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[John Gateley]

Today's build should fix two of the problems with Library Server: the Beacon problem and the Invalid argument problem.

PLEASE NOTE: Choosing the conversion encoder and bit rate is done on the client, not on the server. This allows you to use one setting for a client at home, and a different setting for a client at work, both hitting the same server.

j

[JimH]

Media Center build 11.0.97 introduced a new server that will soon replace most of Media Server.  You can use it to share the library of one PC to another PC, even across the Internet.

At this time, this is how it works.

In MC, under the tree, under plug-ins, you'll find the Library Manager plug-in.  Set the options here and "enable" it on the server machine.

You can also convert lossless formats to MP3 or WMA or other lossy formats that can be streamed over lower bandwidth collections (home to work, for example).  This is controlled in MC's Tools/Options/Library section of the client machine.

This may be a little rough still, so please be patient.  But let us know what you think works well in the current implementation -- and what doesn't.

Remember that both the client PC and the server must be running the same build.

[Doof]

PLEASE NOTE: Choosing the conversion encoder and bit rate is done on the client, not on the server. This allows you to use one setting for a client at home, and a different setting for a client at work, both hitting the same server.

That's awesome. It was good when I thought it was server side, but now that it's client side, it's even better.

[paulr]

It works fine from computer to computer on the same subnet.  I won't be able to test it accross my gateway until maybe this weekend.

I have a few concerns with the way this is going to work.
1.  My library is currently around 3 MB.  If the client is on a dialup, it will take 12+ minutes to download the library.
2.  Cover art seems to be transferred automatically.  This will also be a problem with dialup clients.  Anyway to turn this off from the client end?
3.  People who have work computers that are logged into a domain and locked down most likely won't be able to install MC.  They generally do, however, have WMP.  

Is there a way that we could connect to the MC stream with another player (WMP, WinAmp, etc) and choose the playlist and control the MC stream through the Remote Server but still allow local network users to use MC?

I like it so far, but these issues might limit its usefulness in certain situations.

Paul

[ozmael]

I can't get WMA VBR High or WMA Lossless to WMA 96 or 128 conversion working (at least I don't think so). But WMA VBR High/Lossless to MP3 VBR Normal/Low works fine.

I'm using build 99 on the server (Windows Server 2003) and build 99 on 2 different clients (both XP Pro SP2) - one at home and one at work.

I can succuessfully connection both clients to the server on port 8123 no problems.

On the client I set Tools, Options, Library, Library Server: Conversion On, MP3 VBR Normal/Low. I click on Play and I can see in in the Currently Playing window that kbps varies between 80 and 128kbps (whilst the file on the server is WMA Lossless - would expect 900+kbps if it wasn't converting on the fly). All works with with conversion to MP3 VBR Normal/Low.

The kbps in the Currently Playing window is the only clue I have as to the bitrate playing. I would expect a message in the log on the server but there doesn't appear to be entries for conversion.

If I change the client conversion settings to WMA, 96 then the kbps in the Currently Playing window for the same song (WMA Lossless) reports 1024kbps. I assume the Currently Playing window is correct and that the song hasn't been converted to WMA 96.

I get the same behaviour on both the home and work client PCs. On the work PC, when I have the client set to WMA, 96 it takes about 2 minutes of buffering before I hear the audio - another clue that the WMA Lossless file isn't being converted.

I do not get any errors on the client or the server when I choose WMA, 96 on the client.

Regards,

Ozmael..

[tlongacre]

When you say the conversion happens on the client end, what do you mean? Does that mean that it does the conversion on the fly as it is playing songs on the client? Isn't that going to take a lot of bandwidth?

I assume, however, that this does mean that I do NOT have to convert my entire collection (20K plus songs) in order to access it remotely. Am I correct? I have tried using Media Server to listen to music at work, but ran into lots of drops and pauses because of bandwidth issues (and I've got DSL at home and DSL or T1 at work).

Thanks. Sounds great conceptually.

[JimH]

When you say the conversion happens on the client end, what do you mean?

It's set on the client side, but conversion is done on the server.

[BillRaff]

I was seeing the 'invalid argument' error when using .98 and have upgraded to .99 which resolved that issue. I can now use the older style Media Server again but still seeing a problem when tryng to use the newer plugin. I have disabled the older Server version and set the library to be at the IP address of the server machine (not doing a search). It seems to find the server but when trying to load the library I see an error on the client that says -

Failed to install package.
More info: Failed to unzip file 'C:\Documents and Settings\Bill\Local Settings\Temp\temp37.tmp'.
URL: http://192.168.123.181:80/GetLibrary

The file name changes from try to try. I have deleted and recreated this 'Temp' folder to try and get around this but no luck. I do not see anything on the server console happening at all when attempting to connect. Any ideas?

Thanks
Bill

[Matt]

I was seeing the 'invalid argument' error when using .98 and have upgraded to .99 which resolved that issue. I can now use the older style Media Server again but still seeing a problem when tryng to use the newer plugin. I have disabled the older Server version and set the library to be at the IP address of the server machine (not doing a search). It seems to find the server but when trying to load the library I see an error on the client that says -

Failed to install package.
More info: Failed to unzip file 'C:\Documents and Settings\Bill\Local Settings\Temp\temp37.tmp'.
URL: http://192.168.123.181:80/GetLibrary

The file name changes from try to try. I have deleted and recreated this 'Temp' folder to try and get around this but no luck. I do not see anything on the server console happening at all when attempting to connect. Any ideas?

Thanks
Bill

Delete your temporary internet files from IE > Tools > Internet Options...

[BillRaff]

Hi Matt

Thanks for the suggestion but no love. Same error but now file named changed as it usually does. Now the file it says it failed to unzip is 'tmp3A.zip'. Haven't used IE in some time as I'm a Firefox user but I understand it is tied into so much in Windows. I'm on XP btw.

Media Center Registered 11.0.99 -- C:\Program Files\J River\Media Center 11\

Microsoft Windows XP 5.1 Service Pack 2 (Build 2600)
Intel Pentium 4 1606 MHz MMX / Memory: Total - 1048 MB, Free - 723 MB

Internet Explorer: 6.0.2900.2180 / ComCtl32.dll: 5.82 (xpsp_sp2_rtm.040803-2158) / Shlwapi.dll: 6.00.2900.2180 (xpsp_sp2_rtm.040803-2158) / Shell32.dll: 6.00.2900.2180 (xpsp_sp2_rtm.040803-2158) / wnaspi32.dll: 4.60 (1021) , ASPI for Win32 (95/NT) DLL, Copyright © 1989-1999 Adaptec, Inc. / Aspi32.sys: 4.60 (1021)

Ripping /   Drive D: SONY    CD-ROM CDU5221    Mode:Normal  Type:Auto  Speed:Max
  Drive E:   Mode:Normal  Type:Auto  Speed:Max
  Digital playback: Yes /  Use YADB: Yes /  Get cover art: No /  Calc replay gain: Yes /  Copy volume: 32767
  Eject after ripping: Yes /  Play sound after ripping: No  

Burning /  Drive E: PLEXTOR  DVDR   PX-708A     Addr: 1:1:0  Speed:40  MaxSpeed:40  BurnProof:Yes
  Test mode: No /  Eject after writing: Yes /  Direct decoding: Yes /  Write CD-Text: Yes
  Use playback settings: No /  Normalization: None

[JimH]

Bill,
You may have a problem related to XP Service Pack 2.

Please see the install problem in this thread:
http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?board=3;action=display;threadid=24031

[Matt]

Is the file MC is complaining about present?

Can you copy it and open it with WinZip (or similar)?

Thanks.

[BillRaff]

Thanks for the links Jim. I read those articles. Let me provide some additional information. The client system I want to use is my laptop I keep in the living room so I can listen through my home audio system to the library stored on my destop in a different room. The laptop can still use the old media server and can also use a mapped drive from the desktop to access the music. As a test I enabled the new server plugin on the laptop and went to the desktop and added a library for the ip address of the laptop. The laptop had the mapped drive library loaded and the desktop connected happily to the laptop and essentially was playing files off itself via the laptop. So that certainly points to a problem on the laptop getting to the desktop. I'm thinking about a clean install of MC11 on the laptop. It was an upgrade from 10. I had purchased the upgrade for 11 but I noticed when I upgraded the laptop it never asked me to get a license. I thought it was strange and was thinking I would have to get a restore on that machine but never did. Other than just a clean uninstall using the uninstall you folks provide is there anything else I should remove? Do you think that would be a worthwile next step? Thanks again,

Bill

Hope this is not too confusing. Oddly, I like working out these kinds of problems so I'm game for any suggestions.

[mhwlng]

MC 11.0.105
the server is not playing anything.

if I start the client, start playing a playlist...

and look at playing now, I can see the album cover for the first couple of tracks... then no album cover is shown anymore without restarting the server and client...

I can see requests for the album cover show up in the library server screen
e.g.
10/16/04 11:54:46 - Received request for a file: c:/Program Files/J River/Media Center 11/Data/Cover Art/B. B. King - Deuces Wild.jpg

but nothing appears on the client
(the image shows up ok on the server)


Marcel

[BillRaff]

To finish my story on getting the new server plugin working, Since I was off work yesterday I decided, since my testing convinced me the problem was with my client machine, to completely wipe the machine and reinstall from the operating system up. My laptop is an IBM Thinkpad. I had the Recovery disks so started the restore. Once it got Windows XP started I got stuck in a loop where XP wanted to be activated but since the network drivers had not yet been installed it failed to activate but wouldn't let me continue past that even though it should. You have thirty days to activate but it just wouldn't let me continue. I created a slipstream XP SP2 Cd and wiped the partition and completely installed. I had to get all the drivers I needed from my desktop and burn to a Cd and use that to load the drivers on the laptop. Once all drivers were installed I dl'd MC11 latest. I also upgraded to the server machine so they were the same build. I used a restore on the laptop and then launched the server plugin on the destop. I connected on the client and lo and behold I had the exact error as before (unable to unzip some file). I toggled the coversion for the files on the client and tried again. This time it worked! I am happily up and running with the new plugin.

[John Gateley]

Glad it's working Bill.

j

[zxsix]

I'm getting the same .tmp file error as Bill was.
As it's loading the library, I can see that MC has crashed on the server.  A few seconds later I get that error on the client.
This is a laptop running XP SP1.  I have conversion of files unchecked on the client under library options so it should just be sending MP3's at 192 without converting them.
This is a work computer so I can't reinstall XP on it.
This is with the 105 build of MC on both computers.

[BillRaff]

zxsix said:

I'm getting the same .tmp file error as Bill was.
As it's loading the library, I can see that MC has crashed on the server.

I never saw anything happen on the server side. When you say it crashed exactly what happens  on the box?

Bill

[BillRaff]

I'm unable to play an mp4 file with either the older Media Server (says attempt to play an unsupported file) or with the newer plugin Server.  The newer plugin seems to get into a loop. The client machine has iTunes and Quicktime installed and can play the file fine.  This causes the client machine's MC11 to lock up.

Bill

[michel]

(originally posted on MC 105 thread)

server (winXP SP1)

client 1 (winXP SP1): ok
client 2 (winXP SP2): ok
client 3 (win2K): an invalid argument was encountered
client 4 (another user on the server):  an invalid argument was encountered

All systems are using MC11.105 registered.

I tried also to uninstall and reinstall MC without success.

[Alex B]

Library Server/client combination does not understand CUE sheet based music tracks. (CUE tracks have a Playback Range value in the library and filename endings like this: ;1, ;2, ;3, etc):

10/17/04 15:49:03 - Received request for a file: D:\Music\CUE\Paul Oakenfold\Creamfields\Paul Oakenfold - Creamfields - CD 2.ogg;1
10/17/04 15:49:03 - Error sharing file, file not found

[Alex B]

I can't get WMA VBR High or WMA Lossless to WMA 96 or 128 conversion working (at least I don't think so). But WMA VBR High/Lossless to MP3 VBR Normal/Low works fine. ....

I can confirm. It is not lowering the bitrate if the file format is not changed. (e.g. from 320 kbps mp3 to 128 kbps mp3)

[Alex B]

On the other hand it is good to avoid unnecessary transcoding.
E.g. when the original file is 128 kbps VBR WMA and the client asks for 128 kbps MP3.

Could there be more options. Something like this:

• Convert only if the file on the server has at least bitrate "xxx".
• Convert only if the file on the server has at least double bitrate.
• Convert only if the source file is lossless.
• Don't convert inside the same compression type.

[John Gateley]

I can't get WMA VBR High or WMA Lossless to WMA 96 or 128 conversion working (at least I don't think so). But WMA VBR High/Lossless to MP3 VBR Normal/Low works fine. ....

I can confirm. It is not lowering the bitrate if the file format is not changed. (e.g. from 320 kbps mp3 to 128 kbps mp3)

Fixed in the next build. It will convert on the fly if the codec is different (WMA to MP3) or if the codec is the same but the desired bitrate is lower(the file is 192Kbps and the newtork will only support 128Kbps).

It will not convert if the codec is the same, but the desired bitrate is higher.

What is the reason for the other options?

j

[Alex B]

Fixed in the next build. It will convert on the fly if the codec is different (WMA to MP3) or if the codec is the same but the desired bitrate is lower(the file is 192Kbps and the newtork will only support 128Kbps).

It will not convert if the codec is the same, but the desired bitrate is higher.

Thanks

What is the reason for the other options?

For example:

The server has these files:
- an MP3 VBR averaging at 138 kbps
- a WMA 128 kbps
- an OGG averaging at 132 kbps (Vorbis is always VBR)
- several MP3 CBR 128 kbps files

The network can support e.g. 200 kbits max, but 128 kbps is enough quality for casual listening at the office, so MP3 128 kbps is the choice. But if those first three about 128 kbps files are transcoded again to 128 kbps the audio quality will be poor. An option for transcoding only the files, which are over 200 kbps to 128 kbps would be better.


In the real life I can use about 500-1000 kbps of my network bandwith for music sharing. I have no problems with listening to high bitrate MP3, MPC or OGG, but APE files are sometimes too much (that depends on the other traffic). So an option to convert only e.g. lossless files would be nice.

Currently I use 320 kbps MP3. It is good for APE files, but that setting transcodes my very high quality (about 250-350 kbps) OGG and MPC files unnecessary.

Edit

Don't convert inside the same compression type could be usefull e.g. if I have many MP3 VBR files which are averaging at about 180-220 kbps and I am asking for 192 kbps MP3. (This is the way how it works currently).

[Alex B]

Now I got this on the client PC:

Failed to connect to a server.

Reason: Too many connections
URL: http//192.168.0.51:4798/Get Library

It worked earlier. No other PCs are connecting. I will go to see the server (it's in another building).


By the way, how about the CUE tracks? Is it possible to fix that? I have already several hundreds of them.

[Alex B]

I am now on the server side.

I have here this error message three times:


This is the log before the server stopped responging:

10/18/04 21:19:41 - Received request for a file: D:\Music\ACDC\Let There Be Rock - The Movie - Live In Paris\Disk 2\01 - The Jack.mpc
10/18/04 21:20:28 - Received request for a file: D:\Music\ACDC\Let There Be Rock - The Movie - Live In Paris\Disk 2\01 - The Jack.mpc
10/18/04 21:20:29 - Received request for a file: D:\Music\ACDC\Let There Be Rock - The Movie - Live In Paris\Disk 2\01 - The Jack.mpc
10/18/04 21:20:34 - Received request for a file: D:/Music/ACDC/Let There Be Rock - The Movie - Live In Paris/ACDC - Let There Be Rock.jpg
10/18/04 21:20:44 - Received request for a file: D:\Music\ACDC\Let There Be Rock - The Movie - Live In Paris\Disk 2\01 - The Jack.mpc
10/18/04 21:20:45 - Received request for a file: D:\Music\ACDC\Let There Be Rock - The Movie - Live In Paris\Disk 2\01 - The Jack.mpc
10/18/04 21:21:04 - Received request for a file: D:\Music\ACDC\Let There Be Rock - The Movie - Live In Paris\Disk 2\01 - The Jack.mpc
10/18/04 21:21:04 - Received request for a file: D:\Music\ACDC\Let There Be Rock - The Movie - Live In Paris\Disk 2\01 - The Jack.mpc

I started it once and then again before the track ended (for listening to the intro again). After that I tried to start it several times because it didn't response.

Edit

The conversion option was 320 kbps MP3.

[Alex B]

I have seen that "MPC architecture limitation" error message before when I tried to analyze some MPC files during the playback of other MPC files. For some reason Foobar2000 can play and analyze MPC files at the same time, so I don't think that is actually an MPC architecture limitation (anymore?). What does the word "safely" mean here?.

[John Gateley]

I'm unable to play an mp4 file with either the older Media Server (says attempt to play an unsupported file) or with the newer plugin Server.  The newer plugin seems to get into a loop. The client machine has iTunes and Quicktime installed and can play the file fine.  This causes the client machine's MC11 to lock up.

This is "fixed". The client will no longer lock up. However, Library Server cannot stream mp4 files.

Look for the next build.

j

[John Gateley]

Please use the new thread:

http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?board=3;action=display;threadid=24158

j