Organizing files

[xms]

How does media streaming server deal with folders? I have about 200 videos in the videos share/folder, organized in subfolders by various categories (TV shows, kids shows etc). When I view this in Windows Media player I just see 200 files in one big folder, which makes it impractical to manage. Does DLNA clients recognize how files are organized on the server? Is there other software that does a better job?

[Akiland]

Boxee, if you have a computer hooked up to your tv
It attempts to get the info for each episode/movie from imdb and sort everything up. This require that you have used a certain naming of your files.
Give it a try

[csimon]

If you are using a DLNA Server to stream your videos, it depends on the capabilities of the server as to how it indexes them. The Synology DLNA server for example has limited options for video files and you can only get them served by folder or date. However this does mean that if you've already got your videos stored in folders as you want them, then this would work for you.

Other DLNA servers, e.g. J River, can automatically retrieve metadata for your videos (if they are movies, TV Series etc) and you can also add your own metadata (tags) to the files if you have your own categorisations. And you can then get the Server to provide menus organised exactly how you want them, via the metadata and tags, rather than just by folder or by date.

[Taxman]

WMP has a bug in it were it displays DLNA content without any folder structure even if one is present so best advice is dont use WMP or map the network shares to explorer then add the paths into WMP media library so it can manage the media that way.

As for alternatives to WMP try XBMC as it can read the UPnP/DLNA server though it works better if you feed it the network shared folders directly instead of UPnP/DLNA.

[xms]

Thanks for all the replies. I first tried the Boxxee software (I didn't actually know you could download and install the software separately).. didn't work that great, I'm sure it has a lot of nice features that works well, especially if you live in US (which I don't), but didn't like it. Also didn't like fact you have to create a central logon.

Then I tried XBMC, which works really nice. I was streaming HD720 over a sluggish 54G connection to a netbook with no problems. It's open source and decent online documentation/wiki.

Ironically Boxee is based on XBMC.

Are there alternative media servers (twonky?) that do a better overall job than the built Synology one?

[Akiland]

Are there alternative media servers (twonky?) that do a better overall job than the built Synology one?

http://forum.synology.com/enu/viewtopic.php?f=37&t=32746&p=129769&hilit=twonky#p129769
I haven't tried it myself though, my DS is hooked up to my Boxee Box

[Taxman]

Twonky (german instructions), MediaTomb, Fuppes (german instructions) and Serviio are all possible to install on some Synology NAS but it can be a complicated process.

Boxee doesn't really work well with UPnP it is geared towards SMB shares as it's UI is centered around scanning media from those shares. You can use the files mode in Boxee to look at UPnP sources.

[xms]

Thanks for the replies. I've got Twonky up and running, and it appears nice, it looks like it provides much better Unpnp ability than the Synology media server. It isn't free, costs 20$ and has a 30 day evaluation. But it looks like it will be worth it, especially if you have a upnp/DLNA enabled TV, since it has specific configurations for a number of name brand models.

The follow outlines my install, this is a combination of the Linux-how-to.txt in the Twonky ZIP file, the above link by DerekCharles and my own input. These steps should work on any x86 Synology NAS - if it's not a x86 cpu you will have to figure out what package to get:

Shut down Synology media server

Logon into terminal session

Create a directory:
mkdir /usr/local/twonkymedia

cd /usr/local/twonkymedia

wget http://www.twonkyforum.com/downloads/6. ... .5-6.0.zip

unzip twonkymedia-i386-glibc-2.2.5-6.0.zip
rm twonkymedia-i386-glibc-2.2.5-6.0.zip
chmod 700 twonkym* cgi-bin/* plugins/*

/usr/local/twonkymedia/twonkymedia start

This will start the media server, but it's not ready to use yet. You need a few basic settings set that can be done via the built in web interface:
http://NASserveraddress:9000/config
You will see a First Steps button - set the server name from here
Then click on the Sharing link to set the folders to use. Save the settings and restart Twonky from the web interface.

To make the server start at boot time create the file S99twonky.sh in the /usr/syno/etc/rc.d directory containing the line:
/usr/local/twonkymedia/twonkymedia start

After creating the S99twonky.sh file give it the execute permission:
chmod 700 S99twonky.sh

One more setting you may need to set if you experience sporadic connections is to set the specific IP of the Twonky server - this sounds odd but by default it broadcasts to all subnets on server, including loopback (127.0.0.1):
http://synologyIP.address:9000/rpc/set_ ... IP.address

I hope this helps anyone else wishing to use this.

[Mikle_01]

What DS you're using!? Twonky offers packages for several CPU's, I guess, the most DS have the Kirkwood CPU.

[mark8par]

Hi, i wonder if you can help me as i am stuck on the last part which is

"To make the server start at boot time create the file S99twonky.sh in the /usr/syno/etc/rc.d directory containing the line:
/usr/local/twonkymedia/twonkymedia start

After creating the S99twonky.sh file give it the execute permission:
chmod 700 S99twonky.sh

One more setting you may need to set if you experience sporadic connections is to set the specific IP of the Twonky server - this sounds odd but by default it broadcasts to all subnets on server, including loopback (127.0.0.1):
http://synologyIP.address:9000/rpc/set_ ... IP.address"

Thanks in advance

[xms]

Log into a session as root:
Enter the following, this will create a script in the startup directory - this is to start twonky when your Synology boots up:
echo "/usr/local/twonkymedia/twonkymedia start" > /usr/syno/etc/rc.d/S99twonky.sh
Enter the following to give the file execute attributes:
chmod 700 /usr/syno/etc/rc.d/S99twonky.sh

X

[krimson]

Thanks for the guide!

I installed twonky and it seemed to work well enough on my DS211j, but it didnt want to allow me to transcode mkv. Maybe I have to pay for it to do that?

Either way, I want to remove it completely, and stop it from showing up on my XBOX360 as a streaming source.
I have removed /usr/bin/twonkymedia folder, but it is still showing up.

Any thoughts on how to completely remove it from the DS?

Thanks!

[cgospsa]

Hello to everyone from Spain.

Is my first post and:

Thank you Mr.xms for support. In my DS 101j "Kirkwood" TwonkyServer work fine. Only one thing: I have to reboot the Synology and for only have an IP in twonky:

http://"SynologyIP":9000/rpc/set_option?ip="SynologyIP"

Cheers!!!

[xms]

Hello to everyone from Spain.

Is my first post and:

Thank you Mr.xms for support. In my DS 101j "Kirkwood" TwonkyServer work fine. Only one thing: I have to reboot the Synology and for only have an IP in twonky:

http://"SynologyIP":9000/rpc/set_option?ip="SynologyIP"

Cheers!!!

You only need the last step if you are experiencing problems with connecting clients and are showing multiple addresses under the Twonky admin page - I think since I have a 1511 with dual network ports it picked up a second address and was trying to broadcast over the second port.. if everything is working for you skip the last step.


X

[beckos]

@xms : I am new(bie) to Linux and I tried your instalation tutorial. Everything went fine and the installation went well. Twonky started and everything, but then I wasn't paying attention for your last step of the tutorial, and I set a wrong IP address for the server. Although the server starts something is happening because I can no longer access its config page and I cant set the correct ip address with set_option... line. When I enter in command prompt I can see that the server is trying to do somenthing but it reports the following errors continuously:

Code: Select all

For image conversion and scaling the TMS utilizes ImageMagick. For details on the license please see /opt/twonkymedia/cgi-bin/convert-readme.txt
12:37:20:735  [Critical] - LOG_HTTP:HTTP_create_server_socket : no free port for HTTP server found on IP: 192.168.11.254

I tried to remove everything about twonkymedia, then I reinstalled the server, restarted, but the process continues with these messages and I can no longer access its config page.

Could you please help me setting the correct ip address again? or at least remove that settings (which I didn't knew if I needed or not...)

Thanks in advance!


*******
UPDATE:

Ok, I didn't know how to revert this setting in Twonky and I changed my network settings to match the typo error made when given the above command. Then I reaplied the correct set IP command, then reverted my network to previous settings and restarted everything.

Now everything is fine and Twonky Server 6.0.31-RC6 (kirkwood processor version) is running on my DS211+.