AVCHD Streaming Issues

[Laz Baz]

I would like my Full HD home videos to be streamed to my Panasonic DMP-BDT110 DLNA certified Blu ray player from a NAS. Befor spending money on a NAS, I just trialed, using my Lenovo Intel i7 running Windows 7 with 8GB memory laptop. Played 3 formats, m2t (this is the Panasonic camcorder HD format), AVI and mpg through, Corel Video Studio X4 Pro software I use for editing, WMP12 that came with this laptop and the Panasonic Blu ray on DLNA set-up using Twonky server on my laptop. The video files are in my laptop.
1. X4 plays Avi and mpg fine and the m2t motion is fine but there a constant rhythmic flicker. Why is this?
2. WMP12 plays all three format ferfectly.
3. BDT110 does not play Avi, m2t plays but stops momentarily and starts again and continues to do so, mpg plays fine for a while but after a while stops/starts. Why is this?I thought if I converted all AVCHD to mpg it would be fine but it does not appear to be so.

Where is my problem? the BDT110 or my laptop not quite replicating a NAS or the Twonky server software? Or is it something else?
any help from anyone will be very much appreciated.
Regards
William

[aedipuss]

a nas server doesn't "play" the videos at all. it's just hard drive storage that sends the original file to the blu-ray player when requested over a network. only the formats supported by the blu-ray player will play using a nas.

[Laz Baz]

>aedipuss<
Thank you for your clarifying information.
BDT110 is capable of playing>(DivX HD, MP3, JPEG, WMV and AVCHD)<. Today I tried WMV as well and I get no playback. I have 20M virginmedia hub and the devices are connected by TP-Links 200Mbps plugged into the household electrical supply.

My question <Where is my problem?< still remains unanswered.

Can anyone suggest where I should concentrate my research?

[FulciLives]

Hard drives die over time. You should consider burning your AVCHD to DVD-R and/or DVD+R DL

Your setup sounds overly complicated to me so I can't help but I have no problem playing high bitrate M2TS files from my computer to my PS3 (and thus large screen HDTV) but I do have a wired network (not wireless).

[aedipuss]

not all wmv is created the same, there will be restrictions on all formats. you need more detailed descriptions of what plays other than general divx wmv etc. those are just containers, the video inside can vary wildly.

[FulciLives]

BDT110 does not play Avi, m2t plays but stops momentarily and starts again and continues to do so, mpg plays fine for a while but after a while stops/starts.

You are doing this via wireless, right? The momentary pauses sounds like the network can't keep up. That's why I use a wired system.

[Laz Baz]

BDT110 does not play Avi, m2t plays but stops momentarily and starts again and continues to do so, mpg plays fine for a while but after a while stops/starts.

You are doing this via wireless, right? The momentary pauses sounds like the network can't keep up. That's why I use a wired system.

>FulciLives<
This is an area I am not very sure of. I will describe my setup more fully and I would like you (or anyone else) to comment on it.
My broadband Hub has 4 Ethernet connection.
1. One is directly connected to my wife's PC by RJ45 (nothing to do with the streaming).
2. One is connected to a TP-Link TL-PA211 to the other end of the RJ45 and the TP-Link is plugged into the mains circuit.
3. One is connected to the Laptop Ethernet port with RJ45 cable.
4. The BDT110 ethernet port is connected with RJ45 cable which has a TP-Link at the other end that is plugged into the mains circuit.
So is the above setup considered to be "Wired" or "Wireless" ?
I need to grasp this concept.

[FulciLives]

Well my guess is that the TP-Link TL-PA211 is the problem.

A true wired solution would be a RJ45 wire from broadband hub direct to Blu-Ray player.

Instead you have that wonky TP-Link doing the connection. I don't trust such devices.

[Laz Baz]

Well my guess is that the TP-Link TL-PA211 is the problem.

A true wired solution would be a RJ45 wire from broadband hub direct to Blu-Ray player.

Instead you have that wonky TP-Link doing the connection. I don't trust such devices.

Thank you again for your contribution.
1. I have practical difficulty with direct connection. The Broadband hub is in the upstairs study. My Audio/Video system is setup downstairs in the sitting room. Therefore I was exploring ways to have a storage device in the study connected to the hub that would have all my media stored in that.
2. Does this meam there is no system today that can satisfy my need (or may be it will be a very expensive project)? I am exploring other Forums as well but there seems to be no straight forward solution.
Where do Igo from here!!??

[turk690]

2. One is connected to a TP-Link TL-PA211 to the other end of the RJ45 and the TP-Link is plugged into the mains circuit.
4. The BDT110 ethernet port is connected with RJ45 cable which has a TP-Link at the other end that is plugged into the mains circuit.

Those devices are called powerline adaptors and I've tried a similar set-up with a pair of Belkin Powerline AV. In an ideal world with no interference, resistive load-like devices, and new, maybe OFC house wiring, those adapters could work as claimed. But their throughput is made very unpredictable by the very AC mains they use. Ageing (or ancient aluminum conductor) house wiring (which may actually be a fire hazard) can actually drop the voltage and interfere with the carrier. So are loads that have motors in them (vacuum cleaners, fans, etc). Even computers themselves may be at fault: when I used one PC I have on the same AC line as a power line adaptor, data transfer just about stopped dead. This was because the PC power supply didn't have any mains filters on (where they were supposed to be was just jumpered), so the switching spikes spill back over onto the AC line and wreak havoc with the powerline adaptor carrier.
The intention behind power line adaptors are good & nifty. It's just that the quality of the AC wiring in a house, and the devices that use power in that house conspire in myriad ways to drop the signal such that dial-up would be faster on one hand, to all out dead on the other. If I were to have to connect a blu-ray player to a switch, I'll not use a powerline adapter, even if testing shows it performs more or less. I'll hack and cut and drag and saw to link them with wired Ethernet (if I can't use Wi-Fi either).

[FulciLives]

Perhaps it would be better to get a good quality and fast Wi-Fi router and use that instead.

Another option might be to hire someone to come in and run hard wire lines for you. For someone who knows what they are doing it shouldn't be that much work (or mess) to do.

[Laz Baz]

Thank you all for your input.

I hope this will be of some use to those interested.

I connected the BDT110 directly to the hub with ethernet cable and did the same with the laptop.

The playback of the videos behaved exactly the same as before with the TP-Link connection.

This tells me that the Panasonic BD player is not capable of handling the data-rate to reproduce the video. I will have to have another device that can handle the data-rate.

I hope I am correct in my conclusion. (although I am assuming the ethernet cables are not at fault)

Please feel free to comment and any suggestion of equipment.

Kind regards

William

[FulciLives]

If you hard wired it and it still cannot play back the videos without stuttering etc. then I would say it must be the player itself and not your network.

Unless it is a network issue but I have no idea what it could be. My knowledge of networks is limited. Still I would think that since you had it wired directly that the problem would be with the player and not the network itself.

Maybe someone who knows more about networks could chime in here ...

*** EDIT ***
I just read this in an AMZON.COM review:

Playback of pictures and videos from an SDHC Card or USB drive: Again, a big improvement over the version on panasonic tv. The files are layed out in an easy to search manner, line by line. The player is able to crunch through all the usual formats, including: .mkv, .mov, .mp4, .avi, .xvid, mpeg-2 etc. This player does stumble a bit on high bitrate .mkv files in 1080p, but many media players have some issues with these files (some can't play them at all). Most of us will use 720p .mkv files anyway, and those are no problem at all. Photo playback in .jpg are no problem, photos are easy to search for, load quickly and look great!

If you have a USB Thumb Drive you might want to try that. A 16GB USB Thumb Drive can be bought these days for $9.99 US Dollars (which is cheap) and that will hold at least one 1080p movie if not 2 or more 720p movies. If that works you have a work around:

Anytime you want to watch a movie you'll have to copy it to the stick then put the stick in the player. Convenient? No but it sounds like it will work.

You might want to look at AMAZON.COM and read the comments and look for anyone making claims (like the quote I found) but about streaming instead of USB playback. See if you can get a handle on what others are saying. Is it working or not working for them. If the USB option works then maybe you do have some sort of weird networking issue or perhaps it is the software you are using on the computer side to push it over the network. Or maybe the player can handle this stuff over USB but has a crappy DLNA support.

[Laz Baz]

I want to keep this thread live as we have exchanged a lot of knowledge and suggestions on the way. At the moment I do not have much to say. I have emailed Panasonic and waiting to hear from them, if at all, they will respond. I will post then what they say.

William