Skippa as a networked media player?

[Likkie]

The Skippa can also act as a DLNA server itself - streaming recordings to Ipads / Computers around the house too.

Hi Leon,

When Skippa is serving recorded programs via DLNA are the ads skipped or does that only work when playing back on the connected TV?

Cheers

[IanL-S]

While we are attempting to clarify things, DLNA is protocol for making connection between devices. It has nothing to do with the media container formats and media codecs that particular DLNA devices have.

Ian

[Likkie]

While we are attempting to clarify things, DLNA is protocol for making connection between devices. It has nothing to do with the media container formats and media codecs that particular DLNA devices have.

Ian

DLNA uses Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) for media management, discovery and control. UPnP defines the type of device that DLNA supports ("server", "renderer", "controller") and the mechanisms for accessing media over a network. The DLNA guidelines then apply a layer of restrictions over the types of media file format, encodings and resolutions that a device must support.

Excerpt from this Wikipedia Article

[IanL-S]

The big problem is that there are some DLNA capable devices that do not comply with the requirements - they are not 'certified'. Some Topfield PVRs have DLNA capabilities but do not fully comply with the DLNA requirements.

Ian

[snuke]

First of all MKV is a container not a CODEC.

I have a NAS which has TWONKY DLNA server built it.  It has no transcoding capability yet I am able to stream to WDTV Live, LG Media player, SONY Bluray player or Kodi with no problem whatsoever.  The key is having a media player that can actually work with the MKV container format and which identifies its capabilities correctly to the DLNA server.

Sorry on the incorrect terminology, I don't usually make that mistake.

Firstly, yep, I am 100% wrong.
When I read that part about the WD TV, it reminded me that I had done the same thing, played MKVs via DLNA to my WD TV. DTS audio also came through fine. I tried it when I first got the WD several years ago, but switched to their  Library feature via Network share so haven't touched DLNA since. I had struggled and failed with DLNA & NKVs on every other device for so long I forgot that I had tested the WD.

I went over all the publicised containers and codecs that are compatible with DLNA and realised what the issue was. These were all published by the hardware manufacturer, as such they were simply stating what their hardware could deal with, so like the PS3, none of them could playback MKVs. What led me to believe this was a DLNA issue was that every single one of them (close to 20 that I had come across) listed 100% exactly the same video and audio formats, and all had the DLNA icon on the paper. I had checked the DLNA website, and they didn't have any such list, nor should they, it is not their issue.
So my fault for interpreting that as DLNAs publicised list of compatibility rather than what it really was, and my bad for misleading people on incorrect info.

[Rat]

OK I just took the plunge and bought one.......looking forward to August when it finally arrives....come on no-one really expects to get it in July do they?

I have installed Universal Media Server and had a bit of a look, but as I don't have a renderer yet I still don't have much of idea, I just hope it won't prove frustrating or too taxing on my old PC.

Bring on the threads asking for Skippa bug fixes, see you there :)

[warkus]

Me too Rat!

Bring on July, I'm excited now... Can't wait...

Mark

[Rat]

Well that wasn't a good start, Universal Media Server borked up my internet connection by setting up some ummmmm I dunno "internal loop network?" or something, so the Internode dude told me while he was helping me get back online.

I uninstalled UMS and will try Plex now, he said Plex is much better and easier to use and I should not have any similar problems with it, he has been using it for 6 years. So looking forward to having a try with that, I hope it's not too resource hungry.

[Dave at IceTV]

The Skippa can also act as a DLNA server itself - streaming recordings to Ipads / Computers around the house too.

Hi Leon,

When Skippa is serving recorded programs via DLNA are the ads skipped or does that only work when playing back on the connected TV?

Skippa only skips ads in recorded shows stored on it's internal hard drive. Recordings streamed via DLNA will include the ads

UPDATE: The initial firmware release version won't skip ads when streaming to a second screen. A firmware upgrade later on will implement that feature.

[Vortical]

When you stream skippa recordings to an ipad or iphone can we then airplay it to an AppleTV?

[nis200sx]

When you stream skippa recordings to an ipad or iphone can we then airplay it to an AppleTV?

By using an iOS App, like 8player, that supports AirPlay and DLNA media servers you can use your iPad or iPhone to access media on DLNA servers and stream the media to your Apple TV... except Apple products only support H.264 (.mp4) video files and Australian PVR recordings are mpeg2-ts.

You might want to get a WD TV Live Streaming Media Player as they support DLNA and mpeg2-ts.

[nis200sx]

It seems that DNLA media servers need to build a library everytime they are started, that sounds very slow and frustrating and a major step back.

Yes, this is painful. I do not know if it is the DLNA server that is building the list rather than the DLNA player. For some reason I had assumed that it was the latter.

That's not been my experience. A DLNA server app does take a very long time to index all of your media if you have TBs of videos, music and photos files but it should only do it once after the initial install. After the initial scan to build the index it only needs to add any new files to the index. Of course adding new folders to be indexed will cause some additional pain.

[Likkie]

UPDATE: The initial firmware release version won't skip ads when streaming to a second screen. A firmware upgrade later on will implement that feature.

Wow, I really wasn't expecting that answer.  Excellent!  I'm impressed.

[emmsee]

Hey Rat,

The Skippa can stream from the PC via Media Player or any other DLNA server for example the excellent free cross-platform Universal Media Server (www.universalmediaserver.com), and works great. It's fast and not clunky at all - best of all it streams MKVs.

The Skippa can also act as a DLNA server itself - streaming recordings to Ipads / Computers around the house too.

Hey Leon,
What about Android?
Surely you won't have Skippa only support iPad off the bat.
There are many more Android devices out there than Apple!
Please clarify?

[Leon K]

Hey Leon,
What about Android?
Surely you won't have Skippa only support iPad off the bat.
There are many more Android devices out there than Apple!
Please clarify?

Hi emmsee,

Yes to clarify that is any brand of tablet / device that has a DLNA media player on it, not just Apple, should work fine.