Nero MediaHome (and the UPNP Blues)
on 11.15.04, 02:50pm in home theater • comments (20)
I’m extremely frustrated with Universal Plug and Play.
The idea is simple: You run a ’server’ on your home computer and UPNP devices (such as DVD Players, Wireless Media Players, etc) are supposed to discover and stream videos, music and pictures over a wired or wireless network to your television or home theater. No messing around with IP address, funny config switches, etc., the concept is that it’s supposed to be ‘plug and play’ so the average consumer can experience a rich media filled home.
I have a DVD player that’s supposedly UPNP compatible: the GoVideo D2730 (this is the same device as the Gateway Connected DVD Player).
For the life of me, I can’t get video to properly stream to the device. While I’ve had success using the bundled software for music and photos, getting video to properly stream has been nothing but problematic. And this is on a 100MB wired network connection. Using the D5 Media Server (the bundled software), DIVX encoded files usually play for a few seconds, then stop. MPEG plays for 2 seconds, then hangs. Over the weekend, I thought I would try some other UPNP server software to see if I could have better luck.
First I tried Windows Media Connect (I mentioned it here when it was released). Unfortunately, my ‘media server’ at home runs Windows 2003, so I can’t use this (it wont allow the setup to proceed). Dustin Mihalik reported some mixed results: music and pictures seemed to work fine, but had trouble with videos.
Last night I had discovered the the latest update to the awesome Nero 6 included a new peice of software: Nero MediaHome. From the docs:
Nero MediaHome is a program for streaming videos, music and images to UPnP-capable equipment and also to Nero ShowTime 2. Real-Time transcoding of your media into several different target formats. This ensures upward compatibility of your UPnP media renderers. So you will always be able to playback the newest and most efficient audio and video formats even if the renderer does not support it by native.
Perfect! This is exactly what I wanted (especially since it supports the Nero Digital MP4 format).
Bummer! While the DVD player finds the server no problem, as soon as you select it the player locks up.
I’m forced to ask:
- Why is this so difficult to get right? All UPNP is doing is transcoding and streaming content over HTTP. It uses XML for device discovery.
- How on earth is the average consumer going to figure this out? My dad bought a Gateway connected DVD player, and just wants to watch videos of his grandchildren. How the heck is he going to figure this stuff out when a geek like myself can’t get this working?
- If they all follow the same ’standard’, why so many interoperability problems? They’re all supposed to follow the UPNP MediaServer and MediaRenderer standards (Intel has some good details aswell): why don’t they work?
All in all, it’s been a totally frustrating experience and is not a good sign for the digitally connected home.
aknowitall (November 15, 2004 @ 9:30 pm)
I had the same problem with media mvp player. It ended up something to do with my router. Make sure loopback is turned off.
SteveB - not the real SteveB of course ;) (November 17, 2004 @ 5:16 am)
Hey Steve - does the NeroMedia software run as an NT Service - or is an interactive user-app only?
Steve (November 17, 2004 @ 3:51 pm)
Seems to run only as a user-app.
Fernando Carreiro (November 18, 2004 @ 12:23 am)
I use Nero MediaHome with an SMCWMR-AG EZ Stream Universal Wireless Multimedia Receiver. It runs perfectly and transcodes my Video into MPEG 1 or 2 automatically for my SMC. I am using it over Wireless with no problems, but had a similar problem initially with the video hanging up or being jittery, but found the problem to be the on-board Intel PRO network adapter on the PC running the MediaHome. I found that if I actively pinged the SMC from the MediaHome PC if functioned better. I decided to use another network card, and presto the problem was solved.
Mikael Broman (January 3, 2005 @ 3:41 am)
I have a SMCWMR-AG EZ Stream Universal Wireless Multimedia Receiver and can not get it to work with nero media home it will not find it, it works fine with the bundled mediaserver but this mediaserver does not accept divx, xvid etc so i wanted nero media home, nero media home finds the ez.stream but the ez-stream doesnt find the mediaserver maybe Fernando Carreio could help me out
Fernando Carreiro (January 3, 2005 @ 4:24 am)
It seems that the new firmware update from SMC v1.2.8b (2004-11-10) for the SMCWMR-AG EZ no longer functions correctly with NERO MediaHome.
When I was using v1.17 (2003-12-04) on my SMCWMR-AG EZ, there was no problem and was able to use it MediaHome (and use the transcode feature too). Since the firmware update, it no longer is able to detect MediaHome.
Both I (in Portugal) and another gentleman called Zen (in Switzerland) have contacted SMC and NERO in search of a solution, but neither company has come up with any satisfactory answer to the problem and seem to be ignoring the issue, possible because no one else has complained about it.
MIkael Broman (January 3, 2005 @ 11:46 am)
Thanks for that info, sence I first seen your post I have been using about 40hours of major hacking to my system without success, now I know why, but according to MediaHome Homepage they say they have tested it with success, When in contact with SMC didn’t they give instructions how to reset firmware so that We could keep on using MEDIAHOME ?? I sure will let you guys know if I someway can get it to work
Best Regards
Steve (January 3, 2005 @ 7:35 pm)
Cool, let us know if you can figure something out. For now, i’ve given up on it until they release a Jan update.
Mikael Broman (January 4, 2005 @ 4:04 am)
I spoke to a Technical person at SMC to day
and he told me their might be a way to downgrade the firmware but he also told me that the new firmware of december makes the ez-stream to accept DIVX 4 and 5 and that their is a new
MEDIA SERVER software for the PC he appologise that it is not downloadable from their websight yet but he is trying to mail me the software
I will get it today and test it out
if I am not happy with the resaults then I can maybe be able to get a old firmware and a way to
apply it so I will hold you posted
Best Regards
Mikael Broman (January 4, 2005 @ 9:34 am)
It seams like it is working pretty good
it supports now
(wav|gif|png|wma|mp3|jpg|jpeg|jp2|tif|m3u|pls|mpeg|mpg|mpe|mp4|avi|yuv|html|htm|xml|dll)
not divx3 but xvid seams ok haven’t tried all formats yet but most of it seams to work fine
If someone needs the new mediaserver let me know
Best Regards
mikael broman (January 4, 2005 @ 9:42 am)
About the support for Media Home he couldn’t give me any answers but he dosen¬¥t belive it is
any changes made so the device only detects its own media software it might just be unlucky this happend. As for now I will accept this new software (it is a little buggy) but works.
To downgrade your device you would have to contact SMC and give them your serial number and
they might be able ot put in a old firmware for your device when it searches for auto update
Best Regards
ed (March 31, 2005 @ 11:42 pm)
Did anyone ever find a resolution for this. I would like to use the Nero mediahome or the windows version for better compatability.
Russ (April 3, 2005 @ 11:06 pm)
Say, I’ve been following most of the information, however does anybody know of a client software package that will connect to my UpnP Server software by D5( bundled package that game with my gateway/GoVideo D2730. Although it connects to my server from my media room, I’d like to be able to connect to the server software via an XP client. So far I haven’t seen anything.
I have several workstation besides my dvd player that would like to play from the server stream.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
quasi (April 6, 2005 @ 12:16 am)
Looks like Nero Showtime 2 should do the trick
Johannnes (May 2, 2005 @ 2:29 am)
Yes, Showtime 2 can do it. But it is not very comfortable…
Is there nor other client out there for Windows?
john (May 24, 2005 @ 2:09 am)
Pluto is a new, open source smart home solution that seamlessly integrates: 1) media with a server for music, movies and tv shows, plus a PVR and DVD Player, 2) a home automation system with touch-screen tablet and Bluetooth mobile phone controllers, 3) a phone system with video conferencing, 4) a security system that feeds you live video on your mobile phone when there are interruptions, and lets you speak to visitors through your stereos, and 5) a home PC solution. Check it out at http://www.plutohome.com.
We also posted a page at http://www.plutohome.com/dce.php explaining how we can help promote the established standards, like UPNP, while we focus on delivering a consumer-friendly experience. If you’re working on UPNP devices and would like a freely distributable whole house solution to showcase your device, we have forums, or you can send an email to aaron.b [at] plutohome.com.
The support site sums up Pluto for techies and open source developers: http://www.plutohome.com/support
greg (January 24, 2006 @ 4:43 am)
has anyone tried this with the xbox 360 thats supposed to be UPnP?
Alex (January 27, 2006 @ 12:41 am)
Hi, I just found this great forum, I wanted to contribute, I have a CompUSA-G Wireless router, I have the SMC WMR-AG. At first I was trying a Great software as a server TVersity, it is free and it “supports” a huge list of files, it is very friendly, but it has some issues with divx(3,4,5) it plays all files, but some of them small, some B/W, etc… in ttheir forum explains you have to configure the PC site render, but I did not want to be more complicated, so, I installed the SMC server, my surprise was the program itself does NOT have much to configure, it only support MPG (I thought) but after a bit of searching, I realized, it depends on the firmware of the device and not in the pc server version, because it displays ALL files en the TV, but only MPG files will play, So I found this site searching, and I read others had the same problem than me, I did not feel alone in the world anymore :). I tryed the Nero Media Home server and voila, now I can view almos every of my video files, I have some DivX 3, 4, 5, XVid, etc. At first I only could watch them small, or BW, but I set the Nero to transcode everything to MPEG1, and now all my files works. The audio rendering some times pauses, but I guess it is because my router link, so I am going to try another router (Linksys 802.11b) and if this not work better, I am going to try The odd but for sure wired link. I will let you know
pedro (February 13, 2006 @ 11:56 am)
Hi,i’m writing from Spain, i read this forum, i think someone can help me. I have Ez-server and Nero 7. Impossible to configure (for me)
please can someone be so kind to explain the way to configure easily.
Many thanks.
Matt (February 17, 2006 @ 6:12 am)
Did anyone find a way of going back to the original firmware i just upgraded and now i can’t use Nero 7……. Grrrr