Playon and Hopper, not so good :(

[lparsons21]

I set up my Playon server yesterday as I hadn't been using it. Got the latest version, tested with the PS3 that was close to my server.

So I fired up the HWS to see how that worked. I fully expected no issues since Playon is specifically mentioned by Dish. The Playon server shows up, the 'channels' all show up, episodes show for playing, but then the problems start.

For the most part, nothing will play. Just a black screen with an indication that something is going on and then it ends. Sometimes the 'content' in a folder doesn't show. And on some very, very rare times, it actually plays a video.

Tested at the same location with my BluRay player. It works fine, plays any and all videos that I tried.

Network setup is all wireless and my wireless is dual-band, multi-speed.

I'll try switching the connection around a bit later today. Instead of using the wireless in the HWS, I'll connect the HWS to the Airport Extreme that is in the AV rack. That will ensure that the HWS will be using 802.11n @5Ghz.

So far I'm not impressed at all with the Hopper's DLNA support. Playon is dead simple and works with practically anything.

 

[redelephants]

I have been using playon personally with my hopper with good results. I would agree that the dlna functionality is a little subpar on the hopper as it would not play all of my video files via windows 7 media server, but have not experienced any issues with the same files using playon.

 

[lparsons21]

thanks for the feedback. Yeah, I've read a few posts that some are having no real issues with Playon, which was why I expected it to be dead simple and nearly trouble free. Unfortunately for me, that isn't the case in my setup.

 

[lparsons21]

I changed the network connection from the internal wireless on the HWS to Wired to my Airport Extreme.

Now it works, though it is twitchy as hell. After watching a bit, now I remember why I quit using Playon previously. No HD!

video quality isn't all that good though it is watcheable. I'll use it for those things I can't get from either the AppleTV, VOD or my BluRay player. IOW, minimally.