Media Server Help

[inchga]

Anyone successful with their media server or hard drive connected to their tv? All I'm looking for is a way to play all my media on my tv without hickups or errors. I want my huge media closet filled with cd's and dvds reduced to small drive that I can just keep in my console under my tv although a media server on a network would be grand, it does seem to work at my house hardwired or wirelessly connected. I didn't realize it would be so difficult. I also tried using a wired connection from my router to my tv via Ethernet cable and any video I played stuttered and stammered.

 

[jsmithepa]

Maybe you are running 100 mbit ethernet and fighting with other traffic on the same cable?

 

[inchga]

No, There is really no other traffic and I have the same results whether hard wired or wireless, as well as what type of hard drive I use, i.e. my computer, two different external hard drives or flash drives. Leading me to believe that it's my "smart tv" and not all my other equipment. I was just wondering if anyone has bee 100% successful in what I'm trying to accomplish and how they managed it.

 

[budwich]

more than likely its the type of encoding that your files are using versus what types the player support. Of course, if you are using those provided by the TV, they are not going to be the best/greatest player that may be available via an htpc or standalone media player.

 

[inchga]

Hi,

I am using Servio on my windows pc for the media server and a FAT32 portable external connected to the TV via USB.

 

[budwich]

good piece of added info.... Likely probable cause might be the server software. Haven't used one as kodi is my choice for a media "service". I think people use plex.

you should also check what's happening on your pc in terms of memory usage / processor usage etc... for a given media file type to see if something is pushing some limit somewhere causing the "drop out".

 

[FiLiNuX]

Hello,

I am not sure if this is the type of answer/information you are looking for but I figured I would tell you what I use. Before I jump into that I would guess that the stuttering / stammering is due to one of two things, network speed (shouldn't matter if you have a modern wifi setup or a wired connection) or more likely your TV's CPU is unable to handle the transcoding of the media smoothly. I have a VERY large media collection with several TB of music & movies in various formats. For streaming, backup, and a "central repository" for all of it I built a small home media server. I use a HP Microserver (was 150 USD a couple years ago on sale) with several drives (1 TB drives 50 USD) running a free Linux OS (Debian). It is connected to my main PC via Gigabit ethernet BUT ALL of the streaming I do daily is done via a wireless N network to a old Western Digital media player &/or TV. I use SAMBA so all of the drives on the Microserver are usable by the windows machines, streaming devices, tablets, etc etc. I know a lot of people steer away from Linux as they fear it will be difficult to setup & administer but I assure you there are HUNDREDS of easy to follow guides for Media Servers that can walk you through the setup start to finish. Also if you are on a budget don't feel you need to use a prebuilt or new machine for your media server as almost any old PC (hard drive space is the only real requirement) will do the job. I have built several media servers for friends/family who have seen my setup using old stripped out PC's or Ras Pi's with external Drives hooked to them for free or little investment. Something you may want to try is experiment playing different file types on your existing setup. For example if you find that .avi video files play well but .mp4's dont you may want to use one of the many free video conversion programs to transcode or slightly lower quality on your media before streaming.
Hope this helps some and that you are up and watching your content soon!!

 

[inchga]

Thank you for your help. I guess this just isn't as simple as I'd hoped. I guess my media closet has to stay for now. I've tried streaming, direct connection and Ethernet, different file types and quality settings, flash drives, hard drives..... Directly connecting a hard drive via usb has delivered the best results without studdering, but stops playback about halfway through the movie. My tv is a sony Bravia and is about five years old, must be my tv. In anycase, I'm not about to start Handbreaking my entire dvd library to not have it work flawlessly with perfect quality image and playback. I'll try again the next time I purchase a new tv.