Media Scanning advice please

sijones · October 15, 2015, 2:12am

I just bought a WD TV Live, and it’s working quite well so far. I need to decide whether to keep it, within the next couple of days.

I only have one problem, which is a deal-breaker right now.

My videos are kept on a server network share, added to the WD TV with the media library manager. But the server is not turned on all the time. It hibernates when it is not needed.

If the WD TV Live does a scan when the server is hibernating, of course it finds there are no files. Next time I use the WD TV it tells me that the video folders have been removed from the library. I can fix this by going to ‘settings’ and manually rescanning the folders when the server is awake, but it’s not a good solution. I don’t want to teach the whole family this process, just so they can see their videos.

Is there any way to specify when the WD TV scans? So I can set a time when the server is usually awake.
Or to make it only scan when I tell it manually? I will do this after I have added new videos to the server.

The PDF manual gives no real information on this. Thankyou for any help you can give,

S

TonyPh12345 · October 15, 2015, 4:40am

I don’t that it has to do with when it does its scan or not.

You can change the interval via the setup menus (can’t remember where off the top of my head.)

But I think it has more to do with the fact that it loses its connection to the server completely when the server goes away – it tries reconnecting for a period of time, and then gives up.

sijones · October 15, 2015, 4:40am

Hi Tony - thanks for that info. (Also, thanks whoever moved this post - I didn’t realise my WDTV was known as a ‘Live SMP’, so I’d put my post in the wrong place…)

So it sounds like this is a generic problem of using the Media Library? For instance, if I were keeping my videos on an ordinary home computer, you’d expect there would be some time when the computer was switched off (but the WDTV was on standby, therefore potentially trying to scan the library)?

It’s unfortunate that the manual gives so little information on these settings.

Really I would have preferred to simply add my server Network Share, but I found that when I did that a load of irrelevant folders showed up, which I didn’t want. I want to keep the interface as simple as possible for my kids (and wife!). When I add the Network Share it includes the ‘Pictures’ and ‘Music’ folders in the ‘Videos’ area of the WDTV, which is annoying and confusing for the user.