Do I need to use path substitution if used UNC paths?

[Guest]

Hi,

 

New user (still) - I want to ensure that no media is transcoded when playing from server to client devices, so that I get the best possible quality.

Emby Server will be installed on a Windows 8.1 machine that holds all the media files and has a static IP address (192.168.1.1),

Client machines will be Windows PC's connected to TV's and networked via gigabit ethernet or superfast wifi (dedicated 5ghz network just for this),

I will install Emby Theatre on these client machines.

 

In the server library if I import everything in the format \\192.168.1.1\Media Folder Names

 

Will that be enough?

 

Or, will I also need to use the path substitution setting?

 

Many thanks!

[ebr 14959]

Assuming that same UNC path is accessible from the client machine, then, no you won't need to use path substitutions.  However, I make the following suggestions:

 

1) If the paths are actually local to the Emby server machine, I suggest setting the library up with the local paths and using path substitution.  This will offer the best performance.  If the paths are network locations to the Emby server machine, then go ahead and setup the library using UNC.

 

2) I would use a machine name instead of the IP address.  Just allows for greater flexibility.

[Guest]

Thanks for the fast reply, much appreciated.

 

The server PC will hold everything in one place, so I could use local paths eg D:\Film Queue, but the problem with that is if I have to move anything, (eg - replace a hard drive or run out of space) then that path might get moved to E:\Film Queue, I'm not sure if Emby server would remember all the settings with regards to collections, metadata etc, if that was to happen?

 

Also, with regard to your second point, since I upgraded all my client machines from Windows 7 to Windows 10 I noticed that there is a delay from start up to the client machines being able to see and access the server machine if it is called a name 'eg SERVER' whereas if I use the static IP address, the clients seem to be able to access it straight away. So I painstakingly changed all the shares from the server name to the IP address. (On MediaPortal 1 and Argus TV, which is what I use currently).

 

It seems to me that it would be easier to just use \\192.168.1.1\Media Folder Name in the library import and not bother with path substitutions, BUT my top priority is media playback quality / speed of playback starting / and no dreaded 'buffering' so I think you are saying that to achieve that I should use local paths and path substitution, is that correct?

 

Many thanks

 

lisa

[ebr 14959]

It seems to me that it would be easier to just use \\192.168.1.1\Media Folder Name in the library import and not bother with path substitutions, BUT my top priority is media playback quality / speed of playback starting / and no dreaded 'buffering' so I think you are saying that to achieve that I should use local paths and path substitution, is that correct?

 

No, for playback I don't think it will make much difference.  It is the normal library scan and things like real-time monitoring that may work better with local paths.  But, if using the straight UNC paths works fine for you then don't worry about it.