File Paths, network shared, SMB vs HTTP

[gmacman 3]

It's sort of remarkable I've been able to get my freenas and Emby even working over these past few years with the total lack of knowledge I have about all this stuff.

I continue to have issues with is getting the direct play to work via SMB.  Because our emby clients are FireTVs (some 1st gen, some 2nd, some stick, some wireless some Ethernet), I'm not even sure if trying to get direct play via SMB is any better than http.  I've scoured the posts related to network shares here but still am so confused my head hurts.

 

I've recently upgraded my freenas from 9.3 to 9.11 and also have created a new instance of emby (via plugin) since I had heard that jails are based differently in 9.11.

So I guess that's my first question...With a decent home network, is there a significant benefit to SMB versus HTTP when the clients will be within the home network and are just FireTVs? 

My freenas setup has Emby within a jail with storage for the media like this:

Jail                      Source                  Destination            Mounted?     Read-Only
emby_1     /mnt/nasgran/movies      /usr/local/movies       true        false


My Emby setup on the freenas server has the folders setup like this:

Folder:
/usr/local/movies

(Optional) Shared network folder:
/usr/local/movies

Which is what I thought it should be, however I can never get the clients to access the files via SMB.  I always have to turn on "play from http..." in order to play files.  And playing files from http always works.

[Luke 37089]

Hi, if you're not having any problems then in your case it's probably exactly the same. Thanks.

[gmacman 3]

Hi, if you're not having any problems then in your case it's probably exactly the same. Thanks.

And by "problems" you mean files playing without buffering and such?

[Luke 37089]

Yes.

[gmacman 3]

Yes.

Yep, I'm fine then sticking with http.  It's more of the annoyance, I guess, that I can't seem to figure out the correct listing of the path.  I had it working way back when the path substitution setup was different on the emby server than it is today.  But, like you say, if there are no problems now, there isn't a major benefit for me to getting direct play to function correctly.

 

Thanks Luke

[Luke 37089]

a simple way of looking at it is go to the other machine with the client app, and open a file browser and try to browse to the movies folder. You'll need to share the movies folder on your network, and then whatever path you use on those other devices is what you'll enter in the optional network path field.

[gmacman 3]

a simple way of looking at it is go to the other machine with the client app, and open a file browser and try to browse to the movies folder. You'll need to share the movies folder on your network, and then whatever path you use on those other devices is what you'll enter in the optional network path field.

This is very helpful, I think I'm beginning to understand but I thought I was suppose to point to something within the jail.  What I mean is, if I just try to browse the movies folder wouldn't I be browsing the actual movie folder on the freenas storage dataset which contains the actual files?  Shouldn't I be pointing to something within the jail that is housing the emby server?

[Luke 37089]

No, you should be pointing to your movie folder.

[gmacman 3]

No, you should be pointing to your movie folder.

Luke,

 

Clearly there is a reason why your member status is "Legendary"

 

 

I made the change and, yes, sure enough it now plays via smb.

 

Thank you again for taking the time to work with such a non-technical person like myself.

[Luke 37089]

Thanks for the feedback.