How to stream Media to the PS3 with Windows Media Player

Before we can start streaming media to the PS3 we will need the proper software. I’m doing this on a Vista machine by the way but should work for XP as well. First thing you need is Windows Media Player 11 from Microsoft so if you don’t already have it go download it from Microsoft.

When you have Windows Media Player 11 installed and ready to go click on “Library” on the menu bar. Then scroll down to “Media Sharing..” and click on it.

Now make sure “Share my media” is checked, and select “Unknown Device” and click “Allow”

Now on the PS3 we can “Search for Media Devices” if it hadn’t already detected Windows Media Player 11 from the computer. We can do that by going either to Photos, Music, or Videos on the PS3 cross bar and scroll downwards on any of those options until we see “Search for Media Servers” and hit the “X” button to scan. Be aware that you need to select the proper folder in a category for the files to work for example if I go into the “Music” category on the PS3 I cannot select the “Video” folder and start watching videos, you need to select the “Music” folder cause your in the music category. Just something to keep in mind.

I gave it a quick test run with all the default media files that comes with Windows, and all the sample wmv videos files streamed nicely without any hesitation, music worked great also, and of coarse photos weren’t a problem.

So now it’s time to add my own media files to stream to the PS3 from my computer. I like to watch a lot of podcasts or vidcast whatever you want to call them. So I headed over to Revision3 cause they have a few different video file formats that I can try streaming to the PS3.

First one I tried was the large wmv Diggnation video, so I downloaded it put it in my default Windows Video folder. This is where all the media is being streamed from, on the computer if you click the “Start” button and click on your user name you will have a Music, Pictures, and Videos folder this is where you want to store your media on your computer in order to stream to the PS3. Whenever you put new media files on your computer you will need to refresh the PS3 by rescanning the computer by going to “Scan for Media Servers”.

So my first video I download worked great which was the Diggnation in WMV format, I also tried some of the other popular video format but the Xvid and h.264 did not work for me. This is probably a codec issue with the PS3 which hopefully will be resolved with future updates. I also tried doing avi files which is the common file type for online movies and that worked great. If there is a video file that doesn’t work you could always try converting those video files to the proper PS3 video format with PS3 Video 9 which will convert the videos to PS3 video format for free.