DVD ISO playback with NPVR?

[drbenjamin]

Well, I made a Network Share to the folder using the NMT interface and it didn't work. Looked around and learned that NMTs don't like whitespace, so I changed the folder name to D:\HomeVideo and the share to HomeVideo on the PC and then updated the Network Share on the NMT. Now I can navigate and play the ISO files using the NMT interface. I went into NPVR, added a Media folder (HomeVideo, pointing to D:\HomeVideo) and updated my npvr.cgi. Confirmed via telnet that /mnt/D:\HomeVideo is mounted and can read files. Still no joy from the NPVR interface, I press play on the folder and it puts up the PCH screen, then kicks me back to the NPVR menu. I should mention that there are also .mts files inside D:\HomeVideo and those play fine through NPVR, it's just the ISO folders.

Tks for the help -

D

[drbenjamin]

Actually, Martin, I think the whitespace idea above was bogus. I just noticed that on the NMT you get an underscore by scrolling through the "1" key, I had been using the "0" key which gives a space, so my 1st Network Share had the wrong share name. ("Home Movies" instead of "Home_Movies"). Regardless, it's all working via the NMT interface now.

[mvallevand]

I am struggling with this, I don't really see what is wrong. You have powered off and on your NMT after making the changes right?

Martin

[drbenjamin]

Well, I have a workaround but I am completely stumped on this one. If instead of mounting the new drive in D:\, I mount it in D:\Video everything works. The weird thing is that I have mounted it in both D:\HomeVideo and D:\Video\Homevideo simultaneously (Win 7 let's you have multiple letters/mount points). I had the NMT mount D:\Video and D:\HomeVideo, and set both folders up in NPVR Media Folders setup. I spent 30 min clicking through every menu I could find, the sharing permissions and security for D:\Video and D:\HomeVideo are identical. I can read files from both through /mnt on the NMT. And yet NPVR will not play an ISO accessed through D:\HomeVideo, but no trouble going through D:\Video and then into the HomeVideo folder. I even set up 2 SMB Network shares on the NMT to the 2 folders, both worked fine.

As I say I've got it working but I kind of wish I understood why.

[mvallevand]

Are you sharing the entire D:\ or D:\HomeVideo This could make a difference on how the mount point should be entered. If you really want to diagnose this I can help you through telnet. There almost always is an explanation.

Martin

[drbenjamin]

I've actually got shares for D:\, D:\Homevideo and D:\Video. The latter two are each drives that are mounted on NTFS folders. I was wondering if my issue was that, for the D:\Video share NPVR has to go one level deeper than in the case of D:\Homevideo, but when I added a level to D:\HomeVideo it didn't help.

To be honest, I'm curious about what's going on here, and my main reason to go further with telnet etc. would be to learn more about the NMT <-> NPVR interaction. As you know, I rely entirely on media extenders and would like to be of assistance when you (hopefully!) break out the next gen extenders. So if you think the principles and communications are likely to persist in the future and help me be a better beta tester, I'd like to figure this out. If it will mostly change with the next gen let's let this one rest.

Once again, I appreciate your and sub's work. NPVR is working so well for us that I'm finally getting rid of all my SD equipment. the HD stuff was never fully reliable under GB-PVR, but we haven't had a hitch since upgrading. Plus now our whole 22 year home movie archive is online!

[Antmannz]

Maybe there's some weird 8 character limit??

[mvallevand]

No, my sample ISO has an lfn at it is in an lfn directory. It is important to note the internally in the ISO files and in VIDEO_TS folder there are rigid naming conventions right down to the files that can be in the folder. Even having Art in a VIDEO_TS folder would be considered a no-no.

As for whether future extenders would have to support this, I would say yes. An ISO file is really just a self contained file system that needed to be "mounted" like a share, and it would be very difficult to stream individual files in this file system via http.

Martin

[mvallevand]

Maybe there's some weird 8 character limit??

I rethought my original answer, and now agree it is the 8 character limit when you don't map the root of the share. 12 character SMB shares are supported but only 8.3 directory names if you map deeper than the root.

@drbenjamin instead of D:\Homevideo find out what the short name is and use it instead ie D:\HOMEVID~1

Martin