Sony Bravia, NAS and Plex, anyone got it working?

Forums › Home Theatre (including HTPC and EPG Collector) › Sony Bravia, NAS and Plex, anyone got it working?

aquatarkus

59 posts

Master Geek

#173305 18-May-2015 19:05

I've had a Bravia KDL48W600B "smart" TV for a while which is connected (wired not wireless) to our home network. One of the PCs in the house runs a Universal Media Server service and the TV has been able to play mpg video files hosted on that PC.

I recently acquired a Synology Diskstation (NAS) which runs its own media server. The Bravia could see video files on the NAS but when I tried to play any of them the TV would display a spinner while it made the connection, then simply crash. The TV could only recover by disconnecting the power completely and rebooting it.

The DiskStation can also host a Plex media library so the next step was to install Plex on the NAS and add the videos to its library. Now the Bravia can see the Plex videos, but attempting to play them follows exactly the same course, and we have to recycle power to the TV to recover.

The Bravia has a Plex client app, so I installed that; when I run this app the TV asks me to visit plex.tv/pin in a browser and enter the code which is displayed on the TV. That url takes me to a different page asking me to sign up for a Plex Pass (and doubtless $$ to follow?).

This is starting to seem far more complicated than it should be. Good grief, the TV is supposed to be smart and should figure this stuff out. Has anyone got this combination (or something equivalent to it) working properly?

Dunnersfella

4086 posts

Uber Geek

#1307475 18-May-2015 20:19

Sign up to Plex Pass, feel free to give them nothing, or feel free to donate.
I donate, I believe Plex's developers do fantastic work, so I'm happy to pay.

aquatarkus

59 posts

Master Geek

#1307483 18-May-2015 20:33

"Plex Pass is a paid subscription."

As I just found out. "This service is only available to holders of a Plex Pass". Well, I'll give it a go.

littleheaven

2130 posts

Uber Geek

#1307484 18-May-2015 20:34

You can use a dedicated HTPC running Plex Home Theatre without having to pay for Plex Pass. I am using a Minix Neo Z64 Windows box (approx $220) running that and it works great so far (just got it). Just hook it up to a USB port - it's tiny and can be mounted to the reverse of the telly. Plus it runs full Win 8.1 so you have all the benefits of that.

All the Plex client apps require the Plex Pass subscription, but it's not expensive - about $5 a month, from memory.

Geek girl. Freelance copywriter and editor at Unmistakable.co.nz.

aquatarkus

59 posts

Master Geek

#1307500 18-May-2015 21:05

OK. So I'm trialling a Plex Pass which has let me get past the next hurdle. It registers the TV and then tries to find the home server, which is running on the NAS. Unfortunately it can't find it. Or at least, it can see that one is there but apparently it isn't running a recent enough version; it says Please upgrade the version of your Plex Media Server. However I am already running the latest version :-(

JWR

821 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1307567 18-May-2015 23:46

aquatarkus: I've had a Bravia KDL48W600B "smart" TV for a while which is connected (wired not wireless) to our home network. One of the PCs in the house runs a Universal Media Server service and the TV has been able to play mpg video files hosted on that PC.

I recently acquired a Synology Diskstation (NAS) which runs its own media server. The Bravia could see video files on the NAS but when I tried to play any of them the TV would display a spinner while it made the connection, then simply crash. The TV could only recover by disconnecting the power completely and rebooting it.

The DiskStation can also host a Plex media library so the next step was to install Plex on the NAS and add the videos to its library. Now the Bravia can see the Plex videos, but attempting to play them follows exactly the same course, and we have to recycle power to the TV to recover.

The Bravia has a Plex client app, so I installed that; when I run this app the TV asks me to visit plex.tv/pin in a browser and enter the code which is displayed on the TV. That url takes me to a different page asking me to sign up for a Plex Pass (and doubtless $$ to follow?).

This is starting to seem far more complicated than it should be. Good grief, the TV is supposed to be smart and should figure this stuff out. Has anyone got this combination (or something equivalent to it) working properly?

Have you tried updating your TV from the Internet?

My Bravia (an older, lower end model) wouldn't play a lot of video file formats until I updated.

Now it plays almost everything.

I run Serviio (free version) on Windows Server and have quite a lot of video.

afe66

3181 posts

Uber Geek

Lifetime subscriber

#1307716 19-May-2015 11:47

Which version synology do you have ?
Can your tv play the codec ? Ie is the spinning wheel because the synology is trying to transcode the file ?

I have 2009 bravia and for about a year I ran Rasplex on Raspberry pi with Ethernet link to synology 412+ which worked ok. Used wireless keyboard or HTC phone to control things.

Interface was a little slow but movies played fine. Just DVD encoded Handbrake Normal/High setting.

A.

To download the plex server software, just go to the plex home site click on either public or plexpass buttons the select the synology NAS you have and install it onto the NAS.

Assume the reason you acquired it wasn't because the previous owner had a problem with it..

aquatarkus

59 posts

Master Geek

#1307746 19-May-2015 12:37

Thanks A. In fact, thanks everyone for your suggestions.

I've found that Synology lags a bit making Plex updates available through their package centre. I downloaded the latest NAS version from the Plex site and manually installed it, and (hooray) have at last succeeded in playing a video.

I'm a bit disappointed in Sony because I think the TV should be capable of playing this media through the Synology Video Station without requiring a (paid) third party app, but at least I have something that works now.

Now if only Lightbox could provide a Sony version of their app, we'd be in seventh heaven.

cheers
T

Lenovo

Shop now for Lenovo laptops and other devices (affiliate link).

StructureDr

77 posts

Master Geek

#1308443 20-May-2015 13:02

aquatarkus: I've had a Bravia KDL48W600B "smart" TV for a while which is connected (wired not wireless) to our home network. One of the PCs in the house runs a Universal Media Server service and the TV has been able to play mpg video files hosted on that PC.

I recently acquired a Synology Diskstation (NAS) which runs its own media server. The Bravia could see video files on the NAS but when I tried to play any of them the TV would display a spinner while it made the connection, then simply crash. The TV could only recover by disconnecting the power completely and rebooting it.

The DiskStation can also host a Plex media library so the next step was to install Plex on the NAS and add the videos to its library. Now the Bravia can see the Plex videos, but attempting to play them follows exactly the same course, and we have to recycle power to the TV to recover.

The Bravia has a Plex client app, so I installed that; when I run this app the TV asks me to visit plex.tv/pin in a browser and enter the code which is displayed on the TV. That url takes me to a different page asking me to sign up for a Plex Pass (and doubtless $$ to follow?).

This is starting to seem far more complicated than it should be. Good grief, the TV is supposed to be smart and should figure this stuff out. Has anyone got this combination (or something equivalent to it) working properly?

We have a Bravia (46W900) and sequentially have streamed video in a variety of ways:

From built in DLNA server (Twonky) on a WD Mycloud (single drive, low end processor)
From Plex DLNA server running on Linux i5 PC
Now from Plex to a windows 8 PC.

All worked fine generally, except:

The TV was unable to play the odd video due to Codec issues as noted by others - this is a non-issue for Plex
The whole thing was pretty hit and miss prior to getting a wired connection.

Never bothered to try the Plex Bravia app as we don't have the pass required, and by the time it was announced already had the HTPC connected up.

To be honest, if you can find ≈$300 for a basic Atom/Windows w/Bing HTPC this is by far the better way to go. For any decent sized media library navigation via keyboard is streets ahead of TV remote. I guess for the Plex Bravia or NAS apps this could be mitigated by using the plex app on a phone as the remote.