Network is fine, DLNA is slow and unstable

[FeydRautha]

Hello averybody

I have my MBL connected to a gigabit switch with a PC, a LG Smart TV and a Samsung BR. Transferring files via Windows explorer is lightning fast, I’m very happy with that. But trying to watch images or videos on both the TV and the BR player is painfully slow. I just updated to latest version 02.43.10 - 048 (6/22/2015) with no noticeable improvements

The tv takes several seconds to buffer, then the video begins for 3-4 seconds, then some buffering again. At that point the movie starts and, if I am lucky, there are no more stops. But some times it will just skip to the next video, like if the file was corrupt (it’s not). This may happen after an hour of flawless playing. The only thing I can do then is playing again from the beginning, and considering that I cannot fast forward when I am reading from the NAS,  this can be very frustrating.

Also reading pictures is slow, it takes ages to load the next image.

On the Blu Ray, it’s all the same, even a bit worse.

The same files, put on a USB stick, are read very fast without problems of any kind on both platforms.

Reading the same files from the MBL using the PC (which is not acting as a dlna client I guess) is perfect too.

The problem happens with all kinds of formats, recent MKVs as well as years old AVIs.

Is there anything I can try to have a better experience? I’m not asking for the definitive media server, it’s not what I paid for. I’d just like things to work.

I already disabled things I didn’t need (Itunes and time machine). Should I SSH into the machine to free some more resources?

Is it normal that I cannot fast forward / goto ? Is it a dlna server function which is not available here? Or both the client platforms I’m usilng are to shame?

I’ve read that it’s possible to change the dlna server software to some “WD media server”. Could that perform better than Twonky?

Or upgrading Twonky to version 8 could solve the problem?

[Shabuboy]

Smart TVs are not quite that yet, Smart. Hence the reason I have an Amazon Fire TV.

Anyhow, DNLA clients sometimes do not support the same kind of files as reading them from USB. It is all too tricky. And TVs fast-forward/skip/etc do not work sometimes (nothing to do with NAS). If you do a search on this forum, you will find plenty of posts.

But to to see whether this is an issue with the DNLA server or the clients, get a DNLA client software on the PC and try it there, might be able to use the Windows Media player as well. Same if you have a tablet.

And yes, you can try a different DNLA serversoftware and/or upgrade if necessary. 

You could also make your PC the DNLA server with the files in the NAS and see how the TV and BR behave.

[FeydRautha]

Thank you for your reply.

I tried playing some videos and pictures via Windows Media Player and I got the same slowness problem.

Then I SSH’ed into the machine and found out that the server I’m running is actually the WD one, and after further research I learnt that newer units don’t have Twonky installed.

I read some messages about rolling back to version 02.11.09-053 in order to make Twonky available. There was also a link to a guide but it’s dead now. Can anybody help?

Or are there some other good open source alternatives that work fine on the MBL?

Or is it possible to tweak WD media server configuration files to have better response times?

[wdlive76]

just buy a Twonky license and install the latest version of twonky.  All your problems will be gone.

[FeydRautha]

I decided to try the cheap solution and last night I installed MiniDlna .

I couldn’t test it extensively, but it looks so much better! Now response times are reasonable - up to ten times faster with big files - and the playback never freezes. I’m also able to open my Panasonic Camera .MTS movie files , which was impossible before. I still don’t have fast forward but that may be a client problem, as Shabuboy said.