Newbie - streaming help required!

harrythebastock

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Hi folks,

Im a noob to the idea of streaming content from my Mac to my TV. I have a Sony 40" LCD HD TV, Sony BluRay player BDV-E280 with a Sony wi-fi dongle and my home network is using a Belkin Play 600N router.

I can get content onto the BluRay player such as LoveFilm, BBC I-Player etc with no hassles via wi-fi but what i want to be able to do is;
A: to share or stream content from my Mac to the Sony BluRay player. Question is, how do I do that?

B: The Belkin has a USB port in which I have a 500GB HD with movies and music on. Ideally it would be amazing if I could get the Sony to see this HD on the network and simply play the content on screen...

Any ideas, comments and ramblings would be greatly received...

Harry
 
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The best way to do it is to use Serviio which is a cross platform DLNA server so there's a Mac version. Sony have very poor media support on their players so you will want a transcoding DLNA server like Serviio in place to make all the media play properly and transcoding require a PC.

Also on Serviio main screen were it lists IP addresses be sure to apply the Sony profiles to the IP of the TV and Blu-ray player this tells Serviio what formats are supported and what arent so it knows when to transcode and when not to.

For DVD's and Blu-ray the best way to prep them for streaming through DLNA is to rip with MakeMKV which will output the main movie to a single file, Serviio can then transcode this making it playable although transcoding Blu-ray will take some serious CPU power.

The Belkin would need a DLNA server built into the router in order to stream media, also the media would have to be natively compatible with the formats Sony supports.
 
Excellent! Very much appreciated! I downloaded Serviio and watched the video that Sony produced on how to get DLNA devices working. The BluRay player unfortunately isn't showing in the status fields in Serviio. There seems to be a lot of threads on port forwarding etc... Im like "wha!" is it really this difficult?. The Sony video literally shows it as '...and theres your device in the status window'. I know nowt about how to open up ports on my router and am a bit baffled as to why my device isn't appearing n Serviio...? Hmmm
 
You generally dont open ports with DLNA, you might want to check your router has an option for UPnP and thats enabled also a firewall if on your router may be blocking it though this us unlikely. Normally it should just appear, you might have to activate DLNA option on the Bluray player.
 
harrythebastock, what router do you have ? Thats more likely to be the problem that anything else
 
Hi there...Its a Belkin PLAY N600
http://www.belkin.com/uk/networking/wireless-routers/compare/wireless-routers/

It has, what Belkin calls a 'Video Mover' which once turned on should mean that compatible players can see the content of an attached USB drive. That doesn't seem to work at all with the Sony (I can see the content of the USB on my Macs) so I am willing to go sown the Serviio route but as yet, the Sony isn't finding anything there either.
 
I'm sorry to make a comment which isn't going to help you too much, but there are two keywords here: Sony & Belkin.

You couldn't have opted to (IMHO) go for any worse manufacturers. This is based on my previous experiences before moving to Netgear and Samsung.

Have you thought about a cheap media streamer as an easy way out? WDTV perhaps?
 
I think i agree... Well I do so far as Im just stunned as to why nothing works! I can usually get my head around stuff and all I am looking for is a spark of progress but its almost as if the Sony has no intent on trying to see anything out of its own box... It shows up in router client list and has an IP address, but thats as far as I get. I may try and disable any Firewall at all on the router and see what transpires.
 
I changed the Belkin for a generic router. Nothing. Been trying to get Serviio talking to the Sony all week. Nothing. Strange thing is, on the on screen prefs on the Sony, I don't see the third menu down on my machine (Connection Server Settings - within Network). Should I ???

sony_help.jpg
 
Which model Sony 40" do you have ? e.g KDL-40?????

Serviio works very well with Sony tvs etc though I agree about Belkin routers from the above comments but I've not used one for years so they might be ok now.

To confirm the bluray player is seeing serviio ? or just online content like iplayer ?

Do you have a firewall ? Or have you opened the posts for UPNP on your mac ?

Do you have fixed IP address on your network ? If yes what is the router ? tv ? mac ? If no, can you get them fixed ?

Is sharing services in system preferences enabled ?
 
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Hi there, its KDL40W2000 TV.
The Bluray doesn't see Serviio, and vice versa. The Bluray does see online content though.
All firewalls are tunred off on Mac and router at the moment.
Not sure about ports on the Mac for UPNP - How would I check this?
No fixed IP address at the moment.
Sharing enabled, but only 'files'.
 
Ok good bluray is online, just double checking I understood your setup.

I presume the router is 192.168.1.1 ? It also should work with DHCP but clearly something isn't working on the network for some reason. To me it sounds like the mac or router is blocking the traffic.

This guide looks useful for what you need to check on your mac
Opening the OS X Firewall for your Server
Add a rule for TCP port 8895 and UDP 1900 for DLNA (Serviio). This is just to be 100% sure, as something blocking the traffic, its very odd.

Do you have a smartphone or access to an android device ?
 
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Thanks for this, I appreciate your help. The router has the IP address of 192.168.2.1. I have swapped it back for the Belkin router as I have more control of its settings and at 300Mbps its a lot faster than the generic.

I have set the Firewall to 'On' on the Mac and off on the router. The Mac Firewall asked me if I wanted to open ports on the Serviio server and I have clicked yes. I cannot see where I would check ports on the Mac as I am using Mac Lion and the screen shot shows an earlier OS which looks a lot different. I have been using Automap from Novation to control my Midi devices and this showed up in the list when I turned on the Firewall. I don't fully understand why though, and have disabled it in case this is hogging ports?

I have an Iphone, and several Macs inc a Laptop if that helps?
 
So router IP is fixed, mac and tv are using DHCP, can you double check both are on a 192.168.2.* address ?

I've not seen lion, I've got a 10.6.7 so will have a look at it over the weekend. Anyway firewall, its picked up Serviio automatically so that's a good sign. It might have more details as to what its enabled if you can dig around or it might be it allows the service, no matter what port.

The question about android, I was going to suggest you try skifta (DLNA server) on your network and see what it can find. I'm not sure what DLNA servers are available for iOS, probably not many as Apple control things. Hmm, need to try to test different parts of your network to work out where its sticking. Have you ever used ubuntu ? Or XBMC ? Thinking you could boot up ubuntu of a usb stick or CD, install serviio and see if tv see's it or any device ? I run on Serviio on Ubuntu and windows, to see if its the mac (unlikely imo) or the router (most likely).

I downloaded the belkin manual, it was very light on details...... !
 
Bless you... thanks for doing that mate, Belkin manual is indeed 'light'.
Stupid question but i'll ask it none the less, should Serviio see my Iphone or any other device on the Network? If the answer is yes, then Its not doing it... In fact, the Serviio status window has never shown any device since I have been trying to get it all to work?

My Mac has an IP address of .3
and the Sony is .6
 
Serviio won't see iphone unless running some specific software e.g Skifta IOS equivalent.

Do you have a PS3 ? Xbox360 ?
 
No XBox or PS3 im afraid! :(
I did a port scan on my local Mac and it finds port 8895 and says its open but it does not find UDP1900? Should it do you think?
 
UDP is using port 1900 so it should be ok, port 8895 is TCP, thats important its open.

Does your router have a DMZ section ?

What version firmware is the belkin running ?
 
Put the imac ip address into the DMZ zone so the router isn't filtering it in anyway at all. Make sure you click apply on the router. Check the Mac can still get online, does the bluray play see Serviio ? If no they your mac is blocking serviio so turn off the firewall and it should appear. If not, something is wrong with your mac / setup ! If once in the DMZ serviio is seen it confirms the router is blocking UPNP.
 
I put the Mac IP address into DMZ... Mac can get online... BluRay still can't see Serviio (this lack of "Connection Server Settings" option in my Sony is starting to worry me too)... Serviio still not detecting anything in its status window... I have tried Serviio with two Mac and one MacBook Pro this week and Ive had not one ounce of joy yet?
 
Belkin's Firmware is 1.00.09 (Aug 18 2011).
The Sony can read a USB drive, I just tried just in case it was playing up. But as far as Serviio and the Sony seeing each other, I just don't know what else to try now...
 
...And thats where it all came crashing down... Its Not DLNA fully featured! Brilliant! I bought this as I was told that it was, and with WIFI capability and streaming from LoveFilm, IPlayer et all I didn't ever second guess it. Looks like its the WDTV for me then...? Great! :(

Thanks for your help NX3... much appreciated!
 
This would explain why this has been so hard to get working, shame. Its good for iPlayer etc... so not all is lost. WDTC Live HD is a good box
 
Agreed, not all lost at all as I needed a decent BluRay with good surround speakers etc.
I can simply use a flash drive for the moment, but next year I will take a good look at the WDTV and see how I can integrate it into our home network! :)
 

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