Media Player Play To Error "Failed to retrieve media Information from media server"

I couldn't agree more to you Chris. Yes MS, why this has not been fixed til now :D

The content is on the same computer.  Streaming is enabled and the receiver is "allowed." 

I am not sure if this is solved or not...but I found the solution last night after I spent the most frustrating 5 hours of my life! This is surely a windows problem. I recently replaced my HP laptop with a Dell Vostro 3450 and I suddenly found that 'Play To' feature wasn't working with my Samsung LED TV UA55C8000 .To confirm that it wasn't a firewall or format related issue I even used Samsung PC Share software on my PC to act as the DLNA server...With PC share as the server WMP12 didnt find any problems 'Contacting the Media Server' ...but with its own library it just remained stuck there, with an eventual failure message. [Point to be noted was that even when it failed to contact the media server, I could control the TV volume using the same window!]

This is what did the trick for me:

1. Closed WMP12.
2. Go to Services [Control Panel->System and Security->Administrative Tools->Services]
3. Locate the service with name 'Windows Media Player Network Sharing Service'
4. Stop the Service manually.
5. Locate the service 'UpnP Device Host'. Stop the service and start it again.
6. Start 'Windows Media Player Network Sharing Service' now.
7. Close control panel and all associated windows. Open Windows Media Player...right click on a playlist and see if PlayTo option lists the TV. Try playing now...it started playing for me at this stage!

This is just awesome. I have done all stuff to fix it but man just these 2 simple steps of restarting the services resolved my issue. I should have googled first than wasted my time fixing it. I can stream on my network again flawlessly. Wooop wooop. Can watch to my smart TVs to again yay!

The content is on the same computer.  Streaming is enabled and the receiver is "allowed." 

I am not sure if this is solved or not...but I found the solution last night after I spent the most frustrating 5 hours of my life! This is surely a windows problem. I recently replaced my HP laptop with a Dell Vostro 3450 and I suddenly found that 'Play To' feature wasn't working with my Samsung LED TV UA55C8000 .To confirm that it wasn't a firewall or format related issue I even used Samsung PC Share software on my PC to act as the DLNA server...With PC share as the server WMP12 didnt find any problems 'Contacting the Media Server' ...but with its own library it just remained stuck there, with an eventual failure message. [Point to be noted was that even when it failed to contact the media server, I could control the TV volume using the same window!]

This is what did the trick for me:

1. Closed WMP12.
2. Go to Services [Control Panel->System and Security->Administrative Tools->Services]
3. Locate the service with name 'Windows Media Player Network Sharing Service'
4. Stop the Service manually.
5. Locate the service 'UpnP Device Host'. Stop the service and start it again.
6. Start 'Windows Media Player Network Sharing Service' now.
7. Close control panel and all associated windows. Open Windows Media Player...right click on a playlist and see if PlayTo option lists the TV. Try playing now...it started playing for me at this stage!

Your a genius RA. Thank you. This solved my problem streaming from my ASUS laptop to Sony Smart TV KDL-48W600B.

So if this problem has been known about since Aug. 2011, the question has to be asked: Why have you not fixed this issue Microsoft?! This is really sub-standard customer service.

Hello, I am trying to stream from Windows Media Player to TV or WDTV Live Hub, streaming is enabled, the play to option does list the devices available but when I try streaming I get the message "Failed to retrieve media information from media server".  I have tried stopping and restarting the services Windows Media Player Network Sharing Service  and UpnP Device Host but it does not work for me.  Is there anything else I could try?