I bought a 3TB MyCloud device a few months ago. When I tried to access a couple of video files there were a couple of different symptoms.
When I created a new folder on the device, it couldn’t see files in the Public Folder, but could see them in the new “Movies” folder. When I remove the “Movies” folder, my blu-ray device will see them in the Public folder.
However, these files are AVI files, yet the blu-ray is recognizing them as WMV files and will not play them. It says the files are corrupt. My blu-ray properly sees and plays the same files on my Windows Vista desktop using Windows Media Player as the DLNA server.
I wanted to get these files off my desktop. Due to other problems using the device with my desktop, it is currently disconnected. What can I try once I get the device working with my Microsoft Vista desktop (if possible)? Support would not help.
The MyCloud device is connected directly to my Ubee Wireless Router/Switch supplied by my ISP.
After my last experience with WD, I doubt they’ll be too helpful. That’s why I posted here. I had called them about a problem getting the unit to work with Vista (mentioned in another post) and all they said was that the unit is working and to call Microsoft. Customer care was not a priority.
If your still confused on how to access the Twonky UI then see the following WD support link. Make sure to select the directions under the WD My Cloud entry on that page.
That looks interesting, but it doesn’t look like it helps me with my Blu-Ray Player unless I’m not understanding it. There is no browser in the Blu-Ray. It only checks the network for a DLNA server, but doesn’t have a place where I can specify anything. I can approve or disapprove what it finds and that’s it.
That looks interesting, but it doesn’t look like it helps me with my Blu-Ray Player unless I’m not understanding it. There is no browser in the Blu-Ray.
You’re not paying attention… The question I asked was for you to log into the TWONKY SERVER and see if the file is misclassified there. If it’s not, then the problem isn’t with Twonky.
The other issue that’s worth considering is that AVI is a container format; it is not a CODEC format. An AVI file may contain one of a number of different compressed video formats.
That looks interesting, but it doesn’t look like it helps me with my Blu-Ray Player unless I’m not understanding it. There is no browser in the Blu-Ray. It only checks the network for a DLNA server, but doesn’t have a place where I can specify anything. I can approve or disapprove what it finds and that’s it.
In a previous post you asked “Twonky Web UI? I have no idea what that is.” Both my post and another post above indicate how to access the Twonky web UI. You use a WEB BROWSER on a PC/Mac/iOS/Android device.
The whole point of using the Twonky web UI is to see how the Twonky DLNA server itself on the WD My Cloud is treating and classifying the files it has found in any shared folder on the WD My Cloud that has “Media Serving” enabled. Once one accesses the Twonky UI they can click on “Video Music Photo” from the upper right menu, then select a specific media file to see if Twonky is correctly identifying an AVI (or other video file fomrat) correctly. If Twonky is correctly identifying the media file format then the problem lies with the DLNA client on your Blue Ray (or other device) player.
The fact is that often the DLNA clients embedded into Blue Ray players, SmartTV’s and other devices do not conform exactly to DLNA standards.
Other troubleshooting steps to take. Encode the problematic AVI file into another DNLA supported format like MKV or MP4. There are free programs such as Handbrake that can convert from a variety of formats to MKV or MP4. Once converted and moved over to the WD My Cloud test with the Blue Ray player to see if it can see the MP4 or MKV encoded file. Depending on how the AVI file is encoded (like with DVIX for example) there may be certain DLNA players or servers that will incorrectly read or serve up the file due to not having the correct or supported codec to decode the AVI file.
When I posted originally, the AVI file I was having issues with was converted from someone’s camcorder. After posting, I copied that file to the Windows Media Player DLNA and it was then that I discovered it was being identified as an AVI in Media Player but as an MPEG in MyCloud. I’ve since found that the file cannot be played from either server. I switched to a different test file to report the behavior below.
cpt_paranoia wrote:
Sony do not support the WMV CODEC via DLNA
My Sony Blu-Ray player supports WMV, AVI, MPG, DIVX, XVID, and a few others. It does NOT support MP4 over DLNA. The link you provided shows that Sony supports those including MP4. The list must be newer than my Blu-Ray.
I logged into the Twonky server and saw that the file I’m talking about is listed properly as an AVI file, but my Blu-Ray identifies it differently depending on the server. When accessed via MyCloud, the file is shown as MPEG. When accessed via Windows Media Player’s DLNA, the file is shown correctly as an AVI file.
I downloaded AVICodec from the link cpt_paranoia provided and the file shows the video codec is XVID Mpeg-4. I find it strange that my Blu-Ray doesn’t support Mpeg-4, and has never been able to play MP4s, but is able to play this file, which is an AVI with an MP4 codec. The Blu-Ray will play it from both DLNA servers even though it’s identified differently.
AVICodec showed that the original file I used had a video codec name of Unknown.
Bennor wrote:
There are free programs such as Handbrake that can convert from a variety of formats to MKV or MP4. Once converted and moved over to the WD My Cloud test with the Blue Ray player to see if it can see the MP4 or MKV encoded file.
My Blu-Ray doesn’t support MKV or MP4. Any files I have in those formats must be converted to MPG, AVI, or WMV for me to play them.
Bennor wrote:
If Twonky is correctly identifying the media file format then the problem lies with the DLNA client on your Blue Ray (or other device) player.
If the Blu-Ray is only using one DLNA client, how can it misidentify files from one source and not the other?
My Sony Blu-Ray player supports WMV, AVI, MPG, DIVX, XVID, and a few others. It does NOT support MP4 over DLNA. The link you provided shows that Sony supports those including MP4. The list must be newer than my Blu-Ray.
I don’t have a Blu-Ray player, so I can only go by what Sony say on that page. And, according to the second right-most column, ‘DLNA’ (‘O’ supported, ‘X’ unsupported), they only support MPEG-1 PS, MPEG-2 PS, MPEG-2 TS, Xvid and DivX HD 1080P via DLNA. They support more formats using USB. I find it a bit odd that they have CODEC support in the device, that works via a USB browser, but not via DLNA; the only real difference I can see is the way the file gets to the CODEC.
But maybe that page is out of date, or your Blu-Ray player supports more formats than Sony claim. Great!
Find a file format your Blu-Ray will play via DLNA, and use Handbrake to convert to that format.
Luckily (or by choice), I don’t have a ‘smart’ TV, or player, I have a little Android media box that gives me access to a huge range of video playing and DLNA apps, so I can play just about any video format.
Find a file format your Blu-Ray will play via DLNA, and use Handbrake to convert to that format.
That’s all well and good, but that doesn’t really address my questions. My Blu-Ray does play AVI files even if they contain MPEG4 codecs that it won’t play by itself. (Codecs are a little beyond my understanding at the moment.) I don’t have to convert them.
In fact, I convert to AVI and MPG from other formats using “WinAVI All in One Converter”, “DVD Flick”, “WonderFox DVD Video Converter”, or “Wondershare Video Converter Pro”. I have all four of them. I don’t completely understand video and audio codecs, bitrates, frames, etc. so I try to use whatever works for a quick conversion.
Getting back to my latest question, why would one DLNA client identify the same file as two different types depending on the source location? That sounds more transmitter related. The sending server is misidentifying the file even if the UI is correctly identifying it.
Update: I just checked this issue with my SmartTV and it also sees the same file as a different format in the MyCloud. The TV sees the file as AVI through Windows Media Player and as x-msvideo through the MyCloud device.
I just spent 2 hours on the phone with support and we came to the conclusion that there isn’t a way to fix it. The way Twonky pushes information to DLNA devices differs from the way WMP pushes information to the same devices. I don’t know if it’s true, but it goes a little of the way to explain the problem.
It’s like Microsofts DLNA Server Software is the Mercedes of software while the Twonky DLNA Server Software is a Ford. If I find a solution, I’ll post it here for future reference.
UPDATE: I added my test files from the MyCloud to the library for Windows Media Player. While Media Player would list them as added, the DLNA server would not send them to my devices. I also tried mapping the folders in Windows Explorer and still had no success with my devices. As a media server, it leaves me wanting. It will be okay to serve files as a cloud, but is not quite right for my purposes as a DLNA server. The files are playable, so it works, but they are misdentified and there doesn’t appear to be a fix. It doesn’t help that support didn’t understand the problem. They won’t be fixing it.
