This is my 1st post. I have read the "READ THIS 1st Before Posting FAQ". Whew! I hope this isn't that type of problem. I have Ubuntu 12.04. A 5 port ethernet (unmanaged) switch. A Silicon Dust Dual tuner. And a Panasonic TV. For recording TV stuff on the 'puter, I'm using MythTV. - PLEASE bear with me. I am so new at this TV/Media Center stuff that I have no good idea on how to even ask the questions. And precious little experience with networking terminology.
As far as playing recorded media (MythTV recordings), XBMC is working fine. It loads, I can scan for media files and play them back. No PROBLEMO!
The TV's Ethernet Configs show as:
IP Address: 169.254.58.123
Subnet mask: 255.255.0.0
Default Gateway is blank
DNS is blank
Proxy address is blank
Proxy port is: 0 (number) zero
I'm trying to:
Drive the tuner output from the switch to either my computer monitor or the TV. Currently, MythTV is working just fine on my computer monitor. Half the battle? I cannot drive the output of the XBMC to the TV.
Drive the recorded or live output of the tuner/MythTV into the TV through XBMC. Or just MythTV if that's less configuration.
When I run the TV's "Connection Test" it finds the ethernet cable & some signal, but stops as it cannot connect to the internet. Then it refers to IPTV Server (DLNA) which I don't need as I believe XBMC will handle it.
So, how can I setup or configure the foregoing? And if practical, can the TV get onto the internet? Is that really necessary? I do want to watch Hulu on the big TV.
Some references:
Nvidia 9500GT graphics card and driver version 304.88.
Ubuntu Precise Pangolin ver. 12.04 LTS
MythTV version: fixes/0.26 (v0.26.0-119-gc0419cd)
Rosewill 5 port ethernet switch RC-409LX
Silicon Dust Dual tuner with firmware revision 101A799A
XBMC was installed through the Ubuntu Software Center
eth0 - IPv4
IP Address: 169.254.4.60
B'cast Address: 169.254.255.255
Subnet mask: 255.255.0.0
2WIRE000 wifi base station
IPv4
IP Address: 192.168.1.72
B'cast Address: 192.168.1.255
Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0
Default Route: 192.168.1.254
Primary DNS: 192.168.1.254
Not sure I've understood your question, so apologies if this is a dumb answer - but you have a suitable cable between your XBMC PC and your television, yes?
XBMC can't "broadcast" its display over to your TV via your network, you need something like HDMI; while it's true that XBMC's DLNA/UPnP server can talk directly to your TV's DLNA client, Panasonic TVs aren't (or weren't) blessed with a wide range of format support so you might get into problems there unless your media is in exactly the right Panasonic-friendly formats.
Your IP addresses all look wrong as well. Unless you're configuring it all manually, you'd normally have one device - perhaps your router - set up as a DHCP server, which means it picks up requests from anything that connects to the network and hands out IP addresses as required. But your base station has 192.168.1.x addresses (which would be common in a home network) versus the 169.254.x.x addresses elsewhere - which aren't. So check your network settings on TV and Ubuntu box to see if they're set up correctly.
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Oh, and welcome to the forums! Sorry, forgot my manners :-)
[quote='Prof Yaffle' pid='1417224' dateline='1368129749']
Not sure I've understood your question, so apologies if this is a dumb answer - but you have a suitable cable between your XBMC PC and your television, yes?
The TV has an ethernet port and I have an ethernet cable plugged from the TV to the switch.
XBMC can't "broadcast" its display over to your TV via your network, you need something like HDMI; while it's true that XBMC's DLNA/UPnP server can talk directly to your TV's DLNA client, Panasonic TVs aren't (or weren't) blessed with a wide range of format support so you might get into problems there unless your media is in exactly the right Panasonic-friendly formats.
I have used media in .mp4 or .mpg on a USB thumb drive and they play OK. The MythTV seems to allow recording (saving) in a variety of formats, native is: .mpg - I think this is a relatively intelligent response to your above paragraph. Please correct me if I'm in error.
Your IP addresses all look wrong as well. Unless you're configuring it all manually, you'd normally have one device - perhaps your router
which is my router?
- set up as a DHCP server, which means it picks up requests from anything that connects to the network and hands out IP addresses as required. But your base station has 192.168.1.x addresses (which would be common in a home network)
This is my home? I got lost after network. Doh, I'm Bart Simpson or such.
versus the 169.254.x.x addresses elsewhere - which aren't. So check your network settings on TV and Ubuntu box to see if they're set up correctly.
again, pardon the ignorance, but what or how do I check about network settings, TV & Ubuntu
Also, when looking at the TV's DLNA Server, the TV senses the "HDHomeRun Dual Tuner 101A799A" - That is what is puts on the screen.
Yes, the network is set to "Manual". If it is set to "Automatic" the TV finds even less signal or network. The TV's "Connection Test" can find the cable but stops at: "Acquire IP address from router". When set to "Manual" as I posted at the top, it find the IP Address, etc.
Sooo are you hooking up xbmc with a hdmi cable to your tv?
As far as XBMC is concerned, your TV is a monitor - you need to plug it in with a video cable, not a network cable. That's where the HDMI cable is used.
The UPnP/DLNA option is where XBMC sits on the network and acts as a server for the media files. If your experience of formats is correct, and Myth records in something that your TV supports, then that would work - you wouldn't get the full XBMC experience, though, since all it's doing is handing the file over to your TV for display.
As for the rest... we all started somewhere...
Your router is likely to be the box that connects to your broadband line. It's the thing that takes traffic from inside your house to outside, and vice versa - indeed, it routes the traffic, hence the name. It may also act as a wireless access point.
In many home installations, the router hands out unique addresses to every device on your network. Most commonly, this is an IPv4 address, which has the a.b.c.d format (e.g. 192.168.1.72). All of the addresses on your network have to have a similar format in order for the boxes to be able to speak to each other. What I notice in the above is that you have some 192.168.x.y addresses, and some 169.254.x.y addresses - that means that these boxes won't be able to see each other.
It looks to me like your wifi setup is correct, but not the others. I can't immediately help with why things are wrong without knowing exactly what plugs into what, though...
I have to make both a wired and a wireless connection for this to work? May I beg your indulgence a little while longer. I don't want to do more than send tv/movies (files in.mpg or mp4) to the TV. I need a server? What good is a switch? And worse, I share the wifi I have with a neighbor and that device (modem/router/wifi) isn't physically accessible. But why would I need that? I have a computer, an ethernet switch, a tuner (with ethernet out - the only output) and a tv with ethernet in. If XBMC cannot act as the "server" what should I do? (can you recommend something?) When I netsearched for the keywords: DLNA, Linux - what came back was XBMC. And my (extremely limited) understanding is that XBMC is a "server". So, to me, the computer's ethernet port is both an input and output depending on the role it's playing. It's an input when the tv-tuner is sending a signal. (That is, when MythTV is active). It's an output to the switch and then to the TV in XBMC mode (or role). If I can forgo the internet is there no way to make the TV "see" the output from the switch? That is I must manually configure the ethernet.
Yes there are various networking options to get your media from computer to TV over ethernet, primarily based on UPNP. However mostly it is hit and miss. XBMC does not transcode files to something the TV wants, and the TV if fussy about what it wants.
XBMC is far smarter than your so called smart tv, believe me. Plug your media PC into your TV via HDMI.
EDIT: Having looked again through the previous posts, it does seem that if you want to try the network way, you'll have to get your TV properly on your LAN. Most LANS have a router that hands out proper IP addresses, DNS entries and gateway addresses by a process called DHCP. Sounds like your DHCP server and your TV ain't talking.
I think that there's a danger that we're trying to address the wrong problem here. nickr is right, and I said it above: your initial problem is that your home network isn't set up correctly, and so you're always going to struggle to get boxes to talk to one another.
If you just want DLNA to your PC, you have a couple of options:
1. Yes, XBMC will do that. It's a terrible waste of a magnificent piece of software that makes your TV's native interface look positively antedeluvian, but it would work.
2. Your router (if you have one... :-) ) or your access point may have an in-built DLNA server, or you could swap it for one that does. That takes media on an external disc and simply publishes it to your local network where your TV could find it.
3. You could even use a smartphone - Android works nicely as a UPnP server, and I'm sure iOS and Windows 'Phone would as well.
4. Or you could put XBMC on your 'phone, and use Airplay, UPnP or similar to tell XBMC to play the movie on your television
5. You also have Twonky, serviio, Subsonic, Plex and other ways of moving media around - some of these will be DLNA-compatible. Some of these will serve your media files "as is", so it's anyone's guess whether your TV will understand them; some will convert them ("transcoding") into a format that your TV will understand.
XBMC is a media player; it's designed to be plugged directly into a monitor or television, and from there you can categorise, sort and navigate all of your stored music, films, TV programmes, music videos, home movies, photos, YouTube streams, iPlayer streams, and so on. In many ways, it reduces your TV to a dumb monitor, since all the intelligence (as well as good looks) are now in your "HTPC" - Home Theatre PC, the small PC that's running XBMC. One of XBMC's great strengths is that it will play virtually anything you throw at it, in any format, so you avoid the limitations that television manufacturers build in. It also (with some additions) supports live television and PVR-like functions (pause, rewind, record)... all in one common, unified, glorious front end.
(have I done enough of the PR speech yet?)
(and no, you don't need both wired and wireless, we're talking across each other: the wire in question is something to take the video/audio signal from a box to your TV, the same as you would for a DVD player or satellite box).
Hey,
169 as a starting IP Address is an indication that your TV is not actively being assigned an IP address, and is not connected.
Either your DNS is wrong, the cable is not working, or the TV is not contacting the DHCP.
Check your cables, get your TV to be on the same 192.168.XXX.XXX network and I imagine all your issues will go away.
But he doesn't need his tv connected to the Internet if he just uses xbmc the way it's intended. As a full blown server and client connected directly to the tv
Well it has been a long time since this post was originally started and I hope since then Mark2013 found his answers, but I am posting this for others that may shed some light into their understanding.
First the IP address of the TV 169.254.58.123 is an IP given automatically to a device when it cannot connect to any DHCP server to get a valid address. So in this case it shows that the TV may have been connected to the wired network, but no DHCP was setup to deliver a valid IP address with the right Gateway/subnet/DNS. So 2 easy solution. 1st turn ON and configure your DHCP server on your router, or 2d just setup manually your TV IP info. In this case just take clues from the PC address and only change the IP last 3set of numbers after the last dot.
Anyway the more important thing to understand here is the difference between broadcasting xbmc to a TV screen and streaming its media through DLNA or UPnP. The streaming of media is only accessing files on a network and having them play on another device, whether computer, cell phone or TV without copying the file. Today almost smart TV with a network connection can stream media saved on a network device whether Windows, MAC, PS3, Xbox, new NAS drives etc. For this a physical media needs to be saved whether music, photos, movies on the network. This does not allow to view the PC screen onto the TV, but only its shared media.
Many of us are looking not to stream media, but to stream our computer display onto the TV. The misunderstanding comes from using the term streaming, as their is many different type of streaming. Also the confusion comes from not understanding the difference between a nework projector and a smart tv. Smart tvs are not network projectors. I mean not that I know of anyway.
So how do we mirror our PC display onto a TV (remember that is NOT streaming media, that is network display or what is called today miracast) ?
Windows 8 / 8.1 allow now to use the miracast technology and it works great but with conditions. The conditions is that your PC is equipped with miracast compatible component which is summary is an Intel architecture with Intel HD graphic card 3000 or above, and an Intel newer model wireless network adapter. The computer then connects to the Smart WiFi TV as a direct connect (NOT through the wireless AP or router). This does not work on a wired network. Cell phone, tablets etc. connect directly this way to the TV WiFi and that service works very nicely. The issue is that many older devices, even though they are Intel equipped are still compatible with the requirements necessary to make it all work. Also the device has to be in a direct line of site with the TV.
So what solution are left with?
Well the old HDMY cable is one, firewire to HDMI is another or DisplayPort too.
We are left with some other wireless solution that can be found with some NetGear type of products but not without serious investments. If anyone knows of any solution to mirror our PC screens onto a TV (not using the play to function as that is only possible through few applications and usually not the apps we want)
XBMC can play to a TV hooked to a network, but then we cannot see the whole XBMC interface onto the TV, but only whatever media we want to. It maybe enough for some though!
Hope this helped a little.
The HDMI cable is the right way. Stop looking for problems when the solution is right in front of you.
What I'm guessing here is the guy is stealing his neighbors wifi so the internet only works on his wireless devices. That's why the TV doesn't get an IP address even if it's connected to the switch. Other than that, a simple HDMI cable would be all this guy ever needed, but he decided to make it complicated.
(2014-06-04, 07:30)XBMCKG Wrote: [ -> ]Well it has been a long time since this post was originally started and I hope since then Mark2013 found his answers, but I am posting this for others that may shed some light into their understanding.
First the IP address of the TV 169.254.58.123 is an IP given automatically to a device when it cannot connect to any DHCP server to get a valid address. So in this case it shows that the TV may have been connected to the wired network, but no DHCP was setup to deliver a valid IP address with the right Gateway/subnet/DNS. So 2 easy solution. 1st turn ON and configure your DHCP server on your router, or 2d just setup manually your TV IP info. In this case just take clues from the PC address and only change the IP last 3set of numbers after the last dot.
Anyway the more important thing to understand here is the difference between broadcasting xbmc to a TV screen and streaming its media through DLNA or UPnP. The streaming of media is only accessing files on a network and having them play on another device, whether computer, cell phone or TV without copying the file. Today almost smart TV with a network connection can stream media saved on a network device whether Windows, MAC, PS3, Xbox, new NAS drives etc. For this a physical media needs to be saved whether music, photos, movies on the network. This does not allow to view the PC screen onto the TV, but only its shared media.
Many of us are looking not to stream media, but to stream our computer display onto the TV. The misunderstanding comes from using the term streaming, as their is many different type of streaming. Also the confusion comes from not understanding the difference between a nework projector and a smart tv. Smart tvs are not network projectors. I mean not that I know of anyway.
So how do we mirror our PC display onto a TV (remember that is NOT streaming media, that is network display or what is called today miracast) ?
Windows 8 / 8.1 allow now to use the miracast technology and it works great but with conditions. The conditions is that your PC is equipped with miracast compatible component which is summary is an Intel architecture with Intel HD graphic card 3000 or above, and an Intel newer model wireless network adapter. The computer then connects to the Smart WiFi TV as a direct connect (NOT through the wireless AP or router). This does not work on a wired network. Cell phone, tablets etc. connect directly this way to the TV WiFi and that service works very nicely. The issue is that many older devices, even though they are Intel equipped are still compatible with the requirements necessary to make it all work. Also the device has to be in a direct line of site with the TV.
So what solution are left with?
Well the old HDMY cable is one, firewire to HDMI is another or DisplayPort too.
We are left with some other wireless solution that can be found with some NetGear type of products but not without serious investments. If anyone knows of any solution to mirror our PC screens onto a TV (not using the play to function as that is only possible through few applications and usually not the apps we want)
XBMC can play to a TV hooked to a network, but then we cannot see the whole XBMC interface onto the TV, but only whatever media we want to. It maybe enough for some though!
Hope this helped a little.
Hey, with this post I think you answered a lot of my questions posted yesterday in the general section
Thank you for explaining streaming. It's not easy to find simple explainations when the words are misused or used without explainations.
What I understand in this topic is that it's not easy to stream media from a xbmc media center over network to another device (I mean, streamed and transcoded media, not xbmc clients accessing a centralized xbmc database on a NAS).
I think Plex is more dedicated to this ? Using xbmc, the best is to plug the media center where xbmc is via hdmi.
Quote:What I understand in this topic is that it's not easy to stream media from a xbmc media center over network to another device (I mean, streamed and transcoded media, not xbmc clients accessing a centralized xbmc database on a NAS).
It's easy, the problem is that unlike Plex, XBMC doesn't re-encode the video/audio to something the target device will understand, which means you'd have to use a decent media player on the other end (like another instance of XBMC).