Streaming video to PS3

[The Don]

is there any way to make this run smoother?...whenever I play a video over an hour long, it skips like an old CD player in the car.....

is there anything that I can do with my computer to make it run at least more efficiently?...I don't mind if it skips every now and then, but it is annoying....

could I possibly put my computer in sleep mode or something?....or would the nero mediaHome not run while asleep?...

any help would be appreciated...

[Shin-Ra]

Are you running wired or wirelessly at the PS3 / PC end of the network?

[The Don]

Originally Posted by Shin-Ra

Are you running wired or wirelessly at the PS3 / PC end of the network?

wired

edit:...the wire is kinda long....it reaches across the room...I could go a little smaller....but does length kill the quality of what I am watching?

[jermwhl]

the length shouldn't be a factor unless its over 100m or you have it running across something causing severe interference.

[supersix4]

quality of cable get cat 6 cable thats what i used i noticed big improvement over my crappy radioshack cat5

[supersix4]

i have 30mb down/ 5mb down I only use wire for 360 and I noticed much higher quality in downloading and playing ... im sure cat6 would help alot

[ps3andlovinit]

Originally Posted by The Don

is there any way to make this run smoother?...whenever I play a video over an hour long, it skips like an old CD player in the car.....

is there anything that I can do with my computer to make it run at least more efficiently?...I don't mind if it skips every now and then, but it is annoying....

could I possibly put my computer in sleep mode or something?....or would the nero mediaHome not run while asleep?...

any help would be appreciated...

Do you mean ..

1. after an hour you start getting the skipping
2. videos that are over an hour long always skip

Not clear to me which you mean and depending on the answer the causes and therefore solutions may be completely different.

[supersix4]

I think he means that maybe his connection can't keep a steady run of movie into the ps3.

[The Don]

Originally Posted by ps3andlovinit

Do you mean ..

1. after an hour you start getting the skipping
2. videos that are over an hour long always skip

Not clear to me which you mean and depending on the answer the causes and therefore solutions may be completely different.

if the movie is over an hour long it starts skipping immediately...

if it's about a half hour in length, it runs smooth...

but I'm going to look into a CAT6 cable

[ps3andlovinit]

Originally Posted by The Don

if the movie is over an hour long it starts skipping immediately...

if it's about a half hour in length, it runs smooth...

but I'm going to look into a CAT6 cable

I don't think it's your cable.

1. Are they all the same file types being streamed?

If yes, I'd say it's more likely the software has problems sending/receiving content properly when the file is past a certain size. Could be the media server software or the PS3. What are the various file sizes between those that skip and those that don't assuming these are all the same file type?

If no, make sure it's not related to the type of content working differently and that the length of the content isn't a red herring.

[jermwhl]

Originally Posted by supersix14

quality of cable get cat 6 cable thats what i used i noticed big improvement over my crappy radioshack cat5

You will see no difference between cat5E (which is the normal stuff out on the shelves now a days) and cat6, unless you have a gigabit network. Cat5E can transfer up to 1Gbps. Cat6 theoretically can transfer higher than this, possibly up to 10Gbps, however there is no economical switches and/or cards in the 10Gbps range. Most running this type of network use fiber.
Most peoples home networks are running 10/100. With Cat 5E cables you can realize a throughput of up to 300-500Mbps, which would be more than enough to sustain streaming video. I don't think it is a problem with your network cables/hardware if you are only experiencing this with movies over 1 hour. I'm not a software guy, but I would suspect either the PS3's DLNA or windows media player.

For the record, the only difference between cat5E and Cat6 is the pairs have been seperated and individually shielded. I believe they may have increased the twist per foot ratio (not positive) and it is also rated at a higher bandwidth of 200-250mhz vs cat5e's 100mhz.

I don't mean to contradict other members, but I just don't want you to go out and get cat6 thinking it will make a huge difference!!!! You won't notice a difference....UNLESS you have electrical interference. Cat6 is better shielded, but that's the only advantage you will gain.

[The Don]

Originally Posted by jermwhl

You will see no difference between cat5E (which is the normal stuff out on the shelves now a days) and cat6, unless you have a gigabit network. Cat5E can transfer up to 1Gbps. Cat6 theoretically can transfer higher than this, possibly up to 10Gbps, however there is no economical switches and/or cards in the 10Gbps range. Most running this type of network use fiber.
Most peoples home networks are running 10/100. With Cat 5E cables you can realize a throughput of up to 300-500Mbps, which would be more than enough to sustain streaming video. I don't think it is a problem with your network cables/hardware if you are only experiencing this with movies over 1 hour. I'm not a software guy, but I would suspect either the PS3's DLNA or windows media player.

For the record, the only difference between cat5E and Cat6 is the pairs have been seperated and individually shielded. I believe they may have increased the twist per foot ratio (not positive) and it is also rated at a higher bandwidth of 200-250mhz vs cat5e's 100mhz.

I don't mean to contradict other members, but I just don't want you to go out and get cat6 thinking it will make a huge difference!!!! You won't notice a difference....UNLESS you have electrical interference. Cat6 is better shielded, but that's the only advantage you will gain.

preciate the info....I am waiting for my area to get FIOS from verizon to get it...

it should be soon...will this make a difference by any chance?...

also I use Nero MediaHome..

I currently transfer about 1 GB, but it always stays under when I am playing video and it skips while it stays under..

I have to pause it for about 5 minutes or more to get decent playback for about 2 minutes and then it skips constantly

the file that works fine is about 300MB and the files that skip are between 700mn and 16 GB(High-Def file)

also...the file that worked fine was WMA(may have been AVI, but I am not positive)....the ones that skip are either mpeg-4 or mpeg-2..

[jermwhl]

Once you get FIOS, it won't make a difference on your internal network. It will make a tremendous difference on your outbound/inbound traffic to the internet though!
If WMA/AVI files are streaming fine, and your having problems with MPEG's, I believe there in lies your problem!!!!

I would hope sony will release a firmware upgrade that will resolve these streaming issues. I don't know if it's possible or not, but it seems that streaming content on a local network should get no lag, regardless of the file size. But I'm not a software/programmer geek, so I don't know how to answer that one. I'm just a hardware/network geek

[ps3andlovinit]

Originally Posted by The Don

preciate the info....I am waiting for my area to get FIOS from verizon to get it...

it should be soon...will this make a difference by any chance?...

also I use Nero MediaHome..

I currently transfer about 1 GB, but it always stays under when I am playing video and it skips while it stays under..

I have to pause it for about 5 minutes or more to get decent playback for about 2 minutes and then it skips constantly

the file that works fine is about 300MB and the files that skip are between 700mn and 16 GB(High-Def file)

also...the file that worked fine was WMA(may have been AVI, but I am not positive)....the ones that skip are either mpeg-4 or mpeg-2..

So does a 300MB mpeg file skip or do you not have one to test? I'm suspecting yes.

I think your problem may be the communication/timing (ie. handshaking) between the media server and the PS3 with mpeg. Since the PS3 handles mpeg it is probably just a passthru and either the PS3's buffering isn't keeping up or the media server isn't feeding fast enough or too fast. The WMA/AVI would need to be transcoded on the fly to something the PS3 can play (mpeg I assume) which would be slowing the transfer down (I assume). Which would indicate to me the PS3's buffering is having an issue with data coming at it too fast and not the media server - however it's still possible the handshaking isn't quite right and the media server is ignoring the PS3 when it says it's full..

I haven't checked into how that stuff *really* works when streaming so this is just a guess based on more general principles.

Have you checked the nero site for issues? This stuff is new so it wouldn't surprise me if each media server works differently as well .. testing each media server would be a nightmare.

[antler]

How do you guys stream video to the PS3? The only way I know of is to use a software like Orb and view it in the web-browser using Flash. It'd be great if there were better solutions than this :-)

[ps3andlovinit]

Originally Posted by antler

How do you guys stream video to the PS3? The only way I know of is to use a software like Orb and view it in the web-browser using Flash. It'd be great if there were better solutions than this :-)

With the 1.8 update the PS3 added support for Media servers based on DLNA..there are tons of them out there for Windows, Max, Linux and even NAS devices.

[The Don]

Originally Posted by ps3andlovinit

So does a 300MB mpeg file skip or do you not have one to test? I'm suspecting yes.

I think your problem may be the communication/timing (ie. handshaking) between the media server and the PS3 with mpeg. Since the PS3 handles mpeg it is probably just a passthru and either the PS3's buffering isn't keeping up or the media server isn't feeding fast enough or too fast. The WMA/AVI would need to be transcoded on the fly to something the PS3 can play (mpeg I assume) which would be slowing the transfer down (I assume). Which would indicate to me the PS3's buffering is having an issue with data coming at it too fast and not the media server - however it's still possible the handshaking isn't quite right and the media server is ignoring the PS3 when it says it's full..

I haven't checked into how that stuff *really* works when streaming so this is just a guess based on more general principles.

Have you checked the nero site for issues? This stuff is new so it wouldn't surprise me if each media server works differently as well .. testing each media server would be a nightmare.

I don't have a mpeg file that small....of course I could convert one...but I would only dfo that with a file I intend to stream that isn't a compatible format...

also the buffering is exactly what seems to be the problem....I couldn't put my finger on what it was...but the buffering seems unable to keep up with mpeg files...

[The Don]

Originally Posted by antler

How do you guys stream video to the PS3? The only way I know of is to use a software like Orb and view it in the web-browser using Flash. It'd be great if there were better solutions than this :-)

apparently windows media 11 does this...but I downloaded it and have no clue where to even start....

people give instructions on how to do this, but I feel like I must have another version or something...because I don't see these options anywhere...

I use Nero MediaHome...it's perfect for music and anything your ps3 can read (besides a mpeg file)

[ps3andlovinit]

Originally Posted by The Don

I don't have a mpeg file that small....of course I could convert one...but I would only dfo that with a file I intend to stream that isn't a compatible format...

also the buffering is exactly what seems to be the problem....I couldn't put my finger on what it was...but the buffering seems unable to keep up with mpeg files...

the only other thing I can suggest is to download another free media server like TVersity(sp?) and see if it exhibits the same problem or not.

[The Don]

Originally Posted by ps3andlovinit

the only other thing I can suggest is to download another free media server like TVersity(sp?) and see if it exhibits the same problem or not.

are there media servers that are more efficient than others, or is it just what your system is more comfortable with?...