TwonkyServer MKV & Samsung Issue

zbug · Post by **zbug** » Mon Jul 05, 2010 9:14 am

Hi Support,

I just bought TwonkyServer in order to stream from my MacOSX computer to my TV / PS3.

Everything is working perfectly except MKV.

i have like 10 mkv's, i tried them 1 by 1 when connected directly to my TV with a USB drive, works perfectly, but via TwonkyServer, it will say "loading" then after a few seconds, kicks out and start to play another movie (generally the next one in the list)

Any Advises on configuration or possible tests ?

I selected "Samsung TV" profile in the configuration interface, although i tried to look after a contents.db or something like that from what i have read in the forum, but couldnt locate it. in case i would need to change something there, may someone tell me the location of that file and name on OSX ?

Thanks!

Cheers

BuG

PeeBee · Post by **PeeBee** » Mon Jul 05, 2010 7:56 pm

The file is clients.db and it is in the resources folder underneath the main twonky installation folder, wherever that may be on a Mac.

Have you tried the latest 6.0.1 RC3 file? One of the things it fixes is mkv support - I have a problem with mkvs not being seen on my setup but someone with a similar setup says it is fixed in 6.0.1.

PB

zbug · Post by **zbug** » Mon Jul 05, 2010 10:28 pm

Hi,

Thanks a lot for the advise, but unfortunately no luck...when i select the MKV, it will load for a few seconds...then just jump to the next avi/divx movie in the list..

clients.db :

>>
NA:Samsung TV
DD:Samsung DTV
XM:DLNA15
XM:FORCE_DURATION
XM:FORCE_4TH_FIELD
TR:JPEG1920x1080
DB:FIX
MT:mkv video/x-mkv
MT:mpeg,mpeg2,vdr,spts,tp,ts video/mpeg
HP:chunked
MT:m4a audio/mp4

which i guess is fine.. any other idea ?

Thanks

regards

BuG

DaemonBeetle · Post by **DaemonBeetle** » Tue Jul 06, 2010 12:07 pm

Given that there's a huge range of DLNA capable Samsung TVs it might help if you provided the model of the TV and what firmware you are running.

zbug · Post by **zbug** » Tue Jul 06, 2010 12:36 pm

Hi,

sorry i forgot to update my post!

TV model : PS50C550
Firmware : T-TDT5DEUC-1016.1 (latest one available from the website)

drogoul · Post by **drogoul** » Wed Jul 07, 2010 2:32 pm

I have the same problem.

I have a LE40C630 screen on 1009.1 firmware (latest). I run the latest Twonky build (6.0.1 RC3) on a DNS-323. Everything works like charm, except for .mkv containers. I tried various 1080p H.264 files (small ones, big ones) over DLNA, and they all fail. Running them over USB is no problem.

Is there anything else that we can try?

hemerson · Post by **hemerson** » Tue Aug 24, 2010 5:20 pm

I have the same problem with I use the etray-z with my samsung!!!

swissGerman · Post by **swissGerman** » Fri Aug 27, 2010 8:38 am

Same problem but not directly related to MKV. It also affects DIVX videos (even short ones) and any HD file (AVI or in MKV container). As its not only an MKV problem I have allowed myself to open up a new post for the problem.

theforumer · Post by **theforumer** » Tue Aug 31, 2010 11:28 am

Same issue with .mkv files on:

Samsung LED TV UE40C6500 (latest fw T-VALDEUC-1016.0)
TwonkyMedia Server 6.0.1 on NAS Western Digital My Book World white light (latest fw 01.02.04 with installed custom TMS 6.0.1)

files are listed but when TV starts playing it immediately skips to the next file.

All .mkv files play on a USB stick. I think is a problem with samsung tv ad MKV container when streaming because all the files when converted to .m2ts container (with tsMuxR which changes the container without reencoding audio or video) al files streams perfectly!

http://www.smlabs.net/tsmuxer_en.html

Note: actually if .mkv contains subtitles in .srt text format tsMuxR convert them in M2TS Presentation graphic stream (which is a graphic not text format). So think before deleting your original .mkv files or at least demux the .srt files with mkvtoolnix. In any case I could find no way to stream subtitles too.

swissGerman · Post by **swissGerman** » Tue Aug 31, 2010 2:15 pm

Thanks!
Have posted my thanks here as well:
http://www.twonkyforum.com/viewtopic.ph ... 341#p31341

Twonky_Rick · Post by **Twonky_Rick** » Wed Sep 01, 2010 12:51 am

Alright. I'm willing to open a support ticket on this issue IF some of you will upload a few test files to our FTP server. Please keep them as short as possible and nothing that our testers would find offensive. ; )

Upload instructions for novices. If you're an expert, all you need is ftp://sftp.pv.com/upload.

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 â€œuploadâ€.

IMPORTANT: Nothing will happen if you don't send me an e-mail after you upload these files with their name. Send the filename(s) to tmm-beta@pv.com. Once you upload a few files, let others know, so they don't upload as well.

- Rick

Twonky_Rick · Post by **Twonky_Rick** » Wed Sep 01, 2010 5:05 pm

O.K. we now have the test files that we need to investigate this problem.

- Rick

PeeBee · Post by **PeeBee** » Wed Sep 01, 2010 6:56 pm

I've posted this in the other thread as well:

TMM_Product_Manager wrote:I wonder why some Samsung users can play MKV files without problem using TwonkyServer 6.0 (and maybe 5.1 as well) and others can't. If you go back and reread this long thread, you'll see what I mean. Maybe it's related to their resolution as you suggest.

It's not so much the resolution but the encoding parameters used. When I convert other files to MKVs using MediaCoder there are several settings to change; Profile, Level and B-Frames (sometimes called Re-Frames). To get good MKVs that play on my Samsung B650 TV I use High, 4.1 and 3 for the above values and the files play fine. From what I've read on other forums the Samsung TVs don't like the Level set to 5.1 or above or re-frames of 6 or more.

Here's the info given by MediaCoder for one of my files:

Code: Select all

Video
ID                               : 1
Format                           : AVC
Format/Info                      : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile                   : High@L4.1
Format settings, CABAC           : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames        : 3 frames
Muxing mode                      : Container profile=Unknown@4.1
Codec ID                         : V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC
Duration                         : 59mn 27s
Bit rate                         : 1 255 Kbps
Width                            : 720 pixels
Height                           : 576 pixels
Display aspect ratio             : 16:9
Frame rate mode                  : Variable
Frame rate                       : 25.000 fps
Standard                         : PAL
Resolution                       : 8 bits
Colorimetry                      : 4:2:0
Scan type                        : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame)               : 0.121
Stream size                      : 534 MiB (81%)
Writing library                  : x264 core 85 r1442 781d300
Encoding settings                : cabac=1 / ref=3 / deblock=1:0:0 / analyse=0x3:0x113 / me=hex / subme=7 / psy=1 / psy_rd=1.00:0.00 / mixed_ref=1 / me_range=16 / chroma_me=1 / trellis=1 / 8x8dct=1 / cqm=0 / deadzone=21,11 / fast_pskip=1 / chroma_qp_offset=-2 / threads=12 / sliced_threads=0 / nr=0 / decimate=1 / mbaff=0 / constrained_intra=0 / bframes=3 / b_pyramid=0 / b_adapt=1 / b_bias=0 / direct=1 / wpredb=1 / wpredp=2 / keyint=250 / keyint_min=25 / scenecut=40 / intra_refresh=0 / rc_lookahead=40 / rc=crf / mbtree=1 / crf=20.0 / qcomp=0.60 / qpmin=10 / qpmax=51 / qpstep=4 / ip_ratio=1.40 / aq=1:1.00

Audio
ID                               : 2
Format                           : AC-3
Format/Info                      : Audio Coding 3
Codec ID                         : A_AC3
Duration                         : 59mn 27s
Bit rate mode                    : Constant
Bit rate                         : 256 Kbps
Channel(s)                       : 2 channels
Channel positions                : Front: L R
Sampling rate                    : 48.0 KHz
Stream size                      : 109 MiB (17%)

Hope that helps when you investigate the uploaded files.

PB

theforumer · Post by **theforumer** » Wed Sep 01, 2010 9:43 pm

I have another hint for your investigations gentlemen.

I just installed on my NAS an open source UPnP media server (which i shall not mention here for respect of you because I really like twonky much more) which is able to stream by DLNA all my .mkv files that twonky 6.0.1 can't (actually I could not yet find any "true" .mkv file that twonky can stream on my Samsung TV). So the .mkv problem with Samsung TVs is not difinetly a problem of Samsung or a matter of video encoding.

With this other media server is done by customizing a configuration file in this way:

1) map .mkv extension to video/x-mkv in HTTP responses (and also twonky does)

2) adding these custom HTTP headers to HTTP responses

contentFeatures.dlna.org: DLNA.ORG_OP=01;DLNA.ORG_CI=0;DLNA.ORG_FLAGS=01700000000000000000000000000000
transferMode.dlna.org: Streaming

i noticed instead inspecting twonky logs that when serving .mkv files twonky uses only these HTTP headers

contentFeatures.dlna.org: *
transferMode.dlna.org: Streaming

and more on twonky logs for all video format I can successfully stream on my TV (Samsung LED UE40C6500) I can always find at some point an HTTP header contentFeatures.dlna.org ending with the string DLNA.ORG_OP=01;DLNA.ORG_CI=0;DLNA.ORG_FLAGS=01700000000000000000000000000000

I don't know if it is the only thing that changes between the two products because I did not have time to inspect the whole HTTP traffic between TV and media server but it could be an alternate point of investigation because I encoded several test .mkv video with different video encodings (mjpeg, mpeg2, mpeg4, xvid) both SD and HD (1920x1080) and all of them stream perfectly with the other media server and none of them with twonky.

regards.

Twonky_Rick · Post by **Twonky_Rick** » Thu Sep 02, 2010 10:09 pm

Thanks. I'm forwarding your comments to our developers in Germany.

- Rick

Twonky_Rick · Post by **Twonky_Rick** » Tue Sep 07, 2010 9:18 pm

Your comments gave Christian Gran an idea how we might be able to improve things so MKVs play.

We've created a ticket that is currently assigned to our TwonkyServer 6.0.2 FINAL and TwonkyManager 2.0.3 final releases. In other words, you won't find this fix in any of the Beta currently posted here. To check status on this in the future, please ask about DLNA-2495.

Again, thanks for your suggestion.

- Rick

bllaxx · Post by **bllaxx** » Fri Sep 10, 2010 2:04 pm

Any chance of a beta with this feature included before 6.02 is final?
Or any hints on when 6.02 will hopefully be released? I am also struggling with the same problem and hoping for a solution.

Twonky_Rick · Post by **Twonky_Rick** » Sat Sep 11, 2010 7:24 pm

I'm not certain when the server team plans to post a Beta here, but I would expect it will be soon. We're supposed to go final on Sept 16.

- Rick

bllaxx · Post by **bllaxx** » Thu Sep 16, 2010 2:05 pm

Desperately waiting for the day to pass by and hope to find a V6.0.2 in the downloads section... I have not seen a beta, unfortunately.

swissGerman · Post by **swissGerman** » Thu Sep 16, 2010 2:28 pm

Why the hurry? Hardly any user seemd to care about this Samsung / MKV issue, had to write a lot here to make it known. I personally can live a while with the described m2ts work-around and trust the Twonky guys will come up with a solution onm time.
Once the solution is available however I have to teach myself, how to bring it on my QNAP NAS....

Twonky_Rick · Post by **Twonky_Rick** » Sat Sep 18, 2010 11:58 pm

Here is the link to an almost final release candidate for TwonkyServer 6.0.2.

http://www.twonkyforum.com/viewtopic.ph ... 541#p31611

Still waiting to get the download links for the Linux builds.

- Rick

PeeBee · Post by **PeeBee** » Sun Sep 19, 2010 11:53 am

This new RC still plays my MKV files - see post here: http://www.twonkyforum.com/viewtopic.ph ... 620#p31620

PB

athfrith · Post by **athfrith** » Mon Sep 20, 2010 8:49 pm

I also have this problem with a newly bought Samsung TV (PN58C540). Not sure of the firmware or how to check - anyone?

Anyways, everything works fine except all the MKV files I have simply won't play. It tries for several seconds then skips to the next movie/show.

I tried the latest beta - 6.0.2-beta3 with no luck as well as reverting to 6.0 Still no luck.

Any info would be appreciated.

Thank you!

parnott · Post by **parnott** » Mon Sep 20, 2010 10:05 pm

Are you running into the header compression issue that was created by MKVMerge version 4.1 and higher? Samsung TVs are specifically mentioned as having problems. See here:

http://www.bunkus.org/videotools/mkvtoolnix/faq.html

Twonky_Rick · Post by **Twonky_Rick** » Tue Sep 21, 2010 1:21 am

I'll forward this info to our engineers. It would be useful if someone who can send a short test file that will not play for us to test with. This is important since there are many different types of MKV files. Please send the test file to me at tmm-beta@pv.com.

- Rick

parnott · Post by **parnott** » Tue Sep 21, 2010 2:28 am

Sorry but I can't help you with an example of one of these MKV files. I won't use MKVs because of the arrogant behaviour of the author of the MKVMerge program. He purposely broke many media players (both software and firmware) by insisting on implementing a 'feature' that had not been used for near on 5 years. There used to be a forum with extensive discussion of this problem but it seems to have been removed.

It seems the Matroska folks were so concerned about this they developed a program to fix the problem. It is well hidden on their site (guess they are embarassed) but can be found here:

http://www.matroska.org/downloads/mkclean.html. It is part of the mkclean tool.

PS. If you are worried about suspect web sites then I would not go to http://www.matroska.org. Seems they cannot even keep there web server running correctly. I always get this in the heading:

Warning: Table './matroska_org/sessions' is marked as crashed and should be repaired query: SELECT u.*, s.* FROM users u INNER JOIN sessions s ON u.uid = s.uid WHERE s.sid = '6c4c85f82a0355bba1dc8aa2893d631d' in /web/sites/matroska.org/htdocs/includes/database.mysql.inc on line 128

Not a particularly good sign of a well run web site.

theforumer · Post by **theforumer** » Tue Sep 21, 2010 9:33 am

parnott wrote:It seems the Matroska folks were so concerned about this they developed a program to fix the problem. It is well hidden on their site (guess they are embarassed) but can be found here:

http://www.matroska.org/downloads/mkclean.html. It is part of the mkclean tool.

I tried mkclean and finally get my first MKV file to work on Twonky (6.0.2-beta3 but I have to check also with 6.0.1).
I have this 35MB, 24sec, Full HD 1920x1080 H264/AC3 MKV file which used to play normally with Samsung PC Share Manager 4.1 and also other DLNA server but not with Twonky. After mkclean it also works on Twonky.

So mkclean certainly fix the problem but the problem must be not only with the MKV file itself but also with Twonky and the way it sends to Samsung TV (see my model in signature below), since as I said the uncleaned file works perfectly with other DLNA server. I shall look deeper into HTTP requests/responses between Samsung TV and Twonky and also compare to Shamsung PC Share Manager ones to see if there are any relevant difference for the two files (cleaned and uncleaned).

TMM_Product_Manager wrote:I'll forward this info to our engineers. It would be useful if someone who can send a short test file that will not play for us to test with. This is important since there are many different types of MKV files. Please send the test file to me at tmm-beta@pv.com.

- Rick

@Rick I can send the working and non working file to your beta testers but they are 35MB each. Can I send them by e-mail or do you suggest another way?

Briain · Post by **Briain** » Tue Sep 21, 2010 3:32 pm

theforumer wrote:@Rick I can send the working and non working file to your beta testers but they are 35MB each. Can I send them by e-mail or do you suggest another way?

Hi

There's info on uploading files in a post several posts up on this page.

Bri

PeeBee · Post by **PeeBee** » Tue Sep 21, 2010 9:16 pm

parnott wrote:Are you running into the header compression issue that was created by MKVMerge version 4.1 and higher? Samsung TVs are specifically mentioned as having problems. See here:

http://www.bunkus.org/videotools/mkvtoolnix/faq.html

I didn't know about this but can confirm that my files that play OK on my Samsung B650 were created with mkvmerge v3.3.0.

PB

Twonky_Rick · Post by **Twonky_Rick** » Wed Sep 22, 2010 6:05 pm

Thanks PeeBee.

Also, thanks to the Theforumer for posting the new MKV test files to our silent FTP. Based on this thread it appears that there is now a fix (or at least a workaround to this problem). Does everyone agree?

- Rick

theforumer · Post by **theforumer** » Wed Sep 22, 2010 11:51 pm

You're welcome Rick for the files.

I just want to say that "mkclean"ing a MKVs file is for sure a workaround to make Twonky work with MKVs but I can't convert all my hundreds MKVs and I won't do it just to be able to use Twonky because it would be very time expensive. I think that many others who would like to use Twonky with their NAS would agree with me because if they must use a PC or MAC to convert files, they can use it to stream them with other (some even free) products

.

So hope you fix this soon so I can buy a license to replace my even more buggy OEM 5.1.4-1 Twonky shipped with my WD NAS (hope also to see soon the .SRT subtitles features I helped you with in another thread

)

Trying to help on this I just finished investigating a bit with other products HTTP Requests/Responses working also with uncleaned MKV files and I can tell you again that the main difference I see with Twonky is that it uses in its responses this HTTP header with MKVs:

contentFeatures.dlna.org: *

while others use:

contentFeatures.dlna.org: DLNA.ORG_PN=MATROSKA;DLNA.ORG_OP=01;DLNA.ORG_CI=0;DLNA.ORG_FLAGS=01500000000000000000000000000000

or even

contentFeatures.dlna.org: DLNA.ORG_OP=01;DLNA.ORG_CI=0;DLNA.ORG_FLAGS=01700000000000000000000000000000

For this reason I can see that with the other products my TV uses the "Range" header to read different parts of the file.
It usually starts from the beginning, then "only with uncleaned MKV files" goes to the end, then restarts in the middle, like I show below:

##############################################################

GET /resource/3637/MEDIA_ITEM/MATROSKA HTTP/1.0
Range: bytes=0-
getcontentFeatures.dlna.org: 1
transferMode.dlna.org: Streaming
getMediaInfo.sec: 1
Host: 192.168.205.2:8895

HTTP/1.1 206 Partial Content
Content-Type: video/x-mkv
Content-Range: bytes 0-33586764/33586765
Content-Length: 33586765
Date: Wed, 22 Sep 2010 21:20:26 GMT
Server: Windows 7, UPnP/1.0 DLNADOC/1.50, Serviio/0.4.2
Cache-control: no-cache
contentFeatures.dlna.org: DLNA.ORG_PN=MATROSKA;DLNA.ORG_OP=01;DLNA.ORG_CI=0;DLNA.ORG_FLAGS=01500000000000000000000000000000
transferMode.dlna.org: Streaming

reads some bytes then at some point the TV closes the connection and skips near the end of file

GET /resource/3637/MEDIA_ITEM/MATROSKA HTTP/1.0
Range: bytes=33586713-
getcontentFeatures.dlna.org: 1
transferMode.dlna.org: Streaming
Host: 192.168.205.2:8895

and then the TV restarts near the beginning

GET /resource/3637/MEDIA_ITEM/MATROSKA HTTP/1.0
Range: bytes=5645-
getcontentFeatures.dlna.org: 1
transferMode.dlna.org: Streaming
Host: 192.168.205.2:8895

##############################################################

I think that this could be related to the header compression issue to which "mkclean" is a workaround.
I think that the TV at some point needs to read the end of the file to get the information for the header compression but with Twonky it doesn't maybe because thinks it can't use "Range" headers:

##############################################################

GET /disk/NON-DLNA-OP01-FLAGS01700000/O0$3$28I525.mkv HTTP/1.0
getcontentFeatures.dlna.org: 1
transferMode.dlna.org: Streaming
getMediaInfo.sec: 1
Host: 192.168.205.254:9000

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Content-Type: video/x-mkv
Content-Length: 33581936
Date: Tue, 21 Sep 2010 17:59:26 GMT
Pragma: no-cache
Cache-control: no-cache
Last-Modified: Tue, 21 Sep 2010 06:46:02 GMT
Accept-Ranges: bytes
Connection: close
contentFeatures.dlna.org: *
transferMode.dlna.org: Streaming
EXT:
Server: Linux/2.x.x, UPnP/1.0, pvConnect UPnP SDK/1.0, TwonkyMedia UPnP SDK/1.1

##############################################################

this is I think beacuse of the:

contentFeatures.dlna.org: *

header that makes the TV think that Twonky does not really support skipping through the file (prove for this is that I can see "mkcleaned" files but cannot skip forward, while with other files like MP4 and M2TS I can do it)
I'm not a DLNA guru but I know that bits in the DLNA.ORG_FLAGS string have meanings for the server supported features (like "streaming", "background" and "interactive" transfer mode).
For what I can understand the reason of all this is because Twonky does not recognize Matroska file container as a valid DLNA profile.

So, wouldn't it be simple to tweak this and have a beta release to test with?

Thank you and good work. Hope to hear soon some news.

Twonky_Rick · Post by **Twonky_Rick** » Thu Sep 23, 2010 5:24 pm

We have people looking into both of these issues. It's in everyone's best interests to fix these if we can.

Thanks again for all of your assistance.

- Rick

Nastom64 · Post by **Nastom64** » Sat Sep 25, 2010 9:54 am

Hello Rick,
it's great to hear, that Twonky work with a higher prio on the MKV issue.
6 month the users now wait to fix the issue.
Samsung sold the most TV-systems in Germany !!

But check at first only the problem with 2010 Samsung Hardware.
This DLNA client have on the TV (C-Series) + all 3D Blu-Ray the same MKV Problem.

Idea.
The developer can create a new parameter on the Client.db for Samsung 2010 Hardware.
With this extra client entry, you can fix only this hardware.
So the customer can control over the Twonky webside the client-entry.

Positiv.
Twonky don't loose the function for other non Samsung systems
Your developer team can concentrate the resources on this new parmeter with a fix for MKV V4.1 and the header issue

Bye

Nastom64 · Post by **Nastom64** » Sun Oct 03, 2010 10:27 am

Hello Rick,
have you any news,
when a new Beta starts with a Twonky version how stream MKVs fine to a DLNA Samsung Device 2010 ?

Thanks
Thomas

mrusli · Post by **mrusli** » Tue Oct 12, 2010 2:49 am

Hi Everyone,

This thread has been very good to me. Thanks to all posting this issue. I concur the followings:

1. MKV plays well in Samsung C5000 series television. I use an external HDD with the MKV movies inside, and it plays no problem.

2. MKV however CAN NOT play through the TwonkyServer.

3. Using the mkclean as suggested, the MKV plays no problem through the TwonkyServer. This suggests that the TwonkyServer needs work done.

Cheers,
Rusli

Nastom64 · Post by **Nastom64** » Tue Oct 12, 2010 10:53 pm

Hey Rusli,
yes the central problem is, to play mkv over the twonky-server.
And the point is, twonky play today not all version of the MKV with an Samsung client from 2010

We hope , that twonky fix the issue and we can play any mkvs in the future.

Bye
Tom

Twonky_Rick · Post by **Twonky_Rick** » Wed Oct 13, 2010 12:12 am

mrusli wrote:
3. Using the mkclean as suggested, the MKV plays no problem through the TwonkyServer. This suggests that the TwonkyServer needs work done.

TwonkyServer has no problem streaming uncorrupted MKV files. If the MKV file works after you run that cleaner, the file was corrupted. This is not a Twonky issue. It's well documented on the Internet. Look at some of the links I posted earlier in this thread.

- Rick

Twonky_Rick · Post by **Twonky_Rick** » Wed Oct 13, 2010 12:14 am

Nastom64 wrote:
We hope , that twonky fix the issue and we can play any mkvs in the future.

If you have an MKV file that is not corrupted and will not play after you run mkclean, please let me know. There are many Samsung users that are playing MKV files everyday on 2010 TVs without problems. If you look back on this thread, you'll see that.

- Rick

theforumer · Post by **theforumer** » Wed Oct 13, 2010 9:51 am

TMM_Product_Manager wrote:
Nastom64 wrote:
We hope , that twonky fix the issue and we can play any mkvs in the future.
If you have an MKV file that is not corrupted and will not play after you run mkclean, please let me know. There are many Samsung users that are playing MKV files everyday on 2010 TVs without problems. If you look back on this thread, you'll see that.

- Rick

Hi Rick I'm a bit confused by your latest posts. I thought that Twonky developers were working on making MKVs MORE COMPATIBLE with 2010 Samsung TVs and we (the users of this thread) were trying to help you on this and waiting anxiously for some news (and other features like SRT subtitles support

)

Now looks like you're saying that Twonky has no problem with MKVs but the problem is with the MKVs themselves which may be corrupted. I understand your point of view and your position but that's not completely true and reading all the posts of this thread we have these points you can for sure agree with:

1) Current Twonky Server version streams MKVs made with "mkvmerge" before version 4.1.
2) Current Twonky Server version streams MKVs made with "mkvmerge" version >= 4.1 ONLY if they are fixed with "mkvclean".
3) In both cases current Twonky Server WILL NOT let you skip through the file because the way it streams them is not fully compatible with 2010 Samsung TV clients.
4) MKVs made with "mkvmerge" version >= 4.1 but not fixed with "mkvclean" ARE NOT CORRUPTED, they simply implement a feature called "Header Compression", which 2010 Samsung TVs DO SUPPORT completely (in fact these files works perfectly from a USB stick and are correctly streamed by Samsung PC Share Manager and other DLNA servers). They don't work with current Twonky Server version because the way it streams them is not fully compatible with 2010 Samsung TV clients.

As you say the current support for MKVs may be sufficient for most users owning 2010 Samsung TVs , but some users including me would like to have a more complete, state of the art, support for MKVs. The latest Twonky Server version is 6.0.23 and it has been for quite some time and still has no improvements on this point. I know that's not completely your responsability but I think that Twonky Development Managers should be clear on the fact if they are working on this issue and possibily give a deadline for a new release. They can of course say that this is not a priority because they are working on more important features but for users is important to know it in order to evaluate some alternatives.

Can you help us to make this clear?
Thanks.

Twonky_Rick · Post by **Twonky_Rick** » Wed Oct 13, 2010 9:29 pm

4) MKVs made with "mkvmerge" version >= 4.1 but not fixed with "mkvclean" ARE NOT CORRUPTED, they simply implement a feature called "Header Compression", which 2010 Samsung TVs DO SUPPORT completely (in fact these files works perfectly from a USB stick and are correctly streamed by Samsung PC Share Manager and other DLNA servers). They don't work with current Twonky Server version because the way it streams them is not fully compatible with 2010 Samsung TV clients.

I stand corrected.

1. Everytime anyone sends in a "problem" MKV file, I make sure our developers get the file. I agree, it would be nice if we could stream files that have "Header Compression". I'll ask our developers in Berlin, if they can look into this.

2. I've been told the USB port uses an entirely different media player, so there is no connection between the files it plays or features it supports, like subtitles and the UPnP-based media player that we work with. Of course, if another UPnP media server can stream these, that means there should be a way to fix this. Please send me a private e-mail if you are aware of software that can do this at tmm-beta@pv.com

3. In the next few weeks we'll be posting a new TwonkyServer release that will be numbered 6.0.27 (or later). Please try that build and let me know if it's any better than the current build.

- Rick

Twonky_Rick · Post by **Twonky_Rick** » Wed Oct 13, 2010 9:42 pm

One more thing. I checked on the status on the one of the support tickets related to this issue (e.g. DLNA-2495) and some progress has been made:

We have added a new MKV profile to TwonkyServer 6.0.26 that our testers say allows us to support more MKV formats than before. This work was finished yesterday.

This work references your comments on the following link, so I would expect the issue you talk about here may be addressed. http://www.twonkyforum.com/viewtopic.ph ... 305#p31378

One caveat. Most of our testing is done with 2009 Samsung TVs and those use a different player. We're planning to order a new 2010 TV, but I don't think that's been done yet.

So, the best way to proceed at this time is test with the newest TwonkyServer build, which should appear in 2-3 weeks on Twonky.com. and let me know where we stand with that. Hopefully this change, will be in that build. If not, we'll have to wait a little longer. The reason I don't know for sure if that there have been some numbering issues with our build process.

- Rick

theforumer · Post by **theforumer** » Wed Oct 13, 2010 10:52 pm

Thank you Rick for your kind reply and active support. I will send you the information you requested and wait for the new version to test with.

Twonky_Rick · Post by **Twonky_Rick** » Thu Oct 14, 2010 5:00 pm

Just in case the Header Compression issue is not fixed in our next release, I've already created a ticket to get it fixed. Ask me about the status on MM-4143 in a few weeks, if you'd like an update on this matter.

- Rick

ausfester · Post by **ausfester** » Tue Oct 19, 2010 10:30 pm

Rick,

One would hope that bug fixes would have a priority over new features and your other new products.
Especially when the bug is related to the one of the biggest tv manafacturers, some people solely buy samsung panels because of inbuilt DLNA (here in australia anyway), secondly your product claims but cannot play the most popular file format at the moment mkv's on that product, becuase of some technical issues some other products dont have.

The only reason i purchased twonky was because it is the only product that works on my nas thecus (and most other branded nas's too) becuase i purchased two tv's to watch my 200 mkv's on. Please make this a priority

I have both a series 5 lcd and a series 7 C Plasma if you need someone to do some testing.

Twonky_Rick · Post by **Twonky_Rick** » Wed Oct 20, 2010 2:46 am

What part of "I've created a ticket to get this fixed" did you not understand?

We're going to try our best to address this issue as quickly as possible. We understand how important Samsung TVs are. I own one myself, it's in my own best interests to fix this.

We'd love for you to help us test this after a new software update is available.

- Rick

KamikaZee · Post by **KamikaZee** » Wed Oct 20, 2010 6:43 pm

Hello,

First of thank you for the support and for working on the problem. I own a 6 series LCD (which should be a 2010 model I believe) and I currently can not play back most of my movies.

My NAS (Buffalo Linkstation Pro XHL) used to run twonky server version 4.4 (at least I think so) and under that version, "working" .mkv could be renamed to .avi and would play. I opted out to upgrade to version 6.023 (and buy a license) and now this workaround does not exist anymore. Renamed files seem to be excluded from the file scanning, as file+folder won't show up (in all media renderers I've tried).

What's weird, is that if I reencode the .mkv to .m2ts it works, even if I rename it to .mkv...

Anyway, anyone has a solution to enable the workaround again? I really don't feel like reencoding a few dozen 1080p movies :/ (esp since the program does no batch work ://) and I also don't want to downgrade to the stock twonky again, since I like the new version more (file scanning is much faster after adding new content etc...)

mediaman · Post by **mediaman** » Tue Oct 26, 2010 3:20 pm

There is a two pronged issue here , One is the way the 2010 Samsungs handle fast forward on files , its a particular Samsung way of using fast foward so for now you can only use play and stop on the remote. Im using a 2010 Samsung TV LE37C650 and version 5.1 of Twonkey server bundled with a Western Digital My Book World. For the MKV issue Use TXmuxer to convert the MKV file to TS transport stream, using the TS option at the bottom of the application . No reencoding takes place and its less than a minuite for most files. The TS file then plays through Twonkey to the Samsung TV. I have found that the Samsung will read the AC3 5.1 audio as PCM so wont output via SPDIF optical on the TV through the home cinema in 5.1 , but at least you have sound and picture. Playing the same TS file through my Humax freeview HD (which is DNLA compliant ) box via Twonkey the file plays perfectly with 5.1 audio via the home cinema system. MKV isnt supported within the DNLA framework . So if Twonkey get MKV working great. Samsung will need to sort the Dolby Digital issue playing via the TV content media manu.. If Twonkey can also sort the fast forward by presenting the Samsung with what it requires great as well.

theforumer · Post by **theforumer** » Thu Nov 04, 2010 12:53 pm

Just saw that Twonky Server 6.0.28 for windows has been released.
According to release notes the problem with MKVs should be fixed:

Release notes for TMS 6.0.2.8
-----------------------------
...
-fixed: Add custom DLNA profile for MKV to improve interop with certain clients
...

Just downloaded it and bought a new license since my trial expired a month ago

. Can't wait to go home and test it and let you know.

@Rick
Are the NAS versions to be released soon? Latest available version is still 6.0.23 and I need the "Maxtor Shared Storage 2" build which is compatible with my WD My Book World to replace the OEM buggy version shipped with it since getting an upgrade from WD is like sending the man on mars.
Also is there any chance that this version will support SRT text subtitles? Looking at the server binary file looks like it is indexing also .srt files and understand the "getCaptionInfo.sec" header. Can't really wait to go home and test it.

theforumer · Post by **theforumer** » Thu Nov 04, 2010 9:41 pm

Yep finally tested version 6.0.28 for windows and all MKVs now work on my Samsung TV.
Some further notes:
- still no subtitle support

neither with external .srt file nor with embedded text stream (any news about this Rick?)
- fast forward also working for MKVs but not very useful indeed since TV skips 15sec. forward but takes 5-10sec. to restart playing (not Twonky's fault but Samsung's

)
- browsing photos is now showing thumbnails.
Great support!
Waiting for NAS versions.

ausfester · Post by **ausfester** » Sat Nov 06, 2010 5:16 am

So as the above poster mentions it looks like the MKV issue on Samsung has been sorted, YAY thanks twonky.
My issue is i use a Thecus 5200 (4100) nas and not a PC as my twonky server. Im a little impatient so i tried the following and it seemed to work.

Download and install the lastest twonky 6.0.23 module from
http://www.futterknecht.at/index.php/do ... dia-module

Make sure thats working and can play standard xvids n stuff.

Then download and install phpfilemgr from
http://www.futterknecht.at/index.php/do ... mgr-module

Download the linux manual build of Twonky Server 6.0.28.
Extract that to your pc somewhere and you need to use phpfilemgr to upload some files to the thecus twonky directories
I grabbed the new 6.0.28 versions of, "twonkymediaserver", "twonkymedia.sh", "twonkymedia", "RevisionHistory" and "radio.m3u" which are all in the root of the twonkymedia-i386-glibc-2.2.5-6.0.28.zip and copied them to /opt/apache/htdocs/modules/TWONKYMEDIA/twonky/ using phpfilemgr and overwrote all them all with the new versions.

Then copied from the zip /resources/clients.db to /opt/apache/htdocs/modules/TWONKYMEDIA/twonky/resources and overwrote the original/

Restarted the twonky thecus module, and bam now native mkv's on my samsung.
This is a pretty messy hack and i'ld doubt that all the fixes in the 6.0.28 are working in this but mkv's play so im happy for the time being.

Hope that makes sense, if you can be patient i'ld wait for the real update from http://www.futterknecht.at/index.php/do ... dia-module.

Thanks Twonky Developers!