Please help me with my setup option - what do I need to do!

Hi Guys

Instead of hijacking someone else’s thread, thought that I would start a new one! I hope I am doing the right thing! I was having similar issues as mentioned in this thread (sub : DLNA Samsung TV)

I am an issue with my Panasonic TV’s (supposed to be DLNA certiified - model Nos. for them are TH-P50VT20A and TH-P42V20A) trying to set up FreeNAS on a spare PC and getting my TV’s to see the FreeNAS share. The issue was that all my devices were able to see the FreeNAS ‘Share’ but my TV’s. I later gave up on FreeNAS and am seriously considering buying WD My Cloud (Personal) NAS. I just need to ensure that it would be visible to my DLNA certified TV and be able to play all audio/video/music files from it on all devices before I bought it. I really don’t care if it is not visible to any of my other devices such as mobiles/tablet etc. - it must be visible to my TV’s though.

Just so that I provide you all the most relevant information to help you all to help me, this is the arrangement that i currently have :-

I have 1 modem router (in my study) and 4 switches at various places in the house.

The 2 TV’s are connected to 2 different switches in different rooms

I did try Serviio - this was installed on a Windows XP SP3 PC connected to switch other than the switch that either of the TV’s are connected to - but for some reason my TV’s didn’t see the Serviio media server. It was suggested that I should connect this PC to the same switch that the TV’s are connected to - but that wasn’t possible and the TV’s are on different floors.

Questions :-

Do I necessarily need to connect the WD My Cloud NAS to the modem router or can it be connected to a switch without  any impact?

Is any special setting required (either on the TV or this NAS drive for it to become visible to my TV’s? I couldn’t find any settings on my TV for this!

Where does installing Twonky come in to play here - doesn’t this NAS drive come with the required media software installed on it?

Or is it better to have a setup where I have :-
1.    a PC connected to my home network (I have an old spare PC running Windows XP SP 3 that I can use for this purpose) with all my content on it  - I was looking at buying the WD 2 TB internal HDD (AV-GP 2TB, WD20EURS) for this purpose and
2.    a WD TV Live media player, obviously both connected to my home network - 1 for each TV (I will only have to buy one of these and I already have got one)

With this sort of set up as described above, how difficult would it be for me to set up each of the WD TV Live to see this PC which contains all my media content.

Any assistance with this shall be highly valued.

Best regards

Deepak

WD My Cloud can be connected to any switch as long as its on the same network as the devices you want to connect to.

Twony is preinstalled and works out of the box. No configuration is really needed.

For your second configuration, as long as the PC is configured to share the proper folders with proper permissions, then any device should see it as long as it’s on the same network

Hi tnynyn

Thanks for your response.

So for option 1 - with WD My Cloud, this is what I am understanding is (do you think it is correct) :-

  1. Once I plug it in to my switch and load my media content on it,  in all likelihood, both of my Panasonic television sets should be able to see this NAS drive as a DLNA ‘Media Server’. I am assuming here that the TV would then be able to play all media files in pretty much any format on it whether or not the DLNA supports it - given that it comes preinstalled with Twonky - which will do the transcoding as needed? The only reason I ask this is because I read it in the TV instruction manual using the DLNA it can only play mpeg-2 and jpg files. It does not support playing any audio files although the media player may play them. Based on that, I am assuming that the TV has a built-in media player.

  2. It would also be visible to my WD TV Live Media Player

  3. There shouldn’t be too many complicated configuration settings that need to done on the WD My Cloud and/or TV’s and/or my WD TV Live Media Player and it should be able to detect all the IP addresses as these would be given out by the router and I wouldn’t need to provide any of these knds of details except for the passwords - should they be needed. I am not very particularly clever when it comes to network configurations and permissions kind of things.

Further, would this drive be visitble to my mobile devices such as my mobile phones and tablet too or do they additional apps installed on them for this drive to be visible to them?

For option 2
I actually did try that last night with some of my test media content files on a shared drive and, as you indicated, it was visible to all of my mobile devices and laptops and other PC’s but they not visible to either of my TV’s or to my WD TV Live media player. Is there some setting that I need to change on the TV/WD TV Live Media Player - I couldn’t find any on the TV (but maybe I wasn’t looking at the right place) and I changed all of the on the WD TV Live except for Proxy and Workgroup settings. So any help for this option would be another bigh help!

Thanks again for your help so far!

Best regards

Deepak

If your TV manual says it will only play mpg2 and jpg, then that is what it will play.  It is up to the media client to determine what format it can play as the My Cloud is just a media server

If you use your WD TV Live, then you should be able to play any format the WD TV Live is able to play.  And yes, it will be visible to the Live as long as they’re both on the same network. So one router, multiple switches is fine as long as those switches are connected to the router.

Technically, you dont need to configure anything other than initial setup.  You can use a single user with password if you want.  There is a public folder already with music, videos, pictures subfolders that you can just drop files in.  Media clients will be able to see that folder once you enter correct credentials (or any folder that you set to Public or give access permission to)

For mobile devices, if you’re not using the LAN connection, you have to setup Cloud Access on the My Cloud.  Then you can use the WD My Cloud app in the store to view the drive contents.

Option 2,

Make sure TV and Live is on the same network as PC.  Dont use any proxy.  Make sure Workgroup settings is the same as PC (default is “Workgroup”).  On the PC, make sure Networking Sharing is set to ON.

Hi tnynyn

Thanks again!

Some more questions for you - sorry! I think I am getting to better understand these things - I am a total novice in this area.

For Option 2

tnynyn wrote:On the PC, make sure Networking Sharing is set to ON.

Where do I find this setting on Windows XP PC?

FYI - the WD TV Live and the TV are connected to the same switch, the PC to a different switch. All of them are obviously connected to the same network - my home network!

So once I get this going, this should be working! I would then only need one internal HDD to go inside this PC (one that I had mentioned in my first post) and one more WD TV Live and it would be ready to go!

For Option 1

Maybe I am not understanding this whole concept fully! If I am using this NAS - which, as you say, is just a media server, will only play what the media client (my TV) can play through DLNA, then what role is Twonky playing - is Twonky playing role of allowing this disk drive to become the media server? Is Twonky software that comes preinstalled on the NAS not capable of transcoding as WD TV Live cna do? If not, can we install some software that can do just that? Or, alternatively, can we not connected a media player like WD TV Live Media Player to this NAS drive so that any file that is being played - video/audio/phot - would actually go through this player before it is displayed/played by the TV/music system?

Look, this might all sound stupid and it may well be - and as I have said earlier, I don’t know very much about this media streaming concept but I am trying to understand how all of this work together.

Best regards

Deepak

agarwaldvk wrote:

Hi tnynyn

 

Thanks again!

 

Some more questions for you - sorry! I think I am getting to better understand these things - I am a total novice in this area.

 

For Option 2


tnynyn wrote:On the PC, make sure Networking Sharing is set to ON.


Where do I find this setting on Windows XP PC?

 

FYI - the WD TV Live and the TV are connected to the same switch, the PC to a different switch. All of them are obviously connected to the same network - my home network!

 

So once I get this going, this should be working! I would then only need one internal HDD to go inside this PC (one that I had mentioned in my first post) and one more WD TV Live and it would be ready to go!

 

 

For Option 1

Maybe I am not understanding this whole concept fully! If I am using this NAS - which, as you say, is just a media server, will only play what the media client (my TV) can play through DLNA, then what role is Twonky playing - is Twonky playing role of allowing this disk drive to become the media server? Is Twonky software that comes preinstalled on the NAS not capable of transcoding as WD TV Live cna do? If not, can we install some software that can do just that? Or, alternatively, can we not connected a media player like WD TV Live Media Player to this NAS drive so that any file that is being played - video/audio/phot - would actually go through this player before it is displayed/played by the TV/music system?

 

Look, this might all sound stupid and it may well be - and as I have said earlier, I don’t know very much about this media streaming concept but I am trying to understand how all of this work together.

 

 

Best regards

 

 

Deepak

I think Twonky will transcode the video to a format your TV will play, how old is your TV?  I have a Panasonic Plasma from a couple years ago and both my old WD NAS and this my cloud will play videos on my TV, model TCP42ST30.  But my manual shows i can play AVCHD and MP4 video files.

Twonky nor the NAS transcodes media.

Hi tnynyn

My TV’s were both bought at the same time - from memory they are now 3 years old. The model numbers for my Panasonic Viera are :-

TH-P50VT20A and

TH-P42V20A

I hope this helps you to help me!

Best regards

Deepak

Hi All

Latest update from last night…

I turned on ‘Media Streaming’ on my PC running Windows 7 and my TV’s were able to see all media except music - apparently my TV’s don’t support playing music files using DLNA. However, my WD TV Live wasn’t able to see either this PC or the other one running Windows XP SP3.

What settings in Windows XP SP3 do I need to change so that WD TV Live can see my PC’s? The entire drive (its a separate physical hard disk drive) and also the folder containing my media content are shared drives and are visible to all other PC’s on my home network.

I am able to see my WD TV Live (and the external HDD temporarily attached to it and all its contents) from Windows Explorer on both of these PC’s - so why can’t WD TV Live see these PC’s? Do I need to reset WD TV Live?

Best regards

Deepak

I forget the setup of XP, it’s been a long time since I’ve even used XP.

But this should help you with your settings:  http://2010.tomkiss.net/blog/how_to_stream_media_from_windows_xp_to_playstation_3

That is for setting up WMP with a PS3 but the settings for XP will be the same.

Also, you didn’t say what WDTVLive you have, if you have a WDTVLive SMP you don’t really need to use DLNA to play media.  You can access the media as a Windows share (SMB) and add the share to the WDTVLives media library by going into Setup / System / Media Library / Media Library Manager for Network Share / Add network share to media library , then select Windows Share, your PC should show up.  Select it, and then enter your user name & password for your PC (if you don’t have a password set for your PC don’t enter anything, just leave the boxes as is), then select the shared folder you want to add.

Hi Tinwarble

I didn’t know that there were more than one type of WD TV Live. The one that I have - bought about 2 years ago is this :-

http://www.officeworks.com.au/retail/products/Technology/Home-Entertainment/Media-Players/WDBGXT0NBK?cmpdt=20131218&cmpcr=preshop&cmptp=PPC&cmpprv=getprice&cmpprd=WDBGXT0NBK&cmplnk=&CAWELAID=620015440000142190&catargetid=1402860417&cadevice=c

I will read the stuff that you have pointed me to. I can only check the way to add the media using the steps that you have shown tonight when I get home but the question how will add the Windows share if WD TV LIve is not able to see my PC?

Deepak

Yes, there are 3 different models the WDTV Live (2009) & WDTV Live Plus (2010), which are the older models and the WDTV Live SMP (2011), which from your link is what you have.  As well there is also the WDTVLive HUB.

Hi Tinwarble

That is good to know!

So you reckon that if were to get WMP 11 for 32bit XP and follow theinstructions given on your previous link, my media player (WD TV LIve) should see my PC and the shared drives/folders, yeh?

Does it need to be WMP11 only or any other players like VLC also will do - I don’t have an issue with WMP 11 either. I was just curious!

Best regards

Deepak

Well,  you don’t need WMP11 if you just add or navigate, from the SMP, as a Windows share.  Al you need to do is make sure that the folder you want to access from the SMP is shared on your PC.  If you access the shared folders on your PC as a Windows share from your SMP you don’t need to have anything else installed.

You only need WMP11 if you are going to access via DLNA and I’m not sure about VLC as I’ve never tried, but there VLC does claim to be able to act as a server.  However, you’ll probably need to check the VLC site as to how to set it up if that is the way you want to go.

Hi Tinwarble

I don’t have any preference to use DLNA - all I want to do is to be able to see my media content which are all stored (or intended to to be stored on this PC) in this layout - Physical Drive → MediaDriveFolder → 3 subfolders namely Video, Music and Photos - that is it!

As you suggested - to do that - I don’t as such need WMP - that is even better! All I then would need is to be able to add the Windows Share to the Media Library of the WD TV Live media player as follows from within the Media Player :-

Setup / System / Media Library / Media Library Manager for Network Share / Add network share to media library

The million dollar question though is how do I get my WD TV Live to see or navigate to my shared drive on this PC running Windows XP SP3 - which is what it is not doing at the moment?

Best regards

Deepak

First, make sure the folder were you have you media on that drive is shared, then make sure that both the SMP and PC are on the same network and have the same Workgroup.

Basically, you just need to setup your PC to share the same way you would if you were setting it up to share with any other computer. 

If you don’t know how you can read this: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/304040

By the way, to get back to the My Cloud, you can do the same thing with it and you want have to keep your PC on.

If you have more questions about accessing your PC files from the SMP or SMP related questions you should post them here:  http://community.wd.com/t5/WD-TV-Live-Streaming/bd-p/streaming_discussions

Hi Tinwarble

Will do some reading now!

One question though - my WD TV Live is able to see the internet but is not able to see any Windows share - not on my Windows 7 PC and not on my Windows XP PC although both these PC’s can see WD TV Live - how come?

Best regards

Deepak

Depends on how your PC’s can see the SMP.

Do they see the SMP as another Computer or as a Media Device?

Hi Tinwarble

Yes, they are visible from Windows Explorer as separate computers.

I have attached the screeendump of the Windows Explorer view for your immediate reference. They both can see the folders within the USB connected external HDD connected to the  WD TV Live. I have also added the screendump showing the permissions on one of the media content folder - ‘Movies’.

With all these done, I cannot understand why this is not visible to WD TV LIve - it should be!

Is it because my network is basically a windows XP network with 2 windows 7 PC’s and 2 Widows 8 laptops on it. It was always a Windows XP network and I ran the network setup file that was created in the first instance with every added PC with the exception of Windows 7/8 PC’s.

P.S. Can’t attach the file to it don’t know how to.

How do I attach a file to this post?

Best regards

Deepak

Do you have the same workgroup name setup on the SMP as you do on your PC?