Simple PS3 Media Server Install Guide for Ubuntu

This guide is for users who wish to install the latest version of PS3 Media Server on an Ubuntu-based Linux distribution. As of this post, the current PS3 Media Server Ubuntu repository uses a custom-build of PS3 Media Server that is outdated and uses versions of video software such as ffmpeg which are deprecated. Additionally, installing from the repository with Ubuntu 13.10 (saucy-salamander) is not currently working.

Don't get me wrong, it works very well for most people  - however, some may wish to use the latest version. Here's how:

1. Download the latest version of PS3 Media Server.

2. Extract it to your desired install location (e.g. /home/user/PMS).

3. Install the required software packages (sudo apt-get install mencoder ffmpeg mplayer vlc dcraw)  (See note #2 regarding ffmpeg).

4. Install the required additional libraries libmediainfo0, mediainfo and libzen0. You can do this from the repositories but I strongly recommend grabbing the most recent versions from the MediaInfo site. If you install libmediainfo from the .deb provided at the MediaInfo site, it will automatically install libzen0 as well.

5. Run PMS.sh (either from the terminal or launching from file manager/user-created shortcut). Check the Logs tab to ensure that MediaInfo has correctly loaded (you should see something like "Loaded MediaInfoLib - v.0.7.67).

If all goes well, you should be using the latest version without issue.

NOTES:

1. If PMS fails to run altogether, you probably need to install java (sudo apt-get install default-jdk).

2. The version of ffmpeg currently in the Ubuntu repositories is deprecated and will very likely fail to work with PMS, returning errors in your PMS log. To install the latest version of ffmpeg, simply download the latest static build, extract, and copy the files (ffmpeg and ffprobe) to /usr/bin. If you wish, you can back up your current ffmpeg files from /usr/bin before doing so.

EDIT: Keep in mind that using this method will mean ffmpeg will not be "automatically updated" and you will need to repeat this step to keep ffmpeg current. This may or may not be desirable for your setup.

3. If you run PMS prior to installing libmediainfo and its associated libraries, you're gonna have a bad time. It caused terrible problems for MP4 playback on my PS3, with the PS3 convinced that the files were corrupted. A fix that seemed to work was to clear the cache and rescan the shared media folders, and then to quit and restart PMS.



Tested on Ubuntu 13.10 with PS3 Media Server 1.90.1