steelman1991 19 Posted December 9, 2014 Share Posted December 9, 2014 Currently running Kodi RC3 and have all the necessary components for playback and display installed. I have access to all my files using 1080FX MB skin, however when I play any files from there, they are transcoded (as confirmed by the OSD while playing back). Both media and server are on the same machine and I have the files set up as direct access (ie I:\Videos\Movies and I:\Videos\TV Shows). Is this the issue and do I need to set up the media paths differently. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xnappo 1593 Posted December 9, 2014 Share Posted December 9, 2014 I am sort-of surprised it is doing that, but I didn't write the most recent version of this code. Most likely it will work correctly if you change the UNC paths(\\machine\I\Videos\Movies), which is better in the longrun anyway. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steelman1991 19 Posted December 9, 2014 Author Share Posted December 9, 2014 Thanks for the reply xnappo thought that might be the case, but just needed confirmation. Cracking piece of work this - thanks to you and all the devs for giving us the best of both worlds. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steelman1991 19 Posted December 9, 2014 Author Share Posted December 9, 2014 That did the trick xnappo - thanks for your help. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Weirdinin 0 Posted January 1, 2015 Share Posted January 1, 2015 I'm very new with this addon so haven't play with it much yet. Is there a way how to avoid transcoding when media is shared via samba in local network? No need of transcoding when connection is not from outer network. I wish I could stick with samba. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Angelblue05 4130 Posted January 1, 2015 Share Posted January 1, 2015 I believe it does use smb access when you have the correct samba credentials entered in the add-on and using UNC paths for your media folders (\\videos\movies instead of d:\videos\movies). That's how I have XBMC/Kodi set up and my files are never transcoded. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Weirdinin 0 Posted January 1, 2015 Share Posted January 1, 2015 Not using drive mapping. I have set kodi to use samba path to locate media in linux server i.e smb://server/share/file_path e.g smb://ubuntu/videos/movies/titanic (1997) Kodi devs suggested not to use unc paths since kodi works better with forwardslash style paths. They said that unc paths need to be converted so that kodi's internal code handling doesn't get mixed. At least gotham didn't support unc paths anymore, not sure if they changed that with helix. So I'd like not to use unc paths. Could it be that using domain name instead of ip address in smb path causes the issue? Im not home so need to test that later. Thank you for your reply. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Angelblue05 4130 Posted January 2, 2015 Share Posted January 2, 2015 Yes, if you use a domain name, you are accessing the content via your external ip. If the server and kodi are on the same network, you should definitively use the local ip address. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Weirdinin 0 Posted January 2, 2015 Share Posted January 2, 2015 (edited) Thank you very much. Will test when back home again and report here. Just out of curiosity, could you please explain, if you happen to have some time, why I am accessing to the media via external ip if I'm using a domain name of the server? Doesn't netbios name service of samba translate the name of the server to internal ip address of the server? I've understood it doesnt matter if one uses name or ip. In my previous post when I said domain I meant netbios name, not domain name system (dns). Edited January 2, 2015 by Weirdinin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Angelblue05 4130 Posted January 2, 2015 Share Posted January 2, 2015 (edited) ahhh, I think I just misunderstood what you meant. When you talk about domain, I took it as mydomain.com. The domain would be what you see when you access Media browser server on your dashboard. This is to access your browser externally, when you are not home. For example, one of the benefits of having a domain is to allow you to give out access to people without giving out your external IP. It you are using your "computer name" then it's fine. It's the same as using the local IP. When you say you can't use UNC path because Gotham and Kodi doesn't use it, I'm not quite sure what you mean. You have to give Media Browser access to your media folders with UNC paths or path substitution, because Media browser is the one handling the transcoding, not Kodi. I am sure that's what is causing the transcoding in your situation. Hope this helps. Edited January 2, 2015 by Angelblue05 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Weirdinin 0 Posted January 3, 2015 Share Posted January 3, 2015 Kodi's internal code handling expect url-style paths. If unc paths are used, it might confuse how kodi reads its own code (at least in gotham). And the outcome might result in errors. If you compare unc path vs. smb/url path, there's a difference between them. unc paths are written with backslashes and smb/url paths are written in forward slashes. Team kodi dropped unc path support and uses only url-style paths. if one uses linux/raspi/something else but windows, there are no erros since those platforms use already url-style paths e.g /media/flexraidpool/videos/movies/titanic (1997). But windows users, if they manually locate their media, they might use unc-style paths since windows as an OS uses unc-style paths, e.g c:\program files\. Gotham didn't support unc-style path anymore, and that's why some windows users ended up with screwed librarys when they updated from frodo to gotham. I use windows in my htpc because of gaming, anydvd, madvr, eventghost etc but fortunately my paths in xbmc were in url-style form so my library wasn't destroyed. Hope this explains what I tried to say. Please note, I'm not a network specialist. Im an exercise physiologist so what I said might not be accurate. Look here http://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=196249 . see post #5, #6 And section 7.1: http://kodi.wiki/view/XBMC_v13_%28Gotham%29_FAQ I'm tomorrow back from holidays and then finally can check the paths. Thank you. With your help I know now where to start to troubleshoot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Angelblue05 4130 Posted January 3, 2015 Share Posted January 3, 2015 (edited) Ok, I understand what you are saying, but what you are worried about has nothing to do with your problem since Media Browser 3 server takes care of the back-end of Kodi, with the add-on. When you decide to use the Mediabrowser add-on (formerly known as XBMB3C) you are effectively changing the way Kodi works. Kodi is used as a player. It doesn't control anything library-wise, anymore. I hope this clarifies why you need to setup UNC paths to your media folders, in Media Browser 3. The UNC path setup is to give Media Browser 3 full access to your media files. Since it's controlling the back-end of Kodi with the add-on, it is a must to prevent transcoding. Re-reading your post, are you trying to bypass the add-on and use the Kodi library manager? Not using drive mapping. I have set kodi to use samba path to locate media in linux server i.e smb://server/share/file_path e.g smb://ubuntu/videos/movies/titanic (1997) If so, I'm afraid I don't know how to accomplish what you are trying to do. Could you use something like path substitution in the Mediabrowser dashboard to point to your samba share, since your server is on linux and let the add-on be used as library manager. Your question might have a better chance of being answered on the Kodi forums, since you are pointing directly to the folder instead of letting the add-on/server manage your library. This forum really addresses the situation : MediaBrowser 3 > Mediabrowser add-on > Kodi My current setup: I'm using Gotham 13.2 on windows 7. I have UNC folder path setup in Media Browser 3 (same as using path substitution in the library tab of the dashboard, in Media Browser 3). MediaBrowser add-on handles the library side of XBMC. Everything is working, nothing is transcoding. Edited January 3, 2015 by Angelblue05 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Weirdinin 0 Posted January 3, 2015 Share Posted January 3, 2015 (edited) aaaa right! Now I got it! Hah how could i not see that unc paths are not problem in my case! of course library-related tasks are transferred to media browser. thank you! you are very kind! I believe i can now solve my issue. Great community here. Edited January 3, 2015 by Weirdinin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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