Hi
Afraid I’m very new to world of media servers streaming etc. I have just bought a mybook live. I have set up a private folder into which I dropped a folder with all my photos and another folder with all my movies (all home movie stuff in .mov, mpeg and .mts format.).
My hope was to be able to view all these via my TV (a Sony Bravia 40EX603) and my amazon kindle (I also have a PS3 sat under telly which could access but preference is for TV). Both are connected via Wifi only. Both can stream HD films via internet from Netflix etc with no problems. This is all within the home environment - I am yet to get head around access remote and would have limited use for anyway. The Sony TV will play those movie formats perfectly fine either direct from my camera or via copies of movies stored on PS3.
Both the TV and the kindle have ‘found’ the mybook and can view phtos. But the videos have given me a mighty headache.
The problems:
-
the TV cannot see and does not list the .mov / .mpeg files sat in the same folders as the .mts.
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the TV can see and play the .mts but the sound is dreadful (dalek like) and judders and freezes rendering it impossible to view
-
the kindle can see and play the .mov / .mpeg fine but whilst it can see the .mts files the enteries have a ‘?’ and won’t play. I have tried multiple free player apps and even paid for the archos player (and got money back sharpish after!) but no player app seems to be able to run them.
I really love the quality of the .mts files the sharp HD clarity is stunning (when played on PC or via the PS3 harddrive to TV) so I’d hate to have to convert them to something lower standard.
Can anyone help with my 3 points above ??
Very much appreciated in anticipation.
Regards
J
Since the media server in the My Book Live is not a transcoding media server, you can only play videos that are 100% compatible with the player you’re using.
You need to determine which formats the players support, and convert the videos to that format. (Converting format doesn’t always mean quality loss – it just depends on the requirements of the player.) It may be as simple as repackaging the video into a different container, but leaving the video and audio streams unchanged.
Thanks.
I think I will have to shelve the kindle issue as that does head to format conversion but is not as important to me as getting the TV to play.
As I said my TV does play .mov, .mpeg and .mst direct via camera or via the PS3 harddrive. I checked the TV help and it confirms it does play those files.
So the issue is why via mybook the TV doesn’t see .mov / .mpeg files and playing of .mst files is awful sound and judder ?
Cheers
J
No, not likely… the MBL isn’t doing anything to the files – it just serves them over a DLNA connection.
It’s still very possible that even though it can play them via DIRECT storage (USB or hard disk or whatever), it might not allow them via DLNA.
It could also be that the network connection between the TV and the MBL isn’t fast enough to carry the files without heavy buffering?
Thanks Tony.
How can I determine if ‘might not allow’ is fact - not conversant with what DNLA is. I know my Sony though ‘smart’ is a little long in tooth > 5 years old so unsure if DNLA was around then. Although as I say it very easily saw the mybook and folders - odd it can’t see .mov/.mpeg.
Indeed wifi might be an issue. I watched all of breaking bad as HD stream from netflix - never noticed much buffering - always seemed instant. Set up is same now as was then.
So basically I have a tp-link 330mbps N router. Internet now good (for me) at 17mb but I guess thats unrelated. Wifi signal stength always good.
So is a 430mb AVHCD file too much to ask of above ???
The thing with NetFlix is, though, that it sends a bitrate version of the video that’s reliable to your player – it’s transparent – you usually won’t know it’s happening unless you pay very close attention.
How can I determine if ‘might not allow’ is fact
… only the documentation / specifications for the TV in question can answer that.
The size of a video doesn’t matter – it’s the bitrate in question.
So if that 430 megabyte AVC file is a 10 hour video, then that’s only 95kbit per second bitrate.
But if that file is a 5 minute video, then it needs a steady 15 megabits per second bitrate.
