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[danshires]

Hi everyone

I've recently purchased an Apple TV 2 and installed XBMC, together with a DNS-320 with the aim of being able to network store and play all my media files from it.

I've installed a 2TB and 1TB HDD in the 320, in standard storage format and followed the setup instructions. I've managed to get it working and been able to play a couple of videos through XBMC, but I get the feeling I've not got it performing to it's maximum potential just yet. 

I've set the 320 to run in UPnP, but when I attempt to play in XBMC, I can only see files saved in MKV format... some others such as M4V and AVI aren't appearing... secondly from what I've read UPnP doesn't support a library feature, hence why I can't scrape any boxart or metadata.

As my girlfriend (who isn't techie) in the slightest will also be using XBMC so I need to make it as simple as possible; could anyone advise me how I need to set the 320 up so boxart and metadata is available, also why some files might not be appearing please?

I've read a host of terms like SMB, NFS, Samba, Twonky etc, but really just not sure what to do for the best. If someone could either point me to a simple tutorial or just give me a few pointers what I need to do, that would be massively appreciated.

Many thanks in advance.

[petohl]

Dont use UPnP.

Use SMB = Samba = CIFS sharing. When you open in your computer Network, you must see your D-link, and all files on there.

Then in XBMC add new source, select SMB sharing (Windows network) and choose directory. In second step (Set content) select  Movies - this is for library.

Now in Videos - Movies are your library.
In Videos - Files are all your video files (including avi, m4v, mkv...)

[danshires]

Thanks for the help! Do I need to install fun plug to enable SMB on the 320?

[petohl]

no. SMB is standard function of firmware. it is always active

[priitv8]

DLNA/UPnP sounds good on paper but is nowhere near AppleTV AirPlay in terms of user-friendliness.
The main problem with UPnP - it doesn't mandate formats, so having a UPnP server and media player (aka Renderer) you can never be sure that the two will find a common set of supported formats.
This can be remedied with a transcoding UPnP server (like PS3 Media Server), but obviously our NAS lacks the processing power for such fancyness.
Plus as you said: no metadata support, no subtitle support etc.
Compared to AirPlay the UPnP looks just like a huge file/folder browser on your TV set.
Granted - AirPlay's simplicity for the user comes from a very restricted support of formats.