Media Network transcoding settings are here:
Tools > Options > Media Network > Client Options > Audio Conversion
Tools > Options > Media Network > Client Options > Video Conversion
The default setting is to convert Audio if necessary to MP3. I'm not sure under what conditions this will convert, but it could be the cause here. Please note that this is a client side setting. Each client can control their own settings, and you can set it to never convert. If you are using client copies of MC that never leave the local LAN, you can simply change this setting on each client and it will never convert the files. It does not matter what this option is set to on the machine that acts as the Server (this option only affects a copy of MC acting in Client mode).
However, in most cases, when playing over a LAN, changing this setting is not required if you are able to create file shares, and you're careful about how you set up the Server's Library.
There is another setting in the same spot, which is enabled by default, which is relevant: Play local file if one that matches Library Server file is found.
Again, this is a client side setting, and as I mentioned, it is enabled by default. What this awkwardly named option does is simple. A client copy of MC, which is connected to a remote Media Center Library, can get the contents of the files it plays from the server in one of two ways:
1. The Library Server can send it the file directly via the same MCWS web service that is used to serve and sync the Library data. For this reason, you can use MC to stream content even over your WAN connection (to a copy of MC, or a mobile device, that cannot access the file shares directly while you are away from home). In this case, the client doesn't need to be able to access the files on the server directly (Windows or OSX's File Sharing need not even be enabled, and they don't need to be on a network-accessible volume). The Server copy of MC can "stream" them to the client via HTTP, and optionally convert them.
2. If the above-referenced Option is enabled, then each time a Client copy of MC tries to play a file, it first checks the path of the original source file in the Server's Library, to see if it can actually access the same file via the exact same path. If this works, then the client doesn't need the server to stream a copy of the file (or do any conversion) because it can access the source directly using the same path itself.
This option is useful in a number of conditions. Using method #2 is typically a bit faster, especially for video files. When MC streams a video file, it actually does need to segment the source file in order to allow seeking (without forcing the client to download the entire file in order to seek to a later section). This takes some time and so startup of playback (and seeking) of video files can be a bit slower when a client is using method #1 to get the source file. The same exact issue doesn't really apply to audio files, which are always downloaded in their entirety, but there is still some overhead for serving them up over HTTP, so they can be a bit slower to start up, and might impact gapless playback in some cases.
Secondly, there are some file-management features that aren't available when source files aren't directly accessible to the client. For example, you can't Drag-Drop files from MC onto your Desktop in order to create a local copy. Similarly, the Tools > Locate > On Disk (External) function doesn't work if the files are served via MCWS. And, there are a few other similar functions that don't work at all when using method #1 to access the files from a client copy of MC.
Lastly, if the client copy of MC can directly access the file, it will always use it directly with no transcoding or conversion of any type. This is convenient especially for Laptops where you might want to keep the Media Network conversion features enabled for times when the computer is away from the home LAN. That wat you can still easily access files while traveling (where you have limited bandwidth, or limited upstream bandwidth on your home connection), but access the files directly when you are at home.
For this reason, whenever practical, it is better if you can make sure that method #2 works from your client copies, at least when they're on the same LAN. There are two basic methods you can use to do this:
1. Import the files on the Server using the same drive letter that you can map as a Network Drive on your other Windows clients.
For this to work, each client will need a network drive mapped which has the same drive letter (and shows the same files in the same "path") as the Server uses to access the files. For example, if your server has a local disk called drive M which stores all of your media files, then you will need to share the root of that drive on the server, and then map that share as Drive M on all of the client machines. If the Server itself uses a network drive to access the source files, then you just need to make sure the same drive letter is used to map the share to all of the client machines as well.
2. Import the files on the Server using their UNC paths instead of by drive letter.
This is easier if you have a lot of clients that all have network permissions to access the same shares. In this case, you import the files on the server via their UNC paths, instead of via a drive letter (mapped or otherwise). So, using the same example as above, you'd share the M drive, or any subdirectory on it you wish, on the Server, and then import the files on the server itself by watching or Importing:
\\servername\sharename\path\to\files.flac
instead of via
M:\path\to\files.flac
That way, you don't need to do anything on the client machines for it to work. There is no requirement to manually map drive letters and have them all match, which is simpler.
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Topic: Library Server - Downsampling? (Read 1302 times)