Hi,
I bought a new TV (Philips 42PDL6907K/12) and I need help
I am trying to use XBMC as a DLNA Server to stream Media (Movies, Photos, Music) to my TV. The TV detects the running DLNA Server (I use a MacBook Pro early 2012) and I can select all my media.
The problem is that the TV plays the movie for like 10 seconds, then it automatically skips to the next Movie in the list. OR it is just playing for 10 seconds and crashing, brining me back to the list of all the movies.
Has anyone any idea what this is and how I could fix it? Is this a problem with the TV? or with XBMC?
I would be really really thankful for any help.
My guess - and it is just that - would be an encoding incompatibility. I'm yet to find a TV that's happy with every format (indeed, even "most formats" would be a start!). So you may find that your source bitrate is too high, or there are too many audio channels, or the H.264 profile smells too much of cut grass, or the audio rate is just the wrong shade of purple, or some other parameter that the TV just doesn't like. If a buffer fills up faster than it can empty it, then you might get behaviour as you're seeing.
I had a quick look on t'internet and can't find anything that specifically lists the formats that this TV supports. You can test the theory by trying MPEG2 AVIs as probably the lowest common denominator - transcode a sample using XviD or Handbrake; if the TV has an in-built PVR, you could try that format as well, since you know it'll read its own files; also, if it reads files from USB, try the specs for that (or try one of your files on a USB stick instead of DLNA).
Not necessarily much use, but that's where I'd head. And then you can surrender and get a small XBMC unit to plug straight into the TV instead, so you get all that XBMC goodness without any of the CODEC issues that DLNA seems to introduce
Thank you very much for your answer!
The TV has no problem playing those file over USB! And I am able to watch the movies for 10sec. I can even fast forward. If it´s a problem with the codec, I think I wouldn´t be even able to start streaming.
I am still not giving up hope. Would be so cool to stream movies and not to unplug my laptop from my workplace, bring it to the TV (with all the power and hdmi cable clutter).
I tried DNLA Server with Plex and I have the exact same problem.
Get an HTPC and plug it's HDMI port into your TV. Install XBMC. It is far smarter than your smart TV.
You can try a
nightly build (wiki) and see if any of the current UPnP/DLNA improvements fix the issue.
Is your TV connecting wirelessly?
In my (limited!) experience I have found UPnP very sensitive to inconsistent data streams. (e.g. its solid enough on the wired ethernet end of my home network, but very flaky when I go wirelessly to my Win7 laptop)
@Nickr: I paid too much for a smart TV to get all those features. Right now I can´t spend 100 - 200 Euros more for a HTPC
@ Ned Scott: Thank you for the tip. I tried it, still the exact same problem.
@ Mayoman: Yes, it´s connected wirelessly. Maybe that´s the reason after all. I just dont want to get like a 10m cable from my router to the TV.
Thank you for your help!
I guess I am giving up tried everything you guys suggested and nothing worked. Sticking to an external harddrive for now.
Not sure if the problem is still there for you, but I would like to say that I have a Philips TV and I had some issues with what the tv was able to access from xbmc. All got fixed when I disabled the wireless connection that I had running on my PC and only left the wired one. The tv is also wired and they both are communicating through a router in a local network. This was the issue for me: the fact that I was using wireless to connect.