Topic: MC not working with D-Link DSM-320 (Read 9913 times)

dcwebman · « **on:** February 11, 2007, 01:13:39 pm »

I have problems using MC as a media server for my D-Link DSM-320 when watching videos and photos. Audio works fine, probably because they're all MP3's. I made sure everything works correctly at the computer before I tried streaming to the DSM-320. I installed CCCP before I started trying to play anything. Here are the problems I'm having.

Images: All I tried were JPG's. Some would play and some wouldn't. The only difference I can see is the file size. If the file size is small, like 500x500 pixels, they will play. Larger file sizes like 2816x2112 will not.

Video:
DivX AVI's, when they play, run in slow motion
MP4's won't play at all
VOB's do work
Plain AVI's do work

The media server software that comes with the DSM-320 works perfectly. I just would like to be able to use MC for everything. Any help?

John Gateley · « **Reply #1 on:** February 12, 2007, 10:28:42 am »

What version of MC are you running? In 12.0.166 I changed the image MIME type, it is "correct", but the DSM-320 may be expecting the "less correct" one. Let me know...

j

dcwebman · « **Reply #2 on:** February 12, 2007, 05:27:17 pm »

I am running the latest (at the moment), 12.167.

John Gateley · « **Reply #3 on:** February 12, 2007, 06:35:50 pm »

Okay - I'll do a quick test tomorrow - I think I know what's causing it, hopefully a quick fix.

Thanks Jeff,

j

John Gateley · « **Reply #4 on:** February 13, 2007, 11:52:01 am »

No, not what I thought. I'm working on these...

j

dcwebman · « **Reply #5 on:** February 13, 2007, 11:54:55 am »

As long as you have seen the problem, I'm happy. Just wanted to make sure I'm not doing something wrong since I'm new to the video stuff.

John Gateley · « **Reply #6 on:** February 13, 2007, 12:20:06 pm »

For the big image problem: the Dlink server is actually resizing the picture on the fly. It's a cool idea, and I'll do it someday, but not right now.

j

John Gateley · « **Reply #7 on:** February 13, 2007, 01:12:34 pm »

For AVIs: looks like support by DLink is spotty. The docs claim AVI support, but only for MPEG4 layer.

One AVI I had should have played - it wasn't greyed out - but selecting it to play gave the standard "format not supported" error.

If you have an AVI that plays with DLink's server, but not with MC, let me know.

j

John Gateley · « **Reply #8 on:** February 13, 2007, 04:15:46 pm »

MP4s: I really tried with these, with no success. I fixed one definite bug (mime type was wrong), but that wasn't enough. The DSM-320 is doing some very strange (non UPnP compliant) stuff to play mp4 files, and I might be able to get it to work, but it would take a couple of days and there isn't a guarantee it would work in the end. Sorry...

Give a try of the next build to come out, though it probably won't work.

j

NickM · « **Reply #9 on:** February 14, 2007, 03:29:14 am »

Quote from: dcwebman on February 11, 2007, 01:13:39 pm

Video:
DivX AVI's, when they play, run in slow motion
MP4's won't play at all
VOB's do work
Plain AVI's do work

Just tried MC12.169 with 320 and found the following...
DivX AVI played fine. Streaming was a little jerky and paused without explanation. Task manager showed nothing untoward, and server log nothing either.
VOB's played at high speed fast forward and only the first pre-menu part of the DVD. No way to get to the DVD menu.
JPEG's fine, but no thumbnails.
APE on the fly conversion OK, but no international character support and no coverart.

dcwebman · « **Reply #10 on:** February 14, 2007, 07:50:49 am »

Quote from: John Gateley on February 13, 2007, 12:20:06 pm

For the big image problem: the Dlink server is actually resizing the picture on the fly. It's a cool idea, and I'll do it someday, but not right now.

That's a shame. I'm hoping to put my whole photo collection in MC and that would be great coming back from a trip or something to import them into MC and then play the slideshow on the TV for all to see. My only choice then would be to resize every photo I wanted to display. If I was to do that, what's the maximum size that MC will display?

Quote from: John Gateley on February 13, 2007, 01:12:34 pm

For AVIs: looks like support by DLink is spotty. The docs claim AVI support, but only for MPEG4 layer.
One AVI I had should have played - it wasn't greyed out - but selecting it to play gave the standard "format not supported" error.
If you have an AVI that plays with DLink's server, but not with MC, let me know.

Every AVI I played worked fine with D-Link's server. They either didn't play at all in MC or started playing with the slowness mentioned. I'll try again. Stupid question because I'm new to the computer video. I have converted some files with different programs to AVI and downloaded a couple. How can I easily tell what format they are in so I can inform you?

I'll look at the MP4's again with the new version. Probably won't get a chance tonight because my wife will probably want my full attention.

BTW, I also saw the same thing that NickM said about high speed fast forward VOB's. When it was the movie VOB, it played fine.

John Gateley · « **Reply #11 on:** February 14, 2007, 10:07:59 am »

Do you have a short AVI I could test?

j

John Gateley · « **Reply #12 on:** February 14, 2007, 12:03:30 pm »

Quote from: dcwebman on February 14, 2007, 07:50:49 am

That's a shame. I'm hoping to put my whole photo collection in MC and that would be great coming back from a trip or something to import them into MC and then play the slideshow on the TV for all to see. My only choice then would be to resize every photo I wanted to display. If I was to do that, what's the maximum size that MC will display?

I added image size reduction to the server. It's enabled by default for the DSM-320. When you get version 12.0.170 or greater, it should be there.
Give it a try and let me know how it works...

j

dcwebman · « **Reply #13 on:** February 14, 2007, 01:14:41 pm »

Quote from: John Gateley on February 14, 2007, 12:03:30 pm

I added image size reduction to the server. It's enabled by default for the DSM-320. When you get version 12.0.170 or greater, it should be there.

Sweet!! Thanks!!

All the AVI's I tried were full length movies but I'll try to create a small one for you.

dcwebman · « **Reply #14 on:** February 14, 2007, 08:00:06 pm »

John,
Images did not resize with 170. I did create a small AVI for you. I'll PM you with the location for you to download a zip file that has the AVI file and an example image that didn't resize.

JimH · « **Reply #15 on:** February 14, 2007, 08:11:44 pm »

Quote from: dcwebman on February 14, 2007, 08:00:06 pm

John,
Images did not resize with 170.

I believe you need to change the options. Check the box for "Shrink large images".

John Gateley · « **Reply #16 on:** February 14, 2007, 08:44:57 pm »

The option should be set if DSM-320 is chosen in the options. It may *not* be set if you are relying on autodetection - the file request comes differently than the container info, and may not have the correct header, I didn't check.

Let me know...

j

dcwebman · « **Reply #17 on:** February 15, 2007, 08:02:32 am »

Quote from: JimH on February 14, 2007, 08:11:44 pm

I believe you need to change the options. Check the box for "Shrink large images".

Where is this option? I can't find it. EDIT: I did find this option in the UPnP options. The checkbox options have always been disabled so I could hardly read them. As John said, when selecting the DSM-320 the option is checked automatically. BTW, I guess the only way to check any of the other options is to select Advanced?

John, I did specifically set DSM-320, not autodetection.

benn600 · « **Reply #18 on:** February 15, 2007, 08:20:53 am »

Now that's dedication:

Quote

For the big image problem: the Dlink server is actually resizing the picture on the fly. It's a cool idea, and I'll do it someday, but not right now.

Quote

I added image size reduction to the server. It's enabled by default for the DSM-320. When you get version 12.0.170 or greater, it should be there.
Give it a try and let me know how it works...

ADDITION: Now since it looks like that was a quick fix, think you could *possibly* add a similar feature to syncing devices with cover art? Perhaps a simple check box to resize cover art to 240x240:
[] Resize cover art to 240x240
CHECK!! That will save a ton of space on my device.

I was having this same issue but am glad to hear you fixed it. I wish D-Link and other media player companies would start making their products well instead of kind of making them. I don't know how the average person could buy a DSM 320 and be satisfied. Hardly anything plays and they tell you to reencode everything.

Anyway, I'm really hoping they add DVD menu support. What were you saying above about the dvd menu playing really fast? If menu's worked, then a DVD VIDEO_TS folder would work perfectly. I'd absolutely use that feature and probably buy a few more of these players. I'd essentially throw our DVD players in the basement or something and replace them all with these players.

John Gateley · « **Reply #19 on:** February 15, 2007, 10:08:20 am »

Hi Jeff - check your messages. -- j

John Gateley · « **Reply #20 on:** February 15, 2007, 03:33:50 pm »

AVI playback works in 12.0.171 or higher. Check your mp4's they may work now too. Let me know...

j

John Gateley · « **Reply #21 on:** February 15, 2007, 04:10:42 pm »

Note: for proper video playback on the DSM-320, you must turn off "Log File Requests" in the UPnP Server options box (it is turned off by default). The DSM-320 makes many requests per second for the video file (it reads a couple of K and then aborts the connection and makes a new request) and logging each of these requests will slow the server down enough to cause problems on the device.

j

John Gateley · « **Reply #22 on:** February 16, 2007, 03:35:21 pm »

Quote from: John Gateley on February 15, 2007, 03:33:50 pm

AVI playback works in 12.0.171 or higher. Check your mp4's they may work now too. Let me know...

Sorry, mp4's aren't going to work. DLink is doing something proprietary.

j

dcwebman · « **Reply #23 on:** February 17, 2007, 06:56:31 pm »

With the "new" way that MC imports a DVD that's been fully ripped (IFO, VOB), it only imports one IFO and then can play from there within MC. However, that will not work with the streaming. Is there a way to get that to work instead of having to import all VOB's and figure out which ones to play?

John Gateley · « **Reply #24 on:** February 18, 2007, 08:54:59 am »

I'll take a look on monday...

j

benn600 · « **Reply #25 on:** February 18, 2007, 12:58:16 pm »

To further this, it would be nice if MC could detect the DSM-320 and then, if possible, send the largest section of video. This would at least let us watch the full movie on the DSM-320. The problem is that it doesn't seem to support menus. So, if you start a movie, the best possible outcome is that you'll see the menu and won't be able to move any further.

John Gateley · « **Reply #26 on:** February 20, 2007, 09:23:18 am »

Quote from: dcwebman on February 17, 2007, 06:56:31 pm

With the "new" way that MC imports a DVD that's been fully ripped (IFO, VOB), it only imports one IFO and then can play from there within MC. However, that will not work with the streaming. Is there a way to get that to work instead of having to import all VOB's and figure out which ones to play?

We're working on this, but it will be a few days.

As a workaround, if you copy the VOB's to a different directory and import them (without the IFOs), they will all import and you can see them on the DLink. Uses up a lot of space, sorry...

j

benn600 · « **Reply #27 on:** February 20, 2007, 10:17:59 am »

That's great to hear you guys are working on it. I did try that workaround but just as a quick test. Besides, if I start one VOB, then it will require starting the next VOB and worse yet, there isn't really a way to find the VOBs for the movie I'm interested in watching.

John Gateley · « **Reply #28 on:** March 05, 2007, 02:19:54 pm »

Bad news - the workaround wasn't doable without a major overhaul of the code, and I don't want to do an overhaul for something that in the end is still just a hack and doesn't work very well. I'll keep the idea in mind of trying to interpret the IFO/menu stuff, and present a "real" dvd interface to the UPnP client, but this is fairly difficult to do.

j

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Author Topic: MC not working with D-Link DSM-320 (Read 9913 times)