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[cornishpirate]

I would like to make Browsing more efficient by reducing the content of the tree (eg get rid of all Genre views) and/or reducing the number of fields handled by the server.

How can I achieve this?

Can I use MC as a controller of the DSM?



Rig: DSM-320 with Nevo controller and Cidero desktop controller.

[Sternwart]

I would like to make Browsing more efficient by reducing the content of the tree (eg get rid of all Genre views) and/or reducing the number of fields handled by the server.

How can I achieve this?

Can I use MC as a controller of the DSM?

Rig: DSM-320 with Nevo controller and Cidero desktop controller.

@cornishpirate,

as I understand, you use MCs UPNP-Server to access media form DSM-320? What is your oppinion about the user interface and performance? I tried to use UPNP with Buffalo LinkTheater. The GUI ist very poor from my point of view - no graphics, no headlines, no meta data. When trying to use it with my complete library (about 50.000 files) it fails with timeout, "there is no content" error or other unpredictable behaviour. UPNP technology would be my favorite - but under these circumstances it's complete useless for me. 
Could you provide a "screen shot" from yor TV showing the DSMs UPNP client?

Thanx

Sternwart

[John Gateley]

You can change your view schemes to do what you'd like.

The size of the library does not affect browsing speed, it's how many files are being sent at a time. If you have large categories, it'll be slow. If you have small categories, it'll be fast.

j

[cornishpirate]

Sternwart, I don't use the GUI from the DSM-320, though I could. Like yours, its not particularly good.

Currently I use Cidero on my PC to drive the DSM, but am in the process of setting up a system on a Nevo PDA (see mynevo.com for some pictures). Haven't yet tried Rudeo, but suggest you check it out.

I also have a large library (almost 40000) and I'm getting performance problems in Cidero and Nevo that I don't get with other media servers - hence my question about efficiency.

I will eventually get the right solution, but I have a feeling that it will be using a UMPC. Ideally MC would drive the DSM directly, but it doesn't seem to do that.

[Sternwart]

You can change your view schemes to do what you'd like.

The size of the library does not affect browsing speed, it's how many files are being sent at a time. If you have large categories, it'll be slow. If you have small categories, it'll be fast.

j

@John

- what do you mean with "categories"?
- How do I have to organize my library so, that I get good performance with a large number of files?
- what is about the quality of the GUI? Is it a question of MC or of the used client device? I only know LinkTheater an with this the GUI is like Linux command line :-)

Sternwart

[John Gateley]

The GUI is mostly limited by the DSM (there may be a couple of features I'm not taking advantage of).

The UPnP Protocol is driven by a series of requests: each time you click a button on the DSM, it sends a request to the UPnP server, and the server returns a list of things that match the request. These "things" can be
songs or they can be entries in the tree. For example: the first request
returns 4 "things", "Audio", "Images", "Video", "Playlists".

If you are having speed trouble, there's an option (Ignore child count) that may help.

j

[cornishpirate]

John

Thanks for the response.

"Skip Child Count" seems to be not available for DSM, so I can't test it.

Your product is awesome and I really like the way that I can (partially) control the view that shows on a PDA ( I suggest you load Cidero on the PC to easily  see the browsing view generated)

I also like the comprehensive approach to Compilations

I'd like to:

1) not have "Images" or "Video" in the tree structure (seems to be automatic)

2) really don't wan't a list of all the Genres. Can I erase those from the View?

3) Having followed the advice dealing with compilations, I finish up with
   
     multiple artists (complete)
     single artists (complete)

      I'd really like to rename those headings.

On a broader front, it would be a fanastic feature to drive a Media Player DIRECT from MC - performing in effect the function that Cidero does.

[Sternwart]

If you are having speed trouble, there's an option (Ignore child count) that may help.

@John

... it is not a question of speed - the question is whether MC UPnP server ist working with LinkTheater an a large library or not.
I tried it again with the most recent version of UPnP server. When trying to select MC PnP server from the LinkTheater "login page" I get a "there is no content on this server" message after 1 minute. Other servers on the same PC (Swisscenter, TwonkyVsion) do not have this problem.
"Ignore child count" didn't fix my problem. Is your server able to handle a 35.000 file library? What I am doing wrong?

Rgds

Sternwart

[cornishpirate]

John

I resolved most of the issues over what is visible when browsing by UPnP. The only redundant item, which I don't seem to be able to remove, is an "All" entry with every artist.

There are, however, major issues with speed of browsing. I have used the other popular media servers (TVersity & Twonky) with my large collection and performance is fine with both. MC is painfully slow, and I think some further investigation is required.

With this fixed, and possibly with MC also being able to act as a UPnP Controller (like Cidero), MC would dominate UPnP totally!

[John Gateley]

J"Skip Child Count" seems to be not available for DSM, so I can't test it.

Choose "DSM 320" from the options. Then choose "Advanced" (this
sets the options for the DSM 320, but then lets you tweak them).

Then choose Skip Child Count.

j

[cornishpirate]

John, thanks for that. Superb - that now works very fast!

Is there an explanation anywhere of "Skip Child Count"?

Can I rename the server from "JRiver (media center)" to say "MC"?

[John Gateley]

I'm not sure if there is an explanation anywhere...

What's happening is that you have a category with a large number of children, and each of the children itself has a large number of children. In order to comply with the protocol, a query of the category for it's children must return the number of children of that child. This requires a full query of the database for each child, and that's what's taking the time.

Twonkyvision et al don't store stuff in a powerful database format like we do, so they can get the basic info a lot quicker.

j