Media Server vs Standard Shared Folders

[tanveersattar]

All,

This is just to clarify couple of things from Media Server point of view:
- What services does Media Server exactly provide?
- If I just put my music and videos in normal shared folders what I would be missing when I will be trying to view them through and DLNA media device?
- What I would be missing if I am not using 'photo' share folder which is being used by Photo Station?

Apologies if I am asking very basic questions here but the issue is that I am not happy at all with the 'convert' process and the @eaDir folders in those media server folders (photo, video, audio) and thus I am thinking of just putting them in standard shared folders and not use Media Server at all.

Regards

[Taxman]

Media server just makes content available through UPnP/DLNA. If your media player supports SMB/Samba or NFS your better off sticking with that as using DLNA tends to restrict what the media player can do with the media in terms of management.

[tanveersattar]

Thanks Taxman,
I am still thinking of buying a media player with my DS211j though but your answer gives me a clear understanding on how should I put my media on NAS.

[demosthien]

Sorry to Lazarus this old post but after scouring the forums it seems this is the closest thing to what I am trying to find out (but not quite). So rather than create a new post...

When I first got my DS411j I moved my entire iTunes media library (with the iTunes managed folder structure including music, movies, TV shows, apps & books etc) onto the NAS default "Music" folder from my MacBook local HDD.

I have since added some movies into the NAS default "Video" folder.

I play music/movies etc on my MacBook via iTunes (sourcing from the NAS default music folder) and watch my other movies with XBMC (sourced from the NAS default video folder). All has run smoothly.

My first question was whether there was any performance advantage to using the default folders for storing and viewing the media in this way?

So moving on.

The separation of my iTunes media and my other media is bugging me and I want to get it all into the same consolidated iTunes folder structure.

So I tried creating another shared folder on the DS411j called "Media_Share" and I moved the iTunes media library into this folder. I was hoping I could just move all my media (the other movies etc from the default video folder) into this folder and use it all in the same way that I had been, just with it all in the consolidated iTunes folder structure. When I began playing music on my MacBook via iTunes (like I had done before) it seemed to me that my LAN access was slowing down as iTunes was really hammering it accessing the NAS.

So, to my other questions;

Is the performance hit just a figment of my imagination (theoretically speaking of course as I know you'd need some network traffic data to confirm it... which I don't have)?
Is it possible to have the consolidated iTunes folder structure I am looking for without a major hit to the performance?
Is my "Media_Share" folder the right way to do this or is there a better way?

I spose what I'd really like is to be able to have iTunes be the media manager and music player while XBMC sources it's movies from the iTunes media library.

Thanks for any help you can give me.

[Mikes Bike]

hey demosthien ,, i was gonna post a question because noticed the same thing,, just got my ds211+ a few days ago and it had 3 default folders (music,photo,video). i put some movies in to the video folded and watch them using wdtvlive hub. like yours worked perfect. but i want multiple folders to store movies so i created my own folder, but media player wont see it, so play movies through the network then it can see the folder, but when it plays it lags something awful.
there must be some difference between the default folders and the ones we create.
if so, is there some way to replicate the default video folder ??

p.s didnt mean to butt in on your question, just you seem to be having the same troubles

[Mikes Bike]

Just replying back to this post in case some one had the same problem as me.

what u have to do to make more folders visible if u want to watch movies stored on ur Synology NAS through a Media Player/Hub,
is go to control panel, open tab for media station settings, add folder you want to make available, then select the media types you want to associate the folder with. DONE..

now the folders will show on your media player and you can watch ur movies

[genxt]

Just replying back to this post in case some one had the same problem as me.

what u have to do to make more folders visible if u want to watch movies stored on ur Synology NAS through a Media Player/Hub,
is go to control panel, open tab for media station settings, add folder you want to make available, then select the media types you want to associate the folder with. DONE..

now the folders will show on your media player and you can watch ur movies

Hi Mike, I've been trying to do this but whenever I try to select a folder, it only shows a folder called "public" and nothing else. I don't see the usbshare1 drive that I connected and shared. Could you please let me know if I missed a step or something? Thanks a lot!

[Mikes Bike]

hey genxt, just seen ur post .not sure if we were have the same problem, but instead of trying to explain what i did , i tought it would be quicker to just show you what i mean

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79lsyT5u_qI

room is very dark so the quality is quiet poor, so its really just an audio description

as for the usb share problem your having , i have no idea, but it sounds like its an issue with the memory stick you using, cos it should show up automatically. maybe try format the memory stick .