Wed Jun 29, 2011 3:58 pm by bobbygee
I returned the LG BD570C along with the D-Link DIR615 N 300 router with no hassles. (The wifi server worked great, no hiccups watching a 12GB 1080p movie in mkv container. I had tried the D-link N 150 router, and it could not keep up.) I bought the WD TV Live Plus, and installed a Cat5e cable and when I fired it up, I was surprised to see that it saw the Serviio server which I had left running. I have set the server to generic profile, and so far, everything plays fine. I can watch my ripped DVD library of Mpeg2 movies including subtitles in mkv container. The wired connection also works great, with no hiccups. I will be comparing the benefits of using the Serviio media server versus network shared folders to see which is better for me.
I must say, however, that the WD screen interface is not as nice as the LG or Samsung. It has thumbnail view, but the title is only displayed on the selected thumbnail. There are no thumbnails on folders, so it makes it hard to navigate, since you have to select it to see what it is. It also has preview where everything is in list view, and it automatically previews the selected item. This is OK for TV shows but useless for movies, since it starts at 0 position and displays opening scenes like 20th Century Fox or Disney logos or whatever and it takes about 4 minutes before you see the start of the actual movie.
I would like to thank the creators of Serviio for a wonderful product. I had tried Samsung's All Share, LG's Nero Media Home 4 and Mezzmo and like Serviio the best by far. I especially like the flagging of the TV episodes I had last watched. On the other servers I had to try an episode to know whether I had already watched it. Automatic updates of the library is also a nice feature, although it doesn't always work. I added a movie 2 days ago, and Serviio still has not updated. I even forced an update, but still nothing. I will try re-naming it to see if it sees it then.