My Humax Forum » Freeview HD » HDR 1800T, 2000T

2000T DLNA head scratcher

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    Faust

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    I have got a real head scratcher here. Scenario - I want to watch a programme recorded on my 2000T via my Panasonic HWT120 PVR in another part of my house.

    Both machines are DLNA compliant, both can act as server and client. I select the programme I wish to watch via my home network with the Panasonic acting as client, the programme residing on the 2000T. I press play on the Panasonic and the programme starts. Picture quality is very good, however, there is no audio for at least thirty seconds. Following this the only audio that can be heard are tiny bursts of broken sound, lasting milliseconds, so eventually I give up.

    This is where it gets even stranger. Once I have tried to stream a programme from the 2000T to the Panasonic I then have no audio on the 2000T either. The only way I can get audio back on the 2000T is to shut it down and then start it up again.

    It doesn't matter how many times I have tried it and with various recordings both the Panasonic and the Humax are affected in the same way every time.

    I am using Homeplugs for my network along with a 5 port unmanaged gigabit network switch. The TV, and 2 Humax PVRs are fed into the gigabit switch which in turn is fed to the Homeplug. This setup works without issue. All devices are configured to PCM stereo.

    Can anyone figure this one as I am stumped.

    | Sun 15 Mar 2015 19:16:59 #1 |
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    damian

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    two things I'd try...

    1) unplug the 2000t from the gigabit switch and plug the 2000t directly into the homeplug, presumably the panasonic is plugged directly into the other homeplug. this is just for testing purposes to see if the problems persist.

    2) get the panasonic and 2000t plugged into the same gigabit switch and test, presumably it'll be easier to move the panasonic.

    this way you'll have ruled in/out the network as best you can, leaving software incompatibility to look at next if the above tests don't prove anything.
    Presumably you've factory reset both boxes, although I can't imagine that making much difference, but you never know.

    | Sun 15 Mar 2015 19:58:44 #2 |
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    Faust

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    I'll try the Homeplug to Homeplug idea tomorrow as the wife is in the middle of Poldark and I'm presently forbidden from all but breathing.

    It really is odd though as one might assume video might be an issue but not audio.

    | Sun 15 Mar 2015 21:02:12 #3 |
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    Faust

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    What really has me puzzled is why or how this is managing to disable the audio on the 2000T.

    One could accept that the Panasonic may have an incompatibility issue playing material from the 2000T but how that is able to disable the 2000T audio requiring a reboot is the mystery.

    | Sun 15 Mar 2015 22:43:53 #4 |
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    Faust

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    Update - I have tried what Damien suggested, i.e. plugged the 2000T straight into the Homeplug bypassing the Gigabit switch - absolutely no difference whatsoever.

    I have tried resets - again no difference. What I have tried which I didn't yesterday is using the Panasonic TV as a server (it does have that capability). I inserted a USB stick containing various TV programmes into the TV and then selected the Panasonic TV USB stick from the list of servers on the Panasonic HWT120 over the network.

    Every programme I tried played immediately in good quality and with full audio.

    I then went back to using the Gigabit switch and repeated the experiment. Again material played from the TV to HWT120 no problems but again with the 2000T no audio for the first 30 seconds then short millisecond bursts of broken audio. However, for some odd reason the sound from the 2000T input is not being disabled today whereas it was yesterday?

    I should say that the TV audio uses a Playbar via the TVs optical so the Panasonic TVs own speakers are permanently disabled. All devices use the Playbar for audio.

    There must be some sort of incompatibility between the Humax and the HWT120, it can't be anything else as I have proved the network isn't at fault by playing material from the Panasonic TV to the Panasonic PVR.

    | Mon 16 Mar 2015 16:40:12 #5 |
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    damian

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    Faust - 17 hours ago  » 
    Update - I have tried what Damien suggested, i.e. plugged the 2000T straight into the Homeplug bypassing the Gigabit switch - absolutely no difference whatsoever.

    Thanks Faust, for completeness; ideally you should move and try the hwt120 with the humax both in the same gigabit switch and nothing else plugged into the switch, set manual ip's and reboot both. I had an old 5 port gigabit switch that managed to block dlna, took me a while to figure out, I don't think that's the problem though.

    Easier to try first, not too sure if you've done it already is to switch off dlna server on both the TV and hwt120. Half of the idea of isolating the network was to rule out all other devices, including the router that may have dlna, from upsetting the humax.
    In fact switch off all dlna servers except for the humax and switch off viera link and reboot.

    most people recommend using dhcp and setting a mac address in the router. Personally I'm old school, have a small dhcp pool for portable/temporary devices and fixed ip's logically arranged for any fixed devices. This makes it easier to diagnose and allows easier separation of other portable devices such as tablets, smart phones that probably have dlna and could be causing problems with the humax unbeknown.

    I suppose it's no surprise that the panasonic tv and panasonic hwt120 are compatible via dlna. It was useful to rule out the homeplugs (only would be 100% ruled out with moving the hwt120 directly to the gigabit switch, but safe to assume it's not the homeplugs unless you have more than two of them). I'd imagine it's a combination of the hwt120's dlna server, the tv's dlna server and viera link causing the humax to have problems and I think it's pretty clear that it's the humax that does have problems with your particular setup. I trust some of this makes sense and will give you a few ideas from another perspective.

    | Tue 17 Mar 2015 10:33:45 #6 |
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    Faust

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    Sorry Damian I should have said in my post, I moved the Panasonic and sat it on top of the 2000T and connected those two only through the Gigabit switch but it didn't help. It is odd though that the audio is no longer being disabled coming via the 2000T to the Playbar when I try to use the DLNA.

    TBH and with hindsight (a wonderful thing) I wish I had simply gone for another Panasonic PVR instead of the Humax. The likelihood is all the kit would then have played nicely together.

    What dissuaded me from getting another Panasonic is the fact that if a recording is due to start then you cannot use the network at the same time so anything you may be watching is abruptly interrupted.

    | Tue 17 Mar 2015 11:41:52 #7 |
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    damian

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    Faust - 5 minutes ago  » 
    What dissuaded me from getting another Panasonic is the fact that if a recording is due to start then you cannot use the network at the same time so anything you may be watching is abruptly interrupted.

    That's quite a problem.

    have a play with switching off viera and dlna servers, there should be a method of getting everything to work as you want. Trial and error unfortunately.

    | Tue 17 Mar 2015 11:51:21 #8 |
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    Faust

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    I have done a bit more research on this issue Damian which has left me more puzzled.

    When I have looked again at the material attempting to play from the 2000T to my HWT120, I have noticed a slight jerkiness with the video playback, almost like a slow-mo effect. This appears to happen in sync with the short bursts of audio.

    Now one might conclude that this is a bandwidth issue either with the 2000T or the HWT120 or even the Homeplugs. However, the HWT120 will quite happily stream HD material to my TV without any buffering problems. The 2000T will play HD material streamed from my NAS. Just to be on the safe side I have even swapped the Homeplugs around.

    It doesn't matter what I do (I have tried disabling an re-enabling DLNA on both machines) material streamed from the 2000T to the HWT120 simply won't play properly.

    I am going to try streaming from the HWT120 to the 2000T later (when the 120 has finished recording a programme).

    | Tue 17 Mar 2015 15:19:07 #9 |
  10. grahamlthompson

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    Faust - 5 minutes ago  » 
    I have done a bit more research on this issue Damian which has left me more puzzled.
    When I have looked again at the material attempting to play from the 2000T to my HWT120, I have noticed a slight jerkiness with the video playback, almost like a slow-mo effect. This appears to happen in sync with the short bursts of audio.
    Now one might conclude that this is a bandwidth issue either with the 2000T or the HWT120 or even the Homeplugs. However, the HWT120 will quite happily stream HD material to my TV without any buffering problems. The 2000T will play HD material streamed from my NAS. Just to be on the safe side I have even swapped the Homeplugs around.
    It doesn't matter what I do (I have tried disabling an re-enabling DLNA on both machines) material streamed from the 2000T to the HWT120 simply won't play properly.
    I am going to try streaming from the HWT120 to the 2000T later (when the 120 has finished recording a programme).

    What framerate is the content you are having issues with ?

    | Tue 17 Mar 2015 15:25:40 #10 |

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