Connecting the Sony Internet TV to your Home Windows PC

I have tried a couple different ways to connect my Sony Google TV to my home PC (Windows XP) so I can view music and pictures...and have had no luck.

Does anyone have a step by step instructions on how to do this? I followed instructions on Windows on how to open your C drive and allow other devices on your network access and then used the ViaPlay app but it did not work.

Thanks for the help in advance!

 

I just use the "Media Player" App in list of applications

 

I'm sure someone will correct me because I'm probably wrong about this, but I think the "Media Player" app only supports DLNA networking. Windows 7 supports this, Windows XP does not. This means that you will need to install a DLNA server on your Windows XP box in order do network your Google TV.

Here is a link that does a decent job of explaining the different DLNA options
How to choose a DLNA Media Server for Windows, Mac OS X or Linux | Robert Green's DIY

With that being said, I have used the GTVBox app from the Android market with limited success, the advantage here is that, for starters, it supports more video formats than the Media Player does. And secondly, it supports SMB shares, which IS supported by Windows XP. When I say "limited success", I've had no problems with picture streaming, but I've had some odd problems with video. In some videos, I have no idea what they have in common, I get a really bad lag and hanging. I've contacted the developer of GTVBox and was told an update is on the way to improve performance.

 

DLNA compatibility is actually facilitated by Windows Media Player Sharing. And it is available on both Windows 7 and XP, as well as the one in between. For XP, this was introduced with Media Player version 11. However Microsoft implementation of DLNA is a PIA and should be replaced with a dedicated software package made by a more multimedia focused developer.

It actually should not support any more or less formats. That would require for mcd2000 to implement additional codecs in Java. I do not believe he has done that at this point. If you can get more videos to play over SMB vs DLNA then most likely it is a transcoding or streaming issue with respective DLNA server.

"Almost" as good as playing it locally. Btw, have you tried using File Expert to stream your files over SMB?

 

I did install TVersity, but failed to see any noticeable improvement, so I uninstalled it and am simply using Windows Media Player. I'm am, however, interested in hearing from you what the shortcomings of WMP are.

The Media Player does not see MKV files.

No, I haven't, in fact, I didn't know it was possible to "stream", thought it was just a FTP. I'll have to explore that option as I'm still not 100% satisfied with the way things are working now. I'm hoping for "1-stop shopping". Right now I'm playing everything through Media player, but have to convert MKV files to MP4's, and I suffer streaming lags at "typically" 3k bitrates and above, so I've been ripping my formats down to 2k... which, with a 24 fps rendering is pretty close to DVD quality. If GTVBox didn't suffer performances issues I'd stick with that.

 

The problem with TVersity is due to the fact the developers did not create the Google TV profile. Instead it was created by a user named, ekrunch, who partially modified a PS3 profile to have some compatibility with the Revue. So, if you're unable to see or play certain files blame him. One way around this problem is to set transcoding to never. This will force TVersity to always stream your files in its native format. If the files are natively compatible then this will give you the best results.

Another workaround is to use the Chrome web browser connect to the flashlib URL for the TVersity installacion on your PC. The URL is http://<ip.address>:41952/flashlib where the <ip.address> represents the ip address of the PC that is running TVersity. You'll be able to watch your videos because at least TVersity will know how to transcode to the Flash format. So, until someone gets around to fleshing out a proper profile you'll have to connect via Chrome.

It is difficult to enumerate all the problems with Microsoft Media Player sharing. However, if I were to take the top three issues, they would be:

1. Index synchronization: Adding new files, deleting files, or moving content usually ends up with a desynchronized state where there is no clear way of updating the cached information. This ends up with the DLNA client thinking the file is still available but its not.
2. In ability to stream certain files: Certain files don't stream or if they do one day, you never if they actually will play again the next day. This one is very elusive and I'm unable to point my finger on it, as it does not make any sense why it would work one day but not the next. I guess its just temperamental and is prone to tantrums.
3. General network presence: The unique integration with the desktop firewall often makes the platform less usable. You'd think it would be the opposite but it is not.

That's strange. Did you bring this up with mc2000. That would have been a major bug if that was the case.

I'm curious. Why, again, are you converting from MKV to MP4?

 

hdmi cable........

 

So, if you please, is this to say across the board TVersity is going to have issues streaming to GTV devices? I've been trying to use it to stream to Sony NSZ-GT1 and haven't been successful with the MKV rips of a couple BluRays. If I enable or disable transcoding the result is same, "file is corrupt or unsupported". The install process seems to suggest installing ffdshow codec package and enabling transcoding should support this - and playon is fully capable of streaming the same files so it can't be all a GTV problem. Thanks

 

The work around is to use GTV's Chrome web browser connect to the flashlib URL for the TVersity installacion on your PC. The URL is http://<ip.address>:41952/flashlib where the <ip.address> represents the ip address of the PC that is running TVersity. You'll be able to watch your videos because at least TVersity will know how to transcode to the Flash format. So, until someone gets around to fleshing out a proper profile you'll have to connect via Chrome.

 

Thanks for the tip.

In round #3 I've loaded up Twonky and took it out for a run. So far, I prefer it to the others (PlayOn, TVersity).

Only issue I've seen so far is it got a little out of sorts between the video and audio after a bit of FFWD, but it did that operation better than anything else and recovered after a pause.

It'll work for now.

Taking all suggestions from anyone who has been down this road for the absolute best do-it-all solution, if there is such a thing.

 

You're welcome. Glad to help. Incidentally, I have Twonky on my NAS and it is what's serving my media collection. Although, parts of Twonky is disabled due to the 500Mhz Marvell Processor, so it can't do things like transcoding. However, all my movies are natviely compatible with all my devices so I have no problems with streaming.

I also have both TVersity Pro and PlayOn but rarely used them since they require a PC to be powered up. Ended up just getting a Roku 2 XS to provide Hulu Plus support where it is lacking on my Google TV devices but even that has been redundant with the Tivo Premiere.

 

I purchased ($3) the GTVbox app from market on my google tv and installed it. Does perfect lookups of windows shares, SMb, on my pc's. Also enables the AirPlay feature on apple devices with its 5 to display video from apple device onto my Sony 40" Gtv!

 

I use Plex myself. It's free and they have a M$ compatible version which I would imagine works with the app for Android/GoogleTV