Computer -> PS3 streaming options

[Correction]

What I've got:

A bunch of .mkv files I'd like to play from my desktop to my PS3.

The software I've assembled:
PS3 Media Server 1.23
PS3 Media Server latest version << I am told this is shit and not to upgrade
Handbrake (for transcoding to mp4 as a last fucking resort)
Audacity + MKVToonix (for all my Rifftrax remuxing needs)

Hardware:
a 16GB thumbdrive
A 4 year old laptop that is correctly identified by my PS3 as a media server thanks to PMS 1.23
A recently assembled desktop machine that is not correctly identified by my PS3 as a media server with either version of PMS I have

The problems:

So far the connection from my laptop to my PS3 seems a little unstable. Twice while playing lengthy movies it'll lose connection and list the file as 'corrupted path.' This is temporary and it comes back but it will 100% happen when I try to fast forward through the .mkvs

Handbraking down to an .mp4 file (after tweaking audio in Audacity and downmixing to stereo so levels aren't completely off) works but the PS3 randomly stops playback like the thumbdrive got yanked. This is irritating but at least I can 'chapter advance' 1 minute at a time to where I was before.

The guide I tried to follow: http://www.ps3mediaserver.org/forum/...tart=20#p34933

This didn't help me get my desktop working and it's kind of a pain to run everything off my laptop since it's a much less powerful machine. As far as I can tell I'm in the 'post UDP Broadcast' stage but nothing in that list seems to work. My PS3 does think I have Windows Media Player 11 handling my shit but...

Anybody have a lot of troubleshooting experience? Should I try something other than PMS? Anybody use WMP11 and be happy with it as a media server to the PS3?

[Haiko]

Could be your router..I had a old linksys and couldn't keep up with the hd streaming so I bought a new netgear and worked flawlessly

[Correction]

I'm just using the router the FIOS guy installed. The laptop connects to the same router (although wirelessly) and the PS3 finds its instance of PMS no prob.

[Caiyuo]

Not to discourage you, because I was able to get mkvs including subtitled anime to display correctly over PS3MS at one point, but it became such a fucking headache over a period of months going between that and TVersity and always finding some new ridiculous issue arise that I eventually just caved and bought a streaming media player for about $60.

As far as your problem, do the "traces" in PS3MS tell you anything useful when you're bumping into problems? With the desktop when it isn't recognized? The logs were usually either immediately helpful or gave me enough to go on for searching and finding an answer.

[Correction]

New problem: While I can stream from my laptop to my ps3, the audio tends to fall behind the video every so slightly until it's noticeably off sync. Stopping and restarting the video clears it up but it starts to creep behind again. Is this caused by a bottleneck on my laptop? Or my network? How do I figure this out?

At this point I'm just handbraking things down to .mp4 which works only slightly better but it takes an hour per movie to convert

[hey]

What exactly are you watching? If you don't need subtitles, you can just remux to mp4 in a few seconds.

Also, on the off chance your ps3 is on cfw, showtime works pretty well and plays mkv fine.

[Correction]

What exactly are you watching? If you don't need subtitles, you can just remux to mp4 in a few seconds.

Also, on the off chance your ps3 is on cfw, showtime works pretty well and plays mkv fine.

Watching some 1080p rips of films with 5.1 audio and they don't look quite so nice on my computer monitors.
Handbraking down to mp4 comes with its own set of problems as I've discovered that it still does not elegantly handle DTS audio (lots of choppiness and audio distortion). It's probably taking 90 minutes per encode because of the raw bitrate. Downmixing to stereo/mono AC3 makes things worse.
No CFW on either of the PS3s I'll be streaming to.

[hey]

Try muxxing to mp4 using mp4box, instead of transcoding it.