Grainy Video playback on DLNA Client


  1. Posts : 3
    Windos 7 Professional 64bit
       #1

    Grainy Video playback on DLNA Client


    Hope this has not already been posted.
    I have many ripped movies stored on my hard drive. I have set up Windows Media Player 12/media sharing on my machine so I can stream the movies to a DLNA client via my local network. The client I’m using to receive these streams is a Sony BDP BX57 BluRay player which has built in wifi and Certified DLNA. The DLNA (Sony BX57) client sees the WMP12 server and I am able to easily play my streamed movies on my TV through this client in their correct aspect ratios.
    The problem is that the movies are quite “grainy” or pixilated when viewed on the TV through this DLNA client when I’m using WMP 12 as the media server. They appear perfect in WMP when I view them on my actual PC but grainy when viewing on my TV through streaming.
    I’ve tried two different formats: AVI/Xvid and Mp4/H.264. The results are the same.
    I’ve used Twonky and PlayOn media servers on this same machine to stream to the same client and the video is not grainy when using these servers (Note: these two servers don’t yield the correct aspect ratio though). Only when using the WMP 12 as the server do I get grainy results on remote playback.
    I have the ffdshow codec pack on this PC but I’m not sure if that’s what WMP12 is using or if it has its own codecs for these formats.
    To sum up: Streaming from WMP12 = Grainy/Pixilated. Streaming from Twonky or PlayOn = Clear but wrong aspect ratio.
    I would like to use WMP12 to serve my movies because it’s native to my system and seems to be very stable. Twonky and PlayOn are good but they cost and they don’t get the aspect right.
    Any advice on how to stream from WMP12 to this DNLA client without the grainyness would be appreciated.
      My Computer


  2. Posts : 5,440
    Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit 7601 Multiprocessor Free Service Pack 1
       #2

    First check the aspect ratio of the original clips. If they are 4:3 then if you try to stretch them to fit a widescreen TV in 16:9 ratio then it will look pixelated. If they are 4:3 to start with then try showing them on your TV at 4:3 and see if you get a clear image!
      My Computer


  3. Posts : 51,381
    Windows 11 Workstation x64
       #3

    Honestly I spent days messing with Windows Media as a DLNA server and as far as I'm concerned it just isn't up to the task, In the end I settled for a paid app Mezzmo which worked the best for my Samsungs.

    I don't think you should waste too much time trying to get the built in windows functionality to do the job, I think you would just be best googling different DLNA servers and testing each of them out for your TV until you find one that works well.
      My Computers


  4. Posts : 3
    Windos 7 Professional 64bit
    Thread Starter
       #4

    Thanks for the replys.


    Thanks mitch. I understand what u are saying about the aspect ratio. The funny thing is that wmp gets the aspect ratio right. For instance, the movie "Matrix" plays in it's native letterbox ratio when I use wmp for streaming but still is pixilated. The Twonky and PlayOn servers cause the picture to be stretched vertically to make a full 16:9 picture but not grainy and has very good quality. It's the opposite of what I would expect.

    Z, I think you may be right. I'll shop around for other streamers. I was just hoping for a possible easy fix for wmp. Other than the pixilation, the wmp server works great. I was also trying to take the cheap route and not pay for something that I already paid for when I bought Win 7.

    Anyway, if anyone knows of any thing else to try, please post. I'm thinking about trying to rip my movies to a format that is more native to wmp. I'll post if that does any good.
      My Computer


  5. Posts : 5,440
    Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit 7601 Multiprocessor Free Service Pack 1
       #5

    BMoss said:
    Thanks mitch. I understand what u are saying about the aspect ratio. The funny thing is that wmp gets the aspect ratio right. For instance, the movie "Matrix" plays in it's native letterbox ratio when I use wmp for streaming but still is pixilated. The Twonky and PlayOn servers cause the picture to be stretched vertically to make a full 16:9 picture but not grainy and has very good quality. It's the opposite of what I would expect.
    I think you are straying into the murky world of "Non square pixel rendering" here!
      My Computer


  6. Posts : 3
    Windos 7 Professional 64bit
    Thread Starter
       #6

    The last thing I tried was to disable WMP12’s transcoding. No change. Pretty much giving up on WMP as a streaming DLNA server.
    Here’s what I’ve come to for a solution. Mezzmo seems to be the way to go (thanks for the recommendation Z). After I got it up and running on my PC, my BX57 DLNA client recognized it right off and played both formats (AVI/xVid and Mp4/H.264) without a hitch. Great A/V quality and correct aspect ratios.
    Just FYI for anyone with a Sony BX57: It does not seem to be able to play the above noted formats natively. I’m forced to use transcoding in Mezzmo. The only format I’m able to get it to play without PC-CPU-hogging transcoding is plain MPEG-2. No Biggie as long as the transcoding works.

    I’ll be ripping my movies from here on out in Mp4 with H.264 encoding. That seems to work well and has good quality.

    Thanks for the replies.
      My Computer


 

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