UPnP Video Thumbnails

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Unless I've missed something fairly obvious the stock UPnP media server (both v1 and v2 as far as I can tell) don't generate video thumbnails though they do generate thumbs for photos.

Any chance we could see thumbnail generation for the built in UPnP media server, it would be nice for some TV's like Samsung and LG use big icon interfaces instead of text lists.

It wouldn't have to be automatic either if processing power is a concern, you could let users initiate a thumbnail scan manually, finally if you do take up the idea don't generate the thumbnail from the first frame of the video as that will just give you a black image, randomize the frame a few seconds in from which to generate the thumbnail from.

I know Plex is there but frankly it does not work well, especially for simple file/folder structures, Plex tries to sort everything into categories I don't need or want to do that (or pay for their Plex pass).

[MikeG.6.5]

You don't need to pay for the Plex Pass for the index files to be used. They can be generated and used with the basic account. There aren't a lot of things that require the Plex Pass, and if you don't feel you want them, you don't need to purchase a Pass at all. The list of things that DO require a Plex Pass are:

Mobile Sync : Syncing your content to your phone or tablet for viewing off-line
Plex Home : Making a set of Managed Users. These users don't need to be made at Plex.tv, so the accounts are basically "local" accounts. They do need a valid internet connection for the account to be set up, and you have to log into the device as the Admin at least once, and then switch to the managed user.
Premium Music Libraries : Making premium music libraries that pull info and other things from GraceNotes or other services.
Cloud Sync : Syncing parts or all of your library to the cloud services that Plex has written routines for.
Camera Upload : Upload photos from your camera tot he PMS machine automatically. Doesn't work for video yet. And only works for the Admin's account.

There are other things a Pass gives you, but these are some of the bigger items. You can get more info here: https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/articl ... e-Overview

I understand Plex isn't for everyone. Not everyone wants to share their media library with the World via WAN access. Not everyone wants to be able to watch a movie on their tablet from 1000 miles away and the only requirement being an active internet connection on both ends. Not everyone wants to be able to play a movie on the TV in the living room, stop it there, and resume it on the TV in their bedroom. Not everyone wants the ability to use almost any device the play their media on, from games consoles, to phones to tablets to smart TVs.

I get it that some people don't want to have a huge library or are happy with how buggy the various uPnP servers can be, Plex isn't for everyone. But for those that want to have a stable platform and a wide choice of client apps, well, there aren't many other choices out there. I suppose you could try Emby, if it's available for your device. It isn't available for very many Asustor models I guess....

[lanimul]

Plex is great!

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N910A using Tapatalk

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Plex isn't ideal for simple file/folders though which is what I want, with the stock UPnP media server you only have one level to click through to get to your media folders which makes it fast & easy to use, with Plex over UPnP/DLNA it requires you having to drill down through multiple levels to get to the folder section and it doesn't handle folders that have mixed content.

I did have a look at emby on PC and they work like Plex but have a much better system with a dedicated "unset mixed content" section, you add folders into that section and they work as simple file/folders instead of media library, no jumping back and forth between movie/tv sections (this is something Plex should really copy from them).

I found emby is available on Asustor but for some reason it's not in the media server section (tucked away in media player ?) but the version there is very out of date which is a pity. While Samsung worked with thumbs LG did not, close but no cigar as they say.

Aside from Plex, Serviio on PC and Windows Media Player on Win10 both do video thumbs to TV's so it's definitely possible.

So original request still stands anyone from Asustor willing to add this feature, the stock UPnP server otherwise works great.

[MikeG.6.5]

If you are wanting strictly a uPnP/DLNA player, then I think you are pretty much out of luck. At least for now. That whole protocol is fraught with problems, especially when the library starts getting very large. I had issues with the DLNA server losing movies and TV episodes when I got much more than about 500 items. There just wasn't support at that time to do the large library I had. (Over 3000 items, then.)

This is what lead me to the road I'm on now, with Plex. I ditched the almost worthless (to me, anyway) DLNA clients that couldn't find the media and I started looking at what else there was. Now with easily over 20,000 media items, there is no way I'm ever going to think about using DLNA... It's just too problematic for the library I have, and for what I want to do with it. And when I want to watch something I don't want to have to mess with making the sure the server can see the media, let alone the client.

Sharing my library to family over 2000 miles away from the server is important to me now. With DLNA I couldn't do it. At least not without having to hop through a lot of highly technical hoops on both ends of the connection. Now, I just have to set up the server and the router correctly on my end, and everyone I share with can get at my media with no issues.

Nothing about my setup is simple. I have movies in one folder, and then have 28 folders based on alphabet, numbers and special characters. Then each movie is placed in it's own folder as well, for trailers, posters, subtitles, etc. I move a movie at the folder level, to or from the base alpha folders, and it's everything tied to the media. TV shows are very similar... Each show is in it's own base folder, and then each season in season folders under it. Moving a TV show means I move that folder to wherever, and everything tied to the show itself moves with it. I can maintain my entire library the simplest way I can set it up with over 2000 movies and over 19,000 TV episodes.

I know I'm probably not going to convince you to make the Plex move, as you seem to be adamant that you don't like it or want it. It's really too bad, because it's just that much better than what you want to use, I think if you gave the whole environment a chance, you wouldn't ever look back. If you use Plex's dedicated clients with the dedicated server running, I think you would be shocked at what it's capable of doing.

You could use another app to make your thumbnails, but I'm not sure what app it would be. A search for index files or bif files might be able to pull up some results.

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I really don't need any of that style organization, whats on the server that stays is sorted at the file/folder level and everything else is temporary and going to get deleted.

You can do video thumbs over DLNA even the old Windows Media Player still kicking around in Win10 can do it, all Asustor need to do is snoop on the network traffic between WMP and TV's then copy that, even Serviio makes all it's device profiles public as well.

Speaking of Serviio it has all the overkill sorting (actor/year etc) stuff Plex has but unlike Plex you can turn it all off in Serviio (how to in their forum) and make it work as just file/folders. There is a dude who makes a regular Synology package for Serviio, maybe Asustor you could send him your lowest end NAS and get Serviio as an app

[Conniesne]

It's likely the same issues that broke Plex Watch on the 64-bit NASes... The Perl we get from Asustor is missing some key components needed to do a successful "make" and so without them the app just won't work right.
I had to go with a Python written app to get any kind of monitoring on my Plex install, and even the version of Python Asustor supplies us has issues with some apps.