I’m tyring to figure out exactly what the WD Live is suppose to do when I tell it to make Video/Pictures/Audio available in the Shares section.
I have a couple of media server devices, media server and bluray player, that read media server clients and make the files on those clients available to my media servers. Both devices work with other network storage devices that have media serving enabled. I can use UPNP in both media servers to “find” the files being offered up for playback by those media clients. Both media servers use UPNP to do so.
I can also use those two media servers in either simple network mode, thinking SAMBA, or in NFS mode and I can find the 2 WD Live’s I have and playback media files stored on those 2 drives. So the drives are found and accessed in non-upnp mode.
When I turn on the media serving options in the WD Lives shouldn’t their media files in Shared Video, etc., folders be seen by the UPNP media servers?
Or do the WD Lives mean something else when I enable Media in the Shares setup?
When checking the drives via Windows 7 drive properties and the UPNP tab via network devices Windows 7 reports UPNP is working. The link Windows 7 provides for the IP addresses of each device work perfectly.
The Media Sharing setup option int he Shares section is only with regard to the Twonky Media Server.
When you enable the media sharing option (whichever you choose) then that share will be indexed by Twonky and will make the files available for streaming to DLNA media clients.
Don’t use UPNP and DLNA interchangably; they’re not the same thing.
DLNA is a suite of standards which make use of the UPnP protocol.
You also appear to be reversing the term Client and Server.
The MBL is a DLNA SERVER; your Bluray player is a DLNA CLIENT (or more appropriately, a PLAYER.)
houldn’t their media files in Shared Video, etc., folders be seen by the UPNP media servers?
No, servers don’t usually care about other servers.
DIgital Media CONTROLLERS (DMCs) and Digital Media PLAYERS (DMPs) can find Digital Media SERVERS (DMSs).
Digital Media CONTROLLERS can stream media directly to Digital Media RENDERERS (DMRs)
etc.
So no matter what Twonky has to be enabled for my media player to find the video, etc., files the WD Lives make available for playback IF I use UPNP in the media player?
If by UPnP you mean DLNA, then yes.
Thanks but I asked what I meant to ask.
My media player when I select search for UPNP devices while it can find the other network storage upnp devices that I have can not find the WD Live’s video files unless I enable the Twonky application.
Regardless of what I select in the Shares media options the only way the WD Lives video files are made available to my media player, or my bluray player that can act as a media playback device for network resources, can not “see” the video files on the WD Lives. The only way the video files on the WD Lives can be “seen” when either playback device searches for UPNP available resources is to enable Twonky.
This is what it says in the help file.
Media Serving - Select None, All, or a specific media type (photos, music, videos) to limit the content type streamed from this share.
Yeah, pretty much what I said in Post 3…
I do appreciate the dialog but my question isn’t really being answered.
What does the media server option actually do in Shares? How, what protocol or method, etc., would my media players use to see the files I tell the WD Lives to Share in Shares?
I don’t need to share any media files on the WD Lives for my media players to see the video files on the WD Lives via Samba or NFS. With Media Sharing set to None both of my media players find the video files on the WD Lives just fine.
Twonky disabled by the way.
As I said above,
When you enable the media sharing option (whichever you choose) then that share will be indexed by Twonky and will make the files available for streaming to DLNA media clients.
If you mark a share as “sharing” something, but you disable Twonky, then that sharing setting has no effect.
So Media Shares tells Twonky what Twonky can make available?
Precisely. At least, in theory. :) I’ve never tried to “limit” a share to a specific type of media; when I enable media streaming, I have it set to “All.”
When I enable Twonky it makes its own folders and “shares” if you will. Why the redundancy?
I’m not sure what you mean. Twonky doesn’t create anything at all. Where are you seeing that? Can you give more detail?
If I look at the folders on the drive before and after enabling Twonky. There are folders there after that weren’t there before.
