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!

[dradel]

The BDP-S370 can play many video files without transcoding over DLNA, if the server changes the mimetype so that they are presented as .avi files. My PC is not fast, so transcoding is not really an option. I use a modified PS Media Server to do this. I have had to transcode .m4a files to wav/lpcm though.

[cracle]

I agree with the cover art addition. It is such a small ask but bugs me so much. I should get out more.

I have a 32 inch dlna enabled tv on the shopping list for the bedroom and I have to say that for the first time the Samsung is pulling my money away from the sony that in the past I would have bought without thinking.

I, like many out there I am sure, have tried various methods of serving the music in the hope that one would bring up the cover art. I currently use twonky on my qnap and it performs well.

Another thing for me is also the mkv support although I am almost 100% certain that just before xmas I played an MKV with no trouble. The problem is I upgrade/downgrade modify twonky so much that I can't remember where I was at and even if the firmware on my BDP-S570 has changed. Can anyone else confirm success on serving an MKV via DLNA to the 570 or was I imagining it.

Actually, I can't be imagining it 'cos I only had the film in MKV format and I defo watched it on via the 570. The kids confirm it.

Apart from that, I love the 570. Please give us itvplayer and 4od

Remember to add tags when you post as it makes searching easier for us all.

[dazpayne]

How about the ability to delete files from the server directly from the player could just be added into the options features that we already have 

[DHatfield]

Alexeaster, I have the same situation with my S370, which, as you say, is advertised on the Sony website as "DLNA Client (DMP/DMR): Yes".  Tech support told me this was just an error in the spec sheet and there is no plan to update the firmware to make up for this mistake, and that they would correct the spec sheet.  6 months later it is still advertised this way.

Putting this continuing lie to the side, DMR really would be a great feature. 

[haydenwright]

Hi Folks,

I would love support for flac or at least wma and m4a available over dlna and not just mp3, I know it also supports wav over dlna but there is no id tag support for wav and the file size is larger.

Oh and artwork support for music files not just CD/DVD/BD's.

Regards

Hayden

[patters98]

The good news for those who use their BDP as a DLNA music player is that with upcoming version 0.5.1 of  Serviio DLNA server, audio decoding to LPCM is supported, meaning you will be able to play FLAC, M4A, and OGG files without a quality degrading transcode to MP3.

[Mr_Rawit]

It would be nice to have PGS subtitle support for M2TS files and the like, it's now only supported by connecting a device to the USB port of some TV's, not by streaming it through DLNA. SRT support would be great too!

I hope that some of the features/suggestions mentioned in this thread make their way into new firmware for all current DLNA devices.

[Catmambo]

Thanks for these - I'm working with the guys from Serviio to better understand how Sony DLNA implemetation is lacking and how we can improve it, so this feedback is very useful.

Thanks

[edwleigh]

A useful feature of DLNA that I'd love to see implemented (and which is already implemented on Samsung TVs) is the 'Play To' feature. It's a push facility that means you can 'drive' the Blu-Ray player from a computer, taking advantage of the more powerful user interface of, say, Windows Media Player. You just select a track or play list, select 'Play to ...' and it is sent to the selected device to play.

See DLNA press release and How it Works.

[beck0s]

I am glad you consider improving DLNA implementation on Sony's products. I an especially a fan of Playstation 3 and I feel very frustrated because inspite of being such a powerful DMR it lacks so many features such: lack of support for some media containers and codecs (MKV, ISO, FLAC, etc.), lack of support for external subtitle files, and many other.

I second to that Serviio Media Server is an excelent Media Server which will grow into a robust product shortly. Unfortunately, Playstation 3 supports so little media files that streaming to it is like trying to fill a swimming pool through a drinking straw.

Sony, please open Plastation 3 to streams and improve your DLNA player and renderer capability! Make Playstation 3 a media hub as you promised, otherwise we will soon have to migrate outside Sony's more and more restrictive producs, towards more friendly ones such Boxee Box, WDTV, etc.

Thank you!