What is Reddit's opinion of
Universal Media Server?
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➔ Universal Media Server website
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Use it to stream movies, music and your pictures. I am currently converting my dvd/blu-ray collection to avi files and using Universal Media Server. I am using a Brorsoft converter which uses the avi format that the PS3 can read. It's nice because it preserves all of the surround sound. I also like to play games on mine, but that's me.
I'm of no help with Mac's, but try Universal Media Server if you can't get this solved. UMS has more features and one of them is automatic plugin download/install.
1) Download Universal Media Server on your mac/Linux or PC (It's free).
2) Install and choose the folder you want to stream media from.
3) Connect both your computer and PS4 to the same internet network.
4) open Media Player app on PS4 and you should see "Universal Media Server" on the menu, click on that and enjoy :)
I would recommend not using Playstation (3) Media Server as it is outdated, no longer supported, and has been succeeded by Universal Media Server.
Both require Java, and getting started is pretty much the same: Add your content directories (in the software) then access the local server from the Videos category on the XMB.
I recently made the switch from Serviio to Universal Media Server and have not looked back.
EDIT: Here is a comparison
This is all you need: http://www.universalmediaserver.com/ If the PS4 can't play the original files go into the transcoded subfolder and there will be several streaming options. This mediaserver streams/re-encodes it on the fly into something the PS4 can play.
Don't use Plex, it's terrible. Also see this recent thread: https://www.reddit.com/r/PS4/comments/3ekilw/is_there_a_media_server_set_up_method_that_doesnt/
as far as i know, there isn't a direct way to do it. (i haven't tried messing with various root-only methods like gmusiFS)
UMS may work for streaming it from your pc to the web browser, but i haven't tested it. http://www.universalmediaserver.com/about/
near future considerations:
youtube music key launches tomorrow, and may allow you to access your library through the youtube app. (really don't know how this will work, but as all access subscribers this service will be included now without you having to do anything.)
whenever ps4 adds DLNA support, you'll be able to stream through an app called bubbleUPNP. (supports all songs, albums, playlists, etc but not radio features.)
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.bubblesoft.android.bubbleupnp
(this may actually work now with plex.)
It all describes the same encoder.
Your ps3 can play mp4 just fine. You just need to remux from mkv to mp4 with this tool and you're done.
http://sourceforge.net/projects/containerswitch/
Also, you should be using this media streaming software over your WiFi or wired network, which will make it even easier for you because you don't have to transfer any files to the ps3 and it will remux from mkv to mp4 on the fly.
http://www.universalmediaserver.com/
Forget about xvid, man. It's pointless when you have a ps3 and all these tools at your disposal and have better quality to begin with.
Can I suggest Universal Media Server?
It's a fork of PS3 Media Server and is regularly updated.
They also have an active support forum.
My cheap'n'cheerful solution is:
- ChromeCast (https://www.google.co.uk/chrome/devices/chromecast/)
- Videostream Chrome Extension (http://www.getvideostream.com/)
Videostream will stream and/or transcode the videos to the Chromecast with very little setup or configuration.
In the past I have used Universal Media Server to stream/transcode from my PC to my PS3 and this worked well; there is also a Mac version.
You can easily switch between mp4 and mkv with this foolproof tool.
http://sourceforge.net/projects/containerswitch/
Or better yet, use this server software with the DLNA client on the ps3.
Universal Media Server will run on a 386, or a raspberry pi... its super lightweight. It's what I use to stream music to my PS4. It will also stream video but you'll need a slightly beefier system for that, like circa 2012 would work fine.
Any UPnP/DLNA server you can get for iphone would also do the trick.
I googled the error message you have and people seem to think its an issue with the java version. It looks like UMS uses Java 7 or 8 but this person had those installed and I think Java 9 was also installed and that's what was causing the issues. They uninstalled Java 9 and that seemed to fix the issue. I have never used UMS before so idk any more than what I can find on google
http://www.universalmediaserver.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=8586
Airsonic (true libre sonic) + Dsub on Android
https://github.com/airsonic/airsonic/releases
Also this is nice (although Upnp only) which has web ui player as well. It is java based no install needed however it works only in the local network (upnp client access) or if you can vpn to your server it works that way too. Upnp seems to work over vpn at least in my Vpn setup it does.
Or just access the web ui then no upnp client needed.
I'm not Mushroomwig but I can give you a few places to start, you can try out (What I Personally use now) Plex or you can use Universal Media Server. I personally would recommend Plex but if that isn't your cup of tea you can try UMS as well, you would probably want to use a YouTube video to help you figure out how to use it if you get confused along the way of setting it up.
Restart all applications and the computer.
How do you not know what PS3 Media Server is? PS3 Media Server is a simple DLNA streamer. It allows you to stream/copy your media from your computer to your PS3. It's also the old program. The new one you want is this one, it's so simple to use, if you can use reddit, you can use it: http://www.universalmediaserver.com/
ok that's a beefy router. Are you connected via 5ghz? Using the routers USB to hook up a drive is gonna give you a bad performance, but you said you also tried running the server on your pc, so... have you tried using this: http://www.universalmediaserver.com/ ? I've had a much better performance with UMS then with Plex, might wanna give it a shot
Edit: I long ago switched to the western digital my cloud NAS, it's super convenient because you don't have to fumble around with starting the media server and it has a good enough performance to stream 4k without hiccups
As far as I understand, PS3 Media Server has been replaced or taken over by Universal Media Server. Give it a try and it should all be very familiar to you.
However, regarding the MiBox. I had to get a USB ethernet adapter to improve throughput since WiFi seemed to be an issue, but it turns out this didn't really make much difference.
I took the plunge and tried Plex and while I'm extremely happy with it, I still suffer choppiness and buffering. I think this comes down to the MiBox in general and I've become pretty disappointed with it. Shoulda just dropped $200 on a Shield.
Btw, in addition to Universal Media Server, Plex shows up as a DLNA/UPnP service on most of my devices such as TV, PS3, etc...
It's weird you're still using PS3 media server. The project is now called http://www.universalmediaserver.com so I'd upgrade to that and see if it helps. Also, in my experience Plex is really the best option for your setup. I used to dislike Plex but it kept getting better and now it's really the way to go.
I don't know much about running a server on your own crouton (because that is what you want to achieve). But it looks like chromeOS has a firewall that is blocking every outside connections by default, which would make sense.
There is this guide on the crouton wiki about opening ports in crouton: https://github.com/dnschneid/crouton/wiki/Running-servers-in-crouton
And this thread discuss the list of ports that you will need to open for UpNP and DLNA: http://www.universalmediaserver.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1572
You might want to use something like Universal Media Server instead. It will stream video to your PS4 over your network in a format that it can read (with the Media Player App). It's a little hard to setup if you dont have UPnP enable on your router though.
Setting up UMS is a piece of cake, I run it on OS X but it'll run on Windows and Linux as well:
http://www.universalmediaserver.com
For the streaming from a satellite, you'll need a certain kind of sat box. For IPTV it's a case of getting the url for the m3u which is just a list of channels in a certain format.
Which are u interested in?
Just a few things.
Have a look at Universal media centre (Link to website here) which is based off of the now discontinued Playstation media centre (PMS).
If you are only using plex for Dlna streams, I would sugest using Kodi without any plex extentions. Unless there is another reason which you need to use plex, kodi should be able to handle streams from PMS/UMS without transcoding.
Rather than converting them ahead of time. You could try streaming them to the chromecast.
Here is a tool you can do that with. http://www.universalmediaserver.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=7696
Emby is fantastic but a few things about it bug me, the android app when used with my chromecast disconnects constantly and is buggy as hell, not to mention that I can't change the audio source at all, so some movies play only in spanish and I have to remove all the audio tracks with tools like xmedia recode or mkvtoolnix except the one I want for it to play. But it seeks nicely and doesn't desync audio like plex. For some reason it seems to lag less on transcodes too.
Emby is also built on windows then ported to Linux using shitty tools that don't even support symlinking in linux.
Another good solution is UMS based on PS3 Media Server but I find it to be a pain in the ass to use and configure, especially with my chromecast.
Edit: oh crap, I don't remember seeing this nice new gui with UMS when I tried it last month, I might try it again.
I'm not sure what you really want, but i guess Miracast is what you're looking for. You can stream your desktop to your TV.
I'm personally using the UPnP Protocol (Universal Media Server). With it, I can use my PC as a Media Server.
If my google fu is correct, that TV supports DLNA. If you have it connected to your network, just install Universal Media Server on your PC, and your TV should be able to stream directly.
As far as what files to download, File size is usually a good indicator, 4gb for 720, 8gb for 1080. Still not full blu-ray, but pretty good.
Universal Media Server is the successor to the now defunct PS3 Media Server app that you used to use:
http://www.universalmediaserver.com/
It also has native support for PS4.
Also Plex is free. You might be confused with the Plex PS4 app, but you can use the Plex Media Server app for free on the computer and stream via DLNA to the PS4's Media Player app. Only problem is that Plex doesn't currently have a DLNA profile for the PS4 so not all files will play, so I recommend Universal Media Player for now.
Plex is good, but also does a lot more than just stream media (it's more of a media organizer).
A more minimal alternative that I prefer for my uses is Universal Media Server. It's the continuation of the older ps3mediaserver. The experience is probably a bit closer to how the media sharing on Windows works, while Plex is really an entirely different concept.
I'd look into both, like I said they ultimately do different things and each has strengths and shortcomings. Figure out which one works better for you.
Just to be clear, here is the homepage for the freeware: http://www.universalmediaserver.com/
Common problem when first using (if you're installing on a Windows Server) is allowing it through your firewall.
But once setup, really easy to use and very lightweight.
The only issue I have had with it recently is that sometimes my PS4 doesn't detect the software right away. I just hit the "Restart Server" button in the application window, and it pops right up, within seconds.
Hope this solves your problems!
Yup! Download either Universal Media Server or PS3 Media Server, I believe but I haven't used that one before.
I use the Universal Media Server. You add files to the directory and they pop up on your PS4. If you have any other questions, shoot me a message but its really easy.
I don't have a PS4 so I can't help you through setting things up on that front, but if it's like the PS3, all you need to do is download PS3 Media Server or Universal Media Server (I suggest the latter), install that and point it to your media files and it should show up on the PS4 once the update is live (if it isn't already).
I got a Sony BDP-S3200 (roughly $100) last christmas, and it does just about everything I need. I have it hooked up via wifi, but it has an ethernet (10/100) jack too. It plays store bought blu-rays and dvds, decrypted blu-rays and dvds (MakeMKV ftw!), and a lot of popular file formats over the network or via usb or burnt onto a blu-ray, dvd, or cd.
I use Universal Media Server on my PC as a file server to either my BDP-S3200, or my old Lenovo T61 laptop running Linux Mint and Kodi.
Here's the PDF manual if you wanna look over it's features. Pages 40-41 have it's file compatibility.
Remuxing means taking the original video and audio streams and placing them in a different container. It takes only a minute or two to remux a mkv file to m2ts (the Blu-ray container format), and it should have no effect on the video or audio quality since the streams are not modified.
I've used tsMuxeR with a small script to automate it (there appears to be a GUI also). I believe both PS3 Media Server and Universal Media Server can use tsMuxeR on the fly when possible.
You can try the Universal Media Server, never used it before though. It is based on DLNA/UPNP.
I assume all you would need to do is open up a port for it on your router.
http://www.universalmediaserver.com/
http://www.universalmediaserver.com/comparison/
It will run on your Windows and is Java based. Although there is a Linux version, which technically means it could run on your OpenWRT router if you wanted to figure out how to do it.
since people have told you what to download, i'd also like to recommend the use of universal media server(link this app is from the same guy who made ps3 media server, but wanted to branch away from that name.) on the pc side for streaming from, it's a dlna transcoder that is fairly simple to setup, you just tell it which folder you want to stream from, and then can navigate that folder from the xbox media player app. it'll also transcode files to play on the xbox one if they aren't supported. best of all it's completely free.
I stream from an Odroid-C1 + 4TB hard drive running MiniDLNA, which is also my torrent box, to a Nexus Player running XBMC/Kodi.
If you want an alternative to Plex, I suggest this.
actually universal media server works better. (It was made off the code of PS3 Media server but is much more updated, last I checked PS3 media server hasn't been updated in a few years)
I've used just about every media server out there, yet here's another one I'll have to get my little grubby hands on!
Thanks for the tip!
Plex (I've paid for PlexPass as well) and Universal Media Server have been my absolute favorite media servers so far. Lets see what this one can do!
Universal Media Server is another media server for the PS3 that I prefer over PMS. It's devs from PMS that moved on to make their own branch.
I find it better than ps3 media server personally.
Its an industry standard for universal plug-n-play for media devices to communicate over home networks. In my case I run a lightweight program called Universal Media Server on my desktop pc where my media is stored, then when I turn my PS3 on it automatically detects it on my network and allows me to browse the folders I told UMS to share. It can playback video, images, or music, and will transcode video if it is in a format the PS3 can't play on its own.
There are programs like Plex to get similar functionality from the WiiU but they don't use DLNA and instead host a webpage that must be viewed through the WiiU's browser. Plex isn't free and this seems like a clunkier solution to me.
Edit: Let me add that ironically the PS4 does not support DLNA at this time, I think Sony said they plan on adding it in a future firmware update. In theory the WiiU could too but I doubt they will.
Are you using DLNA to stream them? In such case I would suggest you to use a dedicate media server (which is a normal program), like Universal Media Server or the one integrated in Windows, which will do all the needed transcoding automatically.
There is a way to make VLC cast content with on the fly conversion, but I bet it' much more inconvenient than using a dedicated media server.
On PC: http://www.universalmediaserver.com/
On Android: Bubbleupnp or any other good DMP + DMR apps (DLNA clients)
In the middle: a good wifi network. Set N only on router. Use Wifi monitor apps to choose best channel, check coverage.
On your PC: http://www.universalmediaserver.com/
On all your devices: a DLNA program (DMP, DMR....player, renderer)
For Android there are tons, free and paid. Probably the best one (DMP+DMR and even DMS) is app Bubbleupnp.
If it’s file sharing, you’ll have to turn on Windows file sharing in the System Preferences > Sharing > File Sharing > Options > Share files and folders using SMB ... select your account and you can also add files and folders to share. Another option is to use a UPnP DLNA program like Universal Media Server:
If your NAS support DLNA just enable it. Or maybe you can install DLNA to it. Or maybe change your NAS firmware to another open one that supports DLNA. Just Google for your brand/model and see the options.
Anyway if nothing can be done, you can use another device to access it via SMB and on that device run a DLNA server (DMS) and maybe a DLNA player (DMP).
And then have music/videos on all your devices, by running a DLNA render (DMR) app.
For Android for instance check BubbleUpnp (DMS + DMP + DMR). But there are others simpler, even free.
For Windows, Linux, Mac for instance check http://www.universalmediaserver.com/
You can stream music from your PC while in game using the media player and a media server on you PC/Mac. (I use Universal Media Server). This also works with Spotify
2 easy ways:
- Share your PC video folder on network (=windows share, smb, samba, cifs protocol).
Then access the folder from mobile and use player (vlc, mxplayer,...)
This is not streaming, but does the job.
- Install http://www.universalmediaserver.com/ on your PC.
Then use any DLNA client on your mobile (DMR + DMP) to get the stream, for instance the good BubbleUpnp (that is also DMS), but there are alternatives.
Be sure that your wireless signal is good, fast and sustained on your mobile and PC (better wire on that), specially for HD videos.
Bummer. Ok. Thanks, eh?. I kinda figured since I was having a hard time finding a solution. I really don't want to put holes in the side of my house though.
Maybe a dock/speaker for my old iPhone 4S and see if I can run VLC on it or something to get to my Universal Media Server over wifi.
You can this...
http://www.universalmediaserver.com/
Used to use a similar thing for my PS3 like 10 years ago and it would convert movies on the fly and stream them to my PS3, a lot easier than converting.
See I want a PC and NAS and UMS running as VMs on the same hardware so that I don't have to buy them each separately. If I'm going to have an 8-core/16-thread Ryzen gaming PC, I may as well over-provision one of those cores to run the NAS service and two more to host UMC. It would save me money overall, and even when running all 3 at once, gaming performance should be negligible. At worst, I may need to limit the gaming PC to 6C/12T. I'm still in the saving / planning phase though.
or just use plex... https://www.plex.tv/apps/tvs-consoles/playstation-3/
also PS3MS IIRC is out of date and unsupported as in no one is actively working on it. I swear there is a reason that I told people to use UMS rather then PS3MS, I honestly can't remember at 7am with no coffee.
That's pretty much my current rig. If it's sitting unused you could turn it into an excellent basement media streaming box by adding a big hard drive and Universal Media Server, which just sits on top of Windows and transcodes stuff to formats your streaming boxes support. Set up folder sharing, and you can have a whole-house NAS.
Or heck, that could be an excellent Steam Link rig too. When your son hits five give him the controller and load up Slime Rancher or Scribblenauts, or emulate older Nintendo titles.
Of course they transcode. That's a pretty basic feature of a DLNA media server.
http://i.imgur.com/93RV2JK.png
Plex plus basically gives you the extras that would come on a disc and is required for mobile streaming. Not interested.
>If you don't want those then you can just use the free version, which looks a lot nicer than either of the ones you have linked.
Are you talking about the UI or have you actually tried the different media server options out there and compared the performance? Because I don't care how pretty my list of videos is.
http://www.universalmediaserver.com/comparison/
I use UMS because it's customizable as hell, has low overhead and doesn't really care what the file type or file name is. If I want Plex to pick up all my shows everything has to be named a certain way, there is shit all for customization options in Plex. It is just an idiot-proof solution.
Get PS3 media server it allows your PS to play downloaded movies from your computer. Or http://www.universalmediaserver.com so you can use your controller or use good remote desktop to control your video on the pc.
1) Download Avatar to your computer.
2) Install Universal Media Server on said computer.
3) Install Roku Media Player to your Roku.
UMS is quite good, it a evolution of the ps3mediaserver. Require java or open jdk. Considering what you want to do Kodi is like using a hammer to drive in a screw. It will do it but that a bit of a overkill.
Give this a try. It's currently free so download it while you can.
AirAV -WiFi Media Player by Ranysoft
You will also need to run a DNLA server on your PC (also free). I use Universal Media Server which you can get here...
Question, what about setting up a Media Server like Plex on the Computer you're trying to have serve media? Then you can use PlexBMC with Kodi to get your content. If not Plex, then I think you can use http://www.universalmediaserver.com/.
This is basically so you don't have to deal with SMB or NFS mounting.
I use UMS to stream from my PCs internal and external hard drives to the PS4 media player. Works perfectly. Doesn't matter what format the HDD is either, my external is NTFS. Give it a go.
If you wanna read any sort of video files with it your best bet is to use Universal Media Server, you chose your video folder with this program and any media reader(PS3,Ps4,Xbox,Tablet and Cell phones) can play all type of video files.
Hmm? Thought it did have a web GUI, says it does here. Been a while since I looked at it though, so can't recall 100%.
It did have a nice way of setting customer configs per device (supported formats etc). Not something I've found yet in Emby.
Universal Media Server is a really good choice with more way more feature (more codecs/ subtitles/resume)and free http://www.universalmediaserver.com
Its better to install it as windows service to start on windows boot like windows media player.
Most likely under Event Viewer > Application.
If using Windows built in Media Server doesn't do the trick, I recommend using Universal Media Server software: http://www.universalmediaserver.com/
DLNA is a wonderful thing! Universal Media Player will allow your tv to see the device. Use the tv's media server/player to view the shared folders/files after UMS is set up.
I know of two ways:
Use http://www.universalmediaserver.com/ to set-up an UPnP server with your media and Moliplayer to play the videos on the server.
Use http://emby.media/ to set-up a web-server with your media on your local network and open the web-server's adress on your Internet Explorer. There's an Emby app too, but idk if it's good.
Edit: The advantage of Emby is that it supports plugins, metadata (movies and series covers, plot, actors, staff...) and you can stream your pc content via web if you're not on your home.
Try the recent version of universal media server. It is essentially a better version of ps3 media server by the same people, and they recently updated it to make it more compatible with the PS4.
I would suggest using either of these 2 options.
Both are really easy to use and in my experience just work great
it is true that plex has a more appealing interface... but it is way behind when it comes to handling video formats and subtitles... the only thing you need to run UMS is Java... for instance I use a PS3 as my rendering engine... with UMS it is dead efficient to watch any video formats with built-in or separate subtitles... something I could never achieve with plex... another thing that could be of interest to you is that plex needs you to organise you video files name in a certain manner...and only allows one or two subfolders... whereas in UMS you just navigate as if you were using a file manager check this : http://www.universalmediaserver.com/comparison/
You've got options.
You'll need to switch to something other than AirPlay for streaming, like DLNA. You'll need a DLNA server on the back end, like Universal Media Server.
Plex also supports an iTunes library. iTunes support is broken in XBMC/Kodi.
You've got a bunch of clients to choose from, but Roku 3 is the general recommendation.
I'd recommend setting up Universal Media Server on your PC. It's a completely free UPnP media server that supports a large number of devices. It can automatically transcode any media the PS3 doesn't support.
Plex wins for transcoding, because XBMC/Kodi doesn't do that at all. I like to store my media at a higher fidelity than what mobile devices can play, which means that I either need to encode a lower bitrate copy for phones or using a transcoding server like Plex or UMS.
Next, Kodi for phones is not available on any of the official stores. Android's easy enough, since you can side-load APKs. iOS requires jailbreaking, which some people may choose not to do. And it doesn't exist at all for Windows Phone. Conversely, Plex is available on all of those platforms, in the official stores. That's a win for convenience. As for price, well, they're $5 or less (and many times free, if you wait for promotions). Maybe you're opposed to paying $5 for an app, but most people are not.
And finally, neither SMB nor NFS are designed for WAN usage. Forwarding them out that way is a terrible idea, and potentially very insecure. Security aside, they're not efficient protocols for streaming over the internet, which means you won't make good use of your available upload speeds (and upload speeds are usually pretty low in the US, aside from Fios/Google Fiber installations).
Can you do it that way? Sure. Should you? Probably not.
Hmm... not in my preferred distro's repo, unfortunately... but; I *did* find something called ums in there, though:
http://www.universalmediaserver.com/about/
Would that do it? I have absolutely no idea of how to set it up or use it, but I'll give it a go tomorrow morning, anyway. Thanks!
you can try this PC app here http://www.universalmediaserver.com
then install an app like BubbleUPNP on your Android device. it's on the play store.
this basically streams video over your home network.
this isn't a very polished solution though, and may take some setup. but I remember the video quality being fairly smooth on even a low-end tablet.
Do you have a Smart TV, Playstation 3, or XBox 360? Then Universal Media Server is the way to go: http://www.universalmediaserver.com/
Just install it, and point the software to the catalogues with Videos and music and you will be able to access it directly from the devices you use.
That's nice, I'll have to look more into software to use as well, I found this and it looks promising
I hope you become the friendly helper :) It's always nice to have people on the sub who really helps. The most I can help with is simple problems and most hardware related regarding gaming pc's
I'd be happy with DLNA. I currently stream content stored on my desktop PC using universal media server to my PS3. It has a web interface, but I havent bothered trying it. If I could use this more seamlessly with the WiiU it would be cool.
I'm not sure what speeds the WiiU's WiFi can handle, but in order to steam 1080p the PS3 is on ethernet, as 802.11G @ 54mbit can't handle blu-ray quality content.
PS3 has never worked right with Plex for me, so many errors. I use Universal Media Server when I want to stream my media to the PS3.
You can also get a Roku or Chromecast if you prefer to stick with Plex.
You might try Universal Media Server too.
The Roku 3 does do 5.1/7.1 passthrough but I don't have experience using it, ours is hooked up to stereo, how easy it is would probably depend on the receiver. The Roku has some great apps but not all of the community developed ones work that well and they all have to conform to the Roku's horrible UI template. I recommend the RARFlix app instead of Plex's, just try to get used to it cause it really does work the best. You can customize it's interface for the most part but you can't fix the UX. But the actual experience of watching things has been very positive, even from the USB or miniSD slot.
The best experience I've had, hands down, has been using a flirc with any remote control and my PC (or Mac) Plex server plugged directly into the receiver. If that's an option you could look into HDMI over ethernet, most of those boxes are cheaper than a Roku 3 and you have full use of your computer for games or browser content like Netflix or Amazon Prime.
That's not a Plex question so I'm not sure if many people here will know how to help you with that. (They might be able to help you with your original Plex-related issue.)
You could try more general subreddits such as /r/PS3, /r/htpc or /r/cordcutters or maybe the product's support forum.
I had bunch of problems streaming stuff to ps3 before i found
http://www.universalmediaserver.com/ (its free)
no problems at all after that, just works. My buffalo drive theoretically supports dlna too, and windows can do it too, yes, but i never could get them to "just work" this one is the only one that just bullet proofly works as intended.
I started to get bad skipping issues with ps3 media server and switched to universal media server and it worked much better, but all my stuff is wired. You don't need gigabit, 100mbit is fine, but 802.11G wireless just isnt enough sometimes.
The other weird thing with ps3mediaserver is that it worked best with the buffer size set 0.
First you need to install a client (or I don't know what they're called). You should try Universal Media Server, it's my favorite and it is said to be the best by a lot of people. When it's installed, you're basically done. You just open Universal Media Server, and it will start the server. After a couple of seconds, you should see that UMS recognized your PS3, and after that you should see UMS on your PS3 under the music, video and pictures menus. If you want to watch a movie, you obviously need to open UMS under the videos menu on your PS3, and there you can see your folders on your PC. You just find a movie and you can start watching it.
Sometimes UMS won't recognize your PS3 on the first try, then you should quit the program and start again.