Media Share Question

[Jandrews]

I have DirecTv and am trying to share media (files, pictures and videos) from my laptop to the Directv DVR. I have tried talking with Directv "technical support", and done countless hours of searching the web for a solution.

Here is the problem. My DVR is connected to the internet just fine, via a wired ethernet connection to my router. I can access On Demand content without problem, and the connection test indicates that everything is working properly.

So to share media across the network, I have tried using both Windows Media Player, as well as TVersity as a media server on my laptop, but neither seems to work. The TV actually shows a connection to the WMP server, but it says "there are no files in the folders", meaning that there are no songs, pictures or videos in whatever folders that the DVR is looking at on my laptop.

For Tversity, it doesn't show any "devices" as available, and TVersity is not listed under the "computers" menu on the TV, so apparently it is not connecting.

Interestingly, the DVR does not appear in the "Network Sharing" configuration on my laptop.

So I can't tell what is connecting to what, and where these things are looking (or if they even are) for media.

Any Windows or Directv media sharing experts here?

By the way, I am running Vista and WMP 11.0, and my Directv receiver is a HR24-200, if that helps at all.

I would really appreciate it if someone here could "walk me through" the various configuration settings that I need to check in order to see what is going on here.

Thanks in advance,

JA

[Eric Coffey]

On WMP 12, (under library view) there are 3 sub tabs below the Library > Music > Artist menu bar. They are: "Organize", "Stream", and "Create Playlist". If you click the Stream tab it gives you options for network/server access/permissions.

[john70t]

(self edit. I shouldn't type while in jerk mode and appologize for the tangent.)

There may be DRM which prevents it from being recognized or passing through the unit, but hopefully this is just a software or hardware setup situation.

[Jandrews]

john70T....mkay.

Eric,

Thanks. But that is where I am saying that my DVR is not appearing. If I go to the regular Windows Network configuration screen, it shows my DVR. But when I look for it in the WMP sharing settings, it isn't there. I'm just trying to figure out why the DVR is clearly "on" my network, but not showing available in the area where you establish media sharing.

JA

[stomachmonkey]

I think you may be on a wild goose chase with this.

I spent many years in my youth "experimenting" with satellite stuff.

That you have not found anything after a lot of searching says there is either little interest in your type of setup or it's just not feasible.

Let's start with the Direct TV DVR. Direct TV is satellite, it's unidirectional, can't communicate back out thru the dish hence the phone line/ethernet connection. It's so you can order PPV and other stuff from the DVR.

So you have it running ethernet, it's a communication device, it's on your network so yeah it'll likely show up but that does not mean you can interact or control it that way.

These DVR's typically have USB/Firewire ports as well but those ports are almost always disabled or have their functions limited by the service provider.

The TV actually shows a connection to the WMP server, but it says "there are no files in the folders", meaning that there are no songs, pictures or videos in whatever folders that the DVR is looking at on my laptop.

How did you set up the DVR to connect to your Laptop? Are you positive it's actually seeing your laptop? Does it say "Connected to JA's laptop"?

Really much more info on what you have done and the steps you took to get there are needed.

My gut tells me it's not going to work but I've been wrong before.

[Jandrews]

Ahh....one of the wizards chimes in! Thanks Monkey.

First, I believe what I am trying to do is possible, as there are a lot of people on the Directv forums that appear to be making it work. That said, there are A LOT of chumps like me that seem to be having LOTS of problems getting it set up correctly.

Second, you ask a VERY good question about whether the DVR can actually see my laptop. You know what, I think you are right...as I think through this, it actually may NOT be seeing it. Here is EXACTLY what happens. On the Directv DVR, I click Menu (on the remote). When I do, there is a selection called "Music, Photos & More". This menu selection is apparently (from my Directv forum reading), only visible when you have a valid connection from the DVR to the internet (which I do). Then, when you select "Music, Photos & More", there is only one menu item called "Computers". When I select "Computers", I see a selection for "Belkin Play Media Server". My router is Belkin, so that must be what it is seeing. But now that you mention it, I don't think it is actually getting to my laptop. Then, when I click on "Belkin Play Media Server", there are three menu items (Music, Pictures, Video). When I click each of these, it says "no files found in this folder". By the way, in my Windows Media Player, a "Belkin Play Media Server" sub-Library also shows up, but there are no files in the Music, Pictures or Video folders. I cannot for the life of me figure out how to add files to these folders.

So, after some more forum reading, a lot of folks suggested installing TVersity, as a media server that can transcode the various formats that media is stored in and serve it up to the DVR making the format transparent. So, I installed TVersity, and it seems to work fine...i.e. it located all of my media files on my laptop, and created pointers to them in a nice organized fashion. But again, I can't get the DVR to see the TVersity media server on my laptop, and I don't know if I need to do something to TVersity to "enable" seeing it. It says that it "shares" automatically upon startup, and I have also tried to "manually" tell it to share, but it doesn't seem to "connect" to anything.

Oh, and by the way, I said previously that the DVR was showing in my Windows Network view. Now I'm not even sure that is the case. What shows there is again this "Belkin Play Media Server". What the heck is that, and what is it referring to? My router is Belkin, but what does it mean "Belkin Play Media Server"??

What additional information can I provide that might help us work through this?

Thanks in advance!!

JA

[masraum]

Well, it's been a while since this thread was active, but I've had much better results using the free version of tversity software, but don't use the newest version. Download 1_7_4_1. It works on just about any video you feed it. Now I just have to figure out the whole DVD ripping thing.