Sony TV Media Centre with Time Capsule?

[eebsie]

Hi,

I have a Sony KDL-50W829B TV which I have previously using the Media Centre function to access and play media files from a WD external drive.

I have just bought an Apple Airport Time Capsule and setup my wireless network via that and the TV connects to the new wireless network, no problem.

However, I was hoping to be able access media files on the Time Capsule's 2TB drive to play through my TVs Media Centre. But the TV can't find this content.

So, is it possible for my TV to access files in the Time Capsule? If so, if someone could explain how, that would be much appreciated. I've read various comments about there being no DLNA server on the Time Capsule - could that mean it won't work? Or is there some other way around this?

I realise the Time Capsule is primarily a back up device. So is what I'm trying to do not really possible? What about if I connect an external drive to the USB port of the Time Capsule - should that work?

Many thanks for any help.

 

[Slydude]

I'll have to do a bit of digging to find information about that specific TV model, but here's what I discovered when I tried this with a Samsung TV.

By itself, the Time Capsule does not work for what you want to do because it does not have the DLNA software. You would have to run DLNA software on your Mac and then tell that software to look for your media files whether they are stored on the time capsule or on an external drive attached to it. I tried that with my 2008 MacBook Pro and two different programs that claimed to support these functions. Either I never got them configured properly or the system had some other issues because I could never get it to recognize my iTunes library or most of my other media files.

I tried both Servo and Plex. Unfortunately, neither program seemed to be able to communicate with the Samsung DVD player that was supposed to handle DLNA functions. I ultimately opted for an Apple TV even though it means having to have a a Mac on to share the content. Not that big an issue for me since I would've had to to have the mat on to run wither Serviio or Plex anyway.

There are some network attached storage devices which claim to have iTunes and other media support. This allows one to store the media files on the NAS device and that device can then make the content available to the entire network. If you wish to go that route, I'm sure others can suggest models which would be appropriate for that purpose. I'm not impressed with the two that I tried and therefore won't recommend them to anyone.



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