Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[jdewoody]

Hello! I was excited to install MC18 but right away hit a snag. When I try to play mp4 files on my local PC using MC18 to connect to my MC18 media server, I just get "Something went wrong with playback" with Ok and Help. I checked out the help file but it didn't provide any answers. These files played fine in MC17 prior to installing 18 and currently will play in WMP via the MC18 media server library. My local PC install of MC18 will play the 2 AVI files I have in the library without issue.

Any ideas?

Thanks,
J

[jdewoody]

Update - After further testing, MC18 will play local .mp4 files, it just won't play them from the MC 18 media server.

J

[glynor]

I think I might be seeing this too.  I need to test further...

[jdewoody]

Good to know I'm not alone I've done further testing and I can play mkv and mpeg files as well from the server. Seems this issue is isolated to mp4 files.

[jdewoody]

I also just noticed I can no longer fast forward mkv file more than about 1m 30s. That shows as the total time, even for a 2 hour movie.

[glynor]

Good to know I'm not alone I've done further testing and I can play mkv and mpeg files as well from the server. Seems this issue is isolated to mp4 files.

Well... I'm not sure yet.  Like I said, I need to test more.

I've seen a few sporadic files that used to work fine, which now give me an error and won't play.  I don't know for sure that they're MP4s, but they certainly could be.  Of course, it could also just be that these particular files got hosed.

I also just noticed I can no longer fast forward mkv file more than about 1m 30s. That shows as the total time, even for a 2 hour movie.

This is something else.  The MKV is still loading, and you can't FF past the point that has loaded.  If you wait patiently, it'll load more and you'll be able to FF further ahead.

A few questions:

1. When you are doing this, are the Client and the Server on the same network (LAN)?
2. If so, do you have the network volume mounted on the client machine (in other words, are the files at accessible via Windows Explorer using the same exact path on both machines)?
3. Is Options > Media Network > Client Options > Play local file if one that matches Library Server file is found enabled on the CLIENT side?

You will have MUCH better video playback performance if all three answers above are yes.

There are two ways to accomplish #2.  You can either:

1. Make sure the server shares the entire drive that stores the video files, and then mount that drive on the clients with the matching drive letter.  For example, if all media is on the server on a physical drive called drive M, then share that entire drive, and mount it on all clients as M.  Then, the paths will match on both the clients and the server.

2. If your media on the server is on the C drive or some other storage system where you can't make the drive letters match, you can accomplish the same thing by using UNC paths instead.  In this case, you'd import all files on the server via their UNC path instead of by pointing at the drive letter.  So, they'd import with a path like \\myservername\MediaShareName\Video\TV Shows\Breaking Bad\2\blah.mkv.  That same UNC path will work on both the server and the clients equally, so it accomplishes the same thing as using the drive letters.  If you need to switch an existing library to this system, you can do it through the Rename, Move, and Copy Files tool, using the Find And Replace section at the bottom.

The way you are experiencing playback is that the server is streaming the file to you.  This works, but it is much slower than direct access to the file.  Now, it could be that your network volume is just disconnected on the client for some reason, and that's all you need to fix.

However, the streaming system that you're using now, is best used when the answer to question #1 above is No.  You need to stream across because the "Internet" is in the way.

[jdewoody]

Well... I'm not sure yet.  Like I said, I need to test more.

I've seen a few sporadic files that used to work fine, which now give me an error and won't play.  I don't know for sure that they're MP4s, but they certainly could be.  Of course, it could also just be that these particular files got hosed.

Thank you for your replies. All I can say is it is this way with every one of the files I try that have an mp4 extension. I only have 3 other media types in my video library: avi, mpeg & mkv, all play fine and never had any issue with any format prior to upgrade

This is something else.  The MKV is still loading, and you can't FF past the point that has loaded.  If you wait patiently, it'll load more and you'll be able to FF further ahead.

It could be something else but it never happened prior to upgrade. I've waited up to 5 minutes, I do not get more to FF, so I'm not sure why it is happening.

A few questions:

1. When you are doing this, are the Client and the Server on the same network (LAN)?
2. If so, do you have the network volume mounted on the client machine (in other words, are the files at accessible via Windows Explorer using the same exact path on both machines)?
3. Is Options > Media Network > Client Options > Play local file if one that matches Library Server file is found enabled on the CLIENT side?

You will have MUCH better video playback performance if all three answers above are yes.

There are two ways to accomplish #2.  You can either:

1. Make sure the server shares the entire drive that stores the video files, and then mount that drive on the clients with the matching drive letter.  For example, if all media is on the server on a physical drive called drive M, then share that entire drive, and mount it on all clients as M.  Then, the paths will match on both the clients and the server.

2. If your media on the server is on the C drive or some other storage system where you can't make the drive letters match, you can accomplish the same thing by using UNC paths instead.  In this case, you'd import all files on the server via their UNC path instead of by pointing at the drive letter.  So, they'd import with a path like \\myservername\MediaShareName\Video\TV Shows\Breaking Bad\2\blah.mkv.  That same UNC path will work on both the server and the clients equally, so it accomplishes the same thing as using the drive letters.  If you need to switch an existing library to this system, you can do it through the Rename, Move, and Copy Files tool, using the Find And Replace section at the bottom.

The way you are experiencing playback is that the server is streaming the file to you.  This works, but it is much slower than direct access to the file.  Now, it could be that your network volume is just disconnected on the client for some reason, and that's all you need to fix.

However, the streaming system that you're using now, is best used when the answer to question #1 above is No.  You need to stream across because the "Internet" is in the way.

My client and server have always been on the same subnet and are wired, no wireless involved, since MC12. Same 2 boxes. I guess maybe I should clarify one more thing - my local PC has the MC server added to it as a library, so it is streaming through that, just in case that part wasn't clear. This is the setup I've always used and have never had issues before. Maybe that will make more sense. I don't have any mapped drives to the server for my video files, I've never had to - this has always just worked. Unless the method I'm using doesn't work any more, I'd prefer not to change it.

View from client MC:

[jdewoody]

I've decided I don't want to fight with this. I've just changed over to mapped drives and said heck with it. Thanks Glynor for your input.

[swizlyCH]

I do have the same problem to play MP4 audio files over the media server.

Is there a now a solution, to play the MP4 files without converting in MP3 over a media server?

On both PC's runs the current MC18 (18.0.212), on the media server the MP4 files are played normally.
On the "remote" PC I can play the MP4 files when I doubleclick the file in the explorer. They are played normally in the MC18 and Windows Media Player.
But if I would like to play in the Library of the MC18 the message appears that something would run wrong in the playblack.

The Media Server runs with Win 8 Pro an the "client" with Win 7 Pro.

With the MC17 I had never such problems.

[swizlyCH]

Thanks for all the improvements in the version 19.0.54

The MP4 Playback over the network ist now running as it should.

MC for ever