PS3 Media Server

Some news!

2010-02-21T07:32:00.000-08:00

Hi there,

It has been quite a long time since the last blog update, so let's catch up! Development has been slow last months, and if you are a regular PS3 user of the streaming, transcoding and/or remuxing features, the 1.10.5 build is still a good candidate to experiment the ps3's media capabilities, despite some shortcomings (audio/video compatibility detection based on extensions, slow media library for those using it, etc.)

However interesting features are on their way with newer beta versions (currently experimented in the forum if you feel adventurous) such as:

- Better media parsing, thanks to mediainfo.sf.net: This allows for faster browsing, accurate format detection and automatic launch of the transcoder if required (still not 100% perfect, but closer than ever :p)
- Other media renderers support, such as connected TVs. It's a work in progress, so not everything works out of the box. Sony Bravia models are the best supported right now.
- Proper video remuxing, and DTS support for DVD ISOs.
- Many fixes, feature requests, etc.

A stable and proper version will come in the following weeks, stay tuned !

1.10.5

2009-03-09T00:00:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone,

a new minor release is out, with only bugfixes. Not much to add, except sorry for those who met the following bugs :p

PS3 Media Server v1.10.5 for Windows/Linux/OSX

Changelog:

- Fixes:

Regression in FLAC playback
Fixed subtitles font detection on Windows
Flaw in the transcode/remux buffer, in some cases, the video stopped after a few minutes
Cache bug when streaming web medias
Duplicate items issue on Linux
Upnp alive message sent sooner at the start of the server

v1.10.1

2009-03-03T00:00:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone,

some time has passed since the last version, so here's a major one ! Hopefully, it offers some interesting features to all ps3 owners running on Windows or Linux, like the DTS streaming support (no need anymore to encode in AC3 or PCM if you have a DTS compatible receiver), an improved Mencoder engine with automatic decision between muxing (aka no video encoding) and full video transcoding. About the DTS feature, make sure to read carefully the message box who will appear if you enable this option. Also, the automatic muxing option is enabled by default, to offer the best video quality when this is possible (if the video track is compatible and no subtitles are involved). Keep in mind that it's a new feature, so if anything bad happens, you can disable it in the mencoder configuration panel (or in the #Video Settings# virtual menu on XMB). There's other things to try, check the changelog !

PS3 Media Server v1.10.1 for Windows/Linux - v1.10 for OSX

the 1.10.1 version fixed a last minute bug, not related to OSX

Here's the changelog:

- Changes / Features : Windows/Linux

DTS / DTS-HD core audio tracks are now streamable without reencoding (DVD ISOs not supported yet)
New Option: unification of Mencoder/tsMuxer engines, including:
. Automatic choice between H264 muxing or transcoding, based on AVC Level 4.1 compatibility and subtitles configuration
. Remux on the fly any H264 content from MOV, MP4, and AVI containers (ex: Apple HD Trailers)
. This option is enabled by default and can be disabled via the #Video Settings# virtual menu if anything goes wrong
TS/M2TS support improvement
2 channels downmixing support with PCM conversion

- Changes / Features : All Platforms

XBox 360 unofficial support (Pictures/Music/Videos : WMV8/WMA2 transcoding)
Mencoder archive handling (no seeking support)
Simplified copy (always available, no more option), and much faster with remuxed videos
Alternate subtitles directory
Multi language external subtitles support
Alternate cover art folder and <video>.jpg additional support (along existing <video>.<ext>.cover.jpg)
Automatic album art download from amazon or discogs
Option to display more recents file first in a directory
Ability to generate video thumbnails with Mplayer
New translations: Romanian (thanks to Marinescu Alexandru Cezar), Simplified Chinese and Traditional Chinese (thanks to KK Tong)
Updated translations: Finnish, German, Greek, Icelandic, Japanese, Norwegian, Portuguese, Swedish

- Fixes

Reworked RSS parsing (youtube playlists)
Reworked Audio/Subtitles tracks handling
Better stability in LPCM and DTS handling
Fixed LPCM channel ordering
Wrong font detection on some systems: subtitles weren't loaded
Fixed tsMuxer crash at the end of file
Modified UPNP discovery

v1.04

2009-02-04T00:00:00.000-08:00

Hi,

here's the new version!... some explanations about the new "video copy" feature: in previous versions, you couldn't copy any transcoded videos on your ps3, due to a virtual size of 94gb... now it's possible, with this option enabled. Be careful: if you want to use that feature, it's recommended to set a reasonable bandwidth limit in transcode options, because transcoded videos will have no fixed size, and you could fill up your ps3's hard drive pretty quickly with default settings !

PS3 Media Server v1.04 for Windows/Linux/OSX

Here's the changelog:

- Changes / Features

. New option to enable video copy on ps3
. RAW images thumbnail support: CR2/CRW/PEF/NEF/ORF/SRF/MRW/DNG/ARW/RAF
. New extensions supported: SHN/M2V/M2P
. tsMuxer engine can now mux or reencode in AC3/PCM all audio tracks in real time
. Add the experimental mencoder build for multicore on OSX
. DVR-MS remuxer now included by default in Windows package
. New translations: Spanish (thanks to Jose from playstationhoy.com), Dutch (thanks to Vincent Meylof), German (thanks to Jeuki), Russian (thanks to Peter Klassen), Polish (thanks to Maciej Bocian), Greek (thanks to Alexander Polichroniadis), Portuguese (thanks to Hugo Sousa), Finnish (thanks to Ove Sentlig), Norwegian (thanks to Ball80 and Topguy), Swedish (thanks to Dusan Ilic) and Japanese (thanks to Yu)

- Fixes

. tsMuxer's AC3/LPCM encode/muxing + Mencoder's LPCM remuxing now working on Linux
. Fixed LPCM seeking issue
. Fixed regression with PicasaWeb images feed
. Changes in subtitles loading / Fonts support (Default/ASS/Embedded Fonts)
. Fixed channels order with tsMuxer engine's DTS->AC3 option
. Transcode buffer wasn't fully released after end of video
. Fixed bug with shared folders selection on Windows
. Fixed periodic alive messages sent to ps3
. Better dvr-ms media info retrieval
. Updated ffmpeg/mplayer/mencoder/mt builds on Windows and OSX (slight H264 speedup for singlecore)
. Buffer issues with transcoded audio files lasting more than 10 minutes
. Fixed RSS parsing with some feeds

v1.03

2009-01-18T13:56:00.000-08:00

Hello there

Some fresh news from the development front, as there's a new version out there! Two interesting things: First, Windows users who owns multicores processors will be pleased to know that, this version includes a custom build of mencoder optimized for multicores and H264 content, based on the great work of the ffmpeg team. Benefits ? recent CPUs are now fully used, rather than the usual 60, 65% usage with the default mencoder build (that means a 30% performance gain on mine for example), so you can almost ditch your CoreAVC / AviSynth installs... Be careful though, this is somewhat very young, so you can disable it if any problems arise...

The another thing is that, we have a new forum :) You can join here... feel free to participate !

PS3 Media Server v1.03 for Windows/Linux/OSX

Here's the changelog:

- Changes / Features

Customize encoding parameters (along with default ones) for any given container/codec/property combination (purpose: A/V sync, playback issues, and tweaking for advanced users)
Ability to select networking interface
OSX 10.4 Tiger support (Intel only)
Settings reorganization
M4V now streamed by default, you have to enter the #Transcoded# folder to force the transcode (like AVI files)
WMA now transcoded by default
Italian localization
WINDOWS ONLY: Use (only with 720p/1080p H264 content) an experimental mencoder build for multicores
New OSX icon (thanks to Jakob Karlsson)
Added a "Skip/Force transcode extensions" option added if default settings don't suit you
Possibility to only remux AC3 audio tracks and not reencoded them

- Fixes

Default platform charset issue
Transcode buffer optimization on Windows
Application crash on Windows when too many widechars filenames were parsed
Audio tracks sorted by track number (if present) in media library
Better filenames/subtitles management (m2ts/ts/dvr-ms issues, comas, widechars, etc.)
External subtitles not always loaded, again
DVD images are listed in the media library
Fixed RSS parsing for Youtube and maybe other feeds
AviSynth / VideoLAN not always detected on Vista 64bits
Unavailable engines exclusion on OSX/Linux
Fixed console mode on Linux

v1.02.1

2009-01-05T12:26:00.001-08:00

Hi,

a quick message to inform you there's a serious bug in 1.02 which prevents the application from running, affecting a significant number of users...
so here's the 1.02.1:

PS3 Media Server 1.02.1 for Windows/Linux/OSX

If you have no troubles with 1.02, you can skip it, as this one has very few fixes, aside this major bug:

- Fixes:
Major Bug in server start due to a faulty MAC address retrieval
PMS do not start after activating the archive browsing option
Media library small fixes

Good news is there's an OSX version working in Java1.5. It should be able to run with more macs !

v1.02

2009-01-04T12:00:00.000-08:00

Hi,

the new version (1.02) is finally released. Some interesting features were added. Main one being the media library: It's a work in progress, so don't expect too much of it :p.
As I'm not a big fan of those huges databases you must constantly refresh,
the feature is disabled by default, so the application will behave like before. However, the media library has two purposes: to offer a view of your media files with some criterias (artist, date, etc.) and also to speedup the display of your folders on XMB, as the media library act like a parsing cache (metadata, thumbnails, etc.). So, to have a better browsing experience, but without the hassle of scanning all your folders, I would suggest to enable the media library (in the general configuration tab), and not touch the scan button (in the folders sharing tab). People who like to have their files organized with tags and such can happily click on that button, though :p (beware of loooong scan time if you have a lot of files). The media library is also a progressive learner, so it will update itself automatically when new or updated folders will be browsed on the XMB.

There's some fixes too. Such as better codecs support and A/V out of sync issues. About this, as there's not (yet?) perfect synchronization with every video file out there, the "Video Settings" Menu has been revamped, so playback options are easily changeable now. You can dynamically enable or disable the A/V sync alternative method (in case of out of sync), a deinterlacing filter, subtitles, etc.

I would also thank the people who are helping on the project code and the google groups, as they contribute to make this project more alive ! You can download new version here:

Download PS3 Media Server 1.02 for Windows/Linux (OSX version should come soon)

And here's the changelog:

- New features

Auto-updater, default configuration, cleanups and windows/linux build scripts (thanks to Tim Cox)
Media library (also act as a parsing cache): you can sort your files by date, ID3 tags, etc.
Playlists (m3u/pls) support
Preliminary album art support, better audio (flac) and tags parsing
New options for video resolution, deinterlace filter, and archives browsing
Video settings with an easier virtual menu (A/V sync, deinterlace, ...)
Windows service installer (working on 32 bits only)
New image parsing library: Better performance / EXIF support (sort photos by camera model, etc.)
DVR-MS addon

- Fixes

A/V out of sync issues with some ISOs and medias / codecs support improvement (flv, rmvb, hdmov, mp4, multichannels avi, etc.)
External subtitles not always loaded
Upnp advertising issue in search reply to the ps3 (thanks to Daniel Pedersen)
SkipLoopFilter is now disabled by default
Regression since 0.98, server would not start on some machines
Newest builds of ffmpeg/mplayer/mencoder for win32
Usual bunch of fixes

It's holiday time

2008-12-21T10:29:00.000-08:00

Hi,

A quick update to inform you there's no new official version this sunday (Merry christmas, btw :p). The version 1.00 have been downloaded more than 14000 times as of today (I didn't expect that :p), so I'm waiting for more feedbacks (and mostly time to solve important bugs). Besides, there's not much fixes/new features added now to make a release: You can check the actual Changelog here (there's some other little things, listed in the trunk revision log). If something in there interests you and are not afraid of beta testing , I've uploaded an 1.01 update package here. This is a beta package, remember, so things could be broken. You just have to extract contents into the application folder (and replace the pms.jar file). An official 1.02 version will follow next.

v1.00 / project status

2008-12-14T00:58:00.000-08:00

Hi!

first of all, I would like to thank all those who have donated, as it's kinda motivating to work like this :) Also, thanks for encouraging emails...

Project current status needs also some clarity: As I'm redistributing GPL components inside the PMS package (Mplayer, Mencoder, etc.), my project has by definition GPL license too. So I've uploaded the sources on this newly created code.google.com project (OSX version, anyone ? :p), along with a google group dedicated to PMS. So if you have any questions, requests, issues, you can try there.

Now, about 1.00 version. It's a good step as I think the product somewhat stable (I'm using it since 2 months now). Small update anyway, and there's still some issues though, mostly about network, synched A/V, and video compatibility. I hope these will be solved with time. Also, the auto update feature will come one day, but meantime, from now on, I'll try to support existing PMS.conf files to make you avoid reconfigure settings for each new version. Some other features are on their way (parsing cache, start as a windows service), but not stable enough to include them in this release.

Download PMS v1.00 for Windows/Linux

Here's the changelog:

- New Features

GPL licensing :)
IDX/SUB support for AviSynth ONLY
Revamped some UI, especially transcoding settings for better usage (hope this will be not confusing)
First attempt to make a working and generic LPCM or AC3 automatic conversion with tsMuxer (seeking isn't working well and demuxed audio delays are not managed)
AviSynth script is now really fully customizable

- Fixes

Yet another flac parsing bug
Sync issues management for xvid/mp3
Rare and random video glitch due to another seeking bug
.ass subtitles files support
UUID random generation, it's now possible to launch multiple servers on one network.
Added wmv binary codecs in Windows package for smooth WMV-HD transcoding
VIDEO_TS folders are now case insensitive

v0.99

2008-12-07T12:40:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone,

Sunday has arrived and the new version as well! I have hopefully fixed many bugs with network / transcoder / video compatibility and added as well the DVD ISO/VIDEO_TS transcoder, thanks to Mencoder. As some of you kindly suggested me, and also as I stopped counting my hours on this project :), I've added a donation link on the right side of this blog.
Also, the next version (1.00) will be most likely focused on bugs fixing / usability (something like auto-update, with saved parameters), so if anything goes wrong with this one, just drop an email to ps3mediaserver at gmail.com with detailed infos on what isn't working, joined with the debug file if possible.

PMS 0.99 for Windows
PMS 0.99 for Windows (8.7 Mb) [mirror]
PMS 0.99 for Linux (3.1 Mb)

Here's the Changelog:

- New features:

DVD ISOs images / VIDEO_TS Folder transcoder
DVR-MS support (need feedback)
Better subtitles configuration
Small things: FAQ, Thumbnail seeking position, UI changes, New Options, etc.

- Fixes:

Network/Transcode buffer fix: Wifi/Homeplug streaming should be Ok now.
A/V out of sync correction
Unsupported data error on almost SD videos when maximum bitrate was fixed
tsMuxer broken on Linux
Videos with FLAC audio tracks are now muxed to LPCM, along with DTS
Video was paused due to seeking bug
Audio files parsing method changes (Hope this will solve issues with some flac files)
Better support for audio low sample rates (<= 22kHz) based files
Subtitle files: .sub support was broken

v0.98

2008-11-30T00:10:00.000-08:00

Hi !

As every Sunday, new version is around the corner ! Some features were added, main one being the PCM transcoding for DTS movies. You may have some channels ordering issues, but workarounds are available in the Readme file. Try it !

PMS 0.98 for Windows (8.7 Mb)
PMS 0.98 for Windows [mirror]
PMS 0.98 for Linux (3.0 Mb)

Here's the complete changelog:

- New features:
Lossless 5.1 PCM transcoding with DTS movies
Customizable AviSynth script
Audio podcasts, just tested the one from Engadget
tsMuxer now working on Linux for basic muxing (don't forget to give it execution rights)
Web video streamdump engine (Useful for streams natively supported by ps3, such as mpeg on rtsp)
Maximum bitrate management
Small things: Runnable in console mode under Linux ("PMS.sh console"), Folder prioritization of a specific streaming/transcoding engine, Custom cover art, additional infos on thumbnails

- Fixes:
Potential network problem with Java/Vista + increase of packet ttl
Transcode will not start with potential error 80710091
Flac transcoder
Audio tags for all audio codecs
Faster start of audio transcoded files
Usual small bugs

- Changes:
Revamped inter process communication on Windows between Java/Mencoder/tsMuxer (much more elegant now).

v0.97

2008-11-23T17:54:00.000-08:00

Hi!

The new version (0.97) is now ready to be released ! I've added some interesting features, such as a graphical interface to configure the application (no more file to edit!), the ability to remux without transcode in real time for those running on Windows, thanks to tsMuxer, and some little other things. I've hopefully solved this annonying upnp advertising bug, which was preventing some people to make the server work on ps3.

You can download the server here:

PMS 0.97 for Windows (8.4 Mb)
PMS 0.97 for Windows [mirror]
PMS 0.97 for Linux (2.6 Mb)

Here is the complete changelog:

- Added: GUI Configuration / Transcoding options, encoding presets, etc.
- Added: Ability to choose the default transcoding engine (mencoder only, avisynth+mencoder, avisynth+ffmpeg, tsmuxer, or none)
- Added: tsMuxer as a real time muxer (experimental)
- Added: A good audio tag reader library (http://entagged.sourceforge.net/)
- Fixed: Bugs in UPNP advertising. PS3 should see the server now (if not, please send the debug.log file in the application folder to ps3mediaserver at gmail.com)
- Fixed: Mencoder font cache bug which prevents transcode to start
- Fixed: DLNA errors due to character encoding
- Fixed: New folders were not refreshed automatically
- Fixed: (maybe) Network streaming performance issue (need feedback on this)

I will try to add in the future, the possibility to serve lossless audio for those DTS based movies the ps3 does not support as a streaming client (not as easy as it seems :\). Ultimately, evolve this application in a blu ray movies streamer would be great but maybe I dream too much :p

PS3 Media Server

2008-11-16T09:45:00.000-08:00

Hi there... you will find on this page an experimental upnp media server I've written in Java (so you can also use it on Linux), with precious help from MPlayer/MEncoder, FFMpeg, AVISynth eventually, and currently using with my Playstation3.... I was quite fed up with TVersity and others servers I've tried as none of them easily supports subtitles and 1080p transcode, as well as any kind of files I want to play without worrying about ps3 compatibility.

I'm currently transcoding in real-time and no quality loss, 1080p mkv files. The drawback is the high bitrate your network must support: with the default settings, specific scenes with a lot of details (e.g.: zoom on a newspaper article) can have bitrates near 100mb/s, so gigabit is maybe useful.
The fact is, in order to see HD videos it's better to have an ethernet wired PS3 !

Download

PMS 0.96 for Windows
PMS 0.96 for Linux

Current features

Ready to launch and play. No codec packs to install. No folder configuration and pre-parsing or this kind of annoying thing. All your folders are directly browsed by the PS3. There's an automatic refresh also.

Real-time video transcoding via MEncoder or Avisynth.

OGG/FLAC/MPC Audio transcoding

Thumbnail generation for Videos

You can choose your audio/subtitle language on the PS3!

All formats PS3 natively supports: MP3/WMA, JPG/PNG/GIF/TIFF, and all kind of videos (AVI, MP4, TS, M2TS, MPEG) the ps3 is willing to play

ZIP/RAR files as browsable folders

Preliminary support for pictures based feeds, such as Flickr and Picasaweb

Preliminary Internet TV / Web Radio support with VLC or MPlayer

Requirements

A fairly recent cpu (mine is a C2D E6750, 2.66GHz) for smooth 1080p transcoding, but 720p seems to be easily transcodable with a simple P4 :p

750Mb of RAM (for transcoding)

Installation

Get a Java Runtime Environment (Java6 minimum)

Launch PMS.exe (PMS.sh on Linux)

If the server is not detected by the PS3 (this can happens if you have several network interfaces), try setting yourself the correct IP address in the network configuration tab

Transcoding on Windows
2 possible methods:

A) Using the server "as is": No codecs pack to install, it will use Mencoder for the transcoding part.

B) Using Avisynth/FFDshow. Paired with CoreAVC, it's quite efficient with multi cores.

1- If not already done, get and install a codec pack with ffdshow. My favorite is CCCP Codec Pack

2- Get and install AVISynth 2.5.7 (I've met some framerate problems with 2.5.8 betas)

3- Set up the FFDShow Audio Mixer to 5.1 (3/0/2 LFE)

4- Set "Autoload VS Filter" to true

5- Configure Haali Splitter for audio/subtitles language priorities

Optional Codecs: CoreAVC is quite cheap and a good choice for H264 decoding (as FFDshow's libavcodec isn't yet fully optimized with multicores), Quicktime Alternative and Real Alternative are also useful (Apple 1080p trailers for example).

Transcoding on Linux
You just need to have mplayer, mencoder and ffmpeg binaries on your path (the more recent, the better).

Usage
By default, wmv, avi, mpeg files are streamable, except in case of srt/sub file present with the same file name. All videos can be transcoded, as each streamable video appears once into its folder, and once into a special folder "#Transcoded#" present in each sub folder, with different options (audio/subtitles/other transcoding tools maybe) so you can choose what's working best on ps3. However, only ogg, flac, and mpc audio files can be transcoded (I assume all mp3, wma and wav files can be played 'as is' by the ps3)

History:

v0.96:
- Interactive way of choosing your audio language, subtitles and transcoder mode (see #Transcoded# Folder)
- Interactive settings (see #Settings# Folder)
- Better subtitles looking
- Folders browsing optimization
- Several network errors fixes with 2.52 firmware
- A lot of small things

v0.95: MEncoder now included as it's used for the transcoding part (Avisynth or not), Fixes with the 2.50 firmware, Better transcoding performance (but greater bitrates !), Lighter configuration file

v0.94: Fixes: 2.50 Firmware problem, better pipes and sub processes management

v0.93: Fixed bug in the server IP adress binding

v0.92: Linux compatible version / Bugs fixes / No more A/V temp files created (full use of pipes)

v0.91: Better memory handling / automatic detection of VLC and AviSynth

v0.90: First release, some bugs, experimental stuff done for myself (at first!)

Known issues:

Seek to specific time is OK, but fast forward/fast rewind can be difficult to use, especially with Avisynth transcoding (depends of the machine)

Ass subtitles are not yet fully implemented in MEncoder (embedded fonts not working). Try Avisynth/Vobsub if the font design does matters :)

XML character encoding issues (asian characters, etc.)

Planned features ?

Several encoding profiles: wired, low network bandwidth, etc.

Linear PCM output: Not possible for now as I have yet to found a good lpcm muxer, compatible with the ps3 (or make mine)

GUI configuration

Better audio files tags handling