DLNA firmware improvement wishlist

[patters98]

Just thought since this forum is monitored by Sony staff that it would be a good way to pass some customer feedback up the chain to the developers.

Though I imagine not many people use the DLNA features of their Sony Bluray players at the moment, I'll start by saying that this, together with BBC iPlayer, was my main reason for buying the player.

The issue for Sony is that most DLNA server software is bad, so interoperability complaints tend to fall on deaf ears. However, I have tried many servers (Windows Media Player, PS3 Media Server, Mezzmo, Wild Media Server, and finally the excellent and free Serviio). While trying to improve PS3 Media Server I ended up working with the source and taking packet captures to analyze the traffic. I also have a Bravia TV with DLNA from 2009 and have been able to make comparisons with that.

By and large the Sony DLNA renderer built into the BDP products is very good, but there are some fairly minor things which hold it back from being perfect. Here's the wishlist:

1. Thumbnail artwork support for media other than photos using the JPEG_TN resource. Inexplicably this is missing on BDP units, despite being enabled on my Bravia TV which is one year older. Again I have compared many DLNA servers and packet captures so I can see that the resources are definitely presented to the player correctly - it's just ignoring them.
2. Subtitle support in MPEG program streams (VOB files in other words). The player supports these from disc, but not via DLNA - which is an odd decision since they are supported from MKV files over DLNA. This stops us being able to enjoy foreign movies over DLNA.
3. SRT subtitle file support. This falls outside the DLNA spec, though should not be too hard to implement. Samsung have done this for their latest products I believe.

Compared to how complex the whole firmware must be, I'm guessing that to implement these changes would not be a huge undertaking. Given that you seem to use a unified DLNA stack for the whole family of players any fixes here would improve a huge range of Sony products. The whole DLNA space is virtually unknown to most consumers right now and people I have shown my BDP setup to are amazed that something so cheap can be a full blown media centre - several of them have gone straight out and bought one. Iron out these small imperfections and this players' versatility and the simplicity of the XMB interface will allow Sony to lead the way.

The other minor thing which would make a nice difference would be to have the subtitle button on the Bravia TV remote carry out that same function on the BDP. Then I'd pretty much never need the BDP remote at all, which should surely be an important design objective. I seriously favoured buying a Sony disc player to avoid having completely different remotes!

[patters98]

No problem. Glad I can get the feedback to the right people! How likely are improvements to firmware for current products? The thumbnail fix really is trivial, given that the code is already in there to show them for photos. Remember it's the server that provides the thumbnail JPEG not the player.

Having just spent some time trying to convert some subtitles from a DVD disc to SRT I now realize that my second suggestion is not practical, since the .IFO file in the folder with the VOB files contains the subtitle timings. Trying to play all that over DLNA would be pretty much impossible.

[Catmambo]

Thanks for this - a very timely posting as we are working on lineup requests for 2012 products at the moment so I will make sure your suggestions get put forward.

Warm regards

[gpapathanassiou]

The support for SRT files will be very useful.

Moreover, is any possibility with a firmware update to obtain support for NTFS files through USB? As you know the FAT is not support files over 4GB and all HD videos are well above this limit. 

[riverrunner]

Thumbnails don't seem to be supported for 2010 TVs but this is a minor fail compared to not being able to access subtitles.  Alternative audio tracks mostly don't seem to work either.  This is on EX703 TV and on BDP-E370.

[Catmambo]

Could try using Serviio as it hints towards supporting  subtitles over DLNA..?

http://www.serviio.org/features

Thanks

[peteralmgill]

Can I just add my support for some of the things mentioned.

I appreciate that more time is spent on adding new features to new products, but in premium brands such as Sony there is an expectation that you will not be abandoned as soon as you buy the product. DNLA is also one of the reasons that I was attracted to this product, having seen the XMB in a PS3.

• Given that thumbnails are already generated by the server, I would really appreciate them being displayed by the client.

Also, I spent a while trying to understand why my blu-ray player, that stated it played .mkv and .mp4 with no problems did not play .mkv and .mp4 - then I found a little *5 in the manual that lead to a note that these were not played via DLNA

• Enable .mkv and .mp4 support for DLNA

These are my suggestions, hope they get fed back - and please do strongly reccomend keeping this player up-to-date and well as bug fixes! In theory the things mentioned above strictly speaking are not bugs but rather omisions from what one could expect to be full and comparable DLNA support.

Thanks

Peter

[wibweb]

I now have 3 Sony TVs all with network access. top .. nice.
I have cable TV. and they do with the "constant" to be throwing around the canals. I'mgetting tired of sorting programs on TV set

Now there is network connector. how about alittle app where you can sort from PC directly. and possibly upload all your Sony TV ..

[planetf1a · Accepted solution]

A very simple one from me -- allow navigation through the DLNA music tree whilst continuing to play the existing track. My N900 Nokia phone has no trouble doing this, yet my sony bluray player cannot. Perfect for parties.

Would be great to also allow creation of playlists (locally) or at a minimum a local play queue.

[peteralmgill]

I notice that 4OD and ITV have appeared on the PS3, which is encouraging!

It would be nice if these could be added to the player along with thumbnails for audio and video (not just photos as is the case now)

Also, do we know the reason why the HD blu-ray player will not play HD from my DNLA server? It seems odd given the very HD nature of the product!!

Peter