I have a WDTV Media Player which is connected to a WD MyCloud device. I would like certain folders not to be viewable to all, as my children use the WDTV Media Player and I do not wish for them to access movies, tv shows etc beyond their age limit. I only want them to be able to see the childrens content.
I have searched a lot but can’t find a definitive answer. Is somebody able to provide step by step (fool proof) instructions on how to set it up this way, because at the moment the WDTV Media Player displays ALL content. Is there a way of making a certain folder on the MyCloud password protected, so that the Media Player forces the password to be input before anything can be viewed.
How is the WDTV player connecting to the My Cloud? Via DLNA? Or via some type of File Manager type connection?
If via DLNA then no you cannot prevent the media from being seen due to DLNA bypasses the Private setting (Public Access = Off in Dashboard) for Shares.
If via some type of file manager type connection then it should prompt for a user name and password for those Shares set for private access.
Thank you for your response. Yes it is connected via DLNA (ie. on the dashboard share profile, Media Serving = ‘On’)
Are you aware whether there is any other way of making the MyCloud content viewable on the Media Player? I am not familiar with the file manager type connection. Thanks.
See the WDTV Media Player User Manual (http://www.wdc.com/wdproducts/library/UM/ENG/4779-705123.pdf), in particular Chapter 6 Finding Your Content, page 29. That chapter explains the various ways one can access content which include both DLNA (Media Server) and Network Share (Windows Shares, Mac Shares, Linux Shares).
Try using the Network Share option. If that option works the way you want then you can access the My Cloud Dashboard and reconfigure the “Shares” so that Media Serving is turned Off and Public access is turned Off. Then configure Users for access to those private Shares. Then when the WDTV player access the private share it should (I assume) prompt the user for a login name and password.
You received a pretty good reply from Bennor; he is very knowledgeable and helpful, I agree that you should download the complete user manual for your model of WDTV, and will also add you need the complete manual for your model of My Cloud as well.
I will also say that in all likelihood, Bennor does not have a WDTV, based upon his reply. I have had one for years, and am an active member of that forum. So, I am going to have to differ with some of Bennor’s comments; especially when it comes to using the two menu options of Media Server (DLNA format) and Network shares.to access the My Cloud (which I also have). via WDTV.
Along the way, I also will comment about using/not using passwords and why, etc, because it is intertwined with the two options above. I will try to end with a suggested solution for you if I was in your shoes, meaning keeping kids out of certain media files.
At home kids are not a problem I have anymore; kids are grown and the grandkids know better than to mess with our entertainment center by themselves. So, I basically have no security on WDTV nor the My Cloud.
As Bennor said, Media Server is wide open anyway. Think of this option as a no-braner network you didn’t have to set up. it sets itself up just by hooking a Media server to your network. The My Cloud does this and so does a Windows PC. All you need to use DLNA is have DLNA receiving devices. A Smart TV is one, a WDTV is another. A DLNA receiving device can see media servers on the network. All one has to do is find what media they want to access with their receiving device. I like to affectionately call DLNA, “Networking for Dummies” since it sets itself up with basically no involvement of the user.
Using Network shares takes work – work to set up shared drives and such using Windows is harder than is should be, If you have ever done this, you know what I mean.
So, the reason I bring this up is that certain media cannot be streamed via DLNA; there is a limited set of files it can deal with. Network shares can deal with a larger variety of files. One very important one is a file with extension ISO, DLNA cannot handle this sort of file because, although an ISO file likely has a movie on it, it is not a “video” file – it is a (DVD) disk image file and media servers only can handle actual video files, like mp4 and MKV. I have a lot of ISO files and can only access these files as a Network share and the WDTV does the actual decoding of ISO and plays the movie therein. In fact, ISO files are not even visible to a Media server, But, if you have any of the videos you want to keep kids away from kids in ISO files, using Network shares is NOT the way, Media server view is, though.
Back to WDTV for a moment. I have a completely open system at home so no passwords are required, and that makes for faster access to my media. The WDTV doesn’t even have an option for password when accessed via Media server. It does for Network shares. Since the My Cloud is both a server and a share, If I used a password on WDTV it would just be something to slow access down for my family, so I do not use one.
The Password issue for a WDTV has caused more confusion for WDTV users than it should, so a few years ago I wrote up a “FAQ” about how to deal with it.
I recently updated that post, and I will leave the link to it at the end of this post.
Whew, now I can get to my suggested solution, because I think it will make more sense after what I wrote all above. If I was in your situation with kids of any age I would want to keep away from certain media content, I would attach a desktop version hard drive(s) to one or more of the USB inputs of the WDTV,put ONLY media files you allow the kids to access, and keep them totally out of the My Cloud. This way the kids access their content via “Local drives” option and not Media server or Network shares.
Then you can still use DLNA cloud access open for yourself.
( About the only thing I use Media server for is to play from music playlists since network shares do not have this capability.)
Finally, my “sticky” post here about Network shares issue:
Correct, I don’t have a WDTV nor have used one. Was going off of what the user manual for the WDTV indicated about using other methods of access to the My Cloud than DLNA.
The question about trying to block content from certain users when using DLNA comes up from time to time in these parts. Because of the current way DLNA works it is not possible to use password protection to block certain users or certain devices from accessing DLNA media content. At least with the WDTV there are methods to try and get around this limitation with DLNA by using other methods of access.
I was glad you tried to help the guy even if you don’t have a WDTV and you even resorted to the manual – which is more than most would do. I hope my long post was clear and that you understood it all.
Was it understandable to you?
This DLNA stuff, as easy as it is, can still be confusing to many, as lots of people do not see the distinctions and subtleties between Media servers and Network shares. Until I got a My Cloud, I never cared to use Media server/DLNA on WDTV until I figured out it is the only way I could use playlists on devices. Otherwise. I prefer Network shared access on WDTV and mobile apps.
All I want to know is if I got anything “wrong” or made it confusing… because as you said, others may not be as fluent; which is the situation in many cases here. More people need to R-T-F-M for their devices!
As the original poster I can safely say that all of the responses have been helpful as I was struggling to get to grips with the instructions detailed in the manual as I am a newbie to these devices. So thank you for all your contributions.
Didn’t see any thing wrong or confusing either. And yes more people absolutely need to read the manual. So many questions asked here in the support forums are already answered in the user manuals. It has even been suggested in the past in at least one other thread that the My Cloud User Manual should be rewritten/restructured to make it better.
Yes, I was thinking about all this later, and I like to help with problems here, but people not reading the manual is not a “problem” it is more like the guy who did not do his homework asking to copy mine for his assignment! People need to do their own homework all throughout life!
Another thing I may do is find all of my previous posts here for same issues one more time and put them all in a text file (that I continue to update). I will post that text file on my virtual Pogoplug Cloud, and my “answer” to problems in many cases will be to give the link to that text file stored on my PP Cloud, and be done with that person’s problem unless they write back and say , “I did all this, but I still have the problem.”
