Cannot use "Play to >" with network files.

Yes I think I did post on the wrong thread. I had multiple tabs open and was replying on mulitple threads.

not a problem

ok so i tried having media added with //server/location but no luck. Still getting the same 'can't find media information from media server.' Only local drive media works unfortunately. This does not make sense to me, and it kind of sucks.

If maybe someone can figure this out here is the location that the client play to computer sees as where the file is located. Obviously it starts with the local ip, which is not my server it is the laptop. So I'm stuck, not much else to troubleshoot.

'http://192.168.1.199:10243/WMPNSSv4/2050441044/0_ezcwNzkwNUQ4LTgxRTYtNEIyMC1CRTQwLThGOTYxQUI4NjdBRH0uMC40.mp3?WMContentFeatures=DLNA.ORG_PN=MP3;DLN A.ORG_OP=01;DLNA.ORG_FLAGS=015000000000000000'

i figured it out. You have to enable remote content sharing

Sharing your media

I have network paths linked to local folders through a symbolic link and I tried "Play to" using the folders in my symbolic link and they played fine without error

Try with MKLINK /d [whatever folder on the network] [whatever folder you want it to refer to on the local drive]

thats the hard way to do it though :)

jc4gavejc said:

I have network paths linked to local folders through a symbolic link and I tried "Play to" using the folders in my symbolic link and they played fine without error

Try with MKLINK /d [whatever folder on the network] [whatever folder you want it to refer to on the local drive]

thats the hard way to do it though :)

Interesting, I'll have to try that. I already have my iTunes directory and the iTunes preferences directory in %appdata% set up with MKLINK /d so that I can keep it in sync with my server's.

That's not hard at all! Only takes a few seconds.

jc4gavejc said:

I have network paths linked to local folders through a symbolic link and I tried "Play to" using the folders in my symbolic link and they played fine without error

Try with MKLINK /d [whatever folder on the network] [whatever folder you want it to refer to on the local drive]

thats the hard way to do it though :)

Actually, I'm not quite sure I understand this.

The syntax for MKLINK /d is:
mklink /d [new folder name] [whatever folder you want to point to]

I made a symlink to my network drive and it would not add to the library.

Am I doing something wrong? I've also tried following this (method two):
Libraries - Include a Network Folder

This added to the library, but I was not able to use play to.

play to was sketchy for me for a long time and I had a hard time getting it to work even though I had followed microsofts instructions for setting it up, in the end I finally got it to work and figured out that the problem was how I had my libraries setup. I'm running a network that has 2 windows server 2008 servers(1 as a Domain Controller and DNS and the other as a Media/FTP/Web/File server) and then 6 Windows 7 Professional x64 Towers and Windows 7 Pro x86 laptop. I usually map the drives where all of my media is stored and then add it to Media player through the mapped drive which is where I made the mistake. For whatever reason play to will fail if you do that. I went to file->manage libraries->music(or whatever you want to add)->add-> network->the computer where media is located ->drive where media is located->folder where media is located->ok, then i deleted the old share in the library manager. now everything works

Without mapping the network location on your local machine, use the add folders feature in WMP to add the shared network folder to your Library. You do not have to use Homegroup but you then will want to have a user with the same username and password on each PC to securely share files. Review your netwrok sharing options then with Homegroup off.

Networking home computers running different versions of Windows

Password-protected sharing is a more secure method of sharing files and folders on a network, and it is enabled by default. With password-protected sharing enabled, people on your network can't access shared folders on other computers, including the Public folders, unless they have a user name and password on the computer that has the shared folders. They will be prompted to type a user name and password when accessing the shared folders.
For quicker access, you might want to have matching user accounts on all your computers. For example, Dana wants to use password-protected sharing to more securely share files and printers between her two computers. On Computer A, she has the user account "Dana22" and the password "Fly43$." If she sets up that same user account and password combination on Computer B, she can more quickly access shared files on Computer B. If Dana changes the password on one of these computers, she must make the same change on the other computer.
To turn on password-protected sharing in Windows 7

1. Open Advanced sharing settings by clicking the Start button , and then clicking Control Panel. In the search box, type network, click Network and Sharing Center, and then, in the left pane, click Change advanced sharing settings.
2. Click the chevron to expand the Home or Work network profile.
3. Under Password protected sharing, click Turn on password protected sharing, and then click Save changes. If you're prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation.

To turn on password-protected sharing in Windows Vista

1. Open Network and Sharing Center in Control Panel.
2. Under Sharing and Discovery, click the chevron next to Password protected sharing to expand the section, click Turn on password protected sharing, and then click Apply. If you're prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation.