uPnP Media Servers to stream to xbox and ps3

matt

matt

Local caffeine junky
So I set up a machine at home last night that I want to use as a media server, that I can access from my XBox and PS3 over the local network. Ideally for videos, mp3's, and photo's, but most importantly for video.

I was going to install TVersity, but they're charging for even the basic version these days (I'm sure it was free the last time I used it), so I installed XBMC, which seems to work well, but it doesn't look like I can run it as a service, so there has to be the whole big full screen GUI running, which isn't so lekker since I just want to stream the media, not actually play it on that machine. Now I'm pondering VLC.

Any thoughts or personal preferences?
 
matt said:
So I set up a machine at home last night that I want to use as a media server, that I can access from my XBox and PS3 over the local network. Ideally for videos, mp3's, and photo's, but most importantly for video.

I was going to install TVersity, but they're charging for even the basic version these days (I'm sure it was free the last time I used it), so I installed XBMC, which seems to work well, but it doesn't look like I can run it as a service, so there has to be the whole big full screen GUI running, which isn't so lekker since I just want to stream the media, not actually play it on that machine. Now I'm pondering VLC.

Any thoughts or personal preferences?
Click to expand...

I'm not 100% sure what you want to do - you say you want to access your PS3 or Xbox over the network? Or are you using these devices to play media from a UPNP device?

For the latter, I use PS3 media server along with a plugin for it that uses data created by XBMC. PS3 media server runs as service on your network that you can access through your Playstation.

http://www.ps3mediaserver.org/

I hope this helps...

EDIT: Ja, after reading your post again, it looks like that is what you need - I find the PS3MS works really well, except it doesn't really organise your folders well. So first organise your media folders as you want in XBMC, then get the XBMC plugin for PS3MS and Bob's your uncle, you have a well-organised media server for PS3 (I think it works for Xbox too).
 
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orkoza said:
I just use windows media centre on my XBOX, its all free
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What's nice about PS3 media server is that it will transcode video files locally (on the media server) so that they can easily be streamed across a wireless network - even on 802.11g, lthough this doesn't maintain the fidelity of the video. This might be a bad thing depending on how you use it. Because I stream wirelessly, I wouldn't be able to play HD video really without it. I'm not sure that Windows media server does the same thing?

But in any case PS3MS is also free and I am quite happy with its ability to play any and all codecs I throw at it.
 
StaggerLee said:
I'm not 100% sure what you want to do - you say you want to access your PS3 or Xbox over the network? Or are you using these devices to play media from a UPNP device?

For the latter, I use PS3 media server along with a plugin for it that uses data created by XBMC. PS3 media server runs as service on your network that you can access through your Playstation.

http://www.ps3mediaserver.org/

I hope this helps...

EDIT: Ja, after reading your post again, it looks like that is what you need - I find the PS3MS works really well, except it doesn't really organise your folders well. So first organise your media folders as you want in XBMC, then get the XBMC plugin for PS3MS and Bob's your uncle, you have a well-organised media server for PS3 (I think it works for Xbox too).
Click to expand...

Thanks for that. It's pretty much what I'm after. I want all the media to be on the PC, but watch it on the consoles, which are plugged into the TV's. I probably won't even have a monitor plugged into the PC most of the time.

Do you have to have XBMC running all the time for the plugin to work, or do you just set up the folders initially in XMBC, and then close that down and let PS3MS do all the rest?

EDIT: XBMC by itself does seem to do what I want, but I don't want to have the GUI running, I just want a service that runs in the background. I used to do that with Tversity, but you have to pay for that now.

PS: It'll be streaming over the wifi to the PS3, and good old Cat 5e to the XBox
 
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matt said:
Thanks for that. It's pretty much what I'm after. I want all the media to be on the PC, but watch it on the consoles, which are plugged into the TV's. I probably won't even have a monitor plugged into the PC most of the time.

Do you have to have XBMC running all the time for the plugin to work, or do you just set up the folders initially in XMBC, and then close that down and let PS3MS do all the rest?

EDIT: XBMC by itself does seem to do what I want, but I don't want to have the GUI running, I just want a service that runs in the background. I used to do that with Tversity, but you have to pay for that now.

PS: It'll be streaming over the wifi to the PS3, and good old Cat 5e to the XBox
Click to expand...

You just need to set up the XBMC database once - the PS3 media server plugin translates the XBMC database to a format readable by PS3MS (note that you'll have to update your xbmc database in xbmc to add new files). You can find the plugin on the PS3MS site:
http://www.ps3mediaserver.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=9078

If you are streaming wirelessly to you PS3, then you really should use PS3MS. Make sure that all the options to transcode locally are set to "on", otherwise you are going to have trouble streaming raw HD data. I don't have problems streaming .mkv files as long as they are transcoded locally (i.e. on the media server machine).

Good luck.

EDIT: and you don't need to run a GUI like with XBMC
 
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StaggerLee said:
You just need to set up the XBMC database once - the PS3 media server plugin translates the XBMC database to a format readable by PS3MS (note that you'll have to update your xbmc database in xbmc to add new files). You can find the plugin on the PS3MS site:
http://www.ps3mediaserver.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=9078

If you are streaming wirelessly to you PS3, then you really should use PS3MS. Make sure that all the options to transcode locally are set to "on", otherwise you are going to have trouble streaming raw HD data. I don't have problems streaming .mkv files as long as they are transcoded locally (i.e. on the media server machine).

Good luck.

EDIT: and you don't need to run a GUI like with XBMC
Click to expand...

That does sound cool. Do you need to update the XBMC database for every new file though, or just for new folders?
Eg, if I drop a new video file into a folder that I've already set up in XBMC, will I have to then open XBMC and update the database every time? That could be a bit of a pain.
 
matt said:
That does sound cool. Do you need to update the XBMC database for every new file though, or just for new folders?
Eg, if I drop a new video file into a folder that I've already set up in XBMC, will I have to then open XBMC and update the database every time? That could be a bit of a pain.
Click to expand...

I'm not 100% sure to be honest. I'll test it out at home and let you know, but I don't think that it'd be necessary...

I've also probably overblown the use of XBMC, you don't absolutely NEED it with PS3MS, it just makes the organisation of large folders (like music) a bit nicer. PS3MS does organise the folders automatically, just not as well as xbmc.
 
I discovered Serviio when looking for a server to stream to my Sony TV. Works on most uPnP capable devices. It works really well.
It is also free.
 
StaggerLee said:
I'm not 100% sure to be honest. I'll test it out at home and let you know, but I don't think that it'd be necessary...

I've also probably overblown the use of XBMC, you don't absolutely NEED it with PS3MS, it just makes the organisation of large folders (like music) a bit nicer. PS3MS does organise the folders automatically, just not as well as xbmc.
Click to expand...

Thanks. I don't know if I'll be making particularly complicated folder structures anyway, so I'll check it out either way round.

Smornorgin said:
I discovered Serviio when looking for a server to stream to my Sony TV. Works on most uPnP capable devices. It works really well.
It is also free.
Click to expand...

Thanks, I'll check that as well
 
I just quickly scanned through this thread, but i am using PLEX , which not only have the standard DLNA/Upnp streaming (so your console can connect to it) , but the iOS and Android apps are of the better apps i've seen.

If you do end up viewing your content on your phone/tablet (or plugging your device into your tv) , then the PLEX app is pretty cool and does what XBMC does, without the interface thing (i.e. it will look up details about the shows/movies like reviews, art etc). It's always nice how it will play the series theme song when you browse into a series' folder on Plex etc.

I used to use TVersity, but they have fallen behind, PLEX is similar to TVersity, just better support and great apps on mobile devices (and the desktop app is free). They also got their app for the ROKU media player (kinda like Apple TV). Also the bit that costs money in Tversity, is free in Plex (i.e ability to stream content from Youtube/Vimeo/online sites).


Anyway, plex : http://www.plexapp.com/


I use my Plex server to stream to my Xbox, iPad and Nexus (Android) and my Raspberry Pi . The amusing thing is, my Raspberry Pi runs XBMC (so it's actually it's own media server too) , but i find it easier to work on my Phone/Tablet and tell the app to connect to my Plex server (which is a PC) and play the content on my Raspberry Pi or Xbox (which is connected to the TV). Basically it becomes a wifi remote. So if everything is on the same WIFI network, you can do quite a few interesting things.

EDIT: And i've also tried XBMC, didn't want the full screen interface. My PC is a "silent server", so it's screen is never on or connected to a TV, hence the XBMC interface is a hindrance. Now on my Raspberry PI it makes sense, because then XBMC interface is actually displayed on my TV.

So for XBox unfortunately, you need to work with whatever Microsoft gives you. So you miss out on features that a dedicated Plex/Xbmc app can give you. The important part is that your DLNA/Upnp server has "sensible" indexes. The indexes basically is the "folders" which you browse on the Xbox. PLEX gives me "recently added" and "recently aired" to name 2 examples i use all the time , so it's easy to get to the new stuff etc. In contrast, TVersity only gave me the raw folder structure of my series as it was located my PC, without all the indexes Plex gave me.
 
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matt said:
I actually tried Plex, but I got all sorts of errors trying to install it (On Windows 7 64 bit). Maybe I should try downloading it again and check it out
Click to expand...

Well dunno, i ran it on windows 7 64bit, no issues, now upgraded to win 8 64bit, still no issues.
 
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