Twonky Forum

Hi,

I already sent a Mail to the support team but hopefully somebody in this forum can also help me.

I'm using Twonkey Server 6.0.34 on my QNAP TS112 NAS.

Renderer is a Sony Bravia TV (HX825, just 3 weeks old) and a Sony BDP 480S BluRay player.

With the current Twonkey Server 6.0.34 my .avi files won't show up as available content on my TV. My BluRay Player can see (and play) the files.

Also my TV is capable of playing these files w/o problems, I have tested that with Twonkey Server Version 4.x,

In version 4.x I can see and play these .avi files on my TV.

I assume that Twonkey Server version 6.0.34 does some filtering for my TV and therefore AVI's are not showing up, although the TV can play these files.

So I'm wondering:

-is that fixed in version 6.0.36 ?

-or can I modify the config on my current 6.0.34 installation so AVI's will be shown?

Any help is highly appreciated.

Many thanks
Rolf

Thanks for sharing this. I'm passing this on to our engineers. Do you have any AVIs that aren't really large that you could sent to us that exhibit this problem?

- Rick

Hi Rick,

thanks for your answer.

I have to check but I think so.

To which address I shall send a sample file.

Thanks
Rolf

The address I give you depends on the size of the file. Let me know and I'll tell you. Thanks.

- Rick

Hello!
I have the same problem. TV Sony Bravia KDL-NX720 + QNap TS439 Pro II. Twonky Server 6.0.34
Avi not available. If I use on my NAS Sony PS3 Media Server,all work...

Alexander.

Rick,

file size is approx. 21 MB, pls. let me know where to upload or to send the file.

Thanks
Rolf

Some more info i can share on this topic:
I am using a Sony Bravia KDL32EX525 which is able to play xvid encoded avi files, Twonky4 didn't bother checking which device you were using, so it displayed all video files, Twonky5 used to take the Media Receivers setting into consideration, since there's only a regular Sony Bravia setting, this setting will omit all avi files for your Bravia TV, which can be easily solved by setting it to Win7 for example, Twonky6 saldy doesn't appear to work this way anymore, it seems the Server reads the Specifications from some kind of external source and doesn't care for the Media Receivers Profiles anymore, thus there was no way for me to enable the display of those xvid avi files for my Bravia anymore even though it is able to play them,
soo another question arises: What use is the Profile setting for Media Receivers, if it's ignored?

I'm convinced that this issue is related to the MIME Type for the AVI Files that Twonky reports to the TV.

In the standard 'clients.db' profile file for Sony Bravia TV there is no extra setting for AVI files. I already tried different settings (like MT:avi, dvi video/avi and many others) but that doesn't help. Seems that Sony needs a special MIME Type string in order to show the AVi's as playable content.

What worries is me is the fact that you can read in the "Recommended Devices List" thread by Twonky that Sony Bravia TV does not support DivX and AVI.

Quote "..What Could Be Improved - Limited media format support: AVCHD, HDV, MPEG2-PS, MP3 and JPG only. No support for DivX, AVI,..".

This is defintely not true for the 2011 Bravia's and I think that is the reason why Twonkey does not show AVI's on Sony Bravia 2011 TV's.

Hopelfully I get the link from Rick soon to upload my sample AVI and that Twonky will fix that problem.

Rick,

can you pls. let me know where to send/to upload the sample .avi File.

Thanks
Rolf

I did some further investigation, so I installed Ver. 6.0.36 on a Windows7 PC.

Seems that Ver. 6.0.36 does share the .avi files now to the Bravia TV. Files are reported as MPEG and the Bravia can play the files.

There is also a new "FR:" statement/setting for AVI files for the Sony Bravia TV in the "clients.db" of 6.036.

There seems to be a little bug or a setting missing cause the lenght of the videos is not mentioned on the Bravia, so duration of the videos is 0h 00m.

This is different to the built-in Mediaserver on my Synology DS110j NAS running latest Firmware 3.2. This server reports the .avi's as AVI to my Bravia and also the correct duration time for the videos.

However, glad to see that 6.0.36 can serve now the AVI's to my 2011 Bravia TV.

Would be great to get the Linux (QPGK) Package for my Qnap TS112 soon.

Maybe there's also still a way to fix the issue in the current 6.0.34 version so that we do not have to wait for 6.0.36.

Rolf,

First off, I'm glad that your Bravia is now seeing your AVI files.

I just sent another request to have the NAS builds of 6.0.37 posted here. We can't go back and fix this in 6.0.34.

I'll also send them your feedback about duration.

I assume you don't need the FTP log-in info any more, but if you do, please let me know.

- Rick

Update:

If you can upload an AVI file, we can do a packet dump and may possibly be able to fix this.

You can access our blind FTP server here: ftp://sftp.pv.com/upload

You should see a folder appear under Internet Explorer labeled sftp.pv. If you expand it, you should see another folder labeled “upload”.

Copy your problem file into this folder and send a message to tmm-beta@pv.com letting us know what the file is named, along with a reminder about this problem.

- Rick

Hello,
i've the same problem with Bravia TV KDL-40NX710: i can't see avi, mp3 e jpg files in my Nas Wd Mybook World Edition II (all directories was empty).

I've upgraded the twony server in my NAS to 6.0.34 version, but now i see only a mpeg2 video file in video directory (photo and music always empty).

It is possible try twonky server 6.0.37 for Nas? I've used the mss2 version for my upgrade (the others doesn't works in Wd My book).

ps: with my appletv, xbox 360 and samsung db player i have no problem, i can see and play all files from WD Nas.

Thank You

No ideas?

I don't have a solution to this. We're constantly updating our device database. Hopefully we'll come up with a solution for this in a future update. Until then, you might want to use one of the players you mention above which are working.

- Rick

Thank you Rick. It's possible to know an ETA for a new build for NAS?

Just got the 6.0.37 NAS builds today.

You can access them here: http://www.twonkyforum.com/downloads/6.0.37/

- Rick

Great!!!! Thank you!!! I try it tonight

Rick, now i see the list of all file! Fantastic!! But there is a serious problem for videos: i see the list of avi files too, but i can't play. When i try to playback a avi file (or other that isn't mpeg2) the screen remain black.
There is something to configure?
Thank you

Glad we're making some progress.

I'm afraid the issue you mention with AVI files is a result of the media player in your Sony TV and not TwonkyServer. If you are able to play these same AVI files with an older version of TwonkyServer, it's our problem. Otherwise there may not be much we can do about this.

- Rick

Thanks Rick for the wonderful work you are doing, but there's one thing I don't understand: why the same avi file is playable from USB and instead the screen rimains black when I play it from the NAS on home network? If it was a codec issue the file would not be playable by USB and by Nas. Or i wrong?

I have the same problem with some m2ts-Files.

With twonkyserver 4.4.18 all files are playing well.
With twonkyserver 6.0.32 and 6.0.34 the files are *not* shown in the file list.
With twonkyserver 6.0.37 now all files are shown in the file list, but they are not playing. The screen remains black and I hear some unidentifiable audio-clipping snippets until I stop playing.

I see, there is a progess, so I hope that in one of the next releases Sony Bravia and Twonky 6 will work together perfectly.

gpdl67 wrote:Thanks Rick for the wonderful work you are doing, but there's one thing I don't understand: why the same avi file is playable from USB and instead the screen rimains black when I play it from the NAS on home network? If it was a codec issue the file would not be playable by USB and by Nas. Or i wrong?

Many TVs use different software to play files via USB than they use to play network streamed files via UPnP. In some cases, not all formats all supported for network streaming. I don't know why they don't ensure they are the same. It creates a lot of frustration.

In most cases users are better off getting a cheap external media player like a WD TV Live which can be bought on Ebay for ~$50.

- Rick

buribu wrote:I have the same problem with some m2ts-Files.

With twonkyserver 4.4.18 all files are playing well.
With twonkyserver 6.0.32 and 6.0.34 the files are *not* shown in the file list.
With twonkyserver 6.0.37 now all files are shown in the file list, but they are not playing. The screen remains black and I hear some unidentifiable audio-clipping snippets until I stop playing.

I see, there is a progess, so I hope that in one of the next releases Sony Bravia and Twonky 6 will work together perfectly.

If you can upload upload one of the files that works on TS 4.4, but doesn't work on TS 6.0 to our blind FTP server, I will be happy to open a bug report on this for you.

Here are instructions for Windows XP, even if your using another OS, this should give you the info you need to do this.

1. On a Windows PC. Open Windows Explorer. You can find it under the Start menu under All Programs/Accessories/Windows Explorer.

2. Paste the following into the Address bar on Windows Explorer: ftp://sftp.pv.com/upload

3. You should see a folder appear under Internet Explorer labeled sftp.pv.

4. If you expand it, you should see another folder labeled “upload”. Copy your problem file into this folder and send a message to tmm-beta@pv.com letting me know what the file is named, along with details about the problems you’re experiencing.

- Rick

Hello Rick,

while creating a short test-video (because my originals are about 280 MB per file) XMedia Recode created a .ts-file instead of a .m2ts-file. And surprisingly, this video is running with twonky 6.0.37 without problems . After renaming this created file back to .m2ts there's again the black screen and audio-garbage. curious. Just the fileextention of the file decides on working or not.

So, the workaround for me is to rename the m2ts-files to *.ts

I will upload my 20 MB m2ts-testfile.

Hi Rick,
From what I understand Twonky server 6.0.37 try to deceive the Sony Bravia by showing .avi files as .mpeg2. In fact, now that i see all the video files in the directory VIDEO, the Bravia recognize them as MPG2, but they are divx. Every time I try to play a video, the Bravia always detects Dolby Digital audio (but most are not). Perhaps there is still something to do for trick even more the Sony Bravia. Now, I will try to do the same thing he did Buribu, change the file extension, maybe I'll be as lucky as him.

About the Wd Live TV, I do not need to buy a media player because, as I said before, the NAS works perfectly with the DB player, Xbox and Apple Tv.

I wish that NAS would work with the Sony Bravia for two reasons: because I would not use another device for play video and music, and becouse i'm a "stubborn" and I want that all my devices works well.

Sorry for my bad english (i'm italian).

Thank you Rick for your patience.

Gpd

gpdl67 wrote:Hi Rick,
From what I understand Twonky server 6.0.37 try to deceive the Sony Bravia by showing .avi files as .mpeg2. In fact, now that i see all the video files in the directory VIDEO, the Bravia recognize them as MPG2, but they are divx. Every time I try to play a video, the Bravia always detects Dolby Digital audio (but most are not). Perhaps there is still something to do for trick even more the Sony Bravia. Now, I will try to do the same thing he did Buribu, change the file extension, maybe I'll be as lucky as him.

About the Wd Live TV, I do not need to buy a media player because, as I said before, the NAS works perfectly with the DB player, Xbox and Apple Tv.

I wish that NAS would work with the Sony Bravia for two reasons: because I would not use another device for play video and music, and becouse i'm a "stubborn" and I want that all my devices works well
Gpd

Understood. Your English is great by the way. The reason some of your devices work and others don't has to do with the formats, containers and codecs they support. The premium version of TwonkyServer 7.0 will include transcoding which should help things with your Bravia TV.

- Rick

buribu wrote:Hello Rick,

while creating a short test-video (because my originals are about 280 MB per file) XMedia Recode created a .ts-file instead of a .m2ts-file. And surprisingly, this video is running with twonky 6.0.37 without problems . After renaming this created file back to .m2ts there's again the black screen and audio-garbage. curious. Just the fileextention of the file decides on working or not.

So, the workaround for me is to rename the m2ts-files to *.ts

I will upload my 20 MB m2ts-testfile.

Thanks for sharing the workaround to this problem. This type of workaround (changing the file extension) works on many problem files. I still have created a bug report because I'd like to see this fixed. To check on the status of this issue in the future, ask me about MM-5265. That will make it easy for me to look this up.

- Rick

Thank you Rick,
so i'll wait forward Twonky 7.0 premium version. By the way, you know the ETA of this version?
Ps: change extension doesn't work...

Don't have an exact launch date for TS 7.0 yet. Hopefully it will be released by the end of the year.

- Rick

Update:

The change did not make it into TwonkyServer 7.0.1. It will be part of the first maintenance release (7.0.2) of Twonky 7.

- Rick

Soo .. now i just tried out the new Twonky 6.0.38 and while it's true the media server shows *.avi files (xvid) which the Bravias(KDL-32EX525/KDL-40EX708) can handle, the media serv 'masks' them as MPEG-2, result: black screen > no playback
while MPEG-4 Video files now are shown in the list and work (didn't work in twonky5) my major concern the xvid files don't work (they used to work fine in twonky4 and twonky5 if the bravias are set to windows as media receiver)

as i certainly don't really understand exactly how twonky handles which devices support which filetypes .. and as i kind of doubt this will ever get fixed (it worked best in twonky4),
are there any config files that determine which filetypes for which device? any database? anything i personally could edit as a workaround?

any info on how this whole stuff works in newer twonky versions? is the supported format information read by somewhere from the device itself or just some db that twonky handles on it's own?

i honestly fail to see how this can be such an unsolvable issue and would appreciate any information given, as i like the stability of twonky6 .. (and paid for it of course, thinking previous working features would still be present in newer versions), i will eventually switch back to twonky4

as general info for my device setup again:
using an old LinkStation Live 500gb (with 1.5TB hdd now), the NAS build of twonky 6.038 and as devices i got connected:
PS3/Xbox360/Bravia KDL-32EX525/Bravia KDL-40EX708/several Windows/Linux PC's

i really would like to see this issue fixed and am willing to put all required help to it as well (studied information science and thus have a pretty solid understanding of the topic in general)

* oh and .. transcoding is no real solution for this issue, since the media server simply denies to acknowledge the display/playback of a device supported media file
Thank you for your efforts

Client device adaptions are defined in the clients.db file. The file is fairly well documented with what the various options do.

Also check that your TV is being correctly identified by Twonky. Many device manufactuers change the identification strings that Twonky uses to determine a specific device and its capabilities. If Twonky cannot identify your media player device it will default to a generic profile that may not work for your device.

Soo after reading through the doc, some boards and playing around with the clients.db file a bit here's the conclusion:

sadly i misunderstood the usage of the file a bit, it by no means really tells the server which files a device supports, instead you're able to make 'workarounds' for faulty informations like adjusting a certain mime-type for given extensions, tryin to force the streaming for a mime-type to a specific DLNA profile, yet you cannot enforce the server to acknowledge that a certain device can handle a certain filetype

so the root problem stays:
twonky somewhere simply decides that this device is unable to playback a supported format

wether this is really a fault within twonky merely is decided by the simple question: is the list of supported filetypes read from the device directly or not?
if it is, a way to fix this would of course be adding a config file to enforce the streaming of certain filetypes to a device
if this information is not read from the device, the error definetly lies within twonky

seeing as previous versions support the streaming/playback fine (twonky 4 handles it flawless, twonky5 already needs a bit of tweaking) merely twonky6 completely denies the service

as said previously: transcoding is definetly not the way to go to fix this tiny issue, transcoding should only be used to allow the playback of unsupported formats

back to twonky4 for now .. :/

hey Rodxxx, i have a bravia tv too, and twonky on a wd mybook world edition II. i find your post interresting. will coment on it. however, once i save the change in profile, should i reboot the server? i'll trial and error...and post back

sooo....profiles don't do much things...in fact, you call them well a useless feature...

Hi. I also have a Sony product, and Twonky Media does not send in a play. Avi files on sony. I found a solution until a final version will be released and compatible for Sony TV. Rename the files. .Avi to .Mpg.
As if by magic in the folder will be seen properly and whether they have played with mp3 audio 2 channel or 5.1 Dolby Digital.
To me it worked perfectly.
Luke

Thanks for sharing this workaround with the forum Luke.

Hopefully this will benefit others.

- Rick

Thanks for all of the information around this issue. Is there another workaround like changing the device to Generic rather than SOny BRavia?

I have the same issue.

Reverting back to 5.1.6 for now but support for Bravia in that build comes up with a heap of un-playable videos.

Help.

Renaming 1000's videos not really an option

hi willo, after a discussion with rick (THE Twonky man), i changed my view. rick called a 2010 3d tv old...and he was not all wrong, since there is a world of difference between sony 2011 and pre 2011 tv...same for bd and other as well. i bought a new bd...sony, for the hardware optimisation. in 2012, sony still DOES NOT SUPPORT mkv format via dlna. reason? i think because they plan to release a badass network media player. some mkv do play, only those encoded in MPEG4-AAC. a! with the same 5.1.9 version of the server on my NAS. twonky serves the full media to the bd, that correctly identifies container and codec(divX, xVid, w.h.a.t.e.v.e.r)...sony provides a lame explanation for a software imposed limitation. relax, as i did, and go for a network media player. western digital if i may advice, i have it and one can stream to it virtually any and every thing....sorry for the long post

willo wrote:Thanks for all of the information around this issue. Is there another workaround like changing the device to Generic rather than SOny BRavia?

I have the same issue.

Reverting back to 5.1.6 for now but support for Bravia in that build comes up with a heap of un-playable videos.

Help.

Renaming 1000's videos not really an option

Can you let me know exactly what type of video files used to play with 5.1.6 which do not play now (codec, file extension, etc.)? Are they hidden, or just don't play? Can you supply us with a short test video?

- Rick