I have a similar setup. I keep my media files on a NAS box with a main content directory and then 5 subdirectories below that, each of which has a few hundred files. If I don’t sub-divide it like that, it is too cumbersome to page through the files and find the one you want.
I also never understood what WD Media Library was supposed to do for me so I never tried it. I am skeptical of ever trying it because my WD boxes require enough reboots as it is without using yet another memory intensive feature when I already know memory management in the WD **bleep**.
My suggestion if you have not already done so is to check out a DLNA server. Rather than pointing the WD boxes directly at a file share on your NAS, you point the DLNA server at your NAS and then point the WD boxes at the DLNA servier. It would automatically do things like index your files by genre, actor, year, etc. I have used a free one called Serviio which works very well and was easy to set up on Win7.
Using a DLNA servier as I have suggested makes my media playback dependent on one more machine, but my PC is on all the time anyway so it isn’t be that big a deal and it’s a tradeoff for the functionality. Another option: I think my NAS and even a router I bought recently have DLNA servers built into them, though I have never tried them. I assume they would provide similar functionality and would not require a PC to be running / accessible on the network.
