Smart TV with uPnP media access

I see a lot of "Smart TV" type products from Samsung (Apps) and others, but none so far that allow the TV to access my home media server.

Are any of you Outlaws aware of a TV that has the required media client embedded?

You looking for DLNA support or something similar? I haven't looked for that specifically, but it's something that has started showing up in some Blu-ray players.

I'm with Gonk. I haven't really looked for DLNA connectivity, but I haven't noticed it as a feature of any TV that I've looked at.

DLNA is really new, I'm more looking for simple uPnP media client support like the Western Digital WD TV devices and many others have, but I'd rather not have "yet another box" for that functionality.

After looking at the list of DLNA approved applications, that would also do what I want, my media server is a twonky enabled Cisco router.

Which blurays?

DLNA has been around for a while, actually, although I don't know how serious folks were about supporting it until the last few years. All of OPPO's Blu-ray players support it - the BDP-83 and BDP-80's support may still be classified as "experimental" but it is there, and the BDP-93/95 also includes support for DLNA servers. I think most uPNP servers can work with these players. I would have to look around a bit to see who else offers this, but I think Panasonic's players may do it. I suspect there are others.

I'd be leery of buying a TV for this sort of feature - you may end up compromising on picture quality to get the feature you want. A box like the WD units is cheaper than a new TV and likely to be better at the desired function, although it does add another box to the equipment rack.

I did a little poking around online (using my phone, so it wasn't the most exhaustive search). I was surprised to learn that DLNA is actually a few years older than UPnP. It seems that most DLNA servers also work with UPnP devices. I also was able to confirm that the Panasonic's BD75 supports DLNA, although you would never know it from their company site.

Something to consider - support for DLNA or UPnP doesn't mean a device will support your file types. Some servers will transcode on the fly, which can help, but you can still be limited by what formats the server will transcode and what formats the device will accept.

Thanks gonk.

I also dug around looks like the Sony S370 and S570(maybe) support it as well, and I'm transcoding to h.264 video so that should be available on a Bluray player. I'm not playing files I download or anything so I have full control of the format.

I got the BDP-460 shortly (weeks I think) before the 370 was out, apparently, or I din't know it supported DLNA. Ah well, figures.

> Some servers will transcode on the fly,<
In that case are you limted by the output formats resolution? For example, if you have Flac files on the server and it transcode's to Mp3.

Thanks Bob

Certainly so. If your device can't decode FLAC files, your two options are to not be able to play them or to have the server transcode to a format the device does support - which may require transcoding to a lossy format.