Update twonkyserver

TheEdge wrote:

To Gordon.Gartrelle

 

After the update (thanks by the way for figuring out how to do it), how does it work if you want to get the licence for the 6.0.32 Twonky? Is there simply a licencing option on the Twonky UI or do you have do a new installation? I haven’t done the update yet but will probably do it if the licencing is easy.

 

Cheers,

 

Another disappointed WD customer who found out the MKV-streaming is not working and that WD couldn’t care less.

There’s a license option in the UI.  Just go here to purchase a license:

http://www.twonky.com/store/index.aspx

And then enter the registration key they will provide you (probably via e-mail) using the TwonkyMedia Server config page:

http://<your_ip>:9000/config

I haven’t done this step yet, as I am waiting for my 30-day trial to expire…

Alias: Gordon.Gartrelle

Not sure what I am doing wrong here. I was trying to do the update as per instructions, but after restarting the Twonky the version shows the same old 5.1.9. If I reboot the MBL after this the Twonky won’t work at all. To get it back working I need to set the twonky_dir=/usr/local/twonkymedia-6.0.32 back to twonky_dir=/usr/local/twonkymedia-5. Couple notes:

  • How do you restart the Twonky from SCP? I couldn’t find any restart in /etc/init.d/ directory so I restarted via Twonky UI.
  • Is it crucial to unpack the twonkymedia-powerpc-glibc-2.2.5-6.0.32 directly to the root folder or can you just unpack it to your desktop and copy the files from there?

I’d appreciate any help you can provide.

Hi all…

I’ve never put my hands on any version of linux. Never done a command :x

So… Is it possible to create a clone from my wd system to a virtual machine so i can test the upgrade?

Thanks

Just to add to my previous message. After doing the update as ggartrelle advised, the Twonky won’t start at all after restarting it from MBL UI or by rebooting the drive. If the restart is done by using “restart server” button on Twonky UI (if the server is already running), it seems to restart the server but no changes are done i.e. the version remains the same 5.1.9.

I also tried changing the /usr/local/sbin/writeTwonkyContentDir.sh to /usr/local/sbin/writeTwonkyContentDir.sh.old as adviced here:

http://mybookworld.wikidot.com/forum/t-305396/upgrading-twonky

But this either doesn’t make any difference. The Twonky 6.0.32 won’t start when the server is restarted. Re-editing the twonky_dir=/usr/local/twonkymedia-6.0.32 in share-param.sh back to twonky_dir=/usr/local/twonkymedia-5 and restarting the server brings the Twonky back alive.

Any ideas? Would really like to get this working…

UPDATE!

I think I just realized where the problem is. I might have copied the share-param.sh to share-param.sh.orig, not to share-param.orig as advised (really need to get a pair of new eyes). I will check this when back home.

Ok got it working now. The problem was that I hadn’t updated the file rights.

But anyway, mkv-streaming is still not working.  My Samsung TV just says “video codec not supported”. Yet I can perfectly stream mkv wirelessly from my laptop and play mkv via USB.

Disappointed.

can you please  tell something more about the ‘updating the file rights’? I had the same problem - twonky doesn’t start

update: finally it’s running

■■■■! now my philips tv can see the twonky again but all the videos are marked with “X” and are impossible to play except vmw’s!!!  what’s wrong with this thing?!  

I pulled this from their site, gotta love it! :slight_smile:

As a service to our customers, we have older versions of TwonkyServer (previously known as TwonkyMedia server) available for download or purchase. Before purchasing or downloading these versions, you should be aware of three things:

  1. All support* for TwonkyServer 4.4.X and 5.1.X is provided by other Twonky users on our online forum. Please do not e-mail us with questions on these older versions.
  2. We are no longer fixing bugs reported by consumers using these older releases. In most cases, this is not a problem because the 4.4 release is very mature.
  3. Your license will work with our latest version, TwonkyServer 6.0, which we do support.

Hi all.

I’m another disappointed WD customer -tired after dozens of emails and changing lots of things, with no effective answers from Twonky or WD-. I can’t stream my videos on my Sony KDL-40EX700 using my NAS My Book World. After several emails to Sony and WD, I’ve realized that the solution is to upgrade to Twonky 6.0. I’ve installed a PS3 Media Server in my PC and I can stream perfectly almost all my videos from the NAS to the Sony TV. So, no Sony fault and WD/Twonky fault. We need the Twonky 6.0.

Please WD, pimp our NAS!!! -joking-

I partially agree, but recently, only after two days of ownership encountered a bug with Tronky 5.1.9 where the database somehow self-corrupted and Twonky Media Server refused to start.  WD’s first level support would be to factory reset the drive which is utterly crazy when all it required was to manually erase two files under Linux’s bash shell.

What I found out throws back at you the statement “For the most part it is been reliable and bug free”.

I am not such a guru at this but would it not be easy to have Twonky 6 in there but have additional options in a future firmware update that would allow a factory reset of individual software components within the NAS?  For example, say I decided to do something stupid under the root shell under a twonkymedia folder that renders it totally broken for some script to remove the installed twonky media server and reinstalled it as if from factory WITHOUT resetting or formatting anything else. Same with the iTunes server, the Samba server, etc…  It’s not rocket science.

In a matter of fact I’ve used the SSH access to Linux to tale a copy of every configuration file I can find so if something screws up a configuration file the I can, at least, manually copy back a previous valid configuration file hence no need for me to unnecessarily format the entire drive.

This is all simple common sense and it seems mad that the only opton available is to do a full format or a quick format.  Just makes no common sense at all.

I’ve replaced a Lacie NAS because the WD NAS allows Linux root access so I can at least fix problems. I personally have no desire to install any additional software on it. The Lacie has a simple factory restore that was 100% effective and DID NOT lose any files.  Why can’t Western Digital do the same?

WDTony wrote:

I wouldn’t characterize us that way. You are “assuming” many things when you make comments like that.We did an extensive evaluation and testing of twonky. Decisions were made that it was too unstable and had way too many issues to ship in a consumer product.

 

In fact, we will have a firmware update in the next quarter that will have some exciting features…

I would temper your criticism a bit going forward.

 

Tony

 

Edit - I wanted to add some color to this thread for you all:

The misconception in this case is twofold:  1. It is very easy to change the firmwareon the units.  2. Because changing the firmware is so easy then WD isn’t changing it because they don’t care.

 

I am not sure you understand how difficult it is to release software. Moving to a major release like twonky 6 (assuming it even passed our tests) requires quite a bit of effort -including certification testing (DLNA, Microsoft, etc.) , system testing, and compatibility testing in order to have the highest quality release.

 

Are we happy with Twonky 5? For the most part it is been reliable and bug free. There are always newer software stacks and services that we are looking at for this as well as future products. We definitely are looking at these moving forward.

 

One last point, we do not endorse nor will we support user modified changes to our product. You are on your own if you go and make changes like this to your My Book Live and most likely you will void your warranty.

Did you try the Rebuild option under the Media settings for Twonky?

Which two files are you referring to?

Also, one other question? Did you turn Logging on via the twonky interface? If so, can you turn it off and see if that helps? We have seen issues where with logging enabled, it can fill up the ramdisk  leading to potential issues.

Just a bit of information. Been in touch with Twonky technical support have told me that the Twonky builds for NAS drives are ONLY comunity supported and that usually for NAS drives it’s a special build.

Hi, I don’t think your statement is correct. I updated to 6.0, but it is still evaluation status.

I have no way to know 5.0 license key and continue to use it for 6.0. Did you verify this?

our license will work with our latest version, TwonkyServer 6.0, which we do support.

Hi all,

Last week I purchased the My Book Live (3TB) with the main purpose for streaming HD videos to my Samsung UE32C6730 LED TV (with build-in media player).

Before, I have streamed videos over the network from my desktop PC with the Samsung PC Share Manager software and this worked great (.mkv files with D.D.5.1 or DTS sound and .srt subtiles). But eventually the HDD of my desktop PC became full and I needed another HDD. So I bought the MBL because of its network/streaming capabilities. Ideal at the first sight; streaming (as WD promises >) supported MKV videos without the need of having turned on my PC.

But what a bump. My Samsung TV does recognize the MBL, and plays music and pictures smoothly (also shows thumbnails) but it doesn’t play any MKV video file (and it doesn’t show video thumbnails)! Besides, the navigation/menu structure is way to complex on my TV now (everything was fine with Samsung PC Share Manager).

Luckely I soon found out that the problem is Twonky 5, and most problems for Samsung TV’s have been fixed in Twonky 6. According to this Twonkyforum topic even subtitles (.srt) and video thumbnails do work now, and they have fixed the navigation.

Conclusion: everything looks great about Twonky 6, so why doesn’t WD implementate it TODAY??

Markvm wrote:

 

Everything looks great about Twonky 6, so why doesn’t WD implementate it TODAY??

Contrary to what a lot of people believe, WD does NOT get to put whatever version of Twonky on these boxes that they want to.

Twonky only allows certain versions to be integrated into hardware platforms.  

And whatever versions are available, WD has to pay a licence for them.   And those licenses do NOT allow for at-will upgrades; WD would have to pay for any new versions.

So, it’s an economic decision, and a limitation based on what Twonky allows to be installed.

Clear explanation and I do understand this completely.

But on the other hand, in the MBL owner’s manual is decribed on page 102 under supported mediatypes that MKV is supported (if the device where the media is streamed to also supports this mediatype).

Unfortunately, after I bought the product, I found out that this is a promise they can’t make true (at least until now). That disappoints me despite all my trust in WD for years. Now the only thing I can do is wait for a firmware that includes Twonky 6 or upgrade to Twonky 6 myself and pay for a license :cry: Waiting for a new firmware is not really an option because you never know IF and WHEN WD will implement Twonky 6 in order to fix all the compatibility issues with my Samsung HD TV, so that I can finally enjoy the full potential of my My Book Live!

Yup… But in my case, the MyBook Live streams MKVs just fine to all of my devices; four set top boxes, one bluray player, my iPad and iPod…

It’s just the nature of the beast…

You might just investigate if a different MIME definition in the twonky clients.db would fix the issue…

It is very good to hear that everything is working fine for you Tony. MKVs stream well and all, and to all your media players as well. Good for you man. I guess that’s all that matters and not the fact that for 99% of WD customers things are not working as they should.

I understand the complexities related to updating Twonky and that’s fine. If it’s not possible then that’s it and I’m fine with it. But what makes me sad is that there are people like you defending MyBook and saying there’s nothing wrong with the Twonky in it, even when the Twonky developers themselves have acknowledged the problems in this version related to MKV streaming to many DLNA capable TVs. They have even fixed the problem in the latest Twonky version. Whether the problem comes down to MIME definitons or not is irrelevant, the fact is that the problem is in the old Twonky and this Twonky happens to be in MyBook Live.

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Edge:   Please, do not put words in my mouth.  

I never said there wasn’t a problem with Twonky.   I was arguing the fact that the poster said it doesn’t work with MKV at all.   That’s simply not true.

You, yourself, in a prior thread remarked that MKV doesn’t work with anything on the MB:

TheEdge wrote:

 What confuses me is that you can’t stream mkv to Media player with MBL and Twonky 5.xx, but  you can stream mkv to the same Media player with Twonky 6.xx . I do not know how to put it any simpler than this.

So in a fashion, I’m arguing, too, that accuracy of that statement.

99% of people have problems?   That’s gross hyperbole.  I would doubt even 5% of people have problems with it.  But since neither of us have any real statistics to go by, it’s a moot point.

Does Twonky have issues?   Sure.   But I’ve already explained why it’s doubtful you’ll ever see WD upgrade Twonky.   

 Whether the problem comes down to MIME definitons or not is irrelevant.

No, it’s *not* irrelevant.

People with this issue have one of four choices:

1>  If it’s a mime type or profile issue (like several file types on PS3s) one can simply edit the clients.db file in Twonky and be working in about 2 minutes.

2>  They can install their own version of Twonky on the MBL in about an hour.  But you said that it doesn’t work for you even if you do that, so I count that solution as dubious from the start.

3>  They can return the MBL and get their money back.

4>  They can sit and hold their breath until they turn blue.

It surprises the heck out of me how many people opt for #4.

The fact that Twonky has “fixed” it in later versions actually doesn’t mean that the fault was Twonky’s to begin with.   They may have simply added a workaround for Samsung due to an issue with Samsung’s protocol handling.

In my sentence you quoted, I’m stating that MKV streaming doesn’t work using Twonky 5.xx, but it DOES work using Twonky 6.xx. I think this is in line what I have been saying.

Comments to your points (1-4):

  1. Most of the people buying MyBook do not have the knoweledge or courage, and thus option to go and edit clients.db file.

  2. Same as above for manually istalling different Twonky to MyBook. And people have managed to get MKV streaming to work with manual update to 6.xx.

  3. So easy when it’s still packed and empty of data.

  4. See 1 to 3

Samsung happens to be the worlds largest and leading TV manufacturer. Would be suicidal for Twonky not add a workaround to this known issue with their TVs. Too bad WD doesn’t see the connection here.

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