Path Substitution

[Sammy 771]

Path Substitution is not covered in the current wiki and seems to be a recent addition to the Media Library Options.  Is there an explanation somewhere on how to utilize it?

 

Thanks.

[PhAzE 17]

I too would like to know, as i'm a little confused on certain aspects of it.

 

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My specific question is, if one has a Media folder, and subfolders for Movies, TV shows, Music.. etc, 

 

Example: D:\Media\Movies

Example: D:\Media\Shows

Example: D:\Media\Music

 

Can I setup a substitution for D:\Media -> \\servername\Media    OR do I have to set up a substitution for each sub folder specifically?

 

PS - Sammy, if you feel this question takes over your thread, i can remove my question from here.

[Nobodie14 2]

As far as I understood from the explanation in the Changelog about the Path Substitution it is used to stream media directly to the client if possible.

But if the server is sending 'D:\Media\Movies\example.mp4' as it's physical location the client will never find it.

That's where Path Substitution comes in place.

 

If you have a Media Library path 'D:\Media\Movies' on the server and you want to be able to let the client stream the media directly instead of via the server (=using less resources on the server) you can use the substitution path '\\servername\Media\Movies'.

Pay attention that the '\\servername' must be resolvable through DNS in order for the client to find the media library. Otherwise it's better to use the IP address of the MediaBrowser server. i.e. '\\192.168.178.10\Media\Movies'.

[ebr 15549]

I too would like to know, as i'm a little confused on certain aspects of it.

 

------------------------

My specific question is, if one has a Media folder, and subfolders for Movies, TV shows, Music.. etc, 

 

Example: D:\Media\Movies

Example: D:\Media\Shows

Example: D:\Media\Music

 

Can I setup a substitution for D:\Media -> \\servername\Media    OR do I have to set up a substitution for each sub folder specifically?

 

PS - Sammy, if you feel this question takes over your thread, i can remove my question from here.

 

You should only need to setup the one if they are all subs of the same share.

[PhAzE 17]

You should only need to setup the one if they are all subs of the same share.

OK perfect, that makes things so much easier.  Thanks!

[MiChAeLoKGB 7]

So, how exactly this work? Does this enable me to use windows file browser and type there something like \\MyServer\movies (as tis isnt working for me).

 

Also, as you noted, do I have use my IP (of my pc) or the IP that MediaBrowser shows (still not able to find it trough windows file browser).

Or does it work only for media-browser?

 

So mainly: If I use my PCs IP there for substitution, will it just send file directly to PC on my network without any transcoding on my PC?

 

We need some Wiki about that.

[Angelblue05 4131]

Is path substitution required if I created UNC shares? Are they the same thing except that one is created in the OS and the other is created in MBS?

[Spaceboy 2563]

No, not needed

[MiChAeLoKGB 7]

Ok, so one more question,

 

does the path substitution work only when Im playing it trough your app? As I think it cant do it trough browser. If Im right, then I have to ask my sister to install the app, as watching 20GB movies doesnt allow me to play games and them to watch movie (I have 4690K, but thats not a great CPU for movie encoding etc.)

 

Ps.: When I tried to play a movie trough MediaBrowser Theater, it just didnt launch it and froze, mutiple times). Size of the file doesnt matter that much by the looks of it. With big files it just dies without loading anything. With smaller, it shows first frame of the movie and then freezes.

Ps. 2: The MediaBrowser Theater doesnt launch on my primary screen, but instead on screen on which were the shortcut icon, and as I have my taskbar on secondary screen, It launched there and just darkened the primary one. When launched on primary one, the secondayr one isnt darkened (I like that it isnt).

Edited August 17, 2014 by MiChAeLoKGB

[Vidman 590]

Can anyone show a couple of screenshots on how exactly this is setup? I am still struggling to get it to work

[Beardyname 197]

Let's say you have added D:\storage\Movies as an Movie folder and movie type. then you have shared D:\storage on your network as : "share" and your server/pc is called ServerName. The setup should be added like this :

[MiChAeLoKGB 7]

Yeah, now I got that..

 

Basically, right click on what folder you shared and click on Shared tab, there is Network path you should use.

 

Look here:

[Vidman 590]

Let's say you have added D:\storage\Movies as an Movie folder and movie type. then you have shared D:\storage on your network as : "share" and your server/pc is called ServerName. The setup should be added like this :

So the folder must be set as shared in windows as well?

[MiChAeLoKGB 7]

Yes it has to, ithervise the remote PC wouldnt be able to get to that file as its not shared.

[Beardyname 197]

So the folder must be set as shared in windows as well?

 

Yes it has to, ithervise the remote PC wouldnt be able to get to that file as its not shared.

 

No, if the permission for a folder above that also includes sub-folders (which it does unless you tell it not to).

 

aka if i share D:\storage I don't have to specifically share D:\storage\movies

 

But then again i might miss what you are asking If you are asking if you have to share a folder to access it across the network then yes (since not every file is available across the network willy-nilly), but you don't have to share each and every sub folder. as long as the top folder is shared.

Edited September 25, 2014 by Beardyname

[dlambermont 0]

I'm having trouble getting this to work, but it may be a combination of things...  I'm trying to get ISOs to automount with VCD, and then play with PowerDVD (autoplay) as read in a separate thread.  I have all of my 3D ISOs stored in an external USB drive, assigned letter D:   D: is shared as \\user-pc\bluray3.  The ISOs are stored in a subdirectory under that (3D Bluray)

 

I have translation setup like this:

 

From:  D:\

To:  \\user-pc\bluray3

 

But, when I try to launch something from a remote MBT or MBC client, I get a VCD error like this:

 

"Can't mount \\user-pc\bluray33D BluRay\Avatar\Avatar.iso"

 

For whatever reason, the "\" is missing between bluray3 and 3D Bluray.    I tried adding the trailing slash in the translation, but MB strips it out when saving.

[ebr 15549]

Definitely looks like a bug.

[frky 0]

Hey Guys,

 

bought the App today and i have some troubles. I dont know what to do PC runs with Win8.1 and Phone is WP8.1. I have a folder "Q:\Movies\" which i share in Windows for everyone. In the Media Browser Server i share this folder, too. Also i did a path substitution from "Q:\Movies\" to "\\alex-pc\movies". Under the Playback tab i tried "auto" and "max. quality" for transcoding. The video is trancoded all the time. What else can i do to stop it? Its a hughe loss of quality

 

Greets!

[Beardyname 197]

Hey Guys,

 

bought the App today and i have some troubles. I dont know what to do PC runs with Win8.1 and Phone is WP8.1. I have a folder "Q:\Movies\" which i share in Windows for everyone. In the Media Browser Server i share this folder, too. Also i did a path substitution from "Q:\Movies\" to "\\alex-pc\movies". Under the Playback tab i tried "auto" and "max. quality" for transcoding. The video is trancoded all the time. What else can i do to stop it? Its a hughe loss of quality

 

Greets!

 

Well for phones and browsers we have to transcode Only standalone players like MBT and MBC etc will be able to play the files directly.

[frky 0]

Sad to hear

[Beardyname 197]

Well nothing we can do, phones/browsers are kinda picky when it comes to codec, I believe if you store your media in specific formats/codec it will work. But then we would need to transcode for phones anyway (probably).

[ebr 15549]

Even though we may have to transcode, you should still get good quality so I would investigate what quality settings you have chosen on the phone app and provide more info there.