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The combination of PS3 Media Server and the basic DLNA player on the KDL-46W5100 TV work fine and would make many people happy.
The problem for me is that I am using a bridged wireless-G network connection between the PS3 Media Server and the TV. That’s fine for streaming small DVD-quality divx movies but it’s not fast enough for streaming 720P and (especially) 1080P HD movies. I am usually able to play a couple minutes of a 720P movie before the stuttering starts but there’s no chance of playing a 1080P movie.
So what are my options? I could upgrade my wireless-G network to wireless-N. Certainly, the vendors of wireless-N routers would have you believe that you can stream 1080P movies with no problems over a wireless-N network. If you do a little googling, you’ll find that some users have success and others have mixed results. Anyway, it’s a lot of money to spend on something that is not guaranteed to work perfectly.
Another option would be to run some network cable through the walls to extend the reach of my wired network to the TV. That would certainly work but it could be messy and costly. Luckily, I have a friend who does this sort of this for a living and he is going to run some cable for me in the spring.
Meanwhile, I have gone ahead and purchased a WD TV Live Media Player to play movies on my TV, without having to stream them over my slow wireless-G network. So far, I’m impressed. I’ll post a review here at a later date.
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Nice article, thx. I have a Bravia with an ethernet port (not sure which model – will check when I get home after work) and discovered the TV’s streaming capability by chance last night. I already had PS3 Media Server set up for use with my PS3. Curiously, the Bravia seemed capable of streaming a wider range of video formats than the console, including 1080p Blu-ray rips which my PS3 struggles with (perhaps relating to a codec problem). However, the picture quality of video streamed to the Bravia was poor, even for SD files. I’m wondering how you find the quality of video streamed to your TV and whether adjusting the PS3MS config makes any difference?
cheers
I’ve found the quality to be good. For me, the biggest factor in picture quality has been the quality of the movie file being played; good rips look good, bad rips look bad.
That said, you can certainly try tweaking the renderer settings for PS3MS. Some of the gurus on the PS3MS forum might have tips. The other thing is to check for a later version of PS3MS than what I used. I think they were working on the Bravia support recently.
Also, try to use at least a 100 Mbps wired ethernet connection instead of wireless. You could use 1000 Mbps but it shouldn’t make a difference because the TV’s ethernet port is only rated at 100 Mbps.
You might also want to try buying a WDTV Live media player. I bought one recently and it works well with that TV.