Twonky Server 6.0.34 on ReadyNas Duo (Album Art)

General discussion about the media server. Feature requests. Hints, tips and tricks.
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iburnell
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Twonky Server 6.0.34 on ReadyNas Duo (Album Art)

Post by iburnell » Sat Sep 17, 2011 6:02 pm

Need a bit of help from experts please. I have ReadyNAS Duo with my CDs ripped to Flac using DBPoweramp playing into a Naim Uniti. It all works fine - I created a Nas share called Flac and on the media player it finds the upnp share and plays no problem. I downloaded an app called N-Stream to allow me to control the Naim unit from my iPad. Again all works fine but only issue is no cover art showing. Various forums suggested the built in upnp on the Nas drive was not up to scratch and to download Twonky. I used the bin file located on the netgear readnynas forum and installed just fine.

Now I see two shares the orginal for the readynas + the new Twonky share. I took the option to aggregate my existing share and all I now see are two duplicates again with no artwork. I haven't tried the autocopy option. I tried manually copying (through windows) some files but they don't show up on the Twonky side as far as I can see. Clearly what I want to end up with is one share all the flac files/albums and the artwork displayed.

What am I doing wrong?
Thanks.

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Briain
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Re: Twonky Server 6.0.34 on ReadyNas Duo (Album Art)

Post by Briain » Sat Sep 17, 2011 9:09 pm

Hi

The new Twonky share is purely for the Twonky installation files. The reason it's visible is to enable users to easily change the trees without having to use Linux and SSH (they're the XML files in the 'views' folder). The default Twonky ReadyNAS settings are set to point to the Music, Pictures and Videos folders on the Media share. I'm not sure what your art problem is though; it should all be okay. Are you using embedded art or Folder jpg? Incidentally, selecting either Asset Control Point, Bubble Control Point, Chorus Control Point, Linn DS Control Point or Songbook Control Point against the MAC/IP of your control point device will ensure you get full resolution art displayed (the Generic Media Receiver one is only 160 pixels).

Bri

iburnell
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Re: Twonky Server 6.0.34 on ReadyNas Duo (Album Art)

Post by iburnell » Sun Sep 18, 2011 8:02 am

Thanks for replying Briain

ok - so you don't actually store files on the Twonky share - that being the case if you select the upload option and import a file where are they stored ? and whats the difference between aggregate and copy i.e. does it take a copy of the files/directories?

I had some issues with the Naim media player recognising the default media share on the ReadyNas so I deleted it and created a new share I called Flac. Using DBPoweramp it rips each CD to a sub-folder and creates a .jpg file for the cover art. On the ReadyNAS I have set the default media player to point to that flac share and it works fine - just the artwork not being displayed on this iPad app - which I was told by putting twonky as an add-on would fix

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Briain
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Re: Twonky Server 6.0.34 on ReadyNas Duo (Album Art)

Post by Briain » Sun Sep 18, 2011 3:42 pm

Hi

There are a few things that spring to mind about your setup. Firstly, I should point out that I'm not familiar with the Naim media player; the last Naim stuff I had was a heavily modified 12s (with individual DC regulators per daughter board) and a 250 (silver edged one) and that was a while back (when I also had chipboard Isobariks). :)

Assuming the Naim DS is using Twonky, I'm not sure why it would need share level access to the NAS, but if it is working more like a Sonos (indexing the media on the share) then it wouldn't even need Twonky, so I am a little confused about why it's needing both. Anyhow, I'll describe more than is likely necessary (including what might be some useful tips) in order to ensure you have enough information to sort things out (I hope) and drive it all correctly.

Back to your current setup though: I was in regular contact with Super-Poussin when the ReadyNAS addon was being designed. It was me who suggested making the views folder accessible (to change trees) and I also proposed a few default settings that Twonky would pick up at the installation time. Assuming all ReadyNAS devices had Music, Picture and Video folders on the media share, I proposed that we set Twonky to only see the media share such that when the browse button was pressed (in the Twonky sharing page) then only files on the Media share were shown. The alternative (to show all shares) also meant that when you hit the browse button, you also saw all the Linux files and folders as options. This seemed a good plan at the time, but of course it causes problems when folks create a new share. That said, there is a very easy solution as you can change this setting via your web browser.

The setting is actually in the Twonky ini file and it is called the contentbase. The setting defines the start point when you hit the browse button, so at the moment, in the ini file it will be set to contentbase=/media. You can see this for yourself by entering the below line (called an RPC call) into your web browser. For all the examples, I'm going to assume the NAS to be on 192.168.96.20 (so you'll have to substitute your own NAS IP address instead the one in my examples):

Code: Select all

http://192.168.96.20:9000/rpc/get_all
This will show you all the settings including the contentbase.

To change the content base to the new FLAC share, you could use the below:

Code: Select all

http://192.168.96.20:9000/rpc/set_option?contentbase=/FLAC
or to change it to let you browse from the root and thus set a path to any of the shares, you could use the below:

Code: Select all

http://192.168.96.20:9000/rpc/set_option?contentbase=/
After changing the contentbase, use the restart Twonky button (Twonky config page under maintenance) and that will pick up the revised contentbase settings from the ini file.

This will now permit you to set Twonky config sharing page to point to your music files on the FLAC share (then set the paths to the music folders and type to 'music only').

As to uploading the music, I never use the Twonky web upload feature, but instead rip my albums to the PC first, then upload them directly to the NAS using Windows Explorer (or Mac finder if you are on a Mac). To access the NAS using Windows Explorer, there are two neat ways:

1. Map a network drive to the share (in your case, the FLAC share)
2. Create a desktop shortcut to point to the NAS by using its host name.

For option 2, I have changed all my NAS type items (I have 3 plus a WDTV box) to easy names; in my case, Scottish island names. The ReadyNAS host name can be found (and changed) in the Frontview network settings and will currently look something like 'NAS-02-3A-2C' (the last bit being part of its MAC address). Of course, if you change it, you'd have to change the name used in your Naim share mapping setup. In my case, the main NAS is called 'Islay' so to access it, I can type the below (in XP run or Win7 search):

\\Islay

The above opens a window showing all the shares; you can then drag one to the desktop to create a shortcut to it. If you already have dBpa ripping directly to the NAS, then you must have a mapped drive set up already (as described in option 1) so all you need do is change the Twonky contentbase and then use the Twonky config page to browse to the paths to your music.

Hope that helps, but please ask if you get into difficulty.

Bri

PS I find it easier to rip disks to the PC then upload them once done. That is actually faster and gives you the chance to edit any tags or art on the PC (rather than something like MP3TAG dragging the files off the NAS, updating the art, then uploading them again) but if you are not intending editing tags, it's okay to rip directly to the NAS (many folks I know do just that).

iburnell
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Re: Twonky Server 6.0.34 on ReadyNas Duo (Album Art)

Post by iburnell » Sun Sep 18, 2011 5:49 pm

Briain,

Thanks very much for taking the time to give such a detailed explanation. I'm nearly there now. Changed the contentbase folder and its all pulled in nicely. Final question. As you described I have already change the NAS name to IJBNas. In ReadyNas Frontview/Streaming services I have set ReadyDLNA to the share Flac. The Naim Uniti is a media music player like Sonos so simply sees what it finds, so I see IJBNas server i.e. the Nas drive Flac/Music shares. Now I see two shares with the new Twonky MediaServer as well. Should I untick this option to just see the Twonky Share ?

Ian.

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Briain
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Re: Twonky Server 6.0.34 on ReadyNas Duo (Album Art)

Post by Briain » Sun Sep 18, 2011 6:15 pm

Hi

You probably shouldn't run both ReadyDLNA and Twonky; you only need one media server, so I'd disable ReadyDLNA and just use Twonky (if you really do need to run two servers for some reason, check they're not both sitting on port 9000). As to Twonky, unless I'm missing something bespoke that you are trying to do, I'd suggest that it would be best to just point it to the [FLAC] share with your music on it, so yes, let's see if these final 2 tweaks maybe sort it all out. :)

Bri

iburnell
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Re: Twonky Server 6.0.34 on ReadyNas Duo (Album Art)

Post by iburnell » Tue Sep 20, 2011 6:59 am

Yes that's done the trick - working prefectly - all down to the contentbase line in the ini file

Briain many thanks for your help and advice

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