Linkstation Media Server Dissapointment

[tbr]

   

I have just bought a Linkstation model number LS-CHL F/W 1.02 and have to say I'm very dissapointed with the media server, specially as it's the only reason I bought the device. I bought it as a replacement for a lacie drive that had a media server that I used for watching my video on my Xbox360.

 

Now using this Linkstation half of my media doesn't even show up on the Xbox360, and out of the one's that do show up more than half of them will not play, they have the circle with a line through and the Xbox360 does'nt even show a play button when they are selected.

 

Now I know the Xbox360 can play these movie files, if I put the same media on a USB stick or even stream it from my macbook using Connect360 then they play fine, it's only using my new Linkstation that they won't work.

 

So I compared two files, one that would play on the xbox and one that wouldn't, The file that would play was encoded as follows,

 

H.264, 480x272. AAC Stereo(L R) 48.000.

FPS: 25fps  

Data Rate: 1094.26

 

Nothing out of the ordinary for an iPod Touch formatted video file.

 

The file that would NOT play is encoded as,

 

H.264, 480x272. AAC Stereo(L R) 48.000.

FPS: 23.98fps

Data Rate: 1139.94 

 

As you can see, they are both very similar and I don't believe the small difference in the file would cause the problems I'm having.

 

So whats going on? Do I have a faulty Linkstation or is the media server THAT bad, if it is a case of the media server not actually serving the media then I think I'm going to be sending it back, which is dissapointing.

[Paul]

What is the firmware version that you have on the unit?  Also what region did you purchase the unit in?

[tbr]

   As stated in the post above my firmware is 1.02, the latest one available to download from the website, and I'm in the UK. Thanks.

[Paul]

I will load that firmware on one of our units and see if I can replicate the error, I know the US is planning on releasing a firmware in mid December.  I will post again after I run some tests.

 

[tbr]

   Thanks

[tbr]

   Any news?

[Paul]

I am not able to get the release date for the UK yet, however the US firmware should be out in mid December

[tbr]

   but will this firmware actually solve the media server problems?

[matthestar]

   

Try this in your browser:
http://linkstationip:9050

It will bring up the Twonky Media Server (PCast) web interface and you can change some settings in here. You can also browse the DLNA server from a web interface which is handy to check what files are being detected. Try looking in the music folder and see if the files have been put in there. I had problems with my server reading h264 mp4 videos as music files because of issues with the format of the audio. Consuequently the files were being streamed to my ps3 as music and could not be played as videos! A work arround for this was to change the file extension to .mpg which *tricks* the server into seeing it as a video file. The PS3 has no problems with this but I'm not sure about the 360.

Message Edited by matthestar on 12-13-2008 04:10 PM

[tbr]

   

Thanks for the info, I've had a fiddle with twonky, gone through all the setting but nothing has changed. Tried the manual rename, but that didn't help.

 

Now I may have shed some light on the situation. After manually going through the files while playing with twonky etc I have discovered that the files that will not play on the 360 were all encoded using the brilliant visualhub using the ipod touch settings. The files that will play all seem to have been created using Handbrake. Therefore the problem may lie in the 360's ability to view certain files via twonky. As the files that will not play via twonky will play of a USB key.

 

This is all very annoying. Oh and writing to the linkstation is unbelievably slow on OSX btw.