how about that for overkill. an xtreamer of 99 euro would do, and you buy an entire PC?
Jose
I bought a Philips 46PFL9704H and the DLNA is not working at all. I can see the Net TV but no access to the PC media server. This media server is loaded into 2 PCs, one with W7 and the other one with WXP. I have another device (iBlik RadioStation) which has a WiFi connection and it sees the Media Server and plays music with no problem, so the Phlips is working badly. A brother of mine has the Philips 8404 and he cannot see de media server either. Philips, you seem to be selling rubbish software with your TV sets, which otherwise are quite good as TV screen. Customer Support at Philips is of no help.
mike_casey
I've just got off the phone with Philips support having tried to get my HP Media Server to work with the 8404 (which they couldn't resolve – couldn't even tell me the specifications of video files that would work). Can't agree more that Philips are selling good TVs with really poor software. I'd advise anyone who wants to stream audio or video to their television to stay away from Philips. This has been an expensive mistake.
Zaph
I got this tv on Saturday. Trying to figure out setting up a wireless bridge etc to avoid cable issues, but just connected an external usb hard disk and so far it's playing every file format I've thrown at it.
You're right – it should play / stream over the network connection but external usb drives are cheap. Note this is just a vanilla usb drive not a fancy smancy “multimedia” drive. I just pop up to PC every once in a while and dump a whole load of my media on it and bring it back down. Sorted? Not ideal, suits me fine. Spectacular tv!
natan
too bad i just saw your post, we just bought the same tv. i am struggeling with connecting the tv to my pc it doesnt detect any of my tries for a media servers, what did you use how did you configure it, thanks
Karel
Tversity is the answer. Or Winamp remote. JRiver remote. Several easy apps available.
Peter Van Dosselaar
I totally agree with your article. I bought the latest and greatest 7605H/12 LED TV (just came out). Video playback sucks. Only new thing is the support of MKV container so I was able to view a 1080p HD movie….I clearly say “view” because there was no sound (originally DTS MKV). Next annoying thing is subtitles. Accessing subtitels with MKV is not possible, nor using SRT files with AVI files. Most annoying thing is not being able to play DVDs normally. Yeah, you can open and play the single VOB files in the VIDEO_TS folder, but DVD Menu, subtitles, audio-channel change…no way. The TV does not know how to handle the IFO files.
Dikke
Even Tversity is not working on my nework. PFL7675 en WinXP. Tries everything, also WIN media player but no connection. Did you configure something special in Tversity other than mentioned in the userguide of the Philips TV?
jimmy
I have spoke with tech support and went into the Philips shop. They are aware of the problem but cannot fix it. I said you clearly state on the spec sheet that the 8404 can play video over DLNA. They tried to dodge the fact and started saying stuff like divx and avi are illeagle files anyway so they dont really have to support them. At this point I gave up. There is no fix and there never will be. Philips are still selling new tv's with the same spec sheets with the same problems.
I love the tv quality but will not buy Philips again. Very dissapointed with support. (I would have been happy if they just said they maid a mistake)
Darius
User without proper knowledge= bad TV no offence lol =)
Darius
User without proper knowledge= bad TV no offence lol =)
Darius
Hi Peter, I had same problem regarding MKV DTS sound. Well you can't blame TV, it's not Blueray player. Philips wouldn't sell any blueray players if all options would be handled by your TV I've found solution using mk2vob program and repacking MKV with DTS to MKV with AC3 sound. Hope this will help you to enjoy HD movies with sound.
Darius
Hi Peter, I had same problem regarding MKV DTS sound. Well you can't blame TV, it's not Blueray player. Philips wouldn't sell any blueray players if all options would be handled by your TV I've found solution using mk2vob program and repacking MKV with DTS to MKV with AC3 sound. Hope this will help you to enjoy HD movies with sound.
Peter Van Dosselaar
Als MKV with AC3 5.1 sound will not play (using TVersity). So I tried the following: I demuxed the MKV to seperate video 264 and audio AC3 file (using tsMuxer). I then converted AC3 5.1 to AC3 Stereo and repacked the MKV (using mkvmerge). Result: Still no audio. I then converted the AC3 file to MP3 and repacked the MKV again. Still no luck. The funny thing is that I download a short MKV movie-trailer that contained 263 and MP3 and the sound was ok.
Peter Van Dosselaar
Another thing: I will give it a try with mk2vob, if you say it worked. Can you tell me how you setup the config tab. I want to do this test with a Disney MKV movie that has H264 video and AC3 5.1 audio and that does not play on my Philips TV using TVersity media server.
Peter Van Dosselaar
I found the reason for no-audio issue on MKVs with AC3 audio: Philips TV does not support MKV using audio with a thing called “header compression” which is one of the specs of Matroska. The latest version of mkvmerge 4.1 automatically uses header compression when creating an MKV. Do all the MKVs that are on the internet, and that are made through mkvmerge 4.1 will never give you AC3 audio on a Philips TV. Solution: demux the MKV file into the video, audio(s),subtitle files…..the use mkvmerge with “header compression” option set to “NONE” to melt everything back into a new MKV that DOES play on Philips TV
Vilogp
Hi there! iv've bought the same model as you and im having some problems with my windows 7 (64bit), i am able to play almost all the content that i have on the pc, but the problem is that the tv not always see the pc… sometimes i open the browse pc feature and the menus with the content appears inmediately, some times never… im using plc to connect to network, and works fine with my laptop.
vallo
Hi all, when I bought my TV 32pfl8404/12 have the same problem.I found ,a program wildmediaserver http://www.wildmediaserver.com/ and I solve all problems HD format 1080p working, sound (DTS) working, sub's works auto mode.Program is wery simple to use.Now I store some movies in Tvfolder and pley very simle on Tv.I well be glad to help you.
Vilogp
I will try it, thanks for your comment
Niels
I have the same problem with my 42pfl8404. it’s a damn shame. Beautiful machine, but the quality of the network video is poor to say the least. I’ll probably be buying a ps3 soon, as it plays anything over the network perfectly.
http://www.lcdtvresource.com lcd tv ratings
This is great! I think reading this, I loved every word. Seriously, keep posting the good information, bloggers like myself need it.
PeterK
I have also bought a philips TV, and I can play almost all video’s which I have over my network (avi, mkv), however the only thing what’s not working is fast forward en fast backward. However only 1080p high bitrate video’s are played shaky because of the lack of bandwidth of my home network.
When I first tried the video over network, it didn’t work either. I tried several media servers, and the only one which worked out of the box was TwonkyMedia version 5.1.5. With the latest version of TwonkyMedia it didn’t work either, only the older verseion 5.1.5 did work.
Many people blame philips for the crappy software, however 99% of the software used is NOT made by philips. The TV uses internel a linux based computer with the 2.6.18 kernel.
Cuba2005
Good for after many tests at the end the thing seems to work. The solution adopted has been to switch between PC and TV. This means that the TV and the PC are connected by a switch and not through the router. With this solution the TV to access the media server disk works perfectly. No jump in the picture, do not lose the connection and are perfectly all shared directories on the disk. As a media server I used the Philips Media Manager which is a bit hidden on the Philips website.
So good luck to all and enjoy the TV that has cost us our money!!
Pimdamen
Bought a 37pfl7605H last week and it plays divx and Xvid nice and some MP$ formats. in the specs it says it should also play MKV files.
So i started downloading the real deal in 1080p format and 720P and eagerly installed Tversity,Tvmobili and Twonky on a server thats is a dedicated media file server (kind of a nerd i know)
So i started watching movies through DLNA and liked it. When the downloads were complete for testing.. i found out MKv files were not playing at all…..
So i converted it as an mkv file but with a H264 video codes underneath and AAC which should polay but didn;t .
To make it less complicated i converted the vdeo and audio stream of the MKv file to DIvx and AC3.. Xvid nd AC3… totally nothing! and tried to play the files through all 3 media servr options.
When i try media player the movies wont even show op in the DLNa option of the TV.
Called the guy from philips and he took notes of everyting and am still waiting for a call for 2 days.
I can still returnthe TV till next friday but passed that time if i get a goofy answer that mkv files can not be played (i tried all possible diagnistics to play a mkv file.. i will demand they give me a media box that does with network connection..
Eitherway.. if you advertise a Tv to do something and it doesnt.. it’s fraud! plain and simple.
You dont buy a car with airbgs in the only to find out the airbags are not installed.
You should eitherget it to work or make sure the customer gets something that makes it work.
( Also Dutch by the way)
None
Hi, i was able to stream a full hd windows media video to a 40pfl7605. Worked pretty good. Converted the video via any video converter.
Every other video format failed. But wmv worked. Sending photos to the tv via dlna worked too. Maybe also the firmware is up to it now.
Angela Lucine
It is my pleasure to read this page,I look forward to reading more.
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ok! very good!
wonderful!
you are right!
thank you!
Because the model is brand new I really couldn’t find any negative things about the TV and because my experience with Philips as a TV brand has always been good, so we decided to buy one.
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Gokturkk
hey there i ve the same problem shame of philips
Frustrating
I have the problem that album and cover art isn’t visable when i browse to my Twonky server Music section. Just a placeholder is visable!
With other devices i can see the album/cover art
Ugg Boots UK
It is very interesting for me to read this article. Thank you for it. I like such topics and anything connected to them. I would like to read more soon.
got same tv , same problem, also tv does not support flash
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Because the model is brand new I really couldn’t find any negative things about the TV and because my experience with Philips as a TV brand has always been good, so we decided to buy one.
Roar
fell into the same trap.. found my twonkyserver, which my samsung tv at least manages to play 50% of. but every file was unsupported
alpinestars boots
was simply the support of new devices. Ok, but why isn’t my Windows 7 machine able to ‘see’ my TV? He wasn’t able to answer that question!
told him that I even tried several different resolutions, but they all
failed. He again told me that he would discuss this with his technical
colleagues and would that he would get back to me in a few days.
That’s a very good suggestion! I’ll certainly will try it….
Nicolas
Bought the same TV, with the same expectations…
Now, I’m using Tversity (if you are under Windows, as you seem to be), and it streams all kind of video files.
BUT the big issue is now with aspect ratio: the TV will “stretch” the video to fill the screen, “making everybody look like basketball players” as they say
Only solution I’ve found was to upscale directly on the PC (this shows that the TV can do 1920*1080 via the network), but the processor speed is too low to make this work in real time. Still looking for a workaround
Ronald
Hi,
I have just bought the 32PFL9604 and would like to use mediatomb aswell. The transcode configuration and a list of packages needed for transcoding would be very welcome.
Nicolas
Hello,
Do you get the correct aspect ratio?
http://blog.hznet.nl Helmer
Hmm..if I understand you correct…the TV accepts FULL HD resolution via the network? And what about the audio? Dolby Digital 5.1?
Nicolas
Yes, it does accept FULL HD via the network. Played a demo file from Microsoft (“Coral Reef Adventure” trailer), and it looks very nice.
As for the audio, I didn’t test it since I use the TV’s speakers, so everything is transcoded by Tversity on the PC to stereo.
Just got a call from Philips, and they said that the aspect ratio thing (only remaining problem) is the media server’s fault. “What about USB” I asked them (problem is the same), and they don’t know
http://blog.hznet.nl Helmer
Too bad I will have to use TVersity… I’m still waiting for a call from Philips….
Nicolas
Well if you get it working, please tell us
http://blog.hznet.nl Helmer
I have tested some videoformat on USB stick, but (as Philips also told me) the USB and NIC connections should support the SAME amount of codecs/video formats.
The USB solution you mention isn’t really a solution, because I want to be able to play media WITHOUT copying it to a usbdisk/dvd/harddisk first.
Nicolas
Another call from Philips: there’s nothing that can be done. Maybe they’ll consider adding it to the next firmware…
Nicolas
Hello,
Did you try a movie that should NOT fill the screen to see if it is scaled properly (ie black bars)?
Andreas
Hello,
Have you or somebody else tried 720p or 1080p mkv files encoded in h.264/x.264 with DD or DTS sound yet. Tried to find out in discussion forums, but it seems like everybody still are loving those low resolution DivX/XviD’s.
And have someone calibrated their sets properly. Haven’t found test on the net yet.
(Already order mine in 42″)
Nicolas
I don’t think the TV can read those directly, but they look VERY nice when played through HDMI (my first HDTV though, so I my opinion probably doesn’t count much).
http://blog.hznet.nl Helmer
The 8xxx series does NOT support WiFi connections, only cabled network connections.
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