No Playback after Testing Network Speed

[bzeilstr]

I have been successfully using my PBO for a few years now but recently had an issue with playback. My PBO is connected to my PC via Cat5, and when I access my selected videos I initially get a "Testing Network Speed" message followed in a few seconds by confirmation that the video is selected. I can then press play and away I go. Lately I get the Testing message but no confirmation that the video is selected. If I try to move to another video I see that infact the PBO appears locked up and it can take several minutes before I can navigate around again. I suspected a connection issue so I switched to my Patriot wireless adapter which the media player accepted and showed good strength for. Same problem after selecting the video and getting the Testing Network Speed message. No playback and PBO is hung. I then tried to update firmware (I have BC 16) to a more recent P61. Now my PBO has a completely different look but the problem remains the same. Any thoughts?

[aasoror]

Go to P02 then P70R2 (BCN) (get it from the sticky in the hacking section).
I would also try rebooting the networking hardware.

[bzeilstr]

aasoror, Thanks for the suggestions. I gave it a whirl but my problem remains. I think I must have a network issue. If I plug in a USB with a movie on it, the playback is perfect. If I go through "Net" to my PC via hard wire or wireless, I can see all the media on the PC, I just can't play it. I also note that it takes as long as 60 seconds to open each folder on the PC via PBO so I think the network speed test never actually finishes and thus there can be no playback. I did not think the issue was firmware, since I never had the problem before and I only ever ran P02 version. The new look of P70R2 and even P61 is nicer but the problem remains the same. I wonder if the issue is not my use of the "Transcode Server" installed via the CD that came with PBO. I have been using it for about a year now but I understand from this forum that it can be a bit flakey. Prior to the install of the Transcode Server I just ran PBO with an external drive that I manually loaded up with movies and TV shows I downloaded. The loss of network is not a show stopper for me but I was disappointed that I had it and lost it somehow.

[aasoror]

Transcode Server is one useless piece of software, its meant to act as a UPnP server and in most cases you end up losing quality with it because as its name suggests it does transcode the original files.

I would double check the networking settings of the PC, might be a firewall issue, a newly installed antivirus or something similar.
If you want to troubleshoot this further you can start by using a short network cable (a cross-over cable if your PC LAN port doesn't support autosensing) and setup both IP's manually set the PC IP as the DNS and gateway for PBO and see if you are able to read the files over the network).