PS3 Media Server running very slowly

[chris_huh]

I just upgraded my Windows Home Server installation to use an AMD Athlon II X3 450 3.2GHZ processor along with 4GB of RAM. I was previously using an HP Proliant MicroServer but found it was a bit slow on the HD transcoding and i could use it elsewhere.

Anyway, since I changed it PMS has been running very slowly. The menus take a while to load up, and videos (both HD and SD) play for a second and then pause. I have tried reinstalling it but that doesn't change anything. When I remote desktop into the server the windows desktop and mouse cursor etc (ie the gui) runs very slowly as i don't have a graphics card, just onboard graphics. Im guessing not having a graphics card isn't a problem??

any ideas??

[maxideus]

Having a GPU will help with transcoding, so since your new desktop does not have one, it will be slower. I am just speculating because you have very little hardware specifications on your machines.

[chris_huh]

Hmm, i would have thought the processor I have alone would have been fine to handle any transcoding necessary - it was still very slow just streaming sd shows without transcoding. My motherboard is an ASUS M5A78L-M motherboard, and i am using the onboard graphics from that (an Integrated ATI Radeon™ HD 3000 GPU).

Since posting this i have also realised that file transfers over the network are also painstakingly slow: 180mb file takes about a minute to start and then downloads in chunks of 8mb every minute, totalling in an estimated time of 22 minutes. So i'm thinking its not a PMS issue, more an issue with the network or network drivers or something.

[maxideus]

Are you on a gigabit network?

You might want to try enabling jumbo frames or fiddle with the duplex options. The throttling sounds curious, I wonder if you have QoS turned on your router?

[spider-prime]

I'm having the same problem, files take longer to load up and when they do, they go and then pause, exact same thing.
I tried a lot of things and it doesn't fix it. but for some reason after restarting PMS multiple times, it worked.

I'm using a switch to get it working, so it's working over ethernet cords.

running windows 7 64-bit. C2D 8400 3ghz, 8 gigs of ram, geforce 560 ti.

I was running it fine before a few months ago and all of a sudden it doesn't want to work correctly anymore.

edit: ok I think I know what the problem was. Under transcoding settings. Avisynth/ffmpeg was disabled and I enabled it and tried it out, and it's running fine now. after I watch some of my shows, I will restart it and the ps3 and see if it keeps working.

[chocolateboy]

Ok, i think the reason it was running slowly was because i simply transplanted the HDD with windows on into a new machine - it was nothing to do with PMS, it was a network/OS issue. I have just reinstalled Windows Home Server fresh. Network transfers are much faster and i can stream no problems from server to computer.

But now when i install PMS it doesn't show up on my PS3. The router settings are the same since the machine has the same IP address. So the only things that can be different is either the windows Firewall or the PMS settings. I've checked the firewall and it has PMS as an allowed program. I've forced PMS to use the correct network card (yes its a gigabit, as is the router) but i just can't get it to show on the PS3. I have tried uninstalling and reinstalling several times but to no avail.

I haven't installed it as a service, rather i have just added a shortcut to the Startup folder. But i don't see how that should have any affect on it working once started

Here's the last few lines of logs:

Code: Select all

INFO  2012-05-01 22:33:53.038 [main] Using address /192.168.2.3 found on network interface: name:eth3 (Realtek PCIe GBE Family Controller)
INFO  2012-05-01 22:33:53.040 [main] Created socket: /192.168.2.3:5001
INFO  2012-05-01 22:33:53.949 [main] Checking shared folder: E:\Videos
INFO  2012-05-01 22:33:54.103 [main] Using the following UUID configured in PMS.conf: fea6d5d5-259e-4cde-a919-91b30d931ab7
INFO  2012-05-01 22:33:59.609 [main] The server should now appear on your renderer
INFO  2012-05-01 22:34:45.997 [UPNPHelper] No IP filter specified, access granted to /192.168.2.3
INFO  2012-05-01 22:34:52.857 [pool-5-thread-1] Checking IP: 192.168.2.3 for WMP
INFO  2012-05-01 22:34:53.031 [pool-5-thread-1] Renderer WMP found on this address: 192.168.2.3
INFO  2012-05-01 22:35:02.907 [UPNPHelper] No IP filter specified, access granted to /192.168.2.9


The 192.168.2.9 address is the PS3. does that help?

[Val Killmore]

I would suggest going over this link from the FAQ, and check the tips below the header:

After UDP Broadcast

Glad you figured out the other issue. PMS seems to like a tight running ship (at least in my experience), and an improper hardware setup or driver regression can really hamper it's performance. Just updating my Atheros network adapter driver the other week has vastly improved file/folder and thumbnail population times in the XMB, and I haven't seen a network error while using PMS since. Hopefully we can get you up and running.

[chris_huh]

Ahhhh, got it.

The firewall was blocking the PS3's IP address. Allowing that through sorted it

thanks for your help, its all working very nicely now

[maxideus]

Sweet! I was gonna recommend that you unblock Java as well, but glad you got it working.