# Google Media Server - Anyone tried it in MediaShare yet?



## Drew2k (Aug 16, 2006)

Google just introduced a new Media Server "gadget" for serving video, music, and photos to uPNP devices like Playstation 3, XBOX 360, etc. Has anyone tried it with DIRECTV MediaShare yet?

Article: BetaNews

Direct Link: Google Media Server

It's beta, and apparetnly a bit buggy, but it's nice to have choices ...

Note: Use of Google Media Server requires Google Desktop 5.0. I've never used Desktop before, so I started a thread about that in the Computer forum if anyone wants to weigh in ...


----------



## Drew2k (Aug 16, 2006)

I have a feeling this is not ready for Prime Time ... but for me the requirement to use Google Desktop may be the first obstacle to overcome ...


----------



## boilerjt (Jan 12, 2007)

I did not see anything about transcoding. If it doesn't transcode, it is worthless to me.


----------



## Redlinetire (Jul 24, 2007)

Drew2k said:


> I have a feeling this is not ready for Prime Time ... but for me the requirement to use Google Desktop may be the first obstacle to overcome ...


I respect and use a lot of Google products, but I've had nothing but problems with their 'Desktop' program.

If that's a requirement, I'm not touching it...


----------



## bhelton71 (Mar 8, 2007)

I tried it last night - as boilerjt suspected - no signs of transcoding. But I never got it to show up on the HR20's. As as matter of fact I am pretty sure it crashed out both of the Mediarenderers. I have since uninstalled it .

I think this is the best hope for a 'Google' solution: http://wiki.videolan.org/SoC_2008/UPnP
One of the Google Summer of Code projects is building a DLNA/UPnP Mediaserver into VLC.


----------



## hdtvfan0001 (Jul 28, 2004)

bhelton71 said:


> I tried it last night - as boilerjt suspected - no signs of transcoding. But I never got it to show up on the HR20's. As as matter of fact I am pretty sure it crashed out both of the Mediarenderers. I have since uninstalled it .
> 
> I think this is the best hope for a 'Google' solution: http://wiki.videolan.org/SoC_2008/UPnP
> One of the Google Summer of Code projects is building a DLNA/UPnP Mediaserver into VLC.


Thanks for the info....these things are still all under the design and testing phases...and need some solid work before they are ready for prime time...

But they are interesting to read about and occasionally test.


----------



## CrazyforYeshua (Feb 23, 2008)

I've never heard of it, but I use Orb. I lost Media Share awhile back, so this was the answer for me.
I use it through the Wii and it works really well.


----------



## Throckmorton (Dec 7, 2007)

CrazyforYeshua said:


> I use it through the Wii and it works really well.


Sorry for the O/T question but, how do you stream to a Wii?

Do I need to buy the browser plug-in for it?


----------



## bhelton71 (Mar 8, 2007)

I know, I know - old thread

There is a new google upnp mediaserver
http://code.google.com/p/ps3mediaserver/

Here is what caught my attention -


 Ready to launch and play. No codec packs to install. No folder configuration and pre-parsing or this kind of annoying thing. All your folders are directly browsed by the PS3, there's an automatic refresh also.
 Real-time video transcoding via MEncoder, tsMuxer, FFmpeg or Avisynth.
 Lossless 5.1 PCM transcoding with DTS movies
*[*] DVD ISOs images / VIDEO_TS Folder transcoder*
 OGG/FLAC/MPC Audio transcoding
 Thumbnail generation for Videos
 You can choose with a virtual folder system your audio/subtitle language on the PS3!
 All formats PS3 natively supports: MP3/WMA, JPG/PNG/GIF/TIFF, and all kind of videos (AVI, MP4, TS, M2TS, MPEG) the ps3 is willing to play
 ZIP/RAR files as browsable folders
 Preliminary support for pictures based feeds, such as Flickr and Picasaweb
 Preliminary Internet TV / Web Radio support with VLC, MEncoder or MPlayer

It is specifically for PS3 - but I would bet a few modifications would unlock it for an HR2x


----------



## dennisj00 (Sep 27, 2007)

Throckmorton said:


> Sorry for the O/T question but, how do you stream to a Wii?
> 
> Do I need to buy the browser plug-in for it?


Yes, Opera has a browser for the Wii -- $10 in Wii bucks, I think. Great for pulling weather and other news, but I haven't been too successful with TVersity and the Wii. Haven't spent a lot of time on it either since the H/HRs are working better now.


----------



## LameLefty (Sep 29, 2006)

bhelton71 said:


> I know, I know - old thread
> 
> There is a new google upnp mediaserver
> http://code.google.com/p/ps3mediaserver/
> ...


So why the hell have they got it precompiled for Windows and Linux but not OS X? I'm sorely tempted to download it this weekend and try to compile it myself.


----------



## bhelton71 (Mar 8, 2007)

LameLefty said:


> So why the hell have they got it precompiled for Windows and Linux but not OS X? I'm sorely tempted to download it this weekend and try to compile it myself.


I think that is just the installer - the app is java (not sure on 'purity' )


----------



## boilerjt (Jan 12, 2007)

LameLefty said:


> So why the hell have they got it precompiled for Windows and Linux but not OS X? I'm sorely tempted to download it this weekend and try to compile it myself.


You're in luck 

http://ps3mediaserver.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/ps3mediaserver/dist/pms-osx-1.01.zip


----------



## LameLefty (Sep 29, 2006)

boilerjt said:


> You're in luck
> 
> http://ps3mediaserver.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/ps3mediaserver/dist/pms-osx-1.01.zip


Cool.  I will playing with this in the coming days. Thanks for the link!


----------



## Thaedron (Jun 29, 2007)

Drew2k said:


> I have a feeling this is not ready for Prime Time ... but for me the requirement to use Google Desktop may be the first obstacle to overcome ...


I'm a big fan of some of the things that Google is doing, but even some of their more established web items like calendar and docs are fairly rough around the edges and/or periodically suffer from poor performance.

But overall, the more competition, the better. The media-share space holds sooooo much promise. With all of the attempts being made, there has got to be some clear cross-platform, non proprietary, user-friendly-to-more-than-the-I'll-compile-it-myself offerings rising to the top of the pack sometime soon.


----------



## jrodfoo (Apr 9, 2007)

Yeah i want to try out the PS3 media server, i use Nero and haven't had any problems but some videos won't play. thanks for the heads up.


----------



## bhelton71 (Mar 8, 2007)

Well I removed the PLAYSTATION restriction and recompiled - now I can the SEARCH messages coming in from the HR's. Haven't got it to register on an HR yet - must be something in the response they don't like. I have been able to browse the contentdirectory using Cidero.

It does 'mount' VIDEO_TS folders:


```
<DIDL-Lite>
    <container id="0$0$2$0$0" childCount="3" parentId="0$0$2$0" restricted="true">
      <dc:title>[DVD ISO]VIDEO_TS</dc:title>
      <upnp:albumArtURI profileID="JPEG_TN">http://192.168.1.100:5001/get/0$0$2$0$0/thumbnail0000%5BDVD+ISO%5D+VIDEO_TS</upnp:albumArtURI>
      <dc:date>1969-12-31</dc:date>
      <upnp:class>object.container</upnp:class>
    </container>
  </DIDL-Lite>
```


```
<DIDL-Lite>
    <item id="0$0$2$0$0$0" parentId="0$0$2$0$0" restricted="true">
      <dc:title>Title 1 [MEncoder]</dc:title>
      <res protocolInfo="http-get:*:video/mpeg:DLNA.ORG_OP=10" size="10000000000" duration="00:00:32.00" resolution="720x480" bitrate="1000000">http://192.168.1.100:5001/get/0$0$2$0$0$0/Title+1</res>
      <upnp:albumArtURI profileID="PNG_TN">http://192.168.1.100:5001/get/0$0$2$0$0$0/thumbnail0000Title+1</upnp:albumArtURI>
      <upnp:class>object.item.videoItem</upnp:class>
    </item>
    <item id="0$0$2$0$0$2" parentId="0$0$2$0$0" restricted="true">
      <dc:title>Title 2 [MEncoder]</dc:title>
      <res protocolInfo="http-get:*:video/mpeg:DLNA.ORG_OP=10" size="10000000000" duration="02:03:03.00" resolution="720x480" bitrate="1000000">http://192.168.1.100:5001/get/0$0$2$0$0$2/Title+2</res>
      <upnp:albumArtURI profileID="PNG_TN">http://192.168.1.100:5001/get/0$0$2$0$0$2/thumbnail0000Title+2</upnp:albumArtURI>
      <upnp:class>object.item.videoItem</upnp:class>
    </item>
  </DIDL-Lite>
```


```
<DIDL-Lite>
    <item id="0$0$2$0$0$1$1$0" parentId="0$0$2$0$0$1$1" restricted="true">
      <dc:title>Title 2 [MEncoder]</dc:title>
      <res protocolInfo="http-get:*:video/mpeg:DLNA.ORG_OP=10" size="10000000000" duration="02:03:03.00" resolution="720x480" bitrate="1000000">http://192.168.1.100:5001/get/0$0$2$0$0$1$1$0/Title+2</res>
      <upnp:albumArtURI profileID="PNG_TN">http://192.168.1.100:5001/get/0$0$2$0$0$1$1$0/thumbnail0000Title+2</upnp:albumArtURI>
      <upnp:class>object.item.videoItem</upnp:class>
    </item>
    <item id="0$0$2$0$0$1$1$1" parentId="0$0$2$0$0$1$1" restricted="true">
      <dc:title>MEncoder {audio: ac3 (5.1) }</dc:title>
      <res protocolInfo="http-get:*:video/mpeg:DLNA.ORG_OP=10" size="10000000000" duration="02:03:03.00" resolution="720x480" bitrate="1000000">http://192.168.1.100:5001/get/0$0$2$0$0$1$1$1/Title+2</res>
      <upnp:albumArtURI profileID="PNG_TN">http://192.168.1.100:5001/images/codes/.png</upnp:albumArtURI>
      <upnp:class>object.item.videoItem</upnp:class>
    </item>
  </DIDL-Lite>
```
As you can see - very odd menu structure

DVD Title
--> [DVD ISO]VIDEO_TS
------> #--TRANSCODED--#
----------> TITLE 1
----------> TITLE 2
---------------> Title 2 [MEncoder]
---------------> MEncoder {audio: ac3 (5.1) }


----------



## neocharles (Aug 4, 2008)

Please keep us updated on this..


----------



## bhelton71 (Mar 8, 2007)

Time to resurrect this zombie thread...

Looks like the PS3 MediaServer is moving closer to being a viable option. The author has provided a mechanism to identify players by user-agent so I played around with an svn build and mocked up an HR23 profile. I can browse the CDS, but still haven't quite gotten transcoding up and going so I have posted on their forum for some help.

Also another audio-only mediaserver I really want to try is Asset UPnP - its written by Illustrate (dBPowerAmp). Since I think highly of dBPowerAmp, I expect this audio server to be equally awesome. It comes as a standalone version or a WHS plugin and supports ReplayGain and volume leveling. At the moment I don't think it will work with the HRs (I haven't tried it - one project at a time ) - LPCM is failing on XBox which is usually a bad sign for the HR's. So just keeping an eye on it for now.

Asset: http://www.dbpoweramp.com/asset-upnp-dlna.htm


----------



## bhelton71 (Mar 8, 2007)

Well I used the Asset UPnP media server - very nice for audio only.
First thing to note - it is geared around music solely and as a result can support a wider range of tags (MOOD for example can be used as a 'menu' item) than most media servers. And it has ReplayGain and some volume leveling capabilities built in, so you don't have to stay attached to the remote as much.

Of special note to HR2x owners - it has a built in functionality to group [A-Z] items, so you can navigate to ZZ Top quite quickly without any extra effort. Also in general the content directory structure is highly customizable - although the base install is quite good itself. If you want to use extended tags there is a procedure documented on the Asset UPnP forums on how to do so.

I pretty much installed it and added a music folder. It indexed it fairly quickly. Then I accessed it thru Mediashare - no problems with playback. So I started playing around with additional codecs. Unlike other Windows based servers it does not appear to rely on the DirectShow engine - instead if you need additional codecs beyond what is supplied with the server (which has many of the common codecs already ) you go to dbPowerAmps "Codec Central" and download the appropriate codecs - which for me was WMA, FLAC. Again an easy task. I did notice on my wifes laptop I got an error at the end of the codec install for not being able to run dbPowerAmps configuration tool - which can be ignored safely as that wouldn't exist if dbPowerAmp is not installed.

The content directory exposed is definitely for audio enthusiasts. The "Advanced Search" container was a nice surprise - it creates entries for Audio Quality (presumably driven by bitrate), bits (16 vs 24), bitrate, conducter, encoder - even file type has a grouping, and some other items like 'Contains' which presents what type of tags are present in the file.

It is a DLNA compatible server so it presents each item with several DLNA profile types - the original, a 16bit lpcm stream, and a 16bit wav.


```
<item id="1147-au236.mp3" parentID="au236" restricted="0">
      <dc:title>Even Better Than the Real Thing  [U2]</dc:title>
      <dc:date>1991-01-01</dc:date>
      <upnp:artist role="Performer">U2</upnp:artist>
      <upnp:artist role="Conductor">(Unknown Conductor)</upnp:artist>
      <upnp:artist role="AlbumArtist">U2</upnp:artist>
      <upnp:author role="Composer">U2</upnp:author>
      <upnp:album>Achtung Baby</upnp:album>
      <upnp:genre>Alternative</upnp:genre>
      <upnp:albumArtURI profileID="JPEG_TN">http://192.168.1.200:53635/albumart/1147/cover.jpg</upnp:albumArtURI>
      <upnp:originalTrackNumber>2</upnp:originalTrackNumber>
      <res duration="00:03:40.000" size="8823246" sampleFrequency="44100" bitsPerSample="16" nrAudioChannels="2" bitrate="320001" protocolInfo="http-get:*:audio/mpeg:DLNA.ORG_PN=MP3;DLNA.ORG_OP=01">http://192.168.1.200:53635/content/c2/b16/f44100/1147.mp3</res>
      <res duration="00:03:40.000" size="8823246" sampleFrequency="44100" bitsPerSample="16" nrAudioChannels="2" bitrate="320001" protocolInfo="http-get:*:audio/wav:DLNA.ORG_PN=WAV;DLNA.ORG_OP=01">http://192.168.1.200:53635/content/c2/b16/f44100/1147.wav</res>
      <res duration="00:03:40.000" size="8823246" sampleFrequency="44100" bitsPerSample="16" nrAudioChannels="2" bitrate="320001" protocolInfo="http-get:*:audio/L16;rate=44100;channels=2:DLNA.ORG_PN=LPCM;DLNA.ORG_OP=01">http://192.168.1.200:53635/content/c2/b16/f44100/1147.l16</res>
      <res duration="00:03:40.000" size="8823246" sampleFrequency="44100" bitsPerSample="16" nrAudioChannels="2" bitrate="320001" protocolInfo="http-get:*:audio/mpeg:DLNA.ORG_PN=MP3;DLNA.ORG_OP=01">http://192.168.1.200:53635/content/c2/b16/f44100/1147.mp3</res>
      <upnp:class>object.item.audioItem.musicTrack</upnp:class>
    </item>
```
If you are looking for an audio only mediaserver - this is definitely a good one to check out.

Asset UPnP
http://www.dbpoweramp.com/asset-upnp-dlna.htm

Codec Central
http://www.dbpoweramp.com/codec-central.htm


----------



## MercurialIN (Jul 17, 2006)

bhelton71 said:


> Well I used the Asset UPnP media server - very nice for audio only.
> First thing to note - it is geared around music solely and as a result can support a wider range of tags (MOOD for example can be used as a 'menu' item) than most media servers. And it has ReplayGain and some volume leveling capabilities built in, so you don't have to stay attached to the remote as much.
> 
> Of special note to HR2x owners - it has a built in functionality to group [A-Z] items, so you can navigate to ZZ Top quite quickly without any extra effort. Also in general the content directory structure is highly customizable - although the base install is quite good itself. If you want to use extended tags there is a procedure documented on the Asset UPnP forums on how to do so.
> ...


Thanks for pointing this server out.

I'm always looking for new media servers (new to me) so I downloaded this one.

It was very easy to install. Silly me forgot at first to add my folders but once I did that, it has been pretty nice.

It has ignored some of my albums that are in the same folder with albums it lists. Not sure what that's about. But otherwise I'm liking it. Nice to be able to get to Tears For Fears without scrolling through endless other artists.


----------



## Drew2k (Aug 16, 2006)

MercurialIN said:


> Nice to be able to get to Tears For Fears without scrolling through endless other artists.


Was this through the DIRECTV interface that you got to Tears for Fears? I'm curious how you got to it without scrolling, so I hope you can expand on this ...

Thanks.


----------



## MercurialIN (Jul 17, 2006)

Drew2k said:


> Was this through the DIRECTV interface that you got to Tears for Fears? I'm curious how you got to it without scrolling, so I hope you can expand on this ...
> 
> Thanks.


I'm afraid I'm not very good at explaining this but, yes you can go through media share via your DVR to the asset server and go to artist and you can choose the a-z listing and scroll down through the alphabet to get to "T" for Tears for Fears or to whatever letter your favorite artist's name starts with.

There are more options for finding your music choice, like artist, genre, style, album, year etc plus other options that I can't remember just now.

Have only used it for a few minutes so far but I'm liking what I've seen of this asset server. Hope this helps.


----------



## bhelton71 (Mar 8, 2007)

MercurialIN said:


> Thanks for pointing this server out.
> 
> I'm always looking for new media servers (new to me) so I downloaded this one.
> 
> ...


If you are missing codecs (it was wma for me) it will not add the items - I assume since it doesn't know how to decode them. After you install the codecs - rescan the library and it will add them.

They have a beta version 2.0 that is beginning to add internet radio also. Its a pretty new server - the project just started earlier this year so they do have a lot to do - like playlists.


----------



## MercurialIN (Jul 17, 2006)

bhelton71 said:


> If you are missing codecs (it was wma for me) it will not add the items - I assume since it doesn't know how to decode them. After you install the codecs - rescan the library and it will add them.
> 
> They have a beta version 2.0 that is beginning to add internet radio also. Its a pretty new server - the project just started earlier this year so they do have a lot to do - like playlists.


I found and installed the codecs that I think might have been missing, went for the wma codec.

Also downloaded and installed the beta version 2.0 but haven't tried using it just yet. Again, thank you for the help.


----------



## Drew2k (Aug 16, 2006)

MercurialIN said:


> I'm afraid I'm not very good at explaining this but, yes you can go through media share via your DVR to the asset server and go to artist and you can choose the a-z listing and scroll down through the alphabet to get to "T" for Tears for Fears or to whatever letter your favorite artist's name starts with.
> 
> There are more options for finding your music choice, like artist, genre, style, album, year etc plus other options that I can't remember just now.
> 
> Have only used it for a few minutes so far but I'm liking what I've seen of this asset server. Hope this helps.


This sounds exactly like the features I see from using Windows Media Player 11 as a server, where all artists were listed A-Z. I thought maybe the new server provided some other way to get to the artists, but it seems I already have this. Thanks for the reply though.


----------



## MercurialIN (Jul 17, 2006)

Drew2k said:


> This sounds exactly like the features I see from using Windows Media Player 11 as a server, where all artists were listed A-Z. I thought maybe the new server provided some other way to get to the artists, but it seems I already have this. Thanks for the reply though.


Drew, sorry I'm just not explaining it well. I have WMP11 also but Asset is different. It actually lets you scroll through the letters of the alphabet to get to your favorite artist.

It lists each separate letter of the alphabet and you scroll down to the letter of the artist you are looking for, like scroll down to "T" for Tears For Fears. It will list all artists whose names begin with the letter "T". In other words you don't have to scroll through artists names starting with a,b,c etc till you reach the letter t you can go directly to "t" names for instance.

bhelton71, could I'm sure, explain it more clearly. It really is a different server (from WMP & Tversity) and I'm really enjoying it so far.


----------



## Drew2k (Aug 16, 2006)

MercurialIN said:


> Drew, sorry I'm just not explaining it well. I have WMP11 also but Asset is different. It actually lets you scroll through the letters of the alphabet to get to your favorite artist.
> 
> It lists each separate letter of the alphabet and you scroll down to the letter of the artist you are looking for, like scroll down to "T" for Tears For Fears. It will list all artists whose names begin with the letter "T". In other words you don't have to scroll through artists names starting with a,b,c etc till you reach the letter t you can go directly to "t" names for instance.
> 
> bhelton71, could I'm sure, explain it more clearly. It really is a different server (from WMP & Tversity) and I'm really enjoying it so far.


Thank you MercurialIN ... I think I have it now! Are the letters A-Z (and I presume 0-0) presented as top-level folders when you choose Artist? Then you page down to T, press SELECT, and there are all of your T artists? That sounds pretty good actually....

If it's not, thanks for trying to explain it, and no apologies necessary. It's late and I'm sure I don't have my comprehension hat on, but this weekend I may play around with installing this new server to check it out for myself. Hands-on is always better than second-hand.


----------



## MercurialIN (Jul 17, 2006)

Drew2k said:


> Thank you MercurialIN ... I think I have it now! Are the letters A-Z (and I presume 0-0) presented as top-level folders when you choose Artist? Then you page down to T, press SELECT, and there are all of your T artists? That sounds pretty good actually....
> 
> If it's not, thanks for trying to explain it, and no apologies necessary. It's late and I'm sure I don't have my comprehension hat on, but this weekend I may play around with installing this new server to check it out for myself. Hands-on is always better than second-hand.


Yes that is how it's done. Select artist or album, song etc and there is a top level folder labeled a-z. Again I only installed the server myself early this morning and have used it once but so far I've been pleased. It's worth checking out when you have the time.


----------



## CorkyMuldoon (Oct 6, 2006)

Drew2k said:


> I have a feeling this is not ready for Prime Time ... but for me the requirement to use Google Desktop may be the first obstacle to overcome ...


Ditto.


----------

