Samsung forum: DLNA on Samsung Blu-ray BD-C5500 and BD-C6500

This is a duplicate from another thread. Thought I might get better answers here.
I just purchased a BD-C6500 and have it hardwired to my network. The manual said PC Share Manager would allow me to access shared media files on my computers, but when I used the interactive chat support to find out how to get a copy, I was told it will not work with Windows 7. How can that be?
I've tried enabling sharing on Windows Media Player and the 6500 can see my computers but is unable to find any media files.
Suggestions?

I bought the Samsung BD-C6500 and installed PC Share manager and have had a lot of frustration. Tried watching an avi movie from my shared folder and had some issues with it disconnecting. FF/RW do not work. So I thought I'd buy the LG-BD570 and and see how they stack up side by side before returning one. Tonight we tried to watch another avi movie from my computer hard drive on the Samsung (PC share manager). Lost connection 3X while watching it. Than because FF did not respond we had to wait until it got back to where we were when it disconnected. I found that if you hit the forward arrow key (not FF) it would jump about 10 secs ahead, but it still took way too much time. It also did not connect to my shared folder like a simple network shared folder(even though your computer shows up under "choose device". The LG comes up just like a shared network and shows your shared folders. It did seem to take a few secs longer to access stuff, but was sure more reliable, and FF etc all worked. The media sharing from my computer was a big reason for me to purchase it. I have 2 Samsung LCD's and love them and thought this unit would be just as good but was very disappointed. Keeping the LG and returning Samsung tomorrow. Other thing I've noticed is that neither of them play flac files (will have to convert my collection to mp3),and sure would be nice to have a USB port on the back so you could leave external drive connected without a cable sticking out the front.

Tried PC Share, kept disconnecting, set up Mezzmo, movie played fine until 15 min from the end and disconnected.... sheesh. My question is could it be that the laptop serving the videos is connected wireless? The C5500 is connected to the wireless router by ethernet cable. And you noted ff and rew, so you must use left and right buttons... thanks.

I am interested to get network sharing with my PC windows 7 64 ultimate. But I would like to know also is it possible to get access ,from dvd menu, a sharing folder on PC and run files (video, picture, audio) without running some server program?
Thanks

Hi. I can have a photo slide show from my pictures folder on all my pc's, access my video folders and watch mp4, avi, and some other formats, and music folder from dvd menu just by opening windows media player and look for sharing options, select share with other devices, make sure sharing is turned on in networks. restart and that should do it. I don't have any special server program at all, just windows 7 x64 ultimate. Hope it works.

I updated the firmware last night ( March 16th ).

The AccuWeather app now works.

pause works for video, fast forward and rewind work but you do not see the video move as you ff/rw. But I now have enough functionality to watch a movie, being able to pause is always good

I had an mp4 file I was testing with that worked before the upgrade albeit without pause,ff/rw. Audio does not work with DLNA or with USB mem plugged directly in. Here is the codecs I used:

Video: h264, yuv420p, 704x384, 90k tbr, 90k tbn, 180k tbc
Audio: aac, 48000 Hz, stereo, s16

Looks like they broke aac audio with the firmware upgrade.

Vob files have always played but I get the directors comment audio track and this was not fixed with the firmware upgrade.

Keep the fixed coming Samsung.

I am going to also give Serviio a whirl as a DNLA server.

Thanks jw650, I will give Serviio a try next.

With my current setup, I am able to pause, ff/rw mp4.

I created an mkv using video codec mpeg4 and audo mp3, it would not play.... until I gave the file a .mp4 extension, now it plays. I can pause this file but no ff/rw. I hope I get better success with Serviio.

My Samsung BD-5500 has the latest firmware upgrade and is using a wired ethernet connection.

I have had problems getting files to play over the network. No problem with .mpg or .vob files but .mkv and .mp4 files won't play and cause the Samsung to display ' Invalid File Type ' or whatever.

The same .mkv files and I .mp4 (I think) will play fine using a USB stick in the front USB port of the Samsung. As a test I put one file that would not play on the network on a DVD and it played on the Blu-Ray drive.

I have used Twonky Media Server, TVersity Media Server and even the Samung PC Share software. All give the same results in so far as playng .mkv and .mp4 files.

Anybody else having these problems.

Are you using the 64-bit version of Win 7? Which version of PC Share Manager did you get to work? Thanks.

Sorry, a typo on my last post.

I am using Windows 7 32 bit version, Home Premium.

I have a Windows 7 64 bit version, Home Premium that I will try PC Share Manager on when time permits.

I can't get Windows Media Player to actually see my BD-C5500.

What I have been saying is the opposite, my BD-C5500 can see my shares on my Windows 7 box when media streaming is set up in Network and Sharing Center as I previously detailed.

Under Media Player 11, 'Play' tab, there is an Icon in the upper right and a 'Play To' drop down, however I cannot a device of any kind to display. Doesn't seem to matter.

On my BD-C5500 remote there is a red ' A ' button that I push to ' Change Device '. That allows me to then select ' DVD, USB (if present}, and any shares that are on the network (Twonky, TVersity, PC Share Manager and shares on my Windows 7 box).

If you don't have any luck with PC Share Manager try TVersity (free version) on your Windows 7 box. It seems to work OK as well and is pretty easy to setup. Link http://tversity.com/download Be aware not all features are available in the free version but what you want (network shares) is.

I wish I could delete my previous post, Serviio is awesome. I was not giving it enough time to build it's database. MP3s are working out of the box. The logs on this thing are verbose so you really can track what is going during troubleshooting.

One problem I do have, it uses ffmpeg to identify the true file type and serves it up using that information. Since I need to lie to samsung dlna and put the mp4 extension on my mkv files to get them to play, this does not work for me. I will post back with a workaround if I find it.

I also like mediatombs browser which allows you to browse not only the files on the filesystem but also those in the database. You can use the browser to edit the properties presented by the server database and "spoof" any mime type you like. Great for testing.

I will stick with mediatomb for now but I will be looking to switch to Serviio.

Mystery is solved for the most part.

I downloaded Servioo Media Server and now the files that would not play over the network using Twonky, TVersity, PC Share Manager or Windows Share play using Servioo. Go figure.

I still have a couple that I can now see but fail to play with the ' Wrong File Format ' error or whatever.

Progress.

Losing track of what I have tried. MKV files don't seem to play over the network with anything but will play on a DVD or USB stick at my BD-C5500.

MP4 files will play over the network using Serviio but (in my case) not with Twonky, TVersity, PC Share Manager or Window 7 Streaming. This indicates obviously that Serviio is handling things differently but who know what that is.

I am using 'Handbrake' to encode the video. It has a nice 'preview' feature which lets you test a particular video, audio encode to see if it works.

Run Handbrake and select your ' Source ' to encode.

Select ' Normal Profile '.
This sets the following and does appear to make a MP4 Video (with M4V extension) that plays over the network. Have had no luck with MKV files using Handbrake.

Picture is 'Strict'
Video Filters 'All Off'
Video ' H264' and Frame Rate ' Same as source'
Audio Source 'Automatic' Codec ' AAC(faac)', Mixdown ' Dolby PLII', Samplerate '48', Bitrate '160' and DRC '0.0'
Subtitles, Chapters and Advanced were left as is for my tests.

Click on ' Preview ' at top of Handbrake and select a number to start your Preview at and Duration for ' 60 Seconds '.
I choose to Play with 'VLC' (you may have to install VLC Media Player on your Windows box). There is an option to play with 'QT' but my Quick Time is jerky for some reason.

Handbrake will generate a 60 seconds video using your codec settings and this can be used to test Serviio for playback without wasting a lot of time.

Chateau,

Thanks for the pointers. I'm able to access both Windows Media Player and PC Share Manager now from the 6500. Or at least for a bit. When I play video or music files (WMV and MP3 formats), the network drops after a few minutes. I'm using a wired connection, not the wireless. Also my picture folders show up, but both say there's no content.

Any ideas on the dropping connection? When it drops, the only device that shows is the player. Then both PC Share and Win Media Player are available again. Streaming over the internet (Netflix, Pandora) works just fine.