T3 plays 'em all - so far...

[nylonnet]

Last night I spent an onerous couple of hours with red wine and a T3 trying to see what codecs would kill it.

- It played my Breaking Bad 2GB MKVs without a stutter. Major bonus!
- It happily streamed R.E.M. FLAC from my NAS, which my S1 would never do.
- In fact it has (so far) played all of the videos that I keep in my "Wiz Killer" directory - the folder I use to store media files that cause the S1 to choke and require a reset only accomplished with a 240 volt disconnect. This folder contains the hard-core criminal files that only my WD TV Live would play.

I did have a few black screens of death but they were more related to networking and plugin issues. I must start documenting those from now on.

My next task is to check the T3's ability with handling subtitles embedded in MKV containers.
I may need to invest in more Cab Merlot for that...

[Krusty]

My next task is to check the T3's ability with handling subtitles embedded in MKV containers.

Love to know the answer to this one thanks nylonnet & thanks for the other info!

[netmask]

While you are at it try a mkv with chapters and 2 audio tracks. You can readily add chapters to mkv files with a piece of freeware "chapterize" awful American spelling but it works without re- encoding and only takes a few minutes..
http://cyb3rh4xter.wordpress.com/mkvc/
Beware of mkv files with header compression but can be eliminated by running the file through MkvMergeGui and checking that header compression is off. Some earlier versions had it default on. Takes a few minutes to do...

[BigbobOz]

You didn't find that some files just fail to show up in the file player list? Have some mkv's that are MIA. Most show but some don't...may be file size, the two I have noticed are over 3gb

Have you got some you can check against?

[BigbobOz]

Can see them in 'File Commander' but the T3 claims they're .m3u files???

Plus there are files listed that have been moved from this location at least a week ago. Anyone know how to refresh the list? Help is giving me nothing

[DigbyChickenCeasar]

I experienced the .m3u problem when viewing folders on PC via several DLNA programs (Mezzmo / Serviio / PS3). Ultimately I uninstalled the DLNA apps on the PC and installed PLEX on PC + plex plugin on T3. It is playing 99% of files perfectly, even 20GB+ .mkv files. Option 2 is to mount shared folders as drives via the network browser, mkv list correctly and play fine that way as well.

[BigbobOz]

Alright, I'll give Plex a go but I need it to run on my NAS (Synology)

[DigbyChickenCeasar]

FYI >
https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/articl ... ht-for-Me-

[BigbobOz]

T3 is still playing up and not refreshing the file list and some videos don't show up because for whatever reason it thinks it's a m3u file

Anyone else getting this problem?

[adespoja]

HI all.
Anyone having problems with T3 playing wmv files?
When i click on it, it just stops at 0.00, doesnt seem to play at all and shows black screen.
Only way to get out of it is to press STOP button as well.
Has this issue been resolved or am i in the wrong forum?
Thanks.

[Gully]

HI all.
Anyone having problems with T3 playing wmv files?
When i click on it, it just stops at 0.00, doesnt seem to play at all and shows black screen.
Only way to get out of it is to press STOP button as well.
Has this issue been resolved or am i in the wrong forum?
Thanks.

Correct forum but you really need to include a MediaInfo report when posting about problems, otherwise no one knows anything about your file other than it has a wmv extension.

[Krusty]

Has anyone else noticed that when media files (AVI, MP4, MKV, Etc.) are stopped, then later resumed that despite selecting resume the file starts from the beginning? I am assuming this isn't a problem as such but more related to the encoding of the file. It's bloody annoying especially when you made no mental note as to roughly where the previous point was.

It doesn't happen on all files but around 30% to 50%. I haven't noted what format of files does it.

[Gully]

Has anyone else noticed that when media files (AVI, MP4, MKV, Etc.) are stopped, then later resumed that despite selecting resume the file starts from the beginning? I am assuming this isn't a problem as such but more related to the encoding of the file. It's bloody annoying especially when you made no mental note as to roughly where the previous point was.

It doesn't happen on all files but around 30% to 50%. I haven't noted what format of files does it.

I haven't seen that happening.

You are playing them from the Media player/button not the source menu?

[tezza007]

Never had that problem

[Krusty]

Has anyone else noticed that when media files (AVI, MP4, MKV, Etc.) are stopped, then later resumed that despite selecting resume the file starts from the beginning? I am assuming this isn't a problem as such but more related to the encoding of the file. It's bloody annoying especially when you made no mental note as to roughly where the previous point was.

It doesn't happen on all files but around 30% to 50%. I haven't noted what format of files does it.

I haven't seen that happening.

You are playing them from the Media player/button not the source menu?

Thanks Gully, yes media player, (not the source menu), but from a wireless network (NAS). I'll check into it further as to the file types & other details.

[nylonnet]

Well, butter me on both sides.
My cheeky T3 has - for the first time - just played an MKV video that my usually-reliable old WD TV Live has refused to play.

And it's playing from my NAS across my LAN very smoothly indeed.

Kudos, T3. Well played.

[EdVic]

HI all.
Anyone having problems with T3 playing wmv files?
When i click on it, it just stops at 0.00, doesnt seem to play at all and shows black screen.
Only way to get out of it is to press STOP button as well.
Has this issue been resolved or am i in the wrong forum?
Thanks.

Had the T3 for 3 weeks now. Quick video testing and am impressed, but NOT ONE of my WMV test vids played. .
I'll come back to this in due time, but is it actually supposed to be able to play WMV?

[peteru]

How about? (To make life easier for everyone.) We say that the T3 does not support any Windows Media file format that may be DRM protected or otherwise require a license from Microsoft? That way you can stop trying? In reality, the T3 tries it's best to play Windows proprietary codecs, but it can do only so much when it's an open source platform that is not endorsed (despised?) by Microsoft.

There are plans to improve the performance of Windows Media / AVI files in the future, but it's going to be pretty difficult and there is no known / advertised timetable for it.

[adprom]

I have a few 720p24 files that seem to break the T3. I have it set to show as 720p 24Hz but that doesn't work - I simply get unsupported format.

They play and display fine with my WDTV at 720p24. Setting auto res to upscale to 1080p24 seems to work fine. It just can't seem to output properly at 720p24.

[MrQuade]

Yep, 720p24 output also fails for me.

Even though it is listed as one of the video driver's valid output modes though.
cat /proc/stb/video/videomode_choices
pal ntsc 480i 576i 480p 576p 720p50 720p24 720p25 720p30 720p 1080i50 1080i 1080p24 1080p25 1080p30

[MeerkatGP]

Hi All

I am sure I am missing something really simple and really basic, but my new T3, hardwired to the LAN, can see the NAS, navigate through all it's folders, but when it comes to playing ANY file, it stalls at 0:00 and does not do anything at all.

This is with .avi, .mp4, .m4v, .mkv. It opens the file, opens the black screen with navigation bar at bottom, but nothing happens.

If I press .m4u it does not seem to even open it.

I have searched the plugins, there are soo many... not user friendly at all.

Then tried to install a couple that seemed to be playback related, most reboot the unit and do not install.

The included MediaCenter app crashes the T3 when pointed to the NAS files...

This behaviour was occurring when I was running the latest public image; now that I have upgraded to the November 16 Beta, with all online updates, there is no change to this issue.

Not sure what to do... can anyone help?

[MrQuade]

This is definitely something specific to your setup, but I don't know of any common trick that you might have missed unfortunately, since I haven't heard of anyone with exactly this same type of problem.

Have you attempted to copy one of your files from the NAS to the T3's harddisk using the T3's "File Commander"?
My guess is that the copy will also fail, which would rule out the media player.

To double check, you could copy one of the files to a USB device and then plug it into the T3 directly and try to play it from there. It should work.

That would leave the permissions on your NAS to explore. Is it possible that you have set the file permissions on your NAS to allow whatever user you set up on the T3 to list the contents of a folder but not actually read the contents of the files within that folder? ie. have you given read and execute rights to the folder, but not applied read rights to the files within that folder?

[MeerkatGP]

Thanks MrQuade

Should have mentioned the NAS is visible and fully accessible by the Samsung Smart TV, selecting the DLNA input "NAS": all files play seamlessly on the TV, which would naturally exclude any access issues on the NAS; I have however verified that all permissions are open on the NAS.

The bad news is that I made the fatal mistake of attempting to access the files via the "MEDIA" button on the remote and the T3 rebooted almost instantly.

Now it's stuck in an endless loop of reboots, gets to the splash screen, sometimes as far as displaying the tv image, then it keeps rebooting.

Have turned it off with the switch at the back of the unit, no effect.

Do I have a bad unit, or do I need to revert to the public release firmware (on the latest beta at present)?

[MrQuade]

Too early to call it a bad unit I think, but to get out of a loop like that, you may want to just reflash the firmware and restore your settings again.

Were you trying to use DLNA from the T3 to access your NAS, or were you trying to access via a SMB/NFS shared folder?

The TV will not have run into any permissions problems, as DLNA would not rely on any credentials on the TV side. DLNA is just a stream of bits from a network port, and not an authenticated connection that needs to be established at the client side.

If you were using DLNA from the T3, then have a go at mapping a drive to the NAS instead. I always consider DLNA a last resort for media streaming....it is a horrible hobbled protocol.

[simoncasey]

Thanks MrQuade

Should have mentioned the NAS is visible and fully accessible by the Samsung Smart TV, selecting the DLNA input "NAS": all files play seamlessly on the TV, which would naturally exclude any access issues on the NAS; I have however verified that all permissions are open on the NAS.

Once you get the main issue of the constant reboot fixed, we can get back to supporting the media player issue. As MrQuade says, if you are streaming media to the Samsung TV via DLNA then that really says nothing about whether the NAS is accessible as the NAS is serving the media to the TV. Whereas if you are trying to access the NAS directly from the T3 , that is completely different setup.
How did you setup the NAS on the T3.

To sort out the reboot issue, redo the firmware flash from usb. You won't need to go back to the old one, you can just re flash the latest.

[MeerkatGP]

Thanks to both, will flash the new firmware just released this afternoon when home tonight.

The NAS is a Netgear ReadyNAS with DLNA, SMB and a few other protocols, but have not set it up on T3 as such, just navigated to it using the remote to view all the videos organised in directory on the NAS shared folders.

Not sure what else is needed...

[peteru]

The NAS is a Netgear ReadyNAS with DLNA, SMB and a few other protocols, but have not set it up on T3 as such, just navigated to it using the remote to view all the videos organised in directory on the NAS shared folders.

In that case you are probably using DLNA. DLNA sucks by design.

You'll be much better of setting up an NFS export on your NAS and then automounting this on the T3. Both ReadyNAS and the T3 are Linux boxes and NFS is their native networking filesystem. If you can't figure out how to do NFS, SMB is the next best thing.

You can set up network mounts on the T3 by going to the Network setup menu and using the network browser.

[MeerkatGP]

Well then, provided the reboot is fixed by the latest FW, I've got my homework laid out learning to work with NFS...

Thanks for the advice, may need to come back for some help, do you per chance have any good, easy to follow, guides to do what is required?

Cheers
Paul

[simoncasey]

Whilst NFS might give you a better outcome, setting up SMB is pretty straightforward from a NAS and should work fine. There are some posts about it but basically go to Setup-Network and Use the Network Browser to browse to your server. Click OK on the network share and it will bring up the mount manager. The default settings should be OK.
Once mounted it will appear as a location in the media list.

[MeerkatGP]

Ok, first things first.

The rebooting loop

I may have discovered the source of the continuous reboot loop: the USB Tuner that was thrown in the deal from BW.

After the flashing of the newest public image, the booting started again, so I went back to basics and unplugged Cat6 and USB Tuner; the booting stopped, plugged the network back in and the unit is working fine. The culprit appears to be the USB Tuner. I hope it is that simple...

The Mount jobby

Have had a play around with my NAS settings, enabling NFS and allowing Read/Write priviliges to "AnyHost"; I then looked at Mount Manager and Network Browser on the T3, selected the directory of choice and pressed OK to proceed with the mount. Even created the User and Password to match the ones created for the T3 on the NAS.

Although it all went (apparently) well, I still cannot see the mount in the media list.

Any ideas?