Media on my PS3 - some questions

[Hooblue]

I currently have a laptop with quite a lot of music, pictures and films on it. Currently if I want to play or display any of this on my TV at home I use PS Media Sever to stream the content over my network and I havn't had any problems with this at all. Everything works fine and I'm very pleased with it.

I've also just purchased a PSP-3000 and have set up the remote play function which again seems to work well. However obviously all of my media is stored on my laptop rather than PS3. Therefore is it possible to stream the content from laptop to PS3 using PSMS and them use remote play via the PSP to access this on the PSP?

As well as a PS3 and PSP I also have a iPod, and was wondering how people best organise their media so that it can easily be accessed by all devices (for example if films etc are stored on the PS3 then it'd be messy if you wanted to add stuff to an iPod). I was thinking of getting a 250 or 320GB portable external HDD and sticking everything on that so that I could then swap it between the laptop (if I wanted to use files with iTunes or trnasfer files to PSP etc) and the PS3 if I wanted to view things on TV or via remote play. What does everyone else do?

[Uridium]

Originally Posted by Hooblue

I've also just purchased a PSP-3000 and have set up the remote play function which again seems to work well. However obviously all of my media is stored on my laptop rather than PS3. Therefore is it possible to stream the content from laptop to PS3 using PSMS and them use remote play via the PSP to access this on the PSP?

As well as a PS3 and PSP I also have a iPod, and was wondering how people best organise their media so that it can easily be accessed by all devices (for example if films etc are stored on the PS3 then it'd be messy if you wanted to add stuff to an iPod). I was thinking of getting a 250 or 320GB portable external HDD and sticking everything on that so that I could then swap it between the laptop (if I wanted to use files with iTunes or trnasfer files to PSP etc) and the PS3 if I wanted to view things on TV or via remote play. What does everyone else do?

Only used remote play briefly on a PSP a couple of years back but i used to access my PS3 and stream content through to my PSP just by browsing my PS3 using remote play.

Seems to me that you have everything stored in the right place already.

If your happy streaming keep it that way. Install the latest beta version of Ps3 Media server and you'll find a check box in the 'navigation/share' settings tab to enable access to your itunes library stored on the laptop using PS3MS.

[Hooblue]

Thanks Uridium.

So what will the new itunes check box allow me to do that I couldn't do using the older version of PS3MS? I have all my music etc stored on my lappy which is then all loaded into iTunes (aswell as Media Go so I can DL to PSP). With the old version of PS3MS I could browse all the folders on my lappy (My Music etc) where all my music is stored and could access everything without problems. Just wondering what this new box will allow me to do?

[Uridium]

Originally Posted by Hooblue

Thanks Uridium.

So what will the new itunes check box allow me to do that I couldn't do using the older version of PS3MS? I have all my music etc stored on my lappy which is then all loaded into iTunes (aswell as Media Go so I can DL to PSP). With the old version of PS3MS I could browse all the folders on my lappy (My Music etc) where all my music is stored and could access everything without problems. Just wondering what this new box will allow me to do?

I don't use itunes myself but installed it just to test this worked and basically adds an extra folder into the list of streamed folders that appear under music, video, photos on the XMB. Folder is called 'iTunes library' and gives you the same folders/playlists that you see when using iTunes on the PC.

[Axum]

Now quick, uninstall as it's a memory/cpu hogger!

[Uridium]

Originally Posted by Axum

Now quick, uninstall as it's a memory/cpu hogger!

Wouldn't dream of infecting a 'good' PC with it. Installed it on a test machine

[Hooblue]

Originally Posted by Uridium

I don't use itunes myself but installed it just to test this worked and basically adds an extra folder into the list of streamed folders that appear under music, video, photos on the XMB. Folder is called 'iTunes library' and gives you the same folders/playlists that you see when using iTunes on the PC.

Thanks. To be honest now that I have a PSP I use that to play music on rather than the iPod (better music quality IMO). Not quite as portable but capable of way more (I only have an iPod classic). Therefore I might ditch iTunes anyway, or at least use it alot less as since I got the PSP I haven't really used iTunes or my iPod at all.

And I assume that it's iTunes that's the CPU hogger and not PS3MS!

[crooksy]

There's loads you can do with your PS3, PS3MS and PSP combined. I have harped on about it enough in previous posts so I'm not going to bore you with it all now.

Lots of great apps out there on Tinternet that rival iTubes (sorry iTunes ). The only real reason I want to keep iTunes installed is for firmware updates to my iPod.

One music library app in particular that I am very fond of is Media Monkey http://www.mediamonkey.com/ - works with loads of formats has a ton of features plus it's free.

If you want to create playlists to share with your media server and PS3 then a really good, simple and free app is Playlist Creator: http://www.oddgravity.de/

[Uridium]

Must admit i don't get the need to even use media library software

Explorer does all i need

[crooksy]

Originally Posted by Uridium

Must admit i don't get the need to even use media library software

Explorer does all i need

I agree with you to a point, however what has been a real pain for me recently is ensuring my FLAC music folders and my MP3 folders that I use for my IPod are both in sync.

Currently there are alot of manual steps I have to do and I noticed that the latest version of Media Monkey automatically converts the FLAC files to MP3 when syncing to an IPod. So this could be a very handy feature with no need to store any MP3 files on my computer.

Another benefit would be the possibiliy for true dynamic playlists between different file formats for example - I give an MP3 track a 5 star rating on my iPod it syncs with the Media Library and updates the playlist automatically for the original FLAC file.

I have yet to find a solution that will do this (might explore the latest build of Media Monkey more) but of course all of this could be avoided if Apple supported FLAC

[Hooblue]

Ok guys, bought my shiney new 500GB external HDD over the weekend and reformatted to FAT32 (thanks Axum for the formatting software tip! ).

I then created the following folders on it: Music, Game, Video and Picture. I loaded all of my media onto the drive into the correct folders. I created a few sub folders in each section, so I now have, for example:

Video
-Films
-xxxx
-Other
-xxxx

Music
-Massive Attack
-Blue Lines
-xxxxx
-xxxxx
-Mezzanine
-xxxxx
-xxxxx

Picture
-Holiday 2009
-xxxxx
-xxxxx

The above works fine with the pictures and videos and I can scroll across and see each file name perfectly. However with the music I can scroll through the folders down to each artist but when I go one more step and display the tracks, it won't display them (just sits there with the clock spinning in the corner). However if I then go back to the album folder and do triangle-play, it'll play the album no problem, and if I then come back to the album it'll display the tracks no problem too. Is this just because it's the first time the tracks have been played so until they are played it won't display them properly, or is my file structure slightly wrong? (too many sub folders? )

If I select "display all" at the beginning it displays everything straight away with no problems, but I just thought it must be able to display the track names straight away without having to do that?