Navigation / Share Settings

The "Navigation / share settings" tab of PMS allow you to determine the details of how PMS shares the content to your device. Below are the options that are available on this tab.

Thumbnails

Generate thumbnails: Select the checkbox for automatic creation of thumbnail pictures of your media files
Thumbnail seeking position (in seconds): Most video files begin with some seconds of a black background before the movie starts. You can set the time in seconds for the video thumbnail position.
Use MPlayer for video thumbnails: The external program MPlayer sometimes yields better results for thumbnail creation than the default thumbnailer, so just try it.
DVD ISO thumbnails: Create thumbnails for DVD ISO-images
Audio thumbnails display: You can choose the behavior for audio thumbnails; search for alphabetical thumbnail pictures on the filesystem, or let PMS download album art from amazon.com or discogs.com
Alternate video cover art folder: Select the folder on your filesystem which contains cover art for videos

Navigation / Parsing settings

Browse compressed archives (.rar/.zip/.cbr): If activated PMS is able to show the content of archives. If a media file in archive is chosen for playback it will be decompressed before streaming starts
Hide # Video Settings # Folder: There is a virtual folder available called "# video settings #". You can navigate to this folder on your device and change some values for PMS online. With this option you can choose to not display this virtual folder.
Hide # Transcode # Folder: You can choose to not show this virtual folder on your device.
Hide file extensions: Some people might get confused if they see file extensions like jpg or avi, so you can hide them
Hide transcoding engine names: PMS can stream your media file with different technologies. You can chose the technology (transcoding engine) in virtual folder # transcoded #. The default transcoding engine for playback is displayed after the name of each media file. With this checkbox you can hide that.
Hide empty/non-media folders: Only display folders which contain media files
Show iTunes library: Only available when iTunes is installed. Displays the iTunes library as a folder on your device so you can browse it.
Show iPhoto library: Only available when iPhoto is installed. Displays the iPhoto library as a folder on your device so you can browse it.
Show Aperture library: Only available on Mac when aperture is installed. Displays each Aperture library as a folder on your device so you can browse it.
Enable the cache: When you browse folders on your PS3, PMS scans each folder in real time and displays the results on your PS3. Additionaly there is a builtin cache which can be activated. If you scan your hard drive for media files, additional info for each file will be collected e.g. MP3 tags (title, album name, etc.) for MP3 audio files. You can browse the cache in a virtual folder on your PS3 after scanning.
Reset cache: If the cache is corrupt you can use this feature to reset the contents of the database.
Hide cache folder: Do not show this virtual folder on your device.
Sort files method: Select how file lists are sorted and displayed on your device: by name or by date.

Shared folders

shared folders: All local drives are made available to PS3 by PMS. In a more secure environment you might want to chose the folders which are presented to your PS3. Press green + icon to add folders for access by PMS/PS3. Select folder and press red X icon to remove access to a folder. Press up and down arrows to change order of these folders.
magnifying glass: Start first scan on your hard drive for media files to collect info about them in the cache.