So, I finally picked up a PlayStation 3. It supports photos, music and video via UPnP. I have all of my media on a Windows Server 2008 box.

Are there any good, free (preferably) UPnP media servers that run on Windows Server 2008? It would have to run as a service, because I'm never logged into that box.

In fact, does W2K8 have anything built in?

I'd be surprised if it didn't, at least as an installable option of some sort. In 2000 and Vista, you get Windows Media Connect (though IIRC in recent Windows versions it's lost its independent brand and is presented as part of Media Player), which is actually a jolly good UPnP/DLNA MediaServer service.

I can't really recommend mine just yet for your use case, as it doesn't do video or photos, just audio.

Peter

I did a google search for: playstation 3 media server software

The first page of hits has everything you need. This and/or this should be enough to get you going.

I did similar, and wasn't convinced. I don't want to install Nero on my server, because it's bloated crap. I could try installing WMP 11, but I can't find anything definitive that says it'll work unattended.

There's also the problem that the PS3 originally had a limited set of supported formats. This has probably improved with later firmware updates, but who knows?

Anything MPEG (1,2,4) including H.264/AVC for audio and video should work out of the box with any firmware version. Full Divx support was also added in recent updates, including the early Divx 3 support. Also, WMV should play, but I'm not sure exactly what versions as I tend to avoid keeping anything in a proprietary MS video or audio format.

I use TVersity which is free and runs as a service (at least in XP).

One thing you should be aware of is that you should set it to not transcode photos. The PS3 can handle large pics with no problem.

Well-timed thread. I've just set up a server in the basement that I intend to turn into a media server, and TVersity looks like it might do the trick nicely.

It says it works with the PS3 natch, but it also says it'll work with the DirecTV HR20 (I've got a '21 but whatever). Does that mean that it'll serve up programs stored on the DirecTV box, or does it mean that it'll serve up media *to* the DirecTV box? It was hard to tell from the web site.

I'd also like to figure out how to integrate my Rio Central into that equation. I'm seriously considering writing some kind of app that will translate media-center type stuff into Rio Central requests. I'm pretty clear on the URL query format for the Rio Central (thanks to Roger IIRC), I just need to figure out a way to integrate a back end into something like TVersity. Then my PS3 and my DirecTV box could browse and play music directly from the central, rather than needing to keep yet another copy of my MP3s on the media server.

Anyone have any ideas of really *easy* ways to go about something like that?

The next release of Chorale should be able to serve Central/Empeg content to UPnP clients, at least when running on Linux, maybe Windows too. What OS were you intending for the media server?

It won't ever be 100% seamless, as UPnP can express queries which the more restricted Central/Receiver protocol can't. But the basic stuff should work.

Peter

It's Windows Server 2003. I'll look up Chorale and find out more about it. (It's Linux-only, I'll bet, knowing my luck.)

Looks like it *is* available as an installable Windows service. But I don't see anything on the Chorale page about the functionality I'm curious about. I only see it talking about how it can serve Rio Receivers.

I was looking for something that's the opposite of a Receiver-server emulator. I'm looking for a middleman program that will sit on the network and process UPNP media requests, forward them on to the Central, and deliver the resulting content back to the requestor.

Your post seemed to indicate that you understood that's what I was looking for, so clearly you've got inside knowledge about development of Chorale. Chorale's sourceforge page isn't very helpful to me though: it keeps saying "no matches found" when I try to browse for feature additions in its tracker. Are you involved with the Chorale development, and can you give me more information about how this is configured and how it works?

The operative word was "next": it doesn't do the forwarding thing yet.

Peter

Is that the sound of a beta-tester volunteering that I hear?

Peter

Ahh, who am I kidding? Is that the sound of my entire user-base for that feature that I hear?

Peter

Absolutely!

It appears as though TVersity is an utter failure in this department. Everything I try to stream to the PS3, it says "The Data Is Corrupted".

Any other media servers for Server 2003?

I'd spend less time in trying to make a device like a PS3 with Sony software streaming media and more time finding a good client to run a supported device. Such as Boxee (XBMC) which runs on a number of platforms.

That said ORB works with anything with a web browser. User experience is gong to suck though.

I'd rather spend a bit and have a usable end result than trying to cope with a really kludgy solution. I'm still really liking my SageTV and Media Extender, especially with the latest software updates.

TVersity seems to be working OK for me on Windows 2008, but I've only tried photos and MP3 audio so far. What formats are you attempting to use?

Yeah, but then I'd need an HTPC, and I've had no end of problems with those, so I've given up.

Tversity works fine if we're talking about playing movies off of a hard disk. For instance, I've got some Doctor Who episodes on a hard disk that TVersity streams perfectly to my Playstation 3.

It's only when I try to use TVersity's features for streaming internet video to the PS3 that is messes up. For example, when you install TVersity, it comes built-in with episodes of Jericho, MacGyver, and Star Trek. You can also point it at a given Youtube account (for instance, I pointed it at youtube user sweetafton23). The PS3 lists the episodes and/or youtube videos, and even pulls down thumbnail pictures of each one. It's only after I select one of them to play that it says "The Data is Corrupted".

The status screen of the TVersity server appears to be trying to transcode them (as it should... FLV to MPG), and the transcoding seems to be progressing, but then it stalls out when the PS3 errors out.

I'm trying to get help from their forum, but so far nothing useful.

Na, you just need an AppleTV or an XBox to install Boxee or XBMC.

Or for a little more power, but still easy to deal with under a TV, a HTMAC, err, Mac Mini.

The AppleTV is decent, but I'm wanting my Mini back under the TV now. Mostly due to the sluggishness of the device when running Boxee or other 3rd party software.

Sorry if this is a stupid question, I haven't really played with TVersity outside of streaming a couple HDD based videos or with the PS3 for browsing. Any reason you don't just browse to the internet video stream on the PS3 natively?

I didn't suggest a Mac mini because that's sort of the HTPC I thought Roger wouldn't want. Having to get another machine instead of using a piece of software intended for a machine you already have. Though I suppose one with a PS3 doesn't necessarily have an Xbox...

Orb is another app that does streaming to most devices.

If I was going to go the mini route I'd probably use the mini as the server/media machine and something else for the playback. WD has a streamer for under $150. At under $300 I'd still suggest the Sage Theatre with their HTPC/server software running on the mini to serve everything up.

I think it's going to be longer than the end of the year before we see those low-priced NVIDIA Ion systems able to compete. They all seem to go for a lot more money right now.

Yes, a few reasons:

1. The web browser on the PS3 is awful. Joystick control for a mouse pointer is terrible. Entering URLs with a joystick is even worse.

2. No full screen for videos when using PS3 web browser. At least they don't work when I try them.

3. I like the idea of organizing all video content into one nice menu structure browsable easily by joystick or remote, regardless of source location.

4. I like the idea of being able to set up RSS feeds of my favorite regularly-updated videos (like Zero Punctuation) and select them without having to navigate to the web page.

5. Once I get the PS3's streaming issues solved, I want to get the same thing working for my DirecTV HR21 (which also has similar problems to the PS3 when attempting to stream video, so I'm guessing if I solve the PS3's problems I'll also solve the HR21's problems). Then I would be able to go from Tivo'd programs, to live TV, to internet video, all from one interface with my remote control.

6. I like the idea of doing all of the above from the PS3 and/or the HR21 more than using my Mac Mini for the same purpose. I can browse all this stuff from the Mac Mini right now. It's all just so much easier from the game console or DVR. The technology for the convergence is here, the software just needs to start working right.

7. It's supposed to work the way I'm expecting it to work.

I'll see if I can make it run on Server 2003.

Aha. Okay, I tried out Orb. It had the same problem as TVersity.

Looking at the way Orb works, I decided I don't want to use it, I like the way TVersity works better. So I want to get TVersity working.

But here's the awesome part: I solved the problem in TVersity, thanks to Orb. Orb had this entry in their knowledge base. This solved the problem in TVersity. I was Remote Desktop'd into the media server, and that screwed up the streaming because it hijacked the audio driver on the server. Fix that problem and boom, all the streaming works all of a sudden.

Nice Tony. I only briefly tried Orb last week when searching for a way for a friend to stream music from his PC to his iPod Touch. I set him up with Simplify Media instead, but thought it might be useful to you because it also does video which was what you were after.

I remember it getting a lot of media attention a while back as one of the first solutions to stream to devices like the Wii and PS3.

How is the TVersity setup if you only intend to use it for music? I may have my friend look at that one too because I've also just found a more generic UPnP app for the iPhone/iPod. I think Simplify Media is proprietary - though it does offer the advantage of allowing a remote user to use iTunes (or WinAmp, etc..)

I haven't yet used TVersity for music, so I don't know how it is. It's my goal to use Peter's Chorale server for the music, instead. (Hope I can get them running side by side.)

Interesting. My server doesn't have an audio driver (because it's a Hyper-V guest). I wonder if that'll cause problems later...

Dunno! I made sure mine had an audio driver.