Advice needed on a streaming device

**deaded** · 02-16-2013, 09:37 PM

I have been streaming to my Samsung TV, a Samsung BD player, a Sharp Aquos, and a Sony BD player. The Samsung TV likes to give up in the middle but I don't have that with the Sharp Aquos or Sony so I blame Samsung. I'd like something more reliable.

Another problem I've been having is this. I rip by BDs to a hard drive and use ANYDVD but some copy protection stays. When I stream through the DVD player it often recognizes the copy protection and 20 min into the movie the sound cuts out. I'm assuming it's because the DVD recognizes the copy protection. No problem with the TV alone. So I was thinking that if I had a Boxee or an Apple TV or a Roku or a Western Digital box it might not do that.

Has anyone else had these problems?

What do people use to view their ripped blueray discs?

What works the best with Mezzmo now that I'm committed? I was also thinking about asking the same question at the AVSforum but since I have Mezzmo I wondered what works the best with this server.

Thanks for any insight people can provide.

**SLPopp** · 02-17-2013, 12:43 AM

This sounds like it is the Cinavia protection kicking in, the Cinavia protection is encoded into the soundtrack somehow. Are you transcoding your audio into a different format when you rip i.e. DTS-HD to Dolby Digital 5.1? I have used DVDFab to rip some of my Blu-ray movies and when I do there is a pop-up warning about the Cinavia Protection and that the file may not play back in some players. So far all my rip's have played back on my Sony BDP-S590 (the firmware is up to date), but I have been changing the audio from DTS-HD / True-HD to Dolby Digital 5.1, I haven't tried it yet with an audiocopy (non-transcoding) rip.

Look on the box or jacket for the movie for the "Cinavia Protected" logo, it is purplish in color and look like C)) . If it has this logo, this is where your problem lies. Whatever your choice for a media player search the net about it's support of (preferably non-support of) the Cinavia protection.

Steve

**deaded** · 02-17-2013, 08:51 AM

Yep. That's it. The movie case does say it's protected by Cinavia. That will certainly be a requirement when I get a new media player as I'd like to eventually get rid of my DVD and BD players and only play from the server. Looks like the Western Digital players don't but all the DVD/BD players do now.

**SLPopp** · 02-17-2013, 02:37 PM

The Western Digital players seem to be a pretty good player and there are a lot of people on this forum that really like them. I have been looking at the WD myself because Sony's DLNA streaming formats are so limited. The Western Digital players look like they will play a wide range of formats native. I haven't really considered the Roku players because I could not find info on what formats were supported through DLNA streaming.

Steve

**deaded** · 02-17-2013, 02:52 PM

Roku does not support DLNA so I guess that's out. Mezzmo won't work with it.

Does anyone know if Mezzmo supports the "WD TV Play?" It's not listed on the site in the supported devices though the other WD media players are. Since this one does not list MPEG 2 I just wanted to make sure before I went and got one. Some said that the WD TV Live was being discontinued but I don't see any info about that on their site.

edit: I can't spel

**SLPopp** · 02-17-2013, 03:17 PM

If it doesn't work out of the box, you can bet Peter and Paul can get it working fairly quickly. Conceiva's tech support is some of the best out there, they will work with you through E-mails and get it working relativley quickly. It may work just fine using the profile for the WD TV Live - as long as you don't feed it any MPEG2 files. If the MPEG2 is the only difference it may be as simple as tech support creating a profile based on the WD TV Live and adjusting it to transcode any MPEG2 files to a compatible format.

Tech support are the only ones that can say for sure if the WD TV Live profile will work as long as you don't try to play any MPEG2 files. Either way, tech support will work with you to get the device functioning properly.

Steve.

**Bodders-11** · 02-18-2013, 07:33 AM

Personally I would opt for the Streaming Media Player rather than the WDTV Play. The Streaming Media Player is (was?) only a small amount extra, but is far more capable e.g. support for USB HDDs as well as MPEG2. The Play was designed for accessing on-line content - though they have retained DLNA.

The WD Community have started discussing it - http://community.wdc.com/t5/WD-TV-Li...ay/td-p/542561, which may help you make your mind up.

Bodders

**Paul** · 02-18-2013, 07:47 AM

Just to confirm - WD TV Live media players are excellent for DLNA streaming. If you have any problem with any WD TV model (e.g. WD TV Play), let us know and we'll fix the issues you are having.

**deaded** · 02-22-2013, 10:51 AM

OK, so I bought two of the new WD TV LIVE boxes and ordered a WD TV HUB which should arrive tomorrow. I **LOVE** the boxes! Streaming is SO much better and more convenient than through the Samsung TV and Sharp TV. Works great with my Harmony One remotes as well. I'm excited to get the hub. I'm not totally clear on which WD TV device profile to use as it seems to be transcoding things that play natively on the box. Any suggestions on a device profile? It's the newest version with the updated firmware.

**SLPopp** · 02-22-2013, 01:59 PM

I also picked up two of the WD TV Live Streaming Media (Gen 3) players (then ones that still have the USB ports on them front and back) and love them also. Much better than the Sony Blu-ray players, although they seem to be very picky about the connectors on the HDMI cables (I had to try a few before I found some that worked). I believe Mezzmo defaulted to the WD TV Live profile but I changed it to the WD TV Live Streaming Media (or was it WD TV Live Media Streamer???) profile and it is working perfect - no transcoding at all. Plays back MKV files ripped from blu-ray using DVDFab set to MKV Remux with DTS audio - now I just have to see what happens when I remux a TrueHD disk that has Cinavia on it.

EDIT: also updated firmware via USB thumb drive to latest as of 2-20-2013

Steve