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[Jamil]

I have a NAS with all of my media stored.  It's a QNAP NAS that offers a nice feature where it will create a network share of an ISO file stored on it.  The hardware does this on its own and provides the network share under Windows.  Pretty cool.

Unfortunately, MC19 does not make this share I created available at all.  In order for it to work, MC19 needs to support UNC paths.  I have one created that looks like this:

\\QNAPNAS\Star_Trek

This is a BluRay copy of Start Trek.  I also tried mapping a drive to this network share (Y: drive).  MC19 is not showing the Y: drive either.

What does work is using Slysoft's Virtual CloneDrive to mount the ISO as a drive.  In this case, it used drive J:.  Now the content is available.  I really don't need third party software for this though, if MC19 would show UNC paths made available containing DVD or BluRay data.

Please mark this as a feature request.

Thanks.

[glynor]

MC supports UNC paths just fine.  You just can't browse them that way via drives and devices.  Auto import can use them though.

[Jamil]

Auto-import does not seem appropriate for a network share that is only temporary.  Does it?  This share will not exist in three hours.

[connersw]

Drill down inside Drives & Devices.  Under Explorer you should see the shared Y:\\ drive you created.  Then under Network you should be able to see the \\QNAPNAS\ path if it is available on your network. 

You may need to close and re-open Media Server after the drive/paths are created for you to see them (not positive on that, but it wouldn't hurt).

[Jamil]

Thanks.  I did try this, but MC19 is not showing the network drive:



The share is available on my network though:

[glynor]

Drill down inside Drives & Devices.  Under Explorer you should see the shared Y:\\ drive you created.  Then under Network you should be able to see the \\QNAPNAS\ path if it is available on your network. 

You may need to close and re-open Media Server after the drive/paths are created for you to see them (not positive on that, but it wouldn't hurt).

That depends on network discovery parts of the SMB protocol (I'm too lazy to look up specifics) that not all NAS devices support.  From his report, I assumed his does not, and the screenshot confirmed it.

Auto-import does not seem appropriate for a network share that is only temporary.  Does it?  This share will not exist in three hours.

Why not?  Auto-Import can remove broken links automatically, and if that feature doesn't work for you for some reason, then MCFileRemover could do it easily.

[glynor]

This is a BluRay copy of Start Trek.  I also tried mapping a drive to this network share (Y: drive).  MC19 is not showing the Y: drive either.

This should work though.  I'm not sure why that wouldn't work...

[Jamil]

After a bit if Google searching on this, it may have something to do with a feature of Windows.  My network storage is available in Windows Explorer (and probably MC19) only when I enter the network drive:  \\QNAPNAS.  For any software that does not allow me to enter a network path, it is not visible.  This is probably why the NAS is not showing under Network within Drives & Devices.  If there was a place to enter a path, it would then show.

This issue seems to be that Windows does not automatically show any network location that does not support Link Layer Topology Discovery (whatever that is; I just heard of this for the first time minutes ago).

At this point, I guess the feature request should turn into investigation of why mapping a drive letter for the share does not show up in MC19.

[glynor]

When you mapped the drive, did you map it to \\QNAPNAS\Star_Trek or to \\QNAPNAS\?  If you map to one of those "fancy special shares" it might not work (probably because the NAS is pulling tricks with SMB to make it work) but if you go to the root, I'd think it would.

At this point, I guess the feature request should turn into investigation of why mapping a drive letter for the share does not show up in MC19.

I guess.  Auto-Import should see them though, unless your NAS also doesn't support File System Events.  Then it might be difficult.

You could schedule it to run manually, but that's getting pretty challenging to manage.

In any case, you can open them, via File > Open Media File (which uses the system default browser) or by drag-and-drop/shell extensions from Windows Explorer.

[Jamil]

Here is how I setup the share:



The shared folder is now present under Windows:



I closed and restarted MC19, but the Y: drive is not showing. 

If you look at the shared folder, it mirrors a BluRay disc.  There may be a specific file or set of files I can use with the File > Open Media File option, but it does not work with a folder. 

I think the reason Virtual CloneDrive works with MC19, is that it emulates a BluRay disc to all of Windows.

[glynor]

There may be a specific file or set of files I can use with the File > Open Media File option, but it does not work with a folder.

Yeah, you're right.  I forgot it won't let you pick folders from there.  But drag-drop and Shell Integration do:
http://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/Import#Drag_and_Drop_and_Shell_Integration

Here is how I setup the share:

Right.  I was saying, don't map it to that.  Map it to \\QNAPNAS instead.  Then it'll show up, I'm betting.

I'd assume that when they built this system, they "hacked it" enough to make it work in Windows Explorer, but paid very little mind to whether it really follows the spec (and therefore would be compatible with other third-party applications).

Or, just Auto-Import all of \\QNAPNAS.  You can Exclude (or just filter from your views) any specific folders within the share that you don't want watched, and anything new will get picked up by Auto-Import.  As long as Fix Broken Links is enabled, when the NAS unmounts a particular ISO, it should remove the files (again, assuming this whiz-bang feature supports File System Events, which it might not, as it doesn't seem to support other SMB features well).

If Auto-Import does successfully pick them up when they mount, but Fix Broken Links doesn't work (or is otherwise too dangerous for your setup), then you could just make a Smartlist that shows all files on \\QNAPNAS in MC and run it through MCFileRemover every day or hour or whatever to remove all the broken links.

[Jamil]

Quick update--  I played around with the Filer Open Media File menu option.  There is one large file that exists I tried opening and playing:

\\QNAPNAS\Star_Trek\BDMV\STREAM\00000.m2ts

I do get high def video playing this file.  However, I do not hear all sounds correctly.  I hear music and background sounds, but I do not hear characters' dialog at all.  I do not run into this when I mount the ISO file using CloneDrive though, and all audio gets played back correctly.

Also, it is not possible to map an ISO file without specifying a shared folder.  This cannot be done.  That would be the default file server of \\QNAPNAS without a shared folder.

EDIT: Okay -- I forgot that I had issues with this ISO I created last year.  The audio issues I mentioned are not due to MC19 at all. It is the protection on this BluRay that I had copied.  My ISO does not play correctly as-is, but I created a high def MPEG file that plays all audio properly.  I had forgotten all about this issue and having to do this. I remembered this after both importing the ISO and using the shell extensions both had the same audio issues. I fixed it by creating an MPEG instead.