Media Center and "cannot connect"

New TV and old TV both had this problem. Media Center (app that comes with the TV) is the front end on the TV. Some shows would stop in the middle (up to six times), some would even refuse to start. Serviio log just shows that the receiving device stopped playing.

New TV (XR75X90CL) played one problematic file (Working Girl as MKV ripped from DVD), then one episode of Frasier, and balked about five minutes into the second. I've got a feeling that it is just buffers at each end fighting each other, but...

Server side is PC, Windows 11 Pro, i5-12400, 16 Gb of RAM, updates suspended for long periods (seemed to happen more often when just updated). No other users, just this TV. Now the Media Center app opened up its own IP address (TV at .220, MC at .136), and I configured that port also as Sony Bravia (whether or not I should have).

I understand that this might be "Media Center", "Google TV", more than strictly a Sony problem. I've seen people say they use Kodi as the front end, and I guess I will try that next. What can I try and tweak in Serviio or Windows, that might make some sense?

I've got 64Gb of RAM coming, not that I expect this to be necessary / helpful. This did not start happening until Windows 11 and updates late 2023... early 2024.

[atc98092]

Unfortunately, it appears most TV manufacturers are letting the DLNA support slip away in increments. I've never had a Sony TV, but do still have one Sony Blu Ray player. However, I don't even use that anymore for streaming from my server. If there's a version of Kodi that works on your TV, that is probably your best bet. I use Kodi on both my Nvidia Shield players and an Onn 4K media player. The Onn won't bitstream lossless audio, but other than that it works just as well on that $20 player as it does on my Shield players, which cost $150-200 each.

My experience with Sony is they have slowly been reducing their DLNA functionality. The major issue was dropping DTS Master Audio bitstreaming. It would still bitstream Dolby TrueHD, but not the DTS counterpart. I can't say if it's still working that way, as I stopped using anything other than the Shield or Roku players. The built in TV apps are simply lousy compared to what external players can provide. If you can install Kodi it will provide a much better user experience than the native TV player. Setting up Kodi is a bit complicated, but once it's set up it works great.

So, after consulting with Sony, it appears I have found a fix / workaround.

"Media Streaming" must be enabled in Windows 11 (update/ bug-implementation along about mid-late 2023), Serviio no longer is able to get the services it requires with its default configuration / setup scheme.

Additionally, Google TV firmware does not handle the interruption well. Network diagnostics sees the Serviio server, but the contents 'Audio' and 'Video' are not visible... sometimes for "10 minutes", sometimes until Reset (Power cycle, Reset, or if lucky remote power off and back on). The "not handling things well" includes the software only being able to handle 1 remote key press every 15-20 seconds, and / or destroying the setup information for (for example) Kodi.

Now I just have to figure out how to eliminate the duplicate "media server" entry in Media Player, and still have Serviio run consistently.

[atc98092]

So, after consulting with Sony, it appears I have found a fix / workaround.

"Media Streaming" must be enabled in Windows 11 (update/ bug-implementation along about mid-late 2023), Serviio no longer is able to get the services it requires with its default configuration / setup scheme.

Additionally, Google TV firmware does not handle the interruption well. Network diagnostics sees the Serviio server, but the contents 'Audio' and 'Video' are not visible... sometimes for "10 minutes", sometimes until Reset (Power cycle, Reset, or if lucky remote power off and back on). The "not handling things well" includes the software only being able to handle 1 remote key press every 15-20 seconds, and / or destroying the setup information for (for example) Kodi.

Now I just have to figure out how to eliminate the duplicate "media server" entry in Media Player, and still have Serviio run consistently.

First I've heard of an issue specific to Windows 11, but both of my servers are on Windows 10 and neither platform supports an upgrade. Google TV is based on Android, and while I have nothing using the actual Google TV interface, I do have several devices running Android TV, and none of them have any issue with Serviio. I use Kodi as my player of choice, but I also have MrMC and VLC installed, and they too work fine.

Sony DLNA players have always retained a ghost link to media servers that no longer exist. For example, if you're not using a static IP address on your Serviio PC, it's possible that the address might change occasionally, and then your Sony player sees the new one but still has a link to the old one (which of course won't work). I haven't used one of my Sony players in a long time, so I can't remember exactly how you remove the ghost link. But it's done somehow by opening a side menu when you have that link highlighted. Can't remember if it's a long press or some other button on the remote. But you can remove them.

Serviio running on a static IP address. Always has been. I set the router up to assign DHCP-assigned addresses between .100 and .250. Serviio is at .34. Sony TV is at .80.

It ran all day yesterday without hiccup. Google TV tech support contacted me and asked me for screen shots, so I have to break it again. Go figure.