Windows Media Player DLNA Client - Plays some files

Help and Support Raspberry Pi
1

So I have OSMC running on a PI3. It’s been up for about a year (updated with August 27 2017 build). Have it configured for DLNA/UPnP and it works great with the TV, an iPad using 8Player, and with a few other devices. Recently decided I wanted to try streaming to my Windows 10 laptop, and was hoping to just use Windows Media Player. WMP can see and browse the library, but will only play some video files, but for others it reports that the file type is not supported (it is, I can copy the files to the PC and they play just fine).

The one thing I can see, on the Windows side, if I am in the WMP library, looking at a video file that will play, and I get properties, I get something like this:

Location: http://192.168.0.1:1227/…

And that is the correct IP address for the PI, etc. But, if I look at the files that don’t work I see something like this:

Location: dlna-playsingle://uuid:19371…

Both files are on the PI, in the same source, on the same disk, etc. They’re both in the library, they both play on the other devices just fine, but WMP says the ones with the “dlna-playsingle” location are not a supported file type. I can copy the file over to the PC and at plays fine, so I know it’s not the file itself. Instead it seems to be how the file is presented by the OSMC DLNA server. More likely than not I figure this is a WMP problem but I also figure my chances of getting help there are pretty slim. Any ideas to try on the OSMC/PI side?

2

Try VLC on the Windows machine. If VLC plays them than we blame WMP, if VLC has similar issue let’s dig into Kodi

3

I did try VLC, but VLC won’t even load the DLNA library from the server (this seems to be a known problem with large libraries that is slated to be fixed in 3.0).

4

Well, dependent on the DLNA release WMP12 uses, only specific media formats might be supported using this transport.
Please, have a look at How to submit a useful support request - General - OSMC especially the section Playback related issues: using MediaInfo.
Can you provide the mediainfo output of a working video and the mediainfo information of a non-working one, please?

5

So this is the interesting thing, at least one set of files I have problems with is AVIs, which I know WMP deals with. I am almost wondering if they don’t get any transcoding, while the ones that work do? Not my area of expertise. The other thing I notice,the one that works has a UUID in mediainfo, but these are the ones that WMP shows by IP Address/Path, while the one that doesn’t work has no UUID in mediainfo, and yet WMP lists these as ‘playsingle/UUID’.

I know it is not a problem with the file encoding itself, I can simply move the disk from OSMC over to the PC and play all the files directly - but that defeats the purpose of having a media server. And I can share the files in OSMC and make it work that way, but again, would much prefer to just be able to stream.

One that doesn’t work:

General
Complete name : File.Name.S01.E01.avi
Format : AVI
Format/Info : Audio Video Interleave
File size : 351 MiB
Duration : 44mn 49s
Overall bit rate mode : Variable
Overall bit rate : 1 094 Kbps
Writing application : Nandub v1.0rc2
Writing library : Nandub build 1853/release

Video
ID : 0
Format : MPEG-4 Visual
Format profile : Advanced Simple@L5
Format settings, BVOP : 2
Format settings, QPel : No
Format settings, GMC : No warppoints
Format settings, Matrix : Default (H.263)
Codec ID : XVID
Codec ID/Hint : XviD
Duration : 44mn 49s
Bit rate : 948 Kbps
Width : 624 pixels
Height : 352 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16:9
Frame rate : 23.976 fps
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Progressive
Compression mode : Lossy
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.180
Stream size : 304 MiB (87%)
Writing library : XviD 1.2.1 (UTC 2008-12-04)

Audio
ID : 1
Format : MPEG Audio
Format version : Version 1
Format profile : Layer 3
Mode : Joint stereo
Mode extension : MS Stereo
Codec ID : 55
Codec ID/Hint : MP3
Duration : 44mn 49s
Bit rate mode : Variable
Bit rate : 128 Kbps
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz
Compression mode : Lossy
Stream size : 42.9 MiB (12%)
Alignment : Aligned on interleaves
Interleave, duration : 24 ms (0.58 video frame)
Interleave, preload duration : 476 ms
Writing library : LAME3.96r
Encoding settings : -m j -V 4 -q 3 -lowpass 17.5 --abr 128

Duration : 44mn 44s
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 384 Kbps
Channel(s) : 6 channels
Channel positions : Front: L C R, Side: L R, LFE
Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz
Bit depth : 16 bits
Compression mode : Lossy
Stream size : 123 MiB (18%)
Language : English
Default : Yes
Forced : No

Text
ID : 1
Format : UTF-8
Codec ID : S_TEXT/UTF8
Codec ID/Info : UTF-8 Plain Text
Language : English
Default : Yes
Forced : No

One that works:

General
Unique ID : 186841347986033537617923834027379270561 (0x8C9055AE7AC8A016AAD2706BB80023A1)
Complete name : File.Name.HDDVD.x264.mkv
Format : Matroska
Format version : Version 2
File size : 698 MiB
Duration : 44mn 44s
Overall bit rate : 2 182 Kbps
Encoded date : UTC 2009-11-15 16:06:18
Writing application : mkvmerge v2.9.8 (‘C’est le bon’) built on Aug 13 2009 12:49:06
Writing library : libebml v0.7.7 + libmatroska v0.8.1

Video
ID : 3
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : High@L4.0
Format settings, CABAC : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames : 6 frames
Codec ID : V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC
Duration : 44mn 44s
Bit rate : 1 798 Kbps
Width : 1 280 pixels
Height : 720 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16:9
Frame rate mode : Constant
Frame rate : 23.976 fps
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.081
Stream size : 562 MiB (80%)
Writing library : x264 core 65
Encoding settings : cabac=1 / ref=6 / deblock=1:-2:-2 / analyse=0x3:0x133 / me=umh / subme=9 / psy_rd=1.0:1.0 / mixed_ref=1 / me_range=32 / chroma_me=1 / trellis=1 / 8x8dct=1 / cqm=0 / deadzone=21,11 / chroma_qp_offset=-4 / threads=3 / nr=0 / decimate=1 / mbaff=0 / bframes=6 / b_pyramid=1 / b_adapt=1 / b_bias=0 / direct=3 / wpredb=1 / keyint=240 / keyint_min=24 / scenecut=40(pre) / rc=2pass / bitrate=1798 / ratetol=1.0 / qcomp=0.60 / qpmin=10 / qpmax=51 / qpstep=4 / cplxblur=20.0 / qblur=0.5 / ip_ratio=1.40 / pb_ratio=1.30 / aq=1:1.00
Language : English
Default : Yes
Forced : No
Color primaries : BT.709
Transfer characteristics : BT.709
Matrix coefficients : BT.709

Audio
ID : 2
Format : AC-3
Format/Info : Audio Coding 3
Mode extension : CM (complete main)
Format settings, Endianness : Big
Codec ID : A_AC3
Duration : 44mn 44s
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 384 Kbps
Channel(s) : 6 channels
Channel positions : Front: L C R, Side: L R, LFE
Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz
Bit depth : 16 bits
Compression mode : Lossy
Stream size : 123 MiB (18%)
Language : English
Default : Yes
Forced : No

Text
ID : 1
Format : UTF-8
Codec ID : S_TEXT/UTF8
Codec ID/Info : UTF-8 Plain Text
Language : English
Default : Yes
Forced : No

6

A little more info, same two files, here is how the one that doesn’t work appears in WMP:

dlna-playsingle://uuid:19371ffb-9fdd-1a54-0216-04528990a98b?sid=urn:upnp-org:serviceId:ContentDirectory&iid=videodb://tvshows/0/1717&WMQ=1&HMEExt=.avi&WMHMETitle=QgBlAGkAbgBnACAARQByAGkAYwBhAA==

And here is the one that does:

http://192.168.0.1:1227/%25/8C9055AE7AC8A016AAD2706BB80023A1/File.Name.HDDVD.x264.mkv?WMContentFeatures=DLNA.ORG_OP=01;DLNA.ORG_CI=0;DLNA.ORG_FLAGS=01000000000000000000000000000000&WMHME=1&WMDuration=27000000000&WMHMETitle=QgBhAHQAdABsAGUAcwB0AGEAcgAgAEcAYQBsAGEAYwB0AGkAYwBhACAAKAAyADAAMAAzACkA

Notice the HTTP reference on the one that works, leading to the filename directly, while the DLNA playsingle reference leads to the videodb.

7

Played around with several AVIs with DiVx codec, OSMC as DLNA Media Server … works all great with WMP 12 on Win 10.

Strange is indeed this dlna-playsingle URI: It tells the client to look für a content directory service element on Mediaserver Device uuid:19371ffb-9fdd-1a54-0216-04528990a98b … but this does not automatically means that your OSMC device has this uuid! It could also be another DLNA device.
So my question: Are there other DLNA servers in your intranet and can it be that the content of these DLNA servers was imported to the OSMC library?
What happens, if you rename this problem AVI file to BLUES_BROTHERS_1980.avi, rescan the directory where it is located within OSMC. It should afterwards appear as Blues Brother movie in the Films menu. Can you play that movie then with your WMP (hope you’re using the latest/greatest version which is 12 afaik)?

8

Jim,

First, a giant thanks for digging into this with/for me. Very much appreciated.

1 - The PI is the network. It hosts OSMC and the wireless network. For testing the only thing on the network is the PI and the Win 10 Laptop (yes, WMP 12 - on Win 10 Creator’s Update). We work is some very remote places with no power or internet so I drag along the PI/OSMC and plug it into a solar system. Allows the group to use their tablets etc. to watch/listen from the library. Nothing else on the network, and no internet connection. All works great from just about every tablet, it is only the Win 10 laptop/WMP that has a problem, and then only with certain files.

  1. Renaming didn’t work. Same problem. Haven’t had time to convert to MKV and see if that works, but assume it would. I did scan WMP to see what files were giving it problems, seems AVIs and ISOs. The ISOs I sort of get since the episodes are buried in there, but they play fine on OSMC and on the tablets. It all seems to come down to ‘http’ vs. ‘playsingle’. I’m assuming the server (OSMC) makes the decision on how to announce each file, so at this point trying to figure out how/why playsingle is selected rather than http.

Would welcome any other thoughts/ideas and I’ll continue to dig.

9

Have been digging a bit, turned on UPnP logging on the OSMC. I think there is correlation with trying to play a file that doesn’t work and this error:

16:28:51.533 T:1507832816 WARNING: Platinum [neptune.bufferedstreams]: NPT_CHECK failed, result=-20400 (NPT_ERROR_CONNECTION_RESET) [(__result)]
16:28:51.533 T:1507832816 WARNING: Platinum [platinum.core.http.servertask]: NPT_CHECK failed, result=-20400 (NPT_ERROR_CONNECTION_RESET) [(res)]

There’s a tantalizing result on the web here:
forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=219914&pid=1943120
but the Kodi forums are down and I haven’t been able to get to it on the Wayback.

One other side note (maybe a distraction), I can right-click on one of the failing files in WMP, select “Cast to device”, select OSMC, and then the video will play on the OSMC (usually running headless, but at the moment I actually have a monitor). Don’t know if it is making the roundtrip (OSMC-Win-OSMC) or if the system figures out with the cast command that everything is on the same device and plays it from local?

10

If this is the primary use case, I’m not sure why you are using OSMC at all. Everything about the system was designed around the UI. A few simple searches give a pretty good indication that Kodi as a upnp server has never really been flawless or optimal.I Why wouldn’t you run a true purpose built upnp server?

11

Hi @DSAnduril

You may have more success using minidlna

Users have reported success with osmc using the these instructions.

But as ActionA osmc may be a bit overkill for a headless dnln server, you’d be better installing raspbian lite:

Initally you won’t be able headless as I think ssh is disabled by default, you can enable this via raspi-config

Thanks Tom.

1 Like
12

Inertia I suppose, it was already set up the first time I took it into the bush, all I had to do was grab the PI and a hard disk and it all worked. And when I get back home I use it as intended. There are a lot of features I like, and it has worked 100% of the time for everyone involved except for this one little, tiny problem related to WMP (and that is probably a WMP problem).

I’ve given that some consideration, as well as just creating a DLNA server as both you and ActionA suggest. I’ve probably gone far enough down this rabbit hole, but sometimes you can’t see the forest for the trees.

Thanks all for the suggestions.