[blucas95]

After a week or so of on and off futzing trying to get my music library streaming to my HR20's, I finally have success.

First try was TwonkyVision. It was very promising at first, especially given the built-in support for iTunes, which I use. After installed the LPCM plug-in, my music was immediately available on my receiver. Too bad that EVERY file I tried to play sounded like it was playing in slow motion, as had been reported by others here. That was the end of that experience.

Next was WMP 11. Again, it was a breeze to set-up. Getting my music to display on the HR20 was a different story. In short, what I found was that if you have a small number of songs in your library, it works great. Once I added my entire library (all mp3's; 22,000+ songs totaling over 110GB) it was a diffent story as I could not access a single track. It seemed as if the unit were timing out trying to retrieve the lists of albums/artists/songs or something. So I called it quits on that one too.

This afternoon I decided to try TVersity (http://www.tversity.com/). It was almost too easy. Here is what I did:

• Download and install the software
• Reboot the PC and verify that the TVersity service starts after reboot
• Verify that your firewall allows the executable to accept incoming connections
• Go to the Settings tab; under General change the 'Playback Device' to Xbox 360 and under Transcoder change 'When to transcode' to always (read these somewhere else here - not trying to take credit for them)
• Restart the TVersity service
• Restart the HR20

And just like that (about 30 minutes of effort), I have my entire library accessible on both HR20's - one hard-wired to the router and one using the Linksys Wireless Gaming Adapter.

So, if you were like me and REALLY wanted to get this cool feature working and were pulling your hair out, give TVersity a try. Hope this information can help some of you out!

 

[Sackchamp56]

After a week or so of on and off futzing trying to get my music library streaming to my HR20's, I finally have success.

First try was TwonkyVision. It was very promising at first, especially given the built-in support for iTunes, which I use. After installed the LPCM plug-in, my music was immediately available on my receiver. Too bad that EVERY file I tried to play sounded like it was playing in slow motion, as had been reported by others here. That was the end of that experience.

Next was WMP 11. Again, it was a breeze to set-up. Getting my music to display on the HR20 was a different story. In short, what I found was that if you have a small number of songs in your library, it works great. Once I added my entire library (all mp3's; 22,000+ songs totaling over 110GB) it was a diffent story as I could not access a single track. It seemed as if the unit were timing out trying to retrieve the lists of albums/artists/songs or something. So I called it quits on that one too.

This afternoon I decided to try TVersity (http://www.tversity.com/). It was almost too easy. Here is what I did:

• Download and install the software
• Reboot the PC and verify that the TVersity service starts after reboot
• Verify that your firewall allows the executable to accept incoming connections
• Go to the Settings tab; under General change the 'Playback Device' to Xbox 360 and under Transcoder change 'When to transcode' to always (read these somewhere else here - not trying to take credit for them)
• Restart the TVersity service
• Restart the HR20

And just like that (about 30 minutes of effort), I have my entire library accessible on both HR20's - one hard-wired to the router and one using the Linksys Wireless Gaming Adapter.

So, if you were like me and REALLY wanted to get this cool feature working and were pulling your hair out, give TVersity a try. Hope this information can help some of you out!

Does this work with Itunes?

 

[Earl Bonovich]

Cool...

Write me a document on it... Seriously
http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?t=75204

 

[blucas95]

Does this work with Itunes?

I use iTunes and an iPod. I guess I forgot the step where I added my music... I had to browse to my music directory and add it manually as a "monitored" directoy. After I hit the OK button and the hard drive cranked for a while, it worked fine. So it worked in my case, but there is no built-in support for iTunes. And all of my music was in plain mp3 format, but I'm sure it would NOT work for music puchased through the iTunes store.

 

[thekochs]

After a week or so of on and off futzing trying to get my music library streaming to my HR20's, I finally have success.

First try was TwonkyVision. It was very promising at first, especially given the built-in support for iTunes, which I use. After installed the LPCM plug-in, my music was immediately available on my receiver. Too bad that EVERY file I tried to play sounded like it was playing in slow motion, as had been reported by others here. That was the end of that experience.

Next was WMP 11. Again, it was a breeze to set-up. Getting my music to display on the HR20 was a different story. In short, what I found was that if you have a small number of songs in your library, it works great. Once I added my entire library (all mp3's; 22,000+ songs totaling over 110GB) it was a diffent story as I could not access a single track. It seemed as if the unit were timing out trying to retrieve the lists of albums/artists/songs or something. So I called it quits on that one too.

This afternoon I decided to try TVersity (http://www.tversity.com/). It was almost too easy. Here is what I did:

• Download and install the software
• Reboot the PC and verify that the TVersity service starts after reboot
• Verify that your firewall allows the executable to accept incoming connections
• Go to the Settings tab; under General change the 'Playback Device' to Xbox 360 and under Transcoder change 'When to transcode' to always (read these somewhere else here - not trying to take credit for them)
• Restart the TVersity service
• Restart the HR20

And just like that (about 30 minutes of effort), I have my entire library accessible on both HR20's - one hard-wired to the router and one using the Linksys Wireless Gaming Adapter.

So, if you were like me and REALLY wanted to get this cool feature working and were pulling your hair out, give TVersity a try. Hope this information can help some of you out!

Awesome.....I've been doing alot of researching on the XBox360 connectivity Forum and people are dying over there trying to get WMP11 to work. However, the solution there now looks like Tversity too !!!! They now have XVID, DIVX and even VOBs streaming. Earl, check these links out......

Forum for Tversity/Xbox360
http://forums.tversity.com/viewforum.php?f=24
Thread on VOB Streaming
http://forums.tversity.com/viewtopic.php?t=3710
URL How-To Guide to Setup Video Streaming
http://www.tweaktown.com/articles/1002/1/page_1_introduction/index.html

I know this is all XBox360 but it is upnp and thus should be same for D* if/when they enable video.

All this is NO MCE....(XP)....no ViiV....standard stuff.

So, now all we need it D* to work with Tversity and get them to wirte the driver to HR20 like they did for XBox360. D* are you listening ?

 

[blucas95]

Cool...

Write me a document on it... Seriously
http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?t=75204

Thanks Earl. I seriously will work on it. I've got enough help from people here in the last couple of months. It's the least I can do to hopefully help a few others out!

 

[Earl Bonovich]

Streaming Video Next ? D* Are You Listening ?

So, now all we need it D* to work with Tversity and get them to wirte the driver to HR20 like they did for XBox360. D* are you listening ?

DirecTV has already stated, in the "Official" DirecTV ViiV document, that Video streaming is planned.

ViiV is just a "standard"... provided these other media servers comply to the similar standard that ViiV is based off... There really shouldn't be a problem as the feature matures.

 

[thekochs]

Thanks Earl. I seriously will work on it. I've got enough help from people here in the last couple of months. It's the least I can do to hopefully help a few others out!

Some links to help
http://s3.amazonaws.com/www.tversity.com/quickstart.html

Also, important tid-bits.............don't know if you ran into these but they are gotchas for some people's issues with upnp connectivity. I'm cutting-n-pasting from various tagged threads I have. Call these trobleshooting...

If your router is set to it's default settings then disable firewall should be marked, enable filter multicast.

upnp Services to make sure are running on the PC.
1) Go Into Services under Admin Tools
2) Scroll down to Universal Plug & Play Host...double click and set startup type to auto and hit Start.
3) Same for SSDP Discovery Services
4) Same for HTTP SSL

Make sure UPnP Framework is enabled in your Firewall....Norton, Windows, etc.
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/mediacenter/extender/setup/firewall/winfirewall.mspx
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/mediacenter/extender/setup/firewall/norton.mspx

Note, XBox360 kinda needs static IP but it sounds like HR20 wants dynamic....not sure about Tversity/HR20 would need. Anyway, I think you still have to open/forward a port in the Router for Tversity ? If so here is nice progam for those worried about doing this and also has great how-to guides for simple changes with every router listed you could think of. It also shows how to setup static IP if this is needed for HR20. Really nice site.
http://portforward.com/

I'll try to dig up more.

 

[thekochs]

DirecTV has already stated, in the "Official" DirecTV ViiV document, that Video streaming is planned.

ViiV is just a "standard"... provided these other media servers comply to the similar standard that ViiV is based off... There really shouldn't be a problem as the feature matures.

Tversity doesn't care about MCE or ViiV for video. To quote them they are just a Media Server for:
Devices supporting the UPnP AV / DLNA standard (which is the de-facto standard for connecitivity between devices in the digital home). This includes devices like networked TVs, DVDs, Stereo Receivers, Digital Media Adapaters/Receivers (including the Xbox 360), Mobile Phones, Satellite and Cable set-top-boxes and more.

Here is the only system requirements....I'm hoping that Tversity won't have to transcode if D* will allow playback of MPEG2 & VOB files. MS's nasty little requirement for WMV format on XBox360 is why they have to transcode for that.

Minimum System Requirements
Pentium III 700 Mhz or better (Pentium 4 2.8 Ghz with support for Hyper Threading is recommended)
128 MB of memory or more (512 MB recommended)
50 MB of disk space (At least 1 GB of free space is recommended for cache area of transcoded media)
Windows XP or Windows 2000
DirectX 9.0 or higher
Windows Media Player 9.0 or higher
Audio enabled on the computer running the software
Flash version 7 for the GUI (MSIE version 6.0 required for full GUI functionality, other Flash enabled browsers such as Firefox will have most but not all of the functionality.)

Comments
The minimum requirements will allow real-time transcoding of media files with bitrates up to 300-400 kbps. Higher bitrates will require faster machines.
Media files that do not require transcoding, i.e. can be played by the media hub as is, will work well on systems meeting the minimum requirements, disregarding their bitrate, and in fact can even work on slower machines.
Pentium 4 2.8 Ghz with support for Hyper Threading and with 512 MB of memory is recommended for real-time transcoding of standard definition video (e.g. WMV 720x480 1.5Mbps). Dual core or dual CPU systems with 1 Gbyte of memory are required for real-time transcoding of high definition video.
Non real-time transcoding of any bitrate video can be done on any machine, with the speed of the machine determining the time it takes to complete the transcoding.
Transcoding of some file formats require the installation of third party directshow filters that are compatible with TVersity. TVersity recommends:
ffdshow - for MPEG2/4, H.264, Divx, Xvid, AAC, FLAC, Vorbis, FLV, and many more
Haali Media Splitter - for better MP4 and H.264 support and for OGG/OGM and Matroska.
Real Alternative - for Real audio and video.
Quicktime Alternative - for MOV.
MP4 Source/Splitter* - for better MOV support.
FLV Splitter* - required for FLV playback.

 

[gsjskk]

I have gotten all three to work (Tversity, Twonky and WMP11)...but...all three do the play for about 15 minutes and lose connection thing. Not sure where to go from here.....very frustrating!

 

[Mixer]

Not sure if the same applies to TVersity but with Twonky as long as you have a slide show playing with your music it will play all night. I had 6 hours of pictures and music on Christmas Eve and it never stopped once.

Hopefully the same applies for TVersity as it is the free choice of the two that work best.

I have gotten all three to work (Tversity, Twonky and WMP11)...but...all three do the play for about 15 minutes and lose connection thing. Not sure where to go from here.....very frustrating!

 

[Spanky_Partain]

Good to hear you got things going. I am looking into the Tversity as well. Free is good!

Spanky

 

[thekochs]

Good to hear you got things going. I am looking into the Tversity as well. Free is good!

Spanky

I'm also thinking VOB/MPEG playback is good.......for the future.

 

[islesfan]

Its funny, the same experience you describe with Tversity, I had with Twonky, and my PC is almost 7 years old. Twonky has been nothing short of perfect for me. I paid the purchase price within a day of installing!

 

[mikeny]

Thanks for sharing how you got it to work. Until I set it XBox 360 the mp3s wouldn't play. They all had 'x's.

I'm having a problem with the photos though.

Evidently just about any photo taken with my Sony Cybershot Cam has been given the 'X'. I tried changing the resolution to match 3072X2304. Restarted the service but it didn't help. I changed it to a low resolution too. That didn't help.

I read about the file structure issue on their forum but that can't be the issue because there is a file working within these folders. It's one of those burst images. That plays. Strange. I see that the burst image file is much smaller, only 430 kb. The other files are usually over 2.5 MB.

Does TVersity have a problem serving up large picture files?

Is there anything I can change?

Any ideas?

Thanks.

 

[Rambler]

TVersity isn't working for me. So far my only workable solution has been Twonky. I saw TVersity in my Network Connections initially, but for some reason no longer. I'll play with it for a little bit more and see what happens.

EDIT: An update - when I switched TVersity's Media Playback Device to Automatic, Network Places does see the TVersity server. However, still not recognizable by the HR20.

 

[mikeny]

I'm back with Twonky. For me it's the most stable, plays all my pictures, and mp3s. I can't explain why they play at normal speed but they do.

WMP can't handle some of my large file folders. Tversity can't handle large file sizes. It plays my old digital cameral photos from an Olympus, with 3 megapixel pics but as I said not the 7.1 megapixel Sony source files. Maybe if they truly supported the HR20, it would.

I wish I could get a reliable free server but for me the winner is Twonky.

 

[thekochs]

Tversity can't handle large file sizes. Maybe if they truly supported the HR20, it would.

I really can't comment since I've not installed and tried (waiting for video support from D*) but Tversity does support video playback of large Divx & VOB files for the XBox360 so I'm guessing they are larger than your pic files. Anyway, I agree I think all this for the HR20 is not quite ready for prime-time yet. I really don't mind paying for a good Media Server software package....actually would prefer to in order to get long term support.....but first as you said D* has to figure out how/when they are going to enable video. Personally, I'm not going to go thru all this bleeding edge for just pics/mp3s. Also, if D* decides only to officially support this through MCE/ViiV then I'm off to another avenue.

Guess I'll wait and see.....interesting to see the feedback.

 

[acomire]

I got Twonky working last night and all was good. I have it running over a 54Mb wireless connection and I have had no dropout or other issues...

Since TVersity is free, I decided to give it a try. After changing my playback device to XBOX, I can play MP3s, but I cannot get my photos to display at all.

Any suggestions?

Thanks

AJ

 

[toy4two]

Anyone got this working on Windows 2003 Server?

My media library is on a server

I can get it the HR20 to work fine with my Windows XP machine running WMP 11. But with TVersity, the HR20 sees it, even sees my media, but all the MP3s have an "X" next to them. Can't play them?

I changed the service account to an admin account like the docs said, but still stuck.