QNap TS-101 and more...

High_Yield · Post by **High_Yield** » Mon Jan 22, 2007 2:52 am

Hi -

I have a TS-101 which I LOVE

so far. Just upated the firmware to 2.00 to use SSL for Web Files, Townky 4.2, and other but anyway...

I'm thinking of buying a SMCWAA-G from SMCNetworks - it seems more solid than the similar Netgear 101 model. I did run your 4.2Q version of Twonky briefly on my NAS, it behaves a bit oddly from my brief usage but hopefully bugs will be worked out. It did seem to SLOWLY scan for media but since I have no UpNP device yet - I cannot really fully test it.

Finally, my real question. If I were buy the SMCWAA-G, will its remote work with Twonkyvision 4.2? Can you help me understand what to expect

as I am new to the Network Media Player world.

PS - I truly am happy with the TS-101. Print server, FTP, Web, Web File access, Multimedia(thumbnail pictures), file sharing and user rights all working great! And no fan so it's quiet and then goes into standby and uses 7 watts - SWEET!

Vince · Post by **Vince** » Sun Feb 25, 2007 3:28 am

This is probably old news but the SMCWAA-G remote works fine with Twonky

cds · Post by **cds** » Sat Mar 10, 2007 12:29 pm

Well,

I'm affraid the problem that Twonky is so slow on scanning might be the reason why you finally are not going to use the new FW, since this slowless is really really significant.

Just to give you an idea: With the 1.0.0 FW including Twonky 3.1 on my TS-201 a complete rescan of all my media files (like 23000 MP3's) takes about 15 Minutes. With FW 2.0.0 (or 2.0.1) including Twonky 4.2q this takes more than 9 hours. This is finally makes me staying stuck with the old FW unless this is fixed.

According to a response from Twonky this issue is fixed in newer releases of Twonky 4.2 - hopefully QNAP is adding this soon then .

CDS

paulwa · Post by **paulwa** » Thu May 24, 2007 9:14 am

I want to find out whether your TS101 recognises playlists OK. I had a Lacie NAS drive, which also ran Twonky, but couldn't pick up my M3U playlists. I got my money back and now have a QNAP on order. I just hope that playlists work this time around.

paulwa · Post by **paulwa** » Sun May 27, 2007 7:13 am

My TS101 arrived. I'm having trouble with playlists. I'm wondering whether my M3U format playlists, created in a Windows environment, aren't compatible when copied into the QNAP Linux environment? I've been trying to edit the directory naming structure within the M3U file, but the embedded Twonky just won't find my files.

First question. Whereas Windows is happy to see something like C:\Music\The Clash\Sandinista\songname.mp3, does the NAS (Linux) expect to see "/" replace "\"?

I'm putting my M3U files into a folder called "Music" within the Qmultimedia folder, which is the one scanned for media. It's also where my other album folders sit. So do my file references need to be complete or relative?, i.e. should they be "//Qmultimedia/Music/The Clash/Sandinista/songname..." or perhaps they should be "/The Clash/Sandinista/songname..."?

Anyone really sussed out how to get playlists working for Twonky on the QNAP? I'd love an Idiot's Guide! Thanks

paulwa · Post by **paulwa** » Sun May 27, 2007 7:50 am

I just found this advice on the Twonky FAQ page:

The playlist files contain the path names to the MP3 files. If the playlists are generated on a Windows system the following adjustments are necessary:

Replace all backslashes by forwardslashes \ -> /

Change the path to the full qualified Linux path, e.g. c:\my documents\my music -> /usr/home/me/my documents/my music

So now I know what my real question is. What should the correct path name be for music files places in a folder called "Music", which sits inside the "Qmultimedia" root folder?

Sorry if I'm being an idiot, but I think I've already tried a number of obvious alternatives. Does there need to be a reference to the server name in the path? Mine would be "/QNAPSERVER/Qmultimedia..."

Does there need to be a "//" at the start of the path, or is that me thinking of a Windows UNC link again?

paulwa · Post by **paulwa** » Sun May 27, 2007 6:35 pm

I managed to find the answer to my own question, but it wasn't easy, so I'm going to post it here for other poor souls...

I started with my music files in C:\Music on a Windows PC, and an M3U playlist with path names like this:

C:\Music\KT Tunstall\Eye to the Telescope\04 Suddenly I See.mp3

I then moved my entire library onto the QNAP TS-101, which is of course a Linux device. The QNAP looks for the audio files in a shared folder called "Qmultimedia". I created a folder within that called Music (but that's just how I choose to organise things), so after a lot of testing and playing I updated the path names in my M3U playlist file to the following structure:

../Qmultimedia/Music/KT Tunstall/Eye to the Telescope/04 Suddenly I See.mp3

I put the resulting playlist into the Qmultimedia/Music directory, but even then my Roku Soundbridge wouldn't find the songs within the playlist. After much web-searching I found out it was because of incompatibility between the way that Linux wants to read the file that was created in Windows.

The answer was to use a web-based tool to carry out a command known as "dos2unix" conversion in the UNIX/Linux world: http://www.iconv.com/dos2unix.htm

Upload your re-worked M3U file into this and it will convert it into something that Linux can read, which enables Twonky to serve it correctly from the QNAP device to your media player. However the converted file you get as a download is renamed to something like "25250.txt". If you just rename this back to what you need it to be, e.g. "Best of The Clash.m3u", it seems to work. Of course you need to do a re-scan in Twonky so it picks up the new playlists on the NAS drive.

Hope this helps others who might be having a nightmare with playlists, but I wish there was an automated tool out there. It goes to show how far we need to go before these systems become truly usable for the mass market.

Rage · Post by **Rage** » Sun Jun 03, 2007 8:27 pm

Does this mean yo have to do it for every song? I can load folders onto my TS100 using Explorer and dragging and dropping into QMultimedia. I have the same issue where there is no search functionality, my soundbridge actually reads the files in the Server Containers.

zooman · Post by **zooman** » Mon Jun 04, 2007 1:19 pm

Rage wrote:Does this mean yo have to do it for every song? I can load folders onto my TS100 using Explorer and dragging and dropping into QMultimedia. I have the same issue where there is no search functionality, my soundbridge actually reads the files in the Server Containers.

I did not need to do it with playlists (.m3u-type) created in winamp. I just made sure the relative paths were all correct.

paulwa · Post by **paulwa** » Mon Jun 04, 2007 1:34 pm

For songs/albums I just loaded them straight into Qmultimedia, worked fine. Only had a problem with playlists. Since then I found that you can simply drag and drop the "iTunes Music Library.xml" file into Qmultimedia, which Twonky finds and serves up your playlists much more simply.