PS3 Media Playback Explained

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Br0ken

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This is guide is well over 1 year old, and as such some, maybe most, information may be out of date. If you follow the guide and something doesn't work post a question and some one will try to help and I'll try to update the guide. If you notice anything that has changed in recent firmware updates please PM me and I'll add/change this guide accordingly. Finally, if some one has more time than I do perhaps you would like to take over and rewrite the guide in full?

The intention of this guide is to try and explain some of the many frequently asked questions regarding media sharing on the Playstation 3.
Just to note, the word ‘media' is used to describe a collection of different types of medium, such as music, photos, video etc.

The guide will be ongoing and will be as good as the information contributed, so please feel free to post your own guide for something specific, add useful links, advice or comments.

I want to use my brand spanking new Playstation 3 to watch videos, play music, and look at photos! How can make my Playstation 3 into a rockin' media hub?
Well, there are several options available to you depending on exactly what you have. You can access media directly from your Playstation 3's hard disk drive, you can access media from an USB Stick, you can access media from an External Hard Drive via a USB cable, you can use a Network Attached Storage Device and you can even share the media from your Personal Computer (PC or Mac).

Contents
1 USB Stick Media Access

2 USB External Hard Drive Access (USB HDD)

  • Includes DVD Ripping/Playback
3 Wireless Media Access
3.1 Using Windows Media Player 11
3.1.1 Windows Media Player 11 Troubleshooting
3.2 Using TVersity
3.2.1 TVersity Troubleshooting
3.3 Why would I use this instead of Windows Media Player 11?
4 Media on the Playstation 3 Harddrive
4.1 Video Thumbnails
4.2 Music Album Art
5 Hight Quality Video Playback such as x264, h264, mpeg4 etc
5.1 Mkv2Vob
5.2 PS3 Video9
5.3 Mpeg4 (MP4)
6 General Tips (Video, Sound, Tips, etc...)

7 General Troubleshooting Q&A's


8 Stream Live TV to the Playstation 3


1 USB Stick Media Access
Probably the easiest, way to access media is by transferring your media files onto a USB Stick and plugging it into one of the USB ports on the Playstation 3.
How do I do that?
Simply copy your files from a PC or Mac onto a USB Key and plug it into one of the USB ports. Then on the XMB at each menu item ‘Photo', ‘Music' and ‘Video' there will be a new item in the menu list named “USB Device (USB Disk 2.0)” – or something similar. Press ‘X' on the controller to navigate into the USB Device. You should see your files.

Notes:
In case you don't see anything but a message saying “There are no Images/Tracks/Titles”, then step back in the menu once, so that the USB Device is highlighted, press ‘Triangle' and then select ‘Display All' with the ‘X' button. You should now see the files. See Tips section at bottom of guide for a better solution!


2 USB External Hard Drive Access (USB HDD):
(Thanks to Axum for this section!)
Another great way of getting media to play on the PS3, and also one which is most suited for people that haven't got a home network setup yet - so streaming is not an option, is to copy files onto a USB Hard drive and play from that.
Other posts can be found recommending which Hard Drives are suitable (insert link here), but for this purpose I'm just using an 80GB drive in a 3.5inch external casing, with it's own power supply. You can get smaller drives (2.5inch), but these are much more expensive and don't offer the storage capabilities that externally-powered drives do, they're often known as "laptop drives" and get their power via the USB port itself.
Preconditions of USB HDD use:
  • First point of note is that the ONLY way your Hard Drive will show up under the Music/Video/Photo sections of the XMB is if it is formatted to FAT32.
  • FAT32 is described here (File Allocation Table - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia), it basically means you cannot have a SINGLE file which is greater than 4GB.
  • If the drive is NTFS (which is more common) it will *NOT be recognised.
  • If a firmware update ever manages to change this, it will render most of what follows useless, as the common problem for people is DVD-playback, as a lot of DVD's are over 4GB in size.
  • If possible, use something like PartitionMagic or some other 3rd-party Hard Disk partitioning application, and ignore statements that say the maximum partition is 32GB
Music and Photos are easy to sort out so I won't go into detail here as there will be separate posts for that. If the photos and music are on the drive, then navigating the correct folder should pull up thumbnails of the images. Similarly with music (mp3 mainly), if there's album-artwork etc and mp3's in the any folder, then you should be able to play the files without any problem.
DVD Playback:
Most of us will want to use this method to get rid of loads of old DVD's etc that may be taking up room or gathering dust (and there may be other reasons (!). I'm not going to go into the ins and out's of DVD-ripping, I'll just recommend a method that I have used successfully.
Problems:
  • Most DVD's will be greater (in total size, with menu's, extra's, different languages etc) than 4GB, so they will not fit as one file on the USB HDD.
  • PS3 has no clever way of playing sequential files (in relation to DVD's), i.e. there is no capability of a "movie-playlist" whereby you could list files to play in order.
  • To playback a full DVD you would have to stop and select the next file to play which is annoying and detracts from the overall watching experience.
Possible solution:
Compress the DVD using DVDShrink (freeware - just google for it).
This little program will basically load up a DVD, show you which parts are the main movies (so not displaying extras/languages etc) and will compress it and save it on your PC's file system in one large .VOB file
I have tried using the various compression methods, but I've opted to use the default "Sharp" setting, this seems to work fine. OK, now you have a single .VOB file, you can then either copy this to the PS3 Hard Drive (not sure why) or you can just play it back via your USB HDD.
Important Note:
VOB playback via this method will mean you CANNOT utilize the PS3's upscaling abilities, nor can you have anything coming out of it sound-wise apart from Linear PCM (so to me that means no DD5.1 sound). You CANNOT access the "AV Settings" option during this form of playback, so you can't change these options or utilize any other advanced video options, which is very irritating!​
Notes:
Make sure you uncheck the box under Edit > Preferences > Output Files > "Split VOB files into 1GB size chunks (recommended)".
I also change the Target DVD size to "Custom - 3999mb", making sure that any ripping I do will produce ONE large .VOB file around the 4GB mark.
So that's basically that, to summarise, Original DVD > Rip using DVDShrink to smaller than 4GB > Play on PS3!


3 Wireless Media Access
With WIFI technology built into the Playstation 3 connecting your Playstation 3 to a networked PC couldn't be easier. The only downside of this method is having to have your PC turned on!
How do I do that?
You may have come across the term ‘client-server' when dealing with networks. All that really means is one device provides something (the Server) and the other device uses it (the Client). Your PC will be the server, and your Playstation 3 will be the client.

To manage the media access from Playstation 3 to the PC you need a Media Server on your PC. Now that's not as scary as it might sound. If you have Windows Media Player 11 installed then you already have a media server! This part of the guide will explain setting up a media server with Windows Media Player 11 and TVersity.

3.1 Using Windows Media Player 11
This method by far is probably the easiest to setup. If you don't already have Windows Media Player 11 because you haven't updated it, you can download it from this link: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/player/11/default.aspx

PreConditions:
  • To have Windows Media Player 11 installed.
  • To have your Playstation 3 setup to use wireless networking and that it actually works on your network. You can do a network test for this to check.
Once installed follow these steps:

  1. Hover the mouse pointer over the ‘Library' button and when the little arrow appears just below it, click that arrow to open the submenu.
  2. In that sub menu click on ‘Add to Library'.
  3. In the window that appears, select ‘My Personal Folder' (See note about this below).
  4. Then use the ‘Add' button to add the folders which contain the media files you want to share. These folders can include music, pictures and video.
  5. Use the ‘Remove' button to remove any folders that might be in the list by default which you don't want to be shared.
  6. When you finish, click ‘Ok' button. If this is the first time you're setting up Windows Media Player 11 to share media you'll have to wait a few seconds while it adds the new files to its library. Click the ‘Close' button when it has finished adding the files.
  7. Turn on Playstation 3 if it isn't already on.
  8. Click on the arrow under the ‘Library' button again, and select Media Sharing. You will see a window that shows all the devices which your PC can see, and which of those devices is allowed access and which isn't. Put a tick in the ‘Share My Media' box.
  9. Your Playstation 3 should show up as ‘Unknown Device' in the middle box, select is and click on the ‘Allow'button. Click ‘OK' to finish.
  10. On your Playstation 3 look in the menus for the different media types. The Playstation 3 should have automatically connected to your Windows Media Player media server and displayed it in the list.
  11. You're good to go, you can now browse and view your media files through your Playstation 3.
Notes:
When adding folders to the Windows Media Library you have the option of 'My Personal Folders' or 'My folders and those of others I can access'. The first option is the simple just my folders. Whereas the second option lets you also share folders owned by other users of the PC.

3.1.1 Windows Media Player 11 Troubleshooting
ToDo.

3.2 Using TVersity

TVersity is a free media server application which you can install on your computer to allow the sharing of media files. More information about TVersity can be found at its official homepage: TVersity - Home

I've decided not to write a step by step on installing TVersity as the Quick Setup page (TVersity - Quick Start Guide) does a good explains it well enough. I'd only be repeating it! However, if some one wants to write one I'd be happy to add it.

3.2.1 TVersity Troubleshooting
Instead of a setup guide I think a list of common problems and solutions would be pretty handy.

  • My PS3 cannot find my media server automatically or when I search for media servers, what's the problem?
Check your firewall settings to allow the following file to be accessible through network connection; "C:\Program Files\TVersity\Media Server\MediaServer.exe" (Install location may be different).

Has the TVersity Media Sever? In the start menu go Start > All Programs > TVersity Media Server > TVersity Tools > Start TVserity Media Server.

  • The quality of my video is poor when streamed, what can I do about it?
I need your help here; if you're a user of TVersity please post your TVersity settings, your processor type and speed, amount of RAM, and graphics card.

  • Can you suggest any recommended TVersity settings?
Well I can't but thanks to nolive for sharing his:

When to transcode:
Only When Needed
Uncheck "Decrease the bitrate"

Optimization:
Select "Speed"

Connection Speed and Quality:
I selected Wired 100 since that's what I have but pick what best represents your network

Compression:
Average

Video Resolution:
Select what suits your TV. I have a 1080p so I input 1920 x 1080.

Decoding Speed:
Uncheck "Decode the media as fast as possible" I found this to be extremely important. Otherwise the computer, contrary to how it sounds, can't work fast enough and the videos will pause and time out on the PS3. Changing this allowed them to run all the way through.

I have discovered that while older systems such as mine will stutter in video for the first 30 seconds or so, this is only a buffering process, and will catch up after around that time. They should play flawlessly here on out.

Also, be sure to have ffdshow installed as your divx/xvid/mpg codec.

For reference, my pc specs:
Athlon XP 1800+
1 GB of RAM
Gigabit ethernet card
Windows XP SP2​
3.3 Why would I use this instead of Windows Media Player 11?
You might come across a file format which the Playstation 3 cannot play back – normally results in you seeing an “Unsupported file format error” if you try. TVersity can convert that file on-the-fly into a format that the PS3 can playback, this is known as transcoding.


4 Media on the Playstation 3 Harddrive
Streaming media or use external devices is great and all but the nice guys at Sony have made it possible for us to swap out the hard drive in the Playstation 3 for another one with a higher capacity! With this in mind perhaps storing your media directly on the Playstation hard disk itself is an option.

How do I do that?
To get the media, (whether its Photo's, Music or Video), you can copy it across from a network share or from an external device such as a USB stick or a USB External Harddrive. When you're browsing the media on another device or share simply press the Triangle button on the controller with the media item highlighted and select 'Copy' to start the transfer. You can also select 'Copy Multiple' to select several files to copy at the same time.

4.1 Video Thumbnails
Whether you're browsing video's on the Playstation hard drive or a media server the Playstation 3 will automatically display thumbnails.

4.2 Music Album Art
You can display album art when streaming music if you use TVersity as your Media Server (Thanks to
Uridium for letting me know). You can also display it if the music is on the hard disk.

Here's what it would look like:

The Playstation 3 can automatically download album artwork and track data for ripped cds from a source called All Media Guide, however I haven't seen it work...

...So what's the best way to add your own album artwork?

PreConditions

  • Download and install MP3Tag from Mp3tag - Download (it's FREE)
  • I've assumed you have a basic organisation of music on your PC hard drive
  • You have lots of cool music to add artwork and track data to
Once you have MP3Tag installed follow these steps:
  1. Click 'File' > 'Change Directory' and open the directory that contains your album.
  2. Highlight all the songs by Clicking on the first track, hold the Shift Key and click the last track.
  3. Click 'Tag Sources' and select Amazon.com.
  4. Check the album name to search for is correct.
  5. In the search results box select the result that is the most appropriate.
  6. Click 'OK'.
  7. The next window will show you track data and album artwork that will be applied to your album. If it all looks good make sure 'Save image to tag' is ticked and click 'OK' to save the data or click 'Cancel' and start from Step 2 to find another option.
  8. The application will write the data, and after a short time will complete.
  9. Transfer the album to the Playstation 3 hard drive by copying it to a USB Stick, External USB Hard Drive or over the network.
  10. You should now see the album artwork and track data when browsing the Music menu (for local hard drive files only of course).
Notes:
You can also add artwork by copying your music to your Playstation 3 hard drive, and then copying the image and then adding it to the album by selecting the track and selecting 'Information', then highlighting the album icon and pressing 'X' to edit and then selecting the image. Though that seems a bit more tedious than the method above!


5 Hight Quality Video Playback such as x264, h264, mpeg4 etc
5.1 Mkv2Vob (Converting x264 mkv to vob)

Download: mkv2vob
Use it to convert your x264 AC3 video files to a VOB file which the PS3 can play back.

Taken directly from the authors forum post:
  1. Extract to a directory (don't just run it from within WinRAR) and run mkv2vob.exe
  2. Select the MKV file
  3. Select where to save the VOB.
  4. Several windows will open/close during the process, do not interrupt it or click anything in these windows.
  5. Playback the VOB.
Confirmation: I have successfully converted a x264 video to VOB which plays back perfectly from the PS3 harddrive. Note that you cannot fastforward or rewind if you playback a VOB file. So if you stop watching half way through you'll have to start to watch again from the beginning!

File properties:
Video: x264
Audio: AC3 5.1 (5Channel) 384Kbps
Dimension: 1280 x 544

MKV2VOB configuration (ver 2.4.2 up)
Thanks to Uridium for writing this section on MKV2VOB configuration.

For Streaming playback with best audio/video quality Open Configuration tab, leave all options at default other than:-
-Transcoding Codec: change to x264 high quality
-Check Use PCM instead of AC3 (Note: only use this option if PS3 is connected with HDMI to surround system, If your PS3 is connected to your sound system via any other method DO NOT check this box)
-Output type: set to mpg (for best compatibility with all steaming software)
-Output File Extension: leave to Automatic
-Video Transcoding: leave on Automatic

For USB/External HDD playback with best audio/video quality Open Configuration tab, leave all options at default other than:-
-Output Type: change to AVCHD - USB
-Change transcoding codec to x264 high quality
-Check Use PCM instead of AC3 (Note: only use this option if PS3 is connected with HDMI to surround system, If your PS3 is connected to your sound system via any other method DO NOT check this box)
-Output File Extension: leave to Automatic
-Video Transcoding: Leave on Automatic

This method will create a folder named AVCHD in your chosen output folder with mt2s streams automatically split to chunks under 4Gb to fit on Fat32 file system. Copy this folder to the root of your Flash drive/USB hard drive


Subtitles
The PS3 does not support soft subtitles in streamed x264 video so if your MKV has subtitles and you wish to use subtitles when you playback the converted file on the PS3 you will need to Hardcode (burn) the subtitles into the output file. This is done by checking the ‘Always Encode Subtitles' box.

If you wish to hardcode subtitles that are stored in a separate .SRT file also check the ‘Load Subtitles from file' box

With both optins ensure you choose your preffered subtitle Language from the dropdown.


What are the different audio types all about
Unfortunately the PS3 as yet does not support DTS audio playback from any media type other than a DVD/Bluray disc. (Only execption to this is an AVCHD folder on a USB drive as the PS3 still thinks this is a Optical disc)

Therefore MKV2VOB offers the option to convert these audio streams to one of three types.

-AC3 (640k) - Dolby Digital 5.1 Audio
-AC3 (448k) - Dolby Digital 5.1 Audio in lower bitrate for some older surroiund systems
-PCM (4mb) - Uncompressed 5.1 Audio (essentially DTS decoded)

AC3 is the most universal format but PCM will give better results if your Surround hardware is HDMI capable.

5.2 PS3 Video9 (mkv to mp4 conversion)
Coming Soon!


5.3 Mpeg4 (MP4)


The PS3 supports MP4 video playback without any necessary reencoding.

Confirmation: I have played back a video file with the following properties:

Video: h264 (AVC 3.1)
Audio: AAC
Dimension: 1280 x 544


6 General Tips:

  • When playing music press 'Square' to change the visualizer, there's a rather cool rotating planet, some call it Earth, I call it home.

  • If you're using an external harddrive or a USB stick organise your files into folders. Create several folders called PHOTO, VIDEO and MUSIC to avoid having to press triangle and 'display all'. Note: The folder names are case sensitive and should be on the Root of the USB stick. (Thanks to J-Alex for the correction.)

  • If you're transferring files to your Playstation hard drive, you can copy a whole folder if you want all the files inside it!

  • Press the PS button to return to the XMB while still playing music.

  • Press the PS button in other scenarios to access the XMB, for example reading a new message recieved while you were using the web browser, there's no need to exit the web browser!

  • When browsing the media menus press 'Square' to quickly change the type of sort; i.e. by Artist, date, genre etc.

  • Turn off PCM sound settings to stop the PS3 decoding your 5.1 audio, let your amp handle it, it'll do a better job! (Thanks pwilson5 for the tip)

7 General Troubleshooting Q&A's:

  • I can see the directory structure when I have streaming setup but I don't see the actual files themselves when I'm browsing the directories, what's going on?
For some strange reason the different media types (ie. Video, Music and Photo) all appear as navigable options when you browse the XMB. However, the only media type you can access is the one for which the root menu on the XMB is. For example. if you're navigating under the Video Menu, you may see directories for your music albums but you won't see the files! You'll have to go to the Music Menu on the XMB!!

  • Cannot Play from previous stop point, video starts from beginning?
If you're streaming the video file, and you've stopped sharing your media server with your PS3, and then you start sharing again the PS3 seems to play all files from the beginning even if you stopped halfway through it beforehand.

  • How can I use my Windows Media Center and the PS3 as a media extender, like with the Xbox 360?
As far as I'm aware you cannot use the PS3 as a media extender the way you can with the Xbox 360. This does not mean that you cannot share files between a PS3 and a PC running Windows Media Center Edition. Just you can't have the Media Center interface, the way you can with the Xbox 360.

  • WMV Video playback, I see the video, but I don't hear the audio?
Currently, the Playstation 3 doesn't support the audio codec used in the WMV video file, which mostly like is WMA (Pro).

  • Can I play lossless wav audio because its better than low bitrate mp3's on my PS3?
Unfortunately, at this moment in time the PS3 doesn't support lossless Wav.

  • Can I start a slide show AND play music at the same time?
YES! Just start your slide show, press the PS button, it'll bring up the XMB and you can then navigate to your music, whether its on your harddrive or streamed you can play it while your slide show is still active!

  • I converted some videos to AVI's and copied them to a cd-r, but the PS3 reports the data is corrupted, what's wrong?
It's possible that the PS3 simply cannot read the data very well. If the video works fine on your PC try to transfer the video to the PS3 harddrive and attempt playback again.

  • When playing an MP3 on the PS3 I get "unsupported data" error, what's wrong?
If the MP3 plays fine on another device, such as a PC or MP3 player then it may be likely that the MP3 has ID3v2 tag data. You can remedy this by removing the ID3v2 data and instead use ID3v1 type data for tagging your MP3 with info. A free tag editor can be had from Music Brainz
8 Stream Live TV to the Playstation 3
Thanks to kas206 for writing this guide.
Requirements:

  • PC with TV Tuner card (Im using Pinnacle PCTV Nano)
  • Nero (Im using Nero 7. Nero 8 should work)
  • PS3 (Obviously)
Step 1:
Install Nero and start up Nero Media Home. The first time you start media home you get a screen like this.
Picture1.jpg

Keep clicking continue until you come to the TV and Radio receivers page as the one below.
Picture2.jpg

Click continue to start the scan.
Picture3.jpg

Once that's completed, you should get a confirmation that you have successfully completed the setup.
Picture4.jpg

The next few pages, you can add Video, Music and Picture folders that you want to access on your ps3. You can skip this part if you like. You can always add them later.

Step 2:
Click the Start Menu. Then go to Programs > Nero > Share > Nero MediaHome
Picture5.jpg

Go to the Netwok icon and put a tick next to your network adapter.
Picture6.jpg

Now click on the TV icon and launch Nero TV wizard.
Picture7.jpg

Keep clicking next until you come to the final screen, and then click finish.
Picture8.jpg

Close the next window that appears.
Picture9.jpg

And finally open up Nero MediaServer, and and click on start server.
Picture10.jpg

Step 3:
Go to your PS3, and you should have an icon under the video menu.
Picture11.jpg

Open it, and go to TV Channels
Picture12.jpg

Wait a few seconds for the picture to load, And Voila! you have live TV on your PS3.
Picture13.jpg



Recent Updates....Section 8, Streaming Live Tv to your Playstation 3!
 
Last edited:
Just to add if anyone wants to write about something specific please post here saying you are in the process of or intending to, just to stop other people and myself doing the same thing.
 
Keep it up mate, this is what i was prompting for in my earlier postings, think it will be of great use.

I'm just testing some things out with DVDShrink but I may well pipe up with the USB HDD way of media playback sometime this weekend.
 
Nice one:smashin:

I was playing around with Video9 PS3 convertor last night. It estimated around 12 hours to convert a 4.16GB h264 MKV with 5.1 audio using all the highest quality settings. And around 5 hours using all the lowest settings!!

I aborted promptly!


Another note: There is a tonne of information on the web already, so in the interest of reuse, feel free to provide links to guides you've tried elsewhere with a comment or two about the procedure and end result if possible.
 
See, now i still don't understand the difference and why you need to convert those .MKV files, rather than just mkv2vob ? Is it just down to how the original file was encoded ?

Here's a link to a great walkthrough on how to do it though!

http://www.digital-digest.com/articles/PS3_H.264_Conversion_Guide_page1.html

If you look a little way down the page under "Important" it kinda suggests that mkv2vob is an easier way to convert, and produces a better result audio-wise ?!

Edit : Oh, hang on, are they suggesting that using the full guide will actually produce an H264-quality file from ANY ordinary DivX\Xvid etc ??
 
Good work Br0ken. :smashin:

If people ask questions and you add those (plus the answers - obviously) into your original post i'd be glad to routinely delete the subsequent posts once they have been covered. This way it'll keep it nice and tidy.

I've been waiting to see which idustrious member would start one of these. :thumbsup:
 
If this thread takes off i'll make it a sticky, ok?
 
It'll take off mabo; just hard to find the time to write up a proper guide. There are quite a few things to write about. So if any other forum users want to contribute please do!
 
If this thread takes off i'll make it a sticky, ok?

Yay, that was my original plan! Think it would be good to have a sticky about all this, as suggested last week.

I'll try and write a report on hardrive usage tomorrow.
 
Updated.
 
Nice one Br0ken. Got a question for you. I've been toying with the idea of setting up a HCPC or a media player/streamer [TVIX]. I have a large DVD collection and so am mainly interested in converting my DVDs to ISO files, and saving as a DVD library. Can the PS3 handle ISO file playback?

Cheers for any help
 
To my knowledge you'll have to convert the iso to some other format. Probably better off with VOBs?
 
all my files are varying quality x264/ac3 mkv files...tried to use tversity to stream, but PS3 says corrupted data.

I know i can convert them and do it this way, but this is more hassle than its worth tbh!

Streaming/coerting on the fly is the only option!
 
any help would be appreciated , i have set up my external usb drive as fat 32 loaded all my media onto it divx, music and photos. when i plug it in to the ps3 it come sup fine , i can view and play music fine but when i go into video folders it says no tracks ?. any ideas appreciated.

p.s i had the same problem when i was streaming from pc to ps3 would always say no tracks when i looked in video folders. probably me missing something simple:rolleyes:
 
any help would be appreciated , i have set up my external usb drive as fat 32 loaded all my media onto it divx, music and photos. when i plug it in to the ps3 it come sup fine , i can view and play music fine but when i go into video folders it says no tracks ?. any ideas appreciated.

p.s i had the same problem when i was streaming from pc to ps3 would always say no tracks when i looked in video folders. probably me missing something simple:rolleyes:

When you're trying to look at your videos it should say 'no titles', not 'tracks'.

Odd thing about the PS3 is that when you navigate the folder hierarchy no matter if you've gone into Music or Photos or Video in the menu it still shows sub folders for the various media types - if that makes sense. I'm not sure if it does that just when streaming with Windows Media Player or not actually.

I mentioned (in post 1 using a USB Stick) you may need to highlight the usb drive and press triangle and select display all. Thats with a usb stick but maybe it applies to an usb external drive - same interface afterall.
 
Yes indeed, via a USB HDD then you still need to press the Triangle button and "Display All".

This will bring up a list of all folders/files stored on the drive.

However, i experience a real lag, sometimes i have to exit and enter folders again for the files to show up. Eventually they do and can be played fine, but it sometimes takes a while for them to list and i'm not too sure why..
 
Yes indeed, via a USB HDD then you still need to press the Triangle button and "Display All".

This will bring up a list of all folders/files stored on the drive.

However, i experience a real lag, sometimes i have to exit and enter folders again for the files to show up. Eventually they do and can be played fine, but it sometimes takes a while for them to list and i'm not too sure why..

The lag you're referring to depends on how many files are on the storage device, the more there are the longer it takes. It also depends on the storage device itself, I tried various usb sticks with the same data and they all took different lengths of time to show up.
 
Yeah i would imagine disc speed, whatever the proper word for how fast the disk head can turn around on the disk in the hard drive would be a factor.

I've also noticed, at least on mine, if I scroll down my video's list too fast it falls over. It'll still list the movie names, but it doesn't show a thumbnail of the movie, just the generic transparent film thing instead and it doesn't ply any movie file I select. Have to research for media servers and it works properlly again, odd.
 
Sounds fair enough, although i don't think it's dependent on the hard drive, it's more dependent on the PS3 presumably as otherwise you would experience the same lag when connecting to a pc.

How come you don't have to "Safely eject device" with the PS3 like you do with a PC ?
 
You don't really need to 'safely remove hardware' on the PC if its connected via USB. Just so long as there's no transfer of data at the time you pull the cable/plug out it'll be fine.
 
I have my PS3 in a wired network. I am trying to media share using WMP11 but after following the instructions on pg1 of this thread when I tick the"share my media" box it does not register any devices connected. The PS3 is definitely connected to the network. Any ideas?
 
I have my PS3 in a wired network. I am trying to media share using WMP11 but after following the instructions on pg1 of this thread when I tick the"share my media" box it does not register any devices connected. The PS3 is definitely connected to the network. Any ideas?

Can you ping your PS3?

Incase you don't know what I mean;

On your pc click Start > Run, type in 'cmd' and hit Enter.

At the prompt screen type ing ping <YOUR_PS3_IP_ADDRESS_HERE> and hit Enter.

You should get a reply. If you dont then your pc and ps3 can't communicate, so its worth checking your network settings again.

Also, check that Media Server Connection is set to Enabled on the PS3 in the Network Settings menu.
 
UPDATE: Added Media on the Playstation 3 Harddrive section, adding album artwork.
 
Thanks for your guide, it helped me get it all setup.

However I have one annoying problem which is there is some serious lag (about 20 seconds) when skipping to the next track. Likewise, it takes about 20 seconds for a video to start. When they're playing there is no lag, though.

I have read somewhere that since the new system update this problem has been affecting other users. Can anyone confirm or deny this, or better still, offer a solution?

Thanks
Eli
 
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