Newbie Needing Help with Installation (1 Viewer)

[Optronical]

Hi All,

After two failed attempts at setting up a PC as a media centre with Media Portal in the bedroom I thought I'd come and ask for a wee bit of help.

Currently I use a NAS, WD TV Live which are wired to the router in the living room. Since my laptop is now my number cruncher I wanted to set up my desktop as a media centre in the bedroom. I am not interested in TV Access at all as I refuse to pay TV License in the UK.

The bedroom PC will be connected through wireless as I have a great signal to the bedroom.

What I want to do is use this PC to access my NAS in the livingroom (where I store all my movies, photos, music, etc). On the PC I currently have Windows 7 installed.

I've followed the tutorials tried to configure it and it has accessed a few films (20) but not the 379 I have currently have on my NAS and it hasn't collected any music at all.

I do have a TV card in the PC which I will probably only use so I can use the remote control that comes with it. Failing that I will use my Android phone (Sensation) with AMPDriod as a remote.

I am very technically minded (Jeez I'm an Electronic Design Engineer) and build PC's since the early days. However, setting this up is becoming a nightmare.

As a test I used iBrickTunes and WMC to see if I can access the media on the NAS and I can but MP just won't.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

James

 

[mbuzina]

Hi James, you would need to describe a bit more detailed what you did and what did not work.

Please provide logs for your issues (see my footer on how to do that)

 

[JimCatMP]

I've followed the tutorials tried to configure it and it has accessed a few films (20) but not the 379 I have currently have on my NAS and it hasn't collected any music at all.

Hi.

While collecting logs, couple of questions which hopefully the answers will assist.

1) The 20 films you can access, are they in the same path as the reset?

Example - My setup.
Path Mount (in MePo)
\\BNAS\Disk_2\Entertainment\Films\Adventure Adventure
\\BNAS\Disk_2|Entertainment\Files\Classics Classics

Because I like subcategories based on where files live, I have multiple 'mount points' (then use categories in MovingPictures).

2) As the extensions of the films you can't access the same as those you can - as I recall, .m4v is NOT standard extension for example, so I 'lost' some files until I spotted that.

3) While logs will show what plugins your using, how are you accessing music - as shares (so simple files) or via DB (and if so, have you imported them into DB).

MePo can take a bit of getting used too, but very much worth the effort, and plenty of helpful advise in the Forums - you have not uncommon setup so no good reason for you not to the get best from it.

TTFN - JCMP

 

[Optronical]

mbuzina, I'll need to get back to you with logs as I've completely wiped all user data (when uninstalled) and I have just dismantled the machine to get all the dust out my fans and to fit a new power supply. So once I've put it back together I'll install and try again. I'm going to do a fresh install of Windows 7 (unless XP Pro is better as I've read that on the forum somewhere...more stable?)

However, I installed MP and the Configuration tool and used that to Set up where my folders are stored. Ahh there's no point explaining this just now as I cannot remember every single Configuration I set up. What I did notice though is that when I went back into the Config Tool the NAS location had disappeared and the standards windows/videos location was set as default.

As I said, I'll get this machine back up and running shortly with a clean install of (what is the best OS to use? XP, 7, 8?)

@JimCatMP

My answers to your questions are:

1) My file structure on the NAS is set up for the WD TV Live so I have (for example)

"//NAS/Public/Movies/Action/filmname.extension"
"//NAS/Public/Movies/Animation/filmname.extension"
etc etc

They way mine is set up looks identical to yours.

I should also say that the 20 movies it did find were from different Genre categories. So it didn't just pick all those from 'Animation'.

What I have just realised though is I set the path in MP Config to "//NAS/Public/Movies". Would this cause issues if I don't specify each Genre folder?


2) That's a good point. The WD TV Live can play just about anything but the vast majority of my movies are .avi's, .mkv, .mp4 etc. I've just done a search of my Movie folder and I only have 8 (eight) .m4v files. I may have some .flv too but the vast majority are compatible files.

3) The DB kinda confused me a bit so I didn't set a DB up. I tried to access them the same as my movies. Again, they have the file structure:

"//NAS/Public/Music/Band Name Folder/Album folder/songname.extension"


Sorry I can't provide logs at present but thanks for your replies.

 

[JimCatMP]

Ok, good luck on rebuild and would suggest Win 7 - most people on Forum seems to agree, 1.3RC is perfectly at home on 7.

Setup - when you've reinstalled, in Config in General Tab, select log Verbosity to Debug.

I'm assuming you have selected 'expert mode' for config - to be honest, I think that's 'must have' mode, day to day


Your video layout, yep, very much the same as mine and many others, so no problems expected there*

Using //NAS/Public/Movies as 'mount' is fine - it's just a bunch of subdirectories anyway (my Adventure folder has 100+ .avi etc etc + 10 folders for film series (007 from Bond, etc etc). Ordering & layout you can address later, both Films & TV Series (if you have any), let's get them listed 1st

In the Config, in Videos tab, expand the selection and you'll find extensions config - it's just a list, from examples above you should already have them all in place, but worth a check - just in case, do same check in Music, just in case you.

In Video Folders section, set default layout to LIST for each folder, do same in Music when you config it.

Now, from Win 7 Start, select Team MediaPortal from all progs, open the Mediaportal tab and select Media-PortalDEbug mode - this will dump logs.

In operation, when you select Videos, you'll see list of folders or shares, dip into one and hopefully you will now see list of films - if not, make a note of what you do see - try same with Music.

Fingers crossed, your clean build and suggestions above will move you on, if not, post logs and notes.

TTFN - JCMP.

*MePo will run under a specific user ID (I've created 'player' ID for mine) - does that ID have relevant access rights to directory structure and files on the NAS (sort of silly thing that trips people [me] up).

 

[Optronical]

@JimCatMP

Thanks for your info above. I did what you instructed whilst removing the default locations and I can access all films (which happen to be in their respective folders).

Yes the NAS has a user account to be able to access everything from the public folders.

Right, on to installing a better skin and getting aMPdroid up and running.

In your very first comment here you say "Because I like subcategories based on where files live, I have multiple 'mount points' (then use categories in MovingPictures)." Can you explain this a little or point me in a direction where I can find more info on what this exactly means?

Thanks again.

 

[JimCatMP]

Good stuff. Skin - very much a personal choice, I like Frames (which has 1.3RC version) with a few local tweaks to image files to make it more personal (which includes embarrassing my son in the process.

Films & subcategories - 1st step, install MovingPictures and set it up - you just point it at the shares really, generally the defaults are extremely reliable.

I'll post more later, with a few screen grabs, but basically, I use the 'Define Movie Category' in GUI Interface Tab of MovingPictures using path & file names, so I can have a 007 category in Adventure files based on their path - put file in right directory, then on import it's in right category.

TTFN - JCMP

 

[Optronical]

Thanks Jim, I'll come back to this...I'm having a bit of a nightmare with aMPdroid!

 

[JimCatMP]

Not used aMPDroid, so if you've not already had a look, https://forum.team-mediaportal.com/forums/ampdroid.546/ worth a check out and if you can't find anything to match, post your issues and fingers crossed.

Cheers JCMP

 

[Optronical]

Got it working .

Now on to Movingpictures.... Here we go again!