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PostPosted: Mon Jul 21, 2014 9:23 am 
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I have not used my ex475 for anything but backup, and now I like to see if I can stream to my TV.
I have an older panasonic viera th-58pz700u, which is HD, but not smart HD. As far as I know It does not have any built-in apps for streaming, even though it does have an ethernet jack.
I just purchased a sony bdp-bx320 blueray player but have kept it in the box until I know it is going to work for me. The bx320 supposedly has built-in support for hulu,amazon,netflix, etc. subscription services, but I saw a post suggesting that these players may not support content & streaming from local media servers, or that the player drm filters may block it.

I don't know much about this, so if someone knows or can point me to other sites, let me know.


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PostPosted: Mon Jul 21, 2014 1:20 pm 
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I will attempt to answer this since streaming media is in a world to itself.
First I looked at your tv manual there does not appear to be a utp(ethernet) port.
Also it is not DLNA.
However your bluray player is DLNA compliant.
So you could connect the player to your server and play it to your TV via HDMI.

I don't use DLNA myself because it has to many limitations.
But since you have something already to use it on, it is a place to start with.
If twonky is installed on your server already you could try that for a first try.
It has it's own issues.
Anyway enable it and use your blueray player to connect to it.
You could try the wifi feature first but hard wired is best.

If you can't get twonky working or you don't have it try servio( free). Another DNLA server app.

Beyond that comes dedicated media players which cost some bucks.
Dune,popcorn hour are two.

but since you have something already that you can try. Do it before you spend money to enhance it.

You will find many issues like incompatible file formats

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PostPosted: Mon Jul 21, 2014 9:07 pm 
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I just want to make sure the sony player doesn't have some kind of show stopper issue with home network streaming, since there are several other brands to choose from.

I have wired ethernet so I planned to turn off the wifi if I can. From the manual it sounds like I might be able to control the player from a phone app instead of the clunky remote.
These new players don't have tuners, but they don't have coax input. Since my TV supports 2xhdmi, RF input, s-video, composite, etc. I can leave all my old stuff plugged in and just add the new box.


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PostPosted: Tue Jul 22, 2014 12:08 pm 
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I have a similar blueray model.
But I never tried it, because i have dedicated media players, Which have GUI interfaces called (jukeboxes).

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PostPosted: Tue Jul 22, 2014 9:54 pm 
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So I unboxed the BX320 and hooked it up. I can pull up youtube videos and movie trailers. I copied some jpg, png, mp3, mpg, avi over to the appropriate folders on the MSS.
Even though the BX320 claims to support all of these formats, and recognizes there is something in those folders, it says they are NOT playable. Only the AVI filenames actually show up on the OSD, but when I try to play them I get a message saying they are corrupt.

Is there some step I am missing here, or did I just find the show stopper issue with this product?

.


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PostPosted: Wed Jul 23, 2014 9:55 am 
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well the jpg and the mp3s seem like they should appear.
It is usually video that barks.
Have you tried enabling the guest account with read/write access to the specific folders in the server?
Not sure what you did with the player as far as login to the server.
If you did this already you should reboot the server to force the guest account to use the new permissions.
another question are you using say twonky in the server?
If so is that setup for the folders in question?

If I get time this weekend I will try my sony player.

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PostPosted: Wed Jul 23, 2014 10:29 am 
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On the MSS under settings, Twonkey media already had sharing enabled for all categories. When that didn't seem to be enough I also enabled sharing under settings->media sharing.
After that I was able to view an mpeg and I think an avi on my TV, but the mp3 and various picture formats are a no go. It won't even show me the file names, just "no playable content".


The other really annoying thing with the BX320 is the supplied remote is almost unusable. It takes several keypresses before it responds, and seems to lock up at times. There are a couple dozen content providers, and I can (painfully) browse the content, but if I want to play content, even "free" content, I have to watch an add. If I watch any content, it seems like it stops responding to the remote, and I can't exit back to the main screen. Several times I had to power cycle the BX320 to recover. I later discovered that the TV remote will navigate the menus and it does respond much better, but there is no way to get back to the top level menu once you have watched any of the content.


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PostPosted: Wed Jul 23, 2014 12:31 pm 
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It could be your connection to the server is bad?
My ps3 has a similar interface and I know all of the same issues you have had I have been through on the ps3.
it mostly came down to slow connections as well as incompatible with some video formats.
Also permission to access the files(which is why I suggested the guest account)
I was using twonky at the time and the last release was the one that would get stuck on a lot of my video files, so I went on to media players and stopped streaming content.
I gave up on wifi for video.
I still use my ps3 on occasion for music(mp3) and photos(jpg) but not video because it will not play iso files.

Also using the media sharing setting has some issues.
1. media must be in the default share folders
2. It will ignore any user account security settings.
Meaning if you turn off access to everyone for say the default photos folder it can still be accessed by anyone.
Also the media types are limited to say what a xbox can play.

Now looking back in my memory bank.
I did for a while have the ps3media server installed on my mss and I had better luck playing content on my ps3. Not perfect but more items played.

But again,
I am in the middle of upgrading my home network.
but if I have time this weekend I will try my sony bluray player and let you know.

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PostPosted: Mon Jul 28, 2014 10:51 pm 
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I have continued to test with different file formats to see what I can play, and the vast majority of what is supposed to be supported is not even available when I browse the MSS shared folders from my TV. I can understand it might not play everything, but it does not even show the files. This includes jpgs straight from my camera! I have put everything directly into the shared folders, (music, photos, videos), and enabled every sharing setting I can find including guest sharing. So far only the stuff I put in videos shows up. I have the same settings for all the folders, so since I can select & play videos, I should be able to do the same for photos and music. I loaded the matroska test suite, and it will play 5 of the 8 tests. Not sure if that is a passing grade or not.

The various BX-320 media apps will often report the connection speed and it routinely exceeds 15mbps, so any speed limitation is not at my end.
The OSD navigation is the most frustrating, and it appears there are either bugs in the player firmware or the media apps. There many places where it is impossible to exit to the top menu without power cycling the player. This reset is followed by a high pitched 10second beep as it reboots. Talk about rushed to market. Hard to imagine what it was like before the latest firmware update.

It is a shame the unit has these problems, since the DVD and Blueray playback work great, and the unit is small and better looking than the Samsung box. I am still hoping to get some feedback from other users in case my limited experience with the MSS is causing me to miss something.


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PostPosted: Tue Jul 29, 2014 10:12 am 
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Okay I tried Twonky on my sony player.
jpg works as well as mp3.
avi was hit and miss
MKV works as well as vob.

first item I would do is open the whs console.
select the mediasmart server tab.
on the bottom left is a button for media server.
that gives you a status for Twonky.
There is a button on the top left of the screen to show the status of twonky.
stop sharing means it is running.
start sharing means it is not.
It takes a few moments after you click on it to change so don't keep clicking on it.


Next I would check that it has found your media
there will be a count for music,photos and video

If files are missing it could be the folders are incorrect or the file types are incompatible with twonky

Also there is a last database update time.
If it has something other than time it means it is scanning the folders.
Or it is stuck on a file that it thinks is bad.

Then at the bottom is a list of media players by type and by MAC.
You will need to figure out the mac of the player and see what type it is set for.
If anything is incorrect just select the configure media server button which will take you to settings.
one other item to check in the settings is if the share folders are enabled.
there will be a green dot next to the folder.
If it is red double click to make it green.
Another item to check or try is the media receivers.
same goes for the green dot to the left of the player.
also on the media player select and click on edit.
You will be given a list of players.
each one uses different settings to send to the player.
I changed mine to ps3 for my test ,by default Twonky selected generic which made the photos look terrible.


And last is navigation to the media from the player.
There is a quirk on sony's navagation
I will use music for a example.
scroll to the right to music.
Then up or down to the TM Icon and select it.
You will then have some sub menu's. which will be again photos,music and videos.
If the main menu was music you must select music again.
same for photos from the main menu you must select photos again
Same for video from the main menu. You must select the same media type in the sub menu that you started with from the main menu.
You must always go to the top menu first when changing media types.
Then only select the same media type in the sub menu.
So if you are in music and select photos in the submenu it will not work.


Also for connection I am not talking about your internet connection. I mean the connection to your server from the player.

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PostPosted: Tue Jul 29, 2014 10:45 am 
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OK, my big issue with media was using the player navigation. I didn't understand the OSD "categories", and I was trying to play music or photos while in the "video" category. My take is it that it should either let me play any type of media for any folder it shows, or it should hide the folders for the media types that it isn't going to let me play. Anyway, with my new understanding, I can now play mp3, wma, jpg, png, and some of the video formats.

I took another owner's advice and used "reset to factory defaults", which does not revert to older firmware, but may have cleared up some odd behaviors.
What is your experience with the remote? I still find it is unacceptably slow to respond. My panasonic TV remote does a much better job, but some of the key buttons don't work such as the movie controls (FWD, REV, FFD, pause, play, etc). I also cannot return to the main OSD menu, even though the TV remote has an "exit" button that should probably do this. I found that to return to that main menu, I had to hold down the "home" button on the sony remote for 3 seconds. This works most, but not all of the time. At other times, holding down the buttons seems to fill a key buffer, which leaves the remote unresponsive for a very long time.


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PostPosted: Tue Jul 29, 2014 11:21 am 
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Yep it is a quirk that all sony devices have.
I learned it when I bought a ps3.
I had the same issue.
A PS3 is what I used in the beginning day's for a media player.
I have moved on to a popcorn c-200 and a dune HD connect.

Well I don't know about the factory remote.
I use a harmony 1 for all of my devices.

But I can tell you that you must understand it is playing media.
So you must select the stop button first. Then let it return to the menu you came from.
Exit does not do it.
It would be the same as playing a dvd.
You have to select stop. The square button.
Then you can return to the menu.
This holds true for my popcorn and dune players.

As far a a delay, possibly the player is using all of it's buffer cache memory to play something so it takes awhile to respond?

As I said before there is another world when dealing with media players.
They all have their own pros and cons.

Took a couple of years to decide what file formats I could do best then find a player that will render them correctly.
for photos jpg was a no brainer.
for music mp3 seemed to be the most compatible for all things like phones,ipads,etc.
But even at the highest bitrate there still is a slight loss.
For video I use vob and ISO.
Of course iso probably will not work on your player and vob will look ugly on your player, but should work.
MKV should work.

AVI seems like it is a setting change needed.
I can get video to play most of the time but audio comes and goes.
But my test files were very short in duration. So possibly by the time the file loaded the audio was finished.

Anyway I like the ability to have them play just like the dvd with menus.
So I have stuck with videots(vob)and ISO for bluray.
They play just like the dvd is inserted in the player.

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PostPosted: Sat Aug 02, 2014 11:39 am 
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Wow, the cost of that remote is more than most of my equipment. Nice!


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PostPosted: Sat Aug 02, 2014 12:16 pm 
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Well now it is the Harmony Ultimate.
But when you get tired of juggling remotes.
Or the limitations of the cheapo universal remotes.
They are awesome.
They may be pricey but if it fails my wife will not argue about price.
She will go buy it herself.

It is the best remote I ever bought.

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PostPosted: Wed Aug 13, 2014 9:03 pm 
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It turned out my TV remote (panasonic) was also programmable, but was made before Blueray, so it couldn't control everything. It was either buy a new remote or a different player.
I returned the sony unit and bought a panasonic DMP-BD91. It does not have as nice a menu system, or have nearly as many online apps, but it does not have the functionality issues I was seeing with the sony. When I turn on the player, it turns on the TV, and there is no delayed response when using the remote. It also seems to be able to play the same range of formats. The only downside so far is it didn't come with the HDMI cable.


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