PS3 Media Servers

I wanted to play all of the movies i have ripped to my server with my PS3.  So I did a little research and found out that PS3 media streaming uses the DLNA protocol to receive content from a peer on a network. Great, does Linux have a DLNA protocol server, YES, it is called uShare.

Here are the easy steps to set it up.

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install ushare

Configuration

Once finished, you’ll have uShare installed and ready for configuration. Out of the box, it won’t work for our purpose. You’ll need to edit /etc /ushare.conf to enable Xbox (might need it someday) compatibility as well as define the standard port – 49200. Open /etc /ushare.conf as root and change the following lines:

USHARE_PORT=49200
USHARE_DIR=/path/to/your/media
ENABLE_XBOX=YES

Before these changes will take effect, you’ll need to restart ushare using its init script. However, an issue I’ve noticed is that the last line (’ENABLE_XBOX=YES’) does not always work. So before we restart uShare, we’ll need to make a small change to the init script that resides under /etc /init.d/ to force Xbox compatibility:

sudo vi /etc /init.d/ushare

and add the following line at the beginning of the script:

USHARE_OPTIONS=-x

This tells uShare to start with Xbox compatibility (you may need it someday). Now restart uShare using the init script:

invoke-rc.d ushare restart

Now you are finished. You may need to restart the PS3. Now navigate to the media menu and then select ‘Videos’ and finally you should see ‘uShare’ at the bottom (computer icon). Selecting that will connect to your Linux box and you’ll be able to browse your media just as you would on your PC.

This works with versions of Ubuntu back to 8.10 and Fedora 9,10 1nd 11. For Fedora you have to use yum not apt-get.

Enjoy