Unable to connect Linkstation LS-WTGL to Samsung TV -- both DLNA compliant?

[mediajunkie1234]

   

Here's my situation:

 

Buffalo Linkstation Pro Duo LS-WTGL, firmware 3.09

Samsung UN46B7000 LED TV, firmware 2009/02/25_001005

 

As far as I know, these devices have the most current firmware.

 

Both devices are connected 100BT ethernet to a Netgear switch on the same subnet. I loaded a few music, picture and video files on the Linkstation and shared them out in the Media Server section of the web admin interface. The LS shows Media Server is running. I have tried to "Refresh client list" on the LS and I cannot see my TV come up as in the "Authorized DLNA Media Client" list. On the TV side, I can't see the Linkstation as a media server.

 

Both devices are advertised as "DLNA certified" yet they don't appear to see one another. I know that the networking is set up properly because if I run the Samsung PC Share Manager software on a PC on my network, Share Manager can see the TV immediately and I can stream media from Share Manager to the TV just fine.

 

The only reason I bought the Linkstation is that I thought it would work as a DLNA server for my TV. Sure it works if I run the Samsung PC Share Manager software, but I don't want to have a leave a PC running to share my media. That's what the Linkstation is supposed to do.

 

Any ideas?

[akey]

   

I am facing the same problem and bought the Linstation LSCHL 1TB as it was DLNA compatible. I have a Samsung LN40B650.. and both cant seem to connect.

 

I have a thread running on this to help me out 

[mediajunkie1234]

   

I read your thread on this, but you seem to be closer to a solution than mine. My TV is not able to see the Linkstation as a DLNA server. The Linkstation cannot see the TV as a media client. It sounds like you can at least hit the DLNA server from the TV. I can't even get that far.

 

Can someone from Buffalo respond please?

[Dustrega]

You read the thread, but did you try any of the suggestions? Initialization of the NAS?

[mediajunkie1234]

   

Yes, I have tried initializing (btw, Maintenance->Initialization is actually "Reset LinkStation Configuration to Factory Defaults" with a "Restore" button). I have done a forced firmware update using 3.09 (lsupdater shows FW 3.09-0.02).

 

No change. I can click the "Refresh Client List" in the Media Server section until the cows come home and my TV still does not show up on the media client list.

[mediajunkie1234]

   

As a sidenote, the Samsung UN46B7000 TV is listed at the DLNA website (http://www.dlna.org/products) as being DLNA certified and there is a PDF certificate and a certification ID that it has passed testing by the Alliance. Even though the Buffalo website lists their products as DLNA Certified, the only products listed at dlna.org are some of the older Linkstation products (HS-D and HS-DH series). NONE of the newer products are listed as being DLNA certified.

 

So...?

[Dustrega]

I am investigating this matter. Thank you for bringing that to my attention.

[mediajunkie1234]

   

Thank you Dustrega for pushing this up the support chain.

 

After a long night, I was finally able to get my TV to talk to the Linkstation. The key was other posts that I've read about how this unit is supposed to respond via port 9050. Mine did not at first. After reading posts on other forums, I was able to remote into the Linkstation and login as root. I then did a manual start of the twonky script. After that, the Linkstation Media Server screen picked up the TV as a media client. The NAS also responded HTTP to port 9050 and I was able to do additional configuration. This action is verboten so I'm not directly posting how I did this. However, it's not big secret and a search online will get you directions. Knowledge of *nix is also a plus.

 

I suspect, but can't prove, is that out of the box, my new Linkstation did not start twonky correctly. In fact, the first time I remoted in, I logged in as admin rather than root and was not able to properly stop or start twonky. When I logged in as root and started twonky, I believe it went through the startup as if it had never started before (creating ini files, etc). Once started properly with all config files built, everything was fine. The Linkstation has been restarted sever times since then and the media server always starts normally.

 

The other problem is more of a twonky-samsung issue. It appears that Samsung TVs are not on the twonky client list. Accessing the twonky web admin, it identified the TV as a "generic DLNA client", which is pretty limited. Again, with the help of other forums, I was able to create a Samsung TV section in the twonky clients.db file. FW 3.09 is using twonky 4.4.8 and it does not directly list Samsung TV as a client. I downloaded twonky 4.4.17 to look at the files and it does not have a Samsung TV client listed either.

 

The remaining issue is that my TV can't seem to play audio mp3s. When I get a chance, I need to dig around some more to figure out exactly what changes to clients.db I need to make the TV play mp3 music. Incidently, the TV can play mp3s just fine from a USB drive or when streamed DNLA from the Samsung PC Share Manager.

 

So, I guess the place for Buffalo to start looking at this issue is whether brand new, out of the box Linkstation Pro Duos running FW 3.09 are running twonky properly (units listening on port 9050).Mine was not and I certainly should not have had to go through the hack-foo that I did to make this work. The other thing, of course, is to bring twonky 5 into the firmware. While I've not looked at this version, I would assume it has support for more clients.

[stevepow]

   

I am having a similar problem with my Denon 3808 - Doesn't show up in the client list no matter what I do (well, I have not hacked into it...really don't want to have to do that).

 

 

[stevepow]

   

Ah - just got it:

 

(x)Refresh now (x)Initialize database before refresh  / Apply

 

Voila!

Message Edited by stevepow on 07-20-2009 03:36 AM