Streaming to PS3 with NAS and built-in dlna server?

Question

With consumer-grade hardware, is it possible to successfully stream 1080p mp4 videos to a PS3?

I have a linksys router that can only do 10/100. The PS3 is wired to it with cat5e cable, and the PS3 itself supports gigabit ethernet. I would upgrade the router and get one that supports gigabit ethernet if it could handle streaming like this.

It currently does work with minor jerkiness streaming from my mac to the PS3, but fast-forward/reverse and "goto" (equivalent of scene selection) take forever and/or fail completely. And streaming from my mac of course requires the mac to be on at all times.

When I put the movies on an external USB drive and connect to the PS3 directly, it performs flawlessly. Fast forward and everything works great.

So I was thinking about getting a NAS, but I don't know if any inexpensive NAS (i.e. Buffalo Linkstation Live, WD My Book World Edition, D-Link DNS-321, etc.) can actually deliver the performance necessary to do this, even with gigabit ethernet?

Answer 1

I've occasionally found the PS3 to be jerky over the LAN when my HTPC is fine playing the same video. In my experience issues when using fast-forward, reverses, scene skipping etc. are usually down to the player rather than the network.

I've never had any problems streaming from my NAS to my PC except when I used to use WiFi. The 100 Mbit/s is far in excess of the capacity you'll need even for 1080p as most 1080p movies are around 8-10 Mbit/s.

If you have another computer you could try streaming from the Mac to that over the same network to see if you have the same jerkiness on the other client. If you don't then you've got similar issues to mine with the PS3 and upgrading your LAN and/or NAS won't solve your problem (though new kit is always nice).