# HR34 Media Share Capabilities



## litex2x (Sep 8, 2012)

I recently subscribed to Directv and discovered its media share feature. Is it possible to stream mkv files from a media server like TVersity? Every time I try to play something I just get a black screen or message saying it can't play it successfully...


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## jimmie57 (Jun 26, 2010)

Read over the threads here:
http://www.dbstalk.com/search.php?searchid=8990636

and here:
http://forums.directv.com/pe/elementDisplayRedirect.jsp?elementID=10177903

They might help you. The majority of what I read is that most do not like or use it.
Good luck.

Welcome to the Forum


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## litex2x (Sep 8, 2012)

I actually did get it working but it only seems to work reliably with a few videos. Other videos seem to just crash tversity service agent. It also doesn't seem to support 1080p streams, which totally defeats what I'm trying to do here hehe. Oh well...


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## RunnerFL (Jan 5, 2006)

It really doesn't support much, only AVI videos and MP3 audio. It's kind of been a neglected child for a few years.


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## litex2x (Sep 8, 2012)

RunnerFL said:


> It really doesn't support much, only AVI videos and MP3 audio. It's kind of been a neglected child for a few years.


A media server that transcodes should take care of this problem. TVersity apparently no longer supports Directv receivers and is not free anymore so I decided to look for an alternative. I had almost given up hope until I found one called Serviio. It has all the features you need in the free version. It can stream all my 1080p mkv video files to all my receivers.

Edit: Unfortunately it appears Media Share cannot do anything more than 2 channel decoding. I've tried modifying the transcode profile and the audio must be mp2. This is sad news for my home theater.


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## rahlquist (Jul 24, 2007)

PlayOn still works with media share. It will transcode MKV files for the HR series. However there is one problem. The HR will ONLY stretch the video to fit. So if you want to maintain aspect ratio then you will have to letterbox your content. Its a royal pain.


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## litex2x (Sep 8, 2012)

rahlquist said:


> PlayOn still works with media share. It will transcode MKV files for the HR series. However there is one problem. The HR will ONLY stretch the video to fit. So if you want to maintain aspect ratio then you will have to letterbox your content. Its a royal pain.


How does the audio come out? Stereo or 5.1?


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## smitbret (Mar 27, 2011)

It'll work fine with the proper DLNA software that can transcode the non-compatible file types on the fly. If you use Tversity, it must be v1.7.x.x. If you try 1.8.x.x, it simply doesn't work. I currently use Mezzmo without a hitch. The problem with Media Share, though, is that you can't FF or Rew while watching and I prefer to use my WD Live TV boxes for this job.

Keep in mind, too, that the CPU in the hosting computer will have to be powerful enough to transcode the video on the fly and in real-time or you'll have problems. If it is something like a 1080p BR rip, anything short of an Intel I7 will have a difficult time, if it's DVD quality, any modern multi-core CPU should be up to the task.

The DTV boxes will only accept MPEG-2 format videos, so the transcoding will be necessary for almost any video file out there.


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## litex2x (Sep 8, 2012)

I still have yet to find a media server that can transcode 5.1 audio into a format usable by media share. It seems to be limited to stereo, which is kind of a bummer.


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## mrjussellr (Jul 3, 2010)

winamp.orb.com does transcode 

Install it and dont touch the settings for video it will auto transcode.. but it runs on winblows only.


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## bmeeks8 (Sep 15, 2007)

Media Share does in fact support Dolby Digital 5.1, but only Dolby Digital. No DTS and none of the other HD Audio formats.

I use Mediatomb to send DVD ISO rips to my HR20-100 receivers via Media Share. I am using a version of the Mediatomb open source code that I modified a bit to transcode the Program Stream data from a DVD ISO image into the MPEG-2 Transport Stream format the HR20 receiver natively wants. As long as you use a DLNA Media Server than can output a properly formatted MPEG-2 Transport Stream (TS), then the HR20 Media Share seems to accept it just fine.

I get full 5.1 DD audio through my Denon receivers at each TV. The Denon display shows the format, plus my ears can hear the surround sound. The connection from HR20 to the Denon is over the optical connector.

The only big problem with Media Share is the built-in bitrate limit. This prevents streaming HD content at high resolutions with no extra compression.


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## litex2x (Sep 8, 2012)

bmeeks8 said:


> Media Share does in fact support Dolby Digital 5.1, but only Dolby Digital. No DTS and none of the other HD Audio formats.
> 
> I use Mediatomb to send DVD ISO rips to my HR20-100 receivers via Media Share. I am using a version of the Mediatomb open source code that I modified a bit to transcode the Program Stream data from a DVD ISO image into the MPEG-2 Transport Stream format the HR20 receiver natively wants. As long as you use a DLNA Media Server than can output a properly formatted MPEG-2 Transport Stream (TS), then the HR20 Media Share seems to accept it just fine.
> 
> ...


I spent a lot of time looking and not many media servers can do it this particular way right out of the box.


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## bmeeks8 (Sep 15, 2007)

litex2x said:


> I spent a lot of time looking and not many media servers can do it this particular way right out of the box.


Mediatomb is a Linux-only package. Back a couple of years or so ago, when it was under active development, code was added to support the requirements of the HR2x line of DVRs with Media Share. The developer at first tinkered with ISO support, but finally removed it in the version that is now available because of problems. Since it is open-source, I took the source code and developed a patch that modifies the application to read ISO files and serve them up to clients as Transport Streams. Works great for the HR2x DVRs. I have a number of DVDs ripped to ISO format, stored in Mediatomb, and served via Media Share to my two HR20 DVRs.


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