DLNA - Cant browse Artists or Album Artists

[happpyg 20]

Ok, it seems bubble upnp is not available for the TV however I have a Galaxy S4 I brought home and installed bubble upnp on that.  I tested browsing the Emby server (both production server and my test PC) through that app on the Android phone and it does something very similar.  It lets me browse into Albums same as described in posts above but when I click on Artists or Album Artists it just loads a fullscreen picture the same as you would see for the artist when using the Web Interface however in the web interface you can go further by clicking on the results to see the Albums by that artist, on the phone you cant, it just stops there.

 

Doing the exact same thing on the Android phone with bubble upnp to either the MediaMonkey DLNA server or the QNAP DLNA server allows me to browse through artists, album artists or albums right down to song level and pick a song.

 

Then, as another test I enabled Media Sharing through plain old windows media player.  I now have 4 different DLNA servers on my network and 5 different test clients.  All 5 clients work 100% fine with MediaMonkey set up as a DLNA server, Windows Media Player and the QNAP NAS, they can browse right down to song level through Albums or Artists (and "Album Artists" with windows media player sharing).

 

All 5 clients can browse two different Emby installs (including trying the latest betas and excepting earlier model LG TV's at work) through to Albums but none can browse into Artists or Album artists, depending on the device they get different results here. 

- Android phone using bubble upnp gets the artist artwork

- Samsung TV shows nothing as per youtube clip above

- MediaMonkey when browsing the Emby library shows the artists in the right hand pane when you click on Artists or Album Artists but can't expand to show in tree view

- Earlier LG TV models get access denied as posted earlier and can't access Emby at all.

- Yamaha MusicCast app can see the list of Artists when clicking "Artists" or "Album Artists" but can't go any further to select the songs like it can with the other DLNA servers.

 

Not sure what else I can do from here?  Surely this has ruled out me missing something in config?  I have messed with the folder structure multiple times and it seems to make no difference, same results every time.

 

Cheers!

[happpyg 20]

@@Luke, do you have any other suggestions for this one?

 

Since my last post I have tested beta 3.1.254 with no difference.   I have also tested another DLNA server (Serviio), it works fine just like the others I have tested.

 

Regards

Aaron

Edited December 14, 2016 by happpyg

[happpyg 20]

@@Luke, is there anything else I can do here?  Every single DLNA server I have tried (lots now) all work fine with my many test DLNA clients, Emby is the only one that does not behave the same as the others.  I am using the exact same music and folder structure with every server I try.  I even tried Pl*x and that worked too.

 

If there is anything else I can do to help show the issue let me know.   Emby always shows the content fine in the web console, it is DLNA clients trying to view/play Artists via the Emby DLNA server that don't work, Albums work fine.

 

Regards

Aaron

[Luke 42077]

I just tested @@Happy2Play's scenario and didn't see any problems. Maybe you could try a fresh install of the beta server from scratch, that might provide some useful data. thanks.

[happpyg 20]

I just tested @@Happy2Play's scenario and didn't see any problems. Maybe you could try a fresh install of the beta server from scratch, that might provide some useful data. thanks.

 

Thanks @@Luke,  I have tried every beta I can find including the latest one 3.1.255 on 3 different PC's, all do exactly the same thing.

 

To simulate, this is what I did:

- Create  folder, c:\embytest\music

- Add music to the c:\embytest\music folder in the format "artist\album", ie c:\embytest\music\<testartist>\<testalbum>

- Set up a brand new emby install, added the c:\embytest folder as a music folder (also tried pointing it to c:\embytest\music)

- Now get a DLNA client, ie VLC or something on my phone and try to play music from the Emby DLNA server. 

 

When I do that I can browse right down to song level in the Albums branch and start playing the music.

When I try to browse to Artists or "Album Artists" I get stopped at the artist level and cannot play the music from that artist or go deeper to song level like I can with Albums.

When I repeat the same with bubbleupnp on an Android phone I can click on the Artist but all that returns is a full screen of the artist album picture.

 

Thanks again for your help with this!.  Every other DLNA server I have tried works perfectly with the exact same setup as above.

 

Regards

Aaron

[happpyg 20]

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.

 

@@Happy2Play, are you please able to confirm your working setup and that you can play music from the artists branch from a DLNA client like VLC, BubbleUpnp etc?   None of my libraries either live or multiple tests were pointing to Artist level, all point to either music just like yours or one level above music like my last post.

 

Nothing I do can get any DLNA client to play music in the artist branch but can in albums.   Every single other DLNA server does work and plays music from either albums or artists with the exact same folder structure and test music.

 

I have found another thread here that shows very similar issues which you contributed to about some artists showing as jpg's?  I'll try to find it again.

Edit : Link to other thread with similar issue:

https://emby.media/community/index.php?/topic/37547-emby-doesnt-show-all-artist-on-dlna-devices/?hl=%2Bdlna+%2Bartists

 

Thanks!

Edited December 15, 2016 by happpyg

[Luke 42077]

I know what thread you're referring to but changes were made since then. The issues discussed in that thread were easily reproducible by everyone, this is not.

[happpyg 20]

I know what thread you're referring to but changes were made since then. The issues discussed in that thread were easily reproducible by everyone, this is not.

 

Thanks @@Luke.  So you can confirm that with VLC/BubbleUpnp etc on a phone that you can browse to an Artist via DLNA and play music from that artist?  I have tried so many combinations now and every single client/server combo works except with Emby.  I can reproduce every single time and have done it across more than 10 devices and 6 different installs all on different PC/Server combos.  I am an IT manager so have access to a very large range of devices to test with and every single one does the exact same thing.

 

Plex, Serviio, MediaMonkey, Windows media sharing and others all work perfectly pointing to the exact same root music folder with the exact same music.

 

I would love to show you remotely if I can or somehow provide more info?  The youtube clip of the TV shows exactly what happens, can I take a video of BubbleUpnp and post that for you?

 

I want to stick with Emby but if I can't get this to work it is a dealbreaker for me due to how we stream music at home with the devices we have.  I know you would have lots on your plate and more important issues so if you cant find anything wrong i'll just leave it alone.

 

Thanks for your help, I would love to get this working and can't see how I could be doing anything wrong?

[Luke 42077]

Yea I'm still looking into it but i'm not seeing any problem with any of those.

[happpyg 20]

Yea I'm still looking into it but i'm not seeing any problem with any of those.

 

Thanks @@Luke, is there any chance you could show me your folder structure, the folder that your library points to and what DLNA client you are using and also if possible a clip showing me it working to see if I am doing anything else wrong, although I can't see how, it is so simple?

 

Thanks again for your help!  Hopefully we can find the issue wherever it lies soon.

[happpyg 20]

@@Luke, could there be some possible confusion around how I am describing how I am accessing the music in this thread?  Further testing this morning has shown I can play music through the Artists branch but only through "Folders".

 

Ie grab any test DLNA client (VLC, TV, BubbleUpnp etc) and browse to:

1. Emby DLNA Server -> Music -> Albums -> <AlbumName> =  Works and can play songs from all clients

2. Emby DLNA Server -> Music -> Artists = Can see pictures of artists but can't click on them or play music

3. Emby  DLNA Server -> Music -> Album Artists = Can see pictures of artists but can't click on them or play music

4. Emby DLNA Server -> Folders -> Music -> Artists -> <AlbumName>  = Works and can play songs from all clients

 

#2 and #3 work fine in every other DLNA server I have tried.  #2 and #3 with BubbleUpnp just shows a fullscreen picture of the artist when you try to select them.

 

Cheers

[Luke 42077]

No, I understand what you're saying.

[happpyg 20]

No, I understand what you're saying.

 

Ok, I have some friends confirming theirs do the same and will come back, thanks again!

[Luke 42077]

How many Emby users do you have on your server?

[happpyg 20]

Thanks @@Luke, only ever one user.  My home server user has a password, all other test installs do not and are default installs with no extra configuration at all apart from adding music.

I have tried with setting the default user in the DLNA settings and leaving it blank.  I do not make any changes to any of the default profiles.

[happpyg 20]

@@Luke, I am still testing but have just about given up, over 10 separate Windows PC's now ranging from Windows 7, 10, 2012 server all do the same thing, all various builds from 8500 to betas and fresh installs of 3.1.

 

Interestingly I decided to put 3.1 on my QNAP last night and used the exact same test music and that worked!  I have attached logs from a windows 7 test PC (didn't work) and the QNAP (did work) but don't think that will help much?  The QNAP seems to show more info in the logs than the windows pc with the same debug options ticked?

 

All I do is install emby on a clean pc, walk through the install wizard leaving everything at default, add music library (c:\embytest with music in c:\embytest\music\<artistname>\<albumname>) and then pick a default user for DLNA, no other configuration at all and I can repeat this test every time with the same results, no DLNA clients can play music from Artists or Album Artists but can from Albums.

 

Will see what my friends with other installs come back with once they have tested for me.

 

Thanks

Test Windows 7 (VLC client - 192.168.9.55).txt

Test QNAP (VLC Client - 192.168.9.55).txt

Edited January 2, 2017 by happpyg

[Luke 42077]

Thanks, I think I have an idea about it and will review it for a future release.

[happpyg 20]

Thanks @@Luke.

 

Just had another friend confirm same behaviour on his fresh install.  Are you able to give me any indication of what the issue might be and a timeframe for fix/beta?  This is the only thing holding me back from full deployment at home and purchasing a license, I am currently using other products deciding which way to go.

 

Regards

Aaron

[happpyg 20]

@@Luke,

 

Yet more testing has shown something that will hopefully give some answers.

 

I downloaded all the previous windows versions I could find, ran them on my Test PC and found that 3.0.7300 and below all work fine.  As soon as 3.0.8000 came along DLNA as described here doesn't work and didn't work with any of the versions right up to current that I tried.

 

With regards to the QNAP, I found it does work but..... a fresh install of 3.1.0 on a QNAP with no previous Emby install does not work as described here.  If I install 3.0.5985 from the QNAP store, it does work.  If I then shut down Emby on the QNAP and upgrade to 3.1 it does keep working.  I tried this on two different QNAP devices and found the same and repeated these tests multiple times.

 

I hope that gives you some more ideas.

 

Regards

Aaron

[happpyg 20]

@@Luke, does the fix here: https://emby.media/community/index.php?/topic/37547-emby-doesnt-show-all-artist-on-dlna-devices/ apply to this issue too? 

 

Thanks!

[Luke 42077]

Probably yes

[happpyg 20]

Thanks!

[happpyg 20]

Confirmed working perfectly in 3.1.268-beta, thanks @@Luke, this is a huge plus for me!

 

Cheers

Aaron

[Luke 42077]

Thanks for confirming.

[bigeyez 10]

I have the same issue with many Dlna browsers like Mopidy, Vlc, BubbleUpnp etc. I do not use Monkemedia software and I recommend that MM should not be the baseline for the performance of the Dlna access to be honest. I am on Linux so I cant really use that software anyways.

 

 

I even put all the Emby /var/lib/emby stuff to an SSD drive (edited the emby conf) I still do not get much difference in the performance.

 

@happpyg

 

How did you really resolve the issue?

 

 

I am using 3.2.36.3 on Debian x64 with 12gb ram

 

 

Also some other similar discussions

 

https://emby.media/community/index.php?/topic/19058-increasing-performance-on-large-collections-especially-album-artist/page-2

 

https://emby.media/community/index.php?/topic/9507-library-presentation-slow/

 

 

 

 

Confirmed working perfectly in 3.1.268-beta, thanks @@Luke, this is a huge plus for me!

 

Cheers

Aaron

Edited November 7, 2017 by bigeyez