How to get PC to PS3 working with MediaTomb! (debian PC)
For linux users on the PC.
1. Install Mediatomb
This is quite easy on debian/ubuntu, as mediatomb is in the repos. Just type into a terminal:
Code:
sudo apt-get install mediatomb
If that doesn't work, make sure you have all the repos enabled by typing sudo synaptic, then go to Settings>Repositories and then make sure all the availiable repositories are checked.
If the install goes well, you're all set to go.
For non-debian/if it doesn't go well:
First, check if there is a binary availiable for your package via http://mediatomb.cc/pages/download
If there is not, then you have to install from source. This would work by downloading a tar.gz package from www.mediatomb.cc and then using the tar command to extract it, the compile. An example:
Code:
tar xzf mediatomb-0.9.1.tar.gz
cd mediatomb-0.9.1
sudo ./configure
sudo make
sudo make install
You may get some errors when running ./configure, you need to install depenancies. That is beyond the scope of this tutorial.
If you're on debain, instead of sudo make install, do this if you want to have it installed into your add/remove and applications menu.
Code:
sudo checkinstall
2. Configure mediatomb.
This is slightly more confusing. This is how I did it (no means the "right" way)
First, I ran the command mediatomb and it created a directory in my home directory, along with a configuration file. You may need to press ctrl+c to end the task if it doesn't crash (this is good, it is already working!).
After, you should open /home/username/.mediatomb/config.xml and edit it in your favourite text editor:
Code:
cd .mediatomb
gedit config.xml
You should add
Code:
<protocolInfo extend="yes"/>
just below <server> to enable PS3.
It should autodetect, your IP, but you may have to force it. If it doesn't work, look to troubleshooting section (to be added) and if you don't use a router, then it's probably not an IP problem. I had to add ip in by myself.
The file charset and metadata charset are just the format your characters will show up. Some weird album names I have, like Ænima showed up as ?nima without doing this (the default is UTF-8 ).
This is how mine looks (with the stuff I added highlighted):
At this point, save the file, and close it. Then run mediatomb via a terminal, and if it gives you an error message, post it here and I'll see what I can do. Google is your friend (mediatomb is more obscure though, the official website is helpful though).
3. Tweaking
If it runs fine, it should give you an ip that will look similar to this: 192.168.1.102:49152 or this: 127.0.0.1:49152
The second one is me guessing what will happen if you don't have a router. It should guess your IP, but it comes with an error, you may need to enter it manually.
Now, ctrl+click that IP in the terminal, and it should open your browser with a mediatomb page that'll allow you to tweak it. It's pretty weird, so I'll guide you through it.
First, click Filesystem at the top, then navigate to where your media is. Click on the folder that you want, then click this button at the right: [img=http://mediatomb.cc/images/add_as_autoscan.png] It'll come up with a dialog, so enter what you want, and then continue. It should pop up with a message saying that it is scanning. Wait for it to complete, then go click on "Database". Then click on "Audio". If it isn't named Audio, it is the directory that's not called "PC directory".
Now, browse to find your files, make adjustments, and you're set to go.
Finally, go to your PS3, click "scan for media devices" if it isn't there already, and you should be good to go.
Troubleshooting
- If your IP address is not found, or you get an error like that, go to your router's address in your browser (default for linksys WRT54G is http://192.168.1.1
). Default password is admin, with no username. Some other routers it is username admin, password nothing. In the case of my router, it said starts at "Starting IP Address: 192.168.1.100" and I tried 101, didn't work, then I tried 102, and it worked well.
- Otherwise post here. I didn't encouter any other issues.
Annoyances I encoutered, and could not fix --
After every track name there is an asterisk. I have no idea why this is.
No album art shows up. This one is probably because no other Upnp devices support album art, so it may be in the svn builds.
__________________ PSN ID: solinent | I accept all friend requests! |
*insert generic quote about the ps3 taking over including bold for maximum effect (colors and size changes also apply)*
Last edited by solinent; June 1st, 2007 at 01:06 AM.
Great write up im going to give it a try later one question what app do you reccomend to do video conversions??? Oh one for 64 bit cpu's would be great.
Great write up im going to give it a try later one question what app do you reccomend to do video conversions??? Oh one for 64 bit cpu's would be great.
Well I haven't really done any since I started using linux as I'm quite the newbie myself.
I'm pretty sure there's one out there called Mencoder and you can use ffmpeg directly via the commandline.
__________________ PSN ID: solinent | I accept all friend requests! |
*insert generic quote about the ps3 taking over including bold for maximum effect (colors and size changes also apply)*
Thanks im going to look into it also, Hopefully their is x86 support. I mean I have had this amd 64 for like a year and a half and still have yet to see one benefit.
Thanks im going to look into it also, Hopefully their is x86 support. I mean I have had this amd 64 for like a year and a half and still have yet to see one benefit.
x86 means 32 bit archetecture. x64 means 64 bits I believe.
You should install x86 version of linux on your AMD 64 if you aren't an advanced user who can't compile everything for themselves, and even then there's more problems with x64 versions.
x64 is only necessary when you have a large amount of memory and you use it all (server applications).
__________________ PSN ID: solinent | I accept all friend requests! |
*insert generic quote about the ps3 taking over including bold for maximum effect (colors and size changes also apply)*
Great write up! I tried to compile the svn release but ran into snag after snag so I just compiled the latest stable (running on Mandriva 2007.1) works like a charm.
It's painfully evident however that I need to organize my available media content
Now if I could only get some video transcoded properly that would work on the PS3 and not suck. I've tried a ton of different options including using the link you provided to see if it would work for transcoding some existing avi's I have. I can get video _sometimes_ but never any audio (even using liblame).
Anyway ... more digging to be done but thanks for the tutorial on this!! I'll post if I ever find a solid video transcode line for mencoder or ffmpeg.
Great write up! I tried to compile the svn release but ran into snag after snag so I just compiled the latest stable (running on Mandriva 2007.1) works like a charm.
It's painfully evident however that I need to organize my available media content
Now if I could only get some video transcoded properly that would work on the PS3 and not suck. I've tried a ton of different options including using the link you provided to see if it would work for transcoding some existing avi's I have. I can get video _sometimes_ but never any audio (even using liblame).
Anyway ... more digging to be done but thanks for the tutorial on this!! I'll post if I ever find a solid video transcode line for mencoder or ffmpeg.
I got a MPEG4 AVC, but couldn't get MP4Box to work. This the Mencoder command I used:
You may want to change the bitrate, and obviously the INPUT and output name.
MP4box should work, but I have no idea how.
__________________ PSN ID: solinent | I accept all friend requests! |
*insert generic quote about the ps3 taking over including bold for maximum effect (colors and size changes also apply)*
I'll give that a shot. So far everything I've tried has failed I've posted som of my other failures using ffmpeg but I like mencoder more ... I just could not get a handle on the whole x264options string ... I still don't understand it which means I'll have some reading to do
Either way I'll post my results and if this works .... I've got a lot of files I can play around with now. For me this is the better solution to putting a larger HD in the machine itself, much rather use a media server.
I'll give that a shot. So far everything I've tried has failed I've posted som of my other failures using ffmpeg but I like mencoder more ... I just could not get a handle on the whole x264options string ... I still don't understand it which means I'll have some reading to do
Either way I'll post my results and if this works .... I've got a lot of files I can play around with now. For me this is the better solution to putting a larger HD in the machine itself, much rather use a media server.
Thanks solinent!!
I couldn't get ffmpeg to install. I only tried for like a minute, so when I get back to my other computer I'll see if I can use ffmpeg.
That Mencoder command will give you a AVC avi, you need to use a program like MP4Box to make it a mp4 (no conversion, shouldn't take very long)
__________________ PSN ID: solinent | I accept all friend requests! |
*insert generic quote about the ps3 taking over including bold for maximum effect (colors and size changes also apply)*
After using your command(same file):
RIFF (little-endian) data, AVI, 400 x 300, ~30 fps, video: X.264, audio: (stereo, 22050 Hz)
I still get the "unsupported" but need to find something similar to MP4Box to convert to mp4 under Linux
MP4Box IS a linux app, go do a "apt-get install gpac" and you should have it. GPAC is the program surrounding MP4Box and a bunch of other utilities.
I'm on a linux comp, not my comp, but I'll see if I can get a ffmpeg command to work, or MP4Box.
__________________ PSN ID: solinent | I accept all friend requests! |
*insert generic quote about the ps3 taking over including bold for maximum effect (colors and size changes also apply)*
I'm running this all on Mandriva .. I do however have MP4Box installed but can't seem to get it working on any avi file, although I'm sure it's the way I'm trying to use it:
I'm running this all on Mandriva .. I do however have MP4Box installed but can't seem to get it working on any avi file, although I'm sure it's the way I'm trying to use it:
I think you have to export the audio and video seperately, and then put them in the same file. I read a post about it being a feature that's up and coming for you to do what you're trying.
I've installed MPlayer and MEncoder and MP4box on this comp now (compiled, took awhile), and converting a test video. Almost done, will show you my results. If it turns out good, maybe I'll make a GUI app for gnome? I have no experience programming linux stuff though, but it'd be fun. Maybe just a bash script to start up right?
Something that deletes the temp files and encodes all files straight, without you seeing what happens. Simply something like this I would make:
__________________ PSN ID: solinent | I accept all friend requests! |
*insert generic quote about the ps3 taking over including bold for maximum effect (colors and size changes also apply)*
Last edited by solinent; June 7th, 2007 at 04:20 AM.
SWEET!! ... ok I'm going to borrow that and do some testing. Let me know if you want to put something together or if you just want to do a shell script idea. I've done a few small apps but mostly perl based CLI stuff. It's one of those things that could easily be over dome ... but like you said it could be fun
SWEET!! ... ok I'm going to borrow that and do some testing. Let me know if you want to put something together or if you just want to do a shell script idea. I've done a few small apps but mostly perl based CLI stuff. It's one of those things that could easily be over dome ... but like you said it could be fun
ttys sol'
Your welcome. I don't have my ps3, so if you're unable to get it to work, I'd ask that you download a mp4 file that I created (gran turismo hd vid) and try it out.
PS3 is at another house
EDIT: I created a new thread outlining all the steps I took.
__________________ PSN ID: solinent | I accept all friend requests! |
*insert generic quote about the ps3 taking over including bold for maximum effect (colors and size changes also apply)*
I think I'll try building it myself and see what happens ... I'm using an RPM binary for MP4Box right now. I'll look for the other thread ... do you have a link to your file?
Also, for some reason, checkinstall always failed.
I made a script, and no the file is too big, it would take a couple hours for me to upload on my very bad connection (upload speed is like 50kBps)
I don't want to use my bandwidth either. If you can't build MP4Box, then I'll give you the file.
I made a shell script, which should work (format is PS3convert INPUT.avi OUTPUT bitrate)
OUTPUT shouldn't have the .mp4 part, just a name. So I would use
PS3convert granturismo.wmv PS3granturismo 2000
to convert a video with an output name of PS3granturismo.mp4 and 2000 bitrate. I'll look into adding tags and such.
Code:
#!/bin/sh
echo "EXECUTING COMMAND: mencoder $1 -ovc x264 -oac faac -x264encopts subq=6:pass=1:bitrate=$3:bframes=3:partitions=p8x8,b8x8,i4x4:weight_b:threads=auto:nopsnr:nossim:frameref=3:mixed_refs:bime:brdo:level_idc=41:direct_pred=auto:trellis=1 -o "$2.avi""
echo "Now converting to AVC. This will take the most time."
mencoder $1 -ovc x264 -oac faac -x264encopts subq=6:pass=1:bitrate=$3:bframes=3:partitions=p8x8,b8x8,i4x4:weight_b:threads=auto:nopsnr:nossim:frameref=3:mixed_refs:bime:brdo:level_idc=41:direct_pred=auto:trellis=1 -o "$2.avi"
echo "Now converting avi to MP4, due to limitations."
MP4Box -aviraw video $2.avi
MP4Box -aviraw audio $2.avi
mv $2_audio.raw $2_audio.aac
MP4Box -add $2_audio.aac -add $2_video.h264 $2.mp4
__________________ PSN ID: solinent | I accept all friend requests! |
*insert generic quote about the ps3 taking over including bold for maximum effect (colors and size changes also apply)*
Works like a charm!! ... now I have a whack of files that need to be converted thanks for all the help! FINALLY I can convert my existing avi files to something I can use see.
I'll probably hack something together like you did for a script too although I'm not sure what I'd really change or add other than aspect info and bitrate which you've already popped in.
I'm just going to add cheap hard drives to an existing machine now and use mediatomb instead of putting a bigger drive in the PS3 ... very happy!!
Works like a charm!! ... now I have a whack of files that need to be converted thanks for all the help! FINALLY I can convert my existing avi files to something I can use see.
I'll probably hack something together like you did for a script too although I'm not sure what I'd really change or add other than aspect info and bitrate which you've already popped in.
I'm just going to add cheap hard drives to an existing machine now and use mediatomb instead of putting a bigger drive in the PS3 ... very happy!!
Great!
Just wondering -- is your PS3 connected via a router or just a ethernet cable.
I can't seem to play video encoded by our script over mediatomb, probably because my router is sending a weak connection to my PS3 upstairs.
Hmm, will look and see if I have a problem with my PS3 (running folding at home for quite a few days, maybe I need to let it cool down?).
__________________ PSN ID: solinent | I accept all friend requests! |
*insert generic quote about the ps3 taking over including bold for maximum effect (colors and size changes also apply)*
Just wondering -- is your PS3 connected via a router or just a ethernet cable.
I can't seem to play video encoded by our script over mediatomb, probably because my router is sending a weak connection to my PS3 upstairs.
Hmm, will look and see if I have a problem with my PS3 (running folding at home for quite a few days, maybe I need to let it cool down?).
I can play it but sometimes I have to select the file that says "unsupported", click on the triangle button and select play from there. After that it's recognized and starts playing right away
I have a pretty crazy home network actually but ... my one internal network is pretty flat and I don't limit any traffic on that network. Basically all the machines go through a firewall but for the internal network it acts more like a switch.
As soon as I create a file I manually add it through mediatomb and so far they all have played. When I get home I'll see if the audio issue gets fixed for me too.
As a note ... I grabbed that latest SVN release of mediatomb and then added your changes to the config file
Yeah I determined it was just my connection. I started the video, and then I let it stay at the black screen for like 1 minute, and it started playing. It was buffering I guess, definitely due to my linksys router (my internet connection doesn't get through! only 2mb/8mb connection! So I am streaming a HD video at like 2mb/s or 2/8mB/s which is pretty low (125kB/s). My bitrate is higher than that, and that's probably the reason. Thanks for posting your config anyways though
EDIT: btw, I'll add you on PSN
__________________ PSN ID: solinent | I accept all friend requests! |
*insert generic quote about the ps3 taking over including bold for maximum effect (colors and size changes also apply)*
Re PSN ... cool I sent the request a little while ago but I'm on my PSP doing a remote session to the PS3 downstairs again while I'm waiting for this transcode lol
How to get PC to PS3 working with MediaTomb! (debian PC)
I've posted som of my other failures using ffmpeg but I like mencoder more ... I just could not get a handle on the whole x264options string ... I still don't understand it which means I'll have some reading to do 
... I'll see what I can find ... I think I saw "source" somewhere 
.. I do however have MP4Box installed but can't seem to get it working on any avi file, although I'm sure it's the way I'm trying to use it:
Linear Mode
