I have recently purchased another Playstation 3 (PS3). My first one gave up the ghost quite some time ago with the Yellow Light of Death (YLOD). It was one of the first generation PS3's, so it was a bit bulkier, but could play my extensive collection of PS2 games, which was nice. While I do miss that capability, I've decided that it's something I can live without since I do still have a PS2.
In any case, things have changed a lot since then, not just regarding the PS3's firmware, but also in my home. I now own an iMac and my PC laptop I rarely use at home anymore since I graduated (I primarily used it for school). In regard to the PS3 firmware, there is now a media server option under the Video and Music categories on the XrossMediaBar (XMB). This was not there when my original PS3 bit the dust.
Always curious about new features, I consulted the PS3 user's guide (found here: http://bit.ly/QwMJsk) and learned that you can set up a PC to push media content to the PS3 where it can be played. This is very cool if you have movies or music on your computer and want to watch or listen to it on the devices connected to your PS3 (HDTV, surround sound system). The guide is very thorough in regard to how to get your PC running as a DLNA media server and it appears pretty straight forward as long as your PC has Windows Media Player 11 installed, so I'm not going to cover that here.
However, there were no instructions on how to set up a Mac to do this. Setting up a Mac is not that hard, but you need to have DLNA software to make it work, which OS X does not have natively. Never fear. After a quick Google search I found there are tons of third-party DLNA apps out there for the Mac. So with that said, here is how to set up your Mac as a media server.
Now I'm going to go out on a limb here and assume that you have a computer running OS X, a Playstation 3, and are connected to the Internet (via wireless router preferably). If you don't and you are still reading, congratulations on your decision to expand your tech knowledge.
The first thing you need to do is download the DLNA software. Here is a good one that seems to have a focus on PS3 compatibility: http://cnet.co/QwPfz0. This software is written in Java and as such requires the Java Runtime Environment (JRE) to be installed. It's likely that you already have it installed, but in case you don't, you can find instructions here: http://bit.ly/QwPV7u.
After you have downloaded the DLNA software open the file. In the window that opens, drag the the PS3 Media Server icon and drop it on the Applications folder icon. Now that the DLNA software is installed, turn on your PS3, but don't do anything with it just yet.
Now go back to your Mac and open the media server software you just installed (it'll be in your applications folder). After a few seconds the software should detect your PS3 and throw up a picture of it on the screen. If it does not do this after about a minute or so, go back to the PS3, go to the Video category and select Search for Media Servers.
Once your PS3 has been detected, you will be ready to select the folders that you want the PS3 to have access to. Obviously, you will want these to be folders containing videos or music. To do this click on the Navigation/Share Settings (in the server software) and click on the green plus (+) icon in the lower left corner of the window. Choose any folders that you want to access from the PS3.
Now go back to the PS3 and look under the Video or the Music category and look for the PS3 Media Server icon. Your shared folders will be listed here. Now all you have to do is select the file that you want to play and the PS3's media player will load it up and play it.
I'm still playing with this at the moment, so I don't have any bugs or problems to report about it, but if I come across any I'll update this post with what I find. If you have any questions or problems, feel free to leave a comment. I'll address it promptly.
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