New User with Various Questions and Reports

[Rhongomiant]

Dennis,

I hope you and Programming Sunrise team are enjoying life, because it seems like you are buried in building KooRaRoo Media. In a very short time, you have built awesome software. I wish I had buckets of cache I could send your way.

My Situation/Story:

I have an HP MediaSmart Server EX495, which have been discontinued. At the time and to a degree, even now, these are awesome little media servers (NAS with a common operating system). It came with TwonkyMedia which some HP tweaks, but the interaction between the HP software and Twonky broken with the version came with the EX495. I tried updating Twonky, but as time when on I had more issues and they discontinued their media server product. I tried several others and did not like any of them. I basically had to revert to accessing my media via network browsing protocols, like SMB, which is not a huge deal for me, but there are two issues. 1) There are few devices, other then computers, designed to connect to a TV that support protocols like SMB and most of them are junk. The WDTV is the only reasonably priced unit that I have found that works well. DLNA is supported more universally. 2) DLNA/UPNP, organizes the media is a manner that is easier to find. I have media in several places, e.g. media I want to keep on redundant storage and other media on unprotected storage. This is OK for me as I organize everything, but my family has issues finding things, so DLNA is better for them and I like it too.

Therefore, I decided to go on the hunt for a better DLNA server. I came across your posts at http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/6-upnpd...crossplatform/. You pretty much replied to posts about other products with, if you like X software, you should try KooRaRoo Media, it's better and does more. I found a couple of other KooRaRoo Media mentions and decided to take a look and give it a try. I have to say is WOW, Awesome, Amazing, where have you been all my digital life?

It very quickly scanned through all my files, in an hour or so and then performed the metadata and other operations. This took a while, but much less time than any other and with better results. Transcoding is awesome, fast and runs on this server very well. The interface is beautiful, clean and easy to use.

BTW, if you know of a good DYI Home Server chassis that is like the EX495, let me know. I am looking for a 5 or more hot swap mini chassis that I can put in a better board wth more CPU and RAM. I am thinking a Core iX based CPU or one of the new ITX Xeon boards.

I have some issues, questions and suggestions related to KooRaRoo.

1) I have two Samsung devices, a BDP-E6500 Bluray player and a UN55ES7100 TV. I have some issues with both.

Neither show a folders option so I have to use the All Videos option and I have 6,701 videos, so it takes a while to load and it's almost impossible to find a video. I want to have "Folders" show up as one of the options/folders. I have tried different profiles including "Default Device", "Samsung TV C/D/E-Series" and "Samsung BDP/HTS/C/D/E-Series". If I select the "Disable manufacturer-specific extensions" option then then the device will not connect. The Samsung device sees the KooRaRoo media server, but generates an error while trying to connect, it's not a specific error, just there was an error while connecting or the server disconnected. I really do not want to move my video library to the KooRaRoo videos directory and I do not have enough space on that volume anyway.

I do not believe the fact that the "Folders" option/folder is missing is only due to the Samsung devices, but I think there is an issue with KooRaRoo that at least contributes to this issue. I believe this because my server has a built-in DLNA server (Windows Home Server) and when I connect either Samsung device to that UPNP server, I get a "Folders" option. Also, I have another device running minidlna and its also has the "Folders" option on these devices. I do not have this issue on my WDTV Live or Sony Bluray player as I have the "Folders" option when accessing KooRaRoo.

Finally, I thought I would use the "Play To" feature, but when I do I always get an unsupported content error. I have verified that this happens with media that does not require transcoding and media that does.

I turned on logging and I can send you logs, but I have not spent enough time with them to determine if these issues are being logged and if so how they are logged.

I have a reasonably large library, 6071 videos, 4996 photos, 949 music files, 1003 folders and 1,973.70GB, so I may be able to help find issues specific to large libraries.

2) One option that KooRaRoo is missing compared to other DLNA servers I have used is to combine like items. e.g. In Twonky, Windows Home Server DLNA server and others, if I added multiple directories and listed them as use for videos, when I browsed from a device like a WDTV and selected the folders option, I would not see each individual root directory, but a single video directory that combined the contents of all of those root directories. I am not stating that there is no use for the current option, I would like to see options to work the current way the way I described and an option to provide both. To provide both, the videos directory would show each root directory and a combined video directory in which would contain all of those directories contents, I have no creative thought what to name this virtual directory yet. If two or more to all of the root directories had a directory named videos, then the contents of all the videos directories would show up in the single video virtual directory. If two or more of all of the videos directories had a directory named NCIS, then the contents of all the NCIS directories would show up in the single NCIS virtual directory. If two or more of all of the NCIS directories had a directory named Season 2, the all of the Season 2 directories would show up in the single Season 2 virtual directory. Let me know if my description is not clear.

3) When items are in the transcoding area of the status pane and are marked paused or queued, I cannot find a way to force them to resume, but I would like to be able to force them to run. If there is a reason they are not running, it would be nice to know why.

4) I would like to have more information in the status pane, see below.

4a) I would like to be able to right click on a item in the streaming or transcoding sections, get the items properties and go to the file in the KooRaRoo library. The ability to open the file location would be nice as well from streaming or transcoding sections as well as right clicking on an item in the KooRaRoo library.

4b) In the Streaming section, I would like an option to show the codec being used, if it is using a transcoded file, the codec of the source file and if the transcode is in process. Perhaps the transcode section could number the transcode jobs and this number could show up in the streaming status entry.

4c) In the transcoding section I would like it to show the from and to codecs.

4d) An option to show the duration and size for each category, videos, photos and music and a total of all files in the status pane.

5) I would like the transcoding entries in the transcoding tab a file properties dialog to show the size of the file and perhaps it's location.

6) When I look at the folder properties, nothing is set in the update section. Is there a default update setting or is nothing set to auto update by default?

6a) If I set a folder to auto update, does it update all sub-folders as well? Please don't tell me I have to set every folder manually.

6b) If I set a folder to auto update and set one of its sub-directories with different settings compared to one of its parents, will this cause problems?

7) I have had a some issues with the KooRaRoo apps lack of multitasking when performing certain operations like Rebuilding the Database & Moving transcoded files.

7a) When the Rebuild Database option runs the app is locked, but so bar for me it was very quick.

7b) I ended up running out of space on my boot volume due to transcoded files. I changed the folder, but the app locks and fails if files are in use, etc. If there are open files, it should disable transcoding for new files, stop playback of files already being transcoded, stop transcoding the in progress files and then move the existing transcoding files and it should have a progress showing the status of this process and preferably still allow access to the interface for other operations.

8) I do not understand the subtitles burn-in feature as described in the 1.4.0 release notes and your comments in the following post and the FAQ about this does not really answer my questions. The release notes indicates that the issue is if the subtitles are not imbedded in the video file, while the post below indicates the issue is with the file type and if subtitles can be embedded in a stream with the video. Can you explain this more. Also, this option is a selection for each device. If selected, does it burn in the subtitles for every video or just for the videos that need it?

http://forum.kooraroo.com/showthread...472&viewfull=1

9) In the thread below, you mention a web interface. I have been looking for a good web interface for this type of product for a long time. I have some suggestions for this feature.

http://forum.kooraroo.com/showthread...-Web-interface

9a) Make it fully compatible with Firefox, Chrome, Opera and IE on all compatible platforms, Windows, Mac and Linux.

9b) Weather it has a web based player or not allow easy integration with VLC as it plays almost everything.

10) I am having a few issues with some files, but these are odd files. I will gather info and create a new post.

[Dennis]

Dennis,

I hope you and Programming Sunrise team are enjoying life, because it seems like you are buried in building KooRaRoo Media. In a very short time, you have built awesome software. I wish I had buckets of cache I could send your way.

Thank you - I appreciate it

Therefore, I decided to go on the hunt for a better DLNA server. I came across your posts at http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/6-upnpd...crossplatform/. You pretty much replied to posts about other products with, if you like X software, you should try KooRaRoo Media, it's better and does more. I found a couple of other KooRaRoo Media mentions and decided to take a look and give it a try. I have to say is WOW, Awesome, Amazing, where have you been all my digital life?

Yes, KRR is new, so at the moment I have to self-promote a bit, otherwise no one will know about it. Hopefully this changes soon

BTW, if you know of a good DYI Home Server chassis that is like the EX495, let me know. I am looking for a 5 or more hot swap mini chassis that I can put in a better board wth more CPU and RAM. I am thinking a Core iX based CPU or one of the new ITX Xeon boards.

Frankly, I haven't updated hardware in a while, but I'll keep an open mind and if I come across anything like that I'll post back.

1) I have two Samsung devices, a BDP-E6500 Bluray player and a UN55ES7100 TV. I have some issues with both.

Neither show a folders option so I have to use the All Videos option and I have 6,701 videos, so it takes a while to load and it's almost impossible to find a video. I want to have "Folders" show up as one of the options/folders. I have tried different profiles including "Default Device", "Samsung TV C/D/E-Series" and "Samsung BDP/HTS/C/D/E-Series". If I select the "Disable manufacturer-specific extensions" option then then the device will not connect. The Samsung device sees the KooRaRoo media server, but generates an error while trying to connect, it's not a specific error, just there was an error while connecting or the server disconnected. I really do not want to move my video library to the KooRaRoo videos directory and I do not have enough space on that volume anyway.

It would be great if you could send in the logs that show this connection error with "manufacturer-specific extensions" disabled. I do have a patch available (and it's part of the upcoming v1.4.1 due out shortly) that may help with this, but the logs will tell for sure what the problem is.

Finally, I thought I would use the "Play To" feature, but when I do I always get an unsupported content error. I have verified that this happens with media that does not require transcoding and media that does.

I'll need to see the logs as well (actually, I need logs for everything, typically ). Sounds like KRR could not find a match for the format from the list of formats that the device gives it.

2) One option that KooRaRoo is missing compared to other DLNA servers I have used is to combine like items. e.g. In Twonky, Windows Home Server DLNA server and others, if I added multiple directories and listed them as use for videos, when I browsed from a device like a WDTV and selected the folders option, I would not see each individual root directory, but a single video directory that combined the contents of all of those root directories. I am not stating that there is no use for the current option, I would like to see options to work the current way the way I described and an option to provide both. To provide both, the videos directory would show each root directory and a combined video directory in which would contain all of those directories contents, I have no creative thought what to name this virtual directory yet. If two or more to all of the root directories had a directory named videos, then the contents of all the videos directories would show up in the single video virtual directory. If two or more of all of the videos directories had a directory named NCIS, then the contents of all the NCIS directories would show up in the single NCIS virtual directory. If two or more of all of the NCIS directories had a directory named Season 2, the all of the Season 2 directories would show up in the single Season 2 virtual directory. Let me know if my description is not clear.

I think I understand what you mean, but I am not yet clear on the logistics of this. Let's say we take the following disk structure:

E:\Series\NCIS\Season 2
F:\Downloads\NCIS\Season 2

So, you'd add both E:\ and F:\ and then in the GUI specify that E:\Series and F:\Downloads are virtual roots that should be combined into one?

3) When items are in the transcoding area of the status pane and are marked paused or queued, I cannot find a way to force them to resume, but I would like to be able to force them to run. If there is a reason they are not running, it would be nice to know why.

Resuming is done automatically based on the server actions and how the items were placed in the queue. The logic is that all server-initiated transcoding takes precedence over manual pre-transcoding. Manual items will be paused when a server needs to deliver a file. Once the server is done, transcoding will resume based on the FIFO order. I could add a forced resume button, but if something is being streamed at the moment, it's possible that streaming would break, since all CPU would be consumed by the resumed process (that's also the reason why there's only one transcoding ever happening at a time). I'm happy to discuss how to make this better of course!

4) I would like to have more information in the status pane, see below.

4a) I would like to be able to right click on a item in the streaming or transcoding sections, get the items properties and go to the file in the KooRaRoo library. The ability to open the file location would be nice as well from streaming or transcoding sections as well as right clicking on an item in the KooRaRoo library.

4b) In the Streaming section, I would like an option to show the codec being used, if it is using a transcoded file, the codec of the source file and if the transcode is in process. Perhaps the transcode section could number the transcode jobs and this number could show up in the streaming status entry.

4c) In the transcoding section I would like it to show the from and to codecs.

4d) An option to show the duration and size for each category, videos, photos and music and a total of all files in the status pane.

5) I would like the transcoding entries in the transcoding tab a file properties dialog to show the size of the file and perhaps it's location.

All interesting ideas, expanding on what's already shown or adding to that - I'll add these to the development to-do list, thank you.

6) When I look at the folder properties, nothing is set in the update section. Is there a default update setting or is nothing set to auto update by default?

Do you mean the update folder settings or the "auto-update" setting? Default "update folder" setting are customized using Tools -> Options -> Update Folders. You can also manually change those when adding a folder by ticking the checkbox at the bottom of the properties dialog. By default, auto-update is not enabled, so it needs to be enabled on a per-folder basis.

6a) If I set a folder to auto update, does it update all sub-folders as well? Please don't tell me I have to set every folder manually.

Yes, all subfolders are updated as well.

6b) If I set a folder to auto update and set one of its sub-directories with different settings compared to one of its parents, will this cause problems?

You can't actually do that

7) I have had a some issues with the KooRaRoo apps lack of multitasking when performing certain operations like Rebuilding the Database & Moving transcoded files.

7a) When the Rebuild Database option runs the app is locked, but so bar for me it was very quick.

7b) I ended up running out of space on my boot volume due to transcoded files. I changed the folder, but the app locks and fails if files are in use, etc. If there are open files, it should disable transcoding for new files, stop playback of files already being transcoded, stop transcoding the in progress files and then move the existing transcoding files and it should have a progress showing the status of this process and preferably still allow access to the interface for other operations.

Yes, both these operations require a compete database lockdown. Especially rebuilding the DB (which shouldn't need to be done often or even ever, really...). Moving transcoded files should've brought up a warning dialog saying that it needs things to be stopped as well - did that come up?

8) I do not understand the subtitles burn-in feature as described in the 1.4.0 release notes and your comments in the following post and the FAQ about this does not really answer my questions. The release notes indicates that the issue is if the subtitles are not imbedded in the video file, while the post below indicates the issue is with the file type and if subtitles can be embedded in a stream with the video. Can you explain this more. Also, this option is a selection for each device. If selected, does it burn in the subtitles for every video or just for the videos that need it?

http://forum.kooraroo.com/showthread...472&viewfull=1

At the moment only external subtitles (SRT, SMI, SUB, ASS/SSA) are burned-in. Subtitles that are embedded as a stream in a file are currently not processed, but this is coming soon as well (so, if a device does not support embedded subtitles, KRR will extract them and then burn them onto the video).

When enabled, subtitles will be burned for all videos that have external subtitles for a device. You can disable individual burning using the file properties dialog (or by right-clicking on one or more files).

9) In the thread below, you mention a web interface. I have been looking for a good web interface for this type of product for a long time. I have some suggestions for this feature.

http://forum.kooraroo.com/showthread...-Web-interface

9a) Make it fully compatible with Firefox, Chrome, Opera and IE on all compatible platforms, Windows, Mac and Linux.

9b) Weather it has a web based player or not allow easy integration with VLC as it plays almost everything.

Good, we can test it then, as I don't have many requests to continue working on this feature I'll continue work on it soon and if you are interested in testing/using it, that would be great.

10) I am having a few issues with some files, but these are odd files. I will gather info and create a new post.

There are some files that just require manual transcoding to get them to play. Typically these were encoded by broken encoders and such. We can work through those together and see what we can do.

Thanks again for a great post and your suggestions. KRR is actively growing and with your input it'll be even better

[Rhongomiant]

Yes, KRR is new, so at the moment I have to self-promote a bit, otherwise no one will know about it. Hopefully this changes soon

Hopefully that changes soon.

Frankly, I haven't updated hardware in a while, but I'll keep an open mind and if I come across anything like that I'll post back.

Thanks

It would be great if you could send in the logs that show this connection error with "manufacturer-specific extensions" disabled. I do have a patch available (and it's part of the upcoming v1.4.1 due out shortly) that may help with this, but the logs will tell for sure what the problem is.


I'll need to see the logs as well (actually, I need logs for everything, typically ). Sounds like KRR could not find a match for the format from the list of formats that the device gives it.

I will send in a 2nd post as I am gathering info now.

I think I understand what you mean, but I am not yet clear on the logistics of this. Let's say we take the following disk structure:

E:\Series\NCIS\Season 2
F:\Downloads\NCIS\Season 2

So, you'd add both E:\ and F:\ and then in the GUI specify that E:\Series and F:\Downloads are virtual roots that should be combined into one?

I think you have it except for the part where the user specifies the virtual root stuff. In my limited experience, Twonky, Windows Media Share, that logitech software and a few others, the DLNA server software does this automatically. If you tell the software that E:\ and F:\ and G:\thedoctor\who\ are for video, it combines the contents of those three paths in to a virtual directory called video. Then when I select the folders option in my player, I se the contents of all of the roots previously listed and contents of like named folders are combined as well.

I see that the KooRaRoo interface has options to specify if contents of a directory is video and/or music and/or photos, but those options are grayed out. It does not even show what you selected when the directory was added.

Again, I don't completely dislike the current setup, but it makes the folders directory look more like I am accessing a network share rather than a UPNP/DLNA server. I would like to have the option for the method described above and an option for both to exist simultaneously is that is possible.

Resuming is done automatically based on the server actions and how the items were placed in the queue. The logic is that all server-initiated transcoding takes precedence over manual pre-transcoding. Manual items will be paused when a server needs to deliver a file. Once the server is done, transcoding will resume based on the FIFO order. I could add a forced resume button, but if something is being streamed at the moment, it's possible that streaming would break, since all CPU would be consumed by the resumed process (that's also the reason why there's only one transcoding ever happening at a time). I'm happy to discuss how to make this better of course!

Well at the time that prompted my request, nothing was being transcoded. There were two that were paused, the devices started playing them and then stopped, but the transcode entries were still there paused. The third was a manual transcode I added and it was listed as queued.

I have a couple of suggestions.

3a) Note why the items are paused next to each item or section them off with a single explanation.

3b) Allow the number of CPUs to be set.

3c) Allow some testing to see how many a single CPU can handle. If ffmpeg will always max out the CPU and it cannot be reasonably tuned giving each thread only a portion of the CPU time, then setting the number of CPUs is the only solution I can thing of is allowing the use of multiple CPUs.

I did some playing and due to my Samsung issues I could only get 4 programs playing, with two of them transcoding, but I have to say that it was pretty awesome to watch especially since I have had problems getting one transcode to work with other products. I am very impressed. I have to hand it to ffmpeg and what you guys have done to use it so well and manage the playback while transcoding multiple files in this way. It's truly awesome.

All interesting ideas, expanding on what's already shown or adding to that - I'll add these to the development to-do list, thank you.

Thanks

Do you mean the update folder settings or the "auto-update" setting? Default "update folder" setting are customized using Tools -> Options -> Update Folders. You can also manually change those when adding a folder by ticking the checkbox at the bottom of the properties dialog. By default, auto-update is not enabled, so it needs to be enabled on a per-folder basis.

Yes, all subfolders are updated as well.

You can't actually do that

You got what I meant and excellent in the subfolders being included.

On setting a subfolder to have a different auto-update interval, the KooRaRoo interface does not prevent me from setting a different auto-update interval. If this does not actually work and I need to do some testing to see what actually happens, I hope you will consider adding the ability. I download to a subfolder and I want that updated every minute, but the rest of the items which are many should only update every hour or so. Depending on the limitation I may be able to make this work with little pain, but if not, I will have to make some major changes to my setup and to how my family operates and I really do not want to do that if I can avoid it. Therefore, I have some questions about this.

Lets say I add E:\ to KooRaRoo and it contains thing1 and thing2.

Are you saying that the only place I can set the auto-update is in E:\?

Or are you saying that I can't set the auto-update in both E:\ and E:\thing1\ (or something like E:\thing1\greeneggs\ham\) at the same time?

So, could I set the auto-update in both E:\thing1\ and E:\thing2\ if I do not have it set in E:\? If so, this could be a work around for me.

Yes, both these operations require a compete database lockdown. Especially rebuilding the DB (which shouldn't need to be done often or even ever, really...). Moving transcoded files should've brought up a warning dialog saying that it needs things to be stopped as well - did that come up?

I understand the lockdown, I would just like it to maybe provide some progress. The transcoded files move did not produce a warning as you described.

At the moment only external subtitles (SRT, SMI, SUB, ASS/SSA) are burned-in. Subtitles that are embedded as a stream in a file are currently not processed, but this is coming soon as well (so, if a device does not support embedded subtitles, KRR will extract them and then burn them onto the video).

When enabled, subtitles will be burned for all videos that have external subtitles for a device. You can disable individual burning using the file properties dialog (or by right-clicking on one or more files).

I am guessing that either this will be manually set and/or will be part of your device profile. So, if a player cannot play external subtitles, KooRaRoo can be set to burn them in the video and if a player cannot play embeded subtitles, KooRaRoo can be set to burn them in the video.

Will these be seperate options or is it assumed if the player cannot plan one type of subtitle it must not be able to play the other?

Good, we can test it then, as I don't have many requests to continue working on this feature I'll continue work on it soon and if you are interested in testing/using it, that would be great.


There are some files that just require manual transcoding to get them to play. Typically these were encoded by broken encoders and such. We can work through those together and see what we can do.

I will be happy to test. This would be awesome, but I would push to make the app more awesome and then add the web based system. The main thing about the web system is that it has to be done right, but then you guys have done awesome work in everything else.

I actually was not done with my suggestion on the web system.

9a) Make it fully compatible with Firefox, Chrome, Opera and IE on all compatible platforms, Windows, Mac and Linux.

9b) Weather it has a web based player or not allow easy integration with VLC as it plays almost everything.

9c) The site should be able to be password protected and multiple levels of access, Read only, Read/Write, Read/Write/Delete and management like changing parental control options. There could be multiple levels of management if that makes sense for the way this product works.



I have another question/suggestion. Pushing videos to this device. When playing with Samsungs DLNA server a feature it had was to be able to have media pushed to it from devices and to browse other devices and copy media files to it. That sounds like a cool idea and I know other products have the same or a similar feature. Will KooRaRoo have this eventually.

Thanks again for a great post and your suggestions. KRR is actively growing and with your input it'll be even better

Thank you for this awesome product and actually considering my suggestions.

[Dennis]

I think you have it except for the part where the user specifies the virtual root stuff. In my limited experience, Twonky, Windows Media Share, that logitech software and a few others, the DLNA server software does this automatically. If you tell the software that E:\ and F:\ and G:\thedoctor\who\ are for video, it combines the contents of those three paths in to a virtual directory called video. Then when I select the folders option in my player, I se the contents of all of the roots previously listed and contents of like named folders are combined as well.

I see that the KooRaRoo interface has options to specify if contents of a directory is video and/or music and/or photos, but those options are grayed out. It does not even show what you selected when the directory was added.

Again, I don't completely dislike the current setup, but it makes the folders directory look more like I am accessing a network share rather than a UPNP/DLNA server. I would like to have the option for the method described above and an option for both to exist simultaneously is that is possible.

It's actually a bit different in KRR - those video/music/photos checkboxes are only available when you initially add a folder (not when you are editing its properties) and all they do is alter the list of extensions that will be read by KRR. They do not specify the type of folder, since KRR does not have folder types as such - you can mix contents as you wish, so you don't have to segregate your disk folders by file type.

The current logic is that you add in your disk folders and you may keep browsing them, but you can also create dynamic playlists (smart playlists) that will let you fine-tune your collection's presentation. So, you could create a dynamic playlist that would have "file type is video" and ("path starts with e:\..." or "path starts with f:\abc\...") and this would combine all those files into one list. The problem there is that it won't duplicate the folder structure - it'll just present all files adhering to the criteria as a flat list.

So, the way I see it, to implement such a virtual folder where you'd preserve the folder structure and combine same folders into unique ones (merging folder contents basically), you'd have to specify where a root for each of these virtual folders sits in KRR's tree. Does it make sense?

Well at the time that prompted my request, nothing was being transcoded. There were two that were paused, the devices started playing them and then stopped, but the transcode entries were still there paused. The third was a manual transcode I added and it was listed as queued.

Did you wait a while? It may take up to 2 minutes to resume a paused thread. If it's not coming alive after that, then there's a problem

I have a couple of suggestions.

3a) Note why the items are paused next to each item or section them off with a single explanation.

I agree, that will help.

3b) Allow the number of CPUs to be set.

3c) Allow some testing to see how many a single CPU can handle. If ffmpeg will always max out the CPU and it cannot be reasonably tuned giving each thread only a portion of the CPU time, then setting the number of CPUs is the only solution I can thing of is allowing the use of multiple CPUs.

CPU management is done internally actually. The server and the GUI itself are multithreaded and will try to process whatever they need to in parallel (this is especially important if you have more than one device that you are browsing/streaming to at the same time - non-multithreaded servers will pause to retrieve folder/file listings and also may have issues streaming). Transcoding tries to occupy all available CPU cores to go through the file as quickly as possible. Frankly, I'm not sure that opening this up is a good idea since it will most like degrade performance. However, I'm open to ideas and further discussion on this topic

I did some playing and due to my Samsung issues I could only get 4 programs playing, with two of them transcoding, but I have to say that it was pretty awesome to watch especially since I have had problems getting one transcode to work with other products. I am very impressed. I have to hand it to ffmpeg and what you guys have done to use it so well and manage the playback while transcoding multiple files in this way. It's truly awesome.

Thank you!

On setting a subfolder to have a different auto-update interval, the KooRaRoo interface does not prevent me from setting a different auto-update interval. If this does not actually work and I need to do some testing to see what actually happens, I hope you will consider adding the ability. I download to a subfolder and I want that updated every minute, but the rest of the items which are many should only update every hour or so. Depending on the limitation I may be able to make this work with little pain, but if not, I will have to make some major changes to my setup and to how my family operates and I really do not want to do that if I can avoid it. Therefore, I have some questions about this.

Lets say I add E:\ to KooRaRoo and it contains thing1 and thing2.

Are you saying that the only place I can set the auto-update is in E:\?

Or are you saying that I can't set the auto-update in both E:\ and E:\thing1\ (or something like E:\thing1\greeneggs\ham\) at the same time?

So, could I set the auto-update in both E:\thing1\ and E:\thing2\ if I do not have it set in E:\? If so, this could be a work around for me.

Hmm, yes the UI lets you do this, but it shouldn't currently... Only the root folder's properties for updating are currently used, however I'll add support on per-subfolder basis as well, so the UI will be correct in one of the next updates Thanks for pointing this out.

I understand the lockdown, I would just like it to maybe provide some progress. The transcoded files move did not produce a warning as you described.

Strange... I've just checked it and there is a message coming up with various options when you click OK on the Options dialog after changin the transcoding path. Can you please try again and see if you do get the dialog (perhaps you quickly dismissed it the first time round?)

I am guessing that either this will be manually set and/or will be part of your device profile. So, if a player cannot play external subtitles, KooRaRoo can be set to burn them in the video and if a player cannot play embeded subtitles, KooRaRoo can be set to burn them in the video.

Will these be seperate options or is it assumed if the player cannot plan one type of subtitle it must not be able to play the other?

Support for external subtitles is currently part of the device profiles and support for embedded subtitles will also come to device profiles once it's implemented in KRR. The two are separate, so a device may support only external, only embedded, both, none at all or a combination (e.g. external SRT, embedded SUB, etc...).

I will be happy to test. This would be awesome, but I would push to make the app more awesome and then add the web based system. The main thing about the web system is that it has to be done right, but then you guys have done awesome work in everything else.

I actually was not done with my suggestion on the web system.

9a) Make it fully compatible with Firefox, Chrome, Opera and IE on all compatible platforms, Windows, Mac and Linux.

9b) Weather it has a web based player or not allow easy integration with VLC as it plays almost everything.

9c) The site should be able to be password protected and multiple levels of access, Read only, Read/Write, Read/Write/Delete and management like changing parental control options. There could be multiple levels of management if that makes sense for the way this product works.

Yes, that's why the feature is not currently actively developed, although there is more code in there than is currently exposed We'll get there one day.

I have another question/suggestion. Pushing videos to this device. When playing with Samsungs DLNA server a feature it had was to be able to have media pushed to it from devices and to browse other devices and copy media files to it. That sounds like a cool idea and I know other products have the same or a similar feature. Will KooRaRoo have this eventually.

Do you mean pushing files from KRR's GUI to the device (this is already implemented, although it'll be enhanced soon) or do you mean pushing files from other servers through KRR to a device? If the latter, this is already planned

[Rhongomiant]

Dennis,

Thanks for the reply. I will give quick responses to some of the items we covered last time in the next paragraphs and only do the quote reply thing for the big ones.

Transcode Issue: Yes I did wait more than two minutes for the transcode threads to start. However, they were not needed by any current playing video and I had 3 videos playing. Could it be that they did not resume because there was not enough CPU and there was no ned for the transcoding videos during that period of time?

Trancode Processing: I understand what you are saying about how processing works and it seems like you have a great thread engine in KooRARoo. My only concern was that you said that it will only transcode one video at a time. My thinking is that this could be an issue if I build a beefy system so that I can serve 10 systems with video and 4 or more need to be transcoded. However, based on your response ffmpeg should be able to transcode each more quickly because it uses multiple threads and therefore multiple CPUs to transcode each video. Therefore, KooRaRoo should be able to get multiple transcode requests started quickly and keep up with a beefy system. I had two transcodes and 3 videos playing and my system is a Dual Core P4 with 2GB RAM. I think the code is good and if you say KooRaRoo could scale to say 10 simultaneous transcodes with a powerful system, then I believe you.

Subtitles: Sounds awesome and that you are already in process of adding features and allowing them to be set in a very flexible manner.

Pushing Files: I did mean the latter in two parts. 1) Pushing a file from a device to KooRaRoo. 2) Allowing KooRaRoo access other devices and pull the files it self.

Web System: When I get some of the existing issues worked out, I would be glad to test a version with the web system.

Thanks for considering adding reasons why transcode jobs have been paused and not getting out of the queue and per subfolder auto-update settings.


Existing and New Issues:

Moving Transcoded Files: I will do this again when I get a chance. My problem may be related to the issue I will describe next.

Server Does not stop: In preparation for the 1.4.1.0 update I wanted to stop services. To do this I selected a device playing something and selected the stop option for the device. I tried several times and then finally clicked the server stop button. The server stop was stuck on pending for over ten minutes and then the client just stopped respondng. After about ten minutes, I just had to restart my system. This happened between 11AM and 2PM EST. You should see it in the attached log. I think it is having an issue killing connections. Perhaps this is why I had issues with the transcode move. Maybe it just can't stop all that it needs to stop. I can tell you that when I had the transcode issue, KooRaRoo was transcoding a video that was being played.

Logs:
KooRaRooMediaLog_2013-02-02-11-31-28.txt & KooRaRooMediaServerLog_2013-02-01-21-58-11.txt

1.4.1.0 Update:

I had a video stop twice during playback between 9PM and 11PM EST. If anything was logged about this, it's in the attached log. I was watching an episode of "The Big Bang Theory", Season 6 Episode 13.

Logs:
KooRaRooMediaLog_2013-02-02-12-22-44.txt & KooRaRooMediaServerLog_2013-02-02-12-22-51.txt

While the change log shows that it has Samsung device fixes, it did not resolve my issue. I still can't connect when I disable the MFG extensions and when the extensions are enabled, I do not get a Folders option so that I can access the KooRaRoo file structure. I have the same issue with my Xbox. The WDTV and Sony BDP show the KooRaRoo folder structure. I will post more on this an another post.

I am having an issue related to Mac Addresses. I have several devices in one location so I am using a wireless bridge which makes all the MAC addresses look the same. I see you have an option and explain this type of issue. I am not forcing the software to only use MAC addresses, but I am having a problem. Will settings static IPs on each device fix this issue?

I am not able to upload the logs which are 24MB. Let me know how I can get them too you.

Thanks,

Chris

[Dennis]

Hi Chris,

Transcode Issue: Yes I did wait more than two minutes for the transcode threads to start. However, they were not needed by any current playing video and I had 3 videos playing. Could it be that they did not resume because there was not enough CPU and there was no ned for the transcoding videos during that period of time?

If there were files streaming at the time and you had some manual transcoding items in the queue, yes, they could have paused to let the currently streaming items to go through. Transcoding should've resumed after you stopped streaming though - I'm not sure if you had a chance to test that or not.

Trancode Processing: I understand what you are saying about how processing works and it seems like you have a great thread engine in KooRARoo. My only concern was that you said that it will only transcode one video at a time. My thinking is that this could be an issue if I build a beefy system so that I can serve 10 systems with video and 4 or more need to be transcoded. However, based on your response ffmpeg should be able to transcode each more quickly because it uses multiple threads and therefore multiple CPUs to transcode each video. Therefore, KooRaRoo should be able to get multiple transcode requests started quickly and keep up with a beefy system. I had two transcodes and 3 videos playing and my system is a Dual Core P4 with 2GB RAM. I think the code is good and if you say KooRaRoo could scale to say 10 simultaneous transcodes with a powerful system, then I believe you.

Just very briefly - what happens in real-life is that a device will grab a few megabytes or tens of megabytes of data and play that (depending on the file this will be a few seconds) during this time, it doesn't do anything else, so attention can be switched to another transcoding process to prepare data for that. So, KRR sort of ping-pongs back and forth, preparing data for devices on a need-to basis. That's why I'm saying that manual intervention into this will most likely make it worse However, that doesn't mean that there shouldn't be some options to alter the logic that's in place now - let's discuss

I am not able to upload the logs which are 24MB. Let me know how I can get them too you.

For the existing issues, please upload the logs to a site like DropBox http://db.tt/lRFZ8DfF (this is a Dropbox referral program) or any other file sharing site and then e-mail support (at) kooraroo (dot) com letting me know that the logs are in relation to this thread and I'll go through them.

[Rhongomiant]

Issues:

For the existing issues, please upload the logs to a site like DropBox http://db.tt/lRFZ8DfF (this is a Dropbox referral program) or any other file sharing site and then e-mail support (at) kooraroo (dot) com letting me know that the logs are in relation to this thread and I'll go through them.

I sent an email to support, but the URL is below.

https://www.sendthisfile.com/ux3ovSX0vP2DpRW2r1xvTtkZ

Transcode Execution:

If there were files streaming at the time and you had some manual transcoding items in the queue, yes, they could have paused to let the currently streaming items to go through. Transcoding should've resumed after you stopped streaming though - I'm not sure if you had a chance to test that or not.

I think you described what happened in my case.

Transcode Logic:

Just very briefly - what happens in real-life is that a device will grab a few megabytes or tens of megabytes of data and play that (depending on the file this will be a few seconds) during this time, it doesn't do anything else, so attention can be switched to another transcoding process to prepare data for that. So, KRR sort of ping-pongs back and forth, preparing data for devices on a need-to basis. That's why I'm saying that manual intervention into this will most likely make it worse However, that doesn't mean that there shouldn't be some options to alter the logic that's in place now - let's discuss

Well it works. When I am able I will push more transcodes at it to see if this logic has issues. If I had a better server today, I could only get 7 transcodes going at almost the same time if I found videos I knew each device needed transcoded. Maybe I could use our phones to set a few more, so maybe 10. I'm calling the system good as is for now. It works great for my setup and trancodes amazingly better than anything I have ever used.

[Dennis]

Issues:
I sent an email to support, but the URL is below.

https://www.sendthisfile.com/ux3ovSX0vP2DpRW2r1xvTtkZ

Thanks - I'll get back to you via e-mail on the issues.

Well it works. When I am able I will push more transcodes at it to see if this logic has issues. If I had a better server today, I could only get 7 transcodes going at almost the same time if I found videos I knew each device needed transcoded. Maybe I could use our phones to set a few more, so maybe 10. I'm calling the system good as is for now. It works great for my setup and trancodes amazingly better than anything I have ever used.

Yep. Please note that depending on the material and your network type (e.g. Wireless G or N, Wired, Powerplug, etc...) you may be hitting a bandwidth limit at some point after 10-12 movies going through concurrently. This is limit is obviously much less for wireless, as that can't really sustain a constant bitrate throughput reliably and tends to go up and down in waves (which is not noticeable when you are just browsing the Internet or copying files, but may break video playback if the device is starved of data).