DLNA Problems on Panasonic Devices

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stevemat

11 posts

Geek

#115943 12-Apr-2013 17:51

I have a new Panasonic ST50 TV and BDT220 Blue-Ray Player, both hard wired to my home network.

The TV will stream movies from my PC via DLNA, but the Blue-Ray Player won't! It will display photos and play music, but not movies! It will find the files in the PC Folder, but wont play them!

Any suggestions?

MikeSkyrme

270 posts

Ultimate Geek

Trusted

#798557 12-Apr-2013 18:17

Have a look through here, it may be helpful.

http://www.geekzone.co.nz/forums.asp?forumid=34&topicid=108225

Michael Skyrme - Instrumentation & Controls

kiwigeek1

622 posts

Ultimate Geek

#798564 12-Apr-2013 18:57

I read Sony smart tvs dont even following the true dnla standard.. thats why twonky media server 6
wont display on the sony tv unless you force the old panasonic veria profile.. somehow its alters how it sends
the listings as well as work out which it has to transcode
of course panasonic might have similar issues
so it maybe the same problem with the blu ray player? are they all panasonic devices?

I find the best option is to use free serviio running on a i3 or higher laptop and add UNCs to media boxes
and add local drives and blu ray player to stream to the tvs
you may be able to connect the BR player with serviio media server on laptop via a dlna or share which then the tv connects
to the pcs dlna rather then directly ?

Serviio could even cache it

minimoke

740 posts

Ultimate Geek

#801602 18-Apr-2013 13:14

I probably have the same set up.

After a lot of trial and error I've settled on Serviio and am able to stream movies wirelessly to the blu ray player and the TV. The blu ray is a bit fussy on file formats so I've converted all non standard movies to AVI. The blu ray player will stream the video (obviously) and also 5.1 surround sound. The blu ray will also stream FLAC audio files which is a bonus.

My daisy chain goes: USB external hard drive / Laptop / wireless to router / wireless to Bluray player / video to Tv via hdmi, audio to AV receiver via toslink optical cable

The only disadvantage to Serviio / Bluray (and it can be a big one) is that I can't get it to pause/play the video. So that’s a real bummer if you have too many beers while watching a long movie. My work around for this is to copy a long movie onto a USB drive and stick it straight into the blu ray player.

I think I can Play/pause through the TV though I'd need to check that one again as I don't tend to stream to the TV

Oblivian

4046 posts

Uber Geek

#801623 18-Apr-2013 13:34

Out of curiosity, whats the requirement to send it to the BD player vs directly to the TV? It only adds more processing hops. As you have find, the BD player formats are garbage.

And FYI, I've changed my method since that thread. The BD player hardly gets used (sadly, was more a dual HDMI to work with my single input TV and amp at the time which have since been replaced) since it was as you found.. crap with DLNA and media formats other than stored on a F32 stick.

I now use primarily the ST50 built in media player (which albeit cludgy.. works), and XBMC on my PC as the uPNP host. Serviio was being buggy and eating all my ram up trying. XBMC seems to throw anything at the built in player just fine, and doubles as a smartphone controllable output from the PC to the TV for anything it can't play.

kiwigeek1

622 posts

Ultimate Geek

#801693 18-Apr-2013 14:45

Serviio is always being updated and improved..thoser that tried it months ago may find it works alot better now and considering its free

im surprised most dont just connect a i7 laptop with windows via the hdmi to tv anyhow.. most descent laptops have hdmi and blu ray builtin an connect the lan card to the tv with seviio would be a great
setup

plus add a freeview USB stick you should be set instead of all these expansion separate boxes and devices
and clutter

kiwigeek1

622 posts

Ultimate Geek

#801698 18-Apr-2013 14:53

note you shouldnt need to convert file formats as serviio will do that for you and cache it
it uses ffmpeg.. it converts in background and once it has enough it will
stream what its done while it converts the rest of the DVD/mkv etc after all
- All devices will play MPEG2 and AC3 format
the key is to set profile to older tv models .. I found
panasonic veira works on all tvs. and forces serviio to transcode regardless
if it ever goes out of sync I found just wind back the show a few seconds to
the next key frame

as for AVI sony is fussy also on xvid header
any OPML or junk in avi header throws it
it expects a basic header.. you can modify most xvids
headers with avimuxgui and disable the adv features
for media player tracking and the new OPML format
and junk pads more info can be found on the
serviio forums

minimoke

740 posts

Ultimate Geek

#801784 18-Apr-2013 17:26

Oblivian: Out of curiosity, whats the requirement to send it to the BD player vs directly to the TV? It only adds more processing hops. As you have find, the BD player formats are garbage.

Sound quality. Sound out of the TV is ok, perhaps at best passable. TV is supposedly stereo but there is litltle seperation.

If I stream to the Blu ray with the audio connected to the amp I get much better stereo quality as well as sound running through 5 speakes and sub.

And FYI, I've changed my method since that thread. The BD player hardly gets used (sadly, was more a dual HDMI to work with my single input TV and amp at the time which have since been replaced) since it was as you found.. crap with DLNA and media formats other than stored on a F32 stick.

I now use primarily the ST50 built in media player (which albeit cludgy.. works), and XBMC on my PC as the uPNP host. Serviio was being buggy and eating all my ram up trying. XBMC seems to throw anything at the built in player just fine, and doubles as a smartphone controllable output from the PC to the TV for anything it can't play.

Since that thread I'm pretty pleased with Serviio. They muis thave got a profile loaded that works with the blu ray. Barring the failure to pause/play its working pretty easily now.

I've just picked up XMBC which I'll have a play around with at some point.

If you aren't too fussed with sound quality and looking for a simple solution streaming direct to the media server on the TV is an excellent option. The TV is less cludgy (good technical term!) than the blu ray

Oblivian

4046 posts

Uber Geek

#801803 18-Apr-2013 18:27

*shrug* I'm using optical/coaxial out to the amp from the tv.. so its no an issue since the 5.1 is passed through from any media format with it via the STs player. (With the advantage of no buffering and ability to skip)

stevemat

11 posts

Geek

#801831 18-Apr-2013 19:06

I was trying to get DNLA going on Blue-ray player as all AV goes through my Yamaha 673 amp, I can get it working on TV but it means changing inputs on the TV, and this confuses wife / kids

Oblivian

4046 posts

Uber Geek

#801835 18-Apr-2013 19:12

No input changes really, its an added function under VieraTools and fairly straight forward

But if thats still in the too-hard bin, 'Time to invest in a Logitech remote with functions :)

You can set it up how it should be, and 1 button push and it will all be working.

B1GGLZ

1960 posts

Uber Geek

#801840 18-Apr-2013 19:20

stevemat: I was trying to get DNLA going on Blue-ray player as all AV goes through my Yamaha 673 amp, I can get it working on TV but it means changing inputs on the TV, and this confuses wife / kids

I think you mean DLNA and not DNLA?
Looking at the specs it's the same as my BDT110 but has WiFi built in.
It is very limited in what files it can play via network.
From the brochure - AVCHD, WMV, DivX, JPEG, MP3 and WMA - are the only files it will recognise.
My BDT720 recorder handles a few more. My Sony TV is similarly restricted (but slightly better) which is why I have an A C Ryan media player.
Have you upgraded to latest Firmware?

stevemat

11 posts

Geek

#801843 18-Apr-2013 19:34

Quite right DLNA, must have been watching too much CSI and thinking of DNA.

Good call re the Vierra Tool, button

minimoke

740 posts

Ultimate Geek

#801845 18-Apr-2013 19:35

Oblivian: *shrug* I'm using optical/coaxial out to the amp from the tv.. so its no an issue since the 5.1 is passed through from any media format with it via the STs player. (With the advantage of no buffering and ability to skip)

Trouble is all my wires are in-wall and I'd need a 25m length of toslink to join the TV and amp

Dunnersfella

3826 posts

Uber Geek

#801956 18-Apr-2013 22:46

I agree with the sentiment of connecting a computer via an HDMI cable.
My Harmony 1 has a single button that turns on my TV, switches the amp to the correct setting, flicks the TV to the HDMI input of my Mac... and I then use the remote to nagivate PLEX.
It's simple, and far more powerful / convenient than the DLNA servers I've used in the past.
What's more, as the Mac is the media server for the whole home, it can serve to our tablets / phones etc.

I spent a long time dabbling with severs and Panasonic kit, and it was a mainly frustrating exercise.

ubergeeknz

3344 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Vocus

#801963 18-Apr-2013 23:01

I long since gave up trying to use my Sony blu-ray or LG TV to play media.

I notice my BIL's panasonic blu-ray is even worse than these two, almost nothing plays on it. You almost have to re-encode stuff specially for it, oh and put it on a USB key by itself... what a pain

In the end I hooked up an old laptop with XBMCbuntu.

Everything (and I mean, everything) plays (once I got it set up anyway, but mostly that was down to old and oddball hardware).

Cheap way to do it, is to grab an rPi and wifi adapter, and install RaspXBMC.

Benefit is you have a nice open box running, which you can use for other handy things.

DLNA works perfectly both ways, and can even play from Airplay device (iPod, iPhone, etc).