Does your PS3 run fine with PMS after basic configuration? I hope so. Now let’s have a closer look to this excellent software…
Attentention! To save changes in configuration permanently you have to press the Save/floppy-disk icon. You need to press Quit icon and start PMS once again to activate changes.
Most default values are chosen wisely by Shagrath, some of them can be optimized. In the following text important values are marked green, less important values are marked blue. Values which you can leave untouched in most cases are default black color..
General configuration
- language: choose your native language if available
- start minimized (checkbox): apply if you want PMS start to tray (window minimized)
- install as a windows service: press if you want to run pms as a service, further configuration needed, doesn’t work properly on every system regarding PMS forum
- force network on interface (dropdown): Perhaps PMS sends network broadcasts on the wrong network card. If PMS doesn’t detect your PS3 choose your correct network card.
- force port of server: if TCP/IP port 5001 already is in use set a free alernate port number like 6001
- Use IP-filter: set IP-address of allowed streaming client (PS3), all other will fail to connect
- HTTP Engine v2: brand new feature which is very experimental – a new code to communicate for PMS which should be deactivated when communcation problems appear (new engine should improve network performance and better support for alternate streaming clients)
- prevents OS from sleeping when streaming: you can make sure that your computer won’t go to stndby while streaming
Navigation/Share settings
- thumbnails generation: activate for automatic creation of thumbnail pictures of your media files
- thumbnail seeking position (in seconds): Most video files begin with some seconds of a black background before the movie starts. You can set the time in seconds for the video thumbnail position.
- Use mplayer for video thumbnails: the tool mplayer sometimes gets better results for thumbnail creation then default way, so just try it…
- audio thumbnails display (dropdown): You can chose default behaviour (search for thumbnail pictures in filesystem) for audio thumbnails or let PMS download album art from Amazon or Discogs.
- alterate video cover arts folder: chose your folder in filesystem which contains cover art
- browse .rar/.zip/.cbr archives: If activated PMS is able to show content of archives. If a media file in archive is chosen for playback it will be decompressed before streaming starts
- hide # video settings # folder: There is a virtual folder available called # video settings #. You can navigate to this folder on your PS3 and change some values for PMS online. You can hide this folder if you don’t want to confuse your girlfriend.
- hide file extensions: some people might get confused if they see file extensions like jpg or avi, so you can hide them
- hide transcoding engine names: PMS can stream your media file with different technologies. You can chose the technology (transcoding engine) in virtual folder # transcoded #. The default transcoding engine for playback is displayed after the name of each media file. You can hide that of course.
- enable media library: When you browse folders on your PS3 PMS scans each folder in real time and displays the results on your PS3. Additionaly there is an builtin media database which can be activated. If you scan your hard drive for media files additional infos for each file will be collected, e.g. MP3-tags (title, album name, …) for MP3 audio files. You can browse the media library in a virtual folder on your PS3 after scanning.
- reset media library: If the media database is corrupt you can use this feature to reset the content of the database.
- sort file method (dropdown): chose if you want your file list on PS3 sorted by name or date
- shared folders: All local drives are made available to PS3 by PMS. In a more secure environment you might want to chose the folders which are presented to your PS3. Press green + icon to add folders for access by PMS/PS3. Select folder and press red – icon to remove access to a folder. Press up and down arrows to change order of these folders.
- magnifying glass: Start first scan on your hard drive for media files to collect infos about them in a media library.
Thanks you for the very useful guide. Very useful for PMS newbie’s like me !!
Yeah mate. Pretty sweet and very well written.
I just bought a PS3 Slim for the kids (Ages 20, 17, 10, 5, 3 + one on the way! hehe I gotta laff writting that shit) and PMS is an excellent app for a machine that I am becoming more and more impressed with.
Your documentation helps explain all the complex but beautifully functional parts of an app that just simply …….WORKS.
Cheers and Beers
I’ve selected PMS to start minimised on my Mac, but how can I undo this to change settings?
Sorry Norton, I do not own a Mac. There is a Mac specific area at PMS forum. Maybe someone there can help you.
P.S.
On Windows you get a green triangle symbol for the minimized PMS in the task bar. A double-click on the symbol brings back the PMS window.
Thanks for bringing together the useful info on the forums, was very scared 2 hours ago when i downloaded PMS but cannot believe how easy is work, now to thanks the makers of this great program!
All I can say is… WOW!!
What a great tutorial.
Very well formatted.
But I do have a question on this page on the ” Media Library”
As stated in the bullet item.
Additionaly there is an builtin media database which can be activated
What is that?
@Ruben: You can scan your media files. After that go to virtual folder and browse the media files by tag, e.g. by genre or year.
Hi,
I am thinking of using PMS for streaming to my PS3, but I still have one question left :
Can i also se the filders/files on networkdrives?
I hav both a W7 and a OsX machine at hand, so I can choose on which OS I want to install pMS, but I certainly need it to find my media on my fileserver.
Maybe in W7 by making a fix drivemapping?
If possible, I prefer using it on the Mac, as that machine is only used for musicstreaming to my amp, and has enough resources left to mux/transc
@Luc:
I have never tested PMS with network shares. But I assume it’s not a problem.
Nevertheless I don’t get. Why do you want to do it? Nowadays every cheap NAS device is containing an UPNP/DLNA server which is okay for streaming music. You don’t need a PC/Mac in that case at all… Or do you have really strange audio formats?
I posted this on the forum as well. When I add songs on my laptop, I can’t find them on my PS3. I only find those that were on my laptop at the time I ran the PSM. Is there a way to ensure a refresh / new scan of the content ?
Nevermind that, I had mistakenly added files to the public folder on my laptop and not my personal folder.
Can someone recommend a NAS for use with PMS and PS3 ? Or is PSM not necessary from a NAS (say, Netgeary readyNAS Duo ?)
@Sindre: A NAS is only able to stream audio/video (an UPNP/DLNA server is included in most NAS devices nowadays). PMS is also able to trancode (convert on the fly) if your PS3 is not able to play a stream (e.g. mkv videos).
Your tutorials are very helpful. I have two follow-up questions.
1) I would like PMS to only be shown as an icon in the system tray when minimized. I think I need to enable PMS as a service to get this feature. But you recommend not enabling PMS as a service. Is there an alternative way to get PMS to minimize to the system tray instead of the task bar?
2) If I “Enable Media Library,” how are new files found? Will PMS still scan directories in real time, or at set intervals, or only when I click the magnifying glass? I would be happy to get additional metadata, but want to be sure that any new files I add to my Shared Folders can be viewed instantly on the PS3.
Thank you.
@Kilo256
1) You will need to run it as a service but you won’t see a tray icon. To run it as a service make sure that the service runs with your credentials (user/password). So you won’t have different config files…
To change settings via GUI you have to stop service, start gui, change settings, save and exit gui, start service. Most people don’t get it and therefore I don’t recommend running as a service.
2) You can rescan the media library via integrated web service. The URL for that is shown in debug.log. There is no auto rescan afaik.
@otmanix
1) I had enabled it as a service and did see a tray icon. Based on your feedback, I will disable the service and run it as a standard program until I am sure I do not need to make any configuration changes.
2) From your response, it sounds like if I enable the Media Library, my PS3 won’t see new files unless I manually rescan. So I will just use the real-time scanning without the Media Library.
Thank you for your help.
I set up one shared folder (D:\My Movies) where all my movies reside. When I navigate to the folder on my Sony NSZ-GT1, I only see that folder and not any of the subfolders that contain the movies. How do I get them to appear? Or do I have to do something different on the Navigation tab? When I clicked the magnifying glass, it started searching every folder on my computer. How do I limit the search to just D:\My Movies?
Thanks,
Geoff
The funny thing that my Samsung Can see the server, while PS3 can’t. I have no idea what to do next.
I’m using PS3MS to read cbr files and the problem I’m having is that most files begin at a random page (usually early twenties, but some start at 47,90 etc.), continue for a while, then return to page 1 onward. This makes it difficult/annoying to read most comics. If anyone can point me towards a remedy I would really appreciate it.
PS. PS3MS is set to default sort files method.
Awesome app!! My only issue is this: After I set my folders manually in the shared folders section (2 local files; 3 on external hard drives) & hit save and quit and then restart it, the local files are saved, while the external drives are lost. I haveto remap to them everytime… any thoughts on how to remedy this?
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Is there any way to direct the PMS to an external hard drive as it doesn’t seem to give me that option within the shared folders?
It depends on OS. In Linux e.g. you should be able to mount a NFS or CIFS/SMB filesystem and use the mountpint in PMS. In Windows you should be able to access CIFS/SMB shares via mapped drives (use Windows Explorer or “net use” at shell).
Nevertheless I didn’t try that myself.
I just installed and I have generate thumbnails unchecked but when I goto my movie folder on the PS3 it shows an LMFAO screent shot next to every movie, I dont even have an LMFAO screen shot with my movies or music files… any idea on how to get rid of it? I just want the movie name listed (I uninstalled and reinstalled and still same issue) all my movies are in 1 folder
I have specified the folders to share but the entire computer is still being shared. I saved and reset too. Also, will all computers in the network see these files. If so, I could see no way to block them. I wish only the ps3 to see and only specific folders..
@Alan
I have never used that feature but I know that it didn’t work in certain versions of PMS. Afaik it should work in latest version available. Otherwise you have to open a service request at http://code.google.com/p/ps3mediaserver/issues/list
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When you say “that feature”, what feature are you referring to? Because as it is, it shares the entire computer that is running it to the entire network.
@Alan
So I have tested limiting the shared folders. With PMS 1.50.0 on Win7 it works as expected. One can only see the shared folders which were added before.
pms.conf: folders = C:\\,D:\\
So I assume on Linux it should look like
pms.conf: folders = /home/dummy/music,/home/dummy/video
I also tested the IP-filter. With PMS 1.50.0 on Win7 it also worked as expected. Here’s an example to limit access to PMS for only one IP address:
pms.conf: ip_filter = 192.168.0.2