latest question in my quest for media perfection 🙂

im happily listening to 6 music and spotify on my squeezebox now, so turning to dvd now.

we’ve got a dvd/freeview recorder. we dont use the freeview now as the HD telly has it inbuilt, so its just a dvd player really. i thought id try and play a dvd through my laptop, and if it works, mebbes get rid of the dvd recorder.
i got it playing using the HDMI cable. so happy days. but i realised i had to have the laptop playing the dvd next to it, as its a shortish cable. so big screen and little screen showing the same thing next to each other. not really ideal :-/ when i shut the lid, obviously the tv picture goes off as well.
so i thought id try dlna. i had stuff connected a week or so ago using my android phones media connector, but i want to keep my phone out of it really, in case my wife wants to watch stuff when im not there.

ive googled it and it seems possible, but i cant find proper instructions of how to get it set up. ive got my sony bravia tv to recognise my wifes laptop, but it wont show the dvd.

the laptop has got windows media centre on it which i hoped would maybe help too, but just cant suss it right now.

anyone got any advice for me please?

ta

i managed to get video files to play via dlna using mediamonkey. Admittedly I havent tried playing a dvd through it yet but I can’t see why it wouldn’t work, I’ll test it later and see. Setting up mediamonkey for dlna was pretty easy from what I remember.

hmmmm….struggling to get this to work using MediaMonkey. TV can see the dvd on the laptop but it won’t play it. I’ll try again later.

Our TV does. It’s a Smart TV. Have to “share” the media on the pc, then in Windows Media Player it has an option to pick which device to stream to. TV is connected to the wireless router. Easier just to rip the dvd to the laptop HD, then play remotely with the pc, but I think you need a Smart TV to do it. You can buy blue ray players with Smart TV built in.

hmmmm….struggling to get this to work using MediaMonkey. TV can see the dvd on the laptop but it won’t play it. I’ll try again later.

let me know how you get on mate. i cant get it to work at all so it may not be possible.
id have just assumed tho that if i can get it to play through a cable, itd be capable of playing over the wireless too.

There will be an option somewhere on the laptop asking what to do when the laptop closes. Set this to “do nothing” then you can close the laptop and it will continue to show on the tele.

Or if you have a recent tele, get a USB flash drive, copy the dvds on to that, plug that into the tele and watch the dvd with out using the laptop at all

ive just changed the power setting for closing the lid. thanks, didnt know that existed. ill try it again later and see if it still shows on tv.

as far as the usb drive and copying dvds go, i think id have to convert files etc etc to do that wouldnt i, which im not completely au fait with, and could become a faff. id just like a dvd drive to play a dvd straight away when i plop it in, no bother.

cheers

I’m not sure you would need to convert files to play them on the TV from the USB, Google the make of your TV to see what type of files it can play.

I have lots of files on my machine, in various formats, and my tele (samsung) plays all of them. Just try one, thats the best way to do it.

This is a pretty good link for various software media servers Unfortunately I still havent managed to get a DVD up and running with them. PS3mediaserver server seemed the best (out of the free stuff) but it switched my Humax set top box off so no use for me.

I might try Windows….I just couldn’t be bothered setting up the online ID. I’ll try that now.

That list of wippersnapper is out of date and doesnt even mention serviio in the table. Serviio is imho the best FREE dlna media server i’ve tried with my hardware and i’ve tried many on that list (though some may have improved now)

http://www.serviio.org/

great thing about serviio is that it can transcode formats that your hardware device doesnt support by way of profiles.
it also has the ability to stream audio or video. so once you have added them and the plugins it can stream shoutcast streams for instance or maybe you want to stream vimeo MTB channel straight to your dlna tv or dvd player.

theres now 3rd party web interface and app to configure it from your android phone.
of course android apps such as bubbleupnp and upnplay will let you play all your audio/video on your phone too.

though i use subsonic for that direct from my server but thats another story..

have a look at xbmc http://www.xbmc.org – media centre jobbie – you can install it as an .exe on windows, or format your computer’s HDD and it will install itself as an OS as dedicated media player OS.

You can try it as a ‘live CD’ if you just want to try it out first.

I have it installed on a laptop that I plug into our TV and I stream films and music from my server upstairs

dawson, i tried xbmc a week or so ago, but didnt like it. it all looked a bit too ‘xboxy’ for my liking 😀 so i went went with windows media centre. not having much success with the dlna tho.

dobo, i remember you recommending serviio to me before when i was looking at squeezeboxes. i didnt really understand what it did tho as far as relating it to what i want.

are you saying i can instal it on my laptop, then play my dvd on it and watch it on the tv using dlna?

thanks

Back to the OPs question, the answer is no, or at least I have never seen or heard of it being possible. A laptop or PC will not stream video from a disc drive via DLNA , it will only allow for playback of stored files. You’d have to rip movies to file for this to work and that’s extremely time consuming. The only solution is to use wireless HDMI, but that requires additional not inexpensive hardware. Stick to a DVD player, it’s cheap and easy. That or start ripping DVD’s on a daily basis, some time is a few months you’ll have a decent collection to make the process worth while.

Back to the OPs question, the answer is no, or at least I have never seen or heard of it being possible. A laptop or PC will not stream video from a disc drive via DLNA

are you saying i can instal it on my laptop, then play my dvd on it and watch it on the tv using dlna?

the sharing of 1 dvd drive is not really the intended purpose of dlna, the idea is to share 100’s of files stored on a hard drive. but it might be possible.. never tested it or would ever need to, my dlna player is a bluray player…

if you just want 1 dvd to play then use a dvd player connected to the tv as ask1974 says

serviio will certainly stream any dvd you have ripped to your laptop hard drive to your dlna tv or player.

Back to the OPs question, the answer is no, or at least I have never seen or heard of it being possible.

good straightforward answer. dont like it but thanks 🙂

The only solution is to use wireless HDMI, but that requires additional not inexpensive hardware.

i spose thats what im confused with. works with hdmi cable, so in this day and age must work wirelessly. i thought that would be dlna, i didnt realise itd have to be wireless hdmi. hadnt heard of it before and if its expensive im out 😀

Stick to a DVD player, it’s cheap and easy. That or start ripping DVD’s on a daily basis,

nope, not what im after, just wanted quick and easy “oh heres a dvd, thanks, we’ll watch it now”. but was hoping to get rid of one more unit (dvd recorder) and integrate it with something else (laptop)

looks like its the hdmi functionality im after, but was hoping dlna would be the same.

thanks a lot 🙂