So the wife and I decided that we would get on NetFlix and be able to stream movies versus going out to BlockBuster. We thought we would go ahead and pick up a new Blu-Ray player that has the streaming built in, and hey while we are at it get one that will also be dlna compliant and connect to my Arch linux powered minidlna media server.

Well getting minidlna setup on Arch via Yaourt is super simple, just a “yauurt -S minidlna” and boom installed. Yay for just works! yay!

So onto getting the Blu-Ray player hooked up to stream pictures, music and video from the dlna server, should be easy enough to get a dlna certified player and, ah, it just happen, right? Pffft.

Off to NFM to pick up a Sony BDP-S470 seems they have it on sale for around $125 and from the manufacturer site it has evertyhing and then some.

I set it up and sure it sees the dlna server, plays the pictures and the music but does not see any movies – no avi, mkv, wmv – nothing. Grrrr. I Make sure the dlna server is working by playing movies via the Xbox 360; works fine indeed.

So return that player and then pick up the Panasonic DMP-BD65, heck its on sale for around $90 and from my cursory search on the net it is dlna certified.

Get it home, hook it up. Humm. Where is the dlna part? Look around the web and find out that the dlna part is only for the European market; not available in the US models. Good grief.

Then off to pick up the LG BD-570 its the most expensive one in my adventure, around $165, but it seems to have Wifi built in and it does have the dlna sticker on the box.

Get it home, hook it up. Endure looks from the wife that I am losing my mind and working on becoming some sort of Blu-Ray exporter. Aha! Eureka right off the bat it sees my dlna server and, wait for it …. Yes! it plays the movies, pictures and music just fine.

Sure the WiFi part stutters a bit playing back some 1080p video (Big Buck Bunny ftw!) but connected on the wired it seems to be excellent in both video and audio.

After some more checking the NetFlix and Vudu works as well. Woot!

Enjoy!