TwonkyServer v6.0.34 and Samsung LED TV

General discussion about the media server. Feature requests. Hints, tips and tricks.
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Markvm
Posts:17
Joined:Sat Jul 02, 2011 12:10 am
AV Hardware:WD My Book Live (3TB)
TwonkyServer v6.0.34 and Samsung LED TV

Post by Markvm » Sat Jul 02, 2011 1:36 am

Hi all,

First of all: TwonkyServer is GREAT!

Now my story:
Last week I purchased the WD My Book Live (3TB) with the main purpose for streaming HD videos to my Samsung UE32C6730 LED TV (with build-in media player).
Before, I have streamed videos over the network from my desktop PC with the Samsung PC Share Manager software and this worked perfectly (MKV files with surround sound and subtiles in .srt, movie thumbnails generated, etc.).

But eventually the HDD of my desktop PC became full and I needed another HDD. So I bought the MBL (My Book Live) because of its network/streaming capabilities. Ideal at the first sight; streaming (as WD promises >) supported MKV videos without the need of having turned on my PC :)

But what a bump that was. My Samsung TV did recognize the MBL and played music and pictures smoothly. But most important: it didn't play any MKV video file! Besides, the navigation tree was now way to complex on my TV (everything was fine with Samsung PC Share Manager).

Luckely I soon found out that the problem was the version of TwonkyServer (pre)installed on my MBL > v5. Furthermore I read on this forum that most problems for Samsung TV's have been fixed in Twonky 6. So I decided to give it a try (what else should I do :wink:) using this: http://community.wdc.com/t5/My-Book-Liv ... 792/page/5 upgrade steps to Twonky 6...

AND IT WORKED! (sorry for caps, I was as happy as a child :mrgreen:). With Twonky 6.0.34 I CAN stream MKV files successfull to my Samsung LED TV.
I can play forward/backward and pause/play, the navigation tree has improved since Twonky 5, srt subtitles work, the DTS or DD5.1 audiotrack from the MKV video can also be streamed to the TV (which forwards it to my audio receiver)... actually almost just like it was when streaming from my desktop PC with the Samsung software. But now directly from my NAS without having to turn on my PC (brilliant!).

But what doesn't work yet:
- Thumbnails are not generated (before this always did work when streaming with Samsung software)
- When playing a video > going into the tools menu of my TV > There is no subtitle option anymore. This makes it impossible to change the timing of the subtitles (before this always worked when streaming with Samsung software).
- In the TwonkyServer settings > First steps > I set the Navigation tree to > By folder (I don't want a complex navigation tree for my movie collection. With the Advanced media view navigation tree for example I get 7 maps!). With the By folder option I still have to choose between 2 maps when I want to access videos: 1) All videos and 2) By folder. I rather don't want to choose and go directly into the root of my videos where I sorted out my movies in maps on the HDD myself!
- My TV doesn't remember anymore where I stopped watching a movie > Resume option pressing the blue button (before this always did work when streaming with Samsung software)

Another minor thing:
- When playing a video > going into the tools menu of my TV > I can only choose between 1) PCM audio and 2) DTS OR DD5.1. That means when a MVK file has multiple audio streams (not only DTS or DD5.1 but DTS AND DD5.1) I can't choose between these audio tracks and mostly I'm forced to choose between PCM or DTS. This is actually a Samsung limitation I believe?

Are the above problems already known? And is there a way to fix them?

Best regards,
Mark

Twonky_Rick
Posts:3816
Joined:Wed Nov 19, 2008 1:59 am
AV Hardware:Samsung 650 Series TV (2010), 4.5TB HP MediaSmart server with 100,000 songs, 5) AT&T U-Verse STB, CE form-factor Media Center PC and 6 other networked PCs running TwonkyManager, 2 Sonos ZP80, Sonos S5 speaker, Apple TV (running XBMC), Roku Soundbridge, X-Box 360, Sony PS3, Kodak 10" Wireless Photo Frame, iPhone with PlugPlayer software, Sonos CR-100.
Location:San Diego
Contact:

Re: TwonkyServer v6.0.34 and Samsung LED TV

Post by Twonky_Rick » Sat Jul 02, 2011 5:37 pm

Glad to hear that 6.0 solved some of your problems. :D

Comments on your other questions:
1. TS 7.0 will be capable of automatically generating thumbnails if FFmpeg is installed. Not sure how hard that will be to do on a NAS.
2. I don't think there is anything that we can do about the subtitle issue since that involves the software running on your TV.
3. Although it is possible to customize your navagation tree, it's not easy and I don't think worth it just to get rid of 'All Videos'.
4. I'm passing on the feedback about your 'Resume playback' problem to our developers to see if there is anything they can do about that. I suspect they cannot, but it's worth asking about.
5. I think your last issue is a Samsung issue.

- Rick
Follow me on Twitter! mostlytech1
Checkout my blog: http://mostly-tech.com/

Ulvenskiold
Posts:28
Joined:Mon Feb 14, 2011 11:53 am
AV Hardware:Samsung UE46C7700 with Wifi (N 5Ghz) connection
WD My Book Live Duo 6 TB
TwonkyServer 6.0.39 (On MBWE NAS)
TwonkyMobile on iPhone 4
AirPlay via Airport Express
Location:Copenhagen, Denmark

Re: TwonkyServer v6.0.34 and Samsung LED TV

Post by Ulvenskiold » Tue Jul 05, 2011 1:24 pm

Dear Rick.

I agree with Markvm. I have almost the same setup and same experiences with it.

The subtitle menu did appear before the Samsung firmware update. Afterwards no subs at all. I've just update the firmware again, and know some subs do work - don't why they all don't work, but the menu is still missing, which is unfortunate.

Also many MKV-files contain lots of subs, couldnt you make those work? That would save us all a lot of time :)

A resume function would be topdollar!

I also agree with Mark on the "All files" or "Show by folder" option is annoying. We just want to see the files by folder. Couldnt you make a setting, where we can choose ourselves permanently? Or event choose a start folder for each catagory. As few clicks as possible are important...

Otherwise TwonkyServer 6.0.32+ is really fantastic!!!
Regards,

Jonathan

Samsung UE46C7700 with Wifi (N 5Ghz) connection
WD My Book World Edition 2 TB (White Light)
TwonkyServer 6.0.32
TwonkyMobile on iPhone 4

Markvm
Posts:17
Joined:Sat Jul 02, 2011 12:10 am
AV Hardware:WD My Book Live (3TB)

Re: TwonkyServer v6.0.34 and Samsung LED TV

Post by Markvm » Tue Jul 05, 2011 2:10 pm

Edit: the thumbnails of some WMV videofiles in HD quality show up, but the majority (and all the MKV videofiles) not.

First of all, thanks Rick for your answer and nice Ulvenskiold to have some more feedback in this topic!

I believe the issues with multiple audio streams and subtitles can only be fixed with a new firmware by Samsung (Where can we report this, does Samsung have a forum like this??).
However, for the subtitle issue the temporary fix is to download an subtitle file with .srt extension (plenty of subtitle websites to be found online) or extract the subtitles from the moviefile with MKVExtractGUI2, rename this to the filename of the movie and place this in the same directory. It works but indeed not very efficient because why can't the subtitles be played directly from the videofile? :(

But on the other hand I believe Twonky can fix the thumbnails (as from what I can read this will be done in version 7), and they should try to fix the resume function and subtitle-menu option because this always worked before (and still works) when streaming with the Samsung PC Share Manager software.

egarcia74
Posts:5
Joined:Sat Jul 09, 2011 8:37 am
AV Hardware:TwonkyServer 6.0.34
Mac OS X Server 10.6.8
Samsung 3D TV (UA55C7000)

Re: TwonkyServer v6.0.34 and Samsung LED TV

Post by egarcia74 » Tue Jul 12, 2011 3:21 pm

[quote="Markvm"]But on the other hand I believe Twonky can fix the thumbnails (as from what I can read this will be done in version 7), and they should try to fix the resume function and subtitle-menu option because this always worked before (and still works) when streaming with the Samsung PC Share Manager software.[/quote]

Hi Mark,

My setup will be different to everybody else's no doubt, but I'm guessing that this might help some out there. Out of the box, it seems that this build of TwonkyServer won't generate thumbnails correctly. However, I have found a workaround to get it working and I posted it here: http://www.twonkyforum.com/viewtopic.ph ... 814#p36899

You need to have ffmpeg installed to get it working and you need to have configured twonky to know where your ffmpeg executable is.

The result in general is less than spectacular because it arbitrarily grabs a frame 30 seconds into the movie and uses that as the thumbnail. In some cases it's OK, in others, well you end up with a black frame or something completely meaningless. :?

The other thing I have noticed is that if you have a .jpg file with the same name (sans extension) as your movie file then twonky will use that image instead of generating one from the corresponding movie.

Ed

skyn3t
Posts:3
Joined:Sat Jul 16, 2011 1:51 am
AV Hardware:Samsung LE40C650 and Buffalo NAS

Re: TwonkyServer v6.0.34 and Samsung LED TV

Post by skyn3t » Sat Jul 16, 2011 1:57 am

Hello All, my LCD Samsung LE40C650 don't accept rewind or foward any help to get it working?


thanks

Twonky_Rick
Posts:3816
Joined:Wed Nov 19, 2008 1:59 am
AV Hardware:Samsung 650 Series TV (2010), 4.5TB HP MediaSmart server with 100,000 songs, 5) AT&T U-Verse STB, CE form-factor Media Center PC and 6 other networked PCs running TwonkyManager, 2 Sonos ZP80, Sonos S5 speaker, Apple TV (running XBMC), Roku Soundbridge, X-Box 360, Sony PS3, Kodak 10" Wireless Photo Frame, iPhone with PlugPlayer software, Sonos CR-100.
Location:San Diego
Contact:

Re: TwonkyServer v6.0.34 and Samsung LED TV

Post by Twonky_Rick » Thu Jul 28, 2011 12:20 am

Short answer:
Work was done on this issue back in May and June. We believe we have resolved this issue as best as we can.

Long answer:
The Twonky MKV scanner is now correctly extracting the duration from MKV files. But it seems that there is something else the Samsung TV needs for proper FF/FREW support.

Since FF/Rew works with the Samsung server we analyzed the communication between those two devices and tried to add the missing parts to Twonky.

1) The Samsung server uses this format to specify the duration "h.mm.ss", Twonky uses "h.mm.ss.xxx" (where xxx is ms)

2) When streaming a MKV from the Samsung server, the TV uses a proprietary mechanism to fetch the duration from the server. (Uses the http header "getMediaInfo.sec: 1" to request the duration using a HEAD request, the response contains a header field giving the duration in ms.)

We changed the format of the duration in Twonky and re-implemented the proprietary mechanism, but still FF/FREW does not work properly when streaming some MKV files from TwonkyServer to Samsung TVs.

From what we can see on the network, the TV doesn't even try to jump to a different location in the stream. We assume that for some reason the TV thinks Twonky cannot do byte seeks on these MKV files.

If anyone else has additional suggestions of things we can try let us know, otherwise we're out of ideas on this.

- Rick
Follow me on Twitter! mostlytech1
Checkout my blog: http://mostly-tech.com/

Ulvenskiold
Posts:28
Joined:Mon Feb 14, 2011 11:53 am
AV Hardware:Samsung UE46C7700 with Wifi (N 5Ghz) connection
WD My Book Live Duo 6 TB
TwonkyServer 6.0.39 (On MBWE NAS)
TwonkyMobile on iPhone 4
AirPlay via Airport Express
Location:Copenhagen, Denmark

Re: TwonkyServer v6.0.34 and Samsung LED TV

Post by Ulvenskiold » Thu Jul 28, 2011 10:41 am

FF/RW works perfectly in my setup - its all a question of bandwith here... Only the subs and sub-menu are a problem.
Regards,

Jonathan

Samsung UE46C7700 with Wifi (N 5Ghz) connection
WD My Book World Edition 2 TB (White Light)
TwonkyServer 6.0.32
TwonkyMobile on iPhone 4

Twonky_Rick
Posts:3816
Joined:Wed Nov 19, 2008 1:59 am
AV Hardware:Samsung 650 Series TV (2010), 4.5TB HP MediaSmart server with 100,000 songs, 5) AT&T U-Verse STB, CE form-factor Media Center PC and 6 other networked PCs running TwonkyManager, 2 Sonos ZP80, Sonos S5 speaker, Apple TV (running XBMC), Roku Soundbridge, X-Box 360, Sony PS3, Kodak 10" Wireless Photo Frame, iPhone with PlugPlayer software, Sonos CR-100.
Location:San Diego
Contact:

Re: TwonkyServer v6.0.34 and Samsung LED TV

Post by Twonky_Rick » Thu Jul 28, 2011 7:07 pm

That's good to hear.

- Rick
Follow me on Twitter! mostlytech1
Checkout my blog: http://mostly-tech.com/

rossini
Posts:3
Joined:Tue Aug 02, 2011 4:12 pm
AV Hardware:ReadyNAS 1100 with Twonkymedia Server, Samsung UE40C8790 LED TV, Rapsody N36 home theathre system

Re: TwonkyServer v6.0.34 and Samsung LED TV

Post by rossini » Tue Aug 02, 2011 4:47 pm

Hi guys,

well, actually FF/REW is not working for me.

I am using TwonkyServer 6.0.34 for ReadyNAS 1100 shown on my Samsung UE40C8790 LED TV with 3009.2 firmware.

I almost only have AVI (XVID) files - no MKVs...

- Resume ist not working which I dislike since I seldomly watch a movie without getting distracted (doing other things with my TV).
- I want to browse by folder always (but I have to choose between "All videos" and "By Folder" first). I bet there is some XML file where somebody with knowledge can easily "overrule" that and provide it as a template for us with SSH access to their NAS device? My wife who has no patience with technical devices always chooses "All videos" by default (since it is not clear to hear what "by folder" means... she wants to watch a video)... you and me know, how to work around this, but man, you also know that we sometimes need to go the thorny way to make our ladies happy... so a solution to that would be happily accepted... and no, "get another woman" is no acceptable solution to the problem! ;-)
- FF/REW on AVIs does not work for my C series Samsung TV remote buttons
- Not sure if Cover.jpg's are working as thumbnails when browsing by folders (need to check this out again since I also played around with ReadyDLNA).

I really hope to hear about further development to this wonderful software regarding these issues...

Thank you in advance,

Rossini

rossini
Posts:3
Joined:Tue Aug 02, 2011 4:12 pm
AV Hardware:ReadyNAS 1100 with Twonkymedia Server, Samsung UE40C8790 LED TV, Rapsody N36 home theathre system

Re: TwonkyServer v6.0.34 and Samsung LED TV

Post by rossini » Tue Aug 02, 2011 10:22 pm

So, jetzt sitze ich direkt dran...

Meine Konfiguration kann dem letzten Post entnommen werden...

Was funktioniert...

- AVI abspielen
- Pause, Play, Stop
- Eine "Art" Weiterspulen, quasi kleine Zeitsprünge (ca. 10 Sek) bei kurzem Anklicken bzw. etwas größere Zeitsprünge (ca. 1 oder 2 Min) bei längerem Draufdrücken... (linke und rechte Pfeiltaste neben dem OK Button mittig)
- An Filmanfang bzw. Filmende springen (Pfeiltasten nach unten bzw. oben beim OK Button)
- Zudem kann im Extras-Menü zwischen drei verschiedenen Bildformaten (original, Modus 1, Modus 2) umgeschalten werden
- SRT-Untertitel

Was funktioniert NICHT:
- richtiges Weiterspulen FF/REW bzw. Chaptersprünge über die >> bzw. << Tasten unten auf der Fernbedienung
- Taste "picture size" auf der Remote (Meldung: "nicht verfügbar")
- Taste "AD" auf der Remote (gleiche Meldung)
- Taste "Subtitle" auf der Remote (gleiche Meldung), Untertitel nicht abschaltbar
- Andere Untertitel als SRT
- Film-Resume nach zwischenzeitlichem Wechsel auf TV oder jedwedem Verlassen des Media Players
- Ordner-Navigation im selben Ordner beginnend nach Verlassen des Media Players und Wiederaufruf
- Start der Ordner-Navigation automatisch innerhalbs "By Folder" wenn gewünscht
- Ordner-Navigation: Ordner-Thumbnail bzw. Filmdatei-Thumbnail, wenn im Ordner Bild namens "Cover.jpg" liegt (miniDLNA / ReadyDLNA kann das) zusammen mit dem Samsung Media Player

Hab ich etwas vergessen?

Ciao,
Oliver

rossini
Posts:3
Joined:Tue Aug 02, 2011 4:12 pm
AV Hardware:ReadyNAS 1100 with Twonkymedia Server, Samsung UE40C8790 LED TV, Rapsody N36 home theathre system

Re: TwonkyServer v6.0.34 and Samsung LED TV

Post by rossini » Wed Aug 03, 2011 1:00 pm

Oops, sorry for posting in German... here comes the English translation:

For my hard- and software please see my initial post.

What's working on my Samsung LED TV:
- AVI play
- Pause, Play, Stop
- a kind of "fast forward/rewind" which means short forward or backward jumps (10 seconds for short using of remote button, one or two minutes when holding remote button down) when using buttons on TV remote left and right to the big "okay" button in the center of the TV remote.
- Jumping to the beginning or ending of the AVI (when using the arrow buttons next to (above, below) the central "okay" button on the TV remote)
- you can switch between three different picture sizes when using an EXTRAS menu from the Samsung media player (original, Modus 1, Modus 2)
- SRT subtitles

What's NOT working on my Samsung LED TV:
- continuous fast forward or rewinding or chapter jumps by using the << or >> buttons on the lower end of the TV remote
- "picture size" button on the TV Remote (screen message: "not available")
- button "AD" on the TV remote (same screen message)
- button "Subtitle" on the TV remote (same screen message), so subtitles cannot be switched off
- other subtitle formats than SRT (sub/idx, for example)
- resuming an AVI movie if you change input to TV or somehow else leave the media player
- folder navigation does not start in the same folder as on you last use of the Samsung media player
- starting automatically within the "By Folder" submenu without having to avoid the "All Movies" button
- no folder thumbnail, file thumbnail or background picture of any file called "Cover.jpg" within a certain folder ( works with miniDLNA / ReadyDLNA) within the Samsung Media Player

Did I forget anything?

Ciao,
Oliver

Markvm
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Re: TwonkyServer v6.0.34 and Samsung LED TV

Post by Markvm » Wed Aug 10, 2011 6:22 pm

I found out that thumbnails work when you put a .jpg image in the same directory as the movie, and with the same filename as the movie!

mbze430
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Re: TwonkyServer v6.0.34 and Samsung LED TV

Post by mbze430 » Mon Dec 05, 2011 2:59 am

I'm running 6.0.34 NAS with Samsung UN55D8000 but my problems seems to be that only "SOME" .srt files are working and some are not. It seems like (still haven't figured it out), 720P + .mkv + .srt works. Embedded subtitles don't work. 1080p + mkv + srt doesn't work.

Anyone else can verify this?


--------------------------------------------------------------------------
I just figured it out.

it has nothing to do with the resolution!

It does have to do with the folder depth. It seems like the srt file WILL NOT work when it's deeper than 2 folders.. for example. this is what I did

ex:

All Folder ---> Beauty and The Beast ---> Beauty and the Beast [3D] <---- it will not pick up the srt
All Folder ---> X-Men Trilogy ---> X-Men First Class <---- it will not pick up the srt
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
All Folder ---> Beauty and The Beast
All Folder ---> Beauty and The Beast [3D] <----- NOW, it will pick up the srt

ory
Posts:1
Joined:Sun Dec 18, 2011 9:55 am
AV Hardware:Samsung UE55D8000, Twonky 6.0.34

Re: TwonkyServer v6.0.34 and Samsung LED TV

Post by ory » Sun Dec 18, 2011 9:59 am

[quote="mbze430"]I'm running 6.0.34 NAS with Samsung UN55D8000 but my problems seems to be that only "SOME" .srt files are working and some are not. It seems like (still haven't figured it out), 720P + .mkv + .srt works. Embedded subtitles don't work. 1080p + mkv + srt doesn't work.

Anyone else can verify this?


--------------------------------------------------------------------------
I just figured it out.

it has nothing to do with the resolution!

It does have to do with the folder depth. It seems like the srt file WILL NOT work when it's deeper than 2 folders.. for example. this is what I did

ex:

All Folder ---> Beauty and The Beast ---> Beauty and the Beast [3D] <---- it will not pick up the srt
All Folder ---> X-Men Trilogy ---> X-Men First Class <---- it will not pick up the srt
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
All Folder ---> Beauty and The Beast
All Folder ---> Beauty and The Beast [3D] <----- NOW, it will pick up the srt[/quote]




------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hi, I have same problem and I tested mbze430 guid and it works!

This problem is definitely Twonkys bug.

Thanks mbze430


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