DSM-520 - TwonkyVision - ReadyNAS ... some questions
Posted: Tue Nov 21, 2006 2:38 pm
OK, lets try this again. I typed the whole thing the first time then lost it when I hit submit. I just started using a D-Link DSM-520, TwonkyVision Media, and the Infrant ReadyNAS NV+ together this week. I have made progress, but some questions remain.
Music --
I am in pretty good shape here. After a lot of trial and error I finally got MediaMonkey (great free program) to rip my CDs, and now I'm getting good organization out of the box with the setup. I just rip directly to //media/music on the ReadyNAS, and the DSM-520 gives me great organization. I can look at music by Album, Artist, Genre, Folder, etc. What I'm missing, which I thought I had read that you could do, is the album artwork. I've tried storing the thumbnail in the tag, and also in the folder on the ReadyNAS, and neither seems to trigger the DSM-520 to show the cover artwork. Does this work, and if so how?
Pictures --
I've tried loading a couple of folders of images onto the ReadyNAS and I'm only able to get a look at All, Folder, and Date. I'd like to also be able to see them by keyword and description, which I thought I added in the Twonky configuration, but still not getting anything. Where do I store the keywords and description at? Is this in the EXIF data? I've tried adding keywords with PhotoMechanic, which I think uses EXIF, to no avail. Tips?
Also, is there a recommended format for the images? I've tried downsizing them to fit a 1024x1024 box at 200dpi (the dpi should be meaningless for this, but I threw it in anyway), and they seem to look about the same as 8MP and 13MP do. They load a lot quicker though. Sometimes it seems that my portrait mode images are slightly magnified so that I lose the top and bottom of them... is there a way to prevent this? Is there a proper resolution I can use to help this? Colors look a little oversaturated too to me, compared to a computer screen. Is there a way to help with this as well? Overall, the pictures look OK for a slide show, but no where near computer monitor.
Video --
This is where I'm struggling the most. I have ripped DVDs with DVDShrink and DVDDecrypter with similar results. In both cases, I end up with a main DVD title directory, and then a couple of directories of files below them. If I copy these to //media/video on the ReadyNAS, the DSM-520 and Twonky don't seem to know how to organize by Title? How do I get that to work? It ends up just showing me all the non-descript VOB files in one big list. I'd like to retain the whole folder for future use if I wanted to burn something, and I don't want to retain multiple copies of this stuff since they are so big.
Forgetting the structure thing, one solution is to rip it to one big VOB for the main movie... then rename that VOB to MovieTitle.VOB, and just copy that to the ReadyNAS. While this works fine for viewing, there is no way to skip ahead that I have found.... by chapter? Skipping by chapter is a pretty basic DVD playback feature that I need. If I same them as multiple VOBs and name them MovieTitle_1.VOB, MovieTitle_2.VOB, etc... then stick those in a directory for the title, the DSM-520 isn't grouping it as a title.
How do I store my DVD files to get this to work by All, Title, Genre, and Folder?
Another problem I'm having with DVD, is that I don't think its saving the surround sound audio... when I play back, its only using the front two speakers. I'm using digital audio. Is there something I'm doing wrong in the rip and playback that I can switch to fix that?
Thanks.
Music --
I am in pretty good shape here. After a lot of trial and error I finally got MediaMonkey (great free program) to rip my CDs, and now I'm getting good organization out of the box with the setup. I just rip directly to //media/music on the ReadyNAS, and the DSM-520 gives me great organization. I can look at music by Album, Artist, Genre, Folder, etc. What I'm missing, which I thought I had read that you could do, is the album artwork. I've tried storing the thumbnail in the tag, and also in the folder on the ReadyNAS, and neither seems to trigger the DSM-520 to show the cover artwork. Does this work, and if so how?
Pictures --
I've tried loading a couple of folders of images onto the ReadyNAS and I'm only able to get a look at All, Folder, and Date. I'd like to also be able to see them by keyword and description, which I thought I added in the Twonky configuration, but still not getting anything. Where do I store the keywords and description at? Is this in the EXIF data? I've tried adding keywords with PhotoMechanic, which I think uses EXIF, to no avail. Tips?
Also, is there a recommended format for the images? I've tried downsizing them to fit a 1024x1024 box at 200dpi (the dpi should be meaningless for this, but I threw it in anyway), and they seem to look about the same as 8MP and 13MP do. They load a lot quicker though. Sometimes it seems that my portrait mode images are slightly magnified so that I lose the top and bottom of them... is there a way to prevent this? Is there a proper resolution I can use to help this? Colors look a little oversaturated too to me, compared to a computer screen. Is there a way to help with this as well? Overall, the pictures look OK for a slide show, but no where near computer monitor.
Video --
This is where I'm struggling the most. I have ripped DVDs with DVDShrink and DVDDecrypter with similar results. In both cases, I end up with a main DVD title directory, and then a couple of directories of files below them. If I copy these to //media/video on the ReadyNAS, the DSM-520 and Twonky don't seem to know how to organize by Title? How do I get that to work? It ends up just showing me all the non-descript VOB files in one big list. I'd like to retain the whole folder for future use if I wanted to burn something, and I don't want to retain multiple copies of this stuff since they are so big.
Forgetting the structure thing, one solution is to rip it to one big VOB for the main movie... then rename that VOB to MovieTitle.VOB, and just copy that to the ReadyNAS. While this works fine for viewing, there is no way to skip ahead that I have found.... by chapter? Skipping by chapter is a pretty basic DVD playback feature that I need. If I same them as multiple VOBs and name them MovieTitle_1.VOB, MovieTitle_2.VOB, etc... then stick those in a directory for the title, the DSM-520 isn't grouping it as a title.
How do I store my DVD files to get this to work by All, Title, Genre, and Folder?
Another problem I'm having with DVD, is that I don't think its saving the surround sound audio... when I play back, its only using the front two speakers. I'm using digital audio. Is there something I'm doing wrong in the rip and playback that I can switch to fix that?
Thanks.