Wild media server (UPnP, DLNA, HTTP)

Hi,

I'm new to WMS and DLNA/network video in general. Currently I'm testing out various solutions and WMS is so far the best. TVersity was not recognised by the BDP-S370 at all and although Twonky Manager was recognised none of the video would play. Maybe my fault, but I couldn't find the amount of options and control that WMS seems to give me. Obviously, I'm at a very basic trial stage and still find it difficult to get my brain around some of it! So, I have a few issues that I hope somone can help me with.

1. I have subscribed to a video podcast and can play it okay. But when if I hit stop on the Sony BDP-S370 and then re-play it always starts from the beginning. Is there a way around this?

2. I could live with the problem above, but when I try and fast-forward a message comes on the screen which says the disc does not allow that action. Is this because of the way WMS is presenting the podcast to the BDP-S370 or is it a limitation of the player? Using a normal disk or BBC iPlayer I can fast forward so I assume the player can do this okay but I don't know whether it is a limitation of the podcast format. I subscribed to the DIVX version of the podcast if this makes a difference.

3. I'm using the default client set-up for the BDP-S370 but I see that the resolution set for this is only 720x406. Why is this? The player can obviously play full 1080p content and my TV is 1080i, so is this set this way to minimize bandwidth or for some other reason.

4. I can't seem to find a way to define the properties of other playback devices I have. There is a list of devices that I can select but I can't see an option to add my own. What am I missing here? It would be a great feature if users could define other/new devices and then publish those online in such a way that other users can just select them. The WMS developers are clearly never going to have access to all the devices customers may have.

5. In my network I also have a Squeezebox and I wondered if it is possible somehow to get WMS to appear to the Squeezebox as a Squeezebox server, or at least interface with it. The only reason is that it would be nice to define Internet Radio stations, Audio Podcasts etc. and be able to listen to them on all devices without further set-up/duplication being required. Given that the Squeezebox Server is written in Perl it seems like it should be possible for the Squeezebox Server to interface with WMS, although I don't know what WMS is written in.

6. Whilst WMS is running my PC does will not go into standby-mode even if WMS is serving no clients. Is this a limitation on the product or is there an option to change this? I can understand why WMS needs to wake-up if it is downloading podcasts or serving clients but does it need to keep the PC awake all the time?

Any help would be much appreciated.

Regards,

Leo

Hi,

LeoL wrote: 1. I have subscribed to a video podcast and can play it okay. But when if I hit stop on the Sony BDP-S370 and then re-play it always starts from the beginning. Is there a way around this?

2. I could live with the problem above, but when I try and fast-forward a message comes on the screen which says the disc does not allow that action. Is this because of the way WMS is presenting the podcast to the BDP-S370 or is it a limitation of the player? Using a normal disk or BBC iPlayer I can fast forward so I assume the player can do this okay but I don't know whether it is a limitation of the podcast format. I subscribed to the DIVX version of the podcast if this makes a difference.

Playback controls the media device, the first problem: the device can not control this, the second, if the device sends a request for content that is transcoded, the server does not know the real position of content. Possible solution - pre-transcoding.

LeoL wrote: 3. I'm using the default client set-up for the BDP-S370 but I see that the resolution set for this is only 720x406. Why is this? The player can obviously play full 1080p content and my TV is 1080i, so is this set this way to minimize bandwidth or for some other reason.

720x406 - frame size in transcoded file by default, you can change Settings - Transcoder - Codecs, frame

LeoL wrote: 4. I can't seem to find a way to define the properties of other playback devices I have. There is a list of devices that I can select but I can't see an option to add my own. What am I missing here? It would be a great feature if users could define other/new devices and then publish those online in such a way that other users can just select them. The WMS developers are clearly never going to have access to all the devices customers may have.

Settings - Server - "A list of allowed client devices" - Add or Edit, Settings - Save (?:\Program Files\Wild Media Server\Devices),

LeoL wrote: 5. In my network I also have a Squeezebox and I wondered if it is possible somehow to get WMS to appear to the Squeezebox as a Squeezebox server, or at least interface with it. The only reason is that it would be nice to define Internet Radio stations, Audio Podcasts etc. and be able to listen to them on all devices without further set-up/duplication being required. Given that the Squeezebox Server is written in Perl it seems like it should be possible for the Squeezebox Server to interface with WMS, although I don't know what WMS is written in.

Perhaps Squeezebox supports UPnP, try to search information on this

LeoL wrote: 6. Whilst WMS is running my PC does will not go into standby-mode even if WMS is serving no clients. Is this a limitation on the product or is there an option to change this? I can understand why WMS needs to wake-up if it is downloading podcasts or serving clients but does it need to keep the PC awake all the time?

Settings - Server - "Prevent sleep..."
or Settings - "Media-resources" - Service - "Media server" - turn on "Suspend computer" - available in folder "Service" via navigation on media device.

LeoL wrote: 1. I have subscribed to a video podcast and can play it okay. But when if I hit stop on the Sony BDP-S370 and then re-play it always starts from the beginning. Is there a way around this?

2. I could live with the problem above, but when I try and fast-forward a message comes on the screen which says the disc does not allow that action. Is this because of the way WMS is presenting the podcast to the BDP-S370 or is it a limitation of the player? Using a normal disk or BBC iPlayer I can fast forward so I assume the player can do this okay but I don't know whether it is a limitation of the podcast format. I subscribed to the DIVX version of the podcast if this makes a difference.

Eugene wrote:Playback controls the media device, the first problem: the device can not control this, the second, if the device sends a request for content that is transcoded, the server does not know the real position of content. Possible solution - pre-transcoding.

I see what you are saying, but why is it transcoding it? I assumed it had downloaded the files and was just playing them! How do I know if it is transcoding something, or is going to? Is it merely a question of whether or not it matches the format defined for the device? It seems as if most things get transcoded to MPEG2... but I expected MPEG4/H264 or something for video. Is this a limitation of WMS, DLNA or is this me just not understanding it? I'm used to most of the video files I play to be in H264 so I've really never come across other file types except for Flash on the web.

I used to use Miro to download all my video podcasts until my PC died of hardware failure. Should I go back to using that or are there any advantages/disadvantages to using it versus WMS?

LeoL wrote:
3. I'm using the default client set-up for the BDP-S370 but I see that the resolution set for this is only 720x406. Why is this? The player can obviously play full 1080p content and my TV is 1080i, so is this set this way to minimize bandwidth or for some other reason.

Eugene wrote:720x406 - frame size in transcoded file by default, you can change Settings - Transcoder - Codecs, frame

I get that, but I guess what I'm really asking is, if it can play higher res and why did the person who defined the device choose a lower res?

LeoL wrote: 4. I can't seem to find a way to define the properties of other playback devices I have. There is a list of devices that I can select but I can't see an option to add my own. What am I missing here? It would be a great feature if users could define other/new devices and then publish those online in such a way that other users can just select them. The WMS developers are clearly never going to have access to all the devices customers may have.

Eugene wrote:Settings - Server - "A list of allowed client devices" - Add or Edit, Settings - Save (?:\Program Files\Wild Media Server\Devices),

I didn't realise I can just type in that field, I was expected an option called "New Device Type" and expected to be able to select additional types from more on the Internet. When I go into set-up a new device I'm rather confused as to how to do it. For example, I expected the first option to be to select what type of files the device can handle e.g. music, video, photo.

LeoL wrote: 5. In my network I also have a Squeezebox and I wondered if it is possible somehow to get WMS to appear to the Squeezebox as a Squeezebox server, or at least interface with it. The only reason is that it would be nice to define Internet Radio stations, Audio Podcasts etc. and be able to listen to them on all devices without further set-up/duplication being required. Given that the Squeezebox Server is written in Perl it seems like it should be possible for the Squeezebox Server to interface with WMS, although I don't know what WMS is written in.

Eugene wrote:Perhaps Squeezebox supports UPnP, try to search information on this

No it doesn't... which is why I hoped it might be easier the other way around. As I don't know what technology is used behind WMS I hoped that I/someone could write some Perl scripts to get data out of WMS and update Squeezebox Server. Or I hoped somebody already had !

LeoL wrote: 6. Whilst WMS is running my PC does will not go into standby-mode even if WMS is serving no clients. Is this a limitation on the product or is there an option to change this? I can understand why WMS needs to wake-up if it is downloading podcasts or serving clients but does it need to keep the PC awake all the time?

Eugene wrote:Settings - Server - "Prevent sleep..."
or Settings - "Media-resources" - Service - "Media server" - turn on "Suspend computer" - available in folder "Service" via navigation on media device.

Brilliant Eugene, does it still wake-up for requests from clients and downloads?

Thank you for all your help.

LeoL wrote:

LeoL wrote: 1. I have subscribed to a video podcast and can play it okay. But when if I hit stop on the Sony BDP-S370 and then re-play it always starts from the beginning. Is there a way around this?

2. I could live with the problem above, but when I try and fast-forward a message comes on the screen which says the disc does not allow that action. Is this because of the way WMS is presenting the podcast to the BDP-S370 or is it a limitation of the player? Using a normal disk or BBC iPlayer I can fast forward so I assume the player can do this okay but I don't know whether it is a limitation of the podcast format. I subscribed to the DIVX version of the podcast if this makes a difference.

Eugene wrote:Playback controls the media device, the first problem: the device can not control this, the second, if the device sends a request for content that is transcoded, the server does not know the real position of content. Possible solution - pre-transcoding.

I see what you are saying, but why is it transcoding it? I assumed it had downloaded the files and was just playing them!

WMS is a server, not the player, it sends the content in a format that understands the media device.

LeoL wrote: How do I know if it is transcoding something, or is going to? Is it merely a question of whether or not it matches the format defined for the device? It seems as if most things get transcoded to MPEG2... but I expected MPEG4/H264 or something for video. Is this a limitation of WMS, DLNA or is this me just not understanding it? I'm used to most of the video files I play to be in H264 so I've really never come across other file types except for Flash on the web.

Files: Settings - Device - "Embedded file support"
Podcasts: right click on podcasts folder "Edit title" - "Transfer resource to media device"
Internet TV: selected transcoding profile (names of profiles eloquent)

LeoL wrote: I used to use Miro to download all my video podcasts until my PC died of hardware failure. Should I go back to using that or are there any advantages/disadvantages to using it versus WMS?

If important rewind resources, then most likely yes.

LeoL wrote:

LeoL wrote: 3. I'm using the default client set-up for the BDP-S370 but I see that the resolution set for this is only 720x406. Why is this? The player can obviously play full 1080p content and my TV is 1080i, so is this set this way to minimize bandwidth or for some other reason.

Eugene wrote:720x406 - frame size in transcoded file by default, you can change Settings - Transcoder - Codecs, frame

I get that, but I guess what I'm really asking is, if it can play higher res and why did the person who defined the device choose a lower res?

Typically, computers do not have sufficient resources to complete transcoding in 1920 x 1080

LeoL wrote:

LeoL wrote: 4. I can't seem to find a way to define the properties of other playback devices I have. There is a list of devices that I can select but I can't see an option to add my own. What am I missing here? It would be a great feature if users could define other/new devices and then publish those online in such a way that other users can just select them. The WMS developers are clearly never going to have access to all the devices customers may have.

Eugene wrote:Settings - Server - "A list of allowed client devices" - Add or Edit, Settings - Save (?:\Program Files\Wild Media Server\Devices),

I didn't realise I can just type in that field, I was expected an option called "New Device Type" and expected to be able to select additional types from more on the Internet. When I go into set-up a new device I'm rather confused as to how to do it. For example, I expected the first option to be to select what type of files the device can handle e.g. music, video, photo.

Form when you first start the program

LeoL wrote: Brilliant Eugene, does it still wake-up for requests from clients and downloads?

I think, this is the BIOS settings

Eugine,

Thanks for the reply. Since first posting I have now added another DLNA client and with that I get all the options I was looking for without doing anything particular to set-up that device. I can fast forward, restart where I left off etc. with no problems at all. I therefore assume the problems on the BDP-S370 must be a limitation of that player. I guess the new player (actually it's old and has been sat around doing nothing for about a year!) must have internal memory that remembers where it is on a particular stream or something. I really don't know, but it works brilliantly.

Interestingly, the new device also sees the TVersity server that I am also testing, so again, I guess it is a limitation/bug in the BDP-S370 that it doesn't see it.

My PC is still not going into power saving mode even though I've made the change you suggested and the BIOS is set to do that. So I guess WMS is still keeping my PC in full power mode.

Leo

LeoL wrote: My PC is still not going into power saving mode even though I've made the change you suggested and the BIOS is set to do that. So I guess WMS is still keeping my PC in full power mode.

Perhaps it was necessary to restart the server

The server restarted itself after I made the changes and I've since rebooted the machine, so maybe it just doesn't work as expected on Windows 7 64-bit?

LeoL wrote:The server restarted itself after I made the changes and I've since rebooted the machine, so maybe it just doesn't work as expected on Windows 7 64-bit?

If the mode is off, the program does nothing