Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Magic_Randy]

I'm using a Vista PC with MC13 and want to set up a Media Receiver. I'm considering a PS3 as an option.

From what I can see doing searches, it should work by setting up MC as a UPnP Server. Feedback on your experiences would be appreciated, either good or bad.

If you are using a similar setup, any feedback on settings/options would be appreciated.

[jmone]

Hi M_R,

From my experimentation the whole UPnP/DLNA area is still half baked in many areas (and not just in MC13), but industry wide with no clear market leader from what I can see though development is going well.  For a sucessful UPnP/DLNA system I've found you need two things:
1) Meta Data Presentation Layer:  How is the Media Receiver going to browse the servers Library.  While many just use a file structure, MC13 would have a clear advantage here
2) Streaming:  Most will do this fine, pick a item and it (if it is compatible with the receiver) it will play
3) Transcoding:  The holy grail is for the Server and Receiver to negotiate what formats should be used to stream the media (Audio/Video/Pics) and then have the server perform on the fly transcoding to suite.  Eg - I have my music all in WMA Lossless which the PS/3 can not play, so the Server needs to transcode this on this fly --> MC13 will use MP3 and www.tversity.com will let you choose many formats including PCM!  , and This gets the most interesting as this is where I think MC13 could shine given it's flexibility to build custom filter graphs etc.  The same concept needs to apply for Video formats as well.

I've had a play using the PS3 but as my interest was more in streaming/tanscoding Video than Audio/Pics, MC13 is a poor candidate at present.  You should be able to get MC --> PS/3 going for Audio (if your happy with transcoding to MP3) / Pics just fine, but you may have to play around with some of the settings in MC13.  If your after something that will stream/transcode Video / Audio (incl PCM) / Pics using UPnP/DLNA then the best results I've got so far (and there are still issues) is to use www.tversity.com for UPnP/DLNA streamng/transcoding but of course you don't get any of the MC data presentation, just a file structure.

Good Luck and I'm intereted to hear how you go....
Nathan

[Magic_Randy]

Thanks Nathan...

I think a HTPC will actually work out the best for me, but I would prefer a simpler and less expensive solution. My guess is I would end up paying about $1000 for a good HTPC, and still have all of the hassles that go with a PC (Vista, updates, drivers, ...).

The reason I'm considering a PS3 is you get a lot of device for the money. Blu-Ray, HDMI, good video, good audio, etc.

I'm going to experiment with my son's PS3. I'll report back what I find.

[Magic_Randy]

I can get music working, but have not had any luck with additional views. Standard ones like Album/Artist, Artist/Artist/Album/Album, etc. work. If I add anything like Panes, 3D, etc it does not show up. Is there something that controls exposing the views? I saw a reference in the Wiki to check Show in Theater View, but I cannot find this option.

Also, I have had no luck with pictures showing up, or videos showing up. Do I need to do something? They are in a different directory than the music.

[Magic_Randy]

Can I use UPnP to show pictures on the PS3?

Audio works but I can not see any pictures. When I try to navigate to pictures, it shows the audio view, but there are no images.

Any ideas?

[jmone]

From what I remember you need to be in the "Picture" "Video" or "Music" section on the PS3 X Bar AND THEN you will ONLY see only the "Picture" "Video" or "Music" content respectivly when you browse into the UPnP directory structure.  Eg you will not see any Video or Music in you are in the PS3 X Bar's Picture Menu and vice versa even though you see the whole UPnP directory structure in all of the PS3 Z Bar Menus...

[Magic_Randy]

From what I remember you need to be in the "Picture" "Video" or "Music" section on the PS3 X Bar AND THEN you will ONLY see only the "Picture" "Video" or "Music" content respectivly when you browse into the UPnP directory structure.  Eg you will not see any Video or Music in you are in the PS3 X Bar's Picture Menu and vice versa even though you see the whole UPnP directory structure in all of the PS3 Z Bar Menus...

I tried that, but all I see is the music views and directories. No picture views or directories. If I go into a music view or directory, it says there are no images. So this is consistent with what you are saying, you see the whole UPnP directory structure, but only music. Nothing else (Pictures/Video) is there.

[John Gateley]

Make sure "Allow Visual Content" is checked in the UPnP server options.

j

[Magic_Randy]

Make sure "Allow Visual Content" is checked in the UPnP server options.

j

John,

Thanks, that did the trick. I'll play around with it more after work.

Is there a way to get any visual interface with UPnP instead of just navigating through text based tree structures? Example: cover art, theater view, ...