PS3 streaming problems

sadexpunk

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hi,
got another thread on the go about 'which streaming device should i buy' and already tried chromecast (sold it on as it didnt do what i wanted), and now on a PS3. at first it was fine, it picked up my media servers, (plex, ps3 and logitech) and also my external HD with all my music, photos and vids on it. the external HD mirrors my laptops HD for media, they both have the same files on, but i wanted to play around to see whether it played media just as well over a server compared to the usb wired ext HD .

im now having problems with it, so thought id investigate before selling on the PS3 (with play tv) and going for a dedicated samsung bluray player.

firstly, my ps3 now doesnt see my media servers. none of them. i havent changed anything, installed anything, it just stopped seeing them. can anyone think why that is? (my laptops linux mint 14 if thats relevant, i dont think it is)

secondly, the ps3 doesnt recognise my flac files. most of my music is flac, so thats a deal breaker. it recognises mp3, but not flac. (this is from the ext HD btw)
google implies the pS3 doesnt natively support them, and theres a workaround, but im tired of having to faff around trying to make thgings work, i just WANT THEM TO WORK FROM THE OFF! :)

thirdly, at present its not recognising any of my video files at all. the timer just spins around constantly when i try to access them. for the record my video folder contains mp4, 3gp, and m4v.

should i just forget the ps3 and move onto the dedicated bluray player? (i dont play games, i just want something purely for tv streaming (iplayer, itv, 4OD, demand5, netflix and youtube) and also to play my media.

thanks
 
The PS3 only has basic media support so from a USB hard drive it can only play media natively supported, when streaming from a DLNA server the server can transcode content into another compatible format making it play.

Thats why flac doesn't work, I think [but not certain] the PS3 supports Apple's lossless format ALAC in M4A but that would require conversion.

If mp4/m4v do not play from USB that is also unusual, PS3 is usually very good with those. I can't think of a reason why they would not play, problem with the hard drive perhaps or some unusual encoding profiles used with in the video that the PS3 cant handle.

For the disappearing DLNA media server, pull the power on your network router then start it back up and see if the PS3 can see them, there is also a system setting on the PS3 which enables/disable DLNA media servers so double check that too.
 
spot on, that makes perfect sense now, it was confusing me. just been through the menus, and its just as you say.
music/videos etc through my media server are seen (albeit with a new title with MEncoder or something in it and a new transcode folder which i can go through too), but if i go through the 'USB device (M3 Portable)' then it doesnt see them at all, even the mp4s.
i think for that reason alone im going to have to bin the PS3 and move on to the samsung bluray for a try. see how well it picks up all my media and how easy it all is to get to work.

thanks a lot
 
Samsung should be a lot easier as it has better media native to the device over USB and DLNA.

Also would recommend using TVMobili as your DLNA server on Linux Mint, it's about the best and easiest to install DLNA server for linux however it does cost money but is worth it for the prior but also has transcoding and profiles for most common devices.
Go here and select linux
- download the ubuntu debian linux i386 (if running 32-bit linux)
- run the installer and leave it finish
- go to TVmobili website and click on watch and you should see your TVMobili server, click configure and bookmark in the browser.
- add folders into TVMobili to monitor and they will appear under the folder section when browsing the server.

You might want to give TVMobili a try with the PS3 too.
 
thanks mate

just bought the samsung BD6500 and am currently playing with it to see which one goes back :)
initial thoughts are that its better for me than the ps3.

if the samsung sees my files on my external drive, and also sees my servers and plays my laptop files, what would TVMobili bring to the party that i havent got? i must admit i dont really understand the difference between servers and dlna, sorry :)

one thing im not too impressed with is video quality from my mp4 and phone camera files. my pics and music fine, but my vids are shocking. really pixellated and blocky, keep freezing. yes i know theyre ovviously not great quality in the first place, but if they play fine on a phone or laptop, surely they should still be fluid on the tv, even if the pixels arent as good?
and i cant compare them to the ps3, as the ps3 didnt even recognise them at all.

thanks
 
thanks mate

just bought the samsung BD6500 and am currently playing with it to see which one goes back :)
initial thoughts are that its better for me than the ps3.

if the samsung sees my files on my external drive, and also sees my servers and plays my laptop files, what would TVMobili bring to the party that i havent got? i must admit i dont really understand the difference between servers and dlna, sorry :)

one thing im not too impressed with is video quality from my mp4 and phone camera files. my pics and music fine, but my vids are shocking. really pixellated and blocky, keep freezing. yes i know theyre ovviously not great quality in the first place, but if they play fine on a phone or laptop, surely they should still be fluid on the tv, even if the pixels arent as good?
and i cant compare them to the ps3, as the ps3 didnt even recognise them at all.

thanks

If the Samsung works with your existing servers then you dont need to use TVMobili, Samsung use a custom version of DLNA that requires specific support by the server so I wasn't sure whatever you were using had it, though TVMobili would make those transcoding folders you mention in your media listings disappear.

Blowing up low res videos onto a large TV screen can highlight poor quality files, it could be that.

It could also be the DLNA server your using is transcoding the video files but at a low quality level, if the same happens via USB then it is not this.

As an experiment, download Handbrake (it should be in the app centre of linux mint or obtain from here)
* drop in one of the videos that play poorly
* Select high profile preset
* on video tab drag RF slider to 18
* container = mp4
* set save location with different file name
* click start

After it finishes try playing the converted video on the Samsung and see if there is any difference in playback quality.
 
looks like im a little mistaken, sorry.
i just tried the vids on my laptop first to make sure, but they were blocky on that too. theyre vids taken with a phone. so it looks like the bluray player isnt any worse than the laptop.

what did confuse me a little was the file types. mp4 was blocky, but ive got some cracking m4v vids on there, far better quality than the mp4s. they were also taken with a phone. however, when i went to check them on the bluray, they werent recognised.
i googled m4v and it said theyre 'apple videos', yet none of us own an iphone, we're all android in our house, dont like apple at all.
so firstly, is it correct that the bluray just wont see m4v? i ask because again, google implies tht it should.

also, can you put my mind at rest to tell me that m4v files can be created by android phones too?
tis a shame if the player wont recognise them tho, as theyre far better quality.

thanks
 
MP4 and M4V are in fact the same thing, Apple came up with the rename of MP4 to M4V to make it sound like video as M4A was for audio. Some generate m4v and some generate mp4, your Android phone likely does generate m4v.

You can rename the file extension video.m4v to video.mp4 and the files should play on the Samsung.

As to why the m4v are better quality they are probably H.264 videos, whatever is in the mp4 is probably a H.263 video format, much older and poorer quality.
 

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