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Thread: Several questions

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Mar 2012
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    126

    Default Several questions

    First, thank you for the pointers on moving the data .db files out of their installation default folders. Although the instructions weren't exactly right, I was able to muddle my way through once I had the folder locations and .ini/.txt file names. Since these are unencrypted flat files, I would love to see these configurable thruough the UI.

    1. Tagging and Compilations

    I previously used Twonky. With Twonky, I was able to store albums (music) that had various artists in the artist tag in a "Compilations" (user-configurable folder) directory that prevented the content indexer from indexing artists names and thus introducing a library or playlist problem in which many artists are listed whom only are credited on one or two tracks on an album. I have the "Part of a Compilation" tag switch set in all the files, and it appears as though Mezzmo does not respect this. Is there a way to either tag the audio files in such a way that Mezzmo does not index the artists in albums of my choosing, or some other way to tell Mezzmo to ignore the artists in these files?

    2. Indexing speed

    Mezzmo indexes really slow (about 17 hours to index all of my content after install, ~1TB) and seems to get slower and slower as the time elapsed gets longer. It does successfully index - eventually. Are there any tricks to improve speed?

    3. Indexing updates/changes to content

    Mezzmo does not seem to "watch" content folders for changes and update upon a change. I have to force an update.

    4. Apparent hanging when re-indexing content

    If I make a change to a folder/tag, and force a manual update to see the change, the system seems to hang on "Finalizing...". although the task eventually completes. During execution the computer and Mezzmo become unresponsive. JFYI, it is an older Athlon II x64 (2.1 GHz) with 2GB of RAM - it should be sufficient for this purpose. I will be updating it this weekend to newer hardware, to avail myself of transcoding features, so we'll see then.

    5. Video Metadata

    I (gleefully) noticed that in some cases .mkv files (which by definition do not have metadata embedded in them) were/are showing some metadata. I use MyMovies to catalog my video files. Where is Mezzmo getting the metadata, and how can I populate this for all files?

    6. Transcoding

    Is there a way to force Mezzmo to delete transcoded content after a period of time? It would be great if as part of a scheduled maintenance I could have Mezzmo delete all temporary/transcoded content on a weekly (et al) basis to save disk space.

    7. Grouping

    I know that is rather vague, but what I would like to do is group by artists in such a way that allows me to pick ABC, DEF, GHI, etc... and then select from Artist names in the sub group, then album, then play album in track order from the tag, not by filename. Is this possible? I have music from over 900 artists. I know I am an edge case, but it would still be a huge improvement!

    8. WD TV Live

    I would like to only display the "Video" tree when in the Video menu option, "Music" in the "Music" option, etc... and to not show the top of the heirarchy where I must select either Video, Music, or Photos after having selected one of the three in the WD TV Live menu. Twonky does this, so the WD must request the content group.

    9. Run service as local system or network service

    I was able to modify the service on Windows by manually changing it in administrative tools, and it seemed to function as expected (given that I had migrated all of the databases out of the user folders) running under "LOCAL SYSTEM". Is there a plan to change this structure/design in the future? It should be a relatively easy mod (if the code uses variables for these things, like directories and such), and here's why - like many users that use extensive whole home DLNA solutions, the media server is essentially a lights out installation that sits in a closet somewhere, is only accessed remotely (remote desktop) and may or may not even have a monitor attached to it. My server sits in a closet, and only has a single user configured on it. It is not common to configure services to run as a local user - protocol suggests using a built-in account for this.

    __________________________________________________ __________________________________________________ ____

    Just to throw it out there, I tested the following DLNA servers fairly extensively, and Mezzmo has absolutely won out over them all:

    1. Twonky 7.05
    2. Serviio
    3. Wild Media Server
    4. iSedora
    5. J. River
    6. TVersity
    7. TVMOBiLi

    and of course, Mezzmo.

    Many of my must-haves came from requirements fulfilled by Twonky 6.x and earlier, and a new requirement, transcoding .mkv (without a lot of messing around with .desc files and such) which it does not, at least not without more head-scratching and futzing than I care to indulge in.

    1. Speed on clients
    2. Customizable "playlists" or "media tress" presented to clients
    3. Extesive use of tags and artwork presented to various clients (haven't fully tested this one yet, but it meets my expectations thus far)
    4. ability to index ~100,000 .mp3 files and up to 1TB of total content without slowing down display to clients.
    5. Excellent UI/UX
    6. .mkv, .flac, and .mp3 support
    7. Transcoding. This was my biggest motivation for moving to another server product (and the reason I am upgrading hardware on the server to support it).

    TIA,
    --H

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Nov 2007
    Location
    Melbourne, Australia
    Posts
    11,642

    Default

    Thanks for your post. All good questions and a good analysis of the current media servers available today.

    ...I would love to see these configurable thruough the UI.
    That's coming in a future version.

    1. Tagging and Compilations
    Mezzmo uses Album Artist tag for compilations. Mezzmo reads the 'TPE2' tag from ID3 based metadata within music files for Album Artist. It is exposed in the Properties dialog in Mezzmo (right-click on the file in Mezzmo and click Properties). There is an Album Artist playlist under Music that allows you to navigate via this tag. It is also exposed in the Active Playlist and Smart Playlist dialogs so that you can create your own playlists.

    2. Indexing speed
    Indexing speed should be very fast. We'll re-test it here and see if there is a bug in the current version. Once initial file indexing is complete, then is often subsequent system tasks to get album artwork, photo thumbnails, video artwork, etc. These system tasks can take longer. You can see this activity in the Status pane.

    3. Indexing updates/changes to content
    If you use the "Add Folder" feature in Mezzmo to add a folder (and sub-folders) to your Mezzmo library, then Mezzmo will dynamically read this folder each time you browse it in Mezzmo or on your DLNA client devices. It will pick up new files, deleted files, new sub-folders, etc. Running Maintain Library (or right-click on a playlist/folder to just maintain a playlist/folder) will update all aspects of the files.

    4. Apparent hanging when re-indexing content
    We'll test that here. If we cannot reproduce your hanging, then we may ask you for a set of logs so we can see what is going wrong on your computer.

    5. Video Metadata
    Mezzmo reads metadata for video files from several popular external sources, such as:
    • Metadata and artwork from Thumbgen files (.tgmd)
    • Metadata and artwork from mymovies.xml (or <filename>.xml) files
    • Metadata and artwork from series.xml (and episode) files
    • Metadata and artwork from XMBC .nfo and .tbn files
    • Artwork from folder.jpg/.png, <filename>.jpg/.png


    6. Transcoding
    Go to the Transcoding Settings dialog in Mezzmo and you can set the maximum folder size. This lets you control how much disk space is used by Mezzmo's transcoding. When the limit is reached, Mezzmo deletes older files automatically for you.

    7. Grouping
    We have a rolodex FAQ that may help - http://forum.conceiva.com/showthread...ists-in-Mezzmo. You should be able to modify slightly to suit your needs.

    8. WD TV Live
    We'll look into this. We already do this for several other devices.

    9. Run service as local system or network service
    Understand. We have designed Mezzmo to be user-based so that each user on a computer could have their own personal Mezzmo library and Mezzmo server. We'll look into providing an option to use local system.

    Mezzmo Android: Install it on your tablet, smartphone, Android TV or Amazon Fire to browse and stream files from your Mezzmo library to all your devices. Full details at http://www.conceiva.com/products/mez...mo_android.asp
    Mezzmo for Kodi Add-on: Install it into Kodi to stream files from your Mezzmo library directly in Kodi. Full details at http://www.mezzmo.com/wiki/doku.php?...odi_user_guide
    Mezzmo for Roku App: Install it onto your Roku to stream files from your Mezzmo library. Full details at http://www.mezzmo.com/wiki/doku.php?...oku_user_guide
    Wiki: User Guides & Reference Manual at http://www.mezzmo.com/wiki
    Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/Mezzmo.DLNA.Server
    Twitter: https://twitter.com/conceiva_mezzmo
    Web: http://www.mezzmo.com

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Mar 2012
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    126

    Default

    Thanks very much!

    With regard to any speed questions, I will be rebuilding the box soon to improve overall perfomance, so I will report results then if they show significant improvement.

    Thanks!

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Mar 2012
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    126

    Default One quick heads up

    I almost didn't test Mezzmo as the formats support page does no list .mkv as readable! A guy at work voiced hands-on experience otherwise. Not being pedantic, just wanted to make sure you were aware...

  5. #5
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    Thanks for the heads-up. Matroska was only listed, but not mkv (as most people probably know it). That's been fixed now, so you should be able to see it now

    Mezzmo Android: Install it on your tablet, smartphone, Android TV or Amazon Fire to browse and stream files from your Mezzmo library to all your devices. Full details at http://www.conceiva.com/products/mez...mo_android.asp
    Mezzmo for Kodi Add-on: Install it into Kodi to stream files from your Mezzmo library directly in Kodi. Full details at http://www.mezzmo.com/wiki/doku.php?...odi_user_guide
    Mezzmo for Roku App: Install it onto your Roku to stream files from your Mezzmo library. Full details at http://www.mezzmo.com/wiki/doku.php?...oku_user_guide
    Wiki: User Guides & Reference Manual at http://www.mezzmo.com/wiki
    Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/Mezzmo.DLNA.Server
    Twitter: https://twitter.com/conceiva_mezzmo
    Web: http://www.mezzmo.com

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Mar 2012
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    126

    Default

    Just to quickly follow up on this, issues with performance have entirely evaporated with updated hardware. I'd still like to see installer options to control all directories that require scale, and installation as a Windows service running in a system context, but beyond that, I am very happy with Mezzmo and its performance. I also want to thank the support team for their responsiveness. It means a lot when you are under the gun to get the house media functional.

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Nov 2007
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    Melbourne, Australia
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    Glad you are up and running now & thanks for your kind words.

    We have noted your suggestions and added them into our development database for more detailed discussion.

    Mezzmo Android: Install it on your tablet, smartphone, Android TV or Amazon Fire to browse and stream files from your Mezzmo library to all your devices. Full details at http://www.conceiva.com/products/mez...mo_android.asp
    Mezzmo for Kodi Add-on: Install it into Kodi to stream files from your Mezzmo library directly in Kodi. Full details at http://www.mezzmo.com/wiki/doku.php?...odi_user_guide
    Mezzmo for Roku App: Install it onto your Roku to stream files from your Mezzmo library. Full details at http://www.mezzmo.com/wiki/doku.php?...oku_user_guide
    Wiki: User Guides & Reference Manual at http://www.mezzmo.com/wiki
    Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/Mezzmo.DLNA.Server
    Twitter: https://twitter.com/conceiva_mezzmo
    Web: http://www.mezzmo.com

  8. #8

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by hsbrown2 View Post
    8. WD TV Live

    I would like to only display the "Video" tree when in the Video menu option, "Music" in the "Music" option, etc... and to not show the top of the heirarchy where I must select either Video, Music, or Photos after having selected one of the three in the WD TV Live menu. Twonky does this, so the WD must request the content group.

    +1 to this. I am also a Twonky convert and I'm still in my 15 day trial period. This is probably the one issue holding me back from dropping the $30 and buying this outright.

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Nov 2007
    Location
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    Quote Originally Posted by YankeeFan View Post
    +1 to this. I am also a Twonky convert and I'm still in my 15 day trial period. This is probably the one issue holding me back from dropping the $30 and buying this outright.
    Thanks for your feedback. We will look in this & provide this feature in an upcoming version.

    Mezzmo Android: Install it on your tablet, smartphone, Android TV or Amazon Fire to browse and stream files from your Mezzmo library to all your devices. Full details at http://www.conceiva.com/products/mez...mo_android.asp
    Mezzmo for Kodi Add-on: Install it into Kodi to stream files from your Mezzmo library directly in Kodi. Full details at http://www.mezzmo.com/wiki/doku.php?...odi_user_guide
    Mezzmo for Roku App: Install it onto your Roku to stream files from your Mezzmo library. Full details at http://www.mezzmo.com/wiki/doku.php?...oku_user_guide
    Wiki: User Guides & Reference Manual at http://www.mezzmo.com/wiki
    Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/Mezzmo.DLNA.Server
    Twitter: https://twitter.com/conceiva_mezzmo
    Web: http://www.mezzmo.com

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Nov 2007
    Location
    Melbourne, Australia
    Posts
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    Just an update - Mezzmo v2.6.4 has been released and it now navigates directly to your video playlists and folders when you select Videos on your WD TV Live/Plus/Hub. Same for Music and Photos.

    Mezzmo Android: Install it on your tablet, smartphone, Android TV or Amazon Fire to browse and stream files from your Mezzmo library to all your devices. Full details at http://www.conceiva.com/products/mez...mo_android.asp
    Mezzmo for Kodi Add-on: Install it into Kodi to stream files from your Mezzmo library directly in Kodi. Full details at http://www.mezzmo.com/wiki/doku.php?...odi_user_guide
    Mezzmo for Roku App: Install it onto your Roku to stream files from your Mezzmo library. Full details at http://www.mezzmo.com/wiki/doku.php?...oku_user_guide
    Wiki: User Guides & Reference Manual at http://www.mezzmo.com/wiki
    Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/Mezzmo.DLNA.Server
    Twitter: https://twitter.com/conceiva_mezzmo
    Web: http://www.mezzmo.com

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