20 UPnP clients that may stream to your PlayStation 3

by Christopher Grant { May 28th 2007 at 6:44PM }

After spending entirely too much time trying to find a suitable solution to stream all of our bits and bytes into our newly upgraded PlayStation 3s, we finally came to a grim realization: there is no perfect solution. That doesn't mean there's a paucity of options, however. As it turns out, there's no shortage of UPnP clients that satisfy, in some capacity, the DLNA standard the PlayStation 3 requires.

The following list, compiled in part by the PS3mods blog, is a rather extensive collection of software spanning multiple platforms including Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X. We added Elgato's EyeConnect software for Mac OS X which got us closer than anything else on that platform. On the Windows side, we continue to hear good things about Nero MediaHome. Any software missing? Any 'stiqers find that perfect solution?

[Thanks, Eliot]

Allegro Media Server (Mac, Windows - commercial)
Cidero Internet Radio Server (Java - open source)
Cyberlink Digital Home Enabler Kit (Windows - commercial)
CyberMediaGate - (C++ - open source)
Fuppes (Windows, Linux, port to NAS has been reported - open source)
Geexbox (Linux - open source)
GMediaServer (Linux - open source)
EyeConnect (Mac - commercial)
MediaTomb (Linux, port to NAS has been reported - open source)
Musimatch Jukebox (Windows - commercial)
MythTV (Linux - open source)
Nero MediaHome (Windows - commercial)
On2Share (Windows - commercial)
PyMeds (Python - open source)
Rhapsody (Mac, Windows - commercial)
SimpleCenter (Java Based - commercial)
TVersity (Windows - closed source, currently free)
TwonkyVision (Linux, Windows, Mac, NAS - commercial)
uShare (Linux, NAS - open source)
Windows Media Connect (Windows - closed source, currently free)

Tags: 1.80, dlna, ps3firmware, streaming, UPnP

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

dystopia @ May 28th 2007 6:47PM

But the million dollar question - will any of these stream the album art along with it?

So far all roads point to - no. And that makes me mad as hell

farplaner @ May 28th 2007 6:59PM

The latest TVersity with the PS3 patch is streaming xvids to my PS3 perfectly. It's using a lot of the CPU power transcoding (so I can't really do anything on the computer while watching videos), but it works.

orAngeMicro @ May 28th 2007 7:02PM

dystopia that would be a cool option, i tried twonky and several others but the lack of format support just pissed me off so i quit messing with these god damn programs. have yet to mess with nero though. im waiting for one to get it right until then. gah!

Rotten Apple @ May 28th 2007 7:17PM

Why is everyone so fascinated with streaming? What's the big f'ing deal?

quazi @ May 28th 2007 7:20PM

@rotten apple
so you dont have to sit at your pc to watch your movies or listen to your music.its the reason i still use my modded xbox 1 daily.

Stef Geiger @ May 28th 2007 7:23PM

I've found that twonkymedia for OSX works very well with only a few minor issues. It's also available for PCs. I'd recommend trying it out before anything else.

Zuriel Barron @ May 28th 2007 7:29PM

Rhapsody only works on Windows.

noid @ May 28th 2007 7:49PM

I feel sorry for anyone who bought a Mac and a PS3. Why cuz the mac has no games except ports of already released PC games. Basically same thing with the Ps3 but ports of old 360 games instead.

azote @ May 28th 2007 8:01PM

For Mac and WinBlows is easy to set up .... but I've found that with linux is not that easy .... any way .. I ran in to this how to for LINUX:
http://subvida.com/browse-and-play-videosmusic-with-ps3-via-network-upnp-to-your-linux-box/24/05/2007/

TheGuy @ May 28th 2007 8:06PM

@noid

Since you have nothing better to do than to troll with something unrelated and non-contributing to this post, you should feel sorry for yourself.

Brandson @ May 28th 2007 8:26PM

I personally would love to have a low-cost DLNA-compliant wireless NAS with a built-in print server and remote access that a PS3 could access for music and videos. Ideally it could use two large 3.5" SATA hard drives in a mirrored-RAID configuration to protect against data loss.

If someone could test all the NAS products on the market to see which work with the PS3, that would be awesome. I can see a time when I will eventually abandon my desktop PC and just use a laptop for computing. A usable NAS device might hasten that transition.

Darren Tilley @ May 28th 2007 8:29PM

@dystopia: Nero MediaHome definitely supports album art. But I don't like how long Nero Scout takes to add new media to it's database, so that is why I don't really use it. If you don't want an immediately updating streaming solution, Nero MediaHome may be what you're looking for.

Aberu @ May 28th 2007 9:06PM

@1 I just browse by folder so I don't care about the album art being streamed. If it makes you that mad then buy a 500 gb usb drive and use that on your PS3, and have all media play through that from now on. You can setup album art manually on that. Not so bad.

But yeah, as said above, Nero Mediahome will do it. Only problem so far. I was watching some anime, and like half the episodes just wouldn't transcode at all. The program refused at a certain point to connect. Hope they fix that in Nero, or maybe I need more codecs. I already have the codecs to play it, but I might need some to do encoding as well.

Brandon @ May 28th 2007 9:37PM

Luckily the laptop I just bought is DLNA certified. Unsurprisingly it is a Sony Vaio laptop.

Darren Tilley @ May 28th 2007 9:41PM

@Aberu: Yeah, I hope Nero update their server too, but it's crazy how all these supposedly compliant servers are having to release patches to support the PS3, yet Nero MediaHome is pretty much working right out of the box without an update.

Transcoding is the only thing that really isn't working that weill, but transcoding isn't exactly the primary function of a media server.. As long as the file is in a PS3 compatible format, Nero MediaHome appears to be the best on the market right now.

Matt B @ May 28th 2007 9:54PM

After hours of screwing with nero, I said "screw you" and stayed with WMP. I just convert all my video to mpeg 2. Mostly because any attempt at MP4 has been a waste of my freakin' time.

I'm streaming wirelessly, it works great but on some busy parts, like fight scenes in 300, it will get choppy. Anyone else streaming wirelessly?

john @ May 28th 2007 10:08PM

Anyone else having trouble getting albums to play in the correct track order over a network? Even if I specifically make a playlist, the PS3 still doesn't play the tracks in order (yes, shuffle is definitely off). What's weird is that the track order is fine if I copy the album to the PS3 hard drive.

rockstar @ May 28th 2007 10:23PM

I just don't like the fact that when I'm streaming the movie using Nero MediaHome, I can't pause the movie. That's quite irritating.

Darren Tilley @ May 28th 2007 10:25PM

@john: Yeah, that is a problem that appears to be common among many servers.. What I'm seeing is track 11, 12, 13... appearing after track 1 in the list, then track 2.. The only server that i've tried that appears to work correctly in this regard is TwonkyVision. This is an important feature for me, as I don't just collect tons of individual songs. I collect the albums and expect them to play in order.

If you are gonna try TwonkyVision, make sure you get the 4.4 Beta2 release. It has PS3 specific changes.

BriGaid @ May 28th 2007 10:33PM

Hi, Has anyone gotten any of these linux clients to work with a 360?

SS4Rob @ May 28th 2007 11:28PM

@dystopia - Nero MediaHome has mp3 icons and works well with pictures and music, but doesn't do video too well.

I have all of my media on another server, so I have tried a lot of difference solutions - WMP11, Orb, Nero MediaHome and TVersity. Of all of them TVersity worked QUITE well, with Nero at a second. Setting TVersity to 640x480 for video and 1920x1080 for images had excellent performance over wireless PS3 with my 100Mb network shared media.

In conclusion, use TVersity, it works VERY well, recommended over the other solutions, and I can say that confidently as I spent DAYS with the others with so-so results, heh.

-Rob :>

mccomber @ May 28th 2007 11:39PM

I was using twonky on the powerbook and eyeconnect on the powermac. I'll have to see if twonky will allow all of my mp3 folders to show up, because right now I only get through the B's in my collection, but both are basically working, with some minor tweaking still needed. Hopefully we'll see some solutions specifically for streaming to the ps3 show up like are currently available for the 360... and, avi support from Sony would be incredible. Any reason we don't see that for either console?

Steve Wells @ May 29th 2007 12:42AM

Someone can't tell the difference between "client" and "server".

TwonkyMedia streams pictures and MP3s ok, but is _very_ fussy about the video formats it'll stream. It also has serious issues if any alternations are made to the file structure, it appears you have to find and then delete the database.

dystopia @ May 29th 2007 12:50AM

it just seems funny to me that a $1200 NZD machine with a nas plugged into a router streaming wirelessly.....does nto show album art.

Buying an external harddrive is a definite possibility, but then you cant access that drive from anything else on the network unless you plug it into each machine.

Running a media server off a pc or laptop will work - you are all correct. But the point of having a nas is that the computer doesnt have to be on to have a central access to files.

and the ps3 grabs information from the net when ripping discs.. yet it wont grab album art.

It might seem trivial, but with a couple of hundred gigs of music, it becomes a chore seeing the same icon a few thousand times.

oh and joystiq, what happened to this??
http://www.joystiq.com/2006/10/20/ps3-to-download-album-art-when-ripping-cds/

DexX @ May 29th 2007 2:08AM

Has anyone had any joy streaming movies off an external networks hard drive? I was thinking about getting a big wired ethernet hard drive and plugging it into a combo wired/wireless switch/router. Would I have any luck getting the PS3 to find the files on the networked hard drive?

lp @ May 29th 2007 2:33AM

Is it too much trouble for me to be able to PAUSE a video???

Apparently so, good job I never need the toilet.... Oh :(

zeh @ May 29th 2007 6:43AM

or you could just have a cheap media pc sitting next to your tv, streaming things seems pointless to me if it cuts back on the quality.

WhackMushroom @ May 29th 2007 7:30AM

mac users might want to pick up an app called mp4 converter and covert for appleTV (mp4) format .. i got most of my newer videos working on both my appleTV and ps3 (so i moved the appleTV to the bedroom)

WhackMushroom @ May 29th 2007 8:15AM

twokymedia + mac + ps3 = happy forever .. going to try EyETV since it has a non web interface.

WhackMushroom @ May 29th 2007 8:25AM

EyeConnect didnt work to well .. prehaps they need to update (i know that twonkymedia's beta 4.4 just made everything perfect .. now if sony would add xvid/divx support OMG that would rock.

Matthew Lenz @ May 29th 2007 8:44AM

Why would you change the correct terminology 'Servers' (used in the blogspot post you are copying) to the incorrect terminology 'Clients'? The PS3 is the 'Client.' The software that is listed is the 'Server.'

BigDDDave @ May 29th 2007 11:53AM

Just to let you know :
Orb Works extremely fine and re-encode on the fly too for more media playback

www.orb.com

Brent @ May 29th 2007 12:08PM

I've tried Orb, Windows Media Connect, and TVersity so far, and both Orb and WMC were not able to correctly play my videos. TVersity did not work correctly at first, but after installing the newest TVersity PS3 patch and ffdshow, I was able to stream ALL of my media to the PS3, including divx/xvid etc. Very cool. I would highly recommend this setup to everyone. Just be patient when you first try to play a video, it usually takes a few seconds to transcode video files. Oh, and I'm using Windows XP Pro and wireless B.

zyxses @ May 30th 2007 7:21PM

Very little video content is downloadabie to a PS3. And very littie is compatible with the browser generally! Let's hope update 1.9 gives us a browser that actually has sum practical functionality.

Stewie @ Jun 3rd 2007 5:28PM

TwonkyMedia works REALLY well for me. I have tried WMP11 and Nero, and TVersity, and TwonkyMedia beats them all hands down for stability and footprint. It's a bit cranky setting up transcoding, but I don't bother, I simply convert everything to H264/AVC anyway, and only use MP3/WMA for music. Evrything "just works (tm)"

Paul @ Jun 4th 2007 5:37PM

Those of you using the updated TVersity and also have a very large music collection (10,000 songs+). How long did it take TVersity to be ready to start sharing? I have aprox. 33,000 songs and TVersity has had that little circle icon in the top right corner of the GUI spinning for about an hour. I still cannot see the server via the PS3 but i'm thinking I just need to be patient since the collection is so large. Has anyone else run into this?

You can reply here or to my email reversenext@yahoo.com

Thanks in advance,

Paul