Mezzmo and the SageTV HD300

[markus46]

I am a happy Mezzmo user but I'm considering a dedicated Media Player rather than the Oppo BDP83 I'm using now.

Is anyone using the SageTV HD300 Media Player with Mezzmo?
I don't see the HD300 on the Supported Devices list. However the device is supposed to support UPnP servers.

Thanks in advance!
Mark

[Paul]

Not sure, but I didn't see DLNA/UPnP support listed on their front page.

[markus46]

Hi Dennis.
From their product literature...
"Media sources supported: Online Video, external USB Mass Storage Devices (FAT, NTFS, EXT2/3, HFS format), NAS or Mac/PC over SMB/CIFS, UPnP, SageTV Media Center"

Is there any doco on how to develop a device .prf file? Initially I'd like to try no transcoding of any file. It uses the same chipset as the WD TV Live player so it's device profile might make a good starting point.
I live in Melbourne so I suppose I could always lend it to you for a little while.

Regards
Mark

[Paul]

Hi Mark,

There are no "official" docs on creating device profiles, but feel free to ask and I'll help you out :)

Does the device see Mezzmo, can you connect to it and browse folders? If yes, then great - all that needs to be done is create a copy of the WD TV Live profile, create a new, unique guid (for example you can use this one: 5F155E42-786A-4a01-9F48-E2CF379FD3A3) and then change enabled="1" to be 0 in the transcoding section near the top.

The "container" and "format" ids are coming from FFmpeg's file information. The "name" in the containers must be unique throughout the file.

Lending your device will also work, as we can create a profile for it in a few hours and test it here - are you far away from our office in Notting Hill?

[markus46]

The device is winging its way to me from the States as I type so I haven't been able to test it.

I see in the Transcoding dialog that I can turn off transcoding for all devices. I'll try that 1st as the HD300 is supposed to be able to play "every file you throw at it". If that works, then I'll copy the WD TV Live profile and hack it as you have suggested.

I live in Box Hill North so not too far away from you at all. Problem is I work in Essendon so it will be difficult to get it to you during business hours. Anyway - let's see how I get on with the DIY approach.

Thanks heaps!
Mark

[Paul]

No problem and yes, you can use the transcoding dialog to turn transcoding off for everything.

Let me know how you go and if you have any questions. One of the biggest profiles with most format support that we currently have is actually not yet released (it'll be part of 2.1.12) and that's for a Dvico TViX - if you wish, I can send that to you later, so you could see how various formats are described there.

If you have someone home during business hours, then we can pick it up, if needed ;) But if the device initially talks to Mezzmo, then most probably this won't be needed and we can sort things out via forum or e-mail.

[markus46]

OK. I've had the HD300 for a while now and can report that it plays just fine with Mezzmo.

I turned of all transcoding and have yet to try a video file that it can't play natively.
Even a high res (1920x1080) video that would never play on my wireless network through other UPnP renderers (Samsung plasma / Oppp Blu player) plays perfectly through the HD300.

The only issue I have with Mezzmo is that it won't allow any of my renderers, including the HD300, to play back a DVD VIDEO_TS folder as a DVD with menu navigation etc...
Perhaps this is not possible with strictly UPnP / DNLA gear?
When I use SageTV server on my PC instead of Mezzmo, I can play my DVD rips through the HD300. Downside is that SageTV Server is double the cost of Mezzmo :(

Thanks all!
Mark

[Paul]

Thanks for sharing that - glad it works!

Mezzmo cannot play DVDs with menu navigation at the moment, but we do have plans to implement this in one of the future versions.