Newbie questions (maybe)

[Lowlander]

Hi,

first of all congratulations for your piece of software! It really seems to be able to take care for each and every aspect of DLNA streaming. For the price of being pretty complex for beginners. Since I've only got the trial period to estimate if the WMS suits my needs or not, I have a few - maybe basic - questions about the concept:

I own a Sony BDP-S370 and from what I've read about DLNA, the server should do basically the following:
- provide a somehow organized list of playable media to the player.
- transcode media that the player can't understand by itself
- stream media that the player can understand unaltered
- decide which is which based on codecs (not containers)
- leave media that neither the server nor the player can understand off the list

I installed WMS (which was quite straightforward), set up the player's profile and chose the server from the player's menu. I was instantly presented with a VAST folder structure with multiple instances of every video file, distributed across multiple instances of the folders on my server. For example there is a folder Watch Folders where all videos reside and can be chosen by the player, but not every one of them does play, because the player is not able to. And there is another folder beneath Transcoding/Watch Folders with ALL files transcoded, regardless if the player could play them unaltered or not.

And this is my first problem in understanding the concept of WMS: I somehow expected a (=one) folder structure representing my own folder structure with just one instance of every video and the server deciding wheter it has to be transcoded or not, based on the player's profile. So in that folder structure every file should be playable (or not being presented to the player at all).

I think I'm missing something here.

Have a nice one,
Low

[Eugene]

Hi,

I installed WMS (which was quite straightforward), set up the player's profile and chose the server from the player's menu. I was instantly presented with a VAST folder structure with multiple instances of every video file, distributed across multiple instances of the folders on my server. For example there is a folder Watch Folders where all videos reside and can be chosen by the player, but not every one of them does play, because the player is not able to. And there is another folder beneath Transcoding/Watch Folders with ALL files transcoded, regardless if the player could play them unaltered or not.

Unnecessary folders you can hide on the right button of the mouse.

And this is my first problem in understanding the concept of WMS: I somehow expected a (=one) folder structure representing my own folder structure with just one instance of every video and the server deciding wheter it has to be transcoded or not, based on the player's profile. So in that folder structure every file should be playable (or not being presented to the player at all).

Device manufacturers typically do not report (and think does not really know) what files from Internet support their devices.
The device does not report that it will play and what does not. All that is written in the user manual, written for the files that were on the device manufacturers. Usually, the reality is different. The user should have a choice and the program it provides.

[Lowlander]

Eugene,

thank for your quick reply! So I got it right that the Sony BD profile in WMS reflects Sony's specification rather than the player's actual capabilites to play file xyz, reported by users or determined in your own tests?

Have a nice one,
Low

[Eugene]

thank for your quick reply! So I got it right that the Sony BD profile in WMS reflects Sony's specification rather than the player's actual capabilites to play file xyz, reported by users or determined in your own tests?

Configuration created on my tests (S470)

[Lowlander]

Ok, I see.

Can I have just one more clarification, please: Are files that can be natively played supposed to be listed in the same folder as files that need to be transcoded or will I always have to look for natively playable files in the Watch Folders folder and for files that need to be transcoded underneath the Transcoding folder? Both folders list all available files, so that's a bit tricky.

[Eugene]

Can I have just one more clarification, please: Are files that can be natively played supposed to be listed in the same folder as files that need to be transcoded or will I always have to look for natively playable files in the Watch Folders folder and for files that need to be transcoded underneath the Transcoding folder? Both folders list all available files, so that's a bit tricky.

List of supported files: Settings - Device - "Embedded file support". Additional verification that supports the device can be determined Settings - "File Types" - choose a filetype - Edit.
All that is not supported automatically transcodes. Folder Transcoding is convenient that the choice of the original and transcoded content near.

[Lowlander]

What confused me a bit was that in the Watch Folders folder there were a lot of files that didn't play at all (player tried to start playback, but gave back they were damaged), so I assumed I had to choose the transcoded versions of the same videos in the Transcoding folder.

Anyway, ALL files present in the Watch Folders folder are supposed to be playable one way or the other. I'll give it another try tonight.