Streaming from a video recorder or hdd player

Hi there

Just have the trial version of Mezzmo at the present time and are tyring to stream via a DLNA network from a Panasonic DVD Recorder(DMR-XW380) to a laptop or computer on the network.

We can copy the file from the DVD recorder(on its hard drive) and are able to play it through another media device but are we just able to "stream" from the video(hard drive) itself without having to copy and then play? Not sure if this is possible with Mezzmo.

Also are we able to stream from Mezzmo to another network device as we seem to only see the "thumnail" when we try to stream from Mezzmo to the TV on the DLNA network.

There is no problems however in accessing the the video direct from the TV via Mezzmo on the DLNA network. Just wondering if we are able to stream the other way around and drive the video from the computer instead of the TV.

Hi,

If you can access the DVD Recorder's hard drive from your computer (as a network mapped drive or a shared folder), then Mezzmo should be able to stream files from it directly. How do you copy files from it?

If I understand your second question correctly (and let me know if I haven't), then you'd like to click on a file within Mezzmo GUI and tell it to play on some device, right? This is not possible at the moment, but it will be implemented in the future.

Hi Dennis

Thanks for the quick reply.

Yes we can access and see the video via the network drives on Mezzmo but when we go to play or stream it it takes us to a web page an asks if we want to save the file. We can then save it and choose a media player to watch it view it from but it is not streaming, it is saved on the computer drive and does not "stream" from the video hard drive. Not sure what we are do wrong. What media player does it stream to or play in?? Or does it just stream in Mezzmo.

Or we have been able to copy the HTTP address of the file directly into VLC or Windows Media Player. It will then stream then but this seems to be a rather hard way way to get around the issue we are having.

Yes you are correct with the second part of the question - thanks for that. It would be nice to be able to "drive" it from the computer or laptop instead of the tv as sometimes it does seem easier from a computer. Will look out for the updates when they come.

Thanks in advance

Steven

Hi Steven,

It sounds like you are trying to play those files within Mezzmo GUI, right? So, you basically double-click the file in Mezzmo and then it asks you to save it, is that what's happening?

What should be happening is - you add files to the Mezzmo library and then use the Mezzmo Media Server to stream them to your device. So, on your TV you need to find Mezzmo server and then access files through that. Mezzmo GUI is only used to organize your files, Mezzmo server is used to actually stream them.

Please let me know if that was the issue or something else.

Hi Dennis

We are able to access the drives on the DVD player through the DLNA system and Mezzmo and we can also see the Mezzmo drives and play from the TV that is hooked up to the DLAN network - but when we want to stream the videos FROM THE DVD recordered that is when we have issues getting it started. It does not just want to stream from the video as it asks us to save file etc then we have to do have to save it to start the file from the DVD to start playing - even though it is on a hard drive in the DVD player.

Have attached a link to You Tube to show you what is happen - hope this helps to see what we are doing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2P-lfczKEA


Not really sure what we are do wrong.

Thanks for your help.

Steven

Hi Steven,

Ok, the first problem is that you are adding them from within the Network pane - that is meant to aggregate contents from other DLNA servers only.

Can you try and use the "Add To Library" button on the toolbar, then select "Add Folder" and browse to a folder on your DVD Recorder (you mentioned previously that you can copy files from it, so I assume it has a shared folder that you can access). That will get the files into Mezzmo's library and they can then be streamed to your TV.

When you use the "Play" button from within Mezzmo, it will try to play that file using your default player, which may or may not work, depending on what codecs you have installed on your system. If you want to stream a file to your device you need to access Mezzmo from that device.

Please let me know if that helps solve your issue.

Hi Dennis

OK - will try this after work!!!

Just you mentioned "That will get the files into Mezzmo's library and they can then be streamed to your TV." We are actually trying to stream off the DVD recorder to a laptop and or desktop that has the Mezzmo server on it. I am guessing that this will still work?

We have no issues streaming using the TV's set up and getting the files off the DLNA network. This works great and the quailty is good(even over a wirless network) - alot better than what we could get using Windows Media player as a DLNA server.

Thanks again. There is so much info on the net about DLNA's but this site has been most helpfull.

Steven

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Geotta

Just you mentioned "That will get the files into Mezzmo's library and they can then be streamed to your TV." We are actually trying to stream off the DVD recorder to a laptop and or desktop that has the Mezzmo server on it. I am guessing that this will still work?

---

So, just to make sure I understand correctly, you'd like to play those files on your laptop or desktop, right? If that's the case, then you'd need a DLNA client and a player installed on your laptop/desktop (Mezzmo is mostly a DLNA server). Something like XBMC should do the job. Alternatively, you can still use Mezzmo to organize files and also use Mezzmo's "Play" button to play them using your default media player - this way you can have everything within one program.

Hi again

That's fixed all our issues!! The XBMC seems to work with everything and we can even access Mezzmo though it. All working fine now and we can now watch TV that has been recordered on the DVD recorder on a laptop or desktop around the house.

Thanks for your assistance with this matter!! What ever did we do b4 we had a DLNA netwoork and programms like Mezzmo!!

Steven

Opps double post!!

I'm happy you're up and running now!