http://feeds.feedburner.com/apple_trailers_mrss/640w
• http://feeds.feedburner.com/apple_trailers_mrss/480p
• http://feeds.feedburner.com/apple_trailers_mrss/720p

[stuklaus]

@chocolateboy...I like your idea here...unfortunately it's still not working for me (FC10, VLC .9.9 I think). What version of VLC are you working with?

[chocolateboy]

What version of VLC are you working with?

$ vlc --version

VLC media player 1.0.2 Goldeneye

If it doesn't work, have a look at /tmp/ps3vlc.log as well as the PMS debug log. I run PMS like this:

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cat /dev/null > debug.log
sh ./PMS.sh > debug.log &


Then tail -f or less the debug.log to keep track of errors/problems.

If all else fails, copy the executed command from /tmp/ps3vlc.log (if you get that far) and run it on the command line (you'll need to (single-)quote the --sout string; see below). Add -v options to increase verbosity (e.g. -vvv) and take out the transcoding options (--sout '...') and the "-I dummy" to confirm that vlc can access/play the resource OK.

If the command doesn't show up in /tmp/ps3vlc.log, make sure the Perl script has all its dependencies and compiles OK:

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perl -c ~/bin/ps3vlc

You can also try running the wrapper with the command line options it was called with by PMS (search for ps3vlc in the debug.log). Make sure the --sout argument is quoted (you might need to quote the URI as well) e.g.

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ps3vlc -I dummy http://feedproxy.google.com/whatever/example.mp4 --sout '#transcode{vcodec=mp2v,vb=4096,acodec=mp3,ab=128,channels=2}:duplicate{dst=std{access=file,mux=ts,dst="/tmp/javaps3media/VLC1361734299803"}}'

Also, I've updated the ps3vlc file. The verbose option was wrong (should be -vv rather than -v 2). I won't announce it here, but I'll keep updating it, so if you're using the original wrapper, make sure you have the latest version if things aren't working as expected.

[chocolateboy]

Update: I'm no longer maintaining this. See this solution instead.