Popcorn Hour

Upgrade your firmware to:

 

Firmware 01-17-090201-15-POP-403

I tried using the crossover cable and need some directions.

 

When using a crossover cable does thr unRaid server need an assigned IP address? I have not done this because I normally use DHCP through the router. I cannot see the server when using a crossover cable.

 

I ask this question because in the PCH setup screen it ask for an URL when configuring network shares. I don't know what to put in the URL box. I have tried many different things, but evidentely, not the right thing.

 

I can see the server from PCH, when going through the router, but not when using a crossover cable.

 

Trying to get the PCH to work properly has become an obsession I can't walk away from. Chores around the house are piling up and the wife's waf is getting low, real low.

 

Thanks.

Yes, you have to use a static IP address on BOTH unRAID, and the PCH.

 

 

I made up a crossover cable to make a direct connection between the PCH and unRaid. What do I need to enter in the URL box from the Network Share setup page on the PCH?

I made up a crossover cable to make a direct connection between the PCH and unRaid. What do I need to enter in the URL box from the Network Share setup page on the PCH?

You need to enter the IP address of your unRAID server.

If you are using vista go to network settings and in under your network adapter turn off ipv6. This made a difference with unraid and my 2 popcorn hours. I can play back two bluray rips remuxed to m2ts (full quality same as from disc not some  crap 1080p mkv's )  to 2 different popcorn hours at the same time with no stuttering. I am using all dlink gigabyte switches for my networking and one port of my 8 port dlink gigabyte switch connects to my adsl router just for dhcp and internet. Everything here is gigabyte except the popcornhours. I am running the latest version of myihome. Every since the popcorn hour A110s came out I had 2 and they always have worked flawless from my unraid box.

 

Some other thing why you need the internet connection. Maybe your internet connection is supplying the dhcp info to your switch.

 

I'm still trying to get the PCH and the unRaid server to communicate with each other through  the use of a crossover cable. What exactly do I type in the URL box for the network share setup page? I typed in the IP address of the server. as Joe L. suggessted, and that did not work. I tried adding colons, back slashes, foward slashes, smb, nmt, HTTP, and other combinations that came to mind. However I always got the same results: Invalid URL format, or file system unknown.

 

I don't think it make any difference, but I am using Windows XP

 

Also, do I have to add the disk number to the end of the URL?

 

The IP address of the server is 192.168.1.100

 

The IP address of the PCH is 192.168.1.101

 

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

 

Thanks

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Update:  I finally got the PCH A-110 working with unRaid and it works great. It also works over gigabit ethernet.

 

I upgraded to v. 4.5-beta4 and copied over the two required files to the flash and that did not help. So then

I dedcided to copy all of the files from the new release to the flash, replacing all of the old ones. After I reassigned

my drives, I took the PCH  for a test drive, and presto, all was well. I'm not sure what it was, but it is now working.

 

Now I am on to the next challenge, trying to figure how to install YAMJB to either the PCH or the server so that I

don't have to use a PC.

 

Joe L., just for the record, after I made the flash update and got the PCH working, I tried using the crossover cable

and entered the IP address, as you suggested, and it worked. Thanks! I'm just embarrassed I didn't think of that myself.

I have a Popcorn Hour A-110 and have been testing unRAID.

 

I mainly play pure Blu-ray rips (full BDMV structure), not recodes. Therefore being able to handle high bitrates is very important.

 

I have a few hundred complete Blu-ray rips, and most would play without stalling or stuttering over NFS from my Linkstation Pros, but there is one that wouldn't because the bitrates are so high -- it's "The Beyonce Experience Live (2007)" which has a bitrate of over 55mbps at times.

 

In testing a small selection of Blu-ray rips, unRAID had no problem streaming over Samba, NFS and llink.

 

So I decided to try the Beyonce disc with unRAID, as it's a real streaming kiler.

 

The results are:

Samba: No

NFS: No

llink: Yes

 

I'm very happy with this result, as it means if this plays, just about everything will play.

 

I guess it's now time to pay for my Pro license!

llink uses http..... and you will always get the best streaming performance over http.

llink uses http..... and you will always get the best streaming performance over http.

 

I know. That's why I'm using it!

 

The point is, the combination of unRAID + llink gives perfect streaming to the PCH, and that's all I need.

 

For kicks, I decided to copy data to the same drive while streaming, and it didn't flinch:

 

I mainly play pure Blu-ray rips (full BDMV structure), not recodes.

Hi neilt0 - Can you say more about this?  I have not tried Blu-Ray yet with my A-110 but I thought you had to play the large m2ts file for it to work.  Are you saying that you just rip the whole Blu Ray disk, point the A-110 to the folder containing the BDMV and it works?  Are you manually browsing to the large m2ts file and playing it?  How do you handle discs with seamless branching? 

 

Thanks

I mainly play pure Blu-ray rips (full BDMV structure), not recodes.

Hi neilt0 - Can you say more about this?  I have not tried Blu-Ray yet with my A-110 but I thought you had to play the large m2ts file for it to work.  Are you saying that you just rip the whole Blu Ray disk, point the A-110 to the folder containing the BDMV and it works?  Are you manually browsing to the large m2ts file and playing it?  How do you handle discs with seamless branching? 

 

Thanks

 

You can either play the largest file in the BDMV folder -- llink shows file sizes, so this is easy, or you can use YAMJ to index the collection, and YAMJ will play the relevant file, including seamless branching -- it will pause between files when seamless branching, so if you want to avoid that, you will need to remux (not recode).

 

A screenshot of my YAMJ:

 

That sounds great, I'll need to try that.  I didn't know yamj would index the correct files in the BDMV folder.  I too am running yamj with the 5150 skin.    Thanks!

Unlike DVDs, BlueRay disks can be built many different ways.  Some have m2ts files.  Some do not. Some use AVO files.  Some have the movie broken into multiple files, and some have the entire move in a single file.

Unlike DVDs, BlueRay disks can be built many different ways.  Some have m2ts files.  Some do not. Some use AVO files.  Some have the movie broken into multiple files, and some have the entire move in a single file.

 

I think you'd struggle to find one commercial Blu-ray with anything other than M2TS, whether seamless branching or not.

YAMJ handles the seamless branching acceptably.

 

If you mean AVCHD, then that's primarily used for camcorders, not for commercial Blu-ray movies. It's not even part of the Blu-ray standard: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AVCHD#Compatibility_with_Blu-ray_Disc_players

PCH 110 and user shares:

 

I am testing an unRAID server to replace a Win2k server box. Streaming is working fine. I am now trying to integrate the unRAID server into the PCH and setting up network shares on the PCH.

 

On the unRAID server I have it set up as follows. User share is called "Media". In Media I have //Media/Video/Movies and //Media/Video/TV Shows etc. I want to map the PCH to the lower level directories ie "Movies", "TV Shows" etc

 

On the PCH is I set up a Network Share as "smb://192.168.1.1/Media" if I select the NS on the PCH it displays "Media" and I can user the remote to navigate to Video/Movies.

 

But if I set up a Network Share on the PCH as "smb://192.168.1.1/Media/Video/Movies" then when I try to select this Network Share on the PCH it tells me the "The share folder no longer exist"(sic).

 

Does anyone know what I am doing wrong?

 

BTW when I navigate from the PCH and select "Media" which is the name of my User share on unRAID is it accessing the user share or the media directory on disk1 or disk2 etc?

 

Ridley

unRaid is exposing the user shares as Media, so when you use smb://192.168.1.1/Media/ it is browsing the user share. If you want to browse a disk directly, you need to use smb://192.168.1.1/disk1 or smb://192.168.1.1/disk2

 

On the PCH, when you try using smb://192.168.1.1/Media/Video/Movies, were the drives spun down and do you hear them trying to spin-up? If so, it may be a timeout issue on how long it takes them to spin up. You should give the cache_dirs addon a try {Wiki Entry, Script Location}. If you wanted to see if it's the issue quickly, you could try setting the drives to never spindown.

Thanks for the reply.

 

However I have set up two Network shares on the PCH one called UnMedia (smb://192.168.1.1/media) and another UnMovies (SMB://192.168.1.1/Media/Video/Movies)

 

Network share "UnMedia" works just fine from the PCH but at the same time "UnMovies" does not, so it is not a drive spin up issue.

 

On the unRAID server the user share is "Media" and the file structure on drives one and two is Media/Video/Movies or Media/Video/TV Shows etc

 

Ridley

Thanks for the reply.

 

However I have set up two Network shares on the PCH one called UnMedia (smb://192.168.1.1/media) and another UnMovies (SMB://192.168.1.1/Media/Video/Movies)

 

Network share "UnMedia" works just fine from the PCH but at the same time "UnMovies" does not, so it is not a drive spin up issue.

 

On the unRAID server the user share is "Media" and the file structure on drives one and two is Media/Video/Movies or Media/Video/TV Shows etc

 

Ridley

That is easy to explain... The second is a subdirectory of a shared folder on the unRAID server.  It is NOT a network share, and therefore, it probably cannot be referenced on the PCH the way you are trying.

 

Now, you can create the share you desire on the unRAID server, but there is no way to do it from the normal user-share screen.

 

You must create a special file on the config folder, and in it put the definition of where to find the directory with your movies.  It can be named UnMovies

 

I recently described it here: http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=4185.0

 

The file is

config/smb-extra.conf

 

For your specific example, put a series of lines like this:

[unMovies]

        path = /mnt/user/Media/Video/Movies

        read only = Yes

 

The share name in the "[" "]' brackets can be whatever you want to see on the LAN

The path can be to any folder on any disk you like.  It muse be the full path... If only on one disk, you can have

something like /mnt/disk2/Media/Video/Movies

 

I'm not certain, but I think the file must NOT have trailing carriage returns on the ends of the lines, so don't create it using windows notepad, as windows puts carriage returns on the ends of lines.

Or, after you create it, use fromdos as described in the wiki to remove the trailing carriage returns.

 

Once you have the file in place, you can stop the unRAID server from its management interface, then re-Start it, and the new share should show up on your LAN as "UnMovies" and it will be a direct path to the Movies sub-directory..

 

OK I created a smb-extra.conf file in notepad and then ran fromdos over it and then copied it to the config directory on the flash drive.

 

 

"[uNMovies]

path=mnt/user/media/video/movies

read only=yes"

 

I then rebooted the unraid box and I couldnt see the share in windows or from the PCH, I could not see anything referring to this file in the syslog either.

 

Any ideas?

 

Ridley

OK I created a smb-extra.conf file in notepad and then ran fromdos over it and then copied it to the config directory on the flash drive.

 

 

"[uNMovies]

path=mnt/user/media/video/movies

read only=yes"

 

I then rebooted the unraid box and I couldnt see the share in windows or from the PCH, I could not see anything referring to this file in the syslog either.

 

Any ideas?

 

Ridley

What version of unRAID are you running?   The ability to create and use a custom smb-extra.conf file was introduced in unRAID 4.5beta2.

 

On older versions you can edit/add the needed lines to the /etc/cmb.conf file, but it is re-created every time you reboot, so you will need to add the lines to the end of your "config/go" script.  I've also added a "sleep 30" to delay until the array is on-line and the smb.conf file is created.

 

 

sleep 30

echo "[uNMovies]" >>/etc/samba/smb.shares

echo "path = /mnt/user/Media/Video/Movies" >>/etc/samba/smb.shares

echo "read only = Yes" >>/etc/samba/smb.shares

echo "force user = root" >>/etc/samba/smb.shares

echo "map archive = Yes" >>/etc/samba/smb.shares

echo "map system = Yes" >>/etc/samba/smb.shares

echo "map hidden = Yes" >>/etc/samba/smb.shares

echo "create mask = 0711" >>/etc/samba/smb.shares

echo "directory mask = 0711" >>/etc/samba/smb.shares

smbcontrol smbd reload-config

 

Oh yes... the path must be complete and with the exact same case as the directories under Linux.  Your example has all lower case, but you were mapping in the PCH a mixed case.    That is why I showed a mixed case in my example to you.

 

Also, the path in your last post is missing the leading "/"   (Just in case you are running a recent version that does use the config/smb-extra.conf file.)

 

One last thing, the command

smbcontrol smbd reload-config

is at the end of the "go" command file so it will re-read the added lines without it having to reboot.

 

A lot of this was discussed in this thread; http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=1579.0

 

Basically, you can configure SAMBA as you like... google smb.conf file lots of examples.

 

To see the share names you are currently sharing on the LAN, type:

smbclient -N -L localhost

 

Joe L.

One last thing, you can verify the contents of your SAMBA config file by typing:

testparm

at the linux command prompt.

Ahh I am running 4.42 I tried the latest beta but I had some problems, but as I have now rebuilt the machine with a new motherboards (the last one required a kicker drive) I might well give it a try.

 

Thanks for the help.

 

I will let you know how I get on.

 

Ridley

OK I have upgraded to the latest beta, 4.5b6.

 

Testparm lists the "UNMovies" as a share, with the dump as follows.

 

[uNMovies]

    path = mnt/user/media/video/movies

    read only = No

    include = /etc/samba/smb-share.conf

 

Now when I look at the unRAID server from my PC I see the "Tower" and listed in it are disk1,disk2,flash,media and unmovies.

 

However I can access disk1,disk2, flash and media but not "UNMovies" when I click on that the system just hangs. In fact if I have previously tried to access "UNMovies" on the tower I cannot access anything that I could before and I need to reboot the unRAID server.

 

The PCH cannot access the "UNMovies" share either.

 

Any ideas?

 

Ridley