External hard drive server problems

[rawpowerocks]

Hi

I have a Sony Bravia TV and a Sony Bluray player. 

I connect an external hard drive up to my Bluray player via usb. When i’m in the Bluray player menu, I can go in to the usb option and see the folder and files stored on the external hard drive. And I can play them. Jpeg pictures and MP4 video files. 

So, so far so good. 

But I want to use the Bluray player as a media server to the TV. 

So when I go to the media player app that is installed on the TV, the Bluray player comes up in the lists of servers. I can also see all the folders stored on the external hard drive. But this time, when I click on a folder that has the same files in, I get a message saying ‘Selected server contains no media content. Please select another server’. 

So the Sony Bluray player can see all the folders and files and can play all the files. But the Sony TV only sees the folders and is not showing any files. 

I tried downloading another media player app to the TV and was met with the same issue. 

Any ideas why the Bluray player can see the folders/files and play the files yet the TV can only see the folders and says there is no files to play?

[Piscie]

Hi @rawpowerocks,

Firstly, can you tell us the model names of both the Blu-ray player and the Sony TV? and when did this problem start? Can you also explain more about using the Blu-ray player as a media server for the TV?

[royabrown2]

@rawpowerocks 

If you connect the USB directly to a USB port on the TV,  can it then see and play the files?

[rawpowerocks]

This is the first time I have tried this. So it wasn’t working fine before and now it’s not. I just can get it to work properly at all. 

TV is KD-55XE range

Bluray player is BDP range

I want to access my external hard drive that is plugged in to the USB port on my Bluray player via the TV. In theory this should be done via DNLA as both products have that feature. 

But the TV finds and lists the Bluray player as a media server. It says it is connected. But I can only see the folders on the hard drive and when I select a folder, it says no media is stored. 

But when I go through the Bluray player directly. The Bluray player can access it all properly and I can view all the folders and files. 

Last night I tried plugging the external hard drive directly into the TV via the USB port. Then the TV can view all folders and files properly. 

So to me that indicates the issue isn’t the hard drive or file formats. As both devices can view them when the hard drive is plugged directly into them. The issue seems to be with sharing the files via the network. Its like the files are not transferring over the network but the folders are.   

They are standard Jpeg (pictures) and MP4 (videos) file types. 

[rawpowerocks]

I have just added a more in depth reply above

[royabrown2]

@rawpowerocks 

Operating at the raw edge of my expertise, and open to peer review by anyone who knows better, I think the TV can’t see or play the files on the USB, as it is a DAS (Direct Attached Storage) device, which relies on the smarts in the BDP for its files to be playable by the BDP.

It is not a NAS (Network Attached Storage) device, which it needs to be to offer its files to the TV if the intermediating BDP is playing a passive role here.

This does not explain why the TV can see the folders, but not the contents of them, nor does it quite resolve why the BDP, which can see and play the files, isn’t making them available to the TV.

But either DNLA does not cover such a three-device path, or the BDP isn’t capable of being a Digital Media Server to the TV as Digital Media Player, and can only act as a Digital Media Player to the TV as a Digital Media Renderer.

i.e. the clue may be in your very first post here ‘I want to use the Bluray player as a media server to the TV’, and it simply isn’t capable of doing that, only of being able to operate as a media player.

But the BDP can play any of the files for you on the TV; why not just let it do that? 😛

[rawpowerocks]

I think you are correct. I was expecting it to work in a slightly different way. But I have just re-read the description on the Sony site. It says this…

What is the DLNA feature?

Digital Living Network Alliance or DLNA-certified devices allow you to share content between devices around your house over your home Wi-Fi network. For example, you can set up your VAIO computer as a DLNA server and access music, video and photos on your TV.

So I read this as that if you have a DLNA server, you can send your files from it, to your TV.

My TV is listing my bluray player as being a media server. And through the TV I was actually able to access the external hard drive (which is plugged in to the bluray player), and see the folders stored on it, but the TV couldn’t find the files stored on it. Which I found odd. Especially when the TV can play the files when I plug the hard drive directly in to it. But on re-reading the Sony description it also says this… 

How does DLNA work?

DLNA compatible devices can be connected to a home network just like a computer or smartphone. Once the connection is established, you can browse selected folders on your media server PC right from your TV screen. You can select music to listen to, or photos and videos to watch.

In this part it states the files need to be stored on a ‘media server PC’, which my bluray is not. Its obviously a bluray player not a PC. So I think the 2 devices are, what I would say talking to each other, because they are both DLNA and thats why I could see the folders. But they just aren't talking to each other fully, because the bluray player is not a PC. 

[TheMaze]

Hi,

Yes, as royabrown2 said, the TV and the Blu-ray player are just players. They cannot render files over the network or act as a media server to other devices over the network. Unlike PCs or NAS systems, which can be configured to be media servers that can render their contents over network to other media players.

[rawpowerocks]

Yes. What caused my confusion was the fact the TV was finding the Bluray player and actually listing it as a media server. But regardless, it doesn’t work lol

[royabrown2]

@rawpowerocks 

I think the BDP may well be a media server when it comes to anything you load in the slot; but not to anything on the USB drive, which is a dumb passive device, a DAS but not a NAS.