[Solved] Networked files won't play, No playable file

Serviio works perfectly on the main PC where Serviio is installed, which is Windows 7 x64. That computer is hooked up to another with mapped drives with WinXP 32-bit. I believe some recent Microsoft updates to Windows 7 is the cause of the problem, but I can no longer get Serviio to play the files on the 2nd PC that has WinXP. The folders are listed, but when you select any of them, it just says "There is no playable file." The media player is Sony BDP-S5100 with the profile Sony BDP-Sx70/SMP-N100 (2010) - US.

Both computers require passwords to login. I have full admin access to the files on the 2nd PC. I've created a new Windows 7 user account thinking maybe something was corrupt. I've tried different profiles for the Sony player. I've tried disabling Windows firewall. I've tried disabling my AV program. Nothing I've tried lets me play the networked files on the 2nd PC and I'm stumped on what to try next. The only thing I haven't tried is assigning a static IP to the Sony player, only because I'm pretty certain there's no way to do it, there is no manual option for the IP.

I had assumed it was some odd permissions thing with Windows 7, but I installed Plex today for the heck of it and Plex does let me play the remote computer files from the 2nd PC. So I'm thinking it's something with Serviio again. (No, I don't want to switch to Plex, I'd rather copy files over to the PC with Windows 7 on it before giving up Serviio.)

Any suggestions what else I can try to play the files on the 2nd PC? Thanks for any any help with this, it's been driving me crazy.

Edit: The log file about the networked drives says:
2014-09-30 21:45:02,993 WARN [LibraryAdditionsCheckerThread] Folder 'V:\Movies' is either not an existing directory or cannot be read due to access rights

But I definitely have admin access, file sharing is on, and Plex can play the files without any issues at all.

[atc98092]

Serviio works perfectly on the main PC where Serviio is installed, which is Windows 7 x64. That computer is hooked up to another with mapped drives with WinXP 32-bit. I believe some recent Microsoft updates to Windows 7 is the cause of the problem, but I can no longer get Serviio to play the files on the 2nd PC that has WinXP. The folders are listed, but when you select any of them, it just says "There is no playable file." The media player is Sony BDP-S5100 with the profile Sony BDP-Sx70/SMP-N100 (2010) - US.

Both computers require passwords to login. I have full admin access to the files on the 2nd PC. I've created a new Windows 7 user account thinking maybe something was corrupt. I've tried different profiles for the Sony player. I've tried disabling Windows firewall. I've tried disabling my AV program. Nothing I've tried lets me play the networked files on the 2nd PC and I'm stumped on what to try next. The only thing I haven't tried is assigning a static IP to the Sony player, only because I'm pretty certain there's no way to do it, there is no manual option for the IP.

I had assumed it was some odd permissions thing with Windows 7, but I installed Plex today for the heck of it and Plex does let me play the remote computer files from the 2nd PC. So I'm thinking it's something with Serviio again. (No, I don't want to switch to Plex, I'd rather copy files over to the PC with Windows 7 on it before giving up Serviio.)

Any suggestions what else I can try to play the files on the 2nd PC? Thanks for any any help with this, it's been driving me crazy.

Edit: The log file about the networked drives says:
2014-09-30 21:45:02,993 WARN [LibraryAdditionsCheckerThread] Folder 'V:\Movies' is either not an existing directory or cannot be read due to access rights

But I definitely have admin access, file sharing is on, and Plex can play the files without any issues at all.

Remember that by default Serviio runs under System Service permissions, not a user account. You can change this in the Services app, and instead use your user account information. Strange that it worked before, but I do believe it is simply a permissions issue. I had the same thing happen when trying to map to a 2nd computer as you were.

Also, the profile you are using could be causing transcoding for files that don't need it. I have the S3100 (similar player) and Zip created a new profile that fits these players better. Don't remember precisely its name, but I believe it has Sxx00 (2013) in the name.

That said, both of my players have stopped playing via DLNA recently. They will begin the movie, but about 10 minutes in it pauses. Sometimes it continues, and sometimes it locks up the player. Are you having any issues with yours?

Under Log On options for Serviio under Services, I always had it set to Logon as Local System account, but I've also tried changing it to a specific admin account as well with no change.

For the profiles, I've tried them all, and they all seem to work fine except for Sx80/SMP-N200 (2011)... that one the service is never available on the player. There's an Sx100 (2013) profile that I tried, and it also works but again only on my main PC, it still shows "There is no playable file" for the mapped networked drive, if that's the one you're referring to.

I'm not having the problem you are, my movies on the main PC play perfectly and all the way through without any glitches or even buffering pauses at all. That almost sounds like more of a networking timeout issue than something with the player or Serviio.

I just might try setting up a new Windows 7 installation on a new drive I have instead of just cloning it to see if it will still work before I let Microsoft do the 100s of updates again. I'm at a loss what else to try at this point.

Finally, success! After spending about 10 hours on it again today, changing from simple file sharing to more elaborate permissions, uninstalling and reinstalling Serviio, managed to get WMP to work as another DLNA as well, I re-read this part of the Serviio FAQ about NAS devices:

"The remote path must be entered as a UNC path in the Serviio Console (e.g. \\server\folder)), mapped drive letters will not work since the user running the Serviio service is not aware of your mapped drives."

Even though using the mapped drive letters has worked for years in the past, it's not a NAS, the user running the Serviio service definitely is aware of the mapped drives, I decided to try it for the heck of it, tried everything else.

And that did it, the files on the networked PC will now play as they should. So instead of listing a drive such as V:\Movies, I had to go down to the Networking folder and select the other computer from there so it's listed in the Console Library as \\ComputerName\C Drive (C)\Movies. The one disadvantage is that Serviio doesn't seem to let you select any subdirectory, only a top directory. But it's smart enough to at least only include the subdirectories that actually have videos or music or images in them.

Hopefully this will help someone else with this problem. I still think it was a Windows update that messed it up, since using V:\Movies and other subdirectories listed as V: drive worked for years for me until it just stopped recently.

Edit: Actually, for another directory Serviio did list every subdirectory even with no video files in it, so that didn't work out as neatly as before, but at least I can now access and play anything from the other computer.

Same issue with a linux networked box , fixed it entering \\server\directory !!

I'm wondering if it wasn't possibly a change in the latest version of Serviio?

[atc98092]

Ah, I should have caught that you were using a drive letter and not the UNC path. That definitely is a problem for non-local drives. Glad you found it.

The odd thing though is that I've always used the mapped drive letter and not the UNC path for the other networked PC. It was only 6 months ago or so that I switched to Windows 7 from WinXP on the machine with Serviio installed, and honestly now I can't be 100% certain if I had the problem when I first installed Windows 7 or if it did work for awhile. I do think it was working with the mapped drive letter though for awhile even under Windows 7. But it definitely worked for years under WinXP to WinXP networked machines just using the mapped drive letter.