Feature Request RE: Thumbnails Network Shares without showing jpg

Thumbnails with attached USB drive work great, i.e. no jpg. in the folder.  When using a network share, all the jpg’s show up in addition to the thumbnails.  Could a simple line of code be added to look for a file in a folder such as NOJPEG.TXT that would then not show all jpg’s in the folder.  There has to be some simple way to fix this.  Having to flip through a couple of hundred jpg’s to get to the video files in a network folder is frustrating.  I understand that this behavior is as designed, but many post have requested this fix.  

I second that.

Indeed, I just upgraded my setup to a home media server instead of drives attached, and I am so frustrated by this, i have been researching other players.

I also want that fix!!! I have read many many post reporting that problem…

Why is not fixed i cant understand!

Also i have noticed that if i put a dot (.) at the beguinning of the jpg names they are hidden and not showing in the directory when browsing via WDLive… but ofcource they are no longer shown as thumbnails… why dont make it justif you have file x.mkv to look for .x.jpg instead of x.jpg? in that case the jpg will be hidden and there will be thumbnail!

DimitarCC wrote:

Why is not fixed i cant understand!

… because with an attached USB drive, the WDTV can write the database to the HD – with a share (especially one that’s read only) there’s no place for the WDTV to put the DB.

By my understanding what it would take would be for everyone who wishes to use network shares to create a folder on the network in a location that the WDTV has access to, give it read-write access, tell the WDTV where the folder is… and THEN WD could change the implementation.

RoofingGuy wrote:> … because with an attached USB drive, the WDTV can write the database to the HD – with a share (especially one that’s read only) there’s no place for the WDTV to put the DB.

 

By my understanding what it would take would be for everyone who wishes to use network shares to create a folder on the network in a location that the WDTV has access to, give it read-write access, tell the WDTV where the folder is… and THEN WD could change the implementation.

    • *> well it’s obvious that no one will let wd write to a network share. All my guest shares are readonly for a good reason. Of cause if they wanted they would add some additional logic if folder is read only. Like if there is a movie with the same name then jpg is not shown but used as a thumbnail. But facebook was more important to implement yeah

flux242 wrote:
well it’s obvious that no one will let wd write to a network share. All my guest shares are readonly for a good reason. Of cause if they wanted they would add some additional logic if folder is read only. Like if there is a movie with the same name then jpg is not shown but used as a thumbnail. But facebook was more important to implement yeah

But where is it going to write the database if everything’s read-only??  How will it know what movies it has found jpegs for??

That’s the problem.

Where does it keep track of what movies it has found a .jpg with the same name?  It has to be written somewhere.  Can’t be written to the read-only shares; can’t be stored in RAM… there’s no place to keep a database.

RoofingGuy wrote:


 

But where is it going to write the database if everything’s read-only??  How will it know what movies it has found jpegs for??

 

That’s the problem.

 

Where does it keep track of what movies it has found a .jpg with the same name?  It has to be written somewhere.  Can’t be written to the read-only shares; can’t be stored in RAM… there’s no place to keep a database.

there is no need for a database to show jpgs as thumbnails. I see no problem here at all.

flux242 wrote:

 

there is no need for a database to show jpgs as thumbnails. I see no problem here at all.

Then you should be able to write a new OSD in a matter of seconds, right?

WD can’t do it.  B-rad can’t do it.  None of B-Rad’s co-conspirators can do it    But if it’s that easy, knock yourself out.

RoofingGuy wrote:

 


flux242 wrote:

 

there is no need for a database to show jpgs as thumbnails. I see no problem here at all.


 

Then you should be able to write a new OSD in a matter of seconds, right?

 

WD can’t do it.  B-rad can’t do it.  None of B-Rad’s co-conspirators can do it    But if it’s that easy, knock yourself out.

kind of read content of the current directory sort it and then show it takes an hour right? Besides you cannot say to your customer - “I can’t do it”. But you can say - “I can’t do it the way you want it but I can do it this way or this way or this way…”. See the difference? And ‘b-rad can’t do it’ is very funny argument btw. Would be even funnier if wd would say - “brad can’t do it so do we”

Well I understand there could be some troubles with network shares…

But if really is needed to write access just a simple logic can be added! If no write access not thumbnails!

Why that is so difficult?!

At least people with write access will have thumbnails!

Also now even if  have write access the thumbnails are duplicated! I don’t need jpgs (or any kind of graphics) show in video foldes! Why contents are not filtered?! That is also not difficult to fix! As I am a programmer I don’t see such a difficulties! (except need of write access)

Also for MKV files why is not possible to read the embedded picture?! MKV format have embedded pictures support! Why is not implemented here?

My shared folder on the network does have read write enabled.  It is not read only.  I would leave a thumbnail drive in the WDTV if it could use it for a library…I’m looking for any type of work around to fix this jpg issue.  MKV files also quit working properly in the new firmware.  

The most feasible workaround is to use PLAYLISTS instead.

Shove all your files into a folder somewhere.

Then create M3U PLAYLISTS that reference those files.  To the Live, the PLAYLIST will look like a folder.   When you open it, voila:  There’s your movies, No Duplicate Thumbs, and Bob’s your Uncle.  :)

A nice thing about Playlists is you can organize them pretty much any way you want;  they SORT the same as YOU put them in the list (A lot of people don’t like the fact that “THE” is sorted first; that doesn’t happen in a playlist because can sort the playlist however you like.)

Someone can chime in here and suggest Playlist creators…

TonyPh12345 wrote:

 

Someone can chime in here and suggest Playlist creators…

http://www.oddgravity.com/app-opc.php

Playlist Creator (free)

TonyPh12345 wrote:

The most feasible workaround is to use PLAYLISTS instead.

 

Shove all your files into a folder somewhere.

 

Then create M3U PLAYLISTS that reference those files.  To the Live, the PLAYLIST will look like a folder.   When you open it, voila:  There’s your movies, No Duplicate Thumbs, and Bob’s your Uncle.  :)

 

A nice thing about Playlists is you can organize them pretty much any way you want;  they SORT the same as YOU put them in the list (A lot of people don’t like the fact that “THE” is sorted first; that doesn’t happen in a playlist because can sort the playlist however you like.)

 

Someone can chime in here and suggest Playlist creators…

everytime you add something to your lib you’ll have to update your playlists too. I still think that adding an option to choose where the db is to be created is the most intuitive. One can use an old usb stick for that purpose and wd could detect it and suggest to use it as the place where the db to be stored. Default option would be - “inplace” for the rw shares

Flux; I agree with you…   But in the meantime, there’s a way around versus waiting.  :)

RoofingGuy wrote:

 


flux242 wrote:
well it’s obvious that no one will let wd write to a network share. All my guest shares are readonly for a good reason. Of cause if they wanted they would add some additional logic if folder is read only. Like if there is a movie with the same name then jpg is not shown but used as a thumbnail. But facebook was more important to implement yeah


 

But where is it going to write the database if everything’s read-only??  How will it know what movies it has found jpegs for??

 

That’s the problem.

 

Where does it keep track of what movies it has found a .jpg with the same name?  It has to be written somewhere.  Can’t be written to the read-only shares; can’t be stored in RAM… there’s no place to keep a database.

lets think about this for a sec…

How is WD TV Live displaying folder.jpg and moviename.jpg currently, WITHOUT  any “folder to write to” or “database” for network shares?

I presume it is doing it “On The Fly” and it works…

  • We are only dealing with directories and/or valid media files. If you have a pdf or doc or txt file (invalid media file) in your shared directory, WD TV Live will not display it ie. it is checking.

  • There are 3 modules, “Video”, “Photo”, and “Music”. The valid media files for all 3 modules are exactly the SAME and so is the logic. Copy/Paste job. That is why we find mp3s in the Video module and can play it from there vice versa etc etc.

- Suggestion: Customise the vaild media file check for the 3 modules (Video/Photo/Music) so that we only see audio files in the Music module, video files in the Video module, image files in the Photo module…

Valid Media File for Video = avi, mpg, mkv, mp4 etc etc (WHICH DOES NOT INCLUDE items from the other modules)

Valid Media File for Photo = jpg, png, bmp etc etc

Valid Media File for Music = wav, mp3, ogg etc etc



- So now when we navigate to Video-Network Shares WD TV Live will check for Directories and Valid Media File for Video.


- Reserve “X” amount of memory to display thumbs so we dont crash. (FIFO)

- Check for directories, if there are directories, any folder.jpg to display? else show std icon.

- Check for Valid Media File for Video, any corresponding jpg to display? else show std icon.


So for Music-Network Shares, use the same logic and check for Valid Media File for Music.

For Photo-Network Shares, use the same logic and check for Valid Media File for Photo and display thumbnail of the valid photo.

Comments?

FuGGer’s comment makes the most sense so far. If they’re already filtering for certain file types, why not others?

Has anyone seen a response from WD on this yet? Have they acknowledged it’s an issue? Have they refused to fix it? I know I’ve seen two firmware releases since I bought my THREE WD Live Tv Plus’s and this has still not been addressed.

I’m currently using the Playlist workaround, but it’s not ideal because you can’t make thumbnails for the playlist files themselves. So I have a folder with a dozen playlists in it and I have to read each one to know which one I want to pick.

If anyone at WD reads this: This is one of the reasons I do not recommend your product to anyone, and it is one of the reasons I am keeping a close eye on the Boxee box. (A few other reasons are the folder icon in the middle of the thumbnail, the outdated Netflix UI, and the incomplete iso support, i.e, images of Columbia Tristar dvds).

Yeah, WD responded.  This BUG has been in the ideas lab for over a year

http://community.wdc.com/t5/WD-TV-Live-Ideas/Only-show-me-what-I-ask-for/idi-p/206 

…and been on their “to-do” list since Feb '10.  

by  WD Staff Guy_K on 02-17-2010 03:37 PM

Options

Status changed to:  In Review
We understand the frustration this problem causes. This is on our to-do list. Thanks for your patience.

Thank you. A year, huh? $10 says it will never get fixed. I should have waited for the Boxee Box. ::sigh::