• Welcome to The Audio Annex! If you have any trouble logging in or signing up, please contact 'admin - at - theaudioannex.com'. Enjoy!
  • HTTPS (secure web browser connection) has been enabled - just add "https://" to the start of the URL in your address bar, e.g. "https://theaudioannex.com/forum/"
  • Congratulations! If you're seeing this notice, it means you're connected to the new server. Go ahead and post as usual, enjoy!
  • I've just upgraded the forum software to Xenforo 2.0. Please let me know if you have any problems with it. I'm still working on installing styles... coming soon.

Playstation 3 Q&A

Cool. Glad it's working for you! Don't forget that you can use it to stream photos, too.

As far as the audio dropouts go on my system, I'm not too worried about it. I normally stream music to an Airport Express via iTunes without any problems, so even if this turns out to be a recurring issue it's not a big deal. Though, I'm hoping this was temporary just in case I ever do move the PS3 to a separate room where I don't have the AE. Anyway, I think (hope?) maybe my computer was running something in the background like antivirus scans or defragment scans and maybe that was slowing it down enough to cause an occasional hiccup.

Edit: On the other hand... I do have an Apple router and maybe Steve Jobs is sabotaging things because he doesn't want me streaming via DLNA! No reason the Extreme should cause that issue, so I say it half-jokingly since lots of folks claim that sometimes their Apple products just don't play nice with others.
 
Yesfan, I think you might be right about it being a wireless/router type of thing. I'm still getting the audio dropouts when playing WMA/MP3 files. A lot of them. Thankfully, I never intended to use the PS3 to stream music, but it still kind of sucks. Wonder if it did this before and I just didn't realize it? On the bright side of things, the photos are streaming way better than they did when I first tried the whole PS3 media server thing a while back. Still not quite as fast as working from an external HD with the picture files on it, but all the pictures eventually show up and it's definitely workable.

So.... Are things still working all right with streaming to your PS3?
 
^^^ So far so good. Wife was a bit irritated because I was wanting to listen to a little bit of music instead of watching TV.
 
I think I've found a fix for the audio dropouts.

What I did was to set the Playstation's music output setting to "48 kHz"; previously, I was having it upconvert music to 176.4 kHz. Can't really say why this makes a difference, as the PS3 has no problems playing at 176.4 kHz for CDs and MP3 music files that I'm storing internally on the PS3's hard drive. But for whatever reason it does make a difference when streaming, at least with my setup. I've done a test switching back and forth between the two settings and this is definitely the culprit. So for anyone else who might encounter audio dropouts when streaming music to their PS3, they might want to give changing that setting a try.

Still, I think the basic DLNA streaming works kind of half-assed, at least on my setup. Even if it's still kind of cool at the same time.

It takes a long time for all the songs to show up under the "All Music" option; in fact, I don't think I've yet reached the point where all 13,000 songs show up (but maybe they will if I leave it on for a few hours?). Photos lack thumbnail pictures, and flipping through pictures doesn't go quite as fast as it does when working from an external USB hard drive or thumb stick. Videos sometimes play fine and sometimes they stutter. And, finally, I sometimes get an "error" of some sort that flashes on the screen of the PS3---DLNA Error #2104, I think it was??? Things seem to still work fine after that pops up, but I'm sure it means something went wrong, even if hopefully just something minor. I'll have to research on the 'net and see what I find.
 
I meant to say in my earlier post that I'm using an Ethernet connection with my PS3. Sorry for not mentioning that sooner.
 
A couple of things.

How do you guys get your album artwork to show? Some of my albums have the artwork embedded in the metadata (tags). I know with the Squeezebox, you can also do it this way or you can save the artwork as "folder.jpg" in the album's folder. Is the PS3 like this too or do you have to do something different in order for the artwork to show? Do different file formats make a difference (wma vs mp3)? Some of my albums are in wma and others are mp3.


Can someone tell me more about Tversity? I'm assuming I'll have to use the PS3's browser to find it on the web and download as opposed to doing that on my PC.
 
^^^
Good question. I don't see the artwork when streaming, either. And I've got artwork embedded into lots of the MP3 files. As for WMA, I don't think that'll make a difference, as I don't see artwork for the few WMA files that I have either.
 
Thats one good thing about using the Xbox and WMC. I have yet find any missing art regardless of the format I dump into My Music folder. And it always shows up when streaming.

I know thats not helpful. Just bragging.
 
Yesfan70 said:
...Can someone tell me more about Tversity? I'm assuming I'll have to use the PS3's browser to find it on the web and download as opposed to doing that on my PC.
Click to expand...

I'll let Haywood fill in the details, but from what I know, TVersity is a DLNA server. That means it will run on the PC and the PS3 can then access the files through TVersity. It is not a client app, though.

John
 
Well on some of my folders, the tracks have the album artwork embedded and on those folders I went ahead and downloaded the album covers as jpg images hoping the PS3 would see it and display it. No luck.


I guess I'll just look around on some PS3 forums and see what I can find.



John (or anyone), can TVersity let me stream my Flac files through the PS3? This is what I ultimately want to do.
 
Yesfan70 said:
Well on some of my folders, the tracks have the album artwork embedded and on those folders I went ahead and downloaded the album covers as jpg images hoping the PS3 would see it and display it. No luck.


I guess I'll just look around on some PS3 forums and see what I can find.



John (or anyone), can TVersity let me stream my Flac files through the PS3? This is what I ultimately want to do.
Click to expand...

I know this works with WMAL and I think it works with FLAC. TVersity uses the ffdShow codec pack to transcode lossless audio to uncompressed PCM or whatever other format you want. Just keep in mind that you might have to open ffdShow and tweak some settings, so it will convert to the format YOU want and not some lossy default.
 
Yesfan70 said:
A couple of things.

How do you guys get your album artwork to show? Some of my albums have the artwork embedded in the metadata (tags). I know with the Squeezebox, you can also do it this way or you can save the artwork as "folder.jpg" in the album's folder. Is the PS3 like this too or do you have to do something different in order for the artwork to show? Do different file formats make a difference (wma vs mp3)? Some of my albums are in wma and others are mp3.


Can someone tell me more about Tversity? I'm assuming I'll have to use the PS3's browser to find it on the web and download as opposed to doing that on my PC.
Click to expand...

TVersity does not run on the PS3. It runs on your PC and streams content across your network. Any DLNA-compliant device can access the content "published" through your DLNA server. The server will simply show up on the PS3 as an icon under music, movies and photos. For music, just go to the music menu and select the server. You can then navigate files and folders to find the music you want. It is not super-slick, but it is serviceable.
 
I realize this stuff may sound easy for some but to me it's complicated. I look forward to the day when you can plug a device into the network and just play everything without extra codec packs, server software, or registry edits.
 
I agree T7. I don't see why WMAL is so difficult to support. I might be able to understand some client devices, such as TVs or BD players, having a hard time w/ it due to processor power; but, a PS3? To me that's just a case of Sony dropping the ball.

...It only does everything*

*Except WMA Lossless

John
 
It's not just WMAL on the PS3. I had to jump through hoops to get my Xbox to handle FLAC (audio) and .mkv (video) files. I need third party software to transcode lossless music from a format one player can use to another format for another player. I'm sure I'm looking at this too simplistically, but if some nerds in a basement can write media managers with transcoding(like media monkey), free codec packs(like shark007), free registry edits, and free versions of DLNA server software than why cant Microsoft, Apple, and Sony get it done?

More to the point... Why does it take all of that to make it work?

Why cant we just dump a media file into the PC?
All the PCs should be able to handle any codec out there. If an attached device cant support a particular file type than there should be software built into the PC's OS that recognizes that and transcodes the file to something that the STB can handle. I should get a pop-up on my computer screen that says "You have an Xbox, PS3, whatever configured as a media extender but the file you just imported is not supported on that device. Click here to convert your media to a playable format."
 
I don't think you're looking at it too simplisticly at all. You're asking the same question I find myself asking all the time.

John
 
yromj said:
I don't think you're looking at it too simplisticly at all. You're asking the same question I find myself asking all the time.

John
Click to expand...


Because everyone wants to win, these companies do not have our interests in mind. I think it's why so many people praise the Apple way. It's simplistic, everything works together as easily as I've seen. But for people like us that want more from our systems and do more with them we require extra flexibility that most users don't encounter. Some don't care, some are intimidated by it and some gave up.

My PS3 is handling my WMA lossless files. I did download the PS3 media server haywood pointed out a few years ago but i never did anything other than download it so I'm not sure if it just runs in the background doing what I need or the newest PS3 has the capability.

Are you familiar with this haywood? Do you know if the software is running background on my pc or is the latest firmware for PS3 allowing WMA lossless?
 
yromj said:
FWIW, Snowman_ isn't able to get his new PS3 to play WMAL.

John
Click to expand...

The PS3 does not play WMAL. You have to use a DLNA server on your PC that can transcode WMAL into something else. I use TVersity to transcode WMAL into uncompressed PCM and it works fine.
 
Towen7 said:
It's not just WMAL on the PS3. I had to jump through hoops to get my Xbox to handle FLAC (audio) and .mkv (video) files. I need third party software to transcode lossless music from a format one player can use to another format for another player. I'm sure I'm looking at this too simplistically, but if some nerds in a basement can write media managers with transcoding(like media monkey), free codec packs(like shark007), free registry edits, and free versions of DLNA server software than why cant Microsoft, Apple, and Sony get it done?

More to the point... Why does it take all of that to make it work?

Why cant we just dump a media file into the PC?
All the PCs should be able to handle any codec out there. If an attached device cant support a particular file type than there should be software built into the PC's OS that recognizes that and transcodes the file to something that the STB can handle. I should get a pop-up on my computer screen that says "You have an Xbox, PS3, whatever configured as a media extender but the file you just imported is not supported on that device. Click here to convert your media to a playable format."
Click to expand...

The newer versions of the better DLNA servers make it almost that easy. They come with extensive codec packs that can transcode just about anything on the fly, assuming you have enough processor power to accommodate it. Unfortunately, this technology is still not fully mature, so there can be quirks from time to time.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top