Cinemanow - No "Play" option for purchased movies or rentals?

I’ve been using Cinemanow for downloading movies via my WDTV Live Plus for over a year now. For the most part it works well, but it won’t play Cinemanow movies that I downloaded via my PC. I’ve had a lengthy discussion with Cinemanow tech support and they’re saying that I should be able to do it – especially if I use their interface in WDTV – vs. trying to play them directly from the network. But in WDTV Cinemanow interface, the “My Videos” area which lists everything I’ve purchased or rented, doesn’t have a “Play” option for videos I’ve already downloaded. It only has the download option – which I’ve already done. The Cinemanow tech support people are surprised by this and say that it’s a WDTV issue then.

Is this normal? Does everyone else have only a “download” option in the “My Videos” area – even for ones already downloaded? Shouldn’t there be a “Play” option or am I missing something?

hello,

What is the format on those files that you are downloading on the computer?

What firmware are you running?

schmitty444 wrote:

I’ve been using Cinemanow for downloading movies via my WDTV Live Plus for over a year now. For the most part it works well, but it won’t play Cinemanow movies that I downloaded via my PC. I’ve had a lengthy discussion with Cinemanow tech support and they’re saying that I should be able to do it – especially if I use their interface in WDTV – vs. trying to play them directly from the network. But in WDTV Cinemanow interface, the “My Videos” area which lists everything I’ve purchased or rented, doesn’t have a “Play” option for videos I’ve already downloaded. It only has the download option – which I’ve already done. The Cinemanow tech support people are surprised by this and say that it’s a WDTV issue then.

 

Is this normal? Does everyone else have only a “download” option in the “My Videos” area – even for ones already downloaded? Shouldn’t there be a “Play” option or am I missing something?

We looked into this and found that the files downloaded from the WDTV (from Cinemanow) will not play on a PC since the license is not saved in the file itself, it’s saved in the secure store. It can only be played on the device that it was downloaded to originally.  So, if you downloaded them to your pc, then they won’t play on the WD TV, and if you downloaded them through the WD TV, then they won’t play on the PC. 

The only work-around you might try is to use a DLNA player like PlayOn in order to push the file from your PC to the WD TV, then it might play.  Or, set up the file in a share on the PC, then you might be able to play it from the WD TV, since in both cases your PC is actually playing the file.

The only thing about a PlayOn type DLNA media server is that you would need to make absolute sure that it will play that file type.