Streaming to Samsung TV DLNA - best video format?

[mave80]

Dear All,

Having read lots of topics on this, I still don't seem to have found the definitive answer to the question: what is the best video format to store movies in to stream to a Samsung Series 6 TV from the Diskstation?

My findings so far:

MP4 Files: If I use Handbrake to create MP4 (or M4V) files which use H.264 for video codec and AAC for audio codec I can fast forward or rewind the files on TV; however I get the dreaded "format not supported" error message once files with a longer duration then 2 and a half hours (this appears to be specifically related to duration rather than filesize - I can create a poor quality file with small file size but still the same length and still have the file be not supported). Changing the video codec used to MPEG-4 (using FFmpeg) doesn't seem to change anything. An example of such a film would be Lord of the Rings

MKV Files: If I use Handbrake again to create MKV files (H.264 and AAC) the issue with duration disappears. However, I can no longer ffw or rwd the files which is a massive pain

VOB Files: Samsung also plays VOB files which it can fast forward or rewind, however, it doesn't appear that the Samsung TV scales the picture to fit the screen (even if "fit" is selected on the TV Menu).

Basically, does anyone have any advice for how to achieve files that can be fast forwarded and rewound and play properly? What is the best video format that has worked for you? I'm also open to suggestions to installing alternative media servers to the Diskstation (DS 409) , although I'm a newbie and would prefer to keep DSM 3.0 (1354) running if possible.

Cheers

Chris

[Taxman]

Don't have the 6 series TV so couldn't comment on it though I do have a 7 series but I do not use Samsungs player as it's pretty bad as you have found out yourself. Out of curiosity in Handbrake try enabling the web optimized option when encoding the video and see if that works. For good measure I'd try another x264 encoder too just to be certain Samsung is the problem. Use Staxrip to encode the movie, select the PS3 profile for a H.264/MP4 video.

You could also save yourself a ton of headaches and get a cheap media player like a WDTV Live and not have to jump through Samsungs hoops.

[mave80]

Thanks Taxman. Tried the web optimized option in Handbrake to create an MP4 file but still no luck. Will give Staxrip a go - do you have a recommendation for a particular format that you've had had most success with?

[Taxman]

You can use the PS3 preset for a H.264/MP4 file but if you click the blue text (PS3) or (MP4) in Staxrip you can change it to anything else.

I tried out some MP4/MOV files with my Samsung C7000 plasma and it could not fast forward or rewind on any of them though it could seek using the directional pad on the remote.

[Vu-man]

I've used AutoGK to convert VOB files to avi at 100% quality.

This enables me to keep file size down (smaller than vob) and maintain surround sound. I noticed that straight VOB on my C7000 is hit or miss.. sometime the TV would play the wrong audio track and there's no way to select a different audio track.

As Taxman states, I can't FF or Rewind using the remote's FF/R controls, but I can seek forward and back with the direction buttons.

Although the Samsung TV player is far from perfect, it does make life easier for my family to access media on our Diskstation. I asked this in an earlier thread, but can you get Album art to work via DNLA on your TV?

[tjkaz]

Don't have the 6 series TV so couldn't comment on it though I do have a 7 series but I do not use Samsungs player as it's pretty bad as you have found out yourself. Out of curiosity in Handbrake try enabling the web optimized option when encoding the video and see if that works. For good measure I'd try another x264 encoder too just to be certain Samsung is the problem. Use Staxrip to encode the movie, select the PS3 profile for a H.264/MP4 video.

You could also save yourself a ton of headaches and get a cheap media player like a WDTV Live and not have to jump through Samsungs hoops.

I have been having the same issues as others trying to get the Samsung to play the video files directly off my syn NAS. For the most part, I can get it to work, but it seems "fragile" and I'm looking for a more robust and easier way to handle this; not only for my own house and family, but for recommendations to others who want to be able to stream videos to their TV's like they see at our home.
I'm looking into dedicated media players and the WD TV Live (plus) is one that seems like it will do the trick. The only concern I have of this and the others is that I backup my videos without compression. This creates one large file (mkv, or whatever), which means it streams at a high bit rate. No problems getting it off the NAS, nor through my wired gigabit ethernet, but my concern is will these media players play them w/out studder, or other issues.
Any input greatly appreciated.

[Taxman]

Any current network media player these days can handle just about everything DVD/Blu-ray bit-rate wise, no need to worry about that.

[tjkaz]

Any current network media player these days can handle just about everything DVD/Blu-ray bit-rate wise, no need to worry about that.

Thanks taxman. I just ordered a WD TV Live plus and will see if it does what I'm looking for. That being, stream files from the NAS that contain non-compressed video and audio from the original content. As for audio, AC3/DTS is fine with me, but HD MA is even better and my home theater can handle them as well. Also, would like for the player to handle external subtitles in IDX/SUB format and supposedly the WD will.
I am much less interested in all the widgets/apps/internet tv stuff - certainly at this time, and until something gets developed that's of any real use for me or the family.

[Taxman]

The WDTV Live can passthrough Dolby True HD to a capable amp but it cannot handle DTS-MA, regular AC3/DTS is fine. MakeMKV is the best way to rip the Blu-rays this will keep the original video and audio in a .mkv container for easy playback.

[mkshare]

I recently just installed a DS211J and hooked it up to my Samsung series 6 TV. I also noticed that I could not FF / RW, also there were no chapters and it did not remember were I last were in the movie. All these features worked when I had a hard drive connected directly to the TV.

Would I be missing some configuration to enable these extra features or is this a limitation of the DSM? Also I thought the TV was meant to handle the decoding and such features, with the NAS acting as a dump device.

Thanks

[Taxman]

I recently just installed a DS211J and hooked it up to my Samsung series 6 TV. I also noticed that I could not FF / RW, also there were no chapters and it did not remember were I last were in the movie. All these features worked when I had a hard drive connected directly to the TV.

Would I be missing some configuration to enable these extra features or is this a limitation of the DSM? Also I thought the TV was meant to handle the decoding and such features, with the NAS acting as a dump device.

Thanks

Samsung have a custom DLNA implementation for those features defying the whole point of DLNA which is why they do not work.

The only way to make them work would be
A) Samsung stop only using their own PC Share Manager/Allshare software as their DLNA server & test other DLNA servers to make sure they work too.
B) Synology add device profiles to their media server so you can switch to a Samsung profile and get those features to work, though keep in mind it may break DLNA functions with other DLNA clients when using such a profile.

Frankly I dont think either option is going to happen at all, a dedicated network media player like a Popcornhour or the many others on the market is the way out.

[Kjeldsen]

I recently just installed a DS211J and hooked it up to my Samsung series 6 TV. I also noticed that I could not FF / RW, also there were no chapters and it did not remember were I last were in the movie. All these features worked when I had a hard drive connected directly to the TV.

Would I be missing some configuration to enable these extra features or is this a limitation of the DSM? Also I thought the TV was meant to handle the decoding and such features, with the NAS acting as a dump device.

Thanks

You should take a look at http://www.samygo.tv/. There you can find instructions on how to connect your Samsung TV to a NFS/SMB/UPNP-share instead of DLNA. Depending on your TV-model you can enable this with an application for your TV, or your TV can be hacked to enable this. See http://sourceforge.net/apps/mediawiki/samygo/index.php?title=SamyGO_for_DUMMIES

[pat4972]

hi, im a new member of the your family , i have brought recently a samsung tv led model 40"c6510 and i am a happy owner of a ds211j with 4tb hd, i have readed somewhere( before the tv order ) ,and i have called the samsung service center near me ( spoke with a tv technician),then i have understand that tv samsung can not read mkv files via dlna but only via hd -usb and dont play and that is not capable of playing any kind of codec dts multi ch .but who says this is wrong, with the ds211j reproduce mkv, avi file of any type except m2ts locicamente would have been too and out (but also with the speakers of the tv) reproduces multi-channel DTS audio, and I will tell you more, the quality of film and media than any player eg. wd tv, bluray players that play mkv, and even better quality and also for players like powerdvd 10 pc too much, I say this because I STVA an article of these by choosing another player for a purchase unnecessary network type wd tv live, I hope to be useful to someone like me who would like to use the DLNA home network having a home. greetings

[chucky2]

hi, im a new member of the your family , i have brought recently a samsung tv led model 40"c6510 and i am a happy owner of a ds211j with 4tb hd, i have readed somewhere( before the tv order ) ,and i have called the samsung service center near me ( spoke with a tv technician),then i have understand that tv samsung can not read mkv files via dlna but only via hd -usb and dont play and that is not capable of playing any kind of codec dts multi ch .but who says this is wrong, with the ds211j reproduce mkv, avi file of any type except m2ts locicamente would have been too and out (but also with the speakers of the tv) reproduces multi-channel DTS audio, and I will tell you more, the quality of film and media than any player eg. wd tv, bluray players that play mkv, and even better quality and also for players like powerdvd 10 pc too much, I say this because I STVA an article of these by choosing another player for a purchase unnecessary network type wd tv live, I hope to be useful to someone like me who would like to use the DLNA home network having a home. greetings

I have a Samsung PN50C8000 connected to my home network via wired Ethernet. I have a Synology DiskStation DS211j with 2 WD Green 2TB drives in RAID-1, running the latest Synology non-Beta firmware (and before I copied all my data over, I did the unmount on the data volume and disc scanned it twice, which was a good thing, since the first time it found - and apperantly/hopefully corrected - issues, the second time it went through clean).

I ripped a bunch of DVD (not Bluray, yet) episodes using MakeMKV, stored them on the Synology. The TV handles them perfectly via DLNA; although I can't remember if the FF/RW buttons on the remote work though. MakeMKV doesn't seem as slick as Handbrake, however, for the same episode conversion, with Handbrake using 18 instead of the default 20 for quality (so 18 would be even better, with higher file sized), MakeMKV produced .mkv's that were definitely larger in size. Given I'm not hurting for space, I decided that larger size may be better quality, so, I opted to forge ahead and rip everything with MakeMKV.

Chuck

[ul206585]

[quote="Vu-man"]I've used AutoGK to convert VOB files to avi at 100% quality.

VuMan,

would you mind sharing the AutoGK settings you have used?

Thanks

U