I'm an IT professional but have only a pretty basic understanding of networking and am completely new to media servers - I used to use Allcast with Plexmedia server, but after upgrading my PC to windows 8, I found that Allcast couldn't find my PC or Plex Media Server. So I started looking at other options and discovered that both my Sony Blu Ray (BDP-S1200) and my Panasonic Vierra both should be able to access a media server on my PC using DLNA.
I tried using serviio (as that is recommended by Sony) and it doesn't seem to work with the blu ray - it recognises it but the blu ray doesn't seem to pick up the server.
I tried setting up a basic media server just by using the Media Streaming options on my PC, which is also pretty simple to set up - you can't really go wrong there. Yet nothing seems to recognise it - not the vierra nor allcast. You can tell they're working (at least the Vierra and Allcast are) as they find my Fritzbox server (my router) and also find my son's Windows Media Player. Allcast also recognises the TV, so they're all on the network and connected. But nothing finds my PC.
I turned the firewall completely off and nothing works.
I could get a chromecast but if nothing else recognises my PC, I'm sure it won't either.

I'm at wits end here. Any help appreciated. Thanks.

I'm just thinking out loud here, but your not exactly going in to detail on the setup of the server.
Did you get a pre-configured unit with at least 1 harddrive in it, or did you go through the motions getting it setup? If so, at what point did you start to encounter problems?
Do you have any means to see what units that have been given a IP on the network? The DHCP host should be providing the IP for the server, so thats one way to know if it is at least reaching the network...

Or, if you somehow sorted this on your own, feel free to let us know what was the problem. Seeing since it's been a while, and all that...
B!

I'm talking here about media servers on my regular PC - I didn't set up a separate server. But I did get it sorted - it was simply Avast blocking the media server. I have found that I had to turn off the avast firewall to get it to work, and their support is not very good either, in terms of helping to show me how to exclude the media server.

now it works either through Plex or the standard Windows 8 media server.

Cheers.

So, it was simply in the wrong section of the forum, and quite possibly on the wrong forum al together. No wonder everyone else kept away from the question...
B!

I'm confused. It's in "Windows Home Server V1" then "Troubleshooting and Support". Wasn't I looking for troubleshooting and support for a windows media server?
Or does a home server only refer to hardware, not windows server software?

Windows Home Server v1 is a Microsoft OS. Not an application to be run on Windows 8.
B!