I have an eGreat NMT and a hacked WDTV with USB to Ethernet dongle. I have been able to set up both of them to stream directly from my Buffalo NAS.

I got rid of my WDTV recently and decided to add another streamer to my. I decided to get the ASUS O Play.

I hooked it up to my wireless ethernet bridge that my NMT used. I had my desktop on and my NAS was on. With the computer on my Asus found the NAS and computers on the network quickly. I had to navigate to the Workgroup folder and then it showed all my computers and NAS on the network. I was easily able to access the folders and stream movies from the computer and the NAS.

I then turned off the computer and then tried to stream a movies from the NAS to Asus. The Asus was NOT able to find anything on the network. I want to stream from the NAS because it doesn't use much power to keep on. I think this is a shortfall of the Asus.

I was wondering if you guys could make a list of the other streamers ability to stream directly from the NAS without needing the computer to be on.

I was wondering if the CinemaTube and Patriot are like this? I know the WDTV Live was able to use a NAS because my friend is using his NAS with it.

1. eGreat, Popcorn Hour, HDX - yes
2. WDTV Live - yes
3. Asus O Play - no
4. Brite View CinemaTube - ?
5. Patriot Box Office - ?

If you guys know the answer can you please post it and add any other players to a the list?

You need to be looking at your NAS and not your media player box if it already streams media through a network. Some NAS have media server functionality that will work with your box but most do not.

My Buffalo NAS has TVersity.

My eGreat and WDTV was able to find my NAS with Tversity serving the media files.

The Asus could only see the NAS when a computer was on. Therefore it's a fault of the streamer and not the NAS. The Asus doesn't not have this ability.

I just wanted input from other users on what worked with their NAS.

So what software is running on the PC that is enabling streaming? Just having the PC on isn't enough to enable streaming from the NAS unless it's running some software.

Per your request, the Netgear EVA9150 will stream from any NAS via smb. It doesn't require TVersity (a DLNA server) to be running.

Alan

My eGreat and WDTV was able to find my NAS with Tversity serving the media files.

The Asus could only see the NAS when a computer was on. Therefore it's a fault of the streamer and not the NAS. The Asus doesn't not have this ability.

Asus O!Play has UPnP streaming client in the new v1.11 firmware.

But I suggest you to find the network/configuration glitch that's causing this, because UPnP/DLNA has limited feature set compared to smb or nfs.

Regarding your network, my bold guess is that your PC acts as a so called "smb master browser", and when you switch it off, there's no device to query for the available shares/devices. If your eGreat still sees your NAS, then this can be due to several reasons, like for example it's connecting using a different protocol (NFS), it's not behind a wifi AP, or swicth, etc. (I suspect that something similar could cause your WD to see the share. Like for example the USB->Ethernet dongle had some caching or "name serving-like mechanism". I'm just guessing.)

As a quick check, you can try this: Get a router, put it on your network and configure it to act as a DHCP server. Connect your NAS and O!Play directly to the router, and configure both to get their IP automatically from the router. Finally, set the same "workgroup name" in your NAS and in your router (if there is an option for this, routers usually call this as "workgroup" name or "domain" name). If you see your NAS now, then try to go back to your original wiring configuration, step by step, checking after each step that your NAS is still visible. Once your NAS disappears, you can pinpoint what device/wiring/etc. causing the problem.

ps: I assumed you use windows and smb. If you use macs, it's a different story. (I don't know macs.)