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[greg.smalter]

MC18's Live TV sharing feature is awesome. It's going to allow me to do what I've always wanted, which is have one library for the entire house and have my main HTPC and laptops all just be clients. There are two remaining problems:

• On library clients, no thumbnails show up for 3GP files. Thumbnails show for every other type of video file, and on the server itself the 3GP files show thumbnails fine.
• It is not possible to play ripped Blu Rays from a library client. Currently, I am playing blu rays that are stored on my server from my HTPC (which currently has its own MC library) over the network and it works fine, so it doesn't seem like there is a technical reason that this can't happen.

Any chance that these will be resolved and I can move to a single-library solution? Thanks!

[Matt]

• On library clients, no thumbnails show up for 3GP files. Thumbnails show for every other type of video file, and on the server itself the 3GP files show thumbnails fine.

Thumbnails come from the server, and there's nothing special about 3GP (that I know about).  What happens if you force a thumbnail rebuild for those files on the server, then connect?

• It is not possible to play ripped Blu Rays from a library client. Currently, I am playing blu rays that are stored on my server from my HTPC (which currently has its own MC library) over the network and it works fine, so it doesn't seem like there is a technical reason that this can't happen.

You will have to use a shared network path that the client can reach (like UNC names or a mapped drive) for Blu-ray and some other types.  This is because not all types work with a network / Internet reader.

[glynor]

Thumbnails come from the server, and there's nothing special about 3GP (that I know about).  What happens if you force a thumbnail rebuild for those files on the server, then connect?

Easy test to see if it is something weird about MC's handling of the 3GP extension...

Change one of them to MP4 and see if it works.  3GP files ARE MP4 files.  They're just a special subset of MP4 with low bitrates and a narrower selection of codecs.  Internally, though, they're identical to MP4 files in every way (like how Apple calls MP4 video files M4V).

[greg.smalter]

You will have to use a shared network path that the client can reach (like UNC names or a mapped drive) for Blu-ray and some other types.  This is because not all types work with a network / Internet reader.

The blu ray is showing up as a network path (\\RUBY\yadaYada) on the client, but it still doesn't work. The error is very specific (Blu ray not supported from Library Server).

The video thumbnail issue has ballooned into a bigger problem that might needs its own thread now.

• .MOV files also have the problem.
• The problem is not just thumbnails. The videos also do not play on the client. Instead, I get "Something went wrong with playback." I am very confident that 6 months ago I tested with MC17 and I WAS able to play but just didn't have the thumbnails. Now I have neither thumbnails nor playback.
• For .3G2 files, I have no thumbnails but I CAN play them back.
• .AVI and most other file types play back fine and have thumbnails.
• Rebuilding thumbnails on the server doesn't seem to make a difference.
• Both playback and thumbnails work for every file type on the server itself.

[rpalmer68]

The blu ray is showing up as a network path (\\RUBY\yadaYada) on the client, but it still doesn't work. The error is very specific (Blu ray not supported from Library Server).

Is the option to play local files ticked (Under Tools/Options/Media Network/Client options)?

[greg.smalter]

Is the option to play local files ticked (Under Tools/Options/Media Network/Client options)?

Yes.

[finrod]

Hi,

As you can see, I'm totally new to this forum and to the media center itself. Yesterday I was trying the same thing. I have my media collection on my main PC. So I dedicated that machine to be the library and media server. And I have a laptop that I was using as a library client. Till now I wasn't aware that library server/client and media server/client are two different things. Anyways, using laptop as a client, I could play avi files easily. But not the mp4 files. It would tell me "Something went wrong with the playback." I also couldn't play moderate sized .mkv files. When I opened those files, it would just stuck at "Opening".

Then after a lot of reading, I made sure that this problem is universal (not just me). So I tried converting video files from the client options. It worked fine while pulling from the server but without seeking abilities. That was expected, I guess.

So I had to use UNC paths. As far as I know, you do this by first sharing your media folder over windows network and then using that network path in the auto import feature of the media center library. Is this correct? Because after doing that, I could play all files (not tried actual physical dvd/blu-ray disk yet) on the client laptop.

But even after this, I could not push the files to client laptop. Pulling from the laptop works fine but not pushing. Even using main PC library on Gizmo, I could not play the files laptop. I had to enable DLNA renderer AND server option on the laptop and then use that library on Gizmo. Then only I could play/control on laptop using Gizmo. Is there any solution to this? I mean, not changing the libraries on Gizmo?

One other question. Will this system work with any DLNA certified receiver? Or am I better off using HTPC with MC installed on it? This last question is more important to me right now.

[raym]

Re the thumbnail issue, I've also reported in the past that .mov thumbs don't show up on clients. They are fine on the server.

[greg.smalter]

Ok, I've solved the Blu ray and the playback problem for 3gp and mov files. The problem was the computer I set up fresh wasn't a member of the home group yet so it did not have permission to access the network path directly. So, even though the library was with UNC paths and MC was able to recognize that and match it up, it couldn't work because of Windows security. MC could have had a better error message here, but other than that there isn't really a problem.

The problem that does remain is the thumbnails not showing up for 3GP or MOV files on the library client. This makes it pretty much impossible to browse family home videos, so this is the only remaining show stopper for me.