Question About The Thumbnails for Media Library

Hi all. A new owner of the WD TV Live Gen 3 and I can’t believe I waited this long. I remember looking at the Live Plus a few years ago, but didn’t pull the trigger then. Glad I did now…

Anyway, my question is related to the Media Library.  I have an HTC PC that I installed the Samsung Media Share (basically makes your PC a DLNA server).  I originally got this because of my Samsung HDTV and that’s how I stream all my shows to the TV.  Because of this, I never had a reason to share my files via the traditional method of a network share.

Since I have another HDTV that I want to stream my DLNA content to, this is one of the reasons I bought the WD TV Live. Now since I have the WD TV Live, it easily sees my HTPC and connects/plays everything fine via DLNA.  But as I was browsing these forums, I saw that if you ‘network share’ the files, the WD TV Live will upload these movie poster thumbnails to each individual directory.  I’m assuming it’s grabbing these from the “Meta-Source Manager” setting from TMDB. A good example of this is the following thread [  http://community.wdc.com/t5/WD-TV-Live-Streaming-Discussions/Beginner-s-Guide-to-Streaming-Movies-on-WDTV-Live/td-p/539244 ]

I really like that look/appearance.  Is this possible via DLNA as well (even if I manually upload the thumbnails & meta-source XMLs) or do I have to do the Network Share method to get this view?

Thanks in advance.

You can create moviesheets using ThumbGen that stores the info, thumbs, etc. within the folder the movie is stored in. You can also just forget about running a DLNA server and use Windows shared. If you share your folder from Windows over your network for read/write and everyone has access to it then the WD will write the movie info content to the directory of the movie for you.

Thanks  drhoads. Simply put, the only reason I need (subjective) to keep using the DLNA Server is because the Samsung TV I have upstairs is the only device I have in that room capable of playing my HTPC content.  The HTPC isn’t in the same room and therefore I don’t have a way to play anything from my HT PC with the exception of DLNA.

I suppose I could get another WD TV Live, but I can’t do it at this moment (prioritizing my cash).

Thanks for the quick response.  I supposed I’ll gradually wean off the DLNA, but I’ve been happy with it for the most part.  I was just curious if the metadata & thumbnails were available via DLNA.

Since we’re on the same page, got a quick question about the metadata.

Technically if I use ThumGen to create the info (XML) and thumbs, I can manually drop everything in their respective folders, correct and have it display properly?  I saw that people who were using the automated process via the WD TV Live device were having issues due to improper names of their files when the WDTV Live cross references the file names to what’s on TMDB.

The reason I bring it up is because it would be an EXTREME PITA to rename all my files. 

Faluzure wrote:

 

I suppose I could get another WD TV Live, but I can’t do it at this moment (prioritizing my cash).

 

If you watch Amazon, you can pick the WD Live SMP up for around $85.00. It depends on supply and demand and who’s selling them through Amazon. The price goes from $85 to $120 within a week sometimes. I bought two of them for $86.00 ea.

I noticed that… I thought I was imaginging things until I saw people mention it in another forum.  When I initially looked at WD Live SMP (which is what I have, I thought it was named WD TV Live Gen 3), it was around that price range.  

I originally had the NeoTV 300 (got it for Christmas, don’t ask) but ended up buying the WD Live SMP from Best Buy yesterday. Unfortunately Best Buy is the only place that has it for the cheapest as of today ($99.99).

I’m a frequent shopper of Amazon and thought the price hike was due to another model coming out or something.  The current WD Live SMP was released in 2011 and with the recent release of the WD Live Play (the cheap version), I thought maybe WD was doing a hardware refresh.  Of course I couldn’t wait…

Go find a program named filebot to help with renaming files.

How does the WDLTVS create the thumbgens?

Well I’d rather not rename my files, but your suggest might be helpful to someone else.  Looking at ThumbGen, that’s likely my best bet.

From what I understand, the WDLTV generates them if you have the setting for Meta-Source Manager on & allow it to auto update.  But I could be wrong.  ThumbGen looks like the better way.

Faluzure wrote:

Well I’d rather not rename my files, but your suggest might be helpful to someone else.  Looking at ThumbGen, that’s likely my best bet.

 

From what I understand, the WDLTV generates them if you have the setting for Meta-Source Manager on & allow it to auto update.  But I could be wrong.  ThumbGen looks like the better way.

One thing to know about ThumbGen is you need a Theme that works with the profile (moviesheet templete) that ThumbGen uses (or put another way, a profile (moviesheet templete) that works with your theme).

That’s a another learning curve for you to read up on.

I ended up with Darklight for SMP theme.

Start here:

http://community.wdc.com/t5/WD-TV-Live-Streaming-Discussions/Darklight-for-SMP-Beta-UPDATED-9-10-2012/td-p/407350

Read the whole thread before attempting.

You upload themes using your browser.

You need to find the IP address for you device.

You need to configure ThumbGen for this theme.

Not all themes (very few) work with your device (SMP).

You need to clear out all of the WD content info that it already created and start fresh.

I have spent over a week so far learning this stuff. Very frustrating.

Wow that helps a ton.  Thanks  drhoads!!