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How To Stream Rhapsody On Your PS3

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Update 4/3/2010:

First, you should go to http://getsatisfaction.com/rhapsody/topics/playstation_3_issue and vote for PS3 support for Rhapsody. That’s Rhapsody’s official support site where they admit the PS3 is not supported. You don’t even need an account, you can sign in via OpenId, Facebook, etc. If everyone who visits this page votes for it, it will be their top priority in no time.

Second, Orb doesn’t seem to work anymore. I am now running on a new machine with Win7 x64. I grabbed the latest (2.50) Orb and after installing it, my PS3 couldn’t see the Orb media server (but WMP could). I backed down to 2.0 and the PS3 saw it, but complained it was unsupported media. I then tried going to the mycast.orb.com website (on my PS3) and signing in, which is the current recommendation for PS3 users, but the player plugin doesn’t work. (On Firefox on my PC there is no plugin, rather it tries to download the .asx file which only WMP can play.) So at this point it’s simply not working and I don’t know if it’s Rhapsody’s horrid DRM or Sony’s lousy PS3 browser or Flash support. I filled out a tech support ticket, maybe I’ll hear from them on Monday. But note that recent commenters have gotten it to work, so YMMV.

OK, this is big. Well, to some people. I’ve wanted to get Rhapsody on my PS3 for a while now, but it doesn’t support the Plays for Sure DRM. I’ve shared my Rhapsody library via the Windows Media Player streaming media server, but although I can see the files, I always get an error that the media is unsupported.

Enter Orb. This is yet another streaming media server. It appears that its main purpose is to share your library across the internet, so when you’re not at home you can still access the files on your desktop by visiting your personal Orb web page.

However, it also offers a UPnP server that allows you to browse shared directories with gaming consoles like the PS3. Unlike other UPnP servers (like the ones that come with Rhapsody and WMP), this allows you to play DRM-protected tracks. (As panarican mentions below, this includes subscription tracks. In fact, I’m a Rhapsody To Go member with a Sansa e280 so I haven’t purchased any tracks from Rhapsody.)

Here are the steps:

  1. Download Orb
  2. Run the installer. When it asks you if you want to set up support for gaming consoles like the PS3, say yes (duh). You must also sign up for an account that you won’t use, but oh well.
  3. Find the Orb icon in the task tray. Right click and select Configuration. Under the Media tab, choose the directories you want to share. Initially, I went to the web page and got rather frustrated when I couldn’t find a way to include/exclude directories.
  4. Fire up your PS3 and browse for your the Orb media server. You should see your folders and files. If you don’t, don’t panic! When I first visited my collection, the folders were there, but the files didn’t show up. I assumed it just didn’t work, or that I needed to change the transcoding format (somewhere along the way I chose Windows .asx; I think that was on the web page). A couple hours later my housemate was browsing through again and the files were showing up! When he selected one, it took a few seconds (buffering?) but it actually played!

I haven’t tried playlists yet, and I’m a little curious if it will go from track to track without a long load time.

So there you have it. Yeah, it’s not as good as a true Rhapsody client like the Sonos system or a Tivo HD XL. With those, you can actually browse Rhapsody as you do with the desktop client or their website. The Orb method isn’t much different from loading up your Sansa and connecting it to your receiver, which I’ve also done. But this way you don’t have to worry about batteries going dead or even transferring tracks beforehand. It’s much nicer for impromptu playing.

If this stuff interests you, you might also want to learn about my troubles with HDCP and the PS3.

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17 thoughts on “How To Stream Rhapsody On Your PS3”

  1. Awesome, it works!!!! When you configure just add rhapsody folder and all your music you download to your library will play. It took a couple of seconds to buffer, but overall orb is tha s**t!!!.

  2. by the way its not only tracks you buy that works, it also works with subcription tracks, just make sure all tracks are on one folder or it will take alot of time doing it individual. Any questions let me know. Thanks again crackteam!!

  3. The crackteam: making the world safe for the fair use of your music. And the technology is pretty nifty too.

  5. I got the Rhapsody web page to let me log in today. You have to go to My Music –> My Library. Once on that page you can click sign in and there will be nothing under the window that pops up to cause browser errors.

  6. @Ovidsmuse
    I just tried that and it doesn’t work for me. I’m at the latest system update, although that may be the problem. After updating, I had to mess with my DNS settings, which were working perfectly before the update. The network is working fine now, though.

    The issue I have is that whenever I try to sign in, it pops up a login box, confirms I’ve successfully logged in, but doesn’t seem to remember me (even though I have that checked). It says it can’t access my library, and the “Sign In” link remains on the page. Of course, I say yes whenever it asks to run a plugin.

    On the PC in Firefox it’s fine, but still no dice on the PS3. Gonna have to stick with Orb.

  7. I cannot get this to work. I have Orb on my computer, the PS3 is able to pick up Orb as a Media Center, and my Rhapsody Folder is accessible. It will even display my subscription musics’ title and length. However, when I go to play, it comes back, The data type is not supported. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

  8. Got it to work. The files need to be downloaded from Rhapsody in .wma format and not .rax. In Rhapsody go to Tools, then Preferences, then My Library and check the box WMA under Download Track File Format. The Orb website says it can stream WMA DRM but not RAX DRM. They lump Rhapsody in with RAX as it is their format, but I wish it would mention Rhapsody gives you the ability to use WMA DRM. Regardless, I am very happy. Thanks for the advice.

  10. Everything looks good, all files show up and look like you can play. I also did the preference in Rhapsody for WMA format… but whenever I try to play a subscription track (my own MP3s work just fine) I get a couple different errors depending on the track I try to play:

    1) Media Server Error: A network error has occurred (80711008)
    or
    2) The data type is not supported

    Running the latest PS3 version and the latest Orb download.

    Any help would be appreciated.

  11. This just recently is not working anymore… there is a scary lack of information on this, but seems this feature might be dead. I used to stream all day rhapsody subscription tracks over orb to my ps3… suddenly i’m getting “unsupported data type” ?????

    is there ANYTHING other than orb that can do this?

  12. To be honest I haven’t tried this in a while; I just use it for parties, and I have a Sansa and Rhapsody to Go for backup. I wish I could help, but I’m in no way associated with Orb. If they won’t offer support, I’m not sure what can be done.

    But you mention it started failing recently – perhaps it could be due to the latest PS3 s/w update?

  16. I have it all set up. ORB shows up on my PS3 but i get the error message “Media Server Error: A network error has occured.(80711008)” Can anyone help im running the newest PS3 Update and ORB

  17. I tried it and I got it to the point where i saw the files on the ps3 but yeah like you guys said basically the files arent supported anymore…i tried just hooking my hdmi cable and since audio wont work plug in a 3.5mm cable to the tv to see if that works but that didnt work either…but thats probably a whole nother different problem … but if you guys cant stream rhapsody to ps3 might as well just stream it from your pc directly to your hdtv … assuming everyone here has one and knows how to connect audio to your tv on top of your pc picture stream…

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