Creating shortcut links on MyCloud for video sorting

[jeron]

Is there a way to create shortcut links to files on the MyCloud drive? 

I would like to create different methods for sorting through my video files. I have all of my movies in one directory, but I am trying to figure out a way to organize the files with different sorting methods, such as by genre or A-F, G-K, etc. As my library is growing, it is becoming difficult to navigate through all of the files. I saw a recommendation in another post to create playlists with Playlist Creator, but from what I can tell, these files cannot be played on most devices. Also, unless a single playlist is made for each video, I don’t see how it is very useful because there is no way to see what files are in the playlist, unless you play through each one.

Ideally, it would be nice if there was a way to create folders for each genre and then have a link to each video inside of the folder. Has anyone figured a better method for managing video libraries?

[Hamlet]

Hello,

Have you tried using the media server? It sorts the videos in different ways.

[jeron]

Can you explain a little what you mean by media server?

I’d like to come up with something that could be used on the mycloud app on my iPad, and also when browsing movies on my tv.

[jeron]

Anyone else have any ideas?

[cpt_paranoia]

 Can you explain a little what you mean by media server?

Read Section 12 of the User Manual.  Then read this FAQ thread:

http://community.wd.com/t5/WD-My-Cloud/FAQ-How-do-I-make-the-Twonky-DLNA-Media-Server-work-properly/m-p/858813

Google is quite helpful, too, as is Wikipedia.

Once you have activated the Twonky media server, you can access your media via local UPnP/DLNA media client apps; these can be found for most platforms such as iThings (MediaConnect has been suggested here, and XBMC is available for jail broken iThings), and your smart TV probably has a media client.

The Twonky DLNA media server presents list of files in a number of ways, one of which is by Title.  In this mode, it groups media into ABC, DEF, etc.  Exactly like you are requesting.

For remote viewing of movies (and I would only use the MyCloud app for remote access), you will need a good broadband uplink rate, so ADSL via a phone line is unlikely to be good enough; you’ll need cable or fibre.

[jeron]

cpt_paranoia

Thanks, that makes a little more sense now. I am pretty new at this, and until reading your post, I had no idea Twonky even existed. After doing a little research, it sounds like I can do some of my custom sorting by modifying the Twonky views. I’ll have to spend some time digging into this. Thanks for at least pointing me in the right direction.

One thing that I am still unsure about is how to make this work in the MyCloud app. Is there any way that you know of to easily do custom sorting inside of the app? Basically what I would like to have is a way to sort my movies and tv shows by either title, or genre, or say a way to just show all 3D movies. What I was thinking was if there was a way to create your own file structure with your own predefined genres, and then create some sort of link to the file inside of those genre folders. I can’t figure out a way to do this short of copying the files to each of the folders, which is a terrible idea because it would require having multiple copies of each file. I hope this makes a little more sense now, and maybe I’m just going about this in the completely wrong way. I’d appreciate any advice that you may have. Thanks.

[cpt_paranoia]

Sorry, I don’t use the MyCloud apps, as I don’t use remote access to my NAS.  And for local access, the MyCloud app is completely unnecessary, as you can simply map your MyCloud into your computer’s file system as a network drive, and use the file manager to access it, just like any other disk.  I know the WD install process is very keen to get you to install a lot of WD software that isn’t necessary for all users.

And I’m also sorry that I didn’t stress enough that a DLNA media server is for local access only (i.e. connected to your router via Ethernet cable or WiFi), and not remote access* (away from home). Remote access is only possible via the MyCloud apps, which gain access to your MyCloud via the wd2go servers. I’m assuming that your use of the MyCloud apps means you’re accessing remotely. 

A UPnP/DLNA media client is more appropriate for what you’re doing than the MyCloud app, I think.

* That’s not strictly true; you can open a port on your router to allow external devices access, but it requires using a DNS host registration.  Opening ports on your router is a potential security vulnerability. You have to decide if that potential vulnerability is a problem for you, depending on what you store on your NAS. I’ve not used remote access to Twonky, but here are a couple of useful-looking google hits:

http://community.wd.com/t5/My-Book-Live/Enable-remote-media-streaming-via-web/td-p/378673

http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/archive/1948547

[jeron]

I do access my files remotely, but I mainly use the MyCloud app to download files to my iPad for when I travel. It just offered a nice interface to manage the files and download them easily for offline use. That is why I was looking for a more clean way to organize my files in the app.

For streaming at home, I agree that a UPnP/DLNA media client makes more sense. I actually realized tonight that the .m3u playlists that I created for some of my movies actually did work, but they were just showing up as Music playlists, instead of videos. It does sound like you can modify playlists created in Windows Media Center though to show up under your Video category. That may be a quick fix while I work on learning the Twonky view configuration.

[cpt_paranoia]

Ah yes, the iPad…  I can see that the MyCloud app might be useful for that, given that the iPad lacks a native file manager, and the apps I’ve tried for it are pretty horrible.

The inability to do simple file management on my iPad was one of the main reasons I switched to android tablets, where I can just about do whatever I want with my computers not what the Ghost of Steve Jobs thinks I should be allowed to do…