Hi folks! I have written a howto for PMS (Java PS3 Media Server) in German language some weeks ago. Obviously there has nobody written an English Howto yet because I got a lot of traffic from translate.google.com since doing this forum entry. Well, I tried to read the google online translation German to English and almost had to throw up. It seems that there’s a lot of interest for this topic, so I try to translate my German PMS Howto as a real life babelfish by myself.
O.k. so let’s start the ultimate complete idiots guide to PMS 
First of all you have to know that there are a lot of streaming servers available which can be used to communicate with a Playstation 3. Here is a small selection: Windows Media Player, Twonky Media, TVersity and MediaTomb.Windows Media Player works well out of the box but isn’t able to transcode or remux and has poor performance at a huge media database. Twonky media is not for free, so it was no choice for me. Twonky media has its advantage in supporting a lot of different streaming clients, even NAS systems. TVersity is an average media server and has some advantages in streaming internet content. But this advanced feature isn’t included in the free version. Mediatomb is often used on open source operating and embedded systems. You can customize it extremely if you’re a experienced shellscript guru. So it’s not a good choice for beginners.
Java PS3 Media Server, often called PS3 Media server or PMS, is available for Windows, Linux and MacOsX. A prerequisite is the installation of Java Runtime Environment (JRE) because PMS is programmed in Java. Some features require installation of additional software.
PMS is extremely optimized for use with Playstation 3. But you can also use XBOX360 or Popcorn Hour as streaming clients. PMS most stunning feature is transcoding and muxing.
transcoding, muxing?!?
PS3 supports different audio and video codecs and container formats, depending on installed firmware version. Doing an upgrade to the latest version of system software is an advantage for playing multimedia files.
PS3 supported formats: audio, video, photos (links to Sony)
When you try to play a multimedia file on your PS3 and the format is not supported you get a “data corrupted” message. PMS is able to help in this case. PMS is able to change the container format online if it’s not supported (e.g. mkv). PMS extracts the audio and video stream and puts it into a supported m2ts-container. This is called muxing. If the video codec isn’t supported PMS can convert the video stream to PS3 compatible mpg2. This procedure costs a lot of CPU power and is called transcoding. These technologies make it possible that PMS can stream almost every multimedia file to PS3.
Some guys use mkv2vob and connect usb hard drives with converted files to PS3. This is the stone age way of playing multimedia files on PS3. With PMS there is no need for converting files anymore. If it’s necessary PMS does this for you – online…
There’s also a possibility to stream web content like Youtube and Picasa. That’s experimental and not the main focus of the developers at the moment.
Links to official PMS sites:
P.S.
chapter 2 coming soon…
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Thx ! I will follow your translation.. I read your german version translated with google online but it’s not perfect..
Do I access PMS through my PS3 or through my laptop PC? I just don’t know where to begin.
First of all you have to download and install PMS on your PC / Laptop / Mac. Then you have to start it (and maybe do some configuration). After that go to your PS3, turn it on and access PMS as Media Server entry in the XMB (menu video/audio/photo on your PS3). Browse folders and choose your media file or playlist and enjoy playback
Thanks for putting this online, Otmanix! Great addition for a great program!
What does it mean to have an asterisk after every song name on the media server?
@Martin
http://ps3mediaserver.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=2856
Does it play media center recorded files with the dvr-ms extension?
(I’ll know the answer tomorrow when I set everything up and try it…)
@muck
read this: http://code.google.com/p/ps3mediaserver/wiki/HowToWatchDVRMS
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Otmanix, I’m having issues when I’m streaming video thru my ps3. It pauses every few seconds where it is un-watchable. I have a quad qore processor which I don’t think would be the problem. Any advice would be great. Thanks
Probably you either have too less network bandwith or you didn’t enable Mencoder multicore support. Read the next chapters of this howto where both topics are mentioned. If you still have questions post it to PMS forum.
Hi, I appreciate your efforts on translating. Good work!
Hi Nat, I hope my written English isn’t too horrible for native speakers. I will visit an English conversation class starting from next Monday with a Scotch teacher. I’m curious wether I need some drinks before class in order to understand him well
Hello. Great job so far on the writing. Your English is really good. In fact it is a lot better than a lot of the German’s I work with. I am an American living in Germany for the US Military, so I hear people butcher it a lot, although I can’t do any better in German.
I am very impressed with this software, and I am hoping the subsequent posts will provide me with more info on getting it working properly on my box. (Which I am getting ready to read right now)
Tschüß
I’m glad you like this software. I was also stunned when I found it in January.
I hope you enjoy your stay here in Germany. In former English conversation courses I had two teachers which were working as American civilian employees in CMTC Hohenfels. It’s really interesting and funny for a German to hear the different flavors of spoken English language.
“Some guys use mkv2vob and connect usb hard drives with converted files to PS3. This is the stone age way of playing multimedia files on PS3.”
You described exactly how this caveman has been doing it until today. Thank you so much for such an exhaustive tutorial. I’m so happy not to be limited by the fat32 4GB limit anymore! Hello full HD! Now I just have to figure out how I can categorize and rename my files while still being able to upload. Another project for another day… Thanks again!
I’m glad you like it
wow!! Thanks so much for that. I have it set up over wireless and going to set up with wire tonight. If it works from my quad core pc I will be getting a new dual core server from which to serve out my media library.
The tutorial above explained some concepts which I did not know – namely muxing!
My next challenge is to figure out how to get iTunes to recognise the PMS. Not sure if it can. My wife likes iTunes now but all it wants to do is to make a local copy of all our media – which I find infuriating. Why can’t it read from the server???? There seems to be a connect to network in iTunes, so I’ll guess the next thing is to learn what the IP address for PMS etc.
thanks again for the tutorial and you’re english is fantastic., can’t wait for ch.2
cheers
shaun l
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What are the minimum requirements? With and without transcoding that obviously takes the most CPU. I have an old (2004) 800Mhz fan-less (no noise) A3 CPU in a small form factor. I also have several old PC lying around all single CPU. If I go for a Virtual Machine, what would be the recommended memory requirements? Hard disk (without the media)? etc…
Thanks.
The minimum requirements depend on usage of PMS. If you you use PMS only for streaming MP3s you can use a quite old Pentium IV or equivalent CPU, you probably have to change PMS startup settings to reduce RAM being used. For transcoding you will need a 2,8GHz DualCore CPU or better (depends on content). Have a look in PMS.bat and you will see that PMS usually allocates 768MB RAM: … start javaw -Xmx768M … So if you’re running for example a VM with WindowsXP 1GB would be a good choice.
Hey otmanix,
Great write-up. There really isn’t a ton of information out there on PS media server and i believe its one of the better options out there. I just finished setting up a mini itx Ubuntu linux box mostly to create a low power PMS server. I have 250GB of music and this has proved to be a great way to access it.
As far as hardware, i’m running the Intel Atom 330 (1.6 dual core) with 2gb ram and a 1TB raid1. As i said my main purpose is music, but this setup seems to stream video just fine. I have some 1gb divix moves (not hd) that seem to transcode and play fine. i just set this up, so i haven’t watched anything through to see if audio and video end up off or anything like that. but there’s no video stuttering.
btw, i am a linux newbie. if anyone else is trying to do this on linux I found the site below key to getting PMS installed:
http://server-servers.com/playstation-media-server-setup-on-ubuntu/
@Shlou:
Thanks for the link. I think one thing mentioned in the article linked is not true. PMS does support other media renderers than PS3, but you have to use Beta Version 1.20.xxx.
I think installing PMS isn’t very difficult on Linux. But you have to solve software dependencies by yourself. You need at least mencoder, ffmpeg, mplayer and java runtime available via $PATH. These binaries are already included in Windows version of PMS (because it’s too hard to find for Windows for most people). The linux version of these binaries are usually available via linux install repositories.
P.S.
O.k., it’s not that easy to install on Linux compared to “ubuntu desktop linux experience”. But some years ago you weren’t even able to install linux without base knowledge in using command line.
Hey otmanix,
Great job with the English translation
A friend of mine’s been using PMS for a while now, without any problems except 1, but I’ll get into that in a moment.
I’m a PC gamer (CORE i7 920, 6GB, GTX295 1792MB+ 8800GT 1024MB for physics) so I have no interest in owning a PS3 other than as a “reciever” for PMS streams LOL.
I’ve been considering buying a MEDE8ER media player for my home theater as my SONY BDP-S360 only has BD-Live, no vid file playback. MEDE8ER’s a good choice being a South African developed product, and me living in South Africa
If I wasn’t booked off sick with bronchitus I’d likely have bought a MEDE8ER already, lucky for me that I discovered Ray In Blue’s RENDR while surfing… How long did it take for your disk to arrive by the way? Ordered & paid for mine yesterday – Friday 14 May 2010.
Anyway, that problem I mentioned with my friends PMS PS3 setup, do you know of anyone who’s successfully managed to stream video files created by CANON EOS DSLR cameras? In other words by adding a codec, without having to remux the whole file? I usually shoot with my EOS 7D on 1920x1080x24 PAL, and since the camera doesn’t compress at all, it just wraps the files in a .MOV, they’re pretty huge & I don’t want to duplicate. I mean I must have close to 60GB of footage from a morning walk around Neuschwanstein for example (being from Bavaria I’m sure you’re familiar with the place), that I’d like to watch on the Bravia.
Hey speaking of Neuschwanstein, Isn’t there a heat of the World Hang Gliding Championship starting there like today or tomorrow??? That’s going to be totally off the hook man, you should try go . . .
@Jason:
The MEDE8ER streaming client will probably work because of UPNP support and a Realtek media chipset which is used by other clients too.
The RENDR Bluray-disc used in a BD-live Bluray-player combined with a modified version of PMS is no good solution. The Java app seems to be very CPU intensive and thereful browsing files, etc. is really slow. Using PMS with a PS3 or other DLNA/UPNP streaming clients is a totally different experience (I tested RENDR beta version on PS3). So I hope you will make a different experience. I waited about 6 weeks for shipment…
Regarding your Canon mov-file problems: Please post a new thread in PMS forum. Add debug.log (after trying mov-file playback) and add also output of mediainfo tool.
Hang gliding is a rare sports event here so I didn’t even heared about the championship yet. Everyone here is in soccer fever because of bavarian team Bayern München’s chance for a treble: http://www.independent.ie/sport/soccer/bayern-stay-right-on-track-for-treble-2182025.html Yesterday they won the second cup.
You will see lots of Bayern München players in Germanys soccer team in few month in South africa. And this time we will win
Thanx otmanix, 6 weeks *SIGH* Lets hope you had to wait for production or something as well, that’s a lot longer than the 30 day money back guarentee
Yeah the BDP-S360 seems fairly slow, I always hoped it wasn’t CPU related, but more player OS… I mean it loads slowly, maybe 35 – 40 seconds to load the Avatar BD menu, but once the BD main menu is up it’s faster than any DVD player I own running DVD menus, and the S360 runs DVD menus faster than my other DVD players too.
Oh well wait 6 weeks & see I guess
When I swing by 1 of my friends houses I’ll get his log file after PMS / PS3 gives its error message about being unable to run the MOV file. Incidentally VLC says the codec is AVC1 @23.976 (i.e. 24fps PAL), stereo audio codec SOWT (never heard of it) 48KHz 16 bit. But I’ll start a new thread on the CANON weirdness when I have the info.
Cheers
Thanks so much for the intro!! I am a developer and just getting into the digital media server world.
Great tutorial! I’m having problems with a couple of 720P .mkv files that I think I demuxed properly in TS Muxer (I really don’t know what I’m doing) and when I try to play them through PS3 Media Server I only get audio and no video. Have any idea what I’ve done wrong?
@datamstr: You’re welcome
@Christian: ?!? PMS contains tsmuxer engine. You only have to setup PMS correctly to use it automatically or select it manually via #transcoded# folder. There is no need to prepare videos, it doesn’t make sense all. Try to understand what is muxing and transcoding and why/when it is being used by PMS. You can find the answers here in tutorial.