Bravia W5500 DLNA compatibility

[OllyMason]

Many thanks to Joe76000 and others on a comprehensive set of information - although a lurker for a while I've just joined to be able to reply to this thread - it saved me a LOT of time while looking into this for my own TV.

ps3media server appears to be a good option, but a couple of issues with the server becoming unavailable after a fair bit of watching transcoded videos, and the TV losing its place when fast forward/rewinding transcoded (particularly rewinding - it skips *forward* in the file most times), I'll stick with it until I can try the windows7/wmp12 combination.

There were assertions made at the beginning that the problems everyone's had are due to Sony not supporting DLNA guidelines, but more recently the way this thread reads, I'm not so sure. Joe76000 you seem to be less convinced (bottom of post 53)http://www.avforums.com/forums/10530330-post53.html; terrorist's post from a software dev's POV; the difficulties wrt obtaining a full spec and serving videos correctly outlined by the geexbox dev in the previously linked rant, and the fact that some DLNA servers do work (e.g. WMP12) make me wonder if perhaps the problem might be in the DMS software packages rather than the TV?

I was wondering if anyone knows of a current feature comparison table for DLNA servers, like the one here which is similar, but for uPNP servers (some significant overlap).

 

[keithh6]

<snip>

There were assertions made at the beginning that the problems everyone's had are due to Sony not supporting DLNA guidelines, but more recently the way this thread reads, I'm not so sure.

<snip>

I can't speak on behalf of others, but my frustration was born from the fact that Sony were (are?) failing to provide any support for DLNA other than pointing users to more of their own products. They seem to want to have their cake and eat it. "This TV supports the DLNA standard. Use it with other Sony equipment".

 

[Joe76000]

Hello to All,

The last posts were very interesting and instructive regarding the writers' experience.

Just a restatement from my side on DLNA servers and Bravia DLNA client as of today:
- The Best is still PS3MS v.1.11.356 + (Open source, free S/W and multi OS written in Java but still in Beta). This is the most compatible server with the Bravia and the main developper is continuing to expand the list of compatible DLNA clients. She is unable getting even some technical DLNA data from Sony, so she is obliged to go ahead step by step doing everything by herself helped by few fans. This is a hugh amount of time spent for testing purpose.
- 2nd is WMP12 (today only W7 OS) which is not as good as PS3MS as a DLNA server, but as already written it is covering all DLNA functions (not only server).
- Then, you have all the others and I am not at all convienced by them (for Bravia).

As mentioned above in OllyMason's URL "How to choose a DLNA Media Server for Windows, Mac OS X or Linux", I am not aware of any better (generic) DLNA S/W comparison.

Even having updated the F/W of my WD MBWE WL I NAS - which now includes the latest Twonky Media Server v.5.1 (versus previous TMS v.4.4.9w) but without the transcoding function due to the lack of the CPU horse power of this given NAS - TMS v.5.1 is working even worse than v.4.4.9w with my Bravia (KDL-46W5710E - W5500 series). So, forget it into a NAS!

So, I have to admit what was nice on a piece of paper, based on the manufacturers' marketing *bull*s*h*i*t* which includes of course Sony, was not turned into reality even after few months of hard testing at home.

As mentioned above in OllyMason's URL "Why do I hate DLNA protocol so much ?", reading once again again this article, I am thinking to give up for a while regarding DLNA! To much time spent on technical issues and to much testing and not enough time spent for really enjoying watching with my family our videos!

As Jas46 has well written it above, on my side I will also stick to a more reliable approach; i.e. moving my laptop near to my Bravia and connecting both by HDMI.

But this is anymore a DLAN solution I was looking for its Interoperability over LAN... The TV (and some NAS) manufacturers, not only Sony, are trying to sell us (their clients) a DLNA standard which is still far from being achived and ready to be released to market!

All these ~ 240 companies including Sony are trying to tell us a nice but not true story: Home - DLNA Even after 6 years of DLNA development, this standard is not yet a real standard!

" " " " "
About Digital Living Network Alliance:
Digital Living Network Alliance began in 2003 when a collection of companies from around the world agreed that they all made better products when those products were compatible...

DLNA Interoperability Guidelines:
DLNA published its first set of Interoperability Guidelines in June 2004 and the first set of DLNA Certified products began appearing in market soon thereafter.
The latest version of the DLNA Interoperability Guidelines, version 1.5, was published in March 2006, and then expanded in October 2006. These guidelines enlarge the capabilities of a DLNA-defined network to include more home and mobile devices. They also include the specifications for link protection to allow secure transmission of copyright-protected commercial digital content...
" " " " "

To end on Sony, Keithh6 has well made the point: "This TV supports the DLNA standard. Use it with other Sony equipment". See Sony's Bravia support page for the confirmation: Televisions and ProjectorsÂ*|Â* KDL-46W5500Â*|Â*Sony Support Europe

Cheers.

 

[loco69]

Hi. I have KDL-40W5500 1.600EA firmware, Vaio with windows 7 , PS3 media server (beta .366).
I think this setup looks quite good, but only been that way about one week... so need more testing.
I've managed to play all my HD video files .mkv .mp4 .m2ts and finally got even separate subtitles working.
Mediaplayer 12 is also ok, but separate subtitles is the problem

My question is: Does anybody know what is is the speed of Sony's w5500 lan connection.
Need to buy new lan switch and thinking 100mbs or 1gbit.
Vaio has only 100mbs lan, but it's not gonna be my final PS3 media server.

Thanks

Windows 7 Codecs v2.1.5 installed in Vaio

 

[steadyeddy]

Hello,

Windows Media Player 12 / Windows 7
Here after some inputs and ideas for those having issues with WMP12 and Bravia W5500 series.

1- Read What can be achieved by and How to well setup WMP12 / W7:
Engineering Windows 7 : Media Streaming with Windows 7

2- Test in your Bravia if WMP12 is visible or not:
Read the NEW (November 2009) Instruction / Operation Manuel starting page 28 and especially page 31.
More here at Sony Bravia Support page:
Televisions and ProjectorsÂ*|Â* KDL-46W5500Â*|Â*Sony Support Europe

3- From your PC, ping your Bravia IP address using a CMD window:
"PING BraviaIPaddress" without the quotes and replacing BraviaIPaddress by the IP adress given above by your Bravia.

4- MAC Address must appear in above test as it seems Bravia DLNA client cannot work without such address.

5- Obviously Firewall must allow traffic both ways from WMP12/PC to Bravia and vice and versa. For tests purpose, the best is to disable completly your firewall.

Cheers.

Hi Joe - thanks for all your info. I am another media server " struggler" having tried all flavours ( twonky, ps3, etc.). Howevr, having upgraded to Win 7 I find that it serves my W5500 quite well and reliably.

The only problem I have now is getting the "play-to" to work. I have been thro' your list above and think all seems ok except that (ref No.3) The ping does not return a MAC address. Am I reading you correctly in that I should expect that to be happening when I ping the Bravia ( seems to ping OK otherwise) And if so, what can I do about it.

When I check Bravia Ip and MAC addresses seem present and correct.

Mark

 

[Joe76000]

Hello Steadyeddy,

Your welcome. Herefater some more inputs regarding WMP12 / W7.

I1: The only problem I have now is getting the "play-to" to work.
A1: If you can stream A/V files from WMP12 (W7) to your Bravia W5500 using your TV remote control you should be okay with both the DLNA client of your TV and the DLNA server of your PC aws with your LAN configuration.

A2: The WMP12 (W7) "play-to" function is only working from your PC; i.e. after having opened either WMP12 or W7 Explorer, right-click on an A/V file and then in the contextual menu left-click on Play-to and you should see e.g. Bravia KDL-4xW5500 then left-click on it. A Play-To Bravia KDL-4xW5500 windows will appear and if your Bravia is switched on the file will automaticaly start to play on your TV.
For more details, see my above post: http://www.avforums.com/forums/10888507-post100.html

I3: The ping does not return a MAC address.
A3: A PING with an IP address done from a PC to whatever LAN equipement will not return any MAC address. My comment about MAC address was when you are looking at into your Bravia network and here you confirmed it is okay.

A4: PING exemple done under Linux Ubuntu 9.10 (~ same under Windows):
joe@joe-laptop:~$ ping 192.168.2.6
PING 192.168.2.6 (192.168.2.6) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from 192.168.2.6: icmp_seq=1 ttl=60 time=2.20 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.2.6: icmp_seq=2 ttl=60 time=2.48 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.2.6: icmp_seq=3 ttl=60 time=2.17 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.2.6: icmp_seq=4 ttl=60 time=2.00 ms
(under Windows you will have an average time)

Cheers.

 

[Joe76000]

Hello Loco69,

Q: Does anybody know what is the speed of Sony's w5500 lan connection. Need to buy new lan switch and thinking 100mbs or 1gbit. Vaio has only 100mbs lan, but it's not gonna be my final PS3 media server.

A1: If you look at your Bravia's LAN (DLNA) specifications and user manual, the answer is 100 Mbps. This Bandwidth is more than enough even for HD AVC / H.264 videos as long as your PC / Bravia are connected by a good LAN cable (min category 5E).

A2: New LAN switch. As the LAN equipments have started to move towards 1 Gbps, I would suggest to buy the Gigabit one if the price is competitive versus the Fast Ethernet. Then each time you change one element on your LAN move to Gigabit.

Cheers.

 

[steadyeddy]

Thanks again Joe - sorry misunderstood re. ping.

All is happening as you say with network etc semmingly ok but when selecting music or pics to "play to" nothing happens even tho' play to window appears and Bravia is recognised. - seems a bit strange.

mark

 

[Joe76000]

Hello Mark,

Your welcome and don't worry about the ping...

Currently the PC on which WMP12 / W7 is installed is swiched off. So I am just thinking...

My PC which has W7 was not an upgrade but a complete install after having reformated the HDD (previouly with WXP). I have chosen this way for having a clear and clean W7 installation.

=> Try to completly disable all the firewalls you have on your PC (the W7 native firewall and any other you could have) and try again and we will see...

Cheers.

 

[steadyeddy]

Hello Mark,

Your welcome and don't worry about the ping...

Currently the PC on which WMP12 / W7 is installed is swiched off. So I am just thinking...

My PC which has W7 was not an upgrade but a complete install after having reformated the HDD (previouly with WXP). I have chosen this way for having a clear and clean W7 installation.

=> Try to completly disable all the firewalls you have on your PC (the W7 native firewall and any other you could have) and try again and we will see...

Cheers.

Thanks again Joe

tried firewalls off but no change. As you suggest it could be down to the Win 7 upgrade from vista (seemed to go very well tho'). Haven't got the time to do clean install tho and will have to live with it.
get the impression it might be a setting on the Bravia tho' as windows seems to be doing it's bit but TV not offering to accept incoming push.

Mark

 

[keithh6]

For info -Sony Bravia and Iomega Home Media drive seem to be quite happy working together, although I've only played with mpeg2 files so far.
Initial experience is that it all works the way it should - take it out the box, plug it in to the network, off it goes.

 

[bv2312]

Hi All

Thought I would let you know that Sony have updated their site showing compatibility result details of given DLNA Servers.

Televisions and Projectors |  KDL-37W5500 | Sony Support Europe

Also i found this:

ftp://ftp.vaio-link.com/PUB/TV/

Somehow we should be able to find 'VAIO Media Integrated Server' or 'VAIO Media Plus 1.2.0.09050'

Personally I think Nero is the most viable option on XP/Vista but Win Player 12 is the most viable with Win 7.

Problem with PS3 Media Server - seems too complex to set up correctly.

Other option is to have a Media PC set up next to the TV which would give you everything you would want; Internet, Play Videos etc

 

[savcom]

A very, very useful post - possibly the most useful information I have seen re DLNA.

Having got a six-series Samsung working with Twonky and a couple of other media servers without many compatibility problems I started looking for a smaller (22 or 26") set to buy for the kitchen and for the bedroom. No luck - except for the Sony 22" KDL22E5310. Having read this thread, I'm now doubting that this will provide workable DLNA (someone prove me wrong...) so wondered what next? I don't want to go back to a D-Link DSM-320 or a diskless PC running Geexbox (although that was the most successful!!) as this would mean extra boxes and cables. However there is one device I have found and wonder if anyone has used/tried one? It's the Hisense 1080p HD TV Media Player.

Any thoughts?

 

[jaws1]

I am new to this forum.. Just bought a KDL 37w5500u 5 days old. I have read the forum with great interest and with quite helpful tips too.

I am trying to connect my laptop ( pentium 4 HP/compaq with XP - WM 11 player) through my router all plugged in using ethernet cable to make use of the DLNA protocol. The set up seems OK, as my TV is recognised by the server (WM player). I can navigate through the folders on my TV. I can see and display all my Photos, however, all my avi file folders and also audio files cannot be accessed by the TV (apparently the are empty - but they are there ).

Can any one help. I have downloaded the latest version of
PS3server (pms-setup-windows-1.11.369) to get it to work.
It says it has not detected the the PS3 but may work..This is where i am stuck..
I would very much appreciate the help of anyone who has done it before to kind of give me a list of instructions in layman term, of how to set the PS3media server so that i can access my avi file (mostly divx) and play them on my TV.

Thanks in advance.

Hello to All,

The last posts were very interesting and instructive regarding the writers' experience.

Just a restatement from my side on DLNA servers and Bravia DLNA client as of today:
- The Best is still PS3MS v.1.11.356 + (Open source, free S/W and multi OS written in Java but still in Beta). This is the most compatible server with the Bravia and the main developper is continuing to expand the list of compatible DLNA clients. She is unable getting even some technical DLNA data from Sony, so she is obliged to go ahead step by step doing everything by herself helped by few fans. This is a hugh amount of time spent for testing purpose.
- 2nd is WMP12 (today only W7 OS) which is not as good as PS3MS as a DLNA server, but as already written it is covering all DLNA functions (not only server).
- Then, you have all the others and I am not at all convienced by them (for Bravia).

As mentioned above in OllyMason's URL "How to choose a DLNA Media Server for Windows, Mac OS X or Linux", I am not aware of any better (generic) DLNA S/W comparison.

Even having updated the F/W of my WD MBWE WL I NAS - which now includes the latest Twonky Media Server v.5.1 (versus previous TMS v.4.4.9w) but without the transcoding function due to the lack of the CPU horse power of this given NAS - TMS v.5.1 is working even worse than v.4.4.9w with my Bravia (KDL-46W5710E - W5500 series). So, forget it into a NAS!

So, I have to admit what was nice on a piece of paper, based on the manufacturers' marketing *bull*s*h*i*t* which includes of course Sony, was not turned into reality even after few months of hard testing at home.

As mentioned above in OllyMason's URL "Why do I hate DLNA protocol so much ?", reading once again again this article, I am thinking to give up for a while regarding DLNA! To much time spent on technical issues and to much testing and not enough time spent for really enjoying watching with my family our videos!

As Jas46 has well written it above, on my side I will also stick to a more reliable approach; i.e. moving my laptop near to my Bravia and connecting both by HDMI.

But this is anymore a DLAN solution I was looking for its Interoperability over LAN... The TV (and some NAS) manufacturers, not only Sony, are trying to sell us (their clients) a DLNA standard which is still far from being achived and ready to be released to market!

All these ~ 240 companies including Sony are trying to tell us a nice but not true story: Home - DLNA Even after 6 years of DLNA development, this standard is not yet a real standard!

" " " " "
About Digital Living Network Alliance:
Digital Living Network Alliance began in 2003 when a collection of companies from around the world agreed that they all made better products when those products were compatible...

DLNA Interoperability Guidelines:
DLNA published its first set of Interoperability Guidelines in June 2004 and the first set of DLNA Certified products began appearing in market soon thereafter.
The latest version of the DLNA Interoperability Guidelines, version 1.5, was published in March 2006, and then expanded in October 2006. These guidelines enlarge the capabilities of a DLNA-defined network to include more home and mobile devices. They also include the specifications for link protection to allow secure transmission of copyright-protected commercial digital content...
" " " " "

To end on Sony, Keithh6 has well made the point: "This TV supports the DLNA standard. Use it with other Sony equipment". See Sony's Bravia support page for the confirmation: Televisions and ProjectorsÂ*|Â* KDL-46W5500Â*|Â*Sony Support Europe

Cheers.

 

[tuttonp]

I'm in a similar situation mate

I have a dedicated PC running XP MCE as a server with Firefly, Slimserver and PS3 Server all mapped to NAS Drives I also have on the same network containing my Music, Photos and DVD's (and they are all running UPNP), yet none show up with playable media when I search for servers.

Bloody Sony!!, I'm having to resort to a directly connected HTPC for the moment which is a pain as it means more power consumption!!

 

[steadyeddy]

I am not sure I can help that much other than to say that I was there a few months ago, trying nearly all the server software there is. ( Twonky, PS3, WMP11 and afew others).

I then read that WMP12 might work but had to buy Win 7 and upgrade our Vista server machine. Bingo, to some extent. The TV recognises WMP12 and will play when directed from the set itself but I cannot get the WMP12 "play-to" feature to work or play lists.

However, it is still a solution for us.

Mark

 

[jaws1]

Just to update you all..
As i mentioned earlier, my TV was a few days old only, I contacted sony and explained the situation, to which they replied that WMP 11 should work. hmmm! I thought to myself. I also mentioned to them that the TV was switching itself off then back on. It was doing that on a regular basis. They told me that the TV might be faulty and that I should talk to the retailer for a possible swap with another one. I just did that yesterday swapped my TV for another new one.

Even with new TV Widows Media Player 11 could not find any avi files. However, PS3server (pms-setup-windows-1.11.369) now detected my Bravia and the server is now now streaming the avi files to the TV, great. So far the TV is not doing its intermittent switching on an off at the moment.

I am new to this forum.. Just bought a KDL 37w5500u 5 days old. I have read the forum with great interest and with quite helpful tips too.

I am trying to connect my laptop ( pentium 4 HP/compaq with XP - WM 11 player) through my router all plugged in using ethernet cable to make use of the DLNA protocol. The set up seems OK, as my TV is recognised by the server (WM player). I can navigate through the folders on my TV. I can see and display all my Photos, however, all my avi file folders and also audio files cannot be accessed by the TV (apparently the are empty - but they are there ).

Can any one help. I have downloaded the latest version of
PS3server (pms-setup-windows-1.11.369) to get it to work.
It says it has not detected the the PS3 but may work..This is where i am stuck..
I would very much appreciate the help of anyone who has done it before to kind of give me a list of instructions in layman term, of how to set the PS3media server so that i can access my avi file (mostly divx) and play them on my TV.

Thanks in advance.

 

[philarvropagan]

Hi All,
I join the forum today and I've been very interested by all I read in this post ... so I registered in order to share my little experience on Bravia and DLNA.

My configuration: brand "old" PC/AMD64/1GB/XP SP3, brand new Bravia W5500, wired LAN.

Media Server: PS3 MS
- works very well / fluent streaming even when transcoding : Movies (DivX, ISO, MPEG, WMV), Music (MP3), Pictures (JPG)
- not very fond of the way of browsing folders in real time. Very slow when seeking for a movie "lost in a big folder".
- no movie segmentation in chapters: was a problem the last time I was watching a movie! Instead of keying "Info", I did "return" and left the movie 30mn before the end ... and no way to resume except watching it all again
- still no way to make webradios working. I long to get it.
- Conclusion: few drawbacks regarding that IT WORKS !!!!

Few days ago, surfing on the Web, I found Wild Media Server (Wild Media Server (UPnP, DLNA, HTTP) - Main page) ... and I tried it.
Works with BRAVIA
Sony Bravia listed in the list of presets.
Folder indexation => fast folder/file display/scrolling
For Movies, incl. transcoding. Personnaly, some freezes (every 10sec) as I miss a bit of horse power (requires more than PS3MS). A 2nd GB will enhance the PC soon and I hope it will help. Actually, my AMD performs transcoding (DivX, 640x480) at 18fps ... while my laptop pro works at 45fps!
One option can be set which lets adapt transcoding to a picture size close and proportionnal to the screen definition: really great and optimize processing a lot (75fps!) ... but displays the movie as a lovely kaleidoscope of artefacts !!!
Movie segmentation in 10mn chapters !
on MP3, no problem
on Pictures, no problem
Access to a huge amount of parameters. Transcoding profiles can be edited. Works with VLC, MEncoder, FLAC, WMSPEG, ...
Still problems with web assets (radios, ...). I go into it and don't give up ... yet !

Advice: I wasted time to make it seen by the Bravia but, if you don't forget the 2 following issues, it should work immediately
- declare it into the Windows firewall exceptions (not automatical)
- I started with one movie folder only ... add one picture folder and one music folder (I don't know why!)

Nota: don't blame you too much if you don't know Wild MS, it's very recent (early December). It should be and adaptation of an international MS version (russian I guess).

So, don't hesitate to test it and thanks for your comments back.


Just to finish, kind regards to Joe76000 I met on the PS3MS forum
... and one thing: in the post (page 5) you say " Bravia W5500 series and associated can only read/play WMA (LPCM) and MP3" , I think we must read WAV instead of WMA as LPCM refers to uncompressed audio!

 

[philarvropagan]

By the way ... did someone succeed in streaming WebRadios / WebTV onto the BRAVIA ????
If yes, please please please ... what configuration?

 

[Joe76000]

Hello Philarvropagan,

1- You are right for LPCM audio files (linear = WAV).

2- Regarding "Wild Media Server" and Bravia, I was looking at 2 weeks ago and was written somewhere else in this forum:
"Hello Evgeny,
Well... I have visited your web site for Wild Media Server (UPnP, DLNA, HTTP) S/W.
There is no description no caracteristic at all regarding what this software is able - is suppose to achieve, just the above title, no indication regarding the OS, etc..."
I never received an answer...

Now, you wrote it's working. Well. Purhaps to try! Under which OS have you been testing this WMS?

3- Web Radio/TV with PS3MS and Bravia
PS3MS (current latest beta v.1.11.369) is using in the backgroung VLC for streaming from Web Radios and TVs. BUT VLC version must not be higher than 0.98! The next RTM version of PS3MS should be compatible with VLC v.1.0.3.

All the best to you. Cheers.

 

[Joe76000]

Hello,

Well... I have downloaded "Wild Media Server" (UPnP, DLNA, HTTP) v.0.70 as of 12.01.2009 written by Evgeny Lachinov also using FFMPEG for transcoding, FUPPES for Network server, MediaInfo for Media information and VLC for Web TV.
This is a trial version ending by June 1st, 2010.

I have installed and configured WMS on my weakest PC, a laptop - HP Pavilion zt3330EA (WXP SP3, CPU Pentium M @ 1.5 GHz and RAM 2 GB).

I have chosen Sony TV (DLNA, 16:9, 1920 x 1080), added my A/V folders and a scanning with all other parameters by default. Of course, authorized my firewall for WMS.

So, my Bravia KDL-46W5710E (W5500 series) recognized WMS without any problem, was able to scroll thru all A/V directories (by cannot by PC folders!) even getting small pictures for the videos.

Pictures (JPG) and Audio (MP3 & WMA) files played okay. But for Video files it's even working worst than with WMP11! Cannot play at all AVCHD files even when going to the Transcoding folder. The reading for the other formats are more than poor.

So, WMS is not a choice for me... I have tried it, I will forget it...

Both PS3MS (Windows, Mac OS and Linux) and/or WMP12 (Windows 7) are much-much better and compatible with my Bravia than WMS.

Cheers.

 

[philarvropagan]

Hi Joe76000,

2. My PC is under XP SP3.

3. PS3MS + VLC (before or v0.98): do you mean that you already succeeded in decoding Webradios on your Bravia?
If yes, any specific configuration/parameters?

Cheers

 

[BraviaBob]

Does the quality of your graphics card affect streaming performance?

I've just set up my Bravia 37KDL-W5500 with wmp 12 on a Windows 7 server (pretty basic machine with limited onboard card) and I was surprised at how easy it went with one massive reservation. The picture quality is awfull and blocky. I have a few ideas what may be causing this but wondered if anyone could give me any pointers to save me a bit of time.

 

[tuttonp]

Does the quality of your graphics card affect streaming performance?

I've just set up my Bravia 37KDL-W5500 with wmp 12 on a Windows 7 server (pretty basic machine with limited onboard card) and I was surprised at how easy it went with one massive reservation. The picture quality is awfull and blocky. I have a few ideas what may be causing this but wondered if anyone could give me any pointers to save me a bit of time.

The graphics should have no effect as its not being used to stream at all. You're better off looking at your network card first (100mb Minimum, Gigabit is best, wireless the least favourable option), then the router, then the cabling. CPU and RAM on the host machine would also be work looking at (the more memory you have the bigger the 'buffer' potential)

 

[BraviaBob]

Hi and thanks for your reply. Some food for thought.

I don't think it's the network as I've had good results using media sharing from a wireless laptop to my xbox. In this case both the Host and Client are hard cabled. Also I could be mistaken but wouldn't network/buffer/cpu problems result in stutter / jitter? Or is there some sort of throttling mechanism going on over dnla? I can't see anywhere on the TV or in wmp 12 where you can adjust quality.

Anyhow I've built a new machine at work (more cpu and ram) and will take home a dedicated switch (currently using ADSL Modem/Router) to see if that makes any difference.

Cheers,

Rob

edit - Okay I tried the new machine and there's defiantly an improvement however it's still not great so I checked the performance monitor as the film was running. Now everything is fine apart from the CPU which is a relatively old 2 core 2.8ghz P4 , peaking and troughing at at about 90%. Would a gpu on a graphics card take some of this load?

edit 2 - Good news - it appears Windows 7 can offload transcoding duties to the GPU. This will hopefully save me are arduous task of changing the format of all my movie files to supported Bravia types. I shall test a card in my machine tonight.