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Questions about Kodi addon


Alceste

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Alceste

Hi everyone!

 

I am experiencing several problems with setting up Kodi as a Frontend to Media browser Server.

 

My problems are the following:

  • None of the skins I donwloaded from the repo display my content correctly:
    • Titan creates two links to TV shows and two links to movies in the main menu; no media can be played
    • 1080XF creates the links in the main menu correctly however no movies / TV shows are displayed in the widgets. Also no media can be played
    • main menu links in Aeon Nox do not lead anywhere and do not seem to be linked to media browse

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I installed kodi helix beta 2 (maybe that is the source of my problems?) along with the XBMB3c addons, that is the 

Titan MediaBrowser helper script (BETA), the Mediabrowser plugin and  of course the skins.

​​I am using the latest version of media browser. 

PS: I also not getting the setup screeen from the video!

 

 

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Angelblue05

Hello Alceste,

 

Sounds like you are experiencing a path problem. In your Media Browser server, how are your Media Library folder location setup?

 

If they look like C:\Movies, for example, you will need to set up path substitution or UNC paths. This ensures your content can be "found" from any location. Your paths will look something like \\ServerName\Movies. There's no path substitution tutorial, but it's a very informative post to help you set it up correctly, if you choose this option. :)

 

Path substitution  http://mediabrowser....setup/?p=168791

UNC Shares   http://mediabrowser....-folder-shares/

 

 

If this doesn't correct the problem, please see here how to post your log, thanks: http://mediabrowser.tv/community/index.php?/topic/17599-how-to-report-a-problem/

Edited by Angelblue05
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Alceste

Hey Angelblue05,
 
Thank you very much for your help. I applied path substitution as you suggested. At first I thought I had screwed everyything up, since none of my movies were playing from any of the clients. However just before I was going to revert these changes I realized that the server was about to update the library. Now after that update has been completed, the display problem was solved for all of the skins except for the titan skin - titan still provides me with two menu items for Movies and two for TV shows (weirldy one is named "TV" and the other "TV shows").
However I still have a couple of questions:
1.) After realizing that path substitution had been the solution to my problems I also tunred it on for TV shows and Music. However as it is now again none of my clients can play any files from the server (this includes movies, for which I did not change path substitution settings, as the respective settings had already been applied).
 
2.) I would like to understand why path substitution allows for a smoother user exerpeince - I also noticed, that streaming etc. reacts in a quicker manner. Why is that?
 
In any case here's my log file: https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=1F33514AAD553383!88975&authkey=!AGZvHJlNbFcVFQE&ithint=file%2clog
 

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Angelblue05

I'm glad you're on your way to getting this resolved. I'm not sure what's going on as it says "Path does not exist" when it tries to verify content in: \\Server\Filme\content. If another dev wants to assist... :)

 

For your skin question, it might be better to direct your question to the Titan skin's forums: http://mediabrowser.tv/community/index.php?/topic/9255-titan-mediabrowser-skin-for-xbmc/.

 

1- As for the music, it's not currently supported by the add-on, because you will get better results by adding your music folder directly into Kodi instead of having the server handle it.

 

2- What you might have been experiencing previously is called Transcoding. Basically, if the file is inaccessible or incompatible with the player, the server will manipulate the file to "feed" it to the player. This process is slower than "Direct Play". Direct Play means the file is played directly in the player, bypassing the server. Kodi is a very good player and is compatible with most formats. It will direct play your content, that's why it reacts in a quicker manner than before you set up path substitution.

 

Here is an interesting read that might answer some of your questions regarding your second question: http://mediabrowser.tv/community/index.php?/topic/18383-why-do-you-need-unc-paths-for-direct-play/?hl=%2Bwhy+%2Bunc

Edited by Angelblue05
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Alceste

Okay I just verified it - every time my server updates the media library clients are unable to play any media whatsoever. Is this intentional behaviour?

 

 

EDIT: When I say clients I also mean accessing the library on the server via the web interface

Edited by Alceste
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Angelblue05

Alceste - I'm trying path substitution myself and it doesn't seem to work. It keeps saying "Path does not exists". As a last attempt. would you be willing to set up your paths using UNC Shares. It's an extra step, but at least there's a tutorial and I'm sure it will work (hopefully) :)  http://mediabrowser.tv/community/index.php?/topic/703-how-to-make-unc-folder-shares/

 

I will do more research regarding path substitution. Maybe there's something I'm missing.

Edited by Angelblue05
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Angelblue05

Ok @@Alceste   

 

I got path substitution to work.

 

Here is what you will need to do. It's very straight forward. You will need to share the media folders you've added to your library in your Media Browser server. Simply follow the steps of the first post here: http://mediabrowser.tv/community/index.php?/topic/703-how-to-make-unc-folder-shares/

I've done the steps and it works correctly. :) If it still doesn't work, you might need to include the Windows account credentials in the Media browser add-on configs, under the Network Tab.

 

More information: It seems the difference between path substitution and UNC share is the "path" you add in the library section of your dashboard. The media folder you add needs to be shared no matter which option you choose. Once the share is done, the extra step for UNC share would be to replace your media folders path (example: C:\Movies) with the UNC share path by clicking on Network (check the second post of the UNC Tutorial, to see what I mean). Instead of replacing the library folders over, you can simply use path substitution and leave your originally added path like C:\Movies. I hope this clarifies it. I've learnt a lot myself.

Edited by Angelblue05
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Alceste

Hey Angelblue! So funny I was just about to tell you the very same thing about the shares - a big heads up for the difference between path substitution and UNC shares though! However which one is the better way now?

I for one set up the path substitution just like described in the post you linked and it seems to work quite okay now, with the exception of a couple of the skins. Most skins do not link the MB3 content to the respective menu links correctly and will bring a pop up message that says they are not full compatible although I donlwowded them from the official repo. 

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Angelblue05

It's really up to you. Both result in the same thing. Path sub exists so you don't have to "rebuild" your library. If you don't mind "rebuilding" your library, then I would suggest the UNC way since you are on Windows. But as I say, there's really no difference. :)

 

As for the prompt, it's normal. We just implement the change to let users know if they are not using one of our modded skins. If you grabbed the skin off our Media browser addon repo (under settings > addons > get addons > Media browser repo) just ignore the message for now as our modded skins don't all contain the necessary modification to go with our new implement. I suspect this will be done shortly :)

 

Which skin are you using? Not every skin will pre-build your home menu.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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Alceste

So right now I am using 1080XF MB3 however somehow I do not get any images into the movies and TV shows widget. However I really do like the skin so even If I'm not able to fix this issue I am very likely to continue using it.

Another question: What does the option "play from HTTP instead of SMB" do? 

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Angelblue05

The option "play from HTTP instead of SMB" is for when you are not connected to your server locally.

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Alceste

Ah okay thanks! one more thing that jsut occured to me:

 

My Server is set up with a user account named Familiy. I set up the shares to work with this user account. However I jsut realized that my own PC does not have this user account and further more that I am able to access the shares just fine from Kodi running from my user account (Nicolas). If I understood correctly this should not be possible!? 

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Alceste

Angelblue05, I have another question - how can I check whether Kodi really plays the files directly? I mean the windows 8 app indicates it directly during the playback but in Kodi I have not been able to see something similar.

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Angelblue05

When you press Info while playing the content, it will show it in the content's title like Title - Direct Play or Title - Transcoding.

Edited by Angelblue05
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