Saw this (http://www.engadget.com/2008/01/07/nullriver-to-release-medialink-mac-ps3-media-sharing-app-this/)over at engadget (http://http://www.engadget.com/2008/01/07/nullriver-to-release-medialink-mac-ps3-media-sharing-app-this/)has any one tried it yet? Aparently it will let you stream your iTunes / iPhoto over to the ps3 from your mac.

I've been waiting for this (since EyeConnect was buggy for me). BTW, here is the product page:

http://www.nullriver.com/index/products/medialink

Hope to give it a try in the next few days...

PSN: MiddKid

I will be trying it probably this weekend, and will let you know what I find, oh bringer of light.

BB

as i posted in the other thread about this.

I installed it last night. Seams buggy crashes every-time i try and play any m4v (mpeg-4) video.

Also it does not seam to support AAC. even non DRM ones.

However i am in contact with there tech support and they seam eager to locate the source of the problem and are troubleshooting it with me.

As it is version 1.0 i can give them a little slack.

The interface is awsome however. 500 times better than twonky media. If they fix these 2 problem i will be buying it straight away

I can't get it to work properly at all, videos won't play, it doesn't find my photos, and it doesn't play music either. I often get a error message: dlna error 2006. Does anyone know what that is? hopefully the bugs get worked out because I was looking forward to a easy and affordable media sharing program for the mac.

They just added the following to the site

"We're working on an update to correct Mac OS X 10.4.x issues today."

Good they seam to be working on it. Wierd thing is i am running 10.5.1 Is anyone else that is having these problems running 10.5?

They just added the following to the site

"We're working on an update to correct Mac OS X 10.4.x issues today."

Good they seam to be working on it. Wierd thing is i am running 10.5.1 Is anyone else that is having these problems running 10.5?

Good to hear that that they may be fixing it. Here is the email I sent to Nullriver last night:

I was very excited to see the release of MediaLink today. I've
downloaded it and installed, but I simply can't get it to work.
Here's what I'm seeing:

Mac: iMac G5 10.4.11 Connected via wireless to Apple Airport Extreme
wireless router.
PS3 is hooked via Ethernet to the router

In the firewall pane of the iMac I opened the ports listed on your
website (even if I turn off the firewall entirely I get the same
problems below).

I start MediaLink. It starts up fine.

I turn on my PS3, I hear the sound on the iMac and the iMac appears
as a Media Server on my PS3. So far so good. But here are the
errors I have:

Under the Photo section of the XMB I go to the iPhoto folder then
after selecting I get "There are no images" on the PS3

Under the Music section of the XMB I select iTunes and go to the
Playlist sections. I can see the Playlists. I select one and I can
see the track names. When I hit play I get "Media Server Error. A
Network error has occurred (80710736)"

Haven't tried video.

Here's a really strange problem. When MediaLink is running,
everytime I click on the "Devices" tab of the MediaLink preferences
pane, I get the spinning ball of doom. I launch the force quit
window and get "System Preferences (not responding)." This happens
every time I click that tab.

Good to hear that that they may be fixing it. Here is the email I sent to Nullriver last night:

I was very excited to see the release of MediaLink today. I've
downloaded it and installed, but I simply can't get it to work.
Here's what I'm seeing:

Mac: iMac G5 10.4.11 Connected via wireless to Apple Airport Extreme
wireless router.
PS3 is hooked via Ethernet to the router

In the firewall pane of the iMac I opened the ports listed on your
website (even if I turn off the firewall entirely I get the same
problems below).

I start MediaLink. It starts up fine.

I turn on my PS3, I hear the sound on the iMac and the iMac appears
as a Media Server on my PS3. So far so good. But here are the
errors I have:

Under the Photo section of the XMB I go to the iPhoto folder then
after selecting I get "There are no images" on the PS3

Under the Music section of the XMB I select iTunes and go to the
Playlist sections. I can see the Playlists. I select one and I can
see the track names. When I hit play I get "Media Server Error. A
Network error has occurred (80710736)"

Haven't tried video.

Here's a really strange problem. When MediaLink is running,
everytime I click on the "Devices" tab of the MediaLink preferences
pane, I get the spinning ball of doom. I launch the force quit
window and get "System Preferences (not responding)." This happens
every time I click that tab.

They just sent me an email asking me to try the new version they put up. I had my wife try it since i am at work and she is at home tday. It now plays video fine.

I upgraded to 1.01 and video seems to work now, but the media server does not recognize aac tracks in itunes and it still says that there are no images in the iphoto folder. if any one has gotten this to work smoothly can you please tell me how you went about it or if it was just smooth of the bat. I am on a ibook g4 running 10.4.11.

once i installed 1.01 movies worked fine. Pictures from iphoto worked for me straight away even with 1.0 (but only if you browse from the images screen on your ps3)

Video appears to be working ok. but i was able to crash it if i started and stopped different video's quite quickly.

As for AAC. I emailed there support and was told that it was not currently supported but would be soon and they were working on it.

Downloaded it tonight and couldn't get it to work very well, either.

I was able to play some of my music files but when I attempted video and photos, no such luck -- and they resulted in error messages and a lost connection between my PS3 and MediaLink.

I, too, have been in contact with tech support but have yet to hear back on a solution, but I trust that they're hard at work on the issues.

Connect360 worked like a charm the first time out for me (I realize this is brand-new, so they're still working out the kinks. I'm looking forward to using it once they figure out the glitches).

They released another update late last night i noticed. it is now at version 1.02 .
Also they added a note to the site saying aac support is coming

hey. they juat released a new version (1.1) and all the bugs apear to be fixed. just played with it for an hour and was unable to crash it. soon as they add in aac support (hopfully soon) this will be perfect.

I am definatly ordering this on friday (payday)

Will aac support include Apple Lossless?? When Connect360 offered that feature, I bought the program instantly. As of now I am still using my ubuntu server with mediatomb (.mp3). I can't wait to replace it with MediaLink.

no idea. All it says on the site now is aac is coming soon. You may want to send them an email asking them. Let us know what they say.

just noticed they updated it again not version 1.2 is there. and yes AAC support is in there. cant wait to test it

I am still having a problem reading photos from the iphoto library; It says that there are no images. I can see the photos in the root folders but they aren't organized in albums. Does anyone else experience this? I have emailed nullriver but haven't gotten a response; I'm sure they are swamped right now. if anyone here has any suggestions i would love to read them.

Nice job on the updates though, they really seem to be adamant about correcting issues. I do think that it is a pretty sweet interface, hopefully I can get it to work properly.

Tried 1.1 briefly last night. Functionality was intermittent, but that may have been due to my wifi. But not dazzled with it, nonetheless. Sort of a race for this thing to become a stable full featured product before Apple releases an aTV I want.

BB

I am still having a problem reading photos from the iphoto library; It says that there are no images. I can see the photos in the root folders but they aren't organized in albums. Does anyone else experience this? I have emailed nullriver but haven't gotten a response; I'm sure they are swamped right now. if anyone here has any suggestions i would love to read them.

Nice job on the updates though, they really seem to be adamant about correcting issues. I do think that it is a pretty sweet interface, hopefully I can get it to work properly.

Have you turned on sharing in the iphoto app its self?

Have you turned on sharing in the iphoto app its self?

yes i have sharing on iphoto, but it still says no images.

I can see all photos and movies. I can see my movies, and watch them in my itunes movie folder. I can go to music > itunes and songs and see all me songs but if I go to playlist I see nothing. any ideas? I have check on the mac and yup it all shows up and is listed in the debug feature.

Second thing is I have to resign in a few times before I get the Nullriver directory to show up. Is that happening to anyone else?

I tried the demo. at first it seems sweet, but then I tried to stream.... haha

EVERYTHING I tried to play stops every 30 seconds or so.... So im wondering if its my signal strength or if its the program... If it wouldnt balk Id buy it right now!

Any ideas?

Both of you are decribing issue i had in previous versions. Do you have 1.2 (sometimes even after upgrading i saw that it still said a previous version in the about of the software.) if that is not the case you may want to hit up there tech support.

They were very helpful to me. Even before i registerd it.

Oops, I figured out the problem; I don't have iPhoto 08, I have iphoto 6 and the minimum requirements are iPhoto 08. I guess I should have read a little more closely before.

oh if you six it should be easy to fix.

Just add your picture folder under the folders section forget iphoto share the folder directly. i think 6 is before they made it a conpressed file.

Both of you are decribing issue i had in previous versions. Do you have 1.2 (sometimes even after upgrading i saw that it still said a previous version in the about of the software.) if that is not the case you may want to hit up there tech support.

They were very helpful to me. Even before i registerd it.

Interesting, I didnt check and see what version I had. I will check and see, and if its the wrong one ill get in contact with their tech support.

If it works Ill be one happy mac/ps3 owner!

for me all i needed to do was reinstall the upgrade. if the number was right. i found best way to get upgrade to work stop the server. close system pref. run update. enter password, close and reopen sys pref

yes I am at 1.2. I'll try reinstalling it. It worked great at 1.1 last night. seems odd that everything works but the saved playlist in itunes.

Anyone want to PM me an activation so I can see if it's worth buying? The demo is poor. I do love Connect 360 though...

And yes, if it's good, I will buy it.. This isn't a shameless plug for free software. lol :)

I love this program. Not so great for streaming HD over wireless. It skips.

And that, Schaubless, is why i want to try it out first...I'm running wireless...It's either this, or a NAS external HD.

Anyone want to PM me an activation so I can see if it's worth buying? The demo is poor. I do love Connect 360 though...

And yes, if it's good, I will buy it.. This isn't a shameless plug for free software. lol :)

you dont need key. only dif is reg does not shut off after 30 mins of use

That's wierd then...Cause my PS3 shows my iMac, but it says, "Please Register" when I click on it. lol

stop and rester the server in sys prefernaces. (it says please reg after it has been running for 30 mins

I'll try that... I was going to buy and put together a whole "Home Server-NAS" type device, but if this works well, it'll be the way to go...

Anyone have it working flawlessly?

it works flawlessly for me. i just wish it was able the handle MKV files. THe developers say they are working on adding support.

So how is this compared to Twonky and EyeConnect? Worth the 20?

I ran the demo of twonky. Media connect just for its simplicty and 1/3 the price wins out. Plus i think the video looks less jerky than twonky. and is more stable since the divix version of twonky is really buggy. or was until last week. dont know if they patched since then

never tried eye connect.

After reading about media link here I decided to try it out and it works great for streaming music from my iTunes. I did not have any problems with unencrypted AAC files. The only issue that I encountered was when switching quickly to different tracks the server would disconnect and I had to stop/start it.

So far, I've only used it to serve iTunes libraries from two laptops (one 10.5.1, the other 10.4.11)...works great.

Only caveat is that some of the album artwork doesn't seem to pull over. Wondering what the glitch there is...but the streaming has been flawless.

I've used their 'Connect360' product for a while now and its great to see them taking their expertise over to the PS3 platform. Nullriver rocks!

So would I be better off using this or using one of the Windows solutions? I have an XP partition on my Macbook Pro that I'm in the process of ripping my music collection to (WMA Lossless), do the Windows solutions work better? I'd like to know because if this works better than the Windows media streaming solutions I'll just encode my music in something else on the Mac side.

O btw, what lossless formats (if any) can the PS3 and the PSP play. I'll probably be using remote play to stream my music to my PSP so I need a format both will play.

No lossless yet. But if the development follows Nullriver's Connect360 then it will support apple lossless soon.

No lossless yet. But if the development follows Nullriver's Connect360 then it will support apple lossless soon.

Alright that'd be cool, I'm not familiar with using Apple Lossless though. When you encode in ALAC does it automatically implement some kind of copy protection or DRM? If it does is there an option to turn that off like there is with WMA Lossless?

No DRM, it just isn't as widely supported as FLAC.

The problem I have with most of these serve applications, null river inclued is that it sees all my Itunes folders, but when I go into the folders there are no tracks listed. The Music is encoded in AAC 256kbps VBR.

I have another problem: MediaLink works fine over wireless. However, there are so many networks in my house that my network is so-so in speed, and thus some video skip. Therefore I setup my Mac mini to share its internet connection through the ethernet port, and hooked up my PS3 to that instead (they are like 2 feet apart, so a wire is fine).

But this does not work; PS3 can no longer see MediaLink. I suspect this is because MediaLink registers on the wrong network interface, i.e. the wireless one, but there is no way to select which interface MediaLink should use. I know the wired connection works since I have Mediatomb installed, and this works fine over the wire, but I definitely prefer MediaLink's interface except for this problem.

Any suggestions? I have tried making the ethernet interface being the primary interface, using Network Preferences on the mini, but this does not help...

Therefore I setup my Mac mini to share its internet connection through the ethernet port, and hooked up my PS3 to that instead (they are like 2 feet apart, so a wire is fine).
Are they connected directly? Do you need to use a crossover cable?

Have you turned on sharing in the iphoto app its self?

I'm having a similar problem with Connect360 for my...360.

I have sharing on in Connect360 and the program finds my iPhoto folder fine, but says I have 0 albums and 0 photos. Is there something I have to do in iPhoto?

Also, I just added a few mp3's recently...non-DRM, just regular mp3s, and for some reason, they won't play. I get a circle with a slash through it when I play them on the 360. Makes no sense. The program worked fine for me until a couple versions ago. I'm a bit leery of getting Medialink if I encounter the same issues.

Are they connected directly? Do you need to use a crossover cable?

They are connected and I do use a crossover cable; not sure if that is necessary but since I had one I used it. If you are going to do the same, one caveat: I had to manually input IP config since automatic didn't work. Use:

IP: 192.168.2.2 (you can use any end number 2-254)
Router: 192.168.2.1 (this is the IP of the mini when it shares its internet using ethernet)
DNS: 192.168.2.1
Netmask (or whatever it is called, don't remember): 255.255.255.0
Automatic settings for the rest

why cant u get my ps3 to see the server? medialink finds the ps3 no probs but not the other way around... ive followed all the steps advised on their faq and every site but it just doesnt see it... why??

are you connecting wirelessly? or wired?

are both machines plugged into the same router? Did you enable it to pass through your firewall?

Are people still using this program? Have you been happy with it?

i still use this program and have been really happy with it. I have it installed on my Powerbook and also on my Powermac G4 Desktop. The PS3 always sees my powerbook but sometimes i have trouble getting it to see the server on my Desktop computer. I have to reset the computer, PS3, and sometimes even the router a few times for it to see the files that are on my Desktop g4. If i could get that to work as smooth as it does on my laptop then i would be completely satisfied with this product and would recommend it for anyone wanting to stream files from a mac.

i love it. been using it for several months. workd flawlessly

I use EyeConnect... it streams movies, iTunes music (no-DRM) and iPhoto images just fine :) For some reason MediaLink never worked for me :confused:

Reviving this old thread to share some of my experiences that may help people trying to get this to work.

I have a 2.0 Ghz Macbook Pro and a 40 GB PS3. I'm using version 1.54 of MediaLink and my PS3 has firmware 2.36.

For those who can't get certain music or picture or video files to show up, I have found that you need to be in the correct category. For example, if you want to play iTunes songs and you enter MediaLink under the "movies" category of the PS3's menu, the songs won't show up. If you want to watch a movie in iTunes, you have to access MediaLink under the Movies category, go to MediaLink, go to iTunes, then go to movies and it will show up.

I have also been able to access music, photos and movies through the folders option. But, again, you have to access the content under the correct category for it to work.

It integrates w/ iTunes really well with the exception that it can't play any music w/ DRM. All of the non-DRM iTunes songs I bought shows up and plays correctly as well as all MP3s and non-copy protected AAC encoded songs.

Sometimes the connection gets flaky btw MediaLink and the computer, but just reaccessing the MediaLink icon in the tool bar corrects the problem.

It plays AVIs, MPEG, WMVs (needs to have WMA enabled under PS3's settings menu to play WMVs).

For those who don't have iPhoto 08, you can still access your pictures directly by going through the folders -> pictures -> iPhoto library -> originals -> year -> roll#. The slideshow function works but does not allow you to select music.

Hope someone can help. I've been using MediaLink for a few months now and it's worked well. A few days ago I updated my iMac to OSX 10.5.4 and rebooted after the install. I got the message asking me to allow MediaLink and I said yes. MediaLink is showing as enabled in system settings, but it's not showing up on the PS3 anymore. The wireless network works fine otherwise, the PS3 sees it with 97% signal strength.

Hope someone can help. I've been using MediaLink for a few months now and it's worked well. A few days ago I updated my iMac to OSX 10.5.4 and rebooted after the install. I got the message asking me to allow MediaLink and I said yes. MediaLink is showing as enabled in system settings, but it's not showing up on the PS3 anymore. The wireless network works fine otherwise, the PS3 sees it with 97% signal strength.

Have you tried stopping & starting the service in MediaLink? I've had some connection issues before, and that usually fixes it. If not, I'll usually reboot the PS3 while my Mac is on and running, and then the PS3 picks it up. Not sure what else you could try - I have 10.5.4 installed and was playing music last night through it just fine. Good luck!

I've been using this since the day it was released, and while it's very easy to use and setup, I have been frustrated with the connection reliability. I have mine running on a Quicksilver PM with 10.5.4 (currently) and have had lots of network interrupt or slowdowns that my PS3 does not seem to recover from when watching H.264 encoded movies. I have a wired gigabit network between the Mac and PS3, so I doubt there is too much network traffic. I have tried many versions of this product, but always seem to revert back to v1.22.

Since this product is only $20, I can't complain too much, but I am getting frustrated with not being able to watch more than 30 minutes of a movie before having to restart the MediaLink process. Anyone else have this experience?

Just got a PS3 Slim for Christmas and was looking for a media server program to make content from my Mac available on my PS3. I already had a 360 and have been using Connect360 for a couple years with zero complaints, so I obviously was attracted by MediaLink. The demo seemed to work fine, though it did seem like the HD video quality was somewhat lacking compared to stuff streamed on my 360. I suppose that could be because I have my 360 connected to my Time Capsule via Ethernet cable, while the PS3 is using WiFi (albeit with 98% signal strength). It would be easy enough to add a port replicator in my A/V cabinet and run cable to the PS3 as well.

I am very excited that the PS3 will play .MKVs, as those don't fly on the 360 and I previously had no easy way to watch them on my home theater. Basically just wanted to get current consensus from folks as to whether this was still the best way to go before I plunk down my $20.

Just got a PS3 Slim for Christmas and was looking for a media server program to make content from my Mac available on my PS3. I already had a 360 and have been using Connect360 for a couple years with zero complaints, so I obviously was attracted by MediaLink. The demo seemed to work fine, though it did seem like the HD video quality was somewhat lacking compared to stuff streamed on my 360. I suppose that could be because I have my 360 connected to my Time Capsule via Ethernet cable, while the PS3 is using WiFi (albeit with 98% signal strength). It would be easy enough to add a port replicator in my A/V cabinet and run cable to the PS3 as well.

I am very excited that the PS3 will play .MKVs, as those don't fly on the 360 and I previously had no easy way to watch them on my home theater. Basically just wanted to get current consensus from folks as to whether this was still the best way to go before I plunk down my $20.


Yes I would say MediaLink is the best way to stream content to your PS3 for a Mac. I have used it since it was released and through steady incremental updates to MediaLink and the PS3 firmware it now is very stable, even when streaming Blu-Ray rips at 30 Mbps. Definitely worth $20! I am still using the 1.x version not the 2.0 (beta) as version 2 didn't really add any features I'm looking for. Good luck!

I've tried Media Link including the latest version without any luck. One program I have found that does work for me is Playback.

I've tried Media Link including the latest version without any luck. One program I have found that does work for me is Playback.

Hmmm...Playback looks nice, but does not appear to support MKVs, so that rules it out for me.

PS3 Media Server is free. Give that a shot.

I use MediaLink and don't have any issues with it, but Media Server wasn't available when I got ML.

Could you guys stream 1080p with medialink? I tried it with a 1080p wmv and was downsampled to eight hundred something by something else. I'll double check the setting when I get out of work but I think I had everything right.

I do, I rip Blu-rays to MKV format then use a tool called MKV2VOB to convert it to a vob-like format that PS3 understands. 1080p streams fine as long as you have enough bandwidth (i'm on 1gb ethernet).

I'm also on ethernet (can't remember it's gigabit but should be, it's new) and still couldn't get 1080 out of Medialink. So far I'm using PS3 Media Server, it's free and it does give me 1080, but the UI isn't as nice as Medialink. I'm also in the process of trying 3 or 4 other programs.

I was using an old Quicksilver box and would get the occasional drop out, but since upgrading my media server to a G5, I have not had any issues. Also, I'm using an older version of MediaLink (v1.72).

Can you not stream at all or are you getting drop outs?

I can stream but if you click on "information" on a media file they all have a resolution that's eight hundred something by something else, instead of their native resolution. So if it's low, it upscales it and if it's higher like 1080p, it downscales it. It sounds like it would be a setting somewhere but I can't see it.

I can stream but if you click on "information" on a media file they all have a resolution that's eight hundred something by something else, instead of their native resolution. So if it's low, it upscales it and if it's higher like 1080p, it downscales it. It sounds like it would be a setting somewhere but I can't see it.

I don't think I've tried checking the information function, but base on my server's CPU usage, I don't believe any down-scaling is occurring. I have checked the bitrate when viewing 1080p movies and it's generally in the 20-30 Mbps range, so I expect that is the full bitrate.