How are you guys handling movies on a fat client?

[Jay]

My prerel7 does not like the UNC path (\\machine\path to movies). XL server movies only seem to work with c:\path to movies. So, I can't see the covers on the fat client, let alone launch them. Thin and Web clients work fine. What have I missed?

Music and pictures are not a prob. I never played with movies in FreeLobby so I don't have a baseline. I'd like to have access to other XL features on fat clients' screens while playing movies on the XL server's screen 2.

TIA

[cmhardwick]

I use UNC for all my entries (movies, tv series, music, pictures) no problem if it's a fat client or thin client. This is with either verion (free or pay). Thin and Web are just screens from your server, unlike thick-client which is it's own copy, just updating databases from the server.

So you are saying that, on your server, you have your movie path as \\machine\movies\movie file or whatever but when you launch the client on another machine, working as a thick-client pointing to the server, this path does not work?

a few questions that might clear it up.

1) Where are the movies stored? (same system as the music and pictures)?
2) (and this is the important one) Regardless of where the movies are stored, is the directory shared? This MUST be the case if it's a windows machine it's stored on, otherwise UNC won't find it. UNC to the local machine (\\xlobby-server\movies\movie files) would work on the server because you are logged into that machine, but unless that movies directory is shared so you can access it from another machine, it wouldn't work.

hope this helps.

[Jay]

Yes, I'm familiar with how thin clients work. I can see the covers and launch movies from them.

The movies folder is shared. All media is on the same machine.
I can play movies directly thru VLC on the fat client by navigating to the server, then to a movie folder.

When I go into the DB XML and change the path from C:\... to \\machine..., even my covers on the server go blank and clients crash; even after I restart them. I tried having both C:\... and \\machine... paths defined and XL locks up after a while.

Just checking here. The operation of a fat client should (visually) be the same as thin ones or operating the server directly - right? I.E.; ya see the covers, ya click one and hit play. (in my case, I hit the VLC button in the overlay and my File Types VLC entry is pointing to the UNC addy on the server.)

The other odd thing is that I need to hit Add instead of Play to launch music in the fat client.

[Jay]

Hmm.
I just copied a movie to \\machine\MyVideos and the single item DB imported to my fat client. When I hit play, it played locally. But, at least I got the cover to show and the movie to play.

Maybe the issue is the long path? The server is Vista and the movies folder is \\machine\Users\Public\Videos. The fat client is XP.

[cmhardwick]

no clue on the vista part, I strictly run XP. long path shouldn't be an issue as long as it's under the 255 character windows limit. the paths for my TV episodes can be very long, such as "\\mediasrva\tv_series\hogan's heroes\hogan's heroes - season 01\episode title"

[Jay]

Well, I agree. However, the long one doesn't work and the short one does. I just realized that the movie I dupped to MyVideos is an AVI. I'll copy a few ripped DVDs over and see. If that works, then I'll try to figure out how to make the fat client use VLC on the server instead of locally.

[Jay]

Well, changing the folder to MyVideos solved it. Now to make server play instead of the client. (?)

[cmhardwick]

seem to remember something somewhere about myvideos on Vista ...

anyway, try going under EVENTS to your Play Movie event, and click "SERVER EVENT" or "EXECUTE ON SERVER" can't remember which it is.

[Jay]

Excellent. I'll give it a go on the client.
Thanks!

[Jay]

Well, I couldn't find anything like that. I'll phone Calrad later today.

[Jay]

Surely one of us is using a fat client to play movies off the server?

I decided to email HQ rather than phone so that I'd get the text.

This is NOT meant to be negative in any way. I'm prob mis-interpreting something.

To Calrad:
"How do you make a fat client play movies on the server? It insists on playing locally. "

"Jay,
Map the drive that is on the server to the client and add the mapping to the media folder for the client in Media folders in The Xlobby setup box. "

I replied.
"I think I followed you. Here's what I did.
Went to client and mapped Z: to the MyVideo folder on my Vista XL server. I got \\Music-pc\MyVideos.
I already had the same UNC path, \\Music-pc\MyVideos in the media folders (which is how I could see my covers and launch the player). (on the fat client)
I've obviously missed something because the movies still play on the client. "

Anyone? As CMH suggested, there should be an event to specify the player should launch on the server. I cannot see any such option in pre rel 7.

[cmhardwick]

It may not be tonight, but I will play around with this. Are you using the internal player or still pointing to an external? I'll also do some screen shots of what I'm talking about on the "server event" checkbox.

Also, Calrad seems to have interpreted your question as "how do I get a fat client to play movies "that are located" on my server, not get them to play through the server instead of locally.

[Jay]

CMH
They did interperate that way. My error. I resent this:
"I guess I was not clear at all and apologize.
I have 3 licenses. I'm currently using 2.
1. I have all media on my Vista XL server.
In this server, I have my (setup) media folders' picture, music and movies pointing to the folders in the server as \\machine\path_to_each_media_folder.
2. I have XL installed on my XP laptop as a fat client.
In this fat client, I also have my (setup) media folders' picture, music and movies pointing to the folders in the server as \\machine\path_to_each_media_folder.
Now, when I play music on the server from the fat client, I have one zone set to the server. So, music plays from the server. This is what I want.
However, when I launch a movie on the server using the fat client, the movie is pulled from the server over the LAN and plays on the client. I only want it to play on the server - as though there was a zone setting for movies - like there is for audio.
Another way of putting it is that I need the fat client to act as a thin one when playing movies. "
--------------------
Then, I realized that a thin client doesn't do what I assumed, so I sent:
"I made an erroneous assumption. I said I want a fat client to play movies on the server as a thin one does. I never thought about testing a thin client to do this until just now. Apparently, XL was not designed to do this. When I launched my thin client and played a movie, I only got audio (soundtrack).

Maybe my issue is a feature request and not a support one...."

--------------------------
Internal/external player. Well, I don't expect support on an external, even though VLC works consistantly.
I'm asking for help with the internal player because -
1. I installed a higher-end graphics card with DVI/HDMI and all movies (that I've tested so far) appear to play video fine. However, I'm still lacking audio on a bunch of them which hopefully will get solved (codecs?) and
2. I'm confident that the work they're doing on the player will address my issues

[Jay]

OK,
it's a bug.
"Steven Hanna, the development Engineer for the software reports that it is a bug in the software build. He is working on it but resolution is a ways off. We will keep you informed. ".

[Jay]

PS,
I guess he's referring to the thin client not properly handling movie playback.

So CMH, if you come across that 'play on server' event for a fat client, please advise.
Thanks.

I'll take a look at FreeLobby for it too - haven't done so.