Help using DLNA to watch media recorded on one panasonic TVR via a second one over the network

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tomm987

3 posts

Wannabe Geek

#319856 9-Jun-2025 00:35

Please can someone knowledgeable help me?

I have a panasonic DMR-HW120 TV recorder in my living room (call it machine A) that has DLNA, apparently both client and server. That one has a wired connection to my home network and to the antenna (and the TV) and its HDD has many films recorded on it from the TV stations.

I have just bought a second panasonic DMR-HW120 (call it machine B) to put in my gym. That is connected to a PC that acts as a monitor and wirelessly to the same network as machine A.

The idea is that when I am in the gym with machine B I can watch the films that are recorded on machine A's HDD. I think I can use DLNA for this but I don't know how.

Can anyone please help me with the exact steps to follow to achieve this? (I've never played with DLNA before)

If I do get it working, will I be able to select the films and view them all using the controls on machine B or will I have to go into the living room to do something on machine A?

Finally, If I am watching a film via machine B will machine A still function as usual? ie, will someone else in the living room still be able to select channels to watch, record programs and view different recorded programs to me that are recorded on machine A's HDD?

I'm trying to avoid simply copying all the films from machine A to machine B using some sort of removable media.

Thanks for any help you can give.

Oblivian

7345 posts

Uber Geek
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ID Verified

#3381887 9-Jun-2025 00:52

Hoping between lan and wifi may be problematic (isolated)

But test using vlc on mobile or a pc. Search for a plug n play source which generally includes upnp and DLNA and you'll soon see if a server is broadcasting as visible.

A media player on TVs is similar. If it can search for network source, it usually includes dlna too.

tomm987

3 posts

Wannabe Geek

#3381888 9-Jun-2025 05:36

Thank you for the fast response. I can easily add another network outlet hard wired if wifi causes problems.

Anyway I looked in VCL ver 3.0.20 on my PC (hard wired on the network) and finally found a reference to plug and play
by the following menu route

View | Playlist | universal plug and play
I could now see my network and the devices connected to it

I then did the following

Double clicked DMR-HWT120 - (now I see the HDD contents)
Double clicked HDD -> Video --> Movie (all the film titles are shown)
Double clicked one title

and it played! 😃 (much to my surprise)

So I guess DLNA is available and this is a workaround to my question. I could just use VCL on the PC in the gym and not bother with the second Panasonic recorder at all.

However for the sake of completeness, do you know me how to perform the same magic with my second panasonic recorder since I have it and get that to take its input via DFNLA over the network?

tomm987

3 posts

Wannabe Geek

#3381889 9-Jun-2025 06:19

Ah, I guess I've found the answer to one of my previous questions.

I had a film playing in VCL player on the PC in the gym streaming via DLNA from the panasonic TVR in the living room and, without knowing, my wife started a recording of another program in the living room as well as watching live TV via the TVR. So far no problem. Then I tried paused the live TV and immediately there was a VLC error message on the PC

Your input can't be opened:

VLC is unable to open the MRL 'http://192.168.178.36:60001/AV-0-268435456-0-0-268436097-394781400_BDY?CI=1&fmt=AVC_TS_MP_HD_AAC_LTP_T&bitrate=3000&resolution=360'. Check the log for details.

In this scenario the HDD is being used for read (for VLC) for write (the program being recorded) and for write again (the TV program that is being recorded whilst paused). So I seem to have reached a limit on what can be achieved with the Panasonic. Odd given that a PC can access a HDD for multiple simultaneous read/ write requests but the Panasonic seem to be only able to cope with two, and the DLNA is the one that gets stopped..