BDV E3100 DLNA - why no cover art or thumbnails?

[bobbydriver]

I have just bought a BDV E3100 home theatre blue ray package, and I'm impressed with most of the features, however, I have two DLNA servers running on my network and while the Sony e3100 can see both of them and play the files, it doesn't show any thumbnails or cover art on videos or music files

Why is this? All my other dlna clients do this out of the box.

[rooobb]

Sony bd player doesn't support this feature, while Sony tv yes. I don't lnow why, but it's like this... see serviio forum for details http://forum.serviio.org/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=2004

[MK_Slinky]

@rooobb 

Are you specifically referring to the original question about streaming from a DLNA server in your reply?

I can confirm that my BDP-S7200 does do cover art for CD's and BD/DVD Movies though it only works if Gracenote is enabled and only when playing actual discs. Perhaps this is different from DLNA sever streaming?

[rooobb]

Yes i''m talking about DLNA streaming. My own bdps5100 doesn't show thumbnails while my kdl42w805a connected to the same serviio server does

[MK_Slinky]

@rooobb 

I see, thanks for clarifying that for me, I'll bookmark this post in case someone else ask the same question.

Thanks again.

[bobbydriver]

Yes - the cover art appears courtesy of Gracenote when playing CDs, which is what makes it even more crazy that the DLNA client doesn't do it - as there is clearly a placeholder in the display for cover art!

Surely it's easier for the DLNA client to look in the folder for a file called cover.jpg than it is for the CD player to go off to Gracenote, query a database, and return an image..

Every other DLNA client seems to manage it, so it's very poor that Sony aren't even considering fixing their firmware

Funnily enough - looking at the Sony eSupport page on DLNA,

https://esupport.sony.com/US/p/support-info.pl?info_id=884

and they say:

How Does it Work?

DLNA compatible devices can be connected to a home network just like a computer or smartphone.

Music files are listed by title, artist, date of release and cover art, while photos are shown as thumbnails for quick selection.

So eveb Sony are admitting that this is standard functionality..

[MK_Slinky]

@bobbydriver 

Hi there,

You make an interesting point which has got my grey matter thinking..., I had a streaming media player a while back which had the same problem, the trick I discovered was to name the Album Art as 'Folder.jpg' in each music folder. Of course this won't work if you have a whole bunch of tracks in the same folder but if you have a folder for each album it might. Worth a try perhaps?

As for the support description, well it's possible it's just an oversight in the wording. It does happen sometimes.

[bobbydriver]

I can certainly try that - but I suspect it won't make a difference, given the first reply where the forum member said that it's not supported.

[rooobb]

It won't make a difference. My serviio server is able to find the cover and metadata (like year, director, genre, etc) for music/video and the cover are displayed on the Sony TV but not on the BDP (metadata yes, they are separate subfolders...) so it make no difference if you put by hand a cover in the file directory....

The description that you found out are generic DLNA features, than it depends on the actual server and client implementation: not all the server are able like serviio to shows all the metadata and cover as well not all the client are able to show them (Sony bdp are not). When asked by Sony for suggested improvement in BDP line up I already submitted this request because my 5 years old daughter is able to navigate DLNA menu and choose a movie by the image but she is still not able to read ....

@MK_Slinky I'm proud you bookmarked my post

[bobbydriver]

Thanks for the update. Do you think Sony will ever include the functionality?

I have the exact same reason, my kids like to browse by the thumbnails as they are pre-school