Stream stuff from Mac to PS3 with MediaLink

by Nick Doerr { Jan 8th 2008 at 12:00PM }

Have a Mac, but having trouble getting stuff to stream onto your PS3? If you haven't tried Nullriver's MediaLink solution, you might want to give it a shot. In addition to streaming content, it shows album art and preview screens on your PS3 for a multitude of formats. There's support for iTunes integration. MediaLink lets you organize your folders however you want as well, so it's a bit more flexible than other programs that often get recommended for streaming. It's not without its shortcomings -- people are having trouble with AAC and M4A formats, but that's something we're sure a few people don't really care about. Give it a shot, let us know what you think.

[via NeoGAF]

Tags: medialink, nullriver

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Steven Green @ Jan 8th 2008 12:31PM

Tried it and bought it straight away!

So much better than Twonkyvision

Chnkylovrr53 @ Jan 8th 2008 12:34PM

Well, I don't use a mac, but for those people that want to stream stuff to their PS3 from a PC, TVersity is what I use... it's pretty good, and I enjoy it...

Justin @ Jan 8th 2008 12:35PM

The newest version of Twonkyvision has been working flawlessly...

Haiddasalami @ Jan 8th 2008 2:58PM

Twonkyvision LOL! Thats one awesome name

aygie @ Jan 8th 2008 12:46PM

Better than anything else out there for the Mac. Brilliant

tyba @ Jan 8th 2008 12:48PM

I want a really great app to stream my media from my PC to my PS3... I use Tversity, and it works fine, but I want album art!!! My music collection is in fine shape, thanks to iTunes, and I spent a lot of time making sure everything had it's correct album art... sending it to the PS3 would be nice.

Steven Green @ Jan 8th 2008 1:21PM

MediaLink works with album art!

Haiddasalami @ Jan 8th 2008 3:00PM

Tversity does not work for me when I try to access it using my PSP. If anyone knows another software with this feature tell me

Brad @ Jan 9th 2008 3:19AM

Nero (from Ahead) will display album art on the PS3. Not sure about thumbnails on Photo folders. Also, about 6 months ago Nero was the best DNLA server from the standpoint of the software correctly polling the client device and only transcoding when absolutely neccessary. Obviously, this is important from the standpoint of maintaining video/audio quality...

Galley @ Jan 8th 2008 1:17PM

No support for .m4a AAC? WTF?

Popfrogs @ Jan 8th 2008 4:18PM

Gotta love that DRM.

Galley @ Jan 8th 2008 8:21PM

.m4a is DRM-free. .m4p is protected.

Yaphi @ Jan 22nd 2008 8:35AM

AAC and m4a are open standards. I am thinking this was sarcasm? By default iTunes imports all music as AAC. An open standard. This basically means none of my music will play over MediaLink. I have downloaded and purchased this software. None of my music shows up and only a handful of mov files show up.

"people are having trouble with AAC and M4A formats, but that's something we're sure a few people don't really care about."
riiiight.

Metoo @ Jan 8th 2008 1:41PM

Works great. Less than five minutes to set up. I'd buy this software if the PS3 supported more DIVX files. For now it's easier for me to hook the Macbook to my HDTV and not worry about file compatibility.

mr judg @ Jan 8th 2008 1:44PM

anyone suggest a programme is capable as Tversity for streaming from a PC but includes thumbnail shots and album art?

Pissed Off Asian Female @ Jan 8th 2008 2:11PM

I hate this sh!t so much. (What happened to just having a console that only plays games?)

I can't understand the appeal. Oh well.

HD this, Stream that, Digital downloads, blah blah, blah. yuck!

Haiddasalami @ Jan 8th 2008 2:57PM

your name describes you to the dot.

watcher @ Jan 8th 2008 3:43PM

@ Pissed off Asian Female

Infamous WoW quote when a female gamer is discovered "Are you hot?" – Sorry that MMO joke cracks me up every time. It amazes me how that question interrupts everything while playing. Even during boss fights..

Seriously, Consoles are approaching the complexity of computers so naturally they will begin to simulate PCs in terms of capabilities. This will become even more evident with every gen console from here on. As technology surges so will the complexity of all our electronics. Videogame systems that just play games are forever gone. Good news is all of the extra tech stuff here are optional. You can just play games on your PS3 and ignore everything else if you want.

Even more tech is on the way including being able to play movies on your PsP from data encorporated in future Blu-ray movies.

I know a few friends that have Macs and PS3s. I'll definitely let them know about MediaLink.

Marc @ Jan 8th 2008 2:13PM

I don't use a Mac, but all others should just use Windows Media Player 11. It does the same thing people pay extra for,
when those programs are completely useless(for PCs, that is)

Popfrogs @ Jan 8th 2008 4:20PM

It'd be great if Media Player 11 wasn't a colossal failure when it comes to this stuff. Seriously, these apps exist because MP11 doesn't work half the time.

Marc @ Jan 8th 2008 2:17PM

Windows Media Player 11, go to tools, options, click the library tab, then click configure sharing, it might take a minute for the unknown device to come up, thats your PS3, allow sharing and boom thats it, you can also add folders you want to view, by clicking the monitor folders button thats below the configure sharing button.

prateeko @ Jan 8th 2008 2:41PM

Tried it and it works FLAWLESSLY. Great product and highly recommended it you want to use your PS3 as a media hub.

Jas122 @ Jan 8th 2008 3:29PM

I Tried to do it and it connected fine but when i tried to play a song it would give me a Error code and it would stop streaming ?? Any help ??

Riine @ Jan 8th 2008 3:31PM

Anyone else receive an error message on the PS3? I think it was error 1201. I don't think it changed anything but it kept popping up.

Bob @ Jan 8th 2008 3:33PM

I tried to do it and it connects but when i try to play a song it gives me a error code and it stops streaming from the Mac ?? Anyhelp ??

agyl @ Jan 9th 2008 4:11AM

MediaLink 1.0 for Tiger (10.4.x) had crashing issue
They fixed it today in version 1.02. try it now. it works fine..

Ryan @ Jan 8th 2008 3:52PM

Mediatomb has been working well for me but I'll give this a chance.

Madeofrain @ Jan 8th 2008 4:12PM

Worked a treat. I gave the Elgato Eye connect trial a whirl and it really wasn't up to much.
A whole catalogue of connection errors thrown up with various media. This worked straight out of the box.. Well, after I disabled my firewall briefly to test it...I'm struggling to find the individual port options in Leopard..TCP port 9386 and UDP port 9385 both need to be open..Still the issue is with 10.5's dumbed down firewall/port options... Seems odd taking a backward step for 10.4 security wise..

Pissed off Asian Female @ Jan 8th 2008 4:14PM

@Watcher

Infamous WoW quote when a female gamer is discovered "Are you hot?" – Sorry that MMO joke cracks me up every time. It amazes me how that question interrupts everything while playing. Even during boss fights..

Yes I'm super hot. (lol, j/king)

I'm o.k. / more cute than hot. Well, that's what guys and girls tell me anyway. (Bi)

Height: 5'1
Weight: 106
Eyes: brown
Hair: Black / long (Real hair color) Purple at the moment :)
Age:19

DeejayKnight @ Jan 8th 2008 6:47PM

So basically, you're saying that you're hot?

:D

cpipes @ Jan 8th 2008 6:18PM

Are there any standard ports that need to be forwarded to get upnp working? I got my PS3 last week and want to download this tonight, but is there anything else that needs to be done?

Fraser JK @ Jan 8th 2008 6:22PM

Works like a charm, just the way a Mac app should... a few bugs with ACC need to be fixed (I converted half my music to MP4) but hey, its wicked.

joe brett @ Jan 8th 2008 6:28PM

This piece of software is a charm for every mac user, now if only the PS3 was able to read those .mkv of mine, I would gladly use medialink more than just once...

drdre74 @ Jan 8th 2008 10:18PM

Once I get my HDTV this will come in handy. I have the connect360 version which is cool. I'll have to give this a go since my eyeconnect free trail ran out and that was a pretty good program just cost way too much.

David Burney @ Jan 9th 2008 10:55AM

Perhaps the issue with those of you receiving audio errors is the fact that this doesn't yet support any .mp4 of any type (otherwise known as ACC files).

I tried EyeConnect as well - if you customize the location of your media it works like a charm - I have my iTunes library and movies, etc., on an external NAS plugged into my router and before the trial was up I had access to all of my media.

I'll give this a try, but no AAC support is a bit of a concern - what is it doing that requires the software to support a specific codec? All Eyeconnect does is make my files visible on my network to my PS3 via UPnP - whether the media plays or not is up to the PS3.

Oh well, I'll give it a whirl.

chris.westermann @ Jan 9th 2008 11:18AM

How about Apple just support DLNA in iTunes and be done with it.

Jeff @ Jan 9th 2008 12:04PM

Has anyone had luck using a Linksys WRT54G router? I know that nullriver's FAQ says that those routers may not work, but I'm just wondering if anyone has had success....

On my system, I start the MediaLink and I never see my PS3 and on my PS3 I never see the mac.

Jeff @ Jan 9th 2008 12:06PM

David Schermer @ Jan 9th 2008 1:22PM

I can't get this to work. Keep getting the Ports 9385 and/or 9386 are in use error. And I don't know how to find out which apps are using those ports. I closed every app I thought I was using. Still won't work. Also tried disabling the NAT translation in Airport Extreme, as the FAQ suggested. Still nothing. Any kindhearted soul willing to help? I don't mind if you laugh at me and call me awful names.
Thanks.

Edwin @ Jan 9th 2008 3:11PM

David i had the same problem, i found out that Twonkymedia was the
application that was using the ports, so i force quit the program and
that resolved the problem.

To see which programs are running, go to Activity Monitor, its
probably Twonkymedia or something similar.

Hopes this helps.

PFC @ Jan 9th 2008 3:21PM

Do you have any other media servers running(Eyeconnect, connect360)? Check in System Prefs. A lot of servers get installed there. Make sure none of those are running. Also sometimes medialink will still be using the ports after it crashes. Close System Prefs and reopen then start Medialink again.

Edwin @ Jan 9th 2008 3:09PM

David i had the same problem, i found out that Twonkymedia was the application that was using the ports, so i force quit the program and that resolved the problem.

To see which programs are running, go to Activity Monitor, its probably Twonkymedia or something similar.

Hopes this helps.

jrunicl @ Jan 13th 2008 5:40AM

is there a serial or crack for this?

ti22bert @ Jan 23rd 2008 11:36AM

Hey you know if you have medialink installed and running on your ps3 you can also remote play it on you psp

Jonathan @ Jan 24th 2008 6:47PM

I haven't had any problems with any AAC or m4a files. The only files that won't work are things I bought from the iTunes store and Quicktime movies. I repeat, all non-DRM music files have worked flawlessly.

Jimbobb23 @ Jan 25th 2008 6:24PM

Don't care about AAC or MP4? What else are people ripping their files into. The PS3 and PSP both do these open formats. Not being able to handle such important standards is a non-starter.

Oly @ Feb 26th 2008 5:39AM

MediaLink works like a charm, very impressed but does anyone know if it has any security features?

ie. How could I ensure that my next door neighbour couldn't connect to my mac via his PS3? Im obviously worried that anyone could get access to all my photos. And I also work at a place which has tons of PS3s in the building so presumably if I havent remembered to turn Medialink off anyone in the building could access my files via a PS3

Any thoughts? Ideas?