DLNA - Cant browse Artists or Album Artists

[happpyg 20]

Hi,

 

  Am I missing something with how devices should interact with Emby servers when DLNA is enabled?  Emby has scanned my music library fine, I have enabled DLNA but when I try to browse the music library from my new Sony TV or testing with "Media Monkey" from my PC I am unable to expand the Artists or Album Artist branch.  I can expand Albums fine.  Clicking on the Artists branch does show music in the right hand pane in MediaMonkey but on the TV it doesn't show any of this.

 

  If I then put the same music folders on my QNAP NAS and enable DLNA there, then repeat the same test on these devices I can browse and queue those artists fine.

 

  This all came up because I have just purchased a Yamaha soundbar with musiccast, it does the same thing when trying to browse the network for DLNA sources.  I can queue up music albums fine but can't do anything with artists.  See screenshots from MediaMonkey to hopefully illustrate my symptoms.  You can see I can expand the QNAP ("nas") but cant expand emby on either my production server or test version on my local PC. 

 

  The only difference I can see is when I click on the Artists branch in MediaMonkey for Emby servers the artists are listed in the right hand pane whereas the nas does not do this but instead allows you to expand the artists branch.

 

Thanks!

 

[Luke 42077]

Hi @@happpyg, welcome. I see no problem with MediaMonkey. I would suggest trying again with the next release of Emby Server. Thanks !

[happpyg 20]

Hi @@happpyg, welcome. I see no problem with MediaMonkey. I would suggest trying again with the next release of Emby Server. Thanks !

 

Thanks Luke, can I confirm what you see with MediaMonkey?  Is it the same as what I see or you can click the arrow next to artists and it expands the branch?  I have tried 3 different Emby installs and none of them allow me to expand like the QNAP does which means I cant use Emby/DLNA with any of my streaming services in the house.  The only way I can use it is to queue music by Album, not Artist as Album does expand like the QNAP.

 

Cheers

[Luke 42077]

I see each Emby library then after expanding Music I see the Emby-generated categories of Artists, Album Artists, etc and I have no problem going into each one. I would suggest trying again with the next release of Emby Server. Thanks !

[happpyg 20]

I see each Emby library then after expanding Music I see the Emby-generated categories of Artists, Album Artists, etc and I have no problem going into each one. I would suggest trying again with the next release of Emby Server. Thanks !

 

Thanks Luke.

I tried the latest beta on my main install and test install but same issue, do you mean the next stable version?  I can upload a video to better show the issue if you like?  I can see each library as you say but cannot expand Artists or Album Artists, only Albums expands and allows me to play those items.

 

Sorry if I am missing something.

[Luke 42077]

I can't reproduce the issue sorry. Have you tried other Dlna renderers? It works perfectly for me with Media Monkey. First things first, do you see the expected content in the Emby web app?

[Luke 42077]

Additionally, try giving it a little time. It might just be responding slowly. I notice Mediamonkey downloads everything under the tree when you expand, whereas other, more modern Dlna renderers are smart enough to only download what they're displaying on-screen.

[happpyg 20]

Thanks Luke,

 

  Yes, I am trying from two different Sony TV's one is brand new, the other is about 4-5 years old, the Yamaha musiccast app on my phone and MediaMonkey.  All 4 devices/software produce the same result.  Testing between 2 installs of Emby on different devices and a QNAP nas. 

 

  Emby web app works fine and I see expected content. 

 

  I did think about the size of the library too but my test Emby install only has a very small selection of music so should rule that one out.   There is a clear difference between how clients see Artists and Album Artists on Emby vs the NAS, you can see that in the screenshots.  Albums behaves as I would expect and the same across all clients/DLNA servers so something is different about how the clients see Artists/Album Artists.

 

  I will upload or link a video from the two devices tonight to show the issue I am having, thanks for your help!

[Happy2Play 9780]

Not that I understand its display, I don't see an issue with Artists/Album Artists.
 
Version 3.1.248.0 beta 

[Luke 42077]

Thanks !

[Happy2Play 9780]

@@happpyg Are your Artists and Album Artists shown properly in the web client?

 

What is your library/folder structure for music?

Edited December 7, 2016 by Happy2Play

[Happy2Play 9780]

@@Luke @@happpyg

Testing this more, if you don't have a music\artist\album folder structure you don't get to expand Artist/Album Artist in MediaMonkey.

 

current dev

Edited December 7, 2016 by Happy2Play

[happpyg 20]

@@Luke @@happpyg

Testing this more, if you don't have a music\artist\album folder structure you don't get to expand Artist/Album Artist in MediaMonkey.

 

current dev

 

Ahh, that could help.  I do have that kind of structure but perhaps not perfect?  I have Music\Artists\Albums and Music\Artists\z-Misc (for misc songs that I don't have entire albums for) physically on the server however the Emby library points directly to the Artists folder, not the Music folder underneath it as I have other misc items in there I don't want Emby scraping.

 

I'll have to check tonight how I have the QNAP DLNA configured and which root folder I have it pointing at. 

 

On the TV the symptoms are I cant even see the artists/albums, it tells me no media.  On the Yamaha musiccast app on the phone, I can see the artist names but can't click on them to expand and see albums belonging to that artist like I can when browsing the QNAP.

 

Once I upload a video tonight hopefully it will be clear what I am experiencing, MediaMonkey was just a test I was hoping would show the issue but you could be onto something here.

 

Thanks again!

[Luke 42077]

@@Happy2Play what did your test library look like?

[happpyg 20]

I have just replicated the exact same issue here at work with a different Samsung TV and another QNAP NAS.  Uploading vids to youtube and will post back shortly.

 

Also, I have tried several media library paths. 

This is basically where my media is on my server "d:\music\artists\albums".  I have Emby pointing directly at the artists folder "d:\music\artists" as there are other folders I don't want scraped in "d:\music".  I then tried keeping the Emby library pointing to the same location but shifted my music so it looked like "d:\music\music\artists\albums".

 

Thanks for your help with this one!  This is the last piece in my Emby setup.

[happpyg 20]

Ok here goes, hope this helps, let me know if you need more info.

 

Library on my test PC : https://youtu.be/I6q3DMS4Aqo

Media Monkey            : https://youtu.be/_qC2ZgGqDbg

Samsung TV               : https://youtu.be/JRsN0PKtsuw

 

You can see how the NAS server behaves differently on the Samsung TV and in MediaMonkey.

 

NOTE - this is a small subset of music from home just for testing at work.  The same issue happens at home.  In the musiccast app at home I can see artists but can't click on them to see their albums.

 

Cheers!

Edited December 8, 2016 by happpyg

[Luke 42077]

can we see screenshots of the folders? thanks.

[happpyg 20]

can we see screenshots of the folders? thanks.

 

Sure, root folder path is different to what I list above as this is my test pc where I tested moving to simulate music\music\artists but the end structure is the same.  I get the same result no matter what structure I seem to use.

 

<screens removed>

Edited December 8, 2016 by happpyg

[Luke 42077]

thanks. i got your PM. you can remove the screens. can you provide a server log? i would like to check something. thanks.

[happpyg 20]

Thanks Luke, attached log after fresh restart.

server-63616801079.txt

[Luke 42077]

do you have an android device by any chance?

[happpyg 20]

Not at home, one of my work colleagues may have on though I can get my hands on.  What would you like me to test? 

My Sony TV at home does run Android TV OS which is having the same issue.  On the Sony when I do the same as the Samsung TV here at work just says "no media available" or something like that when I try to go into Artists or Album Artists.

[Luke 42077]

can you install apps on the android tv? get bubble upnp, which is pretty much the gold standard of dlna renderers right now (at least in terms of compatibility). i am wondering if this is more dlna related than music related, because you say everything looks normal in the web app but the web app and dlna are both using the same methods.

[happpyg 20]

Yes I can install apps, not sure if it is a cut down list for the TV.

 

In the meantime I added some music into the MediaMonkey library acting as a DLNA server and then went and tested on the same Samsung TV here at work as well as two other LG models.  All can browse the MediaMonkey and QNAP NAS libraries no problems at all, artists and albums.  

The Samsung TV you have seen from the clip above when browsing the Emby server, the two LG's get a "Failed to connect to device" as soon as I try to browse to the Emby server, they don't make it to the folders at all but can browse the QNAP and MediaMonkey no problem.

 

None of the test devices can browse Artists or Album Aritsts on the Emby server via DLNA but can browse Albums fine.  Perhaps it is still something on my end in configuration although it seems fairly straight forward and I have replicated the issue across multiple devices and multiple Emby installs now including beta versions.

 

When I get home in a few hours i'll give bubble upnp a go and report back.

 

Thanks again!

[Happy2Play 9780]

@@Happy2Play what did your test library look like?

My test library was library pointing to music with albums in music folder.  So in theory if OP has libraries pointing to Artist level all Emby is seeing is Albums and pulling metadata to populate Artist providing the same results.

 

Looks like for display purposes you have to point library to music and have Artist then Album subfolders.