Missing Twonky DLNA metadata?

My Cloud OS 5 Personal & Network Attached Storage My Cloud
1

MyCloud PR4100 firmware ver: 5.28.105
Twonky DLNA Server ver: 8.5.2-20210413

***PREFACE: No, I don’t want to use Plex, Emby, or any other DLNA Server. Please refrain from recommending I change servers. The desired outcome of this post is to fix not replace my Twonky DLNA server.

I am trying to figure out how Twonky builds its database, because my clients [seemingly] do not receive all of a video’s metadata from the Twonky server.

My sample.mkv video as the following subset of metadata embedded in its file (excerpted from over 45 metadata tags):

  • Title=My Sample Movie
  • SecondaryTitle=2024
  • Description=This is a sample move description used to see how much text, if any, is displayed in the Roku Media Player (RMP).
  • ReleaseDate=08/20/2024
  • Rating=PG-13
  • StarRating=90
  • UserStarRating=50
  • ShortDescriptionLine1=My Short Desc 1
  • ShortDescriptionLine2=My Short Desc 2
  • Actors=[Mom, Dad, Felix the Cat]
  • Directors=Martin Scorcese
  • Categories=[Comedy, Drama]

When I lookup/play the video served from my Windows Media Player DLNA server, I see the title, description, rating, etc. However, when I lookup/play the video in either Roku Media Player or VLC served from MyCloud’s Twonky DLNA, I see only Title and the ReleaseDate. I get no description, no rating, no genre, nothing else that I can see.

Seemingly, either:
a) Twonky does not serve this metadata to the clients.
b) Twonky is not building the database with this metadata.
c) I am missing some checkbox or other in the Twonky configuration to cause it to scan for this metadata.
d) I have the wrong/misspelled/missing embedded metadata tags for what I wish to display in the players.

I can kind of discount d) because the same exact movie is served with the metadata from the WMP DLNA server, using the same players/clients. It seems [to me] to be something to do w/ Twonky config and/or database creation. But it could be that Twonky is looking for some other tag name (e.g., “Synopsis”) to map to “Description”. I am not a video metadata guru and don’t even know if there is an ISO standard for these tag names (couldn’t find one).

I looked through all of the configuration options and did not find anything relating to metadata or config on database creation. It could be something to do with the Navigation Tree Builder, but I don’t know what that is, exactly, and the config for it doesn’t list anything under “Video” that shows “Category”, “Actor”, “Rating”, or the like.

I am not sure how/if Twonky assigns metadata to the file in its database. Can I access it to add/modify metadata? Are my tags named correctly for Twonky’s metadata dictionary/verbiage? It might very well be in the config, but I’m looking for “apple” (i.e., “metadata”) verbiage and they might have referred to it as “banana”.

I tried looking for examples of NFO files, or meta folders that Twonky might use; but I couldn’t find anything on those, either. An old post from years ago (lost the link, but Twonky version was 6.x) indicated you could set metadata via an XML config file; but it didn’t say where/how/what. The OS3 Twonky FAQ didn’t answer my question, either ('[FAQ] Twonky DLNA Media Server Setup & Use). I also looked at the Twonky forum (https://forum.twonky.com/search.php?keywords=metadata); but the newest posts are >5+ years ago (8.5.1 release) and none that I read were relevant to this issue.

If you could help me figure out why the embedded metadata displays for WMP DLNA and not Twonky, I would appreciate it.

2

@Ivan2020

I own the WDMYCLOUD single bay that this sub-forum is for. When I want to get to my Twonky I go to File Explorer>Network and click on my Media Devices, then my device. See example image below.

image

I then select what I want Twonky to look for and make available. See example image below. Click on, tap, or activate image to enlarge it.

image
image1204×661 38.5 KB

How to setup Twonky on Pro 4100, use link below.
Support Search Results | Western Digital
You need to create your topic in the sub-forum for your device.

3

There is another reason why the information may not be showing:
e) client media player doesn’t support showing certain metadata information or certain metadata tag fields from Twonky.

For example if I use the “Description” metadata tag on a video file the Roku Media Player app doesn’t pull that data from Twonky. But if I use the “Comment” metadata tag the Roku Media Player does get the “Comment” tag field information/text from Twonky. If one changes the metadata tag information they may need to remove and re-add the media file to get Twonky to properly add the updated information to it’s database.

Often it comes down to using the correct metadata tags that the media server and the media client supports. Don’t know if there is a official listing of what specific tags Twonky supports that one can use to compare against what tags the various media clients support. May come down to tag entry trial and error to find which tags the client app supports from Twonky.

4

@cat0w
Where do you suggest I move it? The categories are high-level and vague and there were not “app” or “twonky” tags to set. I have a PR4100, as indicated by its firmware version in the first line of the post.

Also, the post was not about how to find twonky configuration; you misread. It’s about setting the video metadata and/or accessing the twonky database to set it and/or how to configure it to build the database to scan for it.

5

@Bennor
That is my assumption, too; but I can find no ISO standard and Twonky’s metadata tags and for what it scans is undocumented, as far as I can tell. However, my WMP DLNA server is serving “Description” and both the RMP and VLC players see it. Whether or not Twonky serves that tag (and others) is the question/conundrum. I don’t mind duplicating a field (e.g., adding description and comment and synopsis and whatever) to achieve the goal. It seems that “Description” is universal, though, as both of my players (and laptop) display it. If Twonky uses another field, I can try it and maybe the players also look for it. If not, it’s just something I’ll live with.

I was hoping someone in this forum has played around with Twonky and metadata enough to point me to a guide or a list of Twonky’s tags to help. Twonky’s forum’s newest post on the topic is >5 years old and none of the posts [seemingly] address it.

I looked into Emby and Jellyfin to solve this and a plethora of other things I would like to have (e.g., trick play); but it looks cumbersome to install and I don’t want to brick my NAS. The newest tutorials I found were all for OS3 and from 5+ years ago.

Thanks.

6

Twonky issues are what they are. Many have issues with it as evidenced by the many posts in the subforum. Personally I moved to using Plex Media Server on another device (Raspberry Pi), using the My Cloud as just a storage repository rather than use Twonky. Had too many issues with Twonky, including lack of detailed information on tagging. Eventually opted for an entirely new NAS from another manufacturer (Synology) that can run Plex. One can enable the DNLA option within Plex if they want a DLNA server. YMMV

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@Bennor
Thanks. I thought about a similar setup. I have an old workstation that could probably act as a Jellyfin/Emby DLNA server, pointing to my WD NAS for the files. I used to use Plex years ago, but there were UI issues with the player (on both Roku and Firestick), wouldn’t let the NAS sleep due to constantly phoning home, etc. Maybe all of those have been resolved.

I appreciate your help. I am probably going to “live with it”. If so, I’ll mark your response as solution. It just shouldn’t be this hard to find information on a server, you know? :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye: