I saw the "PS3 Media Server" announced on QJ, but I haven't had the time or urge to test it. I've been running Mediatomb for over a year now, and it seems to do the job perfectly. Transcoding is supported though easy scripting, and even organising the view on the PS3, can be scripted too, so I have my files shown exactly in the tree I want them to.

...well, almost! Because the PS3's XMB has a design flaw in its way of navigating content, I think. And maybe it's first when you start browsing your media on a PC, you really notice.

Take this use case for instance:

I've just returned from a weeks skiing vacation in Val Thorens in France. With me home I bring photos, videos, and (for the sake of argument) some audio recordings[1]. I dump all this on my media server in a directory called "Val Thorens 2009". Pretty straight forward.

Now I'd like to access this. Let's say my whole family is sitting in the sofa and waiting in excitement to see all the stuff. And how would I *like* to open these files? I'd like to choose "Val Thorens 2009" and watch the files on by one; photo, video, audio, everything.

But as we all know, this is not how the PS3 navigates. I'd have to bother the audience with me browsing back and forth between Photos, Video, and Music menus and submenus every now and then, in order to show the files in proper order.

Most of the time the XMB does an excellent job. But when you have various media types within the same context, you're a bit lost, and navigation seems cumbersome.

I don't know if there's a clever way to fix this. Maybe a Playlist can work across media types, but as far as I know, Playlists don't across the network.



[1] http://www.rolandus.com/products/productdetails.aspx?ObjectId=744

You've started the rant ;-) i have the exact issue that you have but I guess this is part of the DNLP / uPnP standard. It looks like you can not separate video, audio and images at that point. Basically the server doesn't know what you are looking for.

The other issue I have with the PS3 implementation is the fact that you can not use a media server in cases where a standard let's say MP3 on the HDD work. Take Life with Playstation for instance as well as the new Picture Gallery. Not talking about custom soundtracks. In those cases you have to first copy the tracks to the HDD. Same thing with playlists.

Re. the PS3 Media Server I must admit that it isn't perfect yet, but at least those folks are focusing on the PS3 as a client mainly and get that stuff to work.

Now that i checked the Mediatomb site I will give it a try for my Maxtor NAS as Twonkymedia is no longer supported for those devices which is a must for me.