I'm getting frustrated, so am consulting the hive mind, please help!

Having got a new tv, sony bravia kdl-46v5500 I've been bowled over by its abilty to be hooked to the home network and have stuff like music, photos and video streamed to it from the pc. Very cool. Photos and music were easy…videos harder. I've been trying various media server software and had growing success
media play 11 – very few files work
twonky – still very few
TVersity…sounded brilliant but doesn't work with bravias!! (I've checked the tversity forum – known problem) the TV doesn't see the server 👿
and now wildmediaplayer – considerable success! BUT although it can transcode and stream mopst stuff it isn't doing i-player, I guess the encryption is preventing it. The TV either says 'cannot see server, check server settings' or it sees the downlaoded file but says 'playback unavailable' grrrrr!

I've checked the wildmediaserver forum…seems no one can get iplayer going yet.

anything else I can try?

I love the sound of Tversity….I'd even pay for the pro version….if it bl00dy worked with Bravias!

Right. So. Anyone know a way of streaming iplayer content from the pc (or direct from the website) to my tv? I'm going to get a PS3 shortly but this shold be possible without the PS3 acting as a media extender….I can stream most stuff straight to the TV over the gigabit ethernet cable…..help please.

Thanks,
Neil

If you got a Wii instead of PS3, the Wii has an excellent I-Player "channel" that lets you watch it from your wireless connection.

but does it do itv net player, c4OD and the vast and growing list of other online tv content sites? That's the advantage of using the PC and some media serving software, versatility. All you need do, once set up, is turn the pc on. The Tv does the rest, just navigate through the folders and watch the content, great. Except Tversity doesn't like Bravias, or rather Bravias, don't like Tversity….supposed to be UPnP and DLNA certified but..but….something doesn't work.

Anyway I thought the PS3 could access the iplayer direct in the same way as the Wii?

bump

it (PS3) can 🙄

Ps3 has an iplayer channel built in also. You can also use it's streaming capability to stream from your pc to telly via the ps3 using tv versity or ps3 media server which is free.

I have the P.C hooked up to the T.V via an HDMI cable. No problems at all!

Yeah once the PS3 arrives I'll be fine but it would be good to find a way to do it without the PS3 if there is one. My parents have the same tv and I gained many brownie points the other weekend when I set their pc up and got it serving their photos to the tv….I'd get many more if I could get i-player etc streaming too and they don't have a ps3/wii/dlna capable set-top box/media tank etc etc.

Oh well. I'll keep my fngers crossed that TVersity do a fix for Bravias….but I own't hold my breath.

Just plug your lappy/pc into the TV with a VGA to phono lead. This is the best option for good quality. We usually use the Wii for iplayer as its all plugged in and ready to go, but the quality is nothing like as good as using the laptop.

Can't help you with the Bravia unfortunately, I've got a Samsung. I use TVersity for streaming to Xbox when its somethig that that Xbox can't natively handle (e.g. anything thats not WMV or avi format). My laptop can just about handle streaming 720p HD MKV files.

I'm not in the UK, and TVersity server won't run at the same time as my UK-IP address software. So no chance to even try and stream iPlayer, I just use a 15ft HDMI cable for that one. :o)

PC plugged straight in using the TV as a monitor?

I've not had chance to play around with streaming iPlayer for a couple of months but there was a big issue with Flash Player a while back

IIRC – there was a beta release [v10.1] that fixed the bug

Struggling to remember the details right now but try making sure you have > 10.1

Cor, never heard of TVersity but just installed it and it worked straight away on the Xbox 360. V.clever. Not that I need it really, but that's not the point 😉

spooky – IF I could get a bit of media software like TVersity working with the bravia it could do 1080i over the gigabit ethernet lead….what quality is vga?

Burts, yeah well my pc in the study is only 4 or 5m form the Tv uin the lounge so I could use a long hdmi…..if I had a graohics card with a DVI/hdmi output. Unfortunately my parents have their pc in an upstairs bedroom about as far from the tv in the lounge as it could possible be…..a PS3/media extender would be cheaper than a long enough hdmi cable! 🙁

Wildmedia playerworks with bravias and tversity works with iplayer….I need a cross between the two! I'm so close but so far it feels 😉

What spooky said. VGA + audio jack

iPLayer went DRM last week (or so) breaking nearly all opensource/non bbc provided methods to view/stream it.

Booo.

Not sure what DRM means but I can see that it isn't good, boo +1. TVersity still works though doesn't it? (so long as you aren't trying to stream directly to a Bravia over ethernet)

Media centre pc might be your only option. iPlayer uses some funny codecs that aren't widely supported I think.

I'm going to try and get it working with a linksys media centre extender and TunerFreeMCE. No idea if it'll work mind.

Let me know how you get on molgrips. The linksys extender should work from what I read on the bbc iplayer site….but I don't know much about this….which is why I'm getting frustrated 😕

For my own set up I'll soon have the ps3 which I can use as a media extender/server and serve to it from the pc with tversity or the like. I'll also be getting a humax hd freeview box (so long as I can get an aerial fitted to the house and get a signal), the humax box is dlna certifed and should work as the media extender/server too, again being served from the pc. I'm toying with upgrading the present pc as it needs a faster processor to handle HD video transcoding on the fly and it could take more RAM and a couple of big hard disks no problem….also toying with biulding a seperate media pc…also toying with a NAS…..although current favorite is better processor and a bigger hard drive in the current pc plus a larg USB hard drive to connect to the humax box to make that a PVR. I will be experimenting with my pc and my lodger's (much MUCH more powerful) pc once the ps3/humax boxes arrive before I make any final decisions.

I'd still like to find a piece of media serving software that can handle i-player/itv player/c4OD etc and serve to a bravia though so I can set my parents system up. They would rather enjoy stuff on the nice tv not a small computer monitor but can't see them spending money on a ps3 or other media extender device.

It's worth noting that the PS3 doens't support the live streaming part of media centre. It may do in theory but none of the codecs seem to be supported. (I tried this with TunerFreeMCE and some other stuff). In fact, the PS3 wouldn't play anything I could download on media centre.

Not tried with TVersity though.

My current idea is to download as much as I can from iplayer to watch at leisure – will have to find a way of stripping the DRM out of the downloads. Possible when you download WMV files but not everything is available as a WMV.

Oh and the next project is to set up a VPN between our house and the relatives in the States, so they can watch iPlayer and we can watch Hulu 🙂 When that works I'll be happy.

Just think – one day this will all work seamlessly, but not today.

Molgrips,
tversity pro does hulu too. Not sure but THINK you only need th pro version to support on the fly download/transcoding/streaming, if you downlad first then you should be able to transcode and stream withthe free version.

Ah, DMR is the time/date/30 day then fry the file type encryption? Yeah, that's what screws it from working with most stuff…including wildmedia player in my experience (files 'played' but were just garbage) but tversity is supposd to handle it.

Again, if you find a way of stripping the dmr out I'd be interested….for purely academic interest of course.

Take a look at TVersity….it looks very good and the video demo on the site takls you through/shows it being used with a PS3…just a shame it struggles with bravias 😕

This really should work seamlessly…..it's not that hard is it?