Samsung TV and Streaming Media over Network (iomega NAS)…
by Rodney Campbell on Sep.07, 2012, under Life, Technology
I recently purchased a new Samsung Plasma Smart TV (E8000 Series 8) to integrate with my existing home technology setup – I inevitably came across a number of “teething” problems so I thought I’d write down some notes on problems and solutions for others who might experience the same issues.
I have a combination wired and wireless home network with a wired ethernet connection available to me where my home theatre (and this large screen Samsung TV) is located. I also have an iomega NAS (the iomega Home Media Network Hard Drive – Cloud Edition) on my home network which contains all manner of media including Music (an iTunes library), Pictures and Movies (mostly in avi, mov, flv or mkv format).
In addition to the normal CIFS/SMB/AFP/Bonjour/FTP/HTTP access methods the iomega NAS has a UPnP DLNA Audio/Video media server which supports streaming content to compatible clients. I’ve been using this capability in the past to stream content to my Popcorn Hour and WDTV Live network media players and since the Samsung Smart TV advertised DLNA compatibility I figured I’d be all good – just plug my ethernet cable into the TV and stream the content using the built in media player.
Problem #1: Streaming worked out of the box for Standard Definition AVI files but try and play a High Definition file and you just get a message “unsupported format”
Strange thing is if you plug a USB hard drive directly into one of the TV’s USB ports it plays everything fine – it just didn’t work over the network!
Some Google searching and there are many other comments indicating that the Samsung TV can only play these files from a local USB hard drive but not streamed over the network, others mentioned what I thought may be an answer – many suggestions about renaming the files from .mkv to .avi and they’d work – this did not work for me – in fact the Samsung TV wouldn’t even show those files anymore in it’s media browser.
Solution #1: Twonky Server
The solution is that the iomega NAS uses the Twonky Media Server software and you can directly configure this on your NAS if you go to it’s hidden management URL on your NAS and you can set it up so it works compatibly with your Samsung TV
– turn on your Samsung TV and go to the media player client and have it connect to your NAS (this is just so the NAS see’s your TV and it’s IP)
– on your computer go to http://YOUR-IOMEGA-NAS-IP:9000 in your web browser (e.g 192.168.0.XX:9000)
– select Twonky Media Settings -> Media Receivers
– in the list which appears you will need to find the entry for your Samsung TV (by it’s ethernet MAC address/IP Address – you can find these in your Samsung TV menus if you need to find out)
– for this entry change the menu item from “Generic Media Receiver” to “Samsung TV”
– click “Save Changes” and Restart
You should now be good to go – High Definition MKV’s play fine streaming over the network
Problem #2: No multi channel digital audio out on the SPDIF (optical digital audio) output
I have a home theatre receiver in my setup so I generally have all source components directed into it and then a HDMI output from the receiver to the TV. The Receiver handles all the audio/video switching and the playing and control of the audio. This has worked perfectly for me in the past and I’ve used an external standalone media player. With the Samsung Smart TV however I have the ability to play content directly within the TV (the AllShare Play DLNA media player component above along with the abundance of other streaming media apps it has access to – e.g. Foxtel, ABC iView, YouTube and so on).
The TV does however have an optical digital audio output (SP-DIF) so I connected this to one of the inputs on my home theatre receiver and I assumed I’d be good to go.
This works – however the TV appears to only send two channel linear PCM down this connection to the receiver and not the original 5.1 DD or DTS streams!
In the Samsung manual for the TV in the Digital Audio Out (Optical) section it notes:
• 5.1 CH (channel) audio is available when you connect the TV to an external device supporting 5.1 CH
• When the source is a digital component such as a DVD player/Blu-ray player/cable box/STB (Set-Top-Box) satellite receiver and you connected it to the TV via HDMI, you will only hear 2 CH audio from the home theatre receiver. If you want to hear 5.1 CH audio, connect the digital audio out jack from your DVD/Blu-ray/cable box/STB directly to an amplifier or home theatre
OK I get that – if I connect an external device to the TV (via HDMI) it only sends the audio out the optical digital out as 2.0 (so you should connect the digital audio out from those devices straight to the receiver – that’s what I do) – but what about the internal sources in the TV (like the free to air tuner and the built in media player) – shouldn’t it send 5.1 for those?
The only sound setting that is accessible on the Samsung display is ‘SPDIF’ (Menu -> Sound -> Additional Settings -> SPDIF Output) and this appears to be permanently set to PCM. There is a Dolby Digital option in the menu but it’s ‘greyed out’ and you can’t select it.
Solution #2: Wait till the source is actually playing before trying to change the settings
You’d think the TV would automatically switch the optical digital audio output to match the source being played but alas…
What you need to do is actually play the content in question (e.g. watch a free to air show which has 5.1 DD or play a media file with 5.1 DD or DTS content). Whilst it is playing hit the Menu button on the remote and go to Sound -> Additional Settings -> SPDIF Output. When you are there you will notice additional options become available in the menu including one which matches the audio being played (e.g. Dolby Digital or DTS) – you can then select that and that is what will be output on the optical output and your receiver should automatically switch to match.
I’m not sure if it was user error or not but I found I had to play a 5.1 Dolby Digital file first and enable the Dolby Digital option in the menu and then try another file which had 5.1 DTS and then enable the DTS option. I didn’t seem to be able to do the DTS one first.
-
Hi! Welcome to Rodney Campbell's Blog!
Thanks for dropping by! Feel free to join the discussion by leaving comments, and stay updated by subscribing to the RSS feed. See ya around!
Follow Me!
October 6th, 2012 on 1:57 am
I’m looking to buy a similar model of tv, and was wondering if the built-in media streaming app would be able to able to send a 5.1 audio stream to my home theater via the optical output, so thanks for the solution! Could you tell me if you need to change the output to 5.1 every time you play a video with 5.1 audio, or does the tv remember that you want it to send 5.1 whenever it’s available? Thanks!
October 6th, 2012 on 5:51 pm
Hi Alun – mine appears to remember the settings (at least until power is totally removed from the TV for a while – I had it unplugged for a few days and it forgot :))
October 29th, 2012 on 8:36 pm
Hi there,
I was browsing the web for the problem that my Iomega nas was unable to play MKV and I found your solution to install Twonky very useful and it worked. Only problem is that I could not access that http://NAS:9000 page which gave an error message that read’ Access is restricted to Media Server Configuration’. So I ended up installing Twoky on my Mac which points to the network drive. Now the situation I have to keep my mac running if I wanted to stream content from the NAS to TV (Samsung 5520).
Would you have any possible solution to this problem? Ideally, I would like to take out my mac out of the system so that the NAS and TV can do the talking.
Thanks.
October 30th, 2012 on 10:03 am
I’m presuming that when you are going to the http://NAS:9000 page you’re substituting the IP address of your iOmega NAS for “NAS”. If so I’m not sure why you’re getting the access blocked – I get straight in (no password is required) – perhaps you’ve setup some sort of security restrictions on your NAS in it’s normal admin menus?
November 4th, 2012 on 11:06 pm
Your solution for Problem #2 seems to work for me with the sound being routed through HDMI Audio Return Channel (ARC) as well. Thus, an optical toslink cable is not necessary. I should add I have a Samsung LED UE55D8005 TV.
But I wonder if you can get HD sound (Dolby TrueHD or DTS HD Master Audio) from your TV back to your AV Receiver when you’re playing the media with the built in media player or from an app like Youtube or Netflix for instance?
December 10th, 2012 on 10:35 am
Hey Rodney – great to find your post.
Am currently working through what NAS is the best option to go down. As a Mac user, and with a Samsung also, I came across your post.
I am currently looking into the iomega NAS as I’ve killed so many HDDs now I need another option.
If you were to start again, would you still choose the iomega? The Synology product range also gets a series of good reviews.
Would love to hear your feedback.
Cheers
Jes
December 10th, 2012 on 5:15 pm
Hi Jes, I’m not sure – the iomega has been fine but then again all I was looking for at the time was a cheap option to put on the network (and the one I bought was on sale at the time so it was extra good value). If I had unlimited funds I’m sure I may have chosen something else (like one with builtin RAID and multiple drives and better expandability for more storage for starters) and I may eventually go down that track (since I’ve just about filled this one). Plus I’ve only put stuff on this drive which is media (music/movies/images) which I also have elsewhere and not my own content (files/documents/etc) and I don’t use this particular NAS for backups so redundancy isn’t critical here. In future I might consolidate and use a RAID NAS.
December 31st, 2012 on 5:20 am
Hello rodney,
I have a iomega ix2-200 nas with a samsung smart tv.
I have read and tried your solution for the twonky server but it didn’t work.
I use the new manager from iomega.
When I use a usb hard drive directly to my tv it plays all of my mkv files.
Can it be a problem with the allshare function from samsung.
Also the tree structure is a mess.
Can you help me….?
Regards,
December 31st, 2012 on 10:27 am
Hi Roy – I find my NAS forgets the settings if it looses power and I have to set the Twonky media settings again (perhaps the NAS Restart does the same thing?). About all I can suggest is to: 1) ensure you’re changing the settings for the right IP/MAC address for your Samsung TV (if you have multiple devices on the network) 2) not restart the NAS at the end but 3) do remember to click to save the settings after selecting “Samsung TV” 4) exit the AllShare player on the TV after changing the above settings on the NAS and going back into the AllShare player
January 2nd, 2013 on 8:22 pm
Rodney,
Thanks for your answer.
I will try this.
But when it see the tv in my netwerk at the NAS it have the name ”samsung smart tv”
Do I have to change the name to ”samsung tv”…?
I have another qeustion:
Do you know if its prossible the get Plex server on the iomega nas…?
there is an app for the smart tv, so I want to use this for playing my movies.
January 3rd, 2013 on 11:59 am
You probably just have a newer version of NAS (and associated Twonky software) than I do. When I find my TV in my list of devices (in the Media Receivers part of the Twonky config) there is a pull down list of Media Reciever types I can choose from – in my list (theres at least 100 different entries for all different players) I have a few Samsung entries and I just select the “Samsung TV” one. So it’s not the “name” of the device I’m changing but rather what type of Media Receiver the Twonky server thinks it is.
I don’t know if you can put plex on the iomega NAS but I doubt it.
January 3rd, 2013 on 6:01 pm
Hi Rod,
I am experiencing the same problem with PCH A 110 and Samsung D7000 series. Any recommendations on how to change the settings on PCH?
Thanks and regards
January 3rd, 2013 on 8:09 pm
Hi Johan – I have an original popcorn hour A100 as well – I don’t have to do anything with that – it just outputs to the TV and streams from the network no problems? This shouldn’t have anything to do with the TV in this case (assuming you’re getting some signal from the PCH being displayed (menu’s, etc) – via HDMI/Component/etc).
January 3rd, 2013 on 9:41 pm
Hi Rodney,
Thanks for your prompt reaction. As this is a second TV, I am accessing video files on PCH via LAN. The PCH is then visible a NAS. Sometimes the files are not visible or even the folder is not visible on Samsung TV. When the files are visible I have issues with running subtitles while when this is piut on USB stick these issues are not presenting themselves.
any thoughts or recommendations?
January 6th, 2013 on 10:07 pm
Hello Rodney,
1st thanks for your blog, but your solution #1 doesnt work for me 🙂 , but right now I know, that I’m not one who has problem with .mkv with Samsung and Iomega IX2. Can you write which version of firmware have u got installed on IX2?
I have a got IX2 with 3.3.2.29823, there is Media server which is Twonky media server (horrible sw). I have 2 TV of Samsung, both are wired connected to IX2. 1st is ue40se5500, 2nd is le32d550. 2nd tv plays .mkv without problem everytime from NAS, 1st sometimes plays sometimes not. When 2nd doesnt play .mkv files, I must restart media server on NAS and then 2nd TV plays .mkv again. Does anybody have the same problem?
Thanks Honza from Czech
January 9th, 2013 on 11:57 am
Hi guys! I have an additional issue to all what are you talking about… I have a Samsung 55D8000 and the storage is a IOMEGA 2t cloud edition, when I try to open a big picture (photo), i see a small picture in the tv, if I check the photo info, the size says 10kb!!! when the real picture size is about 4MB. I copied the picture to my pendrive and using it, yes.. the picture size is correct… so… if you contact iomega, you have no answer, if you contact Samsung, they say “contact your hardware provider”…
January 13th, 2013 on 12:39 pm
Hi guys, to avoid the media servers configuration after each start, try this: In the navigator use the option: http://your_NAS_ip:9000/rpc/set_optio… I tried that, and I powered off and powered on the iomega and have media receivers IP table with the same configuration.
January 13th, 2013 on 3:52 pm
Hi Javier thanks for that but I think you missed the option you were setting – it should be: http://your_NAS_ip:9000/rpc/set_option?something=value
Perhaps you were thinking of using “clientautoenable=1”?
January 16th, 2013 on 4:51 pm
Rodney-
This is probably one of the best (if not THE BEST) post I’ve seen on the ‘net re: Samsung TV and MKV. I’m in the market for a new TV and what I’m wondering is whether you’ve run into any further issues with this setup?
Additionally, with your setup (NAS + Twonky > TV), is the Samsung actually doing the media decoding or is your NAS/Twonky transcoding your media?
I’ve got a QNAP ARM based NAS so having the NAS doing transcoding will be out of the question.
Thanks!
January 17th, 2013 on 2:05 pm
Hi Albert – I don’t believe the NAS is doing any transcoding or anything like that and it’s the TV doing all the decoding (and data passthrough if required). e.g. because I want the TV to send all the raw audio to my home theatre amp (for it to decode and drive all the speakers) I specifically have to tell the Samsung TV not to decode the digital audio but rather send the raw DTS and DD bitstreams out the HDMI port to the HT Amp.
Obviously then the TV actually has to support decoding the container format (e.g. AVI, MKV, MP4, etc) and also decoding the embedded specific video and potentially audio streams (e.g. H264, MPEG4/2, etc).
January 17th, 2013 on 8:51 pm
Thanks for that follow-up Rodney. Because the TV is doing the decoding does that mean we should go for the E8000 series given that it has the most powerful processor? Or do they all have the same media processor inside? Thanks again! (And hi to a fellow NSW’er!)
January 20th, 2013 on 8:51 pm
I have the problem with my Samsung 7005 that it plays surround sound fine,(Of course I have to select spdif output every time like many others in this thread.) but whenever I pause a movie the sound will drop down to stereo and not come back. My receiver a Pioneer vsx 721 easily shows this as it has a display that tells me which type of signal it receives.
This is both for playing files from the NAS, and using the Netflix app.
Files with DTS sound seem to work fine though.
Anyone else had this problem?
January 28th, 2013 on 6:10 am
I was delighted to have found, what I thought, would be the solution to my problem of streaming video from Iomega NAS/TwonkyMedia Server to Samsng smart tv(as others on this blog).
I applied solution1, but in my case, after clicking on “Save Changes”, and checking on media receivers again, I find that it resets media receivers by moving Samsung tv to another MAC address on the network and resetting the correct MAC/IP address back to “Generic Media Receiver”. I then get the same “unsupported format” message.
Any suggestions as to what is going here?
January 31st, 2013 on 4:58 pm
I am trying to play FLAC files from iomega ix2-200 to my Smasung TV but it is failed as TV media player is not supported this format but i have heard that incase media player isn’t support certain file formats, Twonky server of NAS can broadcast those files after making conversion to another format which can be resolved by media player.
I have another issue with my iomega that is really dissappointing me:
My iomega NAS can not be found by Pioneer Sc-lx86 AVR and Pioneer LX55 BDP althoug all of them are in the same network connected from the same routers ethernet ports. The problem is only among these three devices as NAS can be seen and conenected by other devices (Samsung TV, Notebooks, iphone, etc) on the network.
I would be grateful if any help .
February 2nd, 2013 on 2:27 am
Hi,
After some searching I found that there was a firmware update for my samsung tv. Following installation of this update, I am now able to stream the media. However there are still 2 problems. One is that the HD videos stream takes place in small bits. This could be because I am using a home plug for connecting the NAS, but it should effect because it connects at over 50Mb/s!
The other problem is that like Javier, some of the pictures (not all) are small.
Any help would be appreciated.
February 4th, 2013 on 7:23 pm
Hi All… great blog and solutions… this should be a simple question for those posting.I have recently purchased Samsung LED Smart TV es7500 paired with Onkyo TX-NR809 receiver, JBL ES1000 5.1 system and Samsung BD-8500A Blu ray. I have paired my phone with Allshareplay function from samsung however for the life of me cannot get the music, video to play through the Onkyo receiver even though HDMI cables are in place. What should be my settings on TV, Onkyo and Blu ray. All devices used are DLNA. You help would be appreciated.
February 5th, 2013 on 11:46 pm
I’m playing iOmega NAS media files via AC Ryan media player and to the Stereo Receiver.
The media server on the NAS is disabled. The AC Ryan is connected directly to the router for networking while the receiver is connected to the media player by HDMI.
I can add media files to the NAS by network from my PC. Everything works ok.
February 16th, 2013 on 4:20 am
He guys,
i have the new samsung UN55ES8000F and the Iomega ix4 300D wired Ethernet connected.
and nothing from the above worked, only some of my shared media showed in the very messy tree on the TV. so i tried some things and 1 thing worked just fine, SHUTTING TWONKY down!! soz for CAPS :-p
the moment i shut the twonky server down my tv recognized the files in a normal tree… problem solved! (well for me that is)
cheers
March 12th, 2013 on 4:15 pm
Thank you, thank you, thank you! I wondered for the longest time why the DTS wouldn’t pass-through on my Samsung Smart TV. I had no idea that I needed to change the SPDIF Output after the file started playing! All my problems have now been solved! Many thanks again.
March 17th, 2013 on 10:38 am
hi, just bought a Samsung (UE55ES6100) “SmartTV”, which I connect via HDMI to my receiver config’ed as ARC enabled, and came onto problem #2 quite quickly. Thought I’d fixed it after having played a DTS file (and set DTS instead of PCM), and then a DD, and same way having set DD instead of PCM.
I then wanted to watch a DTS movie again, and surprise, my receiver was outputting stereo. Wadacrap is this ? ok, to make it short, I finally found out that the “smart” TV only remembers the last format set (either DD or DTS), and resets the other to PCM. So as long as you watch ONLY DD or DTS it’s fine, but when you change, you need to set it again. Very UN-user-friendly … Does anyone have a solution ? maybe Samsung ?
March 17th, 2013 on 7:25 pm
Hi Ralph – that doesn’t happen for me – once I’ve played and set a movie of a certain format it remembers that setting (across multiple movies and changes back and forth) – until of course power is lost and you have to set them again. I’m not however using ARC in my case (my receiver doesn’t support it).
March 20th, 2013 on 2:27 am
tried without ARC (via optical cable), but problem remains, need to set it every time I change the format 🙁
Will have to contact Samsung for that I guess, love it …
March 20th, 2013 on 2:43 am
thanks Rodney,
now tried without ARC (via optical cable), but the problem remains, need to set it every time I change the format 🙁
Will have to contact Samsung for that I guess, love it …
March 21st, 2013 on 11:47 pm
hi Rodney, I’ve just been told by Samsung support re this issue “this is normal, for technical reasons this needs to be changed every time”. I think this is unacceptable, why does it work without tweaking at each usage on my media-box ? furthermore, are you sure this is not the case for you (on your E8000) ? would like to throw that in their face 🙂
tks & rgds
April 6th, 2013 on 8:33 am
I have a Samsung 8000 series smart TV. recently I was able to stream video wirelessly from a computer to the TV the video was great and also the sound thru my Sony receiver. then the wifi went out and Samsung came and fixed the wifi but now I still get the picture but the sound won’t go thru the receiver?
I’ve tried changing every setting in the TV I can think of also tried changed the HDMI inputs and still no change.
They don’t seem to have changed any of the cables so any idea what could have happened?
Thanks