Media Server problems

Community Archives WD TV Live Networking
1

Hello all.

I tend to never join forums and simply trek through the Google landscape to solve my problems, but this situation has been particularly troublesome.

After scouring hundreds of posts throughout the web, I have yet to find a reasonable solution.

I have read up on various media servers, and decided to give Playon a whirl. unfortunately, I have yet to get the software to display on WD TV Live. I have heard various good things about Playon, and how easy the setup was, I suppose my case is different. Even Playon claims WD TV Live is essentially plug-n-play.

Here are some details:

  • I run Windows XP

  • My network shares operate just fine. Played an MKV file for testing purposes, and it worked like a charm.

  • I’m connected to the internet just fine, Youtube and Netflix play well, except for the Netflix bug of course, having to continually reactivate my device.

  • All my other test files seem to be in order. This device likes to pull the ol’ “not a supported format” or freeze on me quite often, but a simple reset fixes that.

  • At first I thought the problem was my firewall and anti-virus programs, but my Wii and Xbox 360 can both access Playon.

The problem is when I attempt to click on media servers (video, photo, or music), nothing happens, nothing displays. I’ve tried various rebooting procedures, to see if different combinations of time were a factor, but no luck there. I understand that I could just use the Wii or Xbox, but I was hoping to make this device my all-in-one.

Perhaps someone here has a solution or sees some problem I cannot?

2

Are you running a media server? Like Tonkymedia or some other UPNP media server.

If not you will not get any response.

3

parnott100 wrote:

Are you running a media server? Like Tonkymedia or some other UPNP media server.

 

If not you will not get any response.

He’s running PlayOn.

4

Make sure your Windows Firewall isn’t blocking the WDTV from talking to PlayOn.   Some firewalls can be selective as to the CLIENT IP.    In other words, it’s possible that it’s permitting some devices and blocking others.

I use PlayOn all the time and works quite well for me, but I’m running it on a Win7-64 machine (but I doubt that would make much difference.)

You can also load Wireshark on your PC and see if the UPnP/DLNA packets from the WDTV are being seen and processed by the PC.