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[nickharambee]

hello

i am trying to set up library server for the first time (2 laptops on a local network), and i have a problem.  i have been able to find the server library on the client and this has been succesfully imported, but i can only access images (jpgs) and not music (flacs).  when i click on a music track to play it i get 'media center encountered errors while trying to play the last several files.  please make sure that the path in your media library points to the right location'.  on the server, in the contents pain i get the following info: received request for a file...but it is always the jpgs that requests are received for, and never the music/flac files. 

i should say that i can play flac files fine if i access them on through explorer on a drive that is shared on the network.

can someone please help me get this set up right.

thanks

nick

[JimH]

Do you have the flac decoder installed on the server?  Do the files play OK there?

What version of MC are you using?  Did you try a search here for flac?

[nickharambee]

yes flac decoder is installed on server, and flac files play fine there. i am using MC 11.1.111 on both laptops.  i have already tried a search for flac but couldn't find anything relating to this specific problem.  i will try again, but any other suggestions would be welcome

nick

[nickharambee]

ok, i have now found some info on this.  mhakman reports the same problem i am having here:

http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=29226.0

this is what he says:

When I try to play FLAC files from a MC Library Server on a client without conversion to MP3 then I get following error:

“Media Center encountered errors while trying to play the last several files. Please make sure that the path in your media library points to the right location.”

If I let client convert to MP3 before playing then this works ok. I can also play FLAC files on the server and client without problems.

What can be wrong?

if i set the client to convert the flac files to ogg vorbis then they play fine, but if i set the client to not convert files then they won't play.


nick

[Matt]

The FLAC plugin needs to use a JRiver reader so it can support HTTP files.

I think it's being worked on:
http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=31761.0

[nickharambee]

i have just converted my whole collection from ape to flac, partly because i was planning to buy a squeezebox (i am now using a second laptop instead) and partly because my DJ software supports flac.

the ogg (or lame) encoders are peridocally taking up a lot of CPU on the server (at the start of playing tracks: 20-30 secs), and i would rather avoid this if possible.  how long before i am likely to be able to play flac files on the client without conversion?

also, MC on my client is taking a long time to show cover art.  in fact it only seems to show it once the cpu on the server has dropped to normal (i.e. 10% as opposed to 100%).  will this problem be rectified once i no longer have to convert?

also, the thread you pointed me to didn't mention flac at all.  is this the right thread? (it may be that my non technical brain can't see the relevance of it!)

thanks

nick

[John Gateley]

The thread doesn't mention FLAC, but it is referring to the FLAC encoder.

Are you waiting for 20~30 seconds for sound? or is the client playing but the server is busy transcoding?

j

[nickharambee]

i have sound.  the server is busy transcoding.  the cover art doesn't tend to change until the server stops being busy.

nick

[John Gateley]

This is normal behavior. The Cover Art threads are lower priority so that they don't interfere with playback.

j

[nickharambee]

so will the cover art be displayed on the client more quickly with tracks that i don't have to convert?

and how much will the filesize of the cover art affect the speed at which it is displayed on the client?

thanks

nick

[John Gateley]

Yes, it should go quicker without conversion. The size should only affect bandwidth...

j

[nickharambee]

thanks john

being a bit of a luddite, can you please explain what you mean by 'the size should only affect bandwidth'.  would not bandwidth effect the speed at which the image is loaded up on the client?

nick

[John Gateley]

I just mean that the speed will be determined by the bandwidth available, not some other factor.

j

[nickharambee]

some of my image files are quite large - about 4-5MB.  so if my bandwidth is say 24Mbps (3MBps), and my file size is 5MB, assuming that there is nothing else effecting bandwidth (which of course there will be - music) then this image will take a couple of seconds, and an image with a smaller filesize would be quicker.  is this not correct?

thanks

nick

[John Gateley]

That's right...

j