N95-8GB’s DLNA - working with PS3!
By Ben Robinson on Friday, January 18th, 2008 at 12:39 PM PST In Nokia, Technologies, Uses for you Nokia phone
Given I have a newborn that occupies all of my non-working time (!), I am not quite sure how I managed to find the time to slot in this bit of (delete as applicable) research/twiddling/tweaking/testing - however, I thought I would share the results…
Some of you may have also tried this, but below is my take on what I found, and why it’s interesting in respect of Mobile. If you have tried something similar and it did/didn’t work I’d encourage you to drop us a comment - we love to hear from you!
So I recently tried out some software called TVersity - this is a free Media Server than runs on your PC, enabling you to share out content across your home network (which, lets face it, most people have these days, due to broadband modem). It has a Flash interface, which provides you a GUI to configure which media you want to ’show’ (kinda like Windows file sharing, only much more interesting!). In fact, we’ve mentioned it before on IntoMobile
I selected a bunch of images, video, and audio, and selected this for sharing. I then set the PS3 to look for Media Servers, and lo and behold, it found the TVersity server running on my PC. Nice!
It was at this point I rememered some testing I had done at a Mobile Operator I used to worked for - at the time I was checking the Nokia (NYSE: NOK) N80, and it’s capabilities with something called UPnP (Universal Plug and Play). The tests I had done connected an N80 via UPnP over WiFi, to a Phillips Media Display box, which was linked to a Plasma Panel.
Given the N80 had a (much) earlier revision of the N95-8GB firmware (which is my current phone of choice), I figured it might be worth seeing if the Media Server option was still available on it - and it was!
Once the N95-8GB was set up to share content (again, a selection of images, video, and audio), I re-scanned with the PS3, and *wow* - there was the N95-8GB showing up!
A few tweaks here and there (involving a manual restart of the N95-8GB, just to make sure I was going to get the best performance possible), and soon I was streaming audio, video, and images to my TV!
No doubt you will have read Stefan’s post on the N95-8GB being DLNA-certified, and wondered how it might be useful - well, if you are lucky enough to have a PS3, which you are connecting wirelessly to your home network, and you have an N95-8GB, you can give this a try and find out!
I highly suspect this cool piece of ‘connected home’ tech-funk will work on the other NSeries devices since the N80 - my first thoughts coming to devices such as the N93 and N95, but pretty much any with WiFi, and the ‘Home Media’ icon should work! The reason for this is that UPnP and DLNA are essentially the same standard (or rather DLNA is a spin-off from the original UPnP standard).
Next, some anecdotal comments on the performance I encountered:
- Images - slow loading the thumbnails, but reasonable speed at loading the full-screen images
- Audio - great MP3 streaming!
- Video - trying to stream the VGA 30fps MP4 files that the N95-8GB records, I ran in to some buffering problems (probably at the Nokia device side I suspect)
I do think it’s always reasonable to ask the question “why is this useful to me” of a mobile service, device, or feature - and so I’ll share my current use-case with you. As it happens, I have a number of photos that I have taken of our newborn, and I have been able to share these with friends that came round - on our TV rather than huddling round a mobile device! Suffice to say that everyone has been amazed at the simplicity of the feature, and love being able to see the pictures blown up to poster size!
Tune in again soon for the next adventure with mobile technology!
This is greate ! I love my N95 8GB
You can view more details on the N95 8Gb here: http://www.n95-8gb.com/
Well,
I would not go again in the detail of N-95 getting a DLNA certification and able to interoperate as advertised everywhere on the websites. I guess probably everyone of us has read it out.
It is not very clearly mentioned as far as I have read that what DLNA role the N95 can take on. UPnP and DLNA are essentially the same standard (or rather DLNA is a spin-off from the original UPnP standard). It has three basic roles
1. Server (Sharing the digital media audio/video/images)
2. Renderer (Able to play these media types on itself or any attached device)
3. Control point (a controller to browse thru media library and tell renderer what to play from which server).
I just want to know and confirm that [B]“has anyone really checked this functionality in detail”[/B].
My setup is as follows ;
1. One TeraByte digital media library on Wester Digital My Book World Edition. The firmware for my book is updated with the ARM Processor version of Twonky Vision by Twonky Media. It searches and shares all the media present in respective folders.
2. Additionally I also have Tversity installed on a connected PC to catalog the same media. So i have two DLNA media server emulating softwares running. This is just to check various devices in case one or the other runs in toruble.
3. PS3 connected via wired ethernet to the network. It can effectively act as a DLNA (Control Point for itself) and DLNA (Renderer) means it can browse and display all the media types (Audio/Video/Images) to the connected LCD TV.
4. Enter N95 in the network. I have enabled the Connectivity -> Home Media -> Share Content option. When i refresh this way I can now see N95 also listed as a DLNA Media Server on my network. I can browse thru its files on the PS3. I can also play the AUDIO / IMAGES stored in the N95 memory. However when I play any video file from N95 the playback is jerky. Which it should not be (cause I also play video files from my One Terabyte storage connected via Wireless LAN).
5. When I try to browse my home network via N95, i can see my shared content directories on both Tversity and Twonky Vision.
It presents two options ( Via the Home Network or On the Device). Both the options dont work in my case. I selected a Mp3 file to be played via Home Network (it means that the PS3 should start playing the file). But it did not happen. It means it [B]cannot effectively [/B]act as a DLNA Control Point.
I tried playing the Mp3 file on the device ( means the N95 itself), and it merely copies the file to itself and then is able to play. This also is somewhat predated. As the PS3 or other media renderers stream the content upon access, not copy them first to internal memory and then play. Same is the case with images.
Also the fact that when I tried to run any of the video file (AVI/XVID/WMV/RM) stored on the DLNA server, the N95 simply refuses to play it and shows no message.
So effectively it is [B]not a DLNA renderer either[/B]. It only has to ability to share its own contents by being a DLNA Server.
Well its dissappointing to me , because I thought it would be a full fledged device on which I would be to play all my shared media files (audio/video/images) without any glitches since a WLAN connection of 54Mbps is supposed to be sufficient for all such media streaming.
Anyone who wants to share his/her ideas and maybe correct me if I am doing something wrong and guide me, then I would really appreciate the efforts.
Seems like all DLNA flashy ad statements are marketing gimmicks for people who barely know or use all such technlogies in detail.
Thanks for reading.
Regards,
AlterEgo.