Problems with Mediaserver (DLNA) and problems with playing via network share

Hardware:

  • WD TV Live HD Media player (firmware 1.01.24)

  • Linksys WRT54GL (Firmware 4.30.12)

- Synology DS210J (DSM 2.2-0965; Build Date: 2010/01/25)

  • Laptop with Vista SP2 (Wireless)

  • PC with Windows XP SP3

Only the laptop is wireless connected.

The Synology is configured with 2x 1.5Tb harddisks (RAID1). Mediaserver (DLNA) is activated. All video’s are placed in the \video share. (and automatically available through Mediaserver). The \video share has 3 configured users, all with password.

If I access a movie via the network share, I can play the movie. (Although DVD menu’s are missing: WD Fix this!!!)

If I access the same movie via Media server, I cannot play the movie. Message: Media type isn’t supported, check the manual.

If I play the movie via the network share, every 10 minutes (average) the movie has some problems. Dissorted images, interupted sound etc. Sometimes the movie seems to play about 2x faster for about 3 seconds. Sometimes a short part of a scene is skipped (about 1/2 a second).

This problem occurs every movie.

Most of the movies is in the VIDEO_TS/VOB format.

If I connect via USB, these problems also occur, but less frequent.

Questions:

  • How can I improve the performance / quality problems?

  • What is the best (in theory) method of watching a movie: Media server or network share?

  • What is the best method of filetype. VOB, ISO, or other formats. (I mean, what format is played best by WD, without interuptions etc.)

“Most of the movies is in the VIDEO_TS/VOB format.”

The WDTV live doesn’t do a great job at playing those, but even then having hiccups every 10 mins or so on all movies seems a bit over the top. If those skips, interruptions etc… are not random then it probably doesn’t have to do with the network, especially if they happen when you play them over USB as well.

Next time you are watching a movie and get one of those hiccups rewind about 15s or so and see if it happens again, if it doesn’t then it’s possible that there’s some kind of problem in the network or the machine serving the files, if you get the same interruptions every time you play the same spots then it probably has to do more with the encoding of the files (or how they were ripped).

Another thing you can try is checking the integrity of the movies with software players. And I don’t mean loading the whole VIDEO_TS folder, I mean loading just the VOB, which is what the WDTV will do. If the movie is structured in a weird way (with multiangles, ILVUs etc… ) then it will play nicely when you load the whole folder on a software player, but if you play an individual VOB file things might be different. I suggest you try with VLC (freeware and lean, and a great standalone media player for most filetypes). If you load a VOB file on it and you get a hiccup on the WDTV, it will most probably have the same hiccup on VLC *if* it is due to the encoding.

As for your other questions, reencoding DVDs to Xvid or H.264 is probably the best way of playing them on the WDTV, if you use Handbrake/Megui etc… with the right parameters all your encodes should play fine. And I prefer good 3rd party media servers (TVersity etc…) over network shares, though I know nothing about the media server in your NAS.