PS3 Firmware 2.10 WMA Streaming Broken?

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mgillespie
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PS3 Firmware 2.10 WMA Streaming Broken?

Post by mgillespie » Sun Feb 24, 2008 12:41 am

Not sure how I report this, I hope someone from Sony reads this.

Looks like Sony totally borked WMA streaming in Firmware 2.10, as regardless of mediaserver used, WMA streams disconnect after 20 or so seconds.

I have tried:

WMP11
TwonkyMedia
MediaTomb

and they all behave identically. This is on a otherwise stable wired network.

I have heard some people say they don't have problems, so it cold be my media (ripped ay high bitrate in WMP11) and the PS3 having problems, or it could be something else.

Can someone try this file, see if it cuts out for them....

http://rapidshare.com/files/93250501/04_Doctor.wma.html
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Caoimhghin
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Re: PS3 Firmware 2.10 WMA Streaming Broken?

Post by Caoimhghin » Sun Feb 24, 2008 8:08 pm

I have posted about this exact problem in this forum on numerous occasions and also noticed your same post on the US PlayStation forums.

This problem has only existed since v2.10 firmware of the PS3, it has to be a PS3 issue as nothing else as changed on my system, still running v4.4.2 of TM on a LaCie NAS drive. I contacted Sony about this in December, as soon as the firmware was released, the only thing they mentioned, which may be the cause is that they updated their DRM.

I downloaded your WMA file and can confirm it stops after 34/35 seconds, which is what I expected as its bitrate is 160Kbps. What I have found is that the length the file plays for is dependent on its bitrate, e.g. 128Kbps = 46 seconds, 160 = 34/35 seconds and 192 = 22 seconds.

ALL played fine prior to the PS3's latest firmware, afterwards none would. I did find that re-encoding a file to a lower bitrate sometimes, not always worked. I obviously do not want to do this as the quality of the recording suffers. Most of my WMA files are ripped from my CDs using WMP11 and some are ones I've purchased on-line, DRM free.

I have even tried using different software for the encodes, including Media Monkey, Nero and Sony's own Sound Forge, and as mentioned have managed to get some to play, but there is no apparent, well as far as I can tell, logic to why some work and others don't.

I would send you a file I know that plays on my PS3, but I do respect copyright so I'm inclined not to!

Caoimhghin
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Re: PS3 Firmware 2.10 WMA Streaming Broken?

Post by Caoimhghin » Thu Feb 28, 2008 12:07 pm

In case anyone's interested, just some further information in respect of this problem. Sony replaced my PS3 to see if that would solve the problem, it came with v1.80 firmware installed. Before updating I tried playing the WMA files that stopped playing with v2.10 and they all played fine, updated to v2.10 and the problem returned once more. So I would say from this that it is definitely a firmware problem. My only concern is that Sony do not appear to have a clue as to where the problem is and it has been over 2 months since the last firmware update. The rep I talked to said he will escalate this upwards to their Technicians. The annoying thing is that there seems little liaison between their customer support staff and their technical side, so you don't know when the next update will be or if they have identified the problem.

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mgillespie
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Re: PS3 Firmware 2.10 WMA Streaming Broken?

Post by mgillespie » Thu Mar 13, 2008 9:22 am

Bug is still there in firmware 2.17 :-(

WMA plays fine locally, but cuts out when streamed.
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Re: PS3 Firmware 2.10 WMA Streaming Broken?

Post by Caoimhghin » Thu Mar 13, 2008 5:50 pm

Yes I concur, still not playing most WMA files over a network.

It maybe quicker to re-encode my WMA files to MP3, but this would mean some loss in quality and considering there must be > 2000 files is not something to do lightly. I suppose I could do it in a batch run using Media Monkey, but the whole point is that I shouldn't have too!

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Re: PS3 Firmware 2.10 WMA Streaming Broken?

Post by mgillespie » Fri Mar 21, 2008 10:41 am

Firmware 2.20 is due next week. Fingers crossed for a resolution to these problems. Surely Sony must be able to reproduce them. I even gave a link to a valid media file that exhibits the problem..
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Re: PS3 Firmware 2.10 WMA Streaming Broken?

Post by Caoimhghin » Fri Mar 21, 2008 4:46 pm

I wouldn't bank on this being fixed in v2.20. I was contacted by Sony support only last week saying that they have now passed this on to 'Japan' to look into (after 3 months!). I asked if they had been able to replicate the problem, but it appears they do nothing in SCEE Customer Support other than replace defective units!

If you check around the WWW you'll not find many posts about this, most people only seem to stream MP3 or AAC, so I guess it does not attract much interest from Sony's point of view. I have found that if I reduce the bit rate to 48Kbps then any song not longer that around 2m:30s will play all the way through. Ideal for most Punk songs. :mrgreen:

Now that I've said that, what's the betting it'll be fixed when they release the firmware next Wednesday. I've noticed they've changed the timings with DivX and VC-1, so it looks like they have been working in an area which may impact on this problem, as the audio codec they support with VC-1, WMA9, is the same.

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mgillespie
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Re: PS3 Firmware 2.10 WMA Streaming Broken?

Post by mgillespie » Tue Mar 25, 2008 9:12 am

Yay, Firmware 2.2 seems to have fixed the issue for me, at least on the initial tests I have done.
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Re: PS3 Firmware 2.10 WMA Streaming Broken?

Post by Caoimhghin » Tue Mar 25, 2008 10:03 am

Damn, you beat me to it!

I've played through one complete ripped CD that wouldn't play before with no problems. Just 375 more to go!

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