It's holiday time

Hi,

A quick update to inform you there's no new official version this sunday (Merry christmas, btw :p). The version 1.00 have been downloaded more than 14000 times as of today (I didn't expect that :p), so I'm waiting for more feedbacks (and mostly time to solve important bugs). Besides, there's not much fixes/new features added now to make a release: You can check the actual Changelog here (there's some other little things, listed in the trunk revision log). If something in there interests you and are not afraid of beta testing , I've uploaded an 1.01 update package here. This is a beta package, remember, so things could be broken. You just have to extract contents into the application folder (and replace the pms.jar file). An official 1.02 version will follow next.

v1.00 / project status

Hi!

first of all, I would like to thank all those who have donated, as it's kinda motivating to work like this :) Also, thanks for encouraging emails...

Project current status needs also some clarity: As I'm redistributing GPL components inside the PMS package (Mplayer, Mencoder, etc.), my project has by definition GPL license too. So I've uploaded the sources on this newly created code.google.com project (OSX version, anyone ? :p), along with a google group dedicated to PMS. So if you have any questions, requests, issues, you can try there.

Now, about 1.00 version. It's a good step as I think the product somewhat stable (I'm using it since 2 months now). Small update anyway, and there's still some issues though, mostly about network, synched A/V, and video compatibility. I hope these will be solved with time. Also, the auto update feature will come one day, but meantime, from now on, I'll try to support existing PMS.conf files to make you avoid reconfigure settings for each new version. Some other features are on their way (parsing cache, start as a windows service), but not stable enough to include them in this release.

Download PMS v1.00 for Windows/Linux

Here's the changelog:

- New Features

GPL licensing :)
IDX/SUB support for AviSynth ONLY
Revamped some UI, especially transcoding settings for better usage (hope this will be not confusing)
First attempt to make a working and generic LPCM or AC3 automatic conversion with tsMuxer (seeking isn't working well and demuxed audio delays are not managed)
AviSynth script is now really fully customizable

- Fixes

Yet another flac parsing bug
Sync issues management for xvid/mp3
Rare and random video glitch due to another seeking bug
.ass subtitles files support
UUID random generation, it's now possible to launch multiple servers on one network.
Added wmv binary codecs in Windows package for smooth WMV-HD transcoding
VIDEO_TS folders are now case insensitive

v0.99

Hi everyone,

Sunday has arrived and the new version as well! I have hopefully fixed many bugs with network / transcoder / video compatibility and added as well the DVD ISO/VIDEO_TS transcoder, thanks to Mencoder. As some of you kindly suggested me, and also as I stopped counting my hours on this project :), I've added a donation link on the right side of this blog.
Also, the next version (1.00) will be most likely focused on bugs fixing / usability (something like auto-update, with saved parameters), so if anything goes wrong with this one, just drop an email to ps3mediaserver at gmail.com with detailed infos on what isn't working, joined with the debug file if possible.

PMS 0.99 for Windows
PMS 0.99 for Windows (8.7 Mb) [mirror]
PMS 0.99 for Linux (3.1 Mb)

Here's the Changelog:

- New features:

DVD ISOs images / VIDEO_TS Folder transcoder
DVR-MS support (need feedback)
Better subtitles configuration
Small things: FAQ, Thumbnail seeking position, UI changes, New Options, etc.

- Fixes:

Network/Transcode buffer fix: Wifi/Homeplug streaming should be Ok now.
A/V out of sync correction
Unsupported data error on almost SD videos when maximum bitrate was fixed
tsMuxer broken on Linux
Videos with FLAC audio tracks are now muxed to LPCM, along with DTS
Video was paused due to seeking bug
Audio files parsing method changes (Hope this will solve issues with some flac files)
Better support for audio low sample rates (<= 22kHz) based files
Subtitle files: .sub support was broken

v0.98

Hi !

As every Sunday, new version is around the corner ! Some features were added, main one being the PCM transcoding for DTS movies. You may have some channels ordering issues, but workarounds are available in the Readme file. Try it !

PMS 0.98 for Windows (8.7 Mb)
PMS 0.98 for Windows [mirror]
PMS 0.98 for Linux (3.0 Mb)

Here's the complete changelog:

- New features:
Lossless 5.1 PCM transcoding with DTS movies
Customizable AviSynth script
Audio podcasts, just tested the one from Engadget
tsMuxer now working on Linux for basic muxing (don't forget to give it execution rights)
Web video streamdump engine (Useful for streams natively supported by ps3, such as mpeg on rtsp)
Maximum bitrate management
Small things: Runnable in console mode under Linux ("PMS.sh console"), Folder prioritization of a specific streaming/transcoding engine, Custom cover art, additional infos on thumbnails

- Fixes:
Potential network problem with Java/Vista + increase of packet ttl
Transcode will not start with potential error 80710091
Flac transcoder
Audio tags for all audio codecs
Faster start of audio transcoded files
Usual small bugs

- Changes:
Revamped inter process communication on Windows between Java/Mencoder/tsMuxer (much more elegant now).

v0.97

Hi!

The new version (0.97) is now ready to be released ! I've added some interesting features, such as a graphical interface to configure the application (no more file to edit!), the ability to remux without transcode in real time for those running on Windows, thanks to tsMuxer, and some little other things. I've hopefully solved this annonying upnp advertising bug, which was preventing some people to make the server work on ps3.


You can download the server here:

PMS 0.97 for Windows (8.4 Mb)
PMS 0.97 for Windows [mirror]
PMS 0.97 for Linux (2.6 Mb)

Here is the complete changelog:

- Added: GUI Configuration / Transcoding options, encoding presets, etc.
- Added: Ability to choose the default transcoding engine (mencoder only, avisynth+mencoder, avisynth+ffmpeg, tsmuxer, or none)
- Added: tsMuxer as a real time muxer (experimental)
- Added: A good audio tag reader library (http://entagged.sourceforge.net/)
- Fixed: Bugs in UPNP advertising. PS3 should see the server now (if not, please send the debug.log file in the application folder to ps3mediaserver at gmail.com)
- Fixed: Mencoder font cache bug which prevents transcode to start
- Fixed: DLNA errors due to character encoding
- Fixed: New folders were not refreshed automatically
- Fixed: (maybe) Network streaming performance issue (need feedback on this)

I will try to add in the future, the possibility to serve lossless audio for those DTS based movies the ps3 does not support as a streaming client (not as easy as it seems :\). Ultimately, evolve this application in a blu ray movies streamer would be great but maybe I dream too much :p

PS3 Media Server

Hi there... you will find on this page an experimental upnp media server I've written in Java (so you can also use it on Linux), with precious help from MPlayer/MEncoder, FFMpeg, AVISynth eventually, and currently using with my Playstation3.... I was quite fed up with TVersity and others servers I've tried as none of them easily supports subtitles and 1080p transcode, as well as any kind of files I want to play without worrying about ps3 compatibility.

I'm currently transcoding in real-time and no quality loss, 1080p mkv files. The drawback is the high bitrate your network must support: with the default settings, specific scenes with a lot of details (e.g.: zoom on a newspaper article) can have bitrates near 100mb/s, so gigabit is maybe useful.
The fact is, in order to see HD videos it's better to have an ethernet wired PS3 !

Download

PMS 0.96 for Windows
PMS 0.96 for Linux

Current features

Ready to launch and play. No codec packs to install. No folder configuration and pre-parsing or this kind of annoying thing. All your folders are directly browsed by the PS3. There's an automatic refresh also.

Real-time video transcoding via MEncoder or Avisynth.

OGG/FLAC/MPC Audio transcoding

Thumbnail generation for Videos

You can choose your audio/subtitle language on the PS3!

All formats PS3 natively supports: MP3/WMA, JPG/PNG/GIF/TIFF, and all kind of videos (AVI, MP4, TS, M2TS, MPEG) the ps3 is willing to play

ZIP/RAR files as browsable folders

Preliminary support for pictures based feeds, such as Flickr and Picasaweb

Preliminary Internet TV / Web Radio support with VLC or MPlayer

Requirements

A fairly recent cpu (mine is a C2D E6750, 2.66GHz) for smooth 1080p transcoding, but 720p seems to be easily transcodable with a simple P4 :p

750Mb of RAM (for transcoding)

Installation

Get a Java Runtime Environment (Java6 minimum)

Launch PMS.exe (PMS.sh on Linux)

If the server is not detected by the PS3 (this can happens if you have several network interfaces), try setting yourself the correct IP address in the network configuration tab

Transcoding on Windows
2 possible methods:

A) Using the server "as is": No codecs pack to install, it will use Mencoder for the transcoding part.

B) Using Avisynth/FFDshow. Paired with CoreAVC, it's quite efficient with multi cores.

1- If not already done, get and install a codec pack with ffdshow. My favorite is CCCP Codec Pack

2- Get and install AVISynth 2.5.7 (I've met some framerate problems with 2.5.8 betas)

3- Set up the FFDShow Audio Mixer to 5.1 (3/0/2 LFE)

4- Set "Autoload VS Filter" to true

5- Configure Haali Splitter for audio/subtitles language priorities

Optional Codecs: CoreAVC is quite cheap and a good choice for H264 decoding (as FFDshow's libavcodec isn't yet fully optimized with multicores), Quicktime Alternative and Real Alternative are also useful (Apple 1080p trailers for example).

Transcoding on Linux
You just need to have mplayer, mencoder and ffmpeg binaries on your path (the more recent, the better).

Usage
By default, wmv, avi, mpeg files are streamable, except in case of srt/sub file present with the same file name. All videos can be transcoded, as each streamable video appears once into its folder, and once into a special folder "#Transcoded#" present in each sub folder, with different options (audio/subtitles/other transcoding tools maybe) so you can choose what's working best on ps3. However, only ogg, flac, and mpc audio files can be transcoded (I assume all mp3, wma and wav files can be played 'as is' by the ps3)

History:

v0.96:
- Interactive way of choosing your audio language, subtitles and transcoder mode (see #Transcoded# Folder)
- Interactive settings (see #Settings# Folder)
- Better subtitles looking
- Folders browsing optimization
- Several network errors fixes with 2.52 firmware
- A lot of small things

v0.95: MEncoder now included as it's used for the transcoding part (Avisynth or not), Fixes with the 2.50 firmware, Better transcoding performance (but greater bitrates !), Lighter configuration file

v0.94: Fixes: 2.50 Firmware problem, better pipes and sub processes management

v0.93: Fixed bug in the server IP adress binding

v0.92: Linux compatible version / Bugs fixes / No more A/V temp files created (full use of pipes)

v0.91: Better memory handling / automatic detection of VLC and AviSynth

v0.90: First release, some bugs, experimental stuff done for myself (at first!)

Known issues:

Seek to specific time is OK, but fast forward/fast rewind can be difficult to use, especially with Avisynth transcoding (depends of the machine)

Ass subtitles are not yet fully implemented in MEncoder (embedded fonts not working). Try Avisynth/Vobsub if the font design does matters :)

XML character encoding issues (asian characters, etc.)

Planned features ?

Several encoding profiles: wired, low network bandwidth, etc.

Linear PCM output: Not possible for now as I have yet to found a good lpcm muxer, compatible with the ps3 (or make mine)

GUI configuration

Better audio files tags handling