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New PS4 Media Player launches today - DLNA, MKV support and more

S

SolidusDave

Member
Suspend/Resume works pretty well with this app.

First I thought it doesn't work because when you turn off the PS4 while watching a video via DLNA it just starts out in the main menu of the app again when you start the PS4. However, it just does that because it needs to connected to the media server first.
Then you can go manually into the folders or just select the file(s) in the Recently Played section and it will play the video right where you left off!

If it was an audio file the PS4 will actually automatically have it ready to start right away (as long as the media server is connected), pretty useful for podcasts that you can now stream from your PC to listen to them while playing PS4 games. Turn off the PS4 and next time you can instantly continue with the game+podcast.

The only weird thing I noticed is that the PS4 will always start in the Media Player app if it was running; even when you turned off the PS4 while playing a game (which is still suspended though).


The multitasking+suspend/resume+much better performance over wireless were exactly the things I hoped for. The PS4 has much more potential as a media player than the PS3, they just need to update the shit out of the app now.

my wishlist:
- video player functionality on par with the PS3 video/blu-ray player. Currently it doesn't even have some of the stuff of the PS4 blu-ray player which is barebone in itself.
- divx/xvid support
- don't scale the video thumbnails for the big tiles...
 
S

SolidusDave

Member
I played around with my DLNA server (Serviio) and I realized that the PS4 CAN play xvid (and I guess divx) encoded videos after all!

There's no PS4 profile yet so I had the media server set to Playstation 3.
However, I changed it to the profile for Roku Media Player as that's close to the supported codec lists and now all my xvid+mp3 encoded *.avi files work.
With the PS3 profile in Serviio they wouldn't even show up but now they play just fine. I have transcoding disabled, so it shouldn't be due to that.

However, with these files it doesn't resume to where you left off if you close the video.


I feel a bit stupid, because I now googled "MPEG4 ASP" (listed as one of the supported avi codecs) and that's actually a standard that xvid&divx use...

Still, I'm a happy panda now. Now it actually plays more stuff than the PS3 :D
 
K

Kei-

Member
So is there no way to play all music content within a folder that has separate music folders within it?

I wanna play all my Initial D collection, but I have it organised this way; I have my Initial D Collection folder > Initial D - Best Selection, Initial D - Extra Stage OST...and other several folders > Within those folders, individual music files.

Is there anyway to play and shuffle through all the music files in the Initial D collections parent folder?
 
A

alr1ght

bish gets all the credit :)
Every media server ignores audio track file numbering. Is there a server that honors the track number tag? I don't want to listen to my albums alphabetically.
 
S

ShaoranWright

Member
muteki said:
It does, just maybe not the format in your files.

Also, Sub junk put out test builds of UMS today for PS4. Not much of an improvement for me however.
Click to expand...

wait....

tt5ybd7.jpg


I tried with ass files and nothing, maybe str???
 
K

kyser73

Member
Is Serviio any better than UMS? I tried UMS and got bored waiting for it to index all the files.

TBH this really doesn't bother me that much as my TV works really well with UMS and has USB playback, as does our STB, but always good to have redundancy.
 
M

muteki

Member
My issues with UMS recently have more to do with their transcoders, FFMpeg and Mencoder. I don't know if it is how UMS is calling them or something internal that is out of UMS' control but usability has taken a nosedive in the past ~year or so.

So unfortunately even when the PS4 support rolls out I think it will still not be anywhere near stable as it once was for me a year or two ago on PS3 where I could throw any/everything at it and it would work like a champ.
 
P

PaNaMa

Banned
I was one of the MANY people who griped about this for the last year and half +.

Sony - Thank you. It works great. Picks up my Windows 10 shares. Has played everything without issue.

If you are reading this, thanks!
 
D

DeejayKnight

Member
Tried both UMS and Serviio, but even after mutiple server restarts, neither was found by either the Xbox One or the PS4.

Started the Windows Media sharing? Works like a fuggin charm.
 
S

SolidusDave

Member
I just realized the PS4 has now three different video players:

- DVD/Blu-ray player (has functions for menus, touchpad integration etc.)
- Share player (for videos you recorded on the PS4)
- The new Media Player app (which uses the same player for photos so that you can e.g. rotate videos by 90° :lol)

and EACH of them has completely different fast forwarding etc. options. Only some of them allow slow speeds while others are super slow to seek through.

Come on. Just a LITTLE bit of consistency would be nice (and mainly because it's annoying that you can't use functions depending on where you play a video).


Another thing I noticed is that you can't take screenshots/recordings in the Media Player (like for Blu-rays/DVDs). Gotta protect that copyright of my own files I guess.
 
B

B-Man

Member
It's my first time to try DLNA, so noobie question warning :

I can't seem to fast forward / rewind videos, is that a problem with my DLNA server ? i tried windows media player, Serviio, and PS3 Media Server, none of them allowed me to go to a specific point in the video.

so, what's your suggestion for a good FREE DLNA server that would support fast forward / rewind AND subtitles ?
 
W

whome0

Member
SG-17 said:
Is Sony being very strict with MKVs? None of mine work and half of my library is MKV. I'd rather not have to convert everything to MP4.
Click to expand...

MKV is "just" a container like avi, mp4, ts formats. What is does hold inside matters more and PS4 dlna player supports h264 videostream and aac_lc/ac3/mp3 audio codecs. Go deeper and maximun limit is h264_highprofile_level4.2.

We probably could forget avi container and mp3 codec by now, AC3(dolby) is basicly for multichannel and AAC for stereo audio. MediaInfo is a good tool to list exact media file details. Please note EAC3(Dolby DD+) is not the same as AC3(Dolby DD) audio codec.

If you are a familiar with FFMPEG command line it would be easy to remux MKV(h264,aac) to MP4(h264,aac) files and see if helps. Remuxing does not transcode media streams so takes only few seconds to run even large files. Transcoding+Remuxing takes all your cpu and time.

This is the most simple command line, it copies video+audio stream and remuxes to mp4 container. Transcoding needs more parameters but allows us to change vp9->h264 video and mp3->aac audio and so on.
Code: 
ffmpeg -i "input.mkv" -vcodec copy -acodec copy -y "output.mp4"
 
B

Beaulieu

Member
Hi guys

So I installed this today and gave PS4 acces to my PC via Windows Media player
I can now stream music from my PC, it works well and all.
However, I cant play video. It doest find any videos on my PC. I have pretty much all formats on there.

Do I need to put the video in a specific folder on my PC or something ?

edit : puting my videos on my desktop works.... dont know why its not working in my video file. Also, quality seems worse than on my 360.
 
S

StrongBlackVine

Banned
Beaulieu said:
Hi guys

So I installed this today and gave PS4 acces to my PC via Windows Media player
I can now stream music from my PC, it works well and all.
However, I cant play video. It doest find any videos on my PC. I have pretty much all formats on there.

Do I need to put the video in a specific folder on my PC or something ?

edit : puting my videos on my desktop works.... dont know why its not working in my video file. Also, quality seems worse than on my 360.
Click to expand...

I put my video files in the generic video folder. That is the only place it recognizes them. The quality is great IMO.
 
Z

ZOONAMI

Junior Member
Plex does all this already right? I know it isn't free, but now i know i don't need to reup when my sub runs out.
 
Shpeshal Nick

Shpeshal Nick

aka Collingwood
I'm surprised I cant choose the audio track. Some of my movies start playing the commentary tracks automatically and there's no way I can change it.

That's on the odd occasion it can play the audio at all. Its got a great track record of playing almost every MKV I have, but its the audio where the track record is atrocious.
 
I

Inuhanyou

Believes Dragon Quest is a franchise managed by Sony
I wonder if they will update this feature and make it run better. A lot of every the videos i try and play from BlimBlim's site don't even play(and yes i change the names to get rid of symbols)
 
P

Pancakes R Us

Member
Is it possible to run video_TS files on the PS4? I remember hearing that the PS3 is capable of it.

Also, is there a remote control for the system yet?
 
M

muteki

Member
Transcoding from UMS works pretty good now. Only complaint is I can't fast forward or reverse while transcoding, but I'm not sure if that is UMS's fault or the PS4's.
 
L

Lionheart1827

Member
So I'm having a strange problem with Media Player now.

Originally before it came out, I already had my Music/Video folder shared with my network and all set up. When media player came out, it recognized it perfectly and everything worked. My problem now is whenever I get new albums and rip them to my Main shared music folder, it doesn't recognize the new albums, only the albums that were shared when I first installed Media Player. I tried deleting Media Player thinking maybe there was a strange bug that only detected what was available once or something, didn't help. I tried unsharing, and resharing my homegroup folders, still nothing. Its really strange, especially when I can see the new folders on my laptop no problem, and they aren't ripped in any different format or anything.

The folder structure looks something like this on my PC:

B:\Zune\Artist\Album\Tracks

The B:\Zune\ folder is the shared path and everything under is shared as well.

So over the weekend, I got Lamb of God's new album, but the new album doesn't show up. Same with two other albums I ripped.

Have no idea whats going on but it really bothers me :/ And before asked, yes the new albums are categorized properly with the correct tags and they arent mispelled or anything :p

I'm on Windows 7 btw.
 
A

androvsky

Member
If you're using Windows 7 built-in sharing, it's horrible for recognizing new files. I don't know if there is a reliable way to make it recognize new files. Switch to UMS or something similar.
 
L

Lionheart1827

Member
androvsky said:
If you're using Windows 7 built-in sharing, it's horrible for recognizing new files. I don't know if there is a reliable way to make it recognize new files. Switch to UMS or something similar.
Click to expand...

Thanks I'll try Universal Media Server(I'm assuming thats what you meant :) ).

Hopefully it works, its not ruining my life, its just a small annoyance :p
 
SMOK3Y

SMOK3Y

Generous Member
So i was playing my usb (Watching BBT) on my Sony TV then i put it in the PS4 started watching same show but what was weird was it started at the same position id left off from the TV... wtf?
 
L

Lionheart1827

Member
androvsky said:
If you're using Windows 7 built-in sharing, it's horrible for recognizing new files. I don't know if there is a reliable way to make it recognize new files. Switch to UMS or something similar.
Click to expand...

Just wanted to update that Universal Media Server worked perfectly. Detected all of my music(including new stuff) with no issues. Thank you for the suggestion!
 
B

B-Man

Member
Is there anyway i can fast forward videos ?
I'm using UMS for now, but i've no problem switching to any other server that supports fast forwarding if anyone can suggest me something
 
M

muteki

Member
B-Man said:
Is there anyway i can fast forward videos ?
I'm using UMS for now, but i've no problem switching to any other server that supports fast forwarding if anyone can suggest me something
Click to expand...

Seems like PS4 doesn't allow FF for transcoded videos for some reason.

With UMS if the video is not transcoded you can FF/FR and it works great.

I believe PMS DLNA is the same, so Plex Web or the app if you are a subscriber is the only way, short of converting your videos.
 
J

jeff_rigby

Banned
mcz117chief said:
will PS4 ever read music CDs ? Any news about that ?
Click to expand...
A better question, will the PS4 rip Music CDs to hard disk like the PS3...will it support Meta data and have an app for organizing and playing music from multiple sources?

With the coming PS3 major OS update for Playready embedded is a browser update including HTML5 <video> EME, W3C DLNA, USB and Network TV tuner, WiFi direct and Miracast all part of Vidipath and DSS (FCC downloadable security) support...will PS3 CD ripping be deleted?

There is just as much of a need and profit opportunity in Music as there is in supporting video Media and Vidipath.

4K blu-ray includes an optional Digital bridge and includes copying to a local hard disk or SFF flash drive and one proposal is to allow in home streaming. The idea is to allow all the functionality of Ultraviolet streaming in the home from a blu-ray disk. I would hope music and DVD movies will also be part of this in home streaming.
 
M

Mike Works

Member
B-Man said:
Is there anyway i can fast forward videos ?
I'm using UMS for now, but i've no problem switching to any other server that supports fast forwarding if anyone can suggest me something
Click to expand...
I might be misunderstanding you here, but I use Serviio and pressing/holding down R2 fast forwards videos. But I think UMS does too?
 
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