MyCloud user Interface for Samsung TV

My Cloud OS 3 Personal & Network Attached Storage My Cloud
1

I just bought a MyCloud 4Tb to replace my WDTVLiveHub. I have a new Samsung TV. I’m trying to figure out how to get a decent user interface. The WDTVLiveHub had one that wasn’t great, but the MyCloud doesn’t have one at all? What’s the best way of doing this? I can DLNA stream from the MyCloud o the TV but I really need something that compiles a media library of photos, videos, music, and movies etc. I have an Amazon Firestick connected to the TV.

I played around with Plex last night but couldn’t get it to work, I think it’s not compatible with the MyCloud 4Tb?

Anyone got any decent suggestions that are not too cumbersome of hard to implement?

Thanks,

David

2

The My Cloud’s embedded media server (Twonky) is a basic media sever. It is NOT like Plex media server/client or the Kodi client. You can use the forum search feature, magnifying glass icon upper right, to find past discussions on how to try and add Plex to either the first gen or second gen single bay My Cloud units. The multi bay My Cloud units that support third party apps generally have Plex add on module support.

https://community.wd.com/t/new-release-plex-media-server-version-1-7-2-06-13-17/208577

Or one can setup Kodi on a Kodi supported media device that is connected to their TV.

Generally the My Cloud relies on the device client (in your case your Samsung TV) to display the content on the TV. One should check to see if there TV or device supports a different DLNA media client that can be installed to the device.

You may also want to see the other recent thread discussing Samsung TV"s and the My Cloud as it may be relevant.

https://community.wd.com/t/wd-my-cloud-4tb-with-samsung-smart-tv/208661/

It is also advisable to read through the following discussion to get the most out of the Twonky media server embedded within the My Cloud.

https://community.wd.com/t/faq-twonky-dlna-media-server-setup-use/95373

1 Like
3

Hi, Thanks.

I did a bit of research on here and it seems the MyCloud processor can’t handle Plex. I was hoping to avoid Kodi as that isn’t native to Samsung, so I would have to access it via the Firestick.

I wonder if there is any other native Samsung App that will work as a media library?

4

The low end My Cloud units can handle Plex in general, where they struggle is with the “transcoding” aspect. If all your media is in a streaming client supported format the Plex media server does not have to perform transcoding. As such that limitation isn’t much of an issue.

https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/articles/201373823-NAS-Devices-and-Limitations

Plex NAS Compatibility Guide:
https://docs.google.com/a/plexapp.com/spreadsheets/d/1MfYoJkiwSqCXg8cm5-Ac4oOLPRtCkgUxU0jdj3tmMPc/

See the following past discussions on installing Plex to first gen and second gen single bay/single drive My Cloud devices:

https://community.wd.com/t/wd-mycloud-gen2-enable-apps-install-tab-apps/177885/

https://community.wd.com/t/using-plex-media-server-with-my-cloud/94429/

Another option is to have a secondary device/computer running a Plex media server. Its what I did for a while before using the My Cloud. With the My Cloud one can configure the Plex media server to use the My Cloud as its media library. Down side is one would have another device running rather than having the Plex media server hosted on the My Cloud.

2 Likes
5

I wish WD had made these limitations clearer, their online blurb implies the unit runs apps. I don’t really want to do modifications or fudge it to get it to run apps. Looks like I need a more expensive RAID system. - Your idea of a separate media server - I guess I could install Plex on the Firestick and point it at the MyCloud without using Kodi?

If I bought e.g a mirror drive can I do things like back up from one external nas to the WD mirror nas on the same Ethernet network without leaving a computer connected, using a server app? e.g. do a background backup of all my WDTV files to the RAID? Set it going on a tablet and then remove the tablet and leave it chugging away in the background for however many days it takes?

Or is it best to go down the even more expensive Synology route and forget WD altogether?

I also want to have an Android app that interfaces with both the cloud server and Whatsapp - actually downloads and embeds the picture and not just sends a link to the cloud location.

So many questions. Sorry.

1 Like
6

The Twonky DLNA Media Server (which is a Digital Media Server, or DMS) provides a DLNA media library; you point Twonky at your media directories on the MyCloud, and it goes off and creates a library of music, pictures and video, using various bits of metadata in your media files.

Your TV will need a DLNA Digital Media client, which combines the functions of Digital Media Controller and Digital Media Renderer. I’m sure there will be a DLNA client on the Samsung smart TV. It just may not be very good, either in basic function, or in the user interface experience…

Your WDTVLiveHub was a media server/player. The MyCloud is not; it is merely a NAS, and has no media-playing facilities built in. So, you will need a media player client, as above.

Your Amazon Fire Stick should be able to run Kodi, and access the MyCloud via SMB (rather than DLNA, which Kodi will also support, along with a number of other network protocols). Kodi will then index your media directories via SMB, and create a media library. I use this approach for videos, using an Android media box running Kodi, accessing via SMB.

SMB is a better access method for Kodi, since it allows Kodi to create its own media library, rather than the one provided by Twonky. It can therefore use various scrapers to identify films, TV programmes and music, and provide nice artwork to give a prettier user interface; Twonky has to rely on metadata and artwork embedded in the files, or in the media folders (e.g. CD artwork).

Plex requires a Plex server to run on your media storage device (MyCloud in this case), or on some other computing device that has access to the MyCloud media store, and a Plex client running on some renderer device. In this respect, it works similarly to DLNA.

If I were you, I’d go FireStick/Kodi, as I really don’t think there’s much difference between Kodi and Plex. Or buy one of the thousands of cheap, generic Android media boxes that are available for $30 or so.

n.b. you may see negative press associating Kodi with illegal streaming; that’s nothing to do with the basic Kodi function, but is all to do with add-ons that Kodi supports. You have no obligation to use these add-ons, and they are not provided as part of the basic Kodi installation.

1 Like
7

Thanks Guys I will try that this weekend.

I think I can install a Twonky server on the Samsung TV, I’ll see how clunky that is first. If no good than something via the Firestick, maybe Kodi, but I know the wife will hate all the navigation. She always gets me to operate Kodi.

I am trying out some Android cloud media players. Any recommendations? CloudPlayer by doubleTwist?

8

Look up http://www.mediamonkey.com/ , there is an android version too that works for me.

9

You can’t install a Twonky server on the TV. The server is the thing that creates the library, and serves media to clients. You may be able to install a DLNA client on the Samsung TV, which can access the Twonky DLNA media server on the MyCloud.

I’m afraid navigation is likely to be a problem whatever client you use, if you have to navigate down a media hierarchy.

Having tried out a number of Android media players, I settled on BubbleUPnP, as have a number of my colleagues (we’re either electronic or software engineers). Whilst I am a big fan of MediaMonkey on the PC, used as a media manager, I’ve never been particularly impressed by the Android version. One advantage of BubbleUPnP is that Nazar78 has built the BubbleUPnP proxy server to run on the MyCloud (Gen1), that allows BubbleUPnP to access your media library remotely; it appears in Bubble as just another library it can play from… You need a decent uplink data rate on your internet connection, and a similar downlink rate at the remote player.

1 Like
10

I notice my Samsung TV now has a Plex app. I downloaded it and signed in. I could see my stuff on the NAS. I could play it. Then it stopped. Buffer, play stop. Every few seconds.

I’ve concluded that streaming directly from MyCloud isn’t going to happen. It’s never going to be a media server. I have to treat it as a simple NAS storage drive.

Even the MyCloud Windows www interface doesn’t work properly. I logged into MyCloud on my work pc (windows 7, Internet Explorer 11), accessed where I store my music. I can see about 20 artist folders, a fraction of what is actually on my server. I know they are there because I can access them using MyCloud on My Android phone.

footnote: seems to work better with Chrome.

11

Generally the Plex apps/clients, while most may be able to access DLNA media servers like the My Cloud, are typically designed to work specifically with a Plex Media Server. If you are experiencing buffering that often is an indication of a poor network connection especially if using a wireless network connection to the media server.

If you use the forum search feature, magnifying glass icon upper right, and do a search for “Samsung” you will find numerous past discussions where others have had trouble with the Samsung TV DLNA client.

Sadly on some of the “smart devices” (TV, DVD/Blue Ray devices) the manufacturers have implemented very poor DLNA media clients which have trouble streaming media from the My Cloud and similar media servers. It also doesn’t help that the My Cloud’s Twonky media server is a several years out of date version (and even then a beta version if I remember right), and cannot be freely/easily updated by the end user. One can use the forum search feature to find past discussions on how to use SSH to hack the My Cloud firmware (both gen 1 and gen 2 versions) to update the Twonky media server or to install alternative media servers. This however is not supported by WD and doing so may void the My Cloud warranty and or if done improperly may brick/render unusable the My Cloud device.

12

Sky decided to remove all but two Ethernet ports from their Router, so the only things hard wired to it are my NAS drives.

My Sky Q box has no problem streaming Sky HD content from my Sky Q router though, so I doubt it’s to do with network speed.

Might work better if WD had fitted an HDMI port.

13

What sort of media are you trying to play? 4K video? You shouldn’t have any trouble streaming 1080p video over wifi; I do it without problem using wifi-n. But then I’m not using a Samsung TV to play it, or Plex; as above, I’m using Kodi, accessing MyCloud using SMB over WiFi, running on a cheap Android media box (which is now a few years old, and based on a Rockchip RK3188 processor). Since Kodi plays .ts video formats natively, I don’t need to do any transcoding; that’s another possibility why you are having buffering problems.

The MyCloud seems to work fine as a media server for me, for music and video.

Are you accessing local to your network, or remotely? If local, you should not be using the ‘www interface’, you should be mapping the media share into Windows’ file system, and using it like any other attached drive.

What for?

The MyCloud is simply a NAS, running a media server; it is not a media player. It’s not a direct replacement for your WDTVLiveHub.

14

The problem isn’t with streaming content from the internet to your Sky Q box. The problem is streaming content on your local network from the My Cloud TO the Samsung TV. How is the My Cloud connected to the local network? Is it connecting at Gigabit speed? How is the TV connected to the local network, using Ethernet or using WiFI? If Ethernet is it Gigabit Ethernet or 10/100 MB Ethernet?

Uh why??? The My Cloud is a network attached storage device NOT a media streaming client. It is NOT a WD Live device or similar that has the capability to be connected to a TV to act as a media client to stream media to the TV. The My Cloud has a very basic media server embedded in it. It relies on OTHER devices to perform the media streaming from it.

What is the network configuration? What is connected to what? By what type of connection, wired or WiFi? At what speed? What media are you trying to stream where the TV is having trouble? Is it 4K or similar high bit rate media? Have you tried using a cheap Gigabit network switch to connect the TV and My Cloud to the rest of the local network?

Like said before Samsung TV embedded DLNA client has problems with the My Cloud for what ever reason. Some people have resorted to dumping the embedded Samsung TV DLNA client and using a separate device (Kodi, Roku, AppleTV, etc.) to stream content from the My Cloud to their Samsung TV. Others have resorted to connecting a USB hard drive or flash drive to their smart TV if that TV supports such an option to stream media. And before you ask NO you cannot connect the My Cloud’s USB port to a computer/TV’s USB port and expect the My Cloud to work like an external USB hard drive.

1 Like