Cannot get PLAYLISTS to work

[kittmaster]

I've searched here and used atc98092's recommendation of using playlist creator 3.6.2 which I've used extensively in the past.

I have verified adding new folders and files to already set up shared libraries that they are properly being scanned and added to "last added".....so I know that the NAS is aware...and the log shows file and folder additions in the index of known shared folders is working correctly on v2.1.

My issue is, I tried .m3u and .pls... in absolute mode....and even with "playlists" in presentation set to "show catagory"....neither playlist shows up.

Here is an excerpt of the log:

  Code:

2021-02-04 08:09:39,453 INFO  [PlaylistFileIndexer] Added playlist 'test.m3u' (title: test) to Library

Here is what's in the .m3u file:

  Code:

#EXTINF:310,ABP MASTER VIDEO FILE - 1 - SCARS TO YOUR BEAUTIFUL (1080P)
\\KITTMASTER_NAS\Media\Music Videos\1080P\ALESSIA CARA--SCARS TO YOUR BEAUTIFUL--RESOLUTION(1080P).mp4

If I put that path into windows explorer, it launches the file in media player classic.

So my question is.....why isn't anything showing up in the playlists? I have playlists as "show catagory" in all 3 option of video, audio, and image.....and when I click into it.....it is just blank?????

I've never used playlists with Serviio before......so not sure what I'm missing. The file itself i.e. m3u is located in a folder where I have a single random video file of Bill Burr.....and that video plays and displays fine in the "last added"....meaning, Serviio knows the mp4 file exists, the path is valid....and it even added the .m3u as mentioned above in that exact location.......but yet I see no playlist file or entries to be able to run the media.....

I've used the creator for my mp3 files and mp4 files in my GMC truck and I know the program works fine...so I'm at a loss as to why Serviio isn't working with it.

Thoughts?

Thanks.

[atc98092]

Just a guess, but it's likely because of the networked location of the media. I know I had to play around with the playlist settings to make the files visible. I have Playlist Creator set on the Playlist Details page to save the playlist entries as absolute, not relative. But I think that's what yours are as well. Although with a networked location, you might need to check the box to use forward slashes instead of the back slashes you have now.

Do you have a mapped drive letter on your Serviio computer to the NAS location? If so, you could change the user account that the Serviio service runs under to your user account. Then Serviio would recognize your mapped drive letter as a local drive and then make your paths based on that.

Most of my playlists are PLS format, but I do have a few in M3U as well. Here's a copy of one of the short ones. You can see they all use a drive letter to the media location.

  Code:

#EXTM3U
#EXTINF:8234, -  -
J:\Media\Movies_8\4K\Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) (UHD).m2ts
#EXTINF:6916, -  - INDIANA_JONES_RAIDERS_LOST_ARK
G:\Movies_E\Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981).mkv
#EXTINF:7611, -  -
G:\Movies_E\Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989).mkv
#EXTINF:7352, -  -
F:\Movies\Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008).m2ts
#EXTINF:7441, -  - JAWS
G:\Movies_E\Jaws (1975).mkv
#EXTINF:7107, -  -
J:\Media\Movies_8\Recorded TV\Jaws 2 (1978).mpg
#EXTINF:7587, -  - Jurassic Park
J:\Media\Movies_8\4K\Jurassic Park (1993) 4K.mkv
#EXTINF:7719, -  - The Lost World: Jurassic Park
J:\Media\Movies_8\4K\The Lost World- Jurassic Park (1997) UHD.mkv
#EXTINF:5540, -  - Jurassic Park III
J:\Media\Movies_8\4K\Jurassic Park III (2001) UHD.mkv
#EXTINF:8189, -  -
J:\Media\Movies_8\Recorded TV\Catch Me If You Can (2002).mp4
#EXTINF:7915, -  -
E:\Video_3\Flags of Our Fathers (2006).mkv


[kittmaster]

I do have mapped drives to the NAS location from this windows machine, but that won't work in a playlist as it is a local machine map letter.

So when I build the list, I use the network icon in windows explorer, navigate to the files and then drag them in to playlist creator so the path is network based, not mapped drive letter based.

I am assuming the playlist is server side and not client local yes?

My "thought" is that the playlist for example:..... 9 music video tracks, when I click on the playlist icon in serviio mediabrowser, those 9 tracks are there, in playlist order that will play from track 1 to 9 within mediabrowser.....yes?

EDIT: I did try the reverse the slashes, no changes.

[kittmaster]

I found that if I change \\KITTMASTER_NAS to \\volume1 that it started working.

But an interesting new issue is that I was doing things like test2.m3u....I've since deleted that, added different files to test7.m3u....and test2 still remains...and test7 isn't showing up.

I have to manually update the .m3u file for each change....and that's ok...but serviio shows the test 2 as removed from library and test 7 added.....but in media browser, the old remains.

Odd.

[kittmaster]

I cleared the cache and history in firefox, logged back in.....test2 remains....test7 still not there......

I don't get it, it should be gone.

[atc98092]

I find sometimes with playlists that I have to do a forced refresh for any edits to be picked up. No idea if it's a Windows file system issue or Serviio.

[kittmaster]

I figured out how to get the correct path, I'll post what I did later.

Right now I'm fighting completely stupid....I have ONE....playlist in the folder I've been working with. I called it TestA, then TestB up to TestD.....there is only ONE file in that location with .m3u and now when I click on the playlist....it has FOUR entries in there....The only one physically present is TestD.

I've forced updated it, rescanned meta, rebooted the NAS.....WTF....

There should only be one play list file shown.....and I have 3 ghosts and 1 valid....How do I fix this?

This is a disaster...a simple thing like a playlist has cost hours in time......

[atc98092]

Man, I've reached the end of my suggestions. While I haven't removed an existing playlist file for quite a while, it always disappeared after a forced refresh. I am at a loss over why it's doing that with you.

[kittmaster]

Here is what I'm seeing here. It's been hours since I posted, and it's never updated....but note, that Serviio would not even see the playlist unless there was some type of media file in the same folder.....


http://www.kittmaster.com/imagedump/serviio/Playlists.png

[atc98092]

For some reason that image isn't displaying. As far as the playlist location, I have all of my playlists in a single folder that doesn't contain any media. It's just a folder within one of my Serviio library locations. I have no idea why yours is acting that way.

[kittmaster]

I updated the post with a direct url.

Some browsers block mixed content.....chrome and Edge do it...opera and firefox still work.

But thanks for looking even there is no clear answer to fix it.

[atc98092]

So, in the Serviio console, is your shared library location X:, or is there a Media folder under the root of the drive? The image doesn't show the file structure at that location.

Sometimes it can really be a pain when the media is located on a networked location rather than a local drive. Sorry you're having such an issue. I played with a Linux installation once and could never get it to see the media on another computer. I had to mount the remote location to a local folder before it would work, but that meant that any streaming media had to cross the network twice, once to the Linux box then from there to the player. Supposedly if it's streamed from a properly linked network location, that would only happen if the media required transcoding, but I've never been able to confirm that.

[kittmaster]

Here is what the structure looks like:


http://www.kittmaster.com/imagedump/serviio/Structure.png

[kittmaster]

Note on the image above, the PATH is correct to access the file......the issue at hand is serviio doesn't know when to DUMP the old versions of the playlists that are no longer physically at the locations they existed in.

When I rename the folder it updates "sometimes" but then messes up the "last added" i.e. the bill burr video has 3 last added entries....but only one video file present.....it is real wonky.

[atc98092]

I'm surprised the /volume1/ is doing anything to let the media be found. That's more of a Linux-style address, and certainly doesn't mean much of anything to Windows.

I think I mentioned it before, but by default Serviio is running as a system service, which doesn't have access to the network. Changing the user account the Serviio service uses to an account that can access the network is usually required to reach a NAS or other network storage. I can't say if this might be part (or all?) of the issue you're having with playlists. But that's the first change I'd make, preferably using the user account that you yourself are using on the PC.

[kittmaster]

Ok I think I know where we are disconnecting.....I'm using windows to create the playlist, but the playlist is "living" on the NAS itself within the media folder that holds all the video.

The /volume1/ is what is pulled from the serviio log.....that is what helped me sort out the path of the files.....

My assumption is I can "create" the playlist from the windows machine....save it...then edit the .m3u....with the /volume1/ and then have serviio show the playlist according......up this point that is all true...its the updating the database within Serviio where it is seeing ghosts of .m3u lists made still active even thought the playlist was removed from the NAS folder via SMB in windows.

The log does show the even that it "removed" the AA BB versions....yet they are still be shown as valid playlists even though they were deleted, or renamed as something else.

That is the part that is mucking up the whole......"how is this supposed to work" thing.

[atc98092]

OK, I follow that. Where is Serviio running, on the Windows PC or on the NAS? If it's on the NAS, then that explains why /Volume1/ works. But as my knowledge of the OSs used on a NAS device is limited, I can't explain why you are seeing that behavior. Perhaps changing your Serviio library location setting to Poller mode might make it monitor the folders differently and pick up the changes you make.

I can see the issue using a Windows program to create the playlists that will reside on a non-Windows PC. In your case the Relative location might work better than the Absolute. It appears your playlists are maintained in a folder off the root, so that might work as well.

[kittmaster]

Serviio is running on the NAS. I do have the poller method active on all shared folders.....including the "media" one where the playlist files live. I've tried to do it with "native" and not poller but I don't see any differences there when I make the changes.

I just think it's something wacky in the java code because with just the m3u in the folder.....serviio doesn't even acknowledge the .m3u as if the folder is empty. When I dumped the bill burr mp4 in there, all of sudden the m3u showed up after I sorted the path issue out.

Serviio's log is what lead me to the formatting of /volume1 as it was showing what it saw when new files where being scanned.....so I got lucky there to sort that piece out.

I can make the changes here, I just wish I could figure out what .jar handles this.....I've looked through Derby.jar and mediabrowswer.jar....I just don't understand the mechanics of where the playlists are built and brought in......I'll continue to run through the files to try and sort this out.....wish zip was around to comment.

[atc98092]

Just out of curiosity, have you tried the PLS format again once you figured out the path issue? There's been times I had to switch between the two formats when one of them started acting screwy.

I'm I'm understanding your folder format, it would seem you only need a single shared library added to Serviio, as it appears that all of your media is stored under /Volume1/Media. No idea if the same folders are contained in more than one location might be an issue, or if you even have that. Since I can't see your console, I'm guessing on this based on your comment about "all shared folders".

[kittmaster]

I wil try pls next.

Here is the way the shares are set up:


http://www.kittmaster.com/imagedump/serviio/SharedFolders.png


http://www.kittmaster.com/imagedump/serviio/SharedFolders2.png