Share files between PC & TV

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boeingaviation

8 posts

Wannabe Geek

#103054 29-May-2012 19:01

Good Evening,

I have just bought a new Sony Bravia LCD TV which is internet ready.

I would like to know the best way to watch the movies that are on my HDD on the TV.

I wanted to do this over a wireless home network, but I haven't had much luck. My TV supports broswing via a USB Stick or via a Home network for playback from and I have 2 USB ports on the TV + a Network port which I can plug a cable directly into.

The reason is most of my movies on computer are in 1080p format, and my new TV supports this so would like to take advantage of this. My PC monitors only support 720p.

Could someone please advise me on the best course of action, and if I need to buy any additional components to get this working.

Many thanks in advance.

boeingaviation

dontpanic42

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#632173 29-May-2012 19:18

What model number Sony TV do you have?

You'll probably find it's DLNA certified, so all you will have to do is set up a media server on your PC, connect your TV up to your home network (to your modem/router via Ethernet cable), and you should be ready to go.

You can then stream all your movies from your PC to your TV.

One good option for media streaming software is PS3 Media Server.
The name (PS3) may not immediately suggest that it is the best piece of software to stream to a 'TV', but I've found it to be very good at streaming media files to the likes of the new Sony/Samsung network ready TVs.

http://www.ps3mediaserver.org/

And yes, a wireless network may handle 1080p files, but it's always best to use a cabled connection to the TV with HD stuff.

Hope that helps.
:)

Dunnersfella

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#632187 29-May-2012 19:51

Sony's can play movies back via DLNA, but the file format support isn't what I call 'wide'...
I would suggest a seperate media box, into which you plug a large powered HDD, then connect to your Sony via an HDMI cable.
Western Digital make some boxes that should tick all your boxes.

MurrayM

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#632189 29-May-2012 19:53

Or you could try Serviio at http://www.serviio.org/ as a media server.

boeingaviation

8 posts

Wannabe Geek

#632199 29-May-2012 20:12

How do I create a media server and recognise my TV.

JimmyH

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#632283 29-May-2012 22:13

WD TV Live. Was on sale at Bond & bond for under $100 when I was in there last week. It will reliably do everything you want. Cheap, functional & fairly robust.

boeingaviation

8 posts

Wannabe Geek

#632290 29-May-2012 22:29

JimmyH: WD TV Live. Was on sale at Bond & bond for under $100 when I was in there last week. It will reliably do everything you want. Cheap, functional & fairly robust.

Downloaded Serviio and got the server working now, thanks for the help all.

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boeingaviation

8 posts

Wannabe Geek

#632682 30-May-2012 15:47

Thanks to "Murray M" for suggesting Serviio. I tried "Tversity" but couldn't get that working, and found serviio much simpler and got it working first time around.

Many thanks,

MurrayM

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#632684 30-May-2012 15:50

You're welcome!

I tried Tversity for a while too but I wasn't happy with how it worked on my Sony Bravia TV.

EvilSteve

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#632701 30-May-2012 16:12

I use PS3 media server to feed 3 ps3s and a lone samsung tv.

The thing i like about it is the ability to transcode if you want but not all the time (ie, something wont play on the playstation) it provides a folder for each video and in that folder are between 2 and 4 different versions of the video each transcoded a different way.

I have noticed however that over wifi it seems to have issues every now and then - mainly when fast forwarding but ive changed everything to cat5 now.

boeingaviation

8 posts

Wannabe Geek

#637236 7-Jun-2012 11:29

Ok so I've run into some problems with Serviio.

It was working fine for the first few days and then it stopped working.

I've read on the serviio forum that this can be caused to IP address changes. I re-installed it and it worked briefly and then stopped again. When it was working it was great, and working fine.

I've gone onto youtube and followed the setup instructions for it (it's a pretty basic program) so you can't really do anything wrong.

Can anyone help me out with this? I downloaded PS3 media server but can't figure out how to add my Sony Bravia TV to it, and I would buy Tversity but need to know if it's actually any good?

I haven't setup a home network through Windows 7 I just selected the locations for my files through Serviio.

Thanks in advance.

xpd

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#637245 7-Jun-2012 11:34

I use PS3Media Server as well - dont need to "add" anything to it, just run it and it should show up as a media server on your device (does for my phone and PS3 anyway).

XPD / Gavin

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boeingaviation

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Wannabe Geek

#640316 13-Jun-2012 17:40

Thanks everyone for you replies. A quick update:

I'm managed to find out that the firewall inside Eset Smart Security v5 is blocking my home network. As soon as I turn the firewall off & turn windows firewall on everything works fine, but when I re-enable Nod32 it doesn't work.

I would really like to keep nod32 going, and wondered if any members were using SS v5 and if someone could help me out with the correct settings to allow the firewall to share my connection.

Cheers,
Chris

boeingaviation

8 posts

Wannabe Geek

#677167 26-Aug-2012 16:36

So I've been using Serviio for a while now; and they other day it stopped working i.e, it's running on my pc but wont show up on the TV.

Is there anyone else using Serviio, as I have found that PS3 media server lags quite a bit if you fast forward or rewind on the tv where as Serviio doesn't.

Also are there any media sharing programs like Serviio that are worth buying?

minimoke

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#677565 27-Aug-2012 12:36

I use Serviio. Are you sure the server is running on your PC? if it is and you can't see it on your TV it sounds like a connection error at your TV end. Have you tested the netowrk connection at the TV?

robjg63

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#678023 28-Aug-2012 10:08

We have used serviio at work on some networked Sony TVs as a means of making a video library available to the TVs - seems to work quite well.
You have hinted before that you had issues with ESET - so have you tried temporarily disabling that - also - try disabling your firewall and see if that helps.

From memory if you have the serviio console open you should be able to see the devices on your network that support DLNA/upnp - can you see the TV showing up in that list as a (potential) client?

Nothing is impossible for the man who doesn't have to do it himself - A. H. Weiler