Playstation 3 Media Server Setup
By Mike Kobrin and Nick Mokey
July 29th, 2009
My digital media was scattered among various drives, computers, and discs. I wanted seamless central control over all of it, so I decided to use my Sony PlayStation 3 as a media hub, with my 40-inch Samsung HDTV as a monitor. Now I can view or listen to all my photos, videos, and music via my TV screen, no matter where they are. Here’s a guide to building a digital media command center in your living room.
LEVEL 1: Connect to your home network
In the PS3's main menu, navigate to Settings - Network Settings - Internet Connection, press X on your SixAxis controller and select Enabled. Then go to Internet Connection Settings (also under Network Settings), and select your network name (SSID). Enter the network password if you have one.
Internet Connection Settings Screenshot
If you have the original WiFi-less PS3 20GB, you can still connect it to your network by plugging the console into your router or extender (like an Apple Airport Express) via Ethernet cable.
Bonus Points: A Logitech diNovo mini Bluetooth keyboard comes in very handy for entering network passwords and any other text. There's a complete guide to pairing and using it with a PS3 here.The pairing process is very similar to setting up a Bluetooth headset on a cell phone. You can check out our full Logitech diNovo mini review.
Logitech DiNovo mini
Extra Life: If your network consists exclusively of 802.11n-compatible hardware, bypass the PS3's slower (802.11b/g) wireless connection by plugging it directly into your router or an extender (we used an Airport Express) via Ethernet cable. Adjust your router's wireless settings to operate in 802.11n mode only. And if all your hardware supports it, switch to the 5GHz frequency band for a 60-100 percent speed bump and less interference. This can be a lifesaver when you're copying lots of files to your PS3 over a network.
LEVEL TWO: Connect to your computers
Go into the PS3's Settings menu and navigate to Network Settings - Media Server Connection, and select Enabled. This allows the PS3 to detect networked computers running Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) server software.
Playstation Media Server Connection
WINDOWS XP/Vista: Windows users have a number of useful options when it comes to serving media files from their PCs. Windows Media Player 11 still stands as the go-to option since it comes preinstalled with Windows, but a number of third-party applications also exist that offer better file compatibility and more advanced features. TVersity and PS3 Media Server are two extremely popular packages that both transcode file formats the PS3 doesn’t natively support. For instance, the PlayStation 3 doesn’t natively support playback of lossless FLAC files, but PS3 Media Server will transcode them into other compatible formats on the fly.
We used Windows Media Player 11 for our guide due to the simplified setup and broad install base – you probably have it on your PC already.
Open WMP, right-click on Library, and select Media Sharing. Check the box next to "Share my media to:" and select either PlayStation 3 or Unknown Device (if the former doesn't appear).
WMP 11 Library Menu
Media Sharing in WMP 11
MAC OS X: UPnP software is available for Mac OS X, too. We used Nullriver’s MediaLink ($20, www.nullriver.com) because it's quick and painless. The freeware we looked at generally required familiarity with Unix commands.
After downloading and installing the software, you access the interface in System Preferences.
Mac MediaLink System Preferences
Click on Start to begin UPnP sharing; you can also use this screen to configure the software to limit access to specific items like iTunes playlists or iPhoto albums.
Mac Media Sharing
Once sharing is enabled, go to the Devices tab and verify that either "PlayStation 3" or "Unsupported device" is listed in the pane.You should also see a MediaLink icon in your Mac's menu bar; you can start and stop sharing or open the preferences pane from there.
Mac Media Sharing Devices
LEVEL 3: Connect to extra storage
This part is simple -- just plug in your thumb drive or USB hard drive to any of the PS3's USB ports. My 300GB Maxtor USB hard drive showed up as “USB Disk (One Touch II)” in the PS3’s video, photo, and music menus. When navigating a USB drive’s folders, use the PS3 menu corresponding to the type of media you’re looking for on the drive, or the files won’t show up.
USB Device Connected
External drives must be formatted with the FAT32 file system for the PS3 to read files on it. Formatting a drive erases all the data on it, so if your PS3 won’t read your drive, make sure to back up all data before you format.
Memory cards (Memory Stick, SD and its variants, or CompactFlash) go in the labeled slots under the door on the PS3's front, and they don't require specific formatting. '
Secret weapon: If you have a network-attached storage device (like an Apple Time Capsule with a 500GB hard drive in it), you can access it by mounting the drive on a networked computer. Then select your media server in the main PS3 window, and navigate to Folders - Volumes, and select the networked drive you want. Note that this doesn't work with Windows Media Player's UPnP server, but it works fine with TVersity (Windows) and MediaLink (Mac).
PS3 Accessing the Network Drive
LEVEL 4: Start watching and listening
Access your content by navigating to Photo, Video, or Music on the PS3's home screen, and scroll until you see your computer or external drive. If you don't see your computer's media server listed, try selecting "Search for Media Servers" from any of the multimedia menus.
PS3 Codec Support
Video: MPG, MP4, AVI, DivX (except v3.11), AVCHD, WMV
Audio: WAV, MP3, AAC, ATRAC, WMA
Photo: JPEG, BMP, GIF, TIFF, PNG
Not supported: Protected content, lossless audio formats (Apple Lossless, FLAC, etc.), RAW image files, or VOB movie files.
BONUS ROUND: Copy frequently used files to PS3
Even a super-fast 5GHz 802.11n network can't match the speed of files that live on the PS3 itself. I put my favorite albums, photos, and movies on the PS3's internal drive via ripping, network copying, and copying from memory cards and USB drives.
To copy files from an external drive, computer, or card to the PS3: Select the folder you want to copy, press Fn+OK on the diNovo or triangle on a SixAxis controller, and choose Copy. Unfortunately you can't listen to music -- or do anything else -- during copying.
PS3 Copy Screenshot
The PS3's 80GB internal hard drive gives you about 65GB for your own media -- roomy enough for over 500 albums in 320Kbps MP3 format, or nearly 100 full-length movies in AVI format. If you need more room, the PS3's hard drive is easily upgradable with any 2.5-inch SATA notebook drive and a screwdriver.
Ripping CDs is painless, though you can't rip DVDs directly on a PS3. Insert the disc, navigate to it in the PS3 menu, and hit Fn+OK on the diNovo or the triangle button on a SixAxis controller. Select Options - Import. To change the default encoding format and bit rate, go to Settings - Music Settings - Audio CD Import and choose AAC, MP3, or ATRAC, up to 320Kbps. It takes 3-4 minutes to rip a CD to 320Kbps MP3.
PS3 Import Screenshot
The PS3 automatically grabs the artist/song info for CDs from the Internet, and it picks up ID3 tags from music files. When you copy items to the PS3's internal hard drive, they show up in the PS3 menus as folders arranged alphabetically.
Extra Points: Organize your content on the PS3 by navigating to any folder and hitting Fn+OK (diNovo) or the triangle button (SixAxis controller) to access the Options menu. Scroll up, select Group Content, and choose an ID3 tag to group folders by. This helped me out because the music I copied to my PS3 was in a mishmash of Artist and Album folders; grouping them by Artist made it much easier to find items in a long list. You can also sort folders from the Options menu.
PS3 Group Screenshot
Cheat Codes for Common Problems
If your Windows computer still can't see your PS3, go to Control Panel - Administrative Tools - Services. Scroll down to Windows Media Player Network Sharing Service and double-click on it. If the service isn't already started, click on the Start button. Then go to Control Panel - Windows Firewall, and click on Change Settings (Vista only), and click on the Exceptions tab (Vista/XP). Make sure the boxes next to "UPnP Framework" and "Windows Media Player Network Sharing Service" is checked.
On your PS3, you may see some DLNA protocol error notifications (we did). Sometimes this was because one of our computers had gone to sleep, and sometimes it remained a mystery. And operation can be quirky: For example, suddenly the PS3 might temporarily become unable to copy multiple items, or it won't find all the subfolders in a folder. Odd problems like these usually disappear quickly. If they don't, try restarting your media server software and PS3.
If you've run into any other problems using this guide, please let us know in the Comments section!
Play Online
Setting up your PlayStation 3 as a media server works great if you already own an entirely library of media on your Mac or PC, but with a wealth of streaming content from providers like CNN, Hulu and Comedy Central now hitting the Web, you don’t even have to rip or download shows to watch them online anymore.
But what about on the PS3?
While the built-in browser that shipped on the system wouldn’t quite cut it for the Flash-based video players that sites like Hulu use, the 2.50 firmware, released in October of 2008, made it possible for PlayStation 3 owners to access many of the same streaming video sites they do on their PCs. Just visit the site as you normally would, then use the R1 and R2 buttons to blow the windowed video up into a full-screen view.
Though Hulu initially allowed PlayStation owners to watch shows from their consoles, the site threw a switch to turn off PS3 access in June 2009. Hulu has yet to really explain the rationale for cutting off PS3 owners, especially when the ads came through the same way they would on any other system, but some users suspect the owners could be lining up for an exclusivity agreement with Microsoft for the Xbox 360. In either case, you can still get around it using one of two workarounds:
1. Use TVersity Pro. This media uPNP software replaces Windows Media Player 11 on your PC, then basically opens Hulu in an invisible browser window, transcodes the video into a different format, and feeds it your PS3 as a streaming media file. It sounds complex, but setup is relatively easy.
2. Use a proxy. This is basically software running on a PC that will trick Hulu into thinking the request for data is coming from a PC, then hand the data off to your PS3. It’s more complex than the first option, but because it doesn’t actually transcode anything (layering more compression on top of existing compression), picture quality will remain superior. YPass.net offers a quick and dirty guide to getting it done using the proxy Squid. Keep in mind that you’ll need to keep the computer running the proxy turned on all the time in order to access Hulu from your PS3 in the future.