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[jack468]

Hello.

I recently purchased a D-Link DNS-323 to serve media files to my TV via wireless DLNA Samsung bluray player.

It works great, except for two (minor) issues:

1) The directory file structure is kinda annoying. Is this part of the DNS-323 or my player? For example, when I choose the initial Music Video or Photo icon, it shows another directory Music Video and Photo. Then it has a bunch of other directories, like All Folders, after all that then it shows the actual /directory/ I setup on the DNS-323 configuration. Going back you have to remember to go all the way to the main screen to choose Music Video or Photo otherwise your files don't appear. If this is an issue with the DNS-323, is there any way to configure it without having to go through all those folders?

2) When streaming a video, trying to fast forward shows an error 'Not available'. But I can go to my player's options menu and input a time to skip to, but would have been nice just to press a button. Is this cause of the D-Link, my player, or possibly my encode (works fine on WMP though)?

Oh, and is there any possible way to turn down the brightness of the front three LED lights of the DNS-323? They are like a laser pointer into your eyes in the dark.

I've updated to the latest firmware 1.09.

Overall it's a great device, I'm sure I can get more use out of it once I learn the security settings.

Will appreciate any help on the issues above, thank you.

[jamieburchell]

The directory file structure is kinda annoying.

This isn't specific to the DNS-323. I've seen the same with media players using UPnP on other NAS drives (Synology). There seems to be an initial "section" i.e. Music, Photos, Videos - then it shows you the folders on your NAS with those file types filtered.

When streaming a video, trying to fast forward shows an error 'Not available'. But I can go to my player's options menu and input a time to skip to, but would have been nice just to press a button. Is this cause of the D-Link, my player, or possibly my encode (works fine on WMP though)?

If it works with WMP, it would suggest the issue is with the player. However are you streaming via UPnP in both cases?

Oh, and is there any possible way to turn down the brightness of the front three LED lights of the DNS-323? They are like a laser pointer into your eyes in the dark.

You can turn the front LED off in the web admin

[jack468]

Thanks for the response.

1. Regarding the file structure, OK I see. This was my first NAS device so I was very unfamiliar. I hope in the future these devices just show the folders instead of using their own folder-based-filter. It makes no sense to me. I suppose it is good for people who dump all the files in one place.

2. Regarding the fast forward issue, you are correct it is a limitation of my player. I did a bit of researching and it seems people are complaining about the Samsung blu-ray player not fast forwarding on any media other than a BD or DVD disc.

3. Unfortunately I couldn't locate where to turn off the LED lights. Is that available on the normal admin web interface or must some add-on/plugin be installed?

[jamieburchell]

3. Unfortunately I couldn't locate where to turn off the LED lights. Is that available on the normal admin web interface or must some add-on/plugin be installed?

In the normal web admin > Tools > System > Power LED Control.

I think this was introduced in 1.08 firmware, so if you're not running that (or later) you likely won't see the option.

[gianni66]

Hi at all.
Again regarding the file structure.
I have the same problem that the one that Jack describe from a Samsung TV UE32C6000.
When I select "video" icon from TV I found three directory for video, music and photo and if I select video again I have link for "all files" and "folder". Inside "all files" I find the video that I want and also some other video that I have within the photo directory..

At now, from NAS I have "root" shared in UPnP config and all files, video (avi), music (mp3) and photo (jpg) in root folder.
Reading your post I think that something is wrong in my config... I don't understand the way to obtain the right structure.. can you suggest me the right way?
Thank you in advance..

[jamieburchell]

The first set of folders you see aren't in your control as far as I'm aware and are coded in the TV software.  Think of them as categories/file type filters. This also applies to the player mentioned.

[jack468]

I think this was introduced in 1.08 firmware, so if you're not running that (or later) you likely won't see the option.

Thank you Jamie, got it.

Gianni - The way I have mine setup is for each media type I have a folder. For example, I have /Videos/ and only put videos there, /Photos/ and only put photos there, and /Music/ and only put music there. And these three folders (and their subfolders) are in a parent folder /Media/ that I share for UPnP only. I don't share root because I have other items on the drive such as /Backup/.

When you use 'All Files' it shows all files filtered from all subfolders. When you use "Folder" you can browse through your folders.

It appears that Samsung is sloppy and you need to browse through more folders than necessary to get to where you want. For example, sometimes you need to select the main folder's name you are sharing... it should have just shown the items inside IMO. Also if you want to change media type, you must go all the way back to the initial Samsung menu. I don't get the point of their built-in folders when they already have large category icons on the main menu.

If you don't mind extra remote clicking I'd suggest organizing based on folders. I think it will be better especially for growing media and easier to transfer to the next device in the future.

[gianni66]

Thanks for the answer..
Ok, that right, but if in the root directory there are a lot of different files (different mime-types) I expect that, if I select "video" the filter-by-categories from tv read all files and show me only video files.
Why, instead, before this happen I must look another level with again the icons "video", "music" and photo and inside "video" I must select another link "all folders"?
This is the question, I don't know who and why added this double levels... I think the nas daemon is who but why? I don't know...

Hi
Gianni

TV : Video, Music, Photo
> I select Video
NAS: Video, Music, Photo
> I select Video
NAS : All folders, Folders
> I select All Folders
NAS: show me all files

[gianni66]

Sorry Jack,
I haven't read your post before post myself
I'm going to try...

[jack468]

This is the question, I don't know who and why added this double levels... I think the nas daemon is who

From what I understood from Jamie (who answered my initial question), those extra levels and folders are built-in to our Samsung devices. So there's nothing really we can do, unless Samsung releases a firmware in the future that improves the functionality.

[jamieburchell]

So there's nothing really we can do, unless Samsung releases a firmware in the future that improves the functionality.

I doubt that functionality will change. Thinking of it from their point of view, they don't know what folder structures you're going to have setup. So they've created "categories" that filter your files to the appropriate type. It's just a pain that you have to select "Music" (filter) then the "Music" folder on your NAS for example. This is my understanding of it anyway.

[eclipsed7]

I can't help with your problem, but would like to know what model of Bluray player you have and what media server you are running. And if you stream .mkv files via the network with your bluray and DNS-323 setup.
I have a DNS-323 and I am able to stream to a Samsung BD-P3600 via SMB/CIFS easily. I can stream .mkv files. I recently purchased, and returned, a Sony BX37 (S370) as it was supposed to be able to stream from a DLNA server. The sony was not able to see the standard UPnP A/V server of the DNS-323, so I tried Twonky. I was able to stream but not .mkv files unless I changed the extension to .avi. But if I do that, the samsung BR player cannot play the file.
I then found out thru Sony support that the BX37 (S370) does not stream MKV over the network, only via disc or USB. Thus it was returned.
I am looking to see if the new samsung models (C5500/6300/6500,etc) work with the standard UPnP AV server and if .mkv files can be streamed.

TIA

[paulmedynski]

I'm in the same boat as Jack and Gianni.  I have the following filesystem folder structure on my DNS-323:

/media
    /video  - contains only video files (500 files currently)
    /pictures  - contains only image filese (16,000 files currently)
    /music  - contains only audio files (15,000 files currently)

If I set my UPnP base folder to /media, I see the following when browsing via my Xbox 360.  I'm noting in brackets which device I believe is generating each item:

Video Library (Xbox 360)
    ->  All_Folders  (DNS-323 UPnP AV Server)
        -> This option takes a very long time to produce any results, and most of the time never produces any results.
    -> Folders (DNS-323 UPnP AV Server)
        -> video  (filesystem)
            -> This now contains all of the real sub-directories under /media/video on my DNS-323
        -> pictures  (filesystem)
            -> This now contains all of the real sub-directories under /media/pictures on my DNS-323, which of course doesn't produce any files since there are no real video files stored under here.
        -> music  (filesystem)
            -> This now contains all of the real sub-directories under /media/music on my DNS-323, which of course doesn't produce any files since there are no real video files stored under here.

If I want to look at pictures, I do the following on my Xbox:

Picture Library (Xbox 360)
    -> All_Folders  (DNS-323 UPnP AV Server)
        -> Again, this takes a very long time to produce any files, if ever.  On several occasions I have left it searching for over an hour with no luck.
    -> Folders  (DNS-323 UPnP AV Server)
        -> This shows the same filesystem folders as above, but rarely displays any files.  It just spins the little hourglass icon thing, apparently searching for files.

I get the same behaviour for Music Library (Xbox 360) as I do for the Picture Library.

Basically, I think I have too many files for the DNS-323's UPnP AV Server to handle.  It takes around an hour to refresh the UPnP index via the admin website, which is ridiculous.  And once the index is built, the DNS-323 doesn't seem to be able to search it and return results to the Xbox 360 in any reasonable amount of time.  I've tried to find logs for the UPnP AV Server, but they're severely lacking - all I can get is console output if I run the UPnP AV Server manually from a shell.

What I think Jack, Gianni, and I are looking for is a UPnP AV Server that acts exactly like Samba/CIFS.  It serves up the underlying filesystem, and maybe filters out files whose media type/filename don't match the current media category being browsed.  No indexing, no searching.  Our media files are already organized and we know exactly where everything is - we don't need a (poorly designed/implemented?) layer between our renderers/clients and our media files.  Maybe the UPnP AV Server is implemented just fine and it's the DNS-323 that is merely underpowered - perhaps it simply cannot handle more than a few hundred files.  That would be unfortunate, since the whole point of the box is to store your ever expanding media collection.

Maybe this is a feature we'll see in the v1.10 firmware (if that ever sees the light of day), or maybe it is something the community can add to Alt-F.  Until then, I basically cannot use the DNS-323's UPnP AV feature to look at any of my pictures or listen to my music.  The videos work pretty well, but only when I set the UPnP base to /media/video (which drastically shrinks the index size).

Frown.

Of course, maybe my problems are all or mostly related to the Xbox 360's UPnP client implementation.  I've tried setting up Fuppes in the past, and I never managed to get it configured to speak/understand the Xbox's particular (broken AFAIK) flavour of UPnP AV.

If anyone out there as an Xbox 360 and a DNS-323 behaving nicely together with tens-of-thousands of media files being indexed, _please_ let me know how you managed it

-Paul