Whats the story with TwonkyMedia Server and NAS Support?

[neilgower]

Hi,

I have read through the forums a bit and I am a little confused about Twonky support for NAS installations.. I run Twonky on an NSLU2, this is a fantastic arrangement, and has been running for 3 years without issue.

I have been looking at upgrading to a newer version of Twonky, and I am also looking at getting as second NAS to run as a media server, as the NSLU2 has as much storage on it as it will support, I am looking at an IcyNox NAS which says it has Twonky on it, but Twoky do not seem to support NAS.

So here are my questions.

1. Is Twonky supported on the NSLU2, and will the new versions of the media server (e.g. 5) make it onto the NSLU2, i.e will there still be installers or are w on our own!

2. If I buy a NAS with Twonky pre-installed on it e.g. the Linksys NAS200 or the IcyBox NAS-4420, will they be supported going foreward or will I be stuck with whatever version is on it??


If Twonky are no longer supporting NAS installations why is it still being shipped to NAS manufacturers?

Can someone please clarify what ongoing suppot there will be for existing NAS installations, and the NAS installations currently being offered by people like Linksys and Icybox.

A NAS is the best solution for me, I dont want to run a PC as a mediaserver.

I love Twonky but if it is not going to be supported on NAS boxes, or if I buy a NAS with Twonky on it, then I will be left unsupported I wont bother, and I will have to look for another mediaserver, which is a shame as Twonly was perfect.

Can amyone clarify the situation.

Neil

[mgillespie]

My understanding, and I may also be wrong, as it's slightly confusing situation, is that self-installs of NAS are no longer supported, as each NAS did things it's own way.

However if your NAS came with TwonkyMedia server, that that WILL still be supported, but via the manufacturer of the device.

[neilgower]

Hi,

It is indeed confusing, if support is just through the NAS manufacturer then there is no gaurentee that future version of Twonky will run on your NAS, I would have thought if Twonky sell the server for pre-installtion with a manufacturer it would then be supported for a number of versions.

Tjis would certainly put me off using Twonky on a NAS.

Its a shame as I chose Twonky because it did come ready to run on NAS (installers for) and it was a key differentiatior for the product. PC based media systems/servers is a crowded space. I wish Twonky good luck although I think they may just become a niche product...

Now if you are pretty much on you own, unless you run it on a PC (I know they will support WIN/MAC/Linux) then there are a whole host of mediaservers I can now choose from and I am afraid Twonky is not as good as some of the free ones!

Guess I will look at building as Linux media PC and choose another solution...

[tomh009]

I have Twonky running on the IcyBox IB-NAS4220-B (a very nice NAS unit that supports using a RAID-1 mirror -- don't want to lose all my files!). It works very well in general, except that I can't figure out how to make playlists work (see other thread).

Raidsonic provides the Twonky packages for download on their web site. The latest one they currently have is 4.4.9, from October, but I'm hopeful that they will also make 5.0 available. If they do ... this fills in the gap between Twonky's generic Linux support and the NAS units' specific installation package requirements.

http://www.raidsonic.de/en/pages/service/driver.php

[tomh009]

Guess I will look at building as Linux media PC and choose another solution...

While this certainly can be done (I was looking at doing this myself), it'll be hard to match the form factor, power consumption and silence of a dedicated NAS unit. Not to mention the easy admin ...

[tomh009]

While this certainly can be done (I was looking at doing this myself), it'll be hard to match the form factor, power consumption and silence of a dedicated NAS unit. Not to mention the easy admin ...

One more followup to my own posts -- with the SSH server that Raidsonic has on their web site, you should be able to configure the IB-NAS4220-B to work with 5.0, even if there isn't a pre-made package. Nice work by Raidsonic!

[neilgower]

Hi,

Thanks tomh009, I was looking at purchasing that NAS, sounds like Raidsonic are going to support it, so I might still take the plunge, as a NAS solution really is the best option for me...

How have you found the RadiSonic NAS, is looks perfect and its a great price, I am just trying to get confirmation that they support Samsung Spinpoint 1TB drives, as I understand the raid controller had/has an issue with these.

If I can get confirmation of this I may take the plunge...

[tomh009]

How have you found the RadiSonic NAS, is looks perfect and its a great price, I am just trying to get confirmation that they support Samsung Spinpoint 1TB drives, as I understand the raid controller had/has an issue with these.

Very happy with the IcyBox. It's compact, decent-looking and quiet (I have two WD 500 GB drives running in quiet seek mode). The management pages are clean and once I sorted out how to install applications I was even happier. And other than the Twonky playlist bug, the Twonky server works great with my SoundBridge.

It also has a print server function but that's a bit of a hack (Samba is really somewhat limited in how it does network printing) so will eventually get a proper networked printer. However, I am planning to get one more 500 GB disk and uses the one-button USB backup function to do quick backups to an offline disk. Just in case!

[flynn]

When I bought my 4.x.x license, Twonky provided installs for NAS devices like my D-Link DNS 323. That install is why I purchased it, and what I was expecting to continue to receive through 4.x.x.

Is it possible to post the NAS installs for the remaining 4.x.x versions?
What is the last version which has the NAS installs posted?

[phatair]

Hi flynn,

i had the same problem like you. I use a Synology DS 107+ and i found the last version of NAS installer for my NAS on a Synology forum. So i think you should search in these forums for the version. I dont think that anybody from twonky give you a link to the version

The last NAS installer Version was the 4.9.9

P.s. maybe THIS helps you - see post #5 - there is a download link

[mortenvinding]

I have been using Twonkymedia server for more than a year and been very happy about it.

My setup is a Asus W-500gP router running OpenWRT with a USB harddrive attached. This set up has been stable and fast enough for my need (only playing music trough my Philips SLA5520).

Recently I have upgraded to the newest release candidate of OpenWRT, Kamikaze 8.09RC1, witch is using uclibc 0.9.29.
The new firmware seems to be not compatible with Twonkymedia Server 4.4.9, and therefore I have been looking for an update to solve this problem.
Now I see I can't get an update since Twonky apparently no longer will provide packages for my setup, and even if they did I would have to pay for a new version to solve incompatibility with newer versions of uClibc!

The good think about this is it opened my eyes for the quite good Open Source alternatives there has come out.
The still might lack the speed of Twonky (which is really fast to scan content), but the sure as hell beats it on functionality and at least with these am sure my setup will remain supported.

Without NAS support I think there is very few reasons to chose Twonky...

/Morten

[tomh009]

The good think about this is it opened my eyes for the quite good Open Source alternatives there has come out. The still might lack the speed of Twonky (which is really fast to scan content), but the sure as hell beats it on functionality and at least with these am sure my setup will remain supported.

Without NAS support I think there is very few reasons to chose Twonky...

Alas, open source is no guarantee of continued support, either -- there are probably hundreds or thousands of abandoned open-source projects out there. For every Apache, PHP or KDE there will be ten others that lost the momentum.

The gap between the Twonky standard Linux install and a NAS-compatible package is really not very large. One thought could be to do user-supported NAS packages for Twonky. Once we have a package for one NAS, others should be relatively easy.

[mortenvinding]

No opensource is no guaranty for support, but when there exist a couple of project giving the functionality that I need, chances the both will disappear (with out leaving a better solution or merge with some other project) is very limited.

Don't get me wrong, I would love to again run Twonky on my little router, but I will NOT downgrade my OpenWRT firmware version and I will not pay one more.
No porting to other platforms probably isn't that hard, but it as minimum requires the sourcecode, and since Twonky is pay ware, that is not available.
Mind you that the WRT routers (also Asus) uses MIPS architecture.

/Morten

[tomh009]

If you need MIPS ... and if you want to run on non-standard firmware like OpenWRT ... then Twonky may indeed not be for you. Personally I'm running standard firmware on my IcyBox IB-NAS4220-B, and really don't have any particular desire to switch to any other firmware.

Further, I just received an email from Raidsonic indicating that they are working with TwonkyMedia on creating an install package for 5.0. It looks like TwonkyMedia's new model is that they will not support NAS users directly, but rather support the NAS OEMs. Which does make sense as a business model, but that means that each one of us needs to put pressure on our specific NAS vendors, rather than hoping that TwonkyMedia will do it for us directly.

[rmkmonk]

I have the IcyBox 4220, and I updated the Twonky software from Raidsonic's support website: it's a bit fiddly to do, but it does work, as far as it goes, i.e. with none of the ability to deliver such formats as FLAC , M4A, etc, contrary to the blurb on their old website.

Now that Twonky has brought out a Linux version of MediaServer 5.0, they have only done so for the i86 platforms, i.e. not the IcyBox, which uses the ARM system. I have tried dumping the files into the twonkymedia folder on the server, and it does not work, so we'll have to wait, won't we.

Please Twonky, just wake up to the fact that, as someone else has said, we don't want to use PCs as media servers!

[tomh009]

Please Twonky, just wake up to the fact that, as someone else has said, we don't want to use PCs as media servers!

My hopes are on Raidsonic getting the work done. They appear to be more responsive than Twonky ...

[phatair]

Please Twonky, just wake up to the fact that, as someone else has said, we don't want to use PCs as media servers!

I can only agree with this - its just a joke to run a pc as an media server. The NAS is the best solution for this. So i hope you think about your decision:!:

[tomh009]

My hopes are on Raidsonic getting the work done. They appear to be more responsive than Twonky ...

And kudos to Raidsonic -- they had the 4.4.11 install package ready for download within two days of Twonky releasing it!

[mortenvinding]

tomh009: So you say that since I'm running "no standard firmware" it's my own fault?!?!

Let me remind you that that is exactly that marked Twonky grew big on.

Taken from the install notes for Asus WL-HDD (the release I'm using since it is fully compatible with my WL-500gP):

The ASUS WLAN-HDD 2.5 runs the Linux Operating System
based on a BCM4710 processor (MIPS little endian).

We use custom firmware to install twonkymedia.

WARNING:
Flashing firmware is a straight-forward procedure. However, there is always
the possibility that something could go wrong and damage your NAS in
the process. Flashing unofficial firmware will probably void your warranty.

More infomation see http://wl500g.info/index.php

I think few NAS'es is capable of running Twonky without any kind of "hacks" (unless of course the came with Twonky already on them).

[bump]

My hopes are on Raidsonic getting the work done. They appear to be more responsive than Twonky ...

And kudos to Raidsonic -- they had the 4.4.11 install package ready for download within two days of Twonky releasing it!

Where do I find the Raidsonic plugins ? Been on their webpage but a bit lost....

-bump