Question on folder sharing permissions

[Steevo25]

It's probably just my luck of understanding, but I am trying to restrict a folder and all the video files in it to a single device.

What I did was select my 'video' playlist then 'folders' (created by default when I installed Mezzmo) then right-click, 'Add', 'Add Folder'.

I then navigated to my folder and in the 'Presets' selected 'Videos'. All good so far.

I then right-clicked on the new folder called 'Restricted' and selected 'Playlist sharing permissions'.

I then said deny all except the following and selected my device.

When I went to the 'allowed' device, everything was visible as expected. I then went to a 'non-allowed' device and the 'Restricted' folder itself did not show up as expected.

The problem is, I could still get to those files by other means. For example, If I went to director and selected the director of one of those files then I could access the file via that playlist so all it had done is restricted access to a single playlist (folder) but not the files in it. I could also go to 'All Video Files' and find them or 'Genre' and find them.

Am I doing something wrong?

[Paul]

Restricting a folder or playlist does exactly that - it restricts the folder or playlist form being listed & browsed on certain devices. However, it does not restrict your files and your files may appear in multiple playlists (Recently added, Movies, TV Shows, Last 50 Played, etc.).

The best way to restrict certain files being browsed and played by specific devices in your home is to use content ratings. For example, if you have R-rated files or adult content, then you can specify the maximum content rating to display on a device (e.g. PG-13) and Mezzmo server not deliver any files with a content rating higher to that device.

Additionally, you can set the times when these content rating restrictions apply. For example, restrict files only during 6AM - 9PM when your children have access to devices in your home, and then unrestricted outside of this time period so you can access them. And finally, if you use our Mezzmo Android app, you can set a secret PIN code that you can enter into Mezzmo Android app so that you can bypass the content restrictions at any time.

See this FAQ for a full explanation of Mezzmo's parental control and content ratings features - http://forum.conceiva.com/showthread.php/7272-Tutorial-Parental-Control.

If any further questions, just ask.

[Steevo25]

Many thanks for your reply Paul.

I did try the content ratings and they do work very well, BUT. The purpose of my folder restriction is not to stop children watching adult rated films, everyone in the household is very much an adult that are free to watch whatever content they wish.

The files I wish to protect are personal videos or family videos that I do not wish anyone else to view. I could put a content rating on them and restrict that content rating to particular devices but that would restrict access to any video with that content rating. The other thing I could do is change every video file to a lower content rating and just have these particular files of a high content rating. But with nearly 8000 video files and more being added, that presents an administration nightmare. Also it means I would have to monitor any new device that connects as by default, a newly connected device does not have a content rating restriction until I assign one. I could make it so that by default all new devices are denied access until I allow them, but again that means me constantly administering the system and checking to see if an iPad or phone device has connected.

Not wishing to criticise Mezzmo, as I think it's brilliant and I would highly recommend it, but doesn't that kind of make playlist sharing permissions pointless. All it does is hide the name of a playlist but nothing contained within it. It would only really be useful if you could create a playlist that is divorced from the rest of the library where contained media does not get listed anywhere else.

Just a thought.

[Paul]

Thanks for explaining how you want to protect your files. We'll discuss this more here and think about a nice way to do this.

For the current version of Mezzmo (v4.1.3.0), you can accomplish what you want by creating your own special content rating(s):


Go to the Options dialog (Content Rating page) and click the 'Edit Content Ratings' button.
On the Edit Content Ratings dialog, click the 'Add' button.
On the Content Rating Properties dialog, give your content rating a name (e.g. 'Protected') and set the minimum permitted age to a high number such as 99. Click OK to save your new content rating.
Now you can assign this content rating to your personal videos. To do this for a group of files, select them all (using Ctrl +A keys to select all files in the current playlist/folder; or Ctrl or Shift key with left mouse button; or using mouse rubberbanding) and right-click on one of them and click 'Properties'. On the Properties dialog, click the small browse button on the right of the Content rating edit box and select your new content rating. Click OK on the Properties dialog to save this new content rating for all the selected files.
Edit your device(s) to set the maximum content rating to stream to these devices.

Let us know how you go.

[Steevo25]

Many thanks. That will certainly fit my purpose. I didn't know you could add your own rating but by doing that I can then allow access to everything else except my files. I will not allow new devices to connect automatically and they will be denied by default to allow me to set the content rating filter.

Once again, many thanks.

[Paul]

Glad this solution works for you :).

[andymoz]

The instructions below are ok, but new content is added to some folders just by dropping onto a san/nas.
So then browsing folder, or running a scheduled maintain library adds them, but they have no content rating.
Any way to set the default ( set on the folder ) to be the default for new content in that folder? Or a way to auto apply a content rating based on a rule such as folder name ?

Thanks
Andy


Thanks for explaining how you want to protect your files. We'll discuss this more here and think about a nice way to do this.

For the current version of Mezzmo (v4.1.3.0), you can accomplish what you want by creating your own special content rating(s):


Go to the Options dialog (Content Rating page) and click the 'Edit Content Ratings' button.
On the Edit Content Ratings dialog, click the 'Add' button.
On the Content Rating Properties dialog, give your content rating a name (e.g. 'Protected') and set the minimum permitted age to a high number such as 99. Click OK to save your new content rating.
Now you can assign this content rating to your personal videos. To do this for a group of files, select them all (using Ctrl +A keys to select all files in the current playlist/folder; or Ctrl or Shift key with left mouse button; or using mouse rubberbanding) and right-click on one of them and click 'Properties'. On the Properties dialog, click the small browse button on the right of the Content rating edit box and select your new content rating. Click OK on the Properties dialog to save this new content rating for all the selected files.
Edit your device(s) to set the maximum content rating to stream to these devices.

Let us know how you go.

[Paul]

Hi Andy,

Set the 'Do not stream unrated files' checkbox and this will hide these yet-to-be-rated files from your kids.

[andymoz]

Hi, I did find that tick box, but it applies to all content.
To give some examples, we have two SLR and a small digital camera that use wifi cards to sync to the same server - and then these photos show up for people to look at.
Same for music - added by just dropping or 'syncing' other devices and files to central folders shared by mezzmo.

So, now none of this shows up until someone ( me) vnc's onto that server and uses the mezzmo UI to classify the content ?
This really doesn't lend itself to a low maintenance automated environment.... which is why i was asking about defaults based on folders for example. - would solve this very simply.


Hi Andy,

Set the 'Do not stream unrated files' checkbox and this will hide these yet-to-be-rated files from your kids.

[Paul]

Hi Andy,

Understand the low maintenance issue. We have have scheduled on our task list to add a feature where you can batch assign various attributes (such as content ratings) to files in a playlist/folder. We're hoping to have this done for the next major release (Mezzmo v5.0).