Ephemeris: Media Server Capability Restored
"Time is the school in which we learn, Time is the fire in which we burn." - Delmore Schwartz in "Calmly We Walk Through This April's Day"
The hardest thing about getting the PS3 back on my stealthed, encrypted, WiFi, network again, was finding the silly WEP key, which was well-hidden on a particular piece of paper.
Getting Windows Media Server functioning again was a different story.
Sharing was already enabled on all the relevant media folders in my PC. The Windows Media Player File Sharing Service was already running. WMP was reporting sharing as disabled, due to a software component upgrade, or some such. The PS3 certainly couldn't see the PC as a Media Server.
Digging around for help, led me to a reference informing me that WMP v11 will NOT install or run correctly on Win XP Media Center Edition 2002, or 2004. Mine still reports XP MCE 2002, even though its been updated to SP3 and MCE 2005. I was almost ready to delete WMP 11 and try an earlier release... but I stayed my hand.
The key to finding the solution, turned out to be the symptom that the WMP library appeared empty, and I was unable to add any media files to it. This symptom is evidence that the WMP library database is corrupted. The solution http://social.answers.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/vistamedia/thread/9c28794f-6234-4bc2-a4d6-5179c15949dc
involved drilling into the correct WMP support folder, and deleting all the database files, which get automatically rebuilt, the next time WMP is started.
With the corrupt files gone, network file sharing came on-line (after a restart), and the library indexer found all the media files just like magic.
It was bit painful to find the solutions, but it's nice to have the media server function back again.
The next time you watch some Science Fiction programming, and some genius sits down at the controls of some alien tech, or a decades-old derelict spacecraft, and fires it right up, remember to snicker.
The hardest thing about getting the PS3 back on my stealthed, encrypted, WiFi, network again, was finding the silly WEP key, which was well-hidden on a particular piece of paper.
Getting Windows Media Server functioning again was a different story.
Sharing was already enabled on all the relevant media folders in my PC. The Windows Media Player File Sharing Service was already running. WMP was reporting sharing as disabled, due to a software component upgrade, or some such. The PS3 certainly couldn't see the PC as a Media Server.
Digging around for help, led me to a reference informing me that WMP v11 will NOT install or run correctly on Win XP Media Center Edition 2002, or 2004. Mine still reports XP MCE 2002, even though its been updated to SP3 and MCE 2005. I was almost ready to delete WMP 11 and try an earlier release... but I stayed my hand.
The key to finding the solution, turned out to be the symptom that the WMP library appeared empty, and I was unable to add any media files to it. This symptom is evidence that the WMP library database is corrupted. The solution http://social.answers.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/vistamedia/thread/9c28794f-6234-4bc2-a4d6-5179c15949dc
involved drilling into the correct WMP support folder, and deleting all the database files, which get automatically rebuilt, the next time WMP is started.
With the corrupt files gone, network file sharing came on-line (after a restart), and the library indexer found all the media files just like magic.
It was bit painful to find the solutions, but it's nice to have the media server function back again.
The next time you watch some Science Fiction programming, and some genius sits down at the controls of some alien tech, or a decades-old derelict spacecraft, and fires it right up, remember to snicker.