peds48, I understand what MediaShare is used for. Of course I was playing MP3s located on my PC via Media Share, and I should be able to listen to them on my TV. Here are the steps I go through when I observe the problem playing MP3s via MediaShare. I strongly suggest, peds48, that you read them so that you learn something about MediaShare and the problem I have. I certainly could supply more details, but I hope it's enough to guide you through the process I use to play MP3s located on my PC via Media Share, and try to listen to them on my TV.
1. Boot up my PC
2. Power up the DirecTV DVR HR24-500
3. Turn on my TV, turn up the sound to a comfortable level so I can listen to the TV program to which the HR24-500 DVR is tuned to
4. Press the MENU button on the RC65X remote control (that controls the HR24-500 DVR)
5. Observe a small rectangle at the top left of the TV screen that contains a small image of the live TV program that I had tuned to in step 3, above; the sound from the TV program is audible; a menu is below the live picture image and below it, along the left side of the TV screen
NOTE: the image of the live TV in the upper left corner and the sound from the program persist through all steps until step 26, below
6. Press the DOWN ARROW button on the RC65X remote to highlight Extras in the menu
7. Press the Select button on the RC65X remote
8. Observe that the Messages icon is highlighted on my TV screen
9. Press the DOWN ARROW button on the RC65X remote so that the Music & Photos icon is highlighted on my TV screen
10. Press the Select button on the RC65X remote
11. Observe that a menu on the left of the TV screen contains the item My Computers and it is Highlighted
12. Press the Select button on the RC65X remote
13. Observe that the name of my PC appears under My Computers and is highlighted
14. Press the Select button on the RC65X remote
15. Observe that a menu appears on the left of the TV screen that has the name of my PC as the first entry, followed by Music, Videos, Pictures, Playlists; the Music entry is highlighted
16. Press the the Select button on the RC65X remote
17. Observe a new menu on the left of the TV screen, with Music as the first entry, and a number of items below it, starting with All Music and ending with Folders; All Music is highlighted
18. Press the DOWN ARROW button on the RC65X remote to highlight the Folders entry on the menu
19. Press the Select button on the RC65X remote
20. Observe 2 new menus
a. On the left of the TV screen is a menu with the first entry Music, the second entry is Folders
b. A panel covering the right 2/3 of the TV screen is a menu listing folders located on my PC, C: is the top entry and it is highlighted
21. To get to the MP3 that I want to listen to I press the DOWN ARROW button on the RC65X remote to highlight the folder that contains the MP3 I want to listen to
22. Press the Select button on the RC65X remote and observe a new menu in the panel on the right 2/3 of the TV screen that has Shuffle All as its first entry, Play All as the second entry, and a listing of the MP3s in the folder, indicated by music notes preceding the name of the MP3
23. Press the DOWN ARROW button on the RC65X remote to highlight the MP3 I want to listen to on my TV
24. Press the Select button on the RC65X remote
25. A message pops up at the bottom of my TV screen that says "Would you like to view a slideshow with your music?" and two answers: the top answer is "Yes, Add Photos," and the second answer is "No, Just Music," and is highlighted
26. Press the Select button on the RC65X remote so I choose "No, Just Music"
27. Observe that the live TV image at the upper left of the TV screen has disappeared and the sound from the live program has stopped; a message at the bottom of the TV screen that says "Please wait"
28. Observe that after about 3 seconds my TV displays a black screen as background to a rectangle that moves slowly across the screen; the rectangle is labeled with the DirecTV logo and "MediaShare," and has information concerning the MP3 I want to listen to: Song, Artist, Album, Time
29. Observe that no sound comes from the speakers on my TV
30. Press the Select button on the RC65X remote
31. Observe a new screen on the TV is displayed containing several rows of information about the MP3 I want to listen to:
a. Top row: (left to right) the DirecTV logo, the name of the track and the length (minutes:seconds) of the track, the DirecTV logo with the time and date
b. Second row: (left to right) a list of headers: Messages, Info, Last 4, Favorites, CC, MediaShare, Parental; Info is highlighted
c. Third row: a list of 3 items: Artists, Albums, Genres
32. Press the PLAY button on the RC65X remote
33. Observe a message pop up at the bottom of the TV screen which is composed of: the DirecTV logo on the left side, a thick orange line that represents a timeline, 0:00 above the timeline on left end, the minutes and seconds duration of the track above the timeline on right end, a narrow, gray rectangular box below the timeline, separated from the timeline by a triangular "point" which touches the bottom edge of the timeline, with the count of minutes and seconds since the track began to play; the gray rectangular box below the timeline slides to the right, the display of playing time accumulating one second and progressing left to right
34. Observe that automatically the screen reverts to the display of step 28, above
35. By repeating steps 28 to 34, above, observe that the sliding gray rectangle below the timeline progresses to the end of the timeline, representing the end of playing the track
36. Observe that although the TV screen demonstrates that the entire track has played according to the progress on the timeline, there has been no sound from the TV speakers from playing the track
37. Press the EXIT button on the RC65X remote
observe that the TV screen reverts back to full screen live TV, the program tuned to in step 3, above, and the sound from the live TV program is emitted from the TV speakers at the volume set in step 3, above
So, to summarize, I have my PC, DVR, and TV all powered up. I start by tuning to live TV, watching and listening to it. Using the MediaShare menus on the DVR I can locate and choose an MP3 located on my PC, read it by (or have it transmitted to) the HR25-500, which should play the MP3 so I can hear it through the TV's speakers. But I can see that the DVR displays a counter that indicates it is "playing" the MP3, but no music comes from my TV speakers. For over a year and a half I have tried to play MP3s via MediaShare and have never heard sound except one time 3 days ago. I have gone through this dozens of times and I'm about to give up even trying MediaShare, because it never works!
