Advice needed - can you help?

WD Legacy Products WD TV Live Streaming
1

Okay, I have a small ‘problem’ I’d like to sort out, and was looking for some advice.  I have a couple of potential solutions, but I’m not sure if they’d work.

I have around 500 films on several HDDs, soon to go on to two My Book Studio 6tb drives.  These will be plugged into the 2 USB ports on my new WDTV Live SMP.  I love browsing the films in Gallery View - very swish.

I then have around 1.5tb of TV programmes, music, and photos which I’d also like to access on my WDTVLSMP.

However (and this is the problem) I don’t want to have my lovely ‘gallery’ of films interrupted by hundreds of TV programmes.  Indeed, not only am I happy to access the non-film media in Folder View, that’s how I’d prefer to view them.

So, I need to be able to see all my TV programmes, music and photos in Folder View but not Gallery View. In short, I want them visible in folders, but not added to the Media Library.

Possible Solution 1 :

Can I somehow ‘hide’ a folder in one of my HDDs so that the Media Library doesn’t see them, but I can still access them in Folder View?

Possible Solution 2:

I will very soon have my wireless router (my BT Home Hub) situated in my lounge (same room as the WDTVLSMP), and the player hard-wired to this with an Ethernet cable.  I could put my TV programmes, music and photos on a WD My Book Live and plug it in to the same router, again with an Ethernet cable.

Will that work (will I be able to access this media)?  I suspect the answer is yes - indeed, I’m pretty sure this is exactly what the ‘Live’ is for.

Now I understand there’s a ‘bug’ at the moment which prevents networked media being added to the media library.  Now for everyone else this is a problem, but for me it’s exactly what I want!  The problem is what happens if I buy a ‘Live’ and connect it and WD fix the bug?  Will I be able to disable media on the ‘Live’ from my Media Library, but still access it in folder view?

Finally, if I move my old WDTV Live to my bedroom and invest in a nice wireless dongle, will I be able to access the media on my ‘Live’ in my bedroom.

Possible Solution 3:

I haven’t thought of a third solution…but you might.

Any help and advice gratefully received.

Steve W

2

One of us is confused.   :)

There isn’t a “Folder view.”   There’s a Folder FILTER.    And that filter is applicable to ANY of the views;  gallery, grid, list, whatever.   So if you prefer to browse by folders, that’s fine, you can do that in ANY view, gallery or otherwise.

But if the root of your question is that you just don’t want your TV shows and music and photos to ever be INDEXED or SEARCHABLE or FILTERABLE then:

  1.  No.   You can HIDE a folder, but it hides it completely; it won’t be browsable or indexed.

  2.  Yes, you can do that.   

I don’t have any idea what to expect from the new firmware, but there might be a way to go TO a server (your MBL in this case) without having its contents indexed.   But it would probably affect the whole server, not specific folders or shares on that server.

Yes, you can access other “sharing” Lives via your network;  wired or wireless.   Just keep in mind that your WiFi bandwidth is critical, and if BOTH of those Live’s are wireles, you cut your available bandwidth by more than half.

3

TonyPh12345 wrote:

One of us is confused.   :)

 

There isn’t a “Folder view.”   There’s a Folder FILTER.    And that filter is applicable to ANY of the views;  gallery, grid, list, whatever.   So if you prefer to browse by folders, that’s fine, you can do that in ANY view, gallery or otherwise.

 

But if the root of your question is that you just don’t want your TV shows and music and photos to ever be INDEXED or SEARCHABLE or FILTERABLE then:

 

  1.  No.   You can HIDE a folder, but it hides it completely; it won’t be browsable or indexed.
  1.  Yes, you can do that.   

 

I don’t have any idea what to expect from the new firmware, but there might be a way to go TO a server (your MBL in this case) without having its contents indexed.   But it would probably affect the whole server, not specific folders or shares on that server.

 

Yes, you can access other “sharing” Lives via your network;  wired or wireless.   Just keep in mind that your WiFi bandwidth is critical, and if BOTH of those Live’s are wireles, you cut your available bandwidth by more than half.

 

 

Thanks for the reply.  I’m easily confused - it’s in my nature.

Okay, so 1 is a non-starter, but 2 looks do-able.  That’s okay, I was hoping for 2 anyway.

I’m not bothered if it affects the whole server.  The only thing I want on the MBL is music, photos and TV.  All films will be on the USB HDDs.

As I say the whole point of the exercise is that I can keep Gallery View for my films only.  The MBL has an On/Off switch.  If any future update does add the media on the MBL to the Media Library will they simply disappear if and when I turn the MBL off?

Bottom line - I want to sit in my armchair and view all my films, but only my films, by Gallery View when I want to, without the TV programmes being present, and to view my TV programmes and photos by folder.

BTW, the WDTV in the bedroom will be the only thing accessing the MBL wirelessly, so hopefully that won’t be a problem.  Though I’m not holding out much hope for any of my Blu-ray Disc rips of High Def TV drama programmes.

Many thanks again for the advice.

Steve W

4

TonyPh12345 wrote:

I don’t have any idea what to expect from the new firmware, but there might be a way to go TO a server (your MBL in this case) without having its contents indexed.   But it would probably affect the whole server, not specific folders or shares on that server. 

 

Sorry Tony, I’ve been meaning to ask this for a few days, but kept getting sidetracked.

I see you have a WDTV Live Hub.  What happens with the hub?  Can you have a media library set to only include local storage, and still access media off your network without adding it the the media library?

Cheers.

Steve W

5

No.   As soon as you connect to a NAS share it will compile its media library.

I’m still confused as to what you’re trying to include or prevent.

Why is it important to you for it NOT to compile media library off NAS?

1 Like
6

Hi Tony, thanks for the reply, and your patience.

I have two types of video - films and TV programmes.

I like to view my film library by Gallery View.  I am storing my films on several USB HDDs attached to the WDTV via a hub.

If I put all of my TV programmes on the same way I won’t be able to do this (look through my films only using Gallery View), as the row of film icons at the bottom will become interrupted and over-populated by hundreds of TV shows.

So, I want to show all of my films, _ but only my films _, in Gallery View, with all of my TV programmes viewable seperately.  Viewing TV programmes by folder is easily the best way to access them.  I don’t mind not having Gallery View for my TV programmes, but I want to keep Gallery View for my films.  But only my films.

So, my solution was to put the films on the HDDs and the TV programmes on the NAS, but apparently this won’t work.

I can’t imagine for a second that I’m the only one in this position.  Who wants to be looking through a list of their films, only for them to be interrupted by 400+ episodes of The Simpsons and 275 episodes of Cheers?  I’m amazed this isn’t a burniong issue.  I would imagine 99% of us here have a mixture of films and TV programmes, and I would imagine 95% of us don’t want them listed together.

Do you have any other suggestions?

Many thanks.

Steve W

7

I just filter everything by folder, and I use Gallery View like 99% of the time.

All my movies are in their own “Shared” folders, and all of my TV shows are in their own folders organized by SERIES / SEASON / then all episode files in that folder.

More detailed:

I have FOUR SHARES on my NAS:

   Kids Movies

   Movies 1   (All agest)

   Movies 2   (R Rated) – only accessible via my own login.

   TV Shows

The Living Room WD Hub has access to Kids Movies, Movies 1, and TV shows.  

The teenaged Kid’s WD’s only have access to Movies 1, and TV shows.     (They have the old Live+, so no Gallery view for them.)

The youngest girls’ have access to only Kids Movies.  (They have the old Live, so no Gallery view for them.)

And I filter by FOLDER on the HUBs and Live SMP.

So, depending on which user credentials provided, when I go to VIDEOs, I see up to FOUR SHARES at the first level of navigation.  Then If I want to see movies, I select “Movies 1” or “Movies 2” depending on which WD I’m using and which movie library I want.

If I select MOVIES 1, I see all of my PG-13 and lower movies.   

If I select MOVIES 2, I see all the R-RATED movies.    

If I select KIDS MOVIES I see a bunch of Barbie and Dora.   :slight_smile:

If I select TV SHOWS, I’m presented with a gallery of SERIES TITLES, then SEASON NUMBERS next, followed by EPISODE NUMBERS / TITLES, each with their own unique thumbnail.

If I login using my Master Bedroom specific account, all I see is “Movies 1, 2, and TV.”  No Kids movies.

Easy peasy lemon squeezy.

The very short answer is that, with *ANY* media player, you are FAR better off organizing your content to suit the PLAYER than to try to force the PLAYER to work with your organization.

1 Like
8

Right, I’m still pretty new to this, as you ca tell.

Are you saying that, with your NAS set up, you can have different shares (like your 4 different shares).  You can then select any one share, and browse using Gallery View, seeing just the media in that share?

If that’s the way to do it, I need the cheapest 10tb NAS I can get my hands on which will work with the WDTV.

Unless you can think of a way I can keep my HDDs.  I only just got the hub solution working last night, after a lot of effort - I’ll be pretty miffed if I have to ditch it for another, even more expensive solution.

Is there no way of connecting my HDDs to the network?

Steve W

9

Pecker wrote:

 You can then select any one share, and browse using Gallery View, seeing just the media in that share?

Steve W

Yes, as long as you filter by FOLDER.

If you filter by anything else, it’s all aggregated together.

1 Like
10

I’ve decided to try a cheaper and easier solution.

I’ll use my WDTV with the hub (attached to HDDs containing all my films) plugged in to the back, and Media Library switched on.

If I want to watch TV programmes I’ll turn the Media Library off and attach the HDD with my TV programmes to the front, and view that by folders.

When I’m finished I’ll unplug that TV HDD and switch Media Library back on.

_ TA-DA! _

You know, it could all be solved if you could view all of USB2 in Gallery View.  At the moment, after selecting USB2 you have to select which HDD of those attached to the hub that you want to view.

I still think it’s a bit of an ommision, Tony.  I still think:

A - Gallery View will be most people prefered mode of browsing

and

B - Most people won’t want to browse their films and TV programmes together

I might be wrong.

Steve W

11

… and it still sounds to me like you’re confusing the VIEW and the FILTER.   They’re separate things.

You VIEW using Gallery.

You FILTER by Folder.

… and then you can do what you want.  :)

12

No, I’m not getting confused, just using short hand.

I can only VIEW in gallery mode either by selecting Media Library (which would bring up everything) or by chosing LOCAL STORAGE in which case I must select just one HDD - I can’t select ALL HDDs attached to USB2.

If I turn the media library off I can only select media on local storage by individual HDDs, and the ONLY views are ALL marked ‘Video: Folders’.

So it is ABSOLUTELY IMPOSSIBLE to view more than one HDD by Gallery if you turn the media library off.

You can only FILTER with the Media Library on.  You can only view in Gallery View if all your films are in one folder, which is impossible if they’re on more than one HDD.

PHEW!

Steve W

13

Still getting there - slowly but shurely.

What’s the difference between a ‘Media Server’ and ‘Network Share’?

What it looks like tome is a Media Server is a NAS - a big HDD (or array of HDDs) attached to your network hum, whilst 'network shares are media attached to (and accessed through) other computers and other devices on the network.  Do I have that right?

Back to the questions I had earlier, will both media on a NAS device AND on other shares be added to me Media Library?

Thanks again for being patient with ‘Mr Slow’.

Steve W

FURTHER READING

Tony, in case you hadn’t guessed, here’s what I’m thinking.

SMP in my living room, hard-wired to my router.  WDTV Live in the bedroom, also hard-wired to the router.

Films on USB HDDs attached to the SMP.  TV programmes and other media on USB HDDs attached to the Live in the bedroom.

Media Library ‘on’ on the SMP.  I’ll be able to access the TV programmes on my SMP as ‘Network Shares’ (as opposed to ‘Media Server’).  But will these ‘shares’ show up in the Media Library?

SW

14

A NAS can be a Media Server or a Share Server or both.   All of my NAS boxes (QNAP and WD) are both.

To simplify:

Media Server:   A device or service running the DLNA / UPnP protocol, and contains higher-level application software controling access to the media.  Examples:   Twonky, TVersity, PS3 Media Server, etc. etc.  A device accessing a Media Server is only given access to “streams” that are allowed and supported by the host.   The Media Server is in complete control over how the media is organized, presented, and accessed.

Network Share Server:  A device running NFS or SMB protocl (which almost every computer made can.).   This is a low-level file access protocol.  A device accessing a Network Share has access to the all of the raw files on the disk (subject to how the server’s permissions are configured).    The CLIENT is in complete control over how the media is organized, presented, and accessed.

Media Servers’ contents are NOT added to the Media Library.  

Network Share media are not CURRENTLY added to the media library, but will be when WD gets it working right.

15

TonyPh12345 wrote:

 

Media Servers’ contents are NOT added to the Media Library.  

 

Network Share media are not CURRENTLY added to the media library, but will be when WD gets it working right.

 

Okay, I’m very slowly getting there.  It’s the language which confuses me.

So, I have 2tb of TV programmes (mainly MKVs, some AVIs) which I do not want in my SMP media library, but which I want to watch, leaving the SMP’s library full of just my films (which are attached to the SMP vis USB HDDs as Local Storage).  The 2tb of TV programmes are currently on a simple 2tb WD Elements HDD.

Which of the following will allow me to watch these TV programmes on my SMP, but will not have them added to the Media Library (even after WD’s update):

1 - Attach the WD Elements to my router via it’s USB port.

2 - Attach my WD Elements to my bedroom WDTV Live (last gen) via the USB port.

3 - Transfer the 2tb to a 2tb My Book Live and attach that via ethernet cable to the rpouter.

4 - Something else (if so, what).

Many, many thanks.  I apologise for the red mark on your forehead from banging it into the screen of your PC.

Steve W

16

If you’re accessing your router via MEDIA SERVER, then any of 1 or 3 would work.   The Mybook Live has Twonky built-in.

But do keep in mind that Media Server access imposes its own limitations; metadata and all that stuff is unavailable via Media Servers.

17

TonyPh12345 wrote:

If you’re accessing your router via MEDIA SERVER, then any of 1 or 3 would work.   The Mybook Live has Twonky built-in.

 

But do keep in mind that Media Server access imposes its own limitations; metadata and all that stuff is unavailable via Media Servers.

 

Right…but ‘1’ involves just the WD Elements, which doesn’t have ‘Twonky’ built-in.  Does this drive effectively ‘become’ a server when plugged in?

Steve W

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You said you’re plugging it into your router.   I assume your router either does DLNA or SMB sharing.   If it’s DLNA, it won’t import it.  If it’s SMB, it will.

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Okay, cheers.  It’s a BT Home Hub 3 - I haven’t a clue how to find out if it’s DNLA or SMB.

Steve W

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Since there’s no real documentation on your router you’ll probably need to contact BT to see if it’s DNLA or SMB compliant.

But from what specifications there are, there is a limitation on the HDD format type that can be used.  Your HDD has to be formated as FAT32, which will limit your file sizes to 4GB or under, so you want be able to use any file larger than that.

1 Like