Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[LittlBUGer]

Yes, but what?  I'm open to any and all suggestions.  The same behavior happened when I was doing it via wireless as well.  So the only thing common between the wired and wireless is the media serving PC obviously and the wireless router I'm using.  I'm positive it's not the router blocking anything.  The only thing may be some strange process or maybe background virus scan or something on the PC itself causing interference?  Maybe it can't handle 2.5 GB mp4 files?  Maybe it's the external USB 2.0 drives that are where all the actual files are located (so it's going through an interesting route: USB drive -> PC -> router -> powerline ethernet adapter -> DSM-520)?  Maybe it just hates me?  Who knows...

[ECF]

Have you tried files under 2GB and a wired connection not using the powerline adapter? Anti-virus doing back ground scanning could be a possibility as well. Also make sure your devices are connecting at 10/100Mbps. You can test this by setting a static IP address to you PC and connecting it directly to you DSM-520 then goto network connections in the PC control panel and check the status of your network adapter it should say 100Mbps. You can try streaming from this connection as well and see if you have better results to eliminate other network traffic and the router.

[C4MP3R]

If i could be of some help, i would like to suggest something.

I noticed that you said you were running MP4 format in one of your posts.  i have had many issues with MP4 playback and like you have had to go thru many steps to try and find the solution.

The first thing i would suggest is to test the hardware by plugging in your USB hard drive directly to the DSM-520.  You should be able to access your movies from there.  This is what i did to try and determine where my problems were.  When i plugged the drive into the USB i was able to watch movies without any issues.

The next thing i did was check the network and make sure i didn't have any machine flooding it with traffic.  I shutdown all machines except my server and dsm.

what i ultimately found was that NERO mediaserver had to be set to TRANSCODE VIDEO MPEG-2 (HIGH BIT RATE).

I think some of your problems might be with how MP4 is transcoded.

Something i also found is that your processor will get hammered causing delays and choppiness.  To test your PC i would suggest shutting down all processes that are not necessary for your PC to operate.  This would be any Virus Scan, Instant Messangers, iTunes background services, Start Up programs, etc.  Don't shut down anything related to your media server (or scout if using NERO).  Also, if you are using Scout make sure it completes its indexing before streaming.

you will also need to verify that your firewall isn't an issue.  to do this i suggest turning it off for testing.  At this point you should also have all virus scan software shutdown and any remaining processes killed.  if the movies play, its either your firewall software or processor being over worked.  You can monitor your processor using Task Manager.

I feel your pain and i hope this helps.

[LittlBUGer]

As an update on my issue...

@C4MP3R
Yes, I've gone through all such steps.  I'm a Network Admin so I know how to make sure all is well with the machine and the programs.  The PC I'm using is strictly for and built just for serving media so it really doesn't have anything on it anyway.  I was specifically using .mp4 format as I initially wanted to save space and yet still have decent quality.

@All
But no matter my issues anymore.  I've found and bought the Klegg Mediashare and wish I would have done that in the first place.  I can now finally backup my full DVDs to .iso format (so files that are 4.5 GB in size and includes menus, extra, etc.) and it plays them like a dream.  It starts playing within 1-2 seconds, no stuttering issues, and it sees the network every time.  The remote actually works, especially the fast forwarding and chapter skipping, etc.  And I didn't even have to install any extra software to make it work.  It works by just looking for shared folders on the PC.  So I'm now happily running this device (which by the way, also is an enclosure so it supports a SATA drive internally if I wanted to do that) and it cost even less than the DSM-520.  So thank you Klegg, too bad for you DLink. 

[C4MP3R]

Sorry, i was unaware that network admins knew everything about hardware and software.  I would have to say for someone that knows how to keep the machine and programs well, it's a wonder that you even requested dlinks help at all.

I was hoping that you would have read and understood my reply and not just read bits and assume the rest.  i had a very similar problem, much like yourself, with .mp4 playback.  For the most part everything is working fine now with my system (besides one small quirk which hopefully will be resolved with a HDMI patch) and i can watch my MP4 video without issue.

i looked up your Klegg, but from what i read i figured I'll stick with what i got working for now.  thanks for the alternate suggestion.

[LittlBUGer]

Look, I meant no harm by what I said before.  I just wanted to state that I do know what I'm doing, but no person is all-knowing.  The DSM-520 is new to me so I didn't know if it had some quirks or something with an easy fix.  My original thought on the whole thing here was to be able to backup my DVDs and play them from my PC to my TV without the need for the actual DVDs (obviously) because mainly I'm tired of changing DVDs all of the time and my kids ruin them quite easily.  I looked for quite a while and, at the time, out of all of the players I saw (other than the Apple TV), this one ranked the best but the only drawback was that it could really only play mp4 files and thus I couldn't get the whole DVD backup, just the movie.  This was fine at first as I figured I'd get good quality for low space usage for the most part.  That was until I kept having problems and noticed how slow everything was and how the remote never worked as it should.  So after reading up on the Klegg and trying it out, I'm just glad I switched as it does my original intentions with ease.  Only issue with the Klegg, I guess, is the lack of info and/or updates on their website right now and the fact that it has a fan that is barely audible when running.

Anyway, I'm happy now.  Speaking of which, anyone need a semi-new DSM-520?  ;-)

[yagils]

I have been experiencing the same.
I downgraded to older version of Dlink media server and it started working fine.
I found though that if there is a large number of files in a folder, the server will very likely be gone, it will come back after a while.