Unfortunately no one can be told what fun_plug is - you have to see it for yourself.
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I bought the DNS-323 because it was inexpensive and it had all the hoopla about the XBox UPnP support. So I got it all running..some what. The DNS seams to have a limit on how many folders it can refresh. I am using the provided Memeo Backup software that came with it. Kinda like it since its maintanance free.
But my files are buried in subfolders as the backup S/W mimics your computer directories. \Memeo\BackUp\C\Users\George\Music
\Memeo\BackUp\C\Users\George\Pictures
\Memeo\BackUp\C\Users\George\Video
If I specify the root...it refreshes for ever but the XBox seas nothing. Even just specifing the Music folder it doesn't work. Only if I choose a small subfolder then I can see some songs on my XBox. If if have an answer for this it woudl be great.
SO finally I though I had something...but then when it started playback it is continuasly choppy. I can stream to my computer Media Player no problem.
Can someone please HELP?!!!!......
DNS F/W 1.06
Linksys router
Direct connect to router, no wireless
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If you search, a bit on here, there are a few topics where this is discussed in detail.
If I recall correctly, someone even put a packet analyzer on their network and found that
the XBOX 360 was somehow not executing the protocol properly.
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Found out why playback is choppy........I ripped all my CDs as WMA lossless (849kbps bit rate) not as normal WMA (192kbps bit rate). After some experimintation I discovered that this is the reason why playback is choppy. I guess the UPnP server software can't handle streaming such a hit bit rate.
That sucks.....now i'm stuck either ripping the CDs I have at a lower bit rate or using some coverter software to convert my music files.
Third option is see if there is some software hack to fix the DNS-323 provided UPnP server.
Anyone have any suggestions?
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You may be right.
On the other hand, it's hard to imagine a gigabit, or 100 megabit or, for that matter even 10 megabit connected device not being able to keep up with a 0.9 megabit per second data stream with no transcoding if it is using any reasonable buffering.
Is there a transcoding issue? Can the xbox not play your files without transcoding?
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No...the XBox has no problem streaming the same music file from my Windows XP computer.....so i don't beleive it has to do with the network throughput. The XBox uses the same UPnP protocal to stream the data. The only difference now is that the DNS-3232 now has to act as the UPnp AV Server. I imagine that the UPnP server software is just not good enough. That what you get I guess for a $150 buck NAS enclosure as aposed to a high end model. Oh...one more thing...i can stream the music files off the DNS-323 by way of Windows Media Player with no problems....another reason for suspecting the UPnP AV server software to have bitrate limitations.
Last edited by yoyi (2009-05-13 07:01:57)
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yoyi wrote:
The XBox uses the same UPnP protocal to stream the data.
This is not true. The XBoX is not UPnP compliant and is a particularly difficult client to support, which is why mediatomb and several other free UPnP servers either refuse to support it or support it as the very last option.
Here is the example I was thinking of in my initial post:
http://dns323.kood.org/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=28913
In my case, I replaced my XBoX with a very old garage sale PC, for $50 and now I'm happily streaming MP3s (320 kpbs) and dvd quality movies. I could never make the XBoX work right with any server, except with a windows media center. I was trying to stream from a P4 linux box.
I do agree that the DNS-323 is probably very slow when it comes to transcoding a high bitrate signal. It is about equivalent to a Pentium II from 1998 or 1999, but with a fat disk and ethernet pipe compared to such a machine. Searching for "benchmark" should give you a nice chart.
Does the XBoX require transcoding to play your format?
Do you get the same issues using a format that does not require transcoding?
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When I was using the stock, D-Link UPnP service on the DNS-323 to stream to my Xbox 360, I hated two things: 1) the fact that the UPnP server was incredibly slow to rebuild/refresh its database and begin showing up on the 360 with the latest content I'd pushed to it and 2) the fact that it didn't support streaming of very many media formats.
So I downloaded and installed the 30-day trial of Twonky 4.4.11 on my DNS-323, and, lo and behold, it's about 20x better than the stock UPnP server. I ended up paying the $30 for a Twonky license after only a couple days into the trial. Full database refreshes only take about 2-3 minutes, and that's with FAR more media than I was broadcasting with the stock server. On top of that, it seems to stream just about any type of codec/container/format I've thrown at the 360.
My only complaint at this point is how slow the 360 is to navigate large UPnP media shares. Compared with navigating the Twonky UPnP music library over XBMC on my old, first-gen Xbox or my Mac, the 360 is glacially slow.
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Thanks for the feed back......not 100% sure who does the transcoding but I'm pointing to the DNS-323 UPnP server....at least thats were my troubleshooting is pointing to. And I did see that post you mentioned, but didn't get much out of it. I'm satified with my conclusion though about the bit rate.....I conducted an experiment.....I copied one list of music to the root directory of the DNS-323 HD (ripped at WMA lossless approx. 700 to900 kbps) and then ripped another list of music as regular WMA (192kbps) into the same directory. The result....all of teh 192 kbps WMA files played flawlessly, all of the 700+ kbps files were choppy....like it couldn't buffer the stream fasteanough to play correctly. If I access the files from any remote computer and used Windows Media Player all the file played. I imagine that accessing them directly does not requre the use of the UPnP AV server of the DNS-323.
Now I have another issue......the DNS-323 does not see the audio/pictures file that are burried in subfolders. I have backup software running to backup my picture, video and music. And it adds two more layers of subfolders. For example.....
Volume_1/memeo/backup/c/users/yoyi/pictures/my pictures/................under my pictures folder I have all my photos set up in subfolder by when they were taken.....must be around 25 folders. oh..and this was using the Root set up option on the UPnP AV server.
After refresh.....the XBox only gets up to the "pictures" folder and shows nothing else. but...if I specify one of the folder say...
Volume_1/memeo/backup/c/users/yoyi/pictures/my pictures/2005 Christmas/......................it does show those pictures on the XBox.
Same problem with music files.
So there must be some kink of limitation rules for the set up of the UPnP Server folders that D-Link convenantly decided not to publish.
I'm tempted to try the Twonky setup mensioned above...see if it does any better.
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Yes, the built-in UPnP server has problems with lengthy filenames, directories and special characters. Twonky didn't have problems with any of it, on my box.
Just look how many posts are on the official D-Link DNS-323 forum regarding UPnP problems: http://forums.dlink.com/index.php?board=155.0
Perhaps you could get some more help there.
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If there is a transcoding problem, it is definitely with the 323. UPnP puts all of the transcoding responsibility on the server, at least in the usual use mode.
The design point for UPnP is fat expensive server, thin cheap client connected by a medium bandwidth pipe. It's interesting to see how far you can push the reverse setup. The 323 should have more than enough bandwidth, but run out of processing power.
I'd be interested in seeing what would happen if you had a high resolution format that the XBoX could play natively so that the 323 only had to stream, but not transcode. That largely eliminates one of the two weakest links, the arm 9. (the other being the 323 onboard bus). That might be the way of getting the most out of your setup.
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@bripab007
So do you have twonky and xbox running together.
Which twonky version are you using?
Which xbox firmware?
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Yes, I have Twonky version 4.4.11, and it streams to my Xbox 360 running whatever the most up-to-date dash/firmware, to my original Xbox running XBMC and to my two Macs, in either Boxee or XBMC.
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After some experimentation on various WMA file with different bit rate I discovered the following.
Bit Rate experiment
320 Kbps plays just fine
346 kbps plays choppy
With higher bit rate the choppyness became noticably longer and longer.
My conclusion is that the DNS-323 cannot decode the higher bit rate WMA file, either by design, by deficient programing, or it may very well be that the processor is simply to slow to process the higher bit rates.
I will conduct further tries with other formats.
Also, I have noticed that when accessing WMA files through the xbox it will not show tags like artist, genere, album. But when it comes accross an MP3 file it reads the tags just fine. One more thing for me to look at.
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