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The
TwonkyVision UPnP Media Server is available in two different
versions: the freely available MusicServer and the fully-fledged
MediaServer. The MusicServer is restricted with regard
to the supported content types as well as the navigation
structure. The documentation below always refers to
the MediaServer even though most of the information
also applies to the MusicServer. Options which are only
available for the MediaServer are marked with the icon
to the left. |
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The
TwonkyVision UPnP Media Server is highly customizable
by means of options described below. A number of options
require an in-depth knowledge of the underlying platform.
Misapplication might result in disfunction of the MediaServer.
These options are marked with the icon to the left and
recommended for experts only. |
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Additional
information about setup and usage of the MediaServer can
be found at our FAQ and at the
Media
Servers Forum. |
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Index |
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Installation
on PCs
Installation
on NAS devices
Supported content types
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Locating
content
Integration of 3rd party
databases
Basic options
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Platform-specific
options
Client-specific options
Advanced options
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MediaServer
installation on PCs |
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Copy
the file musicserver.exe or mediaserver.exe to the directory where
all your content is located. Start the server with a double click.
The server will display a startup message and disappear to the systray
- it is running now and you can find and use it with your UPnP client
device. If the server can not be found by the client device
check your firewall settings. |
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Copy
the file musicserver or mediaserver to the directory where all your
content is located. Start the server with a double click. The server
will display a startup message and keep as log window open. You can
minimize this window to the systray. The server is running now and
you can find and use it with your UPnP client device. If the
server can not be found by the client device check your firewall settings.
When the server is shut down with CTRL-C it will send a bye bye message
to the UPnP network to let the devices know that it disappeared. |
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Copy
the file musicserver or mediaserver to the directory where all your
content is located. Make sure that the file has the exe bit set
- if not try a "chmod 700 musicserver" or "chmod
700 mediaserver". Make sure that you have a multicast route
set for the server by issuing a "route add -net 224.0.0.0 netmask
240.0.0.0 dev eth0". Start the server with "./musicserver"
or "./mediaserver" . The server will display a startup
message. The server is running now and you can find and use it with
your UPnP client device. If the server can not be found by the client
device check your firewall settings. When the server is shut down
with CTRL-C it will send a bye bye message to the UPnP network to
let the devices know that it disappeared.
For further
installation instructions see here |
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MediaServer
installation on NAS devices |
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The
MediaServer has been tested with the network attached storage
devices listed below. The corresponding binaries are part
of the MediaServer distribution package. |
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norescale
By
means of this option you can supress picture rescaling by the MediaServer.
This is in particular useful if you run the MediaServer on a NAS
device with low memory.
Example:
norescale=1
Default:
norescale=0 |
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Basic
options |
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How
to select/change options
The
MediaServer can be customized through a number of options. Selected
options are persistently stored in configuration files (twonkyvision-mediaserver.ini
/ twonkyvision-musicserver). There are
three different ways to configure these options explained below.
Please note that a few options can only be specified
as command line parameters.
- Options
can be specified as command line parameters when starting the
MediaServer. If you want to use command line parameters on a Windows
system, you can first create a shortcut to MediaServer.exe. Then
under properties you can just add the command line parameters
behind the name of the executable.
- The
second way to select the options of the MediaServer is to use
the configuration webpage. Upon startup the MediaServer creates
a twonkyvision-config.html page in its startup directory. To access
this configuration page, you can simply open this page with a
web browser. The page can also be accessed with Windows XP systems
by just opening the presentation page of the UPnP device - in
this case the MediaServer. If you have not changed the default
settings this page is always found at the following location:
http://your-ip:port/configpage/index.htm,
where "your-ip" is the IPaddress of the machine where
the MediaServer is running and the port is the port number of
the MediaServer HTTP server (8080 by default).
- The
third way to select options is to open and edit the configuration
file of the MediaServer directly with a text editor. This is recommended
for experienced users only. Depending on the type of server you
are using, the filename is either twonkyvision-mediaserver.ini
or twonkyvision-musicserver.ini.
The file is created on first startup of the MediaServer automatically
- on Windows systems in the Windows directory, on UNIX and Macintosh
it is found in the MediaServer startup directory. If you want
to reset at any time the MediaServer to the default configuration
you can simply delete this file - the MediaServer will recreate
it with the default settings. The same applies to resetting single
configuration options - locate the option in the .ini file and
delete the line from the file - on next startup the MediaServer
will re-insert the corresponding line for that option with the
default value in the .ini file.
Most
changes to the configuration require a restart of the MediaServer.
You can use the restart button in the web-configuration or simply
stop the MediaServer and start it again. |
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Reset
to default values
If a single
setting shall be reverted to its default setting just delete it
from the .ini file. On startup the MediaServer will add the option
with its default setting to the .ini file. If all settings shall
be reverted the complete .ini file shall be deleted. |
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Access
to web configuration page
The
web configuration page is by default available for the local client
only. You can disable access to this page completely or enable the
access also for other clients in the network.
Set
enableweb to
- 0
to disable the web configuration page
- 1
to enable web configuration for local clients (web browser running
on same system as the MediaServer)
- 2
to enable web configuration for all networked clients (may be
a security issue)
Default:
enableweb=1 |
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.ini filename
By
means of this cmdline option one can specify which .ini file shall
be used by the server. This is for example very usefull if the server
shall be started serveral times with different content directories
and user preferred names to set up different servers with different
content repositories on one machine (e.g. for different users)
Example:
-inifile fathers-server.ini |
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MediaServer name
By
means of this option the MediaServer name as displayed by the client
can be changed.
Example:
friendlyname=My MediaServer
Default:
friendlyname= |
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MediaServer
database
The
MediaServer supports a number of 3rd party applications and their
corresponding libraries, like Winamp, iTunes or Adobe Photoshop
Album. In addition the MediaServer supports its own persistent database
file. All of these databases are optional - the MediaServer does
not need any persistence at all. In absence of any databases the
MediaServer will simply scan the file system for available content
and build a database in memory. Specifying one or more of the database
options can however be useful to integrate the MediaServer with
a specific application and/or speed up the availability of the MediaServer
content directory on startup of the MediaServer. If you have several
thousand content files and the system is not running all the time
it may be useful to specify the MediaServer database file. Please
see also the options winamp, ituneslib,
ipoddb and adobedsn
for details on these options.
In
any case will the MediaServer handle duplicate references to content.
If for example the same content is found via the file system
and via the iTunes library it is only added once to the MediaServer
database.
Set
this parameter to a full qualified filename, where the MediaServer
can store a persistent database.
Example:
dbfile=c:\Windows\mediaserver.db
Default:
dbfile= |
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Metadata
adjustments
The
MediaServer can adjust the case of some content attributes like
Title, Artist or Album. When this option is set to 1 the MediaServer
will correct the upper/lowercase writing of these properties, so
that each content item will start with an uppercase letter and the
rest of the word is in lower case. The MediaServer will also move
strings like "The", "Der", "Die",
"Das" to the end of a title, prepending a comma, for example
"The Beatles" will become "Beatles, The", so
that the beatles are found under "B" and not "T".
This option can be disabled by setting the adaptcase to 0.
Example:
adaptcase=0
Default:
adaptcase=1 |
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Auto-generated
playlists
The MediaServer
auto-generates two playlists:
- most played
songs contains the songs with the highest play count
- last played
songs contains the songs which have been played last
The number of
songs per list and the names of these playlists can be customized
via the following options:
- playlistnumentries
- playlistlastplayed
- playlistmostplayed
Defaults:
- playlistnumentries=10
- playlistlastplayed=-
Last Played -
- playlistmostplayed=-
Most Played -
The names can only be changed when using the MediaServer.
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Locating
content |
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Initial
setup |
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The
MediaServer can import existing databases from 3rd party applications
to locate content and find metadata (such Winamp,
iTunes or Photoshop Album).
However, the most common way for the MediaServer to locate content
is to search the local hard disk for files of specific file types,
like mp3 or jpg files. The locations where the MediaServer shall
look for such files can be set by the following options:
The
default setting for the contentdir is an empty string. With this
setting the MediaServer will scan its current working directory
and all subdirectories for content. The contentdir option can be
set to a comma separated list of values, which each can be prepended
by a M|, P| or V| to limit the added content to music (M|), pictures
(P|) or videos (V|) only. To limit a directory to a specific content
type is useful as sometimes applications tend to create temporary
contents which should not be served - for example a number of applications
create the embedded album art from music files as jpeg files under
the music folders - but these jpegs should not be served by the
MediaServer as pictures.
The
ignoredir parameter is a comma separated list of strings which specify
directories which shall be ignored while scanning for content. This
may for example be directories for temporary files, or auto generated
directories like AppleDoube which exist on apple share directories.
The strings specify a substring of the path to the directories to
be ignored, e.g. specifying the string AppleDouble would ignore
directories like c:\content\.AppleDouble and c:\somewhere\.AppleDouble\music
as both paths contain the string "AppleDouble".
Examples:
contentdir=
ignoredir=
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use
the current working directory including all subdirectories to
scan for content, do not ignore any directories |
contentdir=c:\My
Content
ignoredir=temp
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scan
under c:\My Content for content,
ignore all directories which have the substring "temp"
in the path |
contentdir=M|c:\My
Content\Music,
P|c:\My Content\Pictures,V|c:\My Content\Videos
ignoredir=AppleDouble,temp |
scan
under c:\My Content\Music for music only,
under c:\My Content\Pictures for pictures only
and c:\My Content\Videos for videos only.
Ignore all directories which have the substrings "AppleDouble"
or "temp" in the path.
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Default:
contentdir=
ignoredir=AppleDouble |
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Rescan
for content
The
MediaServer scans the contentdir on startup. With the scantime parameter
it is possible to specify a period in minutes after which the MediaServer
shall scan the content directories for updates. It will discover
new files, updates or removed files and synchronize its internal
database correspondingly. The scantime can be set to 0 to disable
automatic rescans.
A
rescan of the content directories can also be triggered manually
by the MediaServer's configuration web pages by selecting the "rescan
now" link, or on Windows systems by selecting the "Rescan
content directories" menu from the tray icon.
Example:
scantime=60 result in an automatic rescan of the content directories
every 60 minutes.
Default:
scantime=15
Note
for experts:
a rescan of a specific subdirectory can also be triggered manually
by appending the subdirectory name to the "rescan now"
link mentioned above.
Example:
If "URL http://127.0.0.1:8080/rescan" is the "rescan
now" link use the
URL http://127.0.0.1:8080/rescan/C:%5CMy%20Content%5CMy%20Music%5CAbba
in order to rescan c:\My Content\My Music\Abba |
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Integration
of 3rd party databases |
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Winamp
support
If
you have Winamp installed the MediaServer can use your Winamp Library
as a base for finding music files on your system. You can also create
playlists in Winamp which are then available via the MediaServer.
To enable this option the path where Winamp is installed has to
be specified. The Winamp library and folders are rescanned regularly
by the MediaServer - so when the Winamp library is changed the MediaServer
will reflect the updates after a few seconds.
If you want
to use the winamp library only, the contentdir should be set to
an invalid path, e.g. contentdir=NULL.
Example:
winamp=C:\Program Files\Winamp
Default:
winamp=\Program Files\Winamp
Note:
The Winamp plugin which was part of older releases of the MediaServer
is no longer supported. It is replaced by this option. The MediaServer
is working as a standalone program now, available with - or without
Winamp. However, the ability to use the Winamp library and playlists
still remains.
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iTunes
For
iTunes Library support set the fully qualified path to the iTunes
XML library file. The library will be parsed by the MediaServer
to locate the songs which it serves. The iTunes Library also contains
information about compilations. When
the iTunes Library is used there is no need to specify a content
directory for music under the content directory setting. You can
specify a non-existing directory at the content dir parameter if
you do not want to include any other content - and to speed up the
MediaServer startup.
Example:
ituneslib=c:\My Music\iTunes\iTunes Music Library.xml
Default:
ituneslib= |
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iPod
For
iPod Library support set this option to the fully qualified iTunes
XML library file, when the iPod is attached to the system and available
as a normal USB hard drive. This enables systems which can not host
the iTunes application to use the iTunes library, e.g. NAS devices.
The iTunes Library is then parsed by the MediaServer to locate the
songs which it serves directly from the iPod. The iTunes Library
also contains information about compilations.
You can specify a non existing directory at the content dir parameter
if you do not want to include any other content - and to speed up
the MediaServer startup. However when the iPod is disconnected there
will be no music content available.
Example:
ipoddb=/mnt/iPod/lib.xml
Default:
ipoddb= |
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Adobe Photoshop Album
The
MediaServer supports the Adobe Photoshop Album database file. You
can use Adobe Photoshop Album to organize your pictures, add notes
to the pictures and use the tagging feature of the application.
The MediaServer will import the notes to the picture description,
which is visible by some UPnP clients. The tagging information is
used by the MediaServer to build a second logical view on your pictures,
where you can navigate and locate your pictures. If you have for
example a tag James, which is located under Friends and allocate
this tag to a picture, you will find the following navigation path
at the MediaServer:
Tags
-> Friends -> James -> picture.jpg
However
the current setup of this feature is not so easy, as the MediaServer
needs the full path to the Adobe database, a ODBC database name
(DSN) and the directory where the pictures are located.
First
you need to find out the name and path of the database file Adobe
Photoshop Album is using. The file has the extension .psa. One way
to locate it is to use the "save as" menu from Adobe Photoshop
Album to save the current catalogue under a new name - when the
dialog box is open you can see the name and the path of the current
catalogue file. Press cancel here. Set adobepath to the full qualified
name to the .psa file. Now create a ODBC database name for this
file. Adobe Photoshop Album uses the MS-Access engine to store its
data. New ODBC database sources are defined under the Windows System
Settings. Locate the ODBC icon and use that application to define
a datasource named "AdobePictures" where you specify the
MS-Access jet engine as driver and the pathname to the .psa file.
The third required setting is that you specify for the contentdir
(see contentdir param) the directory where your pictures are located.
You may use the prefix P| here to specify that the sub tree contains
pictures only.
Example:
adobedsn=AdobePictures
adobepath=c:\my documents\my pictures\adobe.psa
contentdir=P|c:\my documents\my pictures
Default:
adobedsn=
adobepath= |
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Supported
content types: music |
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Supported
audio formats
The
MediaServer supports the following audio formats:
Please note
that the content format is determined through the file extension. |
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WAV
support
WAV files do
not carry any metadata. Therefore a naming schema like genre_artist_album_tracknumber_title.wav
should be used to provide as much information as possible to the
MediaServer. It is possible to omit unknown values from left to
right, so you may also specify artist_album_tracknumber_title or
album_tracknumber_title or tracknumber_title or just the title. |
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Playlists
The
MediaServer supports the following playlist formats: m3u (Winamp),
wpl, and pls (Windows Media Player). It is possible to create playlists
with these applications and the MediaServer will import them. The
playlists have to be available under the directory which is specified
by the contentdir option.
Note: Playlists can be transferred from one system to another (e.g.
created with Winamp on Windows and transferred to a Linux system),
but the filenames referenced in the playlist must be valid and resolvable
by the MediaServer. If a playlist was created with relative pathnames
under Windows and is then transferred to a Linux system the Playlist
must be edited with a text editor and all pathnames have to be adjusted.
The MediaServer tests each item of a playlist and tries to locate
it in the file system (if it is not an Internet Radio Station).
On failure the item is not added to the MediaServer database, resulting
in empty or not displayed playlists.
If
the playlist itself does not contain any information regarding the
Playlist title, the MediaServer will generate the title from the
filename, e.g. "beatle songs.m3u" will get the title "beatle
songs".
The
m3u playlist format has a very simple format and can also be used
to specify custom Shoutcast Radio Stations for the MediaServer -
see Internet Radio support.
Playlists
can be randomized by the MediaServer when it reads and imports the
playlists:
Set
randomizeplaylists to 1 to randomize your playlists on import.
Default:
randomizeplaylists=0 |
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Compilations
Compilations
are music collections like "Best of rock 2004", which
contain a number of songs from different artists. Therefore - if
sorted by artist, one compilation CD would lead to as much artist
entries as songs on the CD - and each of these artist entries would
contain exactly one song. To prevent the cluttering of the database
with lots of such single entries it is necessary to identify compilations.
When identified the MediaServer will add these compilations to the
album tree, but for artists just adds the album under the artist
"various". Compilations can be identified via the iTunes
library - as iTunes marks compilations with a specific flag, or
they can be stored under a special folder in your content directory
and then be identified by the compilationsdir parameter:
Set
this option to a comma separated list of directory names which are
used to store compilations.
Example:
compilationsdir=Compilations,Sampler
All
directories and songs located in Compilations or Sample, e.g. "My
Music\Compilations\MTV TOP 20" will be treated as part of a
compilation - and as such be sorted into the database under artist->various.
Default:
compilationsdir=Compilations,Sampler |
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Internet
Radio
The
MediaServer also supports Internet Radio. The current version is
restricted to Shoutcast Radio Stations. There are two ways of Shoutcast
Radio Station support built into the MediaServer. One option is
to create special playlist files with your favorite Shoutcast Radio
Stations. This can be done with Winamp by using the "send to
playlist" option when a Shoutcast Radio Station is selected.
A sample .m3u file can be found in the MediaServer distribution.
The
second option is that the MediaServer contacts the Shoutcast website
on its own and downloads the list of top radio stations into its
database. These radio stations are then available - sorted by Genre
- under the Muisc->Internet Radio node. Please note that a number
of Internet Radio Stations have only a very short lifetime. When
a connection to a Radio Station is refused the MediaServer will
respond with an appropriate error message to the client. There are
three parameters which can be used to adjust the automatic provision
of the Internet Radio stations:
- radio
- numradiostations
- radioreread
The
radio option can be set to 0 or 1. If set to 0 the Internet Radio
support is disabled and the MediaServer does not contact the Shoutcast
website.
The
numradiostations option specifies the number of stations which the
MediaServer will download and import to its database. If you want
to have 100 Radio stations available set it to numradiostations=100.
The
radioreread option specifies how often the MediaServer reconnects
to the Shoutcast website to refetch the top list of Radio Stations.
As most of the smaller Radio Stations have a very short lifetime
it is wise to update the list of Radio Stations at least once per
hour. The radioreread option specifies the reread time in minutes.
If this is set to 0 (zero) the radio rescan is disabled - the MediaServer
will fetch the list of Radio stations only once on startup.
Example:
radio=1
numradiostations=100
radioreread=30
Internet
Radio is enabled. The MediaServer will fetch the Top 100 Radio Stations
from the Shoutcast Website and will update this list every 30 minutes.
Defaults:
radio=1
numradiostations=50
radioreread=60
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Supported
content types: pictures |
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Pictures
The
MediaServer supports pictures and images in the following formats:
For
JPEG the MediaServer has integrated a complete EXIF parser, i.e.
the MediaServer is capable of extracting the metadata which are
stored in the header of such a picture. In general the metadata
provided by digital cameras are just the date and time when a picture
was taken, and its size and resolution. Any existing picture organizing
tool may be used to include additional information into the EXIF
header which then can be used by the MediaServer.
It
is quite common to organize pictures in folders, by foldername -
and very seldom pictures are given meaningful names. This is reflected
by the MediaServer as it mirrors the local directory tree where
pictures are located on the UPnP side. You can navigate to the pictures
on your UPnP client in the same way as you have organized them on
the PC.
For
a more sophisticated logical view on the pictures the MediaServer
has also integrated support for the Adobe Photoshop
Album library (Windows only).
For
JPEG pictures the MediaServer supports server side resizing. This
is used by a number of UPnP clients. Please be aware that resizing
large pictures on the fly is a CPU-intensive process and that you
will get some delay when the MediaServer is hosted on systems with
poor performance, e.g. Network Attached Storage (NAS) devices.
Picture
descriptions
Most
pictures do not carry any description. However, JPEG pictures may
contain descriptions in the EXIF headers and there are a number
of tools available to edit and manipulate descriptions for pictures.
When a description is available it may be useful to make this visible
during a slideshow. This can be done with the descriptions parameter.
By setting descriptions to 1 the MediaServer will pre-render descriptions
into the pictures before delivering them to the client, so that
the description is visible as part of the picture. Set this parameter
to 0 to disable the inline rendering of descriptions.
Example:
descriptions=1 will enable the inline rendering of descriptions
into JPEG pictures.
Default:
descriptions=0 |
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Supported
content types: video |
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Video
The
MediaServer supports a number of video formats, but does not transcode
any video from one format to another. Therefore the ability to play
a certain video totally depends on the client device. So far the
MediaServer serves the following video formats:
- AVI
- MPEG
- MPEG2
- MPG
- MP4
- WMV
- VOB
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Platform-specific
options |
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Windows
only: service version
Please note
that the following options can only be specified through the command
line. The values will not be stored in the .ini file.
On
Windows platforms, the MediaServer can be installed to run as a
background service. This has the advantage that no user has to be
logged in to the system while the MediaServer is running. To install
the MediaServer as a background service open a command prompt in
Windows (run cmd as an application). Navigate to the directory where
the MediaServer is located and issue a "mediaserver -install".
A Message Box will pop up to inform you that the MediaServer is
now installed as a service. The MediaServer is now running - and
will be running immediately on system startup. To uninstall the
MediaServer as a service issue a "mediaserver -uninstall"
at a command prompt. A Message Box will pop up and inform you that
the MediaServer has been removed from the list of services.
Note:
When you want to upgrade the MediaServer the service must be stopped
- or you can not copy a new executable over the existing one. Please
stop the MediaServer service by using the Computer Management Menu
under Windows System - or uninstall the service before updating
the MediaServer.
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Windows
only: restart on network changes
For
Windows systems it is possible to automatically restart the MediaServer
on network changes. This is especially useful when the MediaServer
is started on a Laptop and the Laptop is changing the connection
(moved around between Networks). To enable the automated MediaServer
restart set the option nicrestart to 1.
Example:
nicrestart=1
Restart
the MediaServer automatically on TCP/IP address changes.
Note:
Set this option to 0 if you get disconnects when you have a dynamic
DSL connection set.
Default:
nicrestart=0 |
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Unix/Linux
only: launching as daemon
By
means of the -D command line parameter the MediaServer the MediaServer
is launched as a daemon. It also generates a file "/var/run/mediaserver.pid"
with the process id of the MediaServer. This is used by the sample
scripts provided with the MediaServer to start, stop and restart
the MediaServer background process.
Please note
that this option can only be specified through the command line.
The value will not be stored in the .ini file. |
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Client-specific
options |
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Noxon
client
It
is possible to specify a number of IP adresses (separated by comma)
to identify Noxon clients at fixed IP adresses. The autodetection
of Noxon clients does not work reliable - but the Noxon needs special
handling for special characters - as it does not understand UTF-8
encoded characters (which is the default for UPnP clients). If your
characters look garbled at the Noxon please try to set the IP adress
of the device by means of this option.
Example:
noxonclient=192.168.1.50,192.168.1.60
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DLink
client
It
is possible to specify a number of IP adresses (separated by comma)
to identify D-Link clients at fixed IP adresses. The autodetection
of D-Link clients does not work reliable - but the D-Link needs
special handling for pictures. If your pictures look to small -
and you do not get icons for your folders, please try to set the
IP adress of the device by means of this option. This option also
helps in case of a lockup during intensive navigation.
Example:
dlinkclient=192.168.1.50,192.168.1.60
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Roku
nosearch
The nosearch option
allows you to disable the search support of the MediaServer. The
default of this option is nosearch=0, so search is enabled. However
some clients, e.g. the Roku devices, show their own user interface
ignoring the custom tree settings of the server,
when they discover that the MediaServer supports search. For MediaServers
which do not support search the device falls back into
a simple browse mode, showing exactly the logical tree view as defined
by the MediaServer. To get back your custom tree for navigation
(which is the logical tree view of the MediaServer) set the nosearch
option to 1.
However you
can than not use the "search" key of the device, as search
is disabled - but for now there is no solution available to have
both - search support and a custom user interface.
Example:
nosearch=1
Default:
nosearch=0 |
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Advanced
options |
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MediaServer IP address and port
The
MediaServer tries to start a HTTP server on HTTP port 8080. If this
port is not available it will automatically scan for the next free
port. If this dynamic behavior is not desired, specify a specific
HTTP port with the httpport option. The server will then try this
port only - and it will terminate if the port is not available!
Set the httpport value to 0 (zero) to enable the dynamic port allocation.
Example:
httpport=8090
Start
the MediaServer with the HTTP server listening on port 8090. If
port 8090 is not available the MediaServer will not start! So if
you intend to specify a particular port you should check first with
netstat -a whether it is already blocked.
Default:
httpport=0
A
similar behavior is available for the IP address used by the MediaServer.
The default behavior of the MediaServer is to scan the system for
available network interfaces and their corresponding IP addresses
and to launch a listening instance of the MediaServer on every network
interface. Therefore a system with 3 network cards would have a
visible MediaServer on all 3 connected networks to this system.
Sometimes the MediaServer fails to identify the IP address and sometimes
it is also not wanted to have the MediaServer available on ALL connected
networks. Therefore a specific IP address can be specified which
is used by the MediaServer. On UNIX/Linux systems it is also possible
to specify the network card (device) which the MediaServer shall
use.
Example:
ip=192.168.1.10
Start
the MediaServer on the network interface which is bound to the IP
address 192.168.1.10. Set the ip parameter to an empty string to
enable the dynamic scan for network cards.
Example:
dev=eth0
Start
the MediaServer on the IP address which is assigned to the network
adapter known to the system by the device name "eth0".
This option is available only for UNIX/Linux systems. It is more
flexible than specifying an IP address as this enables the usage
of the MediaServer system as a DHCP client - where the IP address
is not always known but directed through a DHCP server. Set the
dev option together with the ip option to an empty string to enable
the dynamic scan for network cards.
Defaults:
ip=
dev= |
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Music client
The
MediaServer identifies a number of music-only clients, like the
Netgear MP101 or the Noxon audio player automatically. These clients
will always be directed to the music sub tree of the MediaServer,
as it does not make sense to navigate on pictures and videos with
these clients. However, the MediaServer does not know all existing
music clients - therefore if your music client is not detected automatically
and you see the picture and video nodes on a pure music client,
it is possible to specify a comma separated list of IP addresses
of known music clients. These requests are automatically pointed
to the music subdirectory when the client starts to browse the server.
Note:
there is no option for picture-only or video-only clients, since
we are not aware of such clients so far.
Example:
musicclient=192.168.1.11,192.168.1.20
The
clients with the IP addresses 192.168.1.11 and 192.168.1.20 are
pure music clients and shall not be provided with pictures and videos.
Default:
musicclient= |
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Sort behavior
Most
UPnP clients specify the requested sort order in conjunction with
a browse call. However, a few clients do not specify any sort order
- which puts the burden on the MediaServer to deliver the content
with a default sort order. As the same default sort order does not
make sense for all types of containers and items there are three
options available to specify the default sort order. The ds parameter
specifies the overall default sort order, the ms option is valid
for all containers which contain music items and the ps option is
used for all picture items. The sort options are set to a comma
separated list of properties, each one prepended with a plus or
minus sign to specify ascending or descending sort order. The available
properties are:
dc:title |
Title
of the item |
upnp:album |
Album
of the song |
upnp:artist |
Artist
of the song |
upnp:genre |
Genre
of the song |
dc:date |
Date
of the item |
upnp:originalTrackNumber |
Track
number of the song |
Example:
ds=+dc:title,+dc:date
ms=+upnp:originalTrackNumber,-dc:title
ps=+dc:date,+dc:title
In
the example above the default sort order is by Title and then by
Date, both in ascending order. For music containers the sort is
first by Track number (ascending), then by Title, but descending.
For picture containers the sort is by date (ascending) and then
by Title (ascending).
Notes:
Please note that these options are only used when a UPnP client
does NOT specify a sort behavior. UPnP clients should specify a
sort behavior. For the attributes the second property is only used,
when the first property is equal for several content items - so
two Tracks with the same Track Number will be sorted by Title, but
the Track Number is the main sort criteria in the above sample.
Defaults:
ds=+dc:title,+dc:date
ms=+upnp:originalTrackNumber,+dc:title
ps=+dc:date,+dc:title |
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Netgear upgrade
The
Netgear MP101 can be upgraded by the MediaServer when a new ROM
version is available. This is very useful when no Windows system
is available - or the Netgear Server Software is not available for
the upgrade. Just unzip the downloaded upgrade files to a directory
and specify the path to the directory at the netgearupgrade parameter.
The MediaServer will then offer the new ROM images to the Netgear
MP101.
Example:
netgearupgrade=/tmp/netgear
This
will tell the MediaServer that it finds the Netgear ROM images under
/tmp/netgear.
Note:
Please set this option to an empty string to disable this function.
You should also reset the option to an empty string when the update
is completed, as the MediaServer no longer needs to perform the
Netgear upgrade process after an update
Default:
netgearupgrade= |
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Configuration of the tree view
The
navigation structure (tree view) of the MediaServer can be fully
customized. However please note that some clients, like the Netgear
MP101 are searching for tree nodes with specific names to enable
the hot keys on the remote control. The names which need to be available
for the MP101 are: Playlist, Genre, Artist, Track, Internet Radio.
The
following nodes are predefined, but can be renamed to custom names:
Option |
Default
value |
Tree
Node |
rootmusic |
Music
|
Music
|
alltracks |
All
Tracks |
Music->All
Tracks |
playlists |
Playlists
|
Music->Playlists |
internetradio |
Internet
Radio |
Music->Internet
Radio |
allownradiostations |
Favorites
|
Music->Internet
Radio->Favorites |
rootpicture |
Pictures
|
Pictures |
allpictures |
All
Pictures |
Pictures->All
Pictures |
rootvideo |
Videos
|
Videos |
allvideos |
All
Videos |
Videos->All
Videos |
Note:
When a root name is set to an empty string the MediaServer will
not provide content for that sub node and suppress that content
type completely.
In
addition there are 20 customizable nodes of the MediaServer, 10
for the music tree, 5 for the pictures tree and 5 for the video
tree:
- musicnode1
- ...
- musicnode10
- picturenode1
- ...
- picturenode5
- videonode1
- ...
- videonode5
Each
node is defined by a comma-separated values string, which specifies
the root name of the node displayed by the MediaServer, and the
total tree branches under this node. The tree is specified by attributes
of the content (metadata) - for these attributes the following macros
are available:
%TITLE |
title
of a song, picture or video |
%ARTIST |
artist
of a song |
%ALBUM |
album
of a song |
%GENRE |
genre
of a song |
%YEAR
|
year
attribute of the item, year when the song was release, year
when a picture was taken |
%MONTH |
month
attribute of the item - month when a picture was taken |
%DAY
|
day
attribute of the item - day when a picture was taken |
%DESCRIPTION |
description
of a picture |
%DURATION |
duration
of a song or video |
%TRACK |
track
number of a song |
%WIDTH |
width
of a picture |
%HEIGHT
|
height
of a picture |
%PATH |
complete
physical path (relative to a content root) to the item |
In
addition to support alpha search on each node for devices which
do not have client alpha search capability each macro name can be
prepended by square brackets with a number, to specify an alpha
search auto-generated root.
Example:
prepending [3] would create the following sub notes for an entry:
ABC, DEF, GHI, JKL, MNO, OPQ, RST, UVW, XY
Note: Please
note that the alpha sort criteria (square brackets) can not be combined
with the %PATH macro. The whole path is always generated as one
tree which should reflect the physical path on the device.
Music
examples:
Lets
assume a song with the following metadata
Title |
Let
the music play |
Artist |
Twonky |
Genre |
Rock |
Album |
Greatest
Twonky Songs |
Year |
2005 |
Duration |
3:05 |
Track |
3 |
Path |
My
Music\Twonky\Greatest Twonky Songs\let the music play.mp3 |
Option
settings |
Tree
View |
musicnode1=
Artists,%ARTIST |
Music->Artists->Twonky->Let
the music play |
musicnode2=
Albums,%ALBUM |
Music->Albums->Greatest
Twonky Songs->Let the music play |
musicnode3=
Artists/Albums,%ARTIST,%ALBUM |
Music->Artists/Albums->Twonky->Greatest
Twonky Songs->Let the music play |
musicnode4=
Folders,%PATH |
Music->Folders->My
Music->Twonky->Greatest Twonky Songs->Let the music
play |
musicnode5=
Genre/Artists,%GENRE,%ARTIST,%ALBUM |
Music->Genre/Artists->Rock->Twonky->Greatest
Twonky Songs->Let the music play |
musicnode6=
Genre/Artists,%GENRE,[3]%ARTIST,%ALBUM |
Music->Genre/Artists->Rock->RST->Twonky->Greatest
Twonky Songs->Let the music play |
musicnode7=
Year/Artists,%YEAR,%ARTIST,%ALBUM |
Music->Year/Artists->2005->Twonky->Greatest
Twonky Songs->Let the music play |
Defaults
for music nodes:
musicnode1=Artists,%ARTIST
musicnode2=Genres,%GENRE
musicnode3=Albums,%ALBUM
musicnode4=Folders,%PATH
musicnode5=Artists/Albums,%ARTIST,%ALBUM
musicnode6=Genres/Artists,%GENRE,%ARTISTS,%ALBUM
musicnode7=Year/Albums,%YEAR,%ALBUM
musicnode8=Year/Artist,%YEAR,%ARTISTS,%ALBUM
musicnode9=Alpha,[3]%ARTIST
musicnode10=
Picture
examples: Lets
assume a picture with the following metadata
Title |
DSCM2003 |
Path |
My
Pictures\20040101-holidays\dscm2003.jpg |
Date |
01
Jan 2004 |
Width |
2048 |
Height |
1536 |
Option
settings |
Tree
View |
picturenode1=Folders,%PATH |
Pictures->Folders->My
Pictures->20040101->DSCM2003 |
picturenode2=Date,%YEAR,%MONTH,%DAY |
Pictures->Date->2004->01->01->DSCM2003 |
picturenode3=Year/Size,%Year,%WIDTH |
Pictures->Year/Size->2004->2048->DSCM2003 |
Defaults
for picture nodes:
picturenode1=Folders,%PATH
picturenode2=Date,%YEAR,%MONTH,%DAY
picturenode3=
picturenode4=
picturenode5=
Defaults
for video nodes:
videonode1=Folders,%PATH
videonode2=
videonode3=
videonode4=
videonode5= |
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Send buffer adjustments
If the music
or video is played choppy at the client player the reason may be
that the MediaServer does not send the content with the right buffer
sizes. The default buffers are tested with quite a number of clients
and should work. Please note that the buffer you set in the .ini
file is allocated for each stream that is served by the MediaServer.
Therefore for small systems like NAS devices it is advised to keep
the buffers small - even for video. The buffer size is given in
bytes. Values less than 1KB will be ignored. The options to change
the buffers are:
- musicbuffer
- picturebuffer
- videobuffer
Defaults:
musicbuffer=2048
picturebuffer=2048
videobuffer=2097152
For more information
regarding the right buffer size have a look at http://www.media-servers.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=520
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Debugging and bug reports
With
the -v [n] command line option it is possible to get a number of
messages from the MediaServer, which may be helpful to find problems
with the installation, or which can be sent to our support team
when there are problems with the MediaServer. Bug reports can be
submitted at our Mantis issue tracking system under
http://www.twonkyvision.com/mantis. When this option is specified
the MediaServer creates a file under Windows which has the same
name and location as the executable file of the MediaServer, but
which has the extension .log. On UNIX/Linux systems the MediaServer
will output the debugging messages to stdout and critical messages
to stderr. Together with the -v option the debugging level can be
specified:
meaning
|
value |
system
messages |
1 |
ssdp
messages |
2 |
database
related |
4 |
http
related |
8 |
client
identification |
16 |
UPnP
eventing |
32 |
EXIF
parser |
64 |
HTTP
radio proxy |
128 |
XML
parser |
256 |
If
you want to get messages from several system components, just add
their values.
Examples:
-v
8 provides all http related messages
-v 7 provides all system messages, all ssdp
messages and all database related messages
-v 511 provides all messages |
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