PS3 fails to see DLNA without ReadyNAS reboot

Hi, I just bought a PS3 slim and a ReadyNAS Duo, which initially didn't seem to work well together. My initial scan did not find the media server on the
Duo, but at some point later it was suddenly just there. Later still it disappeared and scanning again did not work. I tried changing the notify interval,
as mentioned earlier in this thread, but in my case the solution was that since I could see the following error in upnp-av.log:
error: Unable to open pidfile for writing /var/run/minidlna.pid: File exists
the solution was simply to remove the .pid file and restart readydlna via the web interface.

Suggestion: A restart of the readydlna-service should remove the pid-file if it exists, unless there is a good reason not to?

vidarno wrote:

Hi, I just bought a PS3 slim and a ReadyNAS Duo, which initially didn't seem to work well together. My initial scan did not find the media server on the Duo, but at some point later it was suddenly just there. Later still it disappeared and scanning again did not work. I tried changing the notify interval, as mentioned earlier in this thread, but in my case the solution was that since I could see the following error in upnp-av.log: error: Unable to open pidfile for writing /var/run/minidlna.pid: File exists the solution was simply to remove the .pid file and restart readydlna via the web interface. Suggestion: A restart of the readydlna-service should remove the pid-file if it exists, unless there is a good reason not to?

Is the upnp-av.log file and the /var/run/minidlna.pid file accessible through FrontView or Windows Explorer interface? or do we have to get to these via the Linux root access etc?

No, both files require ssh-access to be viewed or modified.

OK, then non-techies like me will ask about how to do that if the problem happens to me.

Aloke

Failure to write the PID file will not cause ReadyDLNA to not start properly. That's not the cause of the problem.

I see the same behavior on the PS3. I have several media servers on my network and the ReadyNAS is the only one that regularly disappears. In order to use it I jump into frontview and rescan or restart the service - clearly not desirable. If it's as simple as reducing the advertising interval, that seems like a no brainer.

thomsens wrote:
I see the same behavior on the PS3. I have several media servers on my network and the ReadyNAS is the only one that regularly disappears. In order to use it I jump into frontview and rescan or restart the service - clearly not desirable. If it's as simple as reducing the advertising interval, that seems like a no brainer.

So for you, the Search for Media Servers button on PS3 doesn't help? The advertising interval is not the actual problem. The problem has to come from the M-SEARCH requests from the client not making it to the ReadyNAS. If we had an environment where we could see this behavior, that would be helpful. But every environment that I have access to works perfectly, with several different media players.

Have you tried putting the PS3 and ReadyNAS on the same switch, to see if there's something along the way that is causing the issue?

Skywalker wrote:

thomsens wrote: I see the same behavior on the PS3. I have several media servers on my network and the ReadyNAS is the only one that regularly disappears. In order to use it I jump into frontview and rescan or restart the service - clearly not desirable. If it's as simple as reducing the advertising interval, that seems like a no brainer. So for you, the Search for Media Servers button on PS3 doesn't help? The advertising interval is not the actual problem. The problem has to come from the M-SEARCH requests from the client not making it to the ReadyNAS. If we had an environment where we could see this behavior, that would be helpful. But every environment that I have access to works perfectly, with several different media players. Have you tried putting the PS3 and ReadyNAS on the same switch, to see if there's something along the way that is causing the issue?

I have had 2 PS3s and have had the same behavior on both - searching on them does nothing...have to tweak readynas to get it to show up. Again, my other servers are consistently in my list and also a "switch hop" away as well. I could put them on the same switch, but I don't see why that would matter. I'm very knowledgeable about networking, so enlighten me if you have ideas of why that might change things.

thomsens wrote:
I'm very knowledgeable about networking, so enlighten me if you have ideas of why that might change things.

The way discovery is done in the DLNA (and UPnP) world is with UDP multicast, which of course can be lossy. When the DLNA client starts, it sends an M-SEARCH packet asking for responses from media servers on the network. That piece is certainly working in ReadyDLNA, as evidenced by passing all UPnP and DLNA tests, and by the thousands of systems around the world that don't have this problem. So the only possibility that makes sense is that those search packets being sent by the client (PS3 in this case) aren't making it to the ReadyNAS.

Skywalker wrote:

thomsens wrote: I'm very knowledgeable about networking, so enlighten me if you have ideas of why that might change things. The way discovery is done in the DLNA (and UPnP) world is with UDP multicast, which of course can be lossy. When the DLNA client starts, it sends an M-SEARCH packet asking for responses from media servers on the network. That piece is certainly working in ReadyDLNA, as evidenced by passing all UPnP and DLNA tests, and by the thousands of systems around the world that don't have this problem. So the only possibility that makes sense is that those search packets being sent by the client (PS3 in this case) aren't making it to the ReadyNAS.

It can be lossy, but there has to be a reason for it to be as you know...and likewise, other devices have to respond to the same queries and they work fine in the same general configuration, so...

My current setup: PS3---netgeargs608---linksysslm2008---readynasnv
My new setup: PS3---linksysslm2008---readynasnv

The netgear is in my HT cabinet so that all of my AV gear can connect locally to it. It is connected back to my Linksys which is kind of a core switch with the GE servers and PCs, ReadyNAS and other switches attached. I do this because the linksys has some basic stats for troubleshooting issues. Once the PS3 is off that netgear switch it is a non-blocking config since all of the HT gear is 100Mb/s and the uplink is GE - little chance for contention. Even with the PS3 on it, it's hard to believe contention is the issue since I'm generally using one of the devices at a time.

All links in the digrams above are GE and both scenarios (don't) work the same way for the PS3. I have 4 "media adapter" products in my HT setup. The PS3, a Denon 4308CI, a Pioneer Elite 150FD TV, and a Popcorn hour C-200 and all were attached to the GS608 until I moved the PS3. The PS3 has the problem of rarely seeing the ReadyNAS unless I restart the service, or rescan at which time it will show up. It may also show up every 15 minutes when the ReadyNAS advertises, but I didn't try to watch for that. The Denon seems to flipflop more - I did see it, then it disappeared, but it was not reliable like it should have been. The Pioneer and the Popcorn hour can see the readynas it seems at most times. I would disregard the pioneer because it seems to cache stuff forever since I see there are other servers listed in there that I can't even remember testing out they were so long ago. The popcorn hour is new, so I don't know how "dynamic" it's list is, but I'd assume it's more so than the TV and it does see the ReadyNAS.

When I did the "search" function on the PS3, it only sent out 3 packets. Since we can rule out a cable issue since all other communication works fine and we can rule out port contention since all ports are 100Mb/s feeding a GE on my HT setup and then once the ReadyNAS is directly connected to the same GE switch as the PS3, there's very little chance of contention being the issue (I'm not doing anything of note on the network). And, the only other potential problem would be broad replication, but only 3 packets or so are generated for the broadcast based on my stats screen, so heaven help this switch if it can't keep up with that....but again, the other devices respond.

I'm running 16.1 and am willing to do some level of testing for the code if you like. Like I said, I have 4 media adapter products I can test on.