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!

[specialist-convergence]

Hi All

DNLA feature are mainly controlled by your Server package, I use Mezzmo, to date I found i had more control on what i could play, when using HD files this package with Transcode to MPEG2_TS giving me full 1080p via Cable 1080i via WiFi, I have no issue with any format on my PC as it does not matter if it is supported by the player or not, the Server will only send in the supported formats for the products profile, which with the current models includes Divx, as for thumb nails, this is not available in the current range and I don’t believe it can be added just by Software updates.  This feature including many others will be added to the next range following Customer feed back please keep an eye out for the new 80 series announcements coming soon.

[patters98]

Hi Catmambo, yes I can see how major code additions like SRT subs support are possibly wishful thinking. However, subtitle support on BBC iPlayer could be a possibility?

The lack of JPEG_TN thumbnails is crazy, since the BDP DLNA client will render them for photos - so the code is already in the firmware, not to mention that older products from 2009 like my Bravia TV will show thumbnails for all media types.

I'll second the recommendation to use Serviio as a DLNA server - excellent and free. I helped create the Serviio device profile for Sony BDP units in fact. Hopefully it will be included in the forthcoming v0.5 so people don't have to have to read too many forum posts.

[AmmPee]

One thing more about Santa's wishlist :

Why S370's DLNA player send all the videos a frequency of 60Hz to TV,  although source video was shot in a frequency of 50Hz or 25Hz. This  applies to all videos from a network or USB. This is a really stupid  feature, which causes the video to be jerky. The only option is to drop  the hdmi sending to 570p when the video is smooth but the resolution far  from the hd. Hopefully this will be corrected soon !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Tweed-Man]

Can I add to calls for an upgrade to be made to allow .m4a files and other common formats to be read on NAS devices. It is infuriating that the kit is badged as made for ipod yet does not support the native apple formats used by audiophiles who sensibly store their collections on NAS devices.

[wmeens]

First off, thank you for your replies and looking into collecting our suggestions & wishlist.

One thing I was not counting on when buying the latest Sony home cinema set, was the lack of NTFS or exFAT support- while the site states USB support without any warning that only legacy FAT16 and FAT32 is supported.

Having NTFS, exFAT or even EXT3 support is highest on my list, as HD file content often passes the 4GB per file limit.

Unlike PS3, trying to get new features added to existing products can be a little challenging unfortunately. Whereas Playstation engineering is focussed on basically one or two products. Electronics engineering work much harder at supporting many more products across various categories

Just having bought Sony's high end BDV iz1000w, this is not an acceptable standpoint to me. The thought that there will be no further development to the software capabilities this model, even though possible through firmware updates, makes me feel I have pulled a short straw with a steep price tag to go with it.

Such a standpoint more importantly makes a Sony’s added value very weak compared to other vendors that do put effort into adding value to existing models (expanding on codecs and available options), especially on high end models.

The BDV iz1000w is my first Sony purchase, as I am planning to further expand and replace my current home system setup. Having read this thread really puts a damper on the choice to further expand with Sony products.  I see it as a serious shortcoming.

So I really hope the feedback of this thread and other helps in changing Sony’s policy on maintaining and updating current products to a more acceptable one that fits modern customers needs.

It will definitely give Sony a stronger sales argument as also show Sony's commitment to produce products with longlivity and durability.

Sincerely,

W. Meens

[Catmambo]

New BRAVIA Internet Video Services are thankfully independent of the product hardware cycle and so get pushed out whn the contracts are signed etc, but software updates to the platform *generally* focus on critical bug fixing rather than feature additions as these normally get put forward for the next generation of products.

So please continue to post/pm me suggestions/requests and I can certainly put them forward.

Thanks

[fredfickle]

My Dlna Sony tv does not see my laptop  on my wireless home server although my laptop sees the Tv ??

the connection is ok but when I press update to find the lappy nothing so any idea what could be wrong?

Cheers

[alexeaster]

The big, overriding feature i'd really like to see Sony get fixed up is the actual inclusion of DLNA DMR support so that the device can function as a DLNA Renderer, not just a DLNA Player.

This functionality is clearly advertised on Sony's website, the manual for the S570 (and so presumably the entire range) and was also confirmed as existing by a Sony Centre employee (though I do have a suspicion with hindsight that he didn't really have a clue what the difference between DLNA DMP and DMR is, and was just trying to blag a sale) and is the reason I bought myself an S570 over a similar Samsung product - Despite all of this however, DMP functionality is entirely missing from the device, and having contacted Sony support about it who escalated the query to be looked at it was then confirmed via a call back a few days later that DMP support is in fact *not* provided with any of the current players and with no plans to add it, and its' absence is apparently simply that it's not there, rather than it being included but broken.

Despite this acknowledgement weeks ago, the product spec page on the Sony website still clearly advertises both DMP and DMR DLNA support, when the latter is an outright lie.

While the lack of DMR support isnt enough for me to return the device as otherwise i'm happy with it and competing Samsung players don't provide DMR support either, the fact that my purchase of the Sony rather than Samsung product was based on this additional nonexistant feature which I wanted is very irksome, and all the more so to have been told by Sony that they don't have any plans to provide DMR support via an update.

[jezzer99]

Err ! Do you have a clue what the difference is either !

According to http://www.dlna.org/digital_living/devices/ a DMR [video] device has to have a display. Don't usually find these on a disk player; that's what the TV's for.

Digital Media Renderer (DMR😞

These devices play content received from a digital media  controller (DMC), which will find content from a  digital  media server (DMS).

Examples: TVs, audio/video receivers, video  displays and remote speakers for music.

[alexeaster]

Thanks, but i'm fully aware of what a DMR is. Here's the lesson for you:

A DMR doesn't need to have *its own* display in any way, it just needs the ability to output the content broadcast to it by a DLNA DMS, which a blu-ray player does via the television/stereo it's hooked up to. Your own link to the DLNA alliance's page clearly shows this, how many A/V receivers (mentioned in their examples of DMR devices) do you know with their own displays or speakers? Bingo, none, because DMR's can be hooked up to televisions or speakers exactly the same as DMP's.

A prime example to demonstrate this is WD TV's range of products - These all function as DMR's as well as DMP's, and I dont see any of them featuring their own screens.

Edit: An even more ubiquitous example is an xbox 360 in extender mode, which functions perfectly as a DMR - How many xbox's do you know of that have their own screens?

Message was edited by: alexeaster