Thanks for the replies, haven't had a chance to post an update in a while, nor work on this for that matter as sudden events had me out of town for a while.
Hi again,
What an ordeal! I am afraid you are right about everything going south when you used the computer to copy all of your videos. I think you stumbled on a possible solution by copying the files to the new folder. I might suggest you simply try a move command with the rest of your videos and put them in the same folder and then do a refresh. I say all because the "Refresh All" command is going to take x hours to do it's thing and if it works, you should be good. You'll at least know in the morning.
I was thinking this, and actually performed an experiment where I 'copied' a few of my directories to a new location, and then 'moved' those same directories to a second new location. 'Refreshed All' and then 6 hours later I was able to view all videos (navigating their proper directory tree to get there) in either of these new locations (i.e. 'copied to' or 'moved to').
That said, simply moving my entire big directory and refreshing all is NOT working. So there's more to it. I think the UPnP media server that comes with this device has some sort of '
all or nothing' idiocy associated with it. What I mean is, if one file/directory is not playing nice with it in a directory, then NONE of the contents stored in the same directory as the offending file(s) will be made available.
Of course, given the tools to figure out the offending file is going to be a major P.I.T.A: Move a few files, 'refresh all', wait 6 hours or more, try again. If all working, move a few more, 'refresh all', wait 6 hours, try again, etc. If at some point, it doesn't work, move some the most recently moved files out, 'refresh all', wait 6 hours, try again, etc until you isolate all offending files. Obviously this method will work, unfortunately by that time my now 4 year old will be off to college.
I am not certain, but the xbox might not only be picky about file types but also bit rates and characters used in the file names. I had problems like that with an Argosy media player, "[ ] { }", in the file name killed the playback. Just something to check.
Well, I have read about this file name issue with XBox, but, I am going to say if there is a file name issue, it's not the XBox doing it (not alone anyway), it's definitely this UPnP service with the DNS-320.
Case in point. I can mount the DNS-320 on my linux computer system. Use the program 'uShare' (which is a 4 or so year old UPnP service one can download from sourceforge) and then use uShare to stream my videos to my XBOX
without any issues what-so-ever. We're talking the EXACT same files on the dns-320 that are NOT able to be seen with it's own UPnP service, but are easily handled by uShare. Oh, and might I add, a 'refresh all' in ushare takes about 2 seconds, max. Still not certain what the 'refresh all' on the DNS-320 is trying to do for 6 hours. :/
...Also, I have found that files added to an existing UPNP folder show up quickly...if you create a new folder outside of an existing folder you may need to do the manual "refresh all".
Hold up! If I am understanding this correctly, I actually might be able to isolate the offending files before my 4 year old is ready for college...
So, you mean if I add contents to an existing directory that has already been added to the UPnP service, I don't need to 'refresh all' in order to get them to show up? Does it happen instantly, or, do I have to wait a bit? Is there a manual refresh somewhere that I've missed that's different from the 'refresh all'. Like a 'refresh just this folder' type of option?
The poor performance may not all be the 320. I don't recall how you are getting the steam from your 320 to your xbox so without more info I don't know what to say, except if you have a long enough ethernet to string from the router to your TV, you will know if it is the 320 or something else.
Can't think of anything else right now. Good luck
Well, both my computer using ushare, and the DNS-320 are on the same router, standard 6' CAT5 cable used for each. I then run a 50' cable from that router to the living room where the XBOX is. Being doing it this way since 2008 when I got the XBOX and installed uShare on my Linux computer; at that time AMD Athlon 3500, since upgraded to a 3 core AMD last year -- but irrelevant because videos have always played fine using uShare running on my Linux machine as the UPnP service.
My whole point of buying this DNS-320 is I wanted to save on the electrical bill of always having the computer on in order to be able to watch my videos. Having the 'light weight' box seemed a more elegant solution than running an entire computer system all the time.
Also, as said before
but I can not emphasize this enough, I can simply run uShare on my Linux computer and point it to look for the files stored on the DNS-320, and not only do all videos play on my XBOX through this service (naturally this implies the files can be found and directory tree navigated properly), but, they run at high performance, none of this choppy video playback that was observed with the very very very limited videos I've gotten to be detected with the DNS-320's own UPnP service.
At any rate, I'd love it if someone from D-Link themselves ever chimed in on the myriad threads where people are expressing frustration over getting their UPnP service working properly. This device certainly isn't something for a layman, you actually have to be quite a techie actually to get anywhere with this. I'm not sure who their market was, but, all marketing seems oriented towards a less technical audience. Thus my surprise at how incredibly difficult it is to get this to play nicely.
Well, I really appreciate your input into this, especially if it is true that I don't need to hit 'refresh all' each time I want to test something. Any further ideas is also appreciated.
Thanks again.