Summary: I have been using dlna since 2005/6 when I purchased an HP MediaSmart TV and an HP MediaVault. I love it. My drama started last summer when a lightening storm took out my HP mediaVault.
I replaced it with a Q-Nap NAS, which I really love, however I discovered that the mediasmart TV could not browse the NAS. I wondered if I should replace the TV (my daughter has a Samsung TV that could still browse and play movies on the NAS, so I know it wasn't the NAS. I suspect it is a result of changing standards. The industry has not standardized yet.
I discovered that the new generation Blu-Ray players support dlna to some extent or other. I started with a Samsung Blu-Ray player, but you need to run an application on your windows PC ( I have no windows PCs in my house, nor do I want one). So I returned that. Then I went through all the others in rapid procession. One after another got rejected because the user interface was too awkward, or it didn't work as advertised, or broke. I finally got a Sony BDP-S380. That worked great until the network port died. I returned it to the box store and upgraded to the BDP-S480. That worked great for 2 months. During that time, my daughter bought a BDP-S580 on my recommendation and it worked great too.
Two weeks ago, 2 months after I purchased it and one month past the return date, my 480 stopped browsing my NAS Server. Everything else worked. I could surf the web, play youtube, everything else. But no dlna.
I have been wondering what I should do, and today, my daughter's 580 suddenly stopped browsing dlna in exactly the same fashion! Everything else works great on hers too!
I think that Sony has either a built in lifespan on these player, with a goal of protecting their own content, or switching people over to Blu-Ray, or both. I have been in IT for 25 years, and it just feels like it had a manufactured lifespan built into it.
Sony, if you are listening, learn from history. You tried to stop video taping when people started using VCRs to copy movies. When you finally opened up to it, your profits got even bigger as everyone bought pre-recorded video tapes. You can't stop the use of dlna. You need to find a way that the consumer likes. And then you will have a world wide audience.
In the meantime, I will continue looking for a decent dlna player, but not a sony. I might consider a dedicated dlna player from one of the upstarts. I just hate adding another appliance when I shouldn't have to.
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Sony BDP-S480 
