Cannot use "Play to >" with network files.

[kstrike155]

Hello everyone,

My network consists of three Windows 7 machines right now, two of which are functioning as Media Centers hooked up to TVs. The other is a laptop that is used as a regular PC.

One of the Media Center PCs functions as a server with all of the music and video files stores on multiple drives. The other computers have mapped drives to those shared folders on the server.

On the laptop, Windows Media Player adds all of the music from the server just fine, and it can play on the laptop, but when I try to use "Play to >" my media server (which is hooked up to my sound system) I get the following error:
"Failed to retrieve media information."

"Play to >" works perfectly with locally stored files.

Is this a known limitation? Are there any workarounds? It would be nice not to have to Remote Desktop to the server to play music (I like to play music without the TV on or using a remote ).

Thanks!
Brian

 

[mikinho]

It will not work using mapped drives but if you are using Home Groups then it will work using the UNC path.


So instead of going to the file using the mapped drive use

 

[kstrike155]

It will not work using mapped drives but if you are using Home Groups then it will work using the UNC path.


So instead of going to the file using the mapped drive use

I tried using HomeGroups to do this and it still didn't work. Not only that, but the HomeGroup setup overwrote all the permissions on my other hard drives, so I had to retake ownership and assign permissions all over again.

 

[hdwalla]

yeah i am having the same problem. the media files are sitting on a server that both computers can use and access but i can't play to either computer. I can go into wmp and click 'play to' but it just gives an error 'failed to retrieve media info'

What is this about the UNC path? There has to be a workaround for this...

 

[mikinho]

What is this about the UNC path? There has to be a workaround for this...

A UNC path uses double slashes or backslashes to precede the name of the computer followed by the share and remaining path.

i.e. \\whs01\music\

Or if you open Windows Explorer and goto the share via the Network instead of a mapped drive.

 

[silentcid]

have you tried this?

MKVs for Minimalists on Windows 7

 

[kstrike155]

A UNC path uses double slashes or backslashes to precede the name of the computer followed by the share and remaining path.

i.e. \\whs01\music\

Or if you open Windows Explorer and goto the share via the Network instead of a mapped drive.

But this will only work when using HomeGroups, correct?

I tried using them again and it did the same thing: replaced all of the permissions on my shared drives, preventing access using the mapped drives feature and also disabling my remote desktop connections into the computer. I have the same ser accounts and passwords on both computers and so I selected the option to bypass HomeGroup permissions in the sharing settings and I had the same problem.

I've given up for now and went back to using iTunes and my iPhone as a remote which works great.

Brian

 

[kstrike155]

have you tried this?

MKVs for Minimalists on Windows 7

Not to be rude, but what does this have to do with, um, anything?

 

[zigzag3143]

play to

Not to be rude, but what does this have to do with, um, anything?

I would hope it was just a post to the wrong thread, but you never know

Ken

 

[hdwalla]

yeah did not want to say anything but wow!

I have yet to try a couple more things. I will post when my failures most likely. Since you can only share in wmp what is on the local hard drive and not on the server. I doubt you can 'play to' another computer with server files/off a network drive. I hope though, the reason i keep my media files all on one computer is so my laptop and my desktop can access them via the network. But maybe for just certain songs and cd's i will just put on my laptop and use the remote feature!

 

[silentcid]

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

 

[hdwalla]

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;DLNA.ORG_OP=01;DLNA.ORG_FLAGS=015000000000000000'

 

[hdwalla]

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

Sharing your media

 

[jc4gavejc]

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

 

[kstrike155]

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.

 

[kstrike155]

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):
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/4617-libraries-include-network-folder.html

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

 

[Prv8J0k3r]

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

 

[AngelProcesser]

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.

 

[stevemccall]

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

Hi, I have done this, and it seems to look as if it should be working, but it isnt. Playto doesnt offer me any error messages but fails to play the selected mp3 (while local content of course still works).

I've added the symbolic link folder to my wmplayer library and when comparing playto windows from local content or networked content, there is no difference other than one is playing and the other is not.

Ran out of ideas to google and going in circles

Hope you or someone else can push me in the right direction.

*UPDATE*

Music stored on a NAS drive plays fine, just this music on my symbolic folder from a server on the network fails to play.


Steve