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[bfieldman]

I was very excited a few weeks ago after purchasing the 510L on Amazon. I set it up and connected a flash drive with a sampling of audio and video media. I was able to play my FLAC files on the move, and my kids were able to stream movies, all via the DLNA server.

I was about to leave a stellar review on Amazon, when I went back to the device and realized that each time you either remove and reconnect the media or turn the device off and back on, it removes the index it had previously built, and begins over to index the media library. Now, this wouldn't be a problem if it took a couple of minutes to do so, but I tried putting just half of my music library and a handful of video files on a flash drive. An hour and a half later it was still building the index.

The only control over the dlna server provided in the admin interface is to name it and turn it on and off. I installed the recent firmware release hoping to see some added control over the indexing, but nothing.

I hope I'm missing something here, but I can't find any way around this. I also hope DLink can see that as it stands, the DLNA server, the reason I bought this device, is a worthless feature.

It's not as if it would require any serious logic to provide some reindexing control in the interface. The index is written to the media, so it's still there when the device is turned back on, and it's there when the media is plugged back in.

Unfortunately, it's too late to send it back, so I'm holding off on that Amazon review hoping that I hear something form DLink that explains how I, or anyone, could use this feature.  

Thanks

[FurryNutz]

Link>Welcome!

• What Hardware version is your router? Look at sticker under router.
• Link>What Firmware version is currently loaded? Found on the routers web page under status.
• What region are you located?

What size drive do you have connected?
FYI:
http://forums.dlink.com/index.php?topic=58799.0

IF the drive size is with in support for this unit, I agree it shouldn't take all day to index the drive. Just can sometimes depend on how much you have on the drive in regards to content. 

I believe that all D-Link routers that have DLNA server support will re-index upon a power cycle or reboot. This is a normal function to do this. I don't think any prior indexes is kept in memory as all routers have limited memory storage capacities. Especially mobile units.

I recommend that you phone contact your regional D-Link support office and ask for help and information regarding this. We find that phone contact has better immediate results over using email.

[bfieldman]

Hi,

Thanks for your response.

I don't see any hardware version. The firmware is 1.03. It's the latest firmware version on the dlink site.

It may be that all DLink devices "re-index upon a power cycle or reboot," but this is a mobile device, and that in and of itself makes its DLNA feature useless.

Think about it, if the power goes out in my house in the middle of the night or while I'm at work, and my home router has to reboot, and re-index, then more than likely by the time I wake up or get home, the re-indexing will have taken place and I'm good to go. Generally, no problem.

But if I turn the device on when I start my car, and want to listen to music on the way to work, how am I going to be able to do that if the existing index is tossed out, and it begins from scratch re-indexing. Right now it's indexing pretty slowing, but no matter how fast they get the indexing to work, it's not going to get through my entire collection in a few minutes. As it is currently indexing, it might take, let's say, 3 hours. But even if they reduce it to 30 minutes, I'm still at work before all of my content is available to me.  

If this is normal behavior, then I say that Dlink hasn't taken a couple of minutes to think through the implications.

You may have misunderstood my comment about the index being in memory. That's not a problem, it's a benefit. Since the index exists on the hard drive, the media can be immediately accessible when the device is powered on or the media is plugged in. All that needs to happen is to remove the logic that has it do a full re-index every time, and have it run either when there's no index found, or when initiated manually via the control panel.

One additional option that would make the device even better, would be an option to keep the existing index and look for new or changed media. That would allow a user to stream content while the server synchronizes the existing index with the files that are present. That's how my Logitech Media Server works, as well as most other DLNA software I've used over the years.

In this case, though, because it's a mobile device, it really is all the difference. DLink should remove the DLNA feature if they're not going to make it usable, and that's the message I'll be spreading around if I've wasted $100 on this device.

It's a shame, really, because I really like this device. It does most things well. The interface is functional and relatively well designed. But this DLNA limitation brings it from a 5 to a 1 for me.

I will be contacting my regional DLink support office if I don't get anything resolved here, and I thank you again for your response.

[FurryNutz]

Please let us know what they say. 

[bfieldman]

FurryNutz,

Do you work for DLINK? If not, do DLINK techies reply in this forum? That was the reason I posted here.

[FurryNutz]

 Does D-Link Fix Issues Posted by Members in this Forum?
 We are volunteer help for DLink and here to help out with set up and problems that are posted by users here in the forums. If we can not resolve those issues here or if there are problems with anything beyond our capabilities here in the forums, we ask the users please contact phone D-Link directly for continued help and information. Problems with HW/FW and documentation fall under this reasoning as we do not have the ability to effect any changes. As for D-Link support, if they don't know what customers needs as desires are then it's kind of hard for them to make improvements to there products with out someone helping them out and telling them.  Yes, of course please feel free to post and talk about it here, however there is little or no review by any official D-Link support or engineering personnel here in the forums. It's the users responsibility to help notify D-Link support of un-resolved problems and concerns they have, that we can't fix here in the forums. Actual D-Link employees post infrequently in the forums. So we recommend getting immediate help and information using the phone.