PS3 streaming playback control.

[ninzel]

I decided to try some video streaming last night from my Ps3. I was using TVersity and streaming an avi. It played fine but I had no other playback control like pause,FF or RW..just stop worked.
Is this an avi issue,a TVersity issue or PS3 issue if you know?

 

[Asher]

This is just how it is with the PS3 right now.

 

[ninzel]

This is just how it is with the PS3 right now.

meh ..ok :|

 

[patsu]

To my knowledge, DLNA should support media control (play, stop, rewind, and forward). However the media server software (e.g., TVersity) may not support it completely.

For example, in this GAF post: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=6560501&postcount=424

Another thing is, it looks like you can't rewind video until it's once been played completely (and converted into a complete file sitting in TVersity cache), and you can only fastforward it at 1.5x speed before it's been played once completely. Does anyone have this problem or knows the solution?

For media that is transcoded on the fly, I think rewind and fast forward are disabled.

In another more successful instance: http://tversity.com/support/quickstart/

Use your remote to navigate to Audio and then to TVersity Audio Guide and you should see a list of Internet radio stations that are included in your media library for demonstration purposes. Click on any of them and after a few seconds (the time it takes to buffer some data off the Net for playback) you should be able to listen to the radio station on your Stereo/TV. At this point you can pause the station, rewind and then fast forward it, despite the fact that it is streaming live, because the TVersity server comes with built in support for time shifting.

ACCESS is also developing a more complete PS3 DLNA solution, but it seem to run in Linux only:
http://www.access-company.com/products/livingconnect/index.html

 

[Asher]

Pause/Rewind/Ffd/Play/Stop all work when using TVersity and MediaHome on Xbox 360, but not PS3.

 

[patsu]

Pause/Rewind/Ffd/Play/Stop all work when using TVersity and MediaHome on Xbox 360, but not PS3.

I think it depends on the media. Windows specific content (e.g., WMV stuff) does not require transcoding when playback'ed on 360.

On PS3, transcoding will be required for Windows media. I think the codecs may be too stringent too (e.g., Some MP4 videos may not play). I remember rewinding and forwarding some compatible videos over DLNA. So it should be supported in 1 form or another.

My memory is vague now because my Windows laptop is a little screwed up (after the last codec overhaul to get DiVX to transcode properly). I have switched to a Macbook Pro 2 weeks ago, and the setup isn't completed yet.

 

[ninzel]

To my knowledge, DLNA should support media control (play, stop, rewind, and forward). However the media server software (e.g., TVersity) may not support it completely.

For example, in this GAF post: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=6560501&postcount=424



For media that is transcoded on the fly, I think rewind and fast forward are disabled.

In another more successful instance: http://tversity.com/support/quickstart/



ACCESS is also developing a more complete PS3 DLNA solution, but it seem to run in Linux only:
http://www.access-company.com/products/livingconnect/index.html

Thanks I just got 1.5x FF and pause working.
Edit: The qaulity comng through is pretty crappy.
And no matter what I do with WMP11 I keep getting a connection error message trying to play videos. Pictures and Music is fine.

 

[patsu]

Thanks I just got 1.5x FF and pause working.
Edit: The qaulity comng through is pretty crappy.
And no matter what I do with WMP11 I keep getting a connection error message trying to play videos. Pictures and Music is fine.

That's correct. You're at the same stage as me now. I couldn't get WMV to playback on my PS3. Some people could (by using ffmpeg). I was going to use "Parallel" on my Macbook Pro and try from scratch. Will post back here when I get there.

I hope Sony or a third party will sell native codec packs for PS3. This should remove the need for transcoding.

 

[Asher]

I think it depends on the media. Windows specific content (e.g., WMV stuff) does not require transcoding when playback'ed on 360.

On PS3, transcoding will be required for Windows media. I think the codecs may be too stringent too (e.g., Some MP4 videos may not play). I remember rewinding and forwarding some compatible videos over DLNA. So it should be supported in 1 form or another.

My memory is vague now because my Windows laptop is a little screwed up (after the last codec overhaul to get DiVX to transcode properly). I have switched to a Macbook Pro 2 weeks ago, and the setup isn't completed yet.

All of my videos were transcoded -- they were DivX natively, transcoded into MPEG2 for Xbox 360 and PS3.

 

[patsu]

All of my videos were transcoded -- they were DivX natively, transcoded into MPEG2 for Xbox 360 and PS3.

Asher, I can only guess here since I'm stucked in WMV playback myself.

So you can play the videos but can't fast forward/rewind on a PS3 ? It sounds like a DLNA server issue or perhaps PS3's quick time-out issue (which I have heard complains about). By right it should have forward and rewind support as indicated above.

On 360, I think it is also possible to served out the videos on a mounted SMB drive (but don't quote me on that).

 

[ninzel]

So what exactly do you do to ensure the best image quality from the streaming video?

 

[patsu]

Ninzel, I am not there yet. My main interests in DLNA and RemotePlay is so that I can view my family media when I'm travelling. So quality is not a big issue for me because of PSP screen size and the Internet speed.

For best quality, I think the best way is to avoid transcoding. We will have to wait for Sony or third party to enhance their codecs.

 

[manux]

I tried out of curiosity remuxing an .mkv to .mp4 with ps3 video9. Then I streamed the resulting .mp4 to ps3 with tversity. Worked just fine with no seeable degradation in quality. Also pause and fast forward worked. Didn't try rewinding. Server has windows xp and ps3 has 1.82 firmware.

Actually my experience was so positive that I started to upgrade yesterday my athlon xp 1800 to new faster and more silent machine. I'm just building the new computer. Should be up and running as soon as I get new power supply and then to sw installations and more thorough testing with streaming.

I hope to get on the fly transcoding/remuxing to work. If not I still can transcode offline needed content to more ps3 friendly format. Luckily hard drive space is cheap nowdays.

 

[patsu]

Thanks for the info manux. I have not played with PS3Video9 yet. I will give it a test drive after exhausting my options in WMV (Just to be thorough).

 

[manux]

The qaulity comng through is pretty crappy.

By default tversity encodes to mpeg1 which is pretty poor. If you have enough cpu power and network bandwidth you could configure tversity to encode to mpeg2 easily. Instructions how to configure tversity here

 

[ninzel]

Thanks I'm going to try both methods and see what comes out best.

 

[manux]

Boy, was that a journey to get the streaming to work in the new server. First I ventured to install win2k, thought that maybe it's better and lighter than windows xp. The end result was that I could not get any transcoding to work during one evening while drinking some necessary bottles of installation refreshments. Streaming .mp4 files and so on still worked.

Well, after well slept night I installed windows xp this morning, exact same codecs from same files in same order and presto. ALL tested files worked out of the box either streamed as is or transcoded. Damn, I'm one happy camper now.

So what I have now is winxp+tversity. So far all tested divx, xvid, .mkv, .mp4 files work. Content not understood by ps3 is transcoded to 1280*720 resolution in mpeg2. All formats supported by ps3 are streamed as is.

The one problem I have left is that it seems my server isn't fast enough to transcode 720p content to mpeg2 on the fly. The playback stutters every few seconds. It isn't a real problem for me as I can remux those files without loss in quality. Remuxing with ps3 video9 is super fast and conviniently easy. Main thing is that all "lowres" stuff and regular divx/xvid files work with on the fly transcoding.

If needed I can post links to codec packs I installed and create small tutorial in which order to install. The link to tversity forums in earlier post should be enough though, all necessary info and configuration advice is there.

Oh, and about the fast forward/rewind. That I guess format dependant. For natively supported formats both fast forward/rewind works perfectly. For all tested transcoded content 1.5 fast forward worked. For some 10 times fast forward worked too. I guess it's cpu power limitation. Rewind doesn't work so hot, for me it always skips to the beginning of transcoded clip. Oh, and I guess I ran into cpu limitation in the 1.5 fast forward because it introduces some hiccups to playback which are not present in regular speed playback.

 

[ninzel]

I got everything working now.
I made some adjustments to TVersity via the GUI and opened my profile.xml file and changed the mpeg16 values to mpeg2. The quality is much better,but still not great and my PC should be more than enough for on the fly transcoding.
I prefer the converted mpeg4 files in terms of quality.Only problem is, set at the highest quality settings converting is slow I find with ps3 video9. I'm sure I can tweak that to be better.