PS3 Media Server

Back when I had the Cave 1.0 in my parent's basement in Loogootee, I had my computer wired to my stereo so I could enjoy my music collection on the stereo. Ever since that time, I have been trying to figure out a good way to connect my computer to my stereo. Since I've moved the stereo out of the original Cave, the computer has always been in a different room, making a direct connection unpractical. There are a few cheap ways to connect a computer to a stereo with out wires, including the popular Apple Airport Express. The problem with a lot of these cheaper options is that you have to control the music from your computer, meaning you have to get up and walk from your living room to your computer room to change a song. I was looking at a slightly more expensive alternative that allowed you to control the music from your living room called the Logitech Squeezebox Duet. This product looked promising but costs between $300 and $400 and I just wasn't ready to plop down that kind of cash yet to listen to my music on my stereo. And don't even mention the Sonos multi-room systems, which are considered the cream of the crop for this type of technology.

Come to find out I had a solution right in front of my eyes, and best part is that it is cheap. Try free cheap. I was messing around on my PS3 when I saw the option "Search for Media Servers." Now I knew the PS3 could do such a thing and had read about it a bit from a link Ogre had sent me awhile back. I decided to investigate this myself so did a Google search on it which brought me to this website. The website introduced me to this program called the PS3 Media Server, a simple Java-based program that is only around 10 Mb in size. After a quick download, all you have to do is open the program and point it to which directories you want to share on your computer with your PS3 and your PS3 will now have the directories for you to access the content over the network. The whole thing took about 10 minutes to setup. It was super easy. I have been using it for about a week and have streamed music, movies, and pictures without any problems at all. It is a great piece of software and I would recommend it to anyone who has a PS3 and a bunch of media files on their computer they would like to share or listen to over their home stereo (which I would think would apply to about everyone who reads this blog).

In all honesty, I did copy some files directly to the PS3 using a 40 Gb hard drive I had sitting around collecting dust. The reason for this was so I could more easily set up music play lists and access the songs quicker. The software does a great job, but there usually is a 3-5 second delay between songs when they are loading. This also eliminates the need for the software to be running all of the time. Now if I ever need or want to access a certain song or picture, all I have to do is start running the server software and it will be found on the PS3. It is a great piece of software, especially for the price. It feels like I have a new toy that I didn't even have to pay for. It also feels good to have my music collection and stereo reunited. It just makes sense to have it this way.