How does Twonky announce itself?

General discussion about the media server. Feature requests. Hints, tips and tricks.
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steamhead
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Joined:Tue Aug 29, 2006 2:14 pm
How does Twonky announce itself?

Post by steamhead » Wed Feb 09, 2011 4:31 pm

I've just bought an LG BX850 which is a Blu-Ray media player. In general it supports Twonky quite well, but I have noticed a curious behaviour.

When you select "Home Link" you get presented with a list of all servers on the network. The box supports both DLNA servers and Windows/Samba shares. It ALWAYS presents all the Windows/Samba shares instantly but it can take up to 2 minutes for Twonky to appear. It seems to be "pot luck" as to when you enter the option, sometimes it appears really quickly, other times a fair wait.

So is Twonky doing some form of Broadcast or Announcement? And if so is there any way to influence the frequency?

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DaemonBeetle
Posts:305
Joined:Mon Dec 28, 2009 11:05 am
AV Hardware:Plex Media Server, Samsung Smart TV (2009 and 2013)

Re: How does Twonky announce itself?

Post by DaemonBeetle » Thu Feb 10, 2011 7:09 pm

That's UPnP it's using and it suggests that the LG doesn't activate it's network until it's needed. I find that Twonky is visible to my TV within less than a minute of switching the TV on and it's then always visible until I turn the TV off.

I don't believe there's any way to change the broadcast interval.
No longer running Twonky

steamhead
Posts:70
Joined:Tue Aug 29, 2006 2:14 pm

Re: How does Twonky announce itself?

Post by steamhead » Thu Feb 10, 2011 7:49 pm

I suspected as much myself. Problem is the BX580 lists every share on every device in the house instantly as you select the option to view servers, and that's a hell of a list of things to scroll past, and then wait for the server to appear every time you turn the box on.

I remember telling my kids how you used to have to turn the TV on two minutes before you wanted to watch anything for it to warm up. Seem like the BX580 is being a little retro ;-)

On the PS3 the Twonky Server is there instantly as I turn on. I suspect it remembers it was there last time and polls it, because if the server is down it doesn't show on the PS3.

LG told me when I complained about scrolling through all my shares every time I turned on that if I was always using the same server I would only need to do that once and it would remember. Well it does remember, because when it eventually connects it takes you back into the navigation tree exactly where you were last time, but it looks like when the box is powered up instead of polling the Twonky server, it just looks to see it's not in the list yet and assumes it's not there, so gives you the list and makes you wait.

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