Vizio TV DLNA/streaming issues

[VictorWardJohnson]

I have 2 Vizio "smart" TVs (TV1: E420i-A0, TV2: E322AR) which are both behaving in the same way. I also stream media through an Xbox 360, which I only mention for troubleshooting comparison.

I have all my media files hosted on what I'll call PC1 (windows 7 pro, streaming with Windows Media Player libraries).

I copied all those media files to a new machine PC2 (windows home server, a flavor of XP, which is running HP Media Smart Home Server software).

Both TVs and the Xbox can play all my media off PC1, no problems.

Neither TV will play anything off PC2, though. You can see the DLNA listed and you can browse it and you can see the folder structure and it will display all the videos by name and file extension but it simply does nothing when you try to play them.

Xbox CAN play everything off the PC2 with no issue.

I've contacted Vizio and they just say there's "something wrong with PC2". I've installed K-Lite Mega Codec Pack. I've turned off firewalls on PC2, I've shared folders with full permissions for "Everyone". I just cannot guess why either Vizio will play files off PC2 even though it "sees" them.

 

[Alabalcho]

That "HP MediaSmart Server software" is most probably the very old Windows Home Server (based on Windows Server 2003), which is two generations before Windows 7' MCE, and that server does not do any transcoding, and probably your Vizio does not recognize it.

Download a trial version of any modern DLNA server (I have good results with this one, but there are many others), and see how your TVs are working with them.

 

[jsmithepa]

I agree with Alabalcho.

 

[VictorWardJohnson]

That "HP MediaSmart Server software" is most probably the very old Windows Home Server (based on Windows Server 2003), which is two generations before Windows 7' MCE, and that server does not do any transcoding, and probably your Vizio does not recognize it.

I'm not trying to argue, just understand this whole mess. Why would my Xbox be able to play videos off the Windows Home Server machine? Does the Xbox do the transcoding in that relationship?

 

[VictorWardJohnson]

Also, I did put TVersity on there and now my TV won't even list the .avi files. It just shows almost all my folders as empty.

It WILL list and play .mp4 and .wmv, but my entire library is liek 95% .avi. Seems like TVersity should run such a common format. and I did set it to "always transcode", no luck.

 

[Alabalcho]

Your XBox has much more powerfull processor, probably more codecs, and can do its own transcoding.

As for why Vizio's don't see .AVIs off TVersity - that's a good question to ask at TVersity forums.

 

[jackie_1]

I've been doing this for years on mine. Took some trail and error and some help with the head of vizio's multimedia support. Try TV MOBILI media server. Works for Avi, MKV, MP4, etc. I can play them all. Just hit the multimedia button on the remote, and then connect to TV MOBILLI after you install it. IN the profile for TV MOBILLI, select vizio-client.