[jbinkley60]

After installing Mezzmo, I just realized that it's similar to Plex and others!

https://kodi.wiki/view/Syncing_and_shari...al_network

For some weird reason I missed Mezzmo when I was trying Plex and Emby with Kodi plugins. Also, Jellyfin isn't mentioned.

I got some interesting quirks with some of them, like one not progressing while scanning folders, and Kodi slow if I try to read from the server database directly instead of integrating it. For Mezzmo, I found that if I try to install it in drive D: and configure it to put the data and log folders there, the program crashes.

I take it that they all have similar processes, i.e., create databases and then stream the media through HTTP with options to disable transcoding, and so on?

Yes, that is the general approach.  create the database starting slow.  Stream the media through HTTP but leverage the Mezzmo Kodi addon.  It is optimized for Mezzmo.  I maintain it.  Disable transcoding.  There are a few other things I'll recommend but we should take that discussion to the Mezzmo forums.  Mezzmo has often gotten missed when folks look at the other DLNA servers.  I can't speak for their advertising and outreach.  Mezzmo has a number of unique things over the others you mentioned, which is why I've been with it over 10 years and volunteered to take over the Mezzmo Kodi addon in order to add a number of features to improve the Kodi experience.


Jeff

[jbinkley60]

I wanted to buy a NAS but it's expensive; I think a 12-bay will cost me almost $2k. So I settled for using my present PC and just attaching enclosures to it. Also, everything is cabled, and Gigabit as well.

Around a month ago, users were experiencing those hiccups even with FTP, and then they disappeared and everything's working fine. I'm guessing something took place with a Windows update.

I'm thinking of buying a used laptop for less than $100 (I just realized that I lack space for a PC) and then installing Conceiva or Linux and see what happens. Before that, I'll experiment with Conceiva in the present PC.

I rolled my own servers a number of years back leveraging low cost Norco chassis and low cost Highpoint Raid controllers.  The nice thing about that approach is that I was able to slowly grow my expenses vs. buying a packaged solution but it does require a certain amount of hardware knowledge and patience.  In the beginning there were some hard drive shortages and a few times I bought external drives, opened the cases and put the drives in my server chassis    

If you need help with Mezzmo their support forums are here .   

Good luck,

Jeff

Thanks for sharing that. We have a similar setup: I have fewer drives but also around 18,000 video items (of varying video quality). That means, following what you did, something that can still use Windows but with Mezzmo and a server chassis with racks to put in drives. Given that, I'll wait for the enclosures to give up before trying that.

Meanwhile, I'll try Mezzmo.

I've built my setup over time learning / sometimes failing but in the end always progressing.  It's been fun.  If you reach out in a private message, I often have extra hardware lying around that I love to give to a good home / fellow enthusiast  vs. pitching into the garbage. 

Jeff

[monkeylove]

To everyone, thanks once more for the support. I tried Mezzmo, but it kept crashing when I configured it to use drive D. I then tried Jellyfin, which needs other devices in the network with video sources to be mounted, then Emby, which wants files renamed in a way it wants in order to read already-present metadata, so I went back to Mezzmo, which doesn't crash as long as I use drive C, can gather local metadata from a variety of name formats, and can also load shares from other devices in the same network. I'll let you know how it goes.

It looks like my conclusion is that most hardware should work fine with a few users, but FTP and SMB don't seem suitable for streaming. That means setting up a database in the server using HTTP or similar, and then letting the Kodi clients sync from that.

[Klojum]

but FTP and SMB don't seem suitable for streaming.

Plenty of Kodi users are using SMB for playing their videos. Just because only a few of your folders aren't being scanned for whatever reason, doesn't make that protocol unsuitable. If most of your folders on your Windows PC are being shared and processed correctly, then the SMB protocol itself works. A file protocol isn't picky by itself, SMB or FTP or any other, it either works or it doesn't. There is surely a different reason why some folders on your share not seen or not scraped, be it Windows user/folder file rights on your PC 'server' or badly named movie / tvshow titles.

[monkeylove]

but FTP and SMB don't seem suitable for streaming.

Plenty of Kodi users are using SMB for playing their videos. Just because only a few of your folders aren't being scanned for whatever reason, doesn't make that protocol unsuitable. If most of your folders on your Windows PC are being shared and processed correctly, then the SMB protocol itself works. A file protocol isn't picky by itself, SMB or FTP or any other, it either works or it doesn't. There is surely a different reason why some folders on your share not seen or not scraped, be it Windows user/folder file rights on your PC 'server' or badly named movie / tvshow titles.

I think the problem happens when Kodi is updating the library. If I wait a minute or stop updating and try again, all of the folders show up. This hasn't happened for FTP, but it's probably because I turned up the option to update the library at startup. I'll test that later and find out.

Meanwhile, if Kodi is updating the library and I play a file, I sometimes get an "operation not permitted" error for SMB or a "playback failed" error for FTP. If I wait a minute or stop the library update, I can play the file.

I'm guess that there's nothing wrong with folder or user rights or file/folder names, or else I wouldn't be able to load the folders or play the videos at all.

[jbinkley60]

To everyone, thanks once more for the support. I tried Mezzmo, but it kept crashing when I configured it to use drive D. I then tried Jellyfin, which needs other devices in the network with video sources to be mounted, then Emby, which wants files renamed in a way it wants in order to read already-present metadata, so I went back to Mezzmo, which doesn't crash as long as I use drive C, can gather local metadata from a variety of name formats, and can also load shares from other devices in the same network. I'll let you know how it goes.

It looks like my conclusion is that most hardware should work fine with a few users, but FTP and SMB don't seem suitable for streaming. That means setting up a database in the server using HTTP or similar, and then letting the Kodi clients sync from that.

Mezzmo can use drive D but that is best handled over in the Mezzmo forums.  I actually place the Mezzmo database and artwork files on my M drive.  Out of curiosity, are you running the Mezzmo Kodi addon ?


Jeff

[monkeylove]

To everyone, thanks once more for the support. I tried Mezzmo, but it kept crashing when I configured it to use drive D. I then tried Jellyfin, which needs other devices in the network with video sources to be mounted, then Emby, which wants files renamed in a way it wants in order to read already-present metadata, so I went back to Mezzmo, which doesn't crash as long as I use drive C, can gather local metadata from a variety of name formats, and can also load shares from other devices in the same network. I'll let you know how it goes.

It looks like my conclusion is that most hardware should work fine with a few users, but FTP and SMB don't seem suitable for streaming. That means setting up a database in the server using HTTP or similar, and then letting the Kodi clients sync from that.

Mezzmo can use drive D but that is best handled over in the Mezzmo forums.  I actually place the Mezzmo database and artwork files on my M drive.  Out of curiosity, are you running the Mezzmo Kodi addon ?


Jeff

I installed Mezzmo in drive D and then set the configurations to put the database, etc., in d:\mezzmodata and logs in d:\mezzmologs. I ran and closed the program a few times, and it worked fine, but after I started adding to the library, it would crash randomly. I think the logs referred to a runtime error. I did an sfc /scannow and there were no problems.

I was impatient, so I decided to uninstall, re-install, and just use the default settings, and it ran fine. I checked the scraping options, and it looks like it doesn't need the metadata to be renamed in a particular format, and would add anything missing from the 'net, so I didn't change anything.

After Mezzmo scanned, I tried the addon, and the videos scanned into the library appeared incomplete, with no data on actors, etc.

I searched for the naming convention and found this:

http://www.mezzmo.com/wiki/doku.php?id=s..._filenames

What I use is the one followed by Kodi, scraped and renamed by Tiny Media Manager:

F:\Movies01\Movie Title A (2010)\Movie Title A (2010).mkv
F:\Movies01\Movie Title A (2010)\Movie Title A (2010).nfo
F:\Movies01\Movie Title A (2010)\Movie Title A (2010)-poster.jpg

G:\TV01\TV Show A (2010)\Season 1\TV Show A - S01E02.mkv
G:\TV01\TV Show A (2010)\tvshow.nfo

H:\Others\Video.mkv

[jbinkley60]

To everyone, thanks once more for the support. I tried Mezzmo, but it kept crashing when I configured it to use drive D. I then tried Jellyfin, which needs other devices in the network with video sources to be mounted, then Emby, which wants files renamed in a way it wants in order to read already-present metadata, so I went back to Mezzmo, which doesn't crash as long as I use drive C, can gather local metadata from a variety of name formats, and can also load shares from other devices in the same network. I'll let you know how it goes.

It looks like my conclusion is that most hardware should work fine with a few users, but FTP and SMB don't seem suitable for streaming. That means setting up a database in the server using HTTP or similar, and then letting the Kodi clients sync from that.

Mezzmo can use drive D but that is best handled over in the Mezzmo forums.  I actually place the Mezzmo database and artwork files on my M drive.  Out of curiosity, are you running the Mezzmo Kodi addon ?


Jeff

I installed Mezzmo in drive D and then set the configurations to put the database, etc., in d:\mezzmodata and logs in d:\mezzmologs. I ran and closed the program a few times, and it worked fine, but after I started adding to the library, it would crash randomly. I think the logs referred to a runtime error. I did an sfc /scannow and there were no problems.

I was impatient, so I decided to uninstall, re-install, and just use the default settings, and it ran fine. I checked the scraping options, and it looks like it doesn't need the metadata to be renamed in a particular format, and would add anything missing from the 'net, so I didn't change anything.

After Mezzmo scanned, I tried the addon, and the videos scanned into the library appeared incomplete, with no data on actors, etc.

I searched for the naming convention and found this:

http://www.mezzmo.com/wiki/doku.php?id=s..._filenames

What I use is the one followed by Kodi, scraped and renamed by Tiny Media Manager:

F:\Movies01\Movie Title A (2010)\Movie Title A (2010).mkv
F:\Movies01\Movie Title A (2010)\Movie Title A (2010).nfo
F:\Movies01\Movie Title A (2010)\Movie Title A (2010)-poster.jpg

G:\TV01\TV Show A (2010)\Season 1\TV Show A - S01E02.mkv
G:\TV01\TV Show A (2010)\tvshow.nfo

H:\Others\Video.mkv

Was there no data for the actors in native mode (i.e. from the skin directly) or when you launched the Mezzmo addon GUI ?  If it was in native mode was it just for TV Shows or movies too ?  Right now if you are in native mode and click on actors in TV Shows that doesn't work.  It works in movies.  Native TV Show actors is being added in the next release, which I am testing and will likely be released early next week.  Full native mode support is recent and I am finishing up adding capabilities.  In GUI mode everything should work. 

Also with regards to the sync process, depending upon how many videos you add initially it may take a while to sync everything to your local database.  There's an algorithm it uses depending upon the size of your database and how you have the sync settings.  It can take up to 6 hours for an initial sync.  It does 1/6th of your database at a time to avoid bogging down Kodi.  It also won't sync if videos are playing.  it detects that and skips that sync cycle.  After full sync it keeps up checking for new videos every hour or as you browse the GUI. if real time is enabled.  Worst case is let the daily sync process run (runs between midnight and 6AM) and it will ensure a full sync.  You can check the sync status with the sync log viewer.

***  Update  ***

I forgot to mention that in native mode (playing directly from the skin) if you aren't seeing any actor images for movies or TV Shows then it is likely that native mode isn't enabled in the addon settings.  Since GUI mode has historically been the preferred operating mode for the addon and this native mode feature is brand new, the default for the native mode options is disabled which causes the actor images and info not to be displayed in native mode. 

If you change these native mode settings the images will not immediately appear. The addon has to change how it writes some data to the Kodi database in order to enable them to appear (Kodi database path table is written differently between native mode and GUI mode).  This will occur during the daily sync process.  If you want to speed up the process you can manually clear the Mezzmo data in the Kodi DB and the sync process will rewrite the path table for native mode.  If you manually clear the data you will need to start the Mezzmo GUI so it picks up your manual clear request.  This is all a one time thing.  In the future I may make native mode the default, after it gets more usage from the user community.



Jeff

[monkeylove]

Thanks, I'll check that out.

[monkeylove]

Update:

I used the Kodi backup option to backup and restore three types of configurations: FTP, SMB, and Emby. More details on the system:

Server: i5 with 16 GB of RAM running on Win 10 Home, SSD for the boot, and the ff. storage:

two internal hard drives
three external hard drives connected via USB3
three enclosures, each with four hard drives, all connected via USB3
two old Popcorn Hour media players, each with one hard drive, now used as media servers, with SMBv1 and FTP

Folders to be shared are found across all of the drives except for the SSD, set with Windows folder sharing for a user account that has read and write access.

A free copy of Xlight FTP server is installed in the PC, with folders shared the usual way.

Emby server is installed, with folders added the usual way.

Tiny Media Manager was used to scrape metadata and write them next to the videos and to rename them following Kodi conventions:

Videos01\Feature (1999)\Feature (1999) 1080p AAC.mkv
Videos01\Feature (1999)\Feature (1999) 1080p AAC.nfo
Videos01\Feature (1999)\Feature (1999) 1080p AAC.srt

I got the ff. results:

SMB -

I added the IP address of the PC using Windows SMB to Kodi, and FTP for the two Popcorn Hours.

Sometimes, an "operation not permitted" error would take place as I added or accessed a shared folder. The Kodi log states that the folder doesn't exist. If I tried again after a few minutes, I could access it.

When Kodi does an initial scan of a video source that I visit, it would sometimes not read all of the folders, with an "operation not permitted" error appearing. If I try again in a few minutes, it would read all folders correctly.

FTP -

No problems. But a few weeks ago, I got a "playback failed" error once in a while as I tried to play a video from the PC while Kodi was updating the library. The problem would disappear if I stopped the library update. The problem doesn't take place at all when it's a video from the Popcorn Hour being played.

Now, the problem has disappeared completely with nothing changed in either Kodi or the PC. I'm guessing something was updated in Windows.

With updated versions of Super Favourites, videos shared via FTP and added to it don't play (I raised this in that thread: the addon adds ftp:\\video\video.mkv instead of ftp:\\username.password (at sign) video.mkv. I'll see if the video can be updated for that.

Emby -

I tried this because it's the only one together with Mezzmo that can add the Popcorn Hours without mounting their folders in Windows (I've almost used up drive letters). The sync in Kodi looks right but scanning even for local info in Windows takes a while and has problems, i.e., the scanning would stop at a damaged video instead of just bypassing it and continuing.

[Klojum]

Sometimes, an "operation not permitted" error would take place as I added or accessed a shared folder. The Kodi log states that the folder doesn't exist. If I tried again after a few minutes, I could access it.

Perhaps one of your 'server' drives in your Frankenstein media server setup is taking too much time to wake up from suspend and spinning up, so Kodi's scanning times out?

By the way, your initial topic question "What hardware setup do you recommend" doesn't really seem to be applicable when you stick to your current setup.

[monkeylove]

Sometimes, an "operation not permitted" error would take place as I added or accessed a shared folder. The Kodi log states that the folder doesn't exist. If I tried again after a few minutes, I could access it.

Perhaps one of your 'server' drives in your Frankenstein media server setup is taking too much time to wake up from suspend and spinning up, so Kodi's scanning times out?

By the way, your initial topic question "What hardware setup do you recommend" doesn't really seem to be applicable when you stick to your current setup.

Sorry, I'm new to this! LOL. I also tried to use hardware that I had before I started using Kodi; for example, the server is also my home PC. The enclosures were used for drives which I used to store all sorts of files.

Here's the enclosure that I have (I've 3):

https://silentpcreview.com/mediasonic-pr...enclosure/

From what I gathered it only has a power-off mode, i.e., it shuts down when the PC shuts down. I read that there was a spin down feature once but it was removed in 2013:

http://forum.mediasonic.ca/viewtopic.php?t=2960

If there was such a spin down problem, wouldn't it also affect FTP and HTTP? I tried those two and did not experience the "operation not permitted" or "playback failed" problem.

My reason for a hardware setup recommendation is because I thought I could still use the enclosures but with another machine, and hopefully SMB will work fine. I can live with FTP but I prefer SMB, so that I can use the new version of Super Favourites to create several favourites lists. Of course, if I can make HTTP work, then I probably won't have to change the hardware.

My options so far:

No hardware changes; use Emby or Mezzmo to stream videos using HTTP, which some say is much better than SMB or FTP. Super Favourites also works with videos shared using HTTP. The process is more complicated: I scrape using TMM, then let the media server scan and add to its library, and then let the Kodi players sync with the library.

Try another PC using Windows (old or new) or another OS, if it can do automatic mounting of drives in the same way as Windows. It also has to be small because I don't have much space in my room. (I've a Raspberry Pi run headless, connected to the local network, and used as a downloader; I don't know if it can do the same work as a NAS.)

Get a rackmount with 12 bays or so, which I think will cost me around $2-4,000. I'd like to avoid that (LOL), as there are only two or three users who play the videos, and the system is used for only a few hours a day (around afternoon to 10 in the evening). I'll also have to look for another room for that.

[Klojum]

Get a rackmount with 12 bays or so, which I think will cost me around $2-4,000.

I don't know the entire size or extend of your media collection, but I'm looking at replacing HDD drives myself. Their prices are slowly coming down to normal levels.

I now use a couple of 2, 3 and 4TB drives (not fully loaded yet). I'm thinking get two of these ( Toshiba MG08 SATA (512e), 16TB ) and possibly put them in a RAID-1 setup in a simple PC with Linux, or add them to my Syno NAS. And keeping the older drives for backups.

That Toshiba HDD now costs some 259 euros here, so 520 euros for the next couple of years should be okay. Two drives instead of seven saves me quite the hassle, and save on some electrics in the end.

[monkeylove]

Get a rackmount with 12 bays or so, which I think will cost me around $2-4,000.

I don't know the entire size or extend of your media collection, but I'm looking at replacing HDD drives myself. Their prices are slowly coming down to normal levels.

I now use a couple of 2, 3 and 4TB drives (not fully loaded yet). I'm thinking get two of these ( Toshiba MG08 SATA (512e), 16TB ) and possibly put them in a RAID-1 setup in a simple PC with Linux, or add them to my Syno NAS. And keeping the older drives for backups.

That Toshiba HDD now costs some 259 euros here, so 520 euros for the next couple of years should be okay. Two drives instead of seven saves me quite the hassle, and save on some electrics in the end.

I've similar: a mix of 2-to-4 TB drives spread out among the PC (two internal), external (three, one also used as a backup for the PC), two internal in two old Popcorn Hour players now used as servers, and twelve in three four-bay enclosures connected to the PC. Around a fourth of the drives contain mostly videos, and the rest up to half with videos and the other half with non-media.

There are only two people watching, and usually during the afternoon and the evening. Otherwise, one watches only around two hours a day. That's why the system is turned off during late evening and turned on when they want to watch something. In my case, I turn them on only because I need to access various files.

That's probably why I didn't choose to get a NAS or a dedicated PC (esp. the latter as I lack space); instead, I just used whatever was available, including my own PC. I considered using the built-in media server in the router, but when I experimented, the router would sometimes heat up. I also thought about using the Raspberry Pi (there's one running headless connected to the local network used as a downloader) as a NAS, but I read there are complications, and using a one-bay NAS and connect the enclosures to it via USB, but I don't know if that will work.

Right now, I remade the SMB setup in Kodi, which is currently scanning scraping local info from the video sources. Once that's true, I'll make a backup and restore from it if I want to do some experimenting. (I also have a Kodi backup using Emby and FTP.)

For now, I get this feeling that the problem is caused by hardware, i.e., all drives used for sharing need to be internal, either in a NAS or a PC server.

[Klojum]

I've similar: a mix of 2-to-4 TB drives spread out among the PC

A Raspberry Pi is quite a versatile tool with the right OS. Connecting drives to USB is one option. The default RPi OS can be set up as any file server type (SMB, NFS, FTP, etc). You just need to get the configuration right. There are also freeware 'ready-to-go' NAS solutions for the RPi. Use a separate SDcard and try them out.

For now, I get this feeling that the problem is caused by hardware, i.e., all drives used for sharing need to be internal, either in a NAS or a PC server.

Having several drives on multiple external USB devices does have its own set of challenges. Having all data in one place (=PC or NAS) makes it less complicated in my view. I still use two old AMD-based PCs as a servers because their motherboards can connect upto 8 SATA drives. One is active, other is backup server. They boot&run Linux via a USB3 stick.

You could also choose to copy some of your media files onto a single HDD drive, and use that as your only connected drive for viewing stuff in Kodi.