path substitution

[martyn 1]

I thought I should ask a question about path subsitition.

 

But before I do I need to say

Fantastic product - installed 3 days ago mainly to try to get to watch my windows mefia centre library on to my android phone and I'm hooked.

 

Anyway path subsitition, are there any plans to tailor it depending where you are coming from ?

 

Eg If I'm laying in bed ar home it would be nice if I could pick the videos up off my local network 10.?? Address. But when im sitting at my desk at work (pretending to work) that's not going to work and I don't think I would want it to (security and all that jazz)

 

Martyn

[ebr 16169]

In either location, you'll be looking at the same server so that wouldn't be necessary.

[trusselo 225]

are you are asking about remote access?  accessing from outside your home?  its possible.

[martyn 1]

Sorry did not explain myself properly

 

Inside my house on wifi the server is on 10.0.0.100 address an I have a as box with a music collection on 10.0.0.150\share

My external fixed IP is on 88.x.x.x

 

I've set up my router to port forward media servers port to 10.0.0.100

and everything works fine internally with a 10 address on my phone and externally on any other IP address.

 

But I started looking at path substition - it makes sense, take some pressure off the server.

 

But if I use path subsitution on the music library won't I have use my external ip address and redirect and allow all the ports to access and play the music?

 

Or am I over complicating things ?

[ebr 16169]

That isn't what path substitution is for.  You need to go through the server if you are external.

 

Path substitution is there to help the server find network resources when running under different file systems.

[Koleckai Silvestri 1154]

Path Substitution would take paths like d:\media and change it to \\mediaserver\media. Of course your setup may vary. This allows you to use local directories in your server setup. The server would then substitute paths as needed for direct play clients.

 

Changing the IP would be done in the client before it ever accesses the server. You would ask if the client can hold multiple server addresses. Then it should try the first (10.*) and if it can't connect try the second (88.*).

[Ghostm 74]

Im just trying to wrap my head around what this does, and if it will actually help me in anyway.

 

Im a bit confused in the description how it would help reduce server usage that much and didnt want to start a new thread.

 

Does streaming tax the server much? I assume transcoding would, but doesnt mbt only transcode when needed?

 

I have JBOD currently, i am planning on a snapraid setup later  this year when I have time, but mapping multiple folders on various drives would take quite a bit of time, so im not sure if its even worth it?

Edited February 13, 2014 by Ghostm

[Koleckai Silvestri 1154]

The way I see it, is that if you use direct paths ( d:\media\movies\pacific rim (2013) ) instead of UNC paths ( \\servername\media\movies\pacific rim (2013) ) then the server will always need to transcode instead of stream. The HTPC where Media Browser Theater may not even have a D drive, let alone direct access to an array.

 

The path substitution allows the server to remap the paths to something other clients will have access to directly. This allows direct play to happen, prevents transcoding and reduces the load on the server. If you already have your Media Folders set up to use UNC Paths then you do not need to use Path Substitution. This will be a lot more useful for Linux and OSX servers then most people on Windows using UNC already.

[Luke 42077]

Can you elaborate on what you find confusing so that we can make it easier? yes depending on the files you're playing, streaming vs file play back can make a big difference. if your files are all mp4 with h264 baseline profile, then maybe it won't be a significant difference because those can be streamed without transcoding anyway.

 

Ultimately it is just another tool to help avoid transcoding which is going to put a lot of stress on your server.

[Ghostm 74]

So i am just confused in my situation i have all my media on a separate device, on a separate pc, so I am assuming this would be of little value? Or would it still be of value?

 

I also mainly use mbt, and i thought mbt does not transcode anything because it can play nearly everything? So im still unsure how it will help? But if it does i will set it up i suppose. 

 

Or would setting this up basically avoid the server having to stream anything? And help with server usage?

 

And again i just assumed the server does not transcode anything to mbt, and streaming would take up few resources for the server. 

Edited February 14, 2014 by Ghostm

[Luke 42077]

I think we've all explained it pretty well. when the server release comes out, why not just try it? that is the best way to compare and contrast.

[Ghostm 74]

Can you just confirm if the server transcodes anything for mbt? I will leave it after that and test it out, but when i tried in task manager did not notice a difference. Will try other files, but now im confused whether the server transcodes anything to mbt based on wayne lukes post. 

Edited February 14, 2014 by Ghostm

[Luke 42077]

if it can't access the media directly, yes.

[Ghostm 74]

Oh wow, then I suppose I should set this up. And the explanations make sense now.  My assumption that nothing was ever transcoded when using mbt made the explanations seem confusing but my assumption was wrong. 

Edited February 14, 2014 by Ghostm

[Ghostm 74]

And i would just like to add as one of those picky avsforum users im sure the team is not overly fond of, im a little paranoid now which of my blu ray rips might be transcoded. How exactly do we tell the path substitution is working for us and its not transcoding? Once you get the high end madvr crowd from avsforum joining this maybe a bigger concern as we like to make sure our 1:1 rips are not being altered in any way.  My knowledge of networking is poor, but my blu ray library is pretty important to me. 

Edited February 14, 2014 by Ghostm

[Ghostm 74]

I think what I actually failed to realize and failed to understand was how people have this setup and not just how i have mine setup.

 

I have mb server setup on the same pc with all my hard drives through unc i assume that is classified as direct access and nothing was ever being transcoded? Since my harddrives are on the same pc thats running media browser server.

 

When luke mentioned direct access he was referring to people who have maybe mb server setup on a separate pc, and a nas or something completely separate where they store all the media in a different location?

 

I hope im grasping this but with alot of variables I just want to make sure my setup is tailored the way i like it (no transcoding) i see a post currently above me with concerns about what is being transcoded.

Edited February 14, 2014 by Ghostm

[Koleckai Silvestri 1154]

Two ways to tell if the server is transcoding for playback.

 

1) the CPU on the server will spike and FFMPEG will start spawning multiple threads.

 

2) the server will start writing many .ts files to your transcoding-temp folder which is under the MediaBrowser-Server folder within %appdata% by default.

[Ghostm 74]

Ah thanks for the info!

 

I am just taking a look here and really in my setup nothing was ever being transcoded to mbt from what i can tell.

 

I just compared some vc-1 files with path substitution and some with no path substitution and mb server generally showed 0% cpu usage for both, occasionally spiking to 2% at max for both but generally stayed at 0%, my temp transcoding folder is also empty, so I really think in my case i have no need to setup path substitution, as far as i can tell i have not seen any benefit within my setup. 

[Ghostm 74]

Also just to verify i played some media back on my tablet, and you can definitely see the FFMPEG in task manager running, and the file then appeared in my temp folder. 

[ebr 16169]

If you set your library up using UNC paths that all other machines can "see" and your server is on Windows, then you will have no need for the path translation.