I have added an external Elements 4TB drive to My Cloud via teh USB port on the back. The drive will be used exclusivly for movies (videos).
My question is… How do I map the USB Elements drive to be the Public Shared Videos?
Thanks
Phill
Generally when you connect a USB drive to the My Cloud, it will have the “Media Serving” setting enabled automatically which should trigger the My CLoud Twonky DLNA server to scan then add the external USB drive’s content that are supported by Twonky to the DLNA server media content pool. Scanning may take some time depending on the drive’s media contents.
You should be able to get the media contents to show up in same folder directory as “\Public\Shared ” that the MY Cloud has by recreating the same directory structure on the external USB drive and moving content to those folders. Generally however it is not recomened (see the [FAQ] Twonky DLNA Media Server Setup & Use) to use the same “\Public\Shared ” folder structure that the My Cloud uses. Rather create seperate folders and move the media contents out of the “\Public\Shared ” folders into the other folders.
Hi Bennor,
I had to add the external drive as the My Cloud was full.
In my madness for simplicity and to keep everything together I added the external drive and moved all the movies to that drive, which is now over 75% full.
My thought process was this… by splitting up the movies, some on the My Cloud Drive and some on the external drive, the software (DLNA) will not compile them all together (i.e. all action movies in 1 listing), they would show up as two Action movie lists. UNLESS I AM WRONG?
Phill
they would show up as two Action movie lists. UNLESS I AM WRONG?
You are wrong 
Actually, it depends which ‘view’ you use to access the media, and Twonky provides many.
If you browse ‘By Folder’ then you will be correct (you will see the physical structure of the directory systems).
But if you browse by any of the other views (Genre, for instance), then you will see the combined media libraries, regardless of their physical location.
[edit: I forgot that I don’t have much video, and mostly use Twonky for music. I’m not sure that there are as many ‘views’ for Video as there are for Music; ‘Genre’ may not exist for Video.]
cpt_paranoia wrote:
If you browse ‘By Folder’ then you will be correct (you will see the physical structure of the directory systems).
But if you browse by any of the other views (Genre, for instance), then you will see the combined media libraries, regardless of their physical location.
[edit: I forgot that I don’t have much video, and mostly use Twonky for music. I’m not sure that there are as many ‘views’ for Video as there are for Music; ‘Genre’ may not exist for Video.]
If one sets up the exact same folder structure on thier USB drive then moves video/media into that folder structure they should end up with one folder being viewedby the DLNA client when viewing by folder. It should have the folder populated with media from both the USB drive and the WD My Cloud drive. At least that’s what happened on my end when I was playing around with folder structures on a USB drive connected to the My Cloud. Had some video content in the WD My Cloud “\Public\Shared Video” folder and some video content in the “\Public\Shared Videos” folder on the USB drive connected to the My Cloud. My Roku (using the Roku Media Player channel) shows a single “Shared Video” folder when viewing via “Video->WDMyCloud->Videos->Album->Public-Shared Videos” that has the media from the two seperate hard drive folders.
Now at home and able to access MyCloud/Twonky. And yes, I suspect you’re right, as browsing my Twonky DLNA server shows Music, Photos & Videos as the three folders under the server ‘root’, and then, under each of these, the various views.
In other words, it’s truncated the path to that specified in the Settings|Sharing|Shared Folders controls, dropping the ‘Public’ share name. So, as you say, provided the tree structure is the same, the shares ought to merge in the DLNA ‘views’.
I have three areas specified in Settings|Sharing|Shared Folders:
Public/Music
Public/Pictures
Public/Videos
Sounds great but when I try to locate the following path it is not in my software…
Settings | Sharing | Shared Folders:
I can get to Settings… but there is no “Sharing” option (the only itme is the top level Shares)
What am I missing?
Phill
Hi Bennor,
I thought I had it when I read the line in your reply…
Had some video content in the WD My Cloud “\Public\Shared Video” folder and some video content in the “\Public\Shared Videos” folder on the USB drive connected to the My Cloud.
So duplicated your example…
- 2 videos on the My Cloud|Public|Shared Videos:
- Then I created Movies|Public|Shared Videos: and added 2 different videos
- and waited…
- nothing the other videos never showed up…
Then I thought “What did Bennor name his external drive?” I named mine Movies… Movies|Public|Shared Videos:
I am using my LG TV and plain DLNA to view the My Cloud DLNA server… no boxes, no special software… I go vinella!
So how did you get the files on your external drive to show up?
Phill
What am I missing?
You’re missing the fact that the controls I referred to are in the Twonky UI, not the Dashboard.
Have you read the Twonky FAQ the Bennor linked? That will tell you how to get to the Twonky UI, and other useful information.
Squire_Dude wrote:
Hi Bennor,
I thought I had it when I read the line in your reply…
Had some video content in the WD My Cloud “\Public\Shared Video” folder and some video content in the “\Public\Shared Videos” folder on the USB drive connected to the My Cloud.
So duplicated your example…
- 2 videos on the My Cloud|Public|Shared Videos:
- Then I created Movies|Public|Shared Videos: and added 2 different videos
- and waited…
- nothing the other videos never showed up…
Then I thought “What did Bennor name his external drive?” I named mine Movies… Movies|Public|Shared Videos:
I am using my LG TV and plain DLNA to view the My Cloud DLNA server… no boxes, no special software… I go vinella!
So how did you get the files on your external drive to show up?
Note that this post may answer several other questions you have posted to other threads. When I plug in my external USB drive (a 320GB WD My Password drive) that is loaded with a lot of audiobook and some video files the WD My Cloud automatically enables “Media Serving” and “Public Access” on the drive (MY_PASSPORT). Because of the amount of content on this external drive it takes a while, and I do mean a while (over 15 minutes), for the Twonky server to scan the USB drive’s contents and add the data to the Twonky database.
Normally I don’t use the folders “\Public\Shared XXX” on my My Cloud. Reason for this is because weird things happen sometimes when one stores media content in those folders. The WD My Cloud user manual suggests people store their media in these folders but as many have found the manual is wrong. Those folders are used, as I understand by Twonky for “media aggregation” when there are multiple DLNA servers on the network. The FAQ link I included above in a prior post goes into much more detail about why you shouldn’t use the default "\Public" folders for storing media content. If you haven’t read that FAQ, please take the time to do so. It may answer many of the questions you are currently posting in both this thread and in other threads about how the Twonky DLNA server works (or in some cases doesn’t work properly) on the WD My Cloud.
Using Windows Explorer, this is the folder structure on my WD My Cloud for video and music (including audiobooks):
\WDMYCLOUD\Video
\WDMYCLOUD\Music
Again using Windows Explorer, this is the folder structure of the external USB drive when it is connected to the WD My Cloud:
\Wdmycloud\my_passport\Video
\Wdmycloud\my_passport\Music
When using a DLNA client, for this example I’ll use the Roku Media Player channel of my Roku 2XS device that is connected to one of my TV’s. When vewing by “Audio->WDMyCloud->Music->By Folder->Music” the contents of the “Music” folders listed above are both displayed on screen. Same happens when viewing by “Video->WDMyCloud->Video->Album->Videos”, the video files in both “Video” folders are listed.
When working with audio/music files to get the DLNA client to sort by Genre one has to ensure they have input the metadata for each file. If there is no Genre metadata then Twonky won’t be able to pass that data to the DLNA client for it to sort.
If the file metadata is entered incorrectly that too will affect how files are sorted. It is even possible for video files to be miscategorized by Twonky as an audio file if incorrect metadata is entered for that video file.
I find that I have occasional problems with Windows Media Player not updating properly to show new content after adding that content to either my WD My Cloud drive or to a USB drive connected to that WD My Cloud drive. There are ways to trigger Windows Media Player to rebuild its database of content.
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cpt_paranoia wrote:
Now at home and able to access MyCloud/Twonky. And yes, I suspect you’re right, as browsing my Twonky DLNA server shows Music, Photos & Videos as the three folders under the server ‘root’, and then, under each of these, the various views.
In other words, it’s truncated the path to that specified in the Settings|Sharing|Shared Folders controls, dropping the ‘Public’ share name. So, as you say, provided the tree structure is the same, the shares ought to merge in the DLNA ‘views’.
Yes, it appears Twonky drops the drive name or truncates the drive path for the attached USB drive which causes the DLNA client to only shows the actual drive folders. Where as if one views the drive contents with a file manager like Windows Explorer the USB drive is a separate “folder” with its subfolder contents. Goofy but thats how it works at least on my end.
Would be nice if there was better integration of Twonky with the WD My Cloud front end UI and changes to certain Twonky features would persist post reboot or firmware upgrade. Would also be nice if there was the ablity to manage subfolders within the WD My Cloud UI as well rather than only managing the top level folder of the drive.
Hi Bennor,
You gave me a lot to chew over and figure out. I did read ther Twonky docs and while interesting it dose show that this product is not really ready for production and is still very much a beta product by all its short falls.
But since we are stuck with it we have to figure out how to make it work. I remade my structure and did have some success ingetting the moveis to show up, but they are still not all in a single display. I have to select the External drive then Videos to see all the video files from that source (no matter what folder they are located in)… to see the video files on the My Cloud drive I have to select Videos from the source and it lists all the video files (no matter what folder they are located in). So it is closer.
LG TV DLNA results:
_ MUSIC _: - All Tracks, By Folder
- They do exactly as they say “all” or displays folders - no Genre or any other functionality
_ PHOTOS _ - All Photos, By Folder
- All shows all
- By Folder|Music or Pictures??? Music show 1 album cover ??? Pictures goes to the expected folder sources
_ VIDEOS _ - All Videos, By Folder
- All Shows All from the External drive & from my Share but NOT the My CLoud Videos folder - it uses the same image for every video
- By Folder As expected (External drive, My Login, Pictures(as there a couple of home videos), Video(the My CLoud Video Folder/uses the same image for every video file)
So except for messing with Twonky to get more search and sort functionality by default it is doing it’s job. All be it minimalistic! If I want more filtering like Genre I am going to have to learn how to manipulate Twonky if I understand it now. Is that correct?
Thanks for your patience and support I could not have done it without you continued assistance.
Thanks Bennor
One other thing to try, which I don’t think has been mentioned yet - at least in this thread, is to change the “Media Receiver Type” that one can access via the http://wdmycloud:9000/ then click in Sharing, then select Show to the right of Media Receivers. Then find the entry either the; “MAC Address”, “IP Address” or the “Friendly Name” for your LG TV, and change “Media Receiver Type” entry to some other media player (there is a list to choose from). Then hit “Save Changes” at the botom of thepage, to save the change(s). It appears there are two entry’s for LG TV in that list. Perhaps either or both LG entries are having issues and changing to another entry, which is suggested in the FAQ link to fix certain issues, may fix some problems your experiencing. Down side is that this setting change may not be retained when the WD My Cloud power cycles or a firmware upgrade is performed unless one hacks the WD My Cloud code.
What your frustrated with is the limitation of your LG TV DLNA player and the limitations of Twonky in addition to the poor coding and integration between Twonky and the WD My Cloud UI interface. There is another thread or two here that goes into detail on installing and using MiniDLNA to mixed results on the WD My Cloud for those who are frustrated with Twonky. See here and here.
Another other possible workaround that while not pretty or what you are looking for is to consolidate the media. Move all of the videos (or media) to one specific drive rather than having it spread between both the WD My Cloud and the external USB drive attached to the WD My Cloud. If you search through this site you’ll see the USB interface of the WD My Cloud presents issues for some when trying to use attached USB drives for either media storage or for backing up the WD My Cloud.
The whole album art issue is a known issue that has been discussed in other threads do a search and you’ll find several threads. There are instances, at least in my experience, where Twonky will not display album art correctly especially when one or more media files have album art (either embedded or as a stand alone JPG graphic file) and others do not. Sometimes furstrating, but for now I live with it.
LG TV DLNA results:
I suspect you have a very basic ‘Navigation Type’ selected for your LG TV; it should give you a lot more views, expecially for music.
Go to the Twonky UI (:9000 or WDMyCloud:9000 in a web browser), and go to the Settings|Sharing control page, and look at the Media Receivers section.
You should find your LG TV, or, if it’s not listed as such, you should be able to identify it by IP address.
At the right of the table is a column headed ‘Navigation Type’. Check that this is set to ‘Advanced Navigation’. If not, select this mode, and hit ‘Save Settings’.
You may need to retart the server (I can’t remember); this is on the ‘Advanced’ control page, at the bottom.
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Twonky will not display album art correctly especially when one or more media files have album art (either embedded or as a stand alone JPG graphic file) and others do not. Sometimes furstrating, but for now I live with it.
I found that external (non-embedded) album art has to be called ‘folder.jpg’. Twonky won’t find anything else. So I extracted any embedded album artwork (dead easy using AlbumArtTagger in MediaMonkey), and modified one of my scripts to go find the biggest graphic file and rename it ‘folder.jpg’. (Actually, it squirrels all artwork away into a subfolder called ‘Artwork’, then copies the largest file back up to ‘folder.jpg’). The script runs on the MyCloud, and was pleasingly fast.
I appreciate that not everyone can write scripts, but AlbumArtTagger would, I think, have done a lot of the work for me; it can be told what to call the extracted artwork; I chose to name it from the album, but you could fix it as ‘folder.jpg’.
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Hi cpt_
You are absolutly correct… that did the trick and gave me much more sort and filtering.
And no the Twonky did not need anythign more than to “Save” and the changes happend almost immidiatly.
Much better now… still did not get Genre for Videos but there are a bunch more filters and it makes it easier to locate the actual movie Iwant to watch.
Got any thoughts on how to get a different image for each movie found? Some videos it take a frame out of the movie but others it show the same image for every video shown.
Thanks
Phill
cpt_paranoia wrote:
Twonky will not display album art correctly especially when one or more media files have album art (either embedded or as a stand alone JPG graphic file) and others do not. Sometimes furstrating, but for now I live with it.
I found that external (non-embedded) album art has to be called ‘folder.jpg’. Twonky won’t find anything else. So I extracted any embedded album artwork (dead easy using AlbumArtTagger in MediaMonkey), and modified one of my scripts to go find the biggest graphic file and rename it ‘folder.jpg’. (Actually, it squirrels all artwork away into a subfolder called ‘Artwork’, then copies the largest file back up to ‘folder.jpg’). The script runs on the MyCloud, and was pleasingly fast.
I appreciate that not everyone can write scripts, but AlbumArtTagger would, I think, have done a lot of the work for me; it can be told what to call the extracted artwork; I chose to name it from the album, but you could fix it as ‘folder.jpg’.
Yeah, know about the album art folder.jpg naming and having non embedded album art image files named exactly the same as the movie file name (.jpg). Learned that fun fact after some forum searching when I found non album art tagged movies all had the same wrong album art when I had one single movie tagged with embedded album art. It was unexpected. MediaMonky is good when it works but I found with certain movies and TV shows it was occasionally pulling the wrong information and artwork down. Became somewhat of a problem when I was trying to tag close to 100 movies and TV shows that I have stored. Only thing I don’t like about free version of MediaMonky (or at least that I couln’t figure out in my short time using it) was it wouldn’t put the movie/tv show info into the “comment” field so it could be displayed on the TV screen through the DLNA client. Had to enter it by hand. But that is an issue for another thread some day.
still did not get Genre for Videos
See your other thread for a fix for that.
http://community.wd.com/t5/WD-My-Cloud/DLNA-not-serving-up-correctly/td-p/879866
