Serviio

I just downloaded the latest Serviio app to my Mac 10.6.8. I unzipped the files and received the Serviio-Console.app and the Serviio app. I think i made a mistake by double-clicking on the Console app first. I received an error message and then double-clicked the Serviio app. Nothing happens when I double click the Servio app. Any thoughts?

You've posted in the Sony section but it sounds like the problem is how to get things working on a Apple Mac. Better asked in the general section ? I don't have a mac sorry.

I move your post to the general forum section...

Click on Serviio.app first. It's possible that nothing visible happens. Then run Serviio-Console to configure the server.

Thanks, that helped. I am close, but not there yet. I see the Serviio icon on my Blue ray disk but I can't get to my movie (TV series). The path I defined is: /users/"my name"/music/itunes/itunes media/tv shows/homelend/season 2. The downloaded tv series file is in this directory. On my Blu-ray menu I choose Folders and it shows me TV shows and "no playable files". I must be defining my directories incorrectly. Thoughts?

If these files are bought on iTunes, you won't be able to play them, as they include DRM.

So I would just have to download them some other way? Would my folder structure work then?

Thanks!

I guess I don't understand the relationship between the Console Library shared folder and the options that come up in the Blu-ray menu. Lets say i wanted to display a photograph on my TV from a shared folder in Serviio. In the Library tab in the console I describe the folder that contains my photographs. This becomes a shared folder and I indicate the type of files that are in this folder (photographs). In the Presentation tab of the console I have the menu items that come up in my Blu-ray disk. But none of those menu items allow me to see the shared folder that I defined as a shared folder where my photograph is.

I have searched the Serviio web site for a description of this basic information but couldn't find anything. I would appreciate any information that would help me with this!

Thanks!

I'll give it a go (sorry long post...):

The shared folders on the Library, Shared folders tab define where Serviio searches for media. If you define a shared folder as say "/users/"my name"/music/itunes/itunes media/tv shows/homelend/season 2" then Serviio will search that folder, and all its sub folders, and locate all the media of the type you specify for that folder (ie. for video, audio or images depending on what you select for that shared folder - you can select more than one media type for a shared folder if you want).

The Presentation tab defines how the media will be categorized and displayed on your viewing device. Although these look like folders on many devices, think of them as presentation Categories to avoid confusion. Serviio will organize your media into Categories for display on your device according to what you select in the presentation tab. These Categories will generally appear under your BlueRay DLNA Menu, under Images, Video and Music (these highest level categories are controlled by your device, not always by Serviio).

Most of the Categories are self explanatory - some examples of Categories are:

• Music - Albums. Serviio will group your Music by album and display them under the Album name;
• Video - Movies. Serviio will identify any video files that are Movies and display them under this category;
• Video - Series: Serviio will identify any video files that are TV Series and display them under this category, by TV Series name and then by Season
• etc

A "special" category is the Folders Category. If selected on the Presentation tab, this will appear under the relevant high level category (Images, Music or Video) and is simply a reflection of the "raw" folder layout of your shared folder. eg. in your case (if these were not protected video) you will have a Category "Video", "Folders", which will have a sub category labelled "Season 2" (corresponding to the root of the shared folder "/users/"my name"/music/itunes/itunes media/tv shows/homelend/season 2"). Under that you may have further categories reflecting any sub-folders. the Folders category is the only category that doesn't use metadata, and is the only category that will display the "raw" filename of the media.

Hope this is clear (as mud). Btw, the short answer is yes - your folder structure will work (it will be under the Video, Folders category as explained above) Similarly in your example from the previous post, your photo shared folder should appear under the Images, Folders, foldername category.

ps. This is a quick overview - you can change how things are presented on the Presentation tab. Many people like to get rid of some of the layers by selecting "Display content only" for that item. Beyond the scope here, but play with it if you want. Remember to press Save when making changes.

pps. You may be better off sharing at the "/users/"my name"/music/itunes/itunes media" folder level - Serviio will scan the subfolders for you.

Lastly - although a personal preference thing, I rarely use my Folders Category. I prefer to have Serviio sort my media into it's relevant categories (Movies, Series, Actors, Genre, Rating etc) based on the metadata for that media file. If your TV shows do not appear under the Video - Series category this is because the metadata wasn't found. If this is the case (and its not DRM videos) search the forums as there is plenty around on fixing this.

Thank you so much for all that information! It is very helpful. It is very kind of you to take the time to describe all this. I can imagine how busy you must be!

Thanks!

Re your last sentence, my TV shows do not show up under Video series. Is that because they were purchased in Itunes? Will that make it so they are "invisible" to Serviio? Or should I see them but not be able to run them?

I haven't got any files downloaded from itunes, so I am only guessing....

I suspect the files purchased from itunes have Digital Rights Management (DRM) which is design to protect them being copied, but also inhibits them being streamed. I further suspect that the DRM gets in the way of ffmpeg doing its job - Serviio uses ffmpeg to determine whether the file is a media file in the first place. If this ffmpeg process fails to detect the file properly, it will classify it as non-media and not add it to the library. You can test if ffmpeg is failing by running an "ffmpeg -i" for the file (see viewtopic.php?f=5&t=1123).