KDL40W5500 and NAS

Hello, this is my first post so I hope I have chosen the appropriate place to post this question.

I have just bought a KDL40W5500, DAV-IS50 and Western Digital My Book World Edition NAS (White Light version) and am having a nightmare trying to get streaming working properly.

My network has a BT Home Hub as the centre with a laptop(Vista) on the Wi-Fi(54MBPS) and an ethernet network on my power lines (100MBPS) with a desktop PC (Vista), The MyBook NAS and the TV connected.

I can stream MP3s from both PCs to the TV using Windows Media Player (although they lose album art for some reason). I can also stream MP3s from the NAS to both PCs with no issues.

The issue is streaming from the NAS to the TV. It does not even find any videos (mostly DIVX AVIs) and when it streams MP3s they play for between 9 and 52 seconds before they stop and the TV gives me a message saying "Playback not available". It then trys to play the next song in the album, folder, playlist etc... and the same thing happens. The timing appears random the same MP3 might play for 10 seconds or 40 before the error occurs.

Another odd thing is that the artist tag is set to unkonw when playing the file, yet I can browse by artist and I know my tags are well populated because I spent ages doing it.

The NAS runs Twonky 4.4.9. I have spoken to the place where I bought it and they will still take it back even if I have been fiddling with the software so if there is a better solution to Twonky and I can fudge my way through linux well enough to install it I will give it a go. I only have a few days to get moving though...

So my questions are:

1) Is there anything I can do with my existing NAS to get things running?
2) Is there better software than Twonky or would an upgrade to V5 be a solution?
3) If I just give up and return the MyBook what NAS solutions do other people use? Ideally it needs to allow me to backup the PC Clients and serve data to my PCs as well as Audio and Video to the TV.

 

Not sure I can help - but allow me to share my experience.

I have just purchased Sony 5500 52 and 46" along with usual Blu Ray and cinema etc.

Having spent some time on this forum I also opted to stream with the following failure/success:-

Popcorn Hour with 1Tb Disk and Free software.
I can plug the popcorn into my PC USB - drop any films and MP3s onto the disk including ISO's. The popcorn is connected via a cable from my Router - Popcorn HDMI into the T/V. Using thos popscorn device I can do the following:-
From my T/V screen using the popcorn remote control - play anything on the Popcorn Drive - but better still - because it is Network connected, I can also play movies, music thats on my PC through the T/V. It is not very reliable when connected Wirelessly - but with a cable from my PC to the Router it streams flawlessly.

Sony Bravia streaming:
The T/V connects from Router to T/V
Windows Media Player shows on the T/V
I can stream Music and Pictures from any PC to the T/V
What I have failed to do is stream any movies. I have followed the instructions and converted the streamed files to AVCHD MPEG2 -PS etc - but the T/V does not see the files on my PC.

Anyway - the above is the summary of my ongoing experience.

Also just remembered - I have sat a new Buffallo media centre Hard Disk on the Network and it is recognised by the T/V.
Tonight I will play.............

If I manage to get my streaming working, I will share the experience as it may assist you.

Good Luck with your kit.
Martin

 

Hello again, I'm still looking for a bit of help with getting MP3 and Video streaming to my Bravia 40W5500.

I have now contacted Sony support who, to be honest, are a bit out of their depth when it comes to DLNA and streaming etc... The agent I spoke to suggested that it was my BT Home Hub and that I ought to connect the TV to the router through the DNLA connection directly???? I interpreted this as use a cross-over patch lead and provide boith the MyBook and TV static IP addresses (as no DHCP server in network anymore). This did not fix the issue, infact absolutely nothing changed.

I have since spoken to them again and Sonys line on supported devices is that they do not have the time and resources to test evry possible combination of DLNA devices and there is no list of known compatible products. I was also told that the TV is a new model and that DLNA is a new standard and that just because 2 devices are certified does not mean they are compatible. Kind of negates the point of a certified standard!!

Anyway Sonys only suggestion was one of their devices running Vaio Media Centre....

I would prefer a NAS as I wwant to use it for backing up my PCs so If anyone knows of a compatible device or Media server solution that doesn't require too much linux knowledge please can you let me know?

Many thanks,

Andrew

 

More info from Sony on this. I just recieved an email from their support department with the following info:

"I would like to advise that your KDL-40W5500 accepts packet streaming, I would recommend that you check the type of data streaming in use on your network and adjust this accordingly."

I am OK at networking but no expert and have no idea what this means? Where do I check? Surely if the direct connection worked it must be a setting on the Hard Drive but Western Digtal support say its irrelevant..... HELP!