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[WHD]

Hi there,

I am running firmware v1.04.

I have a 1.8TB NTFS usb drive connected to the usb port of the DIR-857.
I am sharing its contents in two ways:
- through shareport
- through Media Server

The shareport way works great. I can see the entire drive and access all of it.

My issue is with the media server option; it shows only a limited set of the files on the drive.
I have used both XBMC, VLC as a few Android Upnp players as clients.
All show the same contents so it seems to be the server.

What I see through the Upnp connection is a set of directories. Through USB I can see that alphabetically speaking, several directories were skipped. I don't see why these were skipped. The skipped ones are not the ones containing the biggest files or the most files or directories, or with weird characters.

Which means I need clues.

Is this media server under GPL as well? I could not find any seemingly related code in the Src download on the Dlink website.
ftp://ftp.dlink.eu/Products/dir/dir-857/driver_software/DIR-857_reva_GPL_code.rar

I have also briefly searched here, but cannot find related source code.
ftp://ftp.dlink.com/

By the way. Previously, I was running 1.03. I saw almost no files.
Moving to 1.04 definitely helped in this aspect.

Kind regards

[FurryNutz]

Link>Welcome!

What region are you located?

http://forums.dlink.com/index.php?topic=52973.0

[WHD]

Hi,

Yeah, I saw the thread and thought; lets not steal that. After posting I noticed the updates and growing similarity.
I am in Europe. Currently I am using the canadian 1.04 firmware.
(I am not using any known ISP setting from the firmware, so I don't feel bothered by the localized ISP settings stored in the various firmwares.)

[FurryNutz]

There are other issues with using FW versions from other regions, not supported and WiFi operation is different as well, NA vs EU. So you may see other problems appear if you use NA region FW in a EU unit.

[nestolea]

Yes, I agree to Furry!
Concerning the WiFi there are regulatory differences from country to country.
And even if you don't observe problems by using another country's firmware, your neighbors might...   
I think I read about even the weather radar having increasing disturbances because of this...   

[HS-1971]

I have the same issue and I am in Canada using FW v1.04. I can see the entire drive (WD 1 TB) and can access all the directories and files using the Share Port utility, however when I try to view some of the movies on the WD drive through my DVD player WiFi connectivity to the DIR-857 Router I can only see 2 folders (out of 5) and also the folder does not show all the files that are actually stored on the drive. Again, this does not happen when I access these directories from my Laptop WIFI using Share Port.

[FurryNutz]

If you can see everything using a PC and shareport and you can't with the DVD player. I might presume that the DVD Player is not correctly looking at folders.

[bs27975]

No. Probably not. (DVD not correctly looking at folders. More likely, DVD is not showing you files it can't play. An .exe, for example. Also, don't forget, some things will actually check the file header to see if it really is that type of file, and not present it to you. e.g. Renaming .txt to .mp3 may, in some cases, still not show you the .mp3 file - it's checked the file headers, the mp3 media information is not present, and tosses it as a playable candidate. One way some things might demonstrate this, aside from not even displaying the file, is to display that the file is not playable, before you've even asked it to play that file. Incorrect file header being different than a broken .avi index, for example.)

(This is not a wi-fi issue, so please let's eliminate all comments about wi-fi in this thread, particularly with regard to firmware.)

Shareport access proves successful connectivity of files within drive to router, and router's ability to make the files available.

To the best of my knowledge, confirmation / correcton appreciated, UPnP, server or client, only shows files / folders / content of media files it has knowledge of (as being media files).

I have not experimented with the specifics, but you could try this:
- go to a folder where you see content that is displayed as being available. Note the file type.
- go to a folder where you expect to see content, but don't - make a dummy file there of the same extension. Does it show up now? (Perhaps after a reboot of the router - I saw something about only a reboot causes the router to rescan the files to build up its index of what it should make available.)
- (hard part) Figure out an extension that your dvd player doesn't recognize as being content playable (.mkv?), but the router does. [You could thus prove what the router shows you vs what your dvd player shows you. For that matter, if your dvd player will play all such files from a disc, it should be the same test - the issue for this aspect is not upnp / router presentation, but what the DVD player recognizes as being playable.]

The real telling point for figuring out where things are breaking down is to be able to see the files, or not, from a 2nd viewing pathway - such as a computer / vlc / playlist / local network / universal plug'n'play.

If you really want to isolate this, turn on web access on the router, go to the router:8181 - if you see the files there, but not on the dvd player, you've confirmed the dvd player doesn't understand the file type.

Further, if you see the file type within vlc, or not, and not on the dvd player, then you've isolated whether the file is present (http), presented (vlc), playable (vlc), visible (dvd).

Summary: I believe only certain (media) file types are presented, and only some of those any particular device understands. [Confirmation / correction welcome / appreciated.]

Guessing.

CDN$0.02

YMMV

[FurryNutz]

http://www.dlink.com/us/en/support/faq/multimedia/what-file-types-are-supported-with-the-upnp-av-media-server-and-itunes-server

[bs27975]

http://www.dlink.com/us/en/support/faq/multimedia/what-file-types-are-supported-with-the-upnp-av-media-server-and-itunes-server

EXCELLENT LINK! THANK YOU!

However, sadly, they say file types, not file extensions. But it's a start. And it doesn't indicate whether other files types will be visible or not, nor whether it determines the file types by looking at the file headers, or only the extension. (Both would help the OP.)

e.g. It says MPEG4, but that stream can be encoded within many file type / extensions.

I suppose, for the original poster, a way to test an mpeg4 stream within a file type not listed, change the extension. Worst case, it sees the file, tries to play it, -then- falls over. But at least you'd know what's going on, and where.

I ran into this in the past, although I forget the specifics. Something to do with the default mp4 apple (quicktime?) file extension, changing it to mpg (IIRC), and all got happy. .mpeg4 or .mp4 -> .mp4 or .mpg? (Something.)

In any case, excellent link / resource for this thread, thank you!

[FurryNutz]

I'll see if I can find more detailed info on extensions.

[HS-1971]

Thank you guys for the detailed analysis of this issue, I noticed that the DVD player can sometimes read some of the folders and files from the storage drive through the router WiFi connectivity and sometimes it does not read anything at all. I decided last night to try a simple experiment, I disconnected my WD 1TB drive from the DIR-857 router and connected it directly to the DVD player using the DVD USB port. To my surprise, the DVD player was able to read all the movie folders on the WD drive and all of the files. So my  conclusion was that this issue has nothing to do with the drive or the DVD player but is a router related issue. I guess it is important for D-Link to know about these issues to make better products in future or at least understand the limits of the their routers and better inform customers.

[FurryNutz]

Does the DVD player support a Wired connection besides wireless? One more test would be to try having the DVD access the drive via the router using a wired connection.

How far away is the dvd play from the router?

[HS-1971]

The DVD player (LG BP620) supports a wired connection but I did not try it yet, I will do so and let you know the result. The DVD player is located 3 meters away from the router but there is no clear line of sight as the router is in a different room, but I am able to watch Netflix without any problem through the router Wifi and DVD Wifi connection.

[bs27975]

Does the DVD player support a Wired connection besides wireless? One more test would be to try having the DVD access the drive via the router using a wired connection.

How far away is the dvd play from the router?

Why would he do this? This is a content not a connectivity issue.

Equally, IIUC, connecting the drive directly to the DVD player doesn't help. That's a local read, avoiding the protocol involved in the DVD player / router connection. EXCEPT: Connecting via USB would show playable file types. So, if the OP sees a file in a directory when connected via USB, but doesn't see that same file type when connected otherwise, at least he knows the player will play a particular file type, and it is something other than the player blocking it.

The real test, to eliminate the router, would be to put the drive on another computer (or something) that serves UPnP. If certain files are seen that way, but not when connected to the router, then it is the router blocking certain file types. (Which is the point of the original question.)

- moreover, I'd bet on that computer there will be a setting somewhere that will let you specify while file types to present. So if the file is not seen originally, say a .mkv file, add the .mkv file type into the list of those to be presented, and it should now show up. When it does, and moving the drive back to the router causes the file type to disappear, you've found your needle in this haystack.

An alternative may be (I suspect), is to connect the drive up to the router and computer browse to the router :8181 (?) port (after enabling web access) - I'll bet that that access mechanism will use the same file presentation rules as UPnP to the player.

For an alternate UPnP device, win 7 will do it - not sure the gui way to get there, but turn on the UPnP service, the SSDP service, and the windows media file sharing service. The dvd should then be able to find that computer / files the same way he is the router. [You can test access from another computer, open up windows explorer, go to network - assuming the UPnP and SSDP services are running, all devices with files available will show up. e.g. Plugging USB into router, going to a computer / windows explorer / network, DIR-857 (or whatever) will be visible there. (As it is in the DVD player.)]

If they show up via that connection (computer to computer, or player to computer) but not the (player to) router, then the router is blocking certain file types (or file extensions) - not knowing that they are playable media files.

{Sorry if the above is a little convoluted / terse / greek - rather tired at the moment.}