Help - Accessing HDD on Hub One USB port from Samsung TV

[#1]

I think I understand what you are saying about the 'standard' DLNA structure. That is why I can see the same on the router as well as on  my PC when either are accessed from my TV. A bit more knowledge - thanks.

I followed your last ideas and also the link you sent.

When I went to set up the media streaming on my PC, it only identified the files/structure of the libraries on my PC under windows and ignored the USB dive (that I had swapped back from the router of course). The structure on the external disk is a mixture of all sorts of things and I have not set anything up under Videos or Music etc. As I was going through things the light on the drive did not flash so it appears that it was not attempting to access the disk.

What I am going to try and do is set up a small additional structure on the external drive with Videos, Music, Pictures and copy a few files in each. I will then plug into the router and see if accessing from the TV can see those files but not the remaining ones (there are a lot of them). I'll let you know. If you are getting a bit frustrated I will understand if you want to stop. I'll post my next steps on here anyway.

[#2]

For anyone else that is interested,

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/dd758095(v=vs.85).aspx

explains a little about the DLNA library structure and how it is used. Not much use for my problem at the moment as it creates the libraries on the PC and my PC will be switched off when I want to access the files. Just for someone that may be reading this. The one issue I have with the structure is that it is not the structure that I want to use. For example, I have folder containing photos and videos for a holiday that I want to keep on the same folder.

[#3]

Dont worry keep the info coming, it will be useful yo find a full fix as I guess others will ask at some point in the future 🙂

[#4]

Finally I have the results if anyone else has problems connecting a SMART TV to a hdd on a router.

Using a Plusnet Hub One (similar to a BT) the DLNA seems very limited and not worth trying to add a HDD.

Using Talk Talk Huawei HG533 gets better results BUT....

The embedded software on the router searches the directory on the HDD and attempts to create a DLNA structure using a SQL database on the HDD. This can be accessed using something like the free SQL Lite.

It then seems to run out of internal memory when creating a DLNA view from the other tables.

I get 7445 lines on the view and also in the ITEM table.

Thinking about it it is probably the routine that does a CREATE TABLE ITEM as....

this also has 7445 lines.

So for this HG533 there will be a DLNA limit (NOT a Samba limit).

Samba works fine and can be accessed like a normally attached NAS/server/disk.

So I have had to look for different solutions.

I purchased a wireless Toshiba STORE.E Wireless Adapter (285C) just to see if that would be any good.

Quick guide (there was no detailed one) went on about installing an App but one was not supplied and I couldn't find one so all the effort was done using the interface via a browser (usual stuff).

The device was on 192.168.65.1

This was found by connecting to the wireless network and checking details.

I tried all sorts of things including changing the subnet mask to 255.255.0.0

Again all was 'reasonable' on the PC but my Samsung Smart TV could not see it even though the TV and everything on the network had the subnet changed.

Then tried using the obvious solution, to connect the TV to the Toshiba device. BUT the Samsung 'HUB' would not work as there was no internet. Why it demanded internet when I was just looking at my LAN I do not know.

So this is being packaged up and sent back.

I am now limited to :

1. Limited number of files on a DLNA structure. The HG533 is pretty good at this because you can set the base directory used to search for files rather than the whole disk. As long as you do not have too many files it will be OK. Not in my case though.

2. The big failing is in not having a SAMBA client on my Samsung TV (SAMYGO may be an option that I am not going to try).

3. I use EMBY Server on my PC and have installed a client on my Samsung TV. This is fine as long as I have my PC switched on. This third option would need EMBY running on the router.

4. Finding a 'matched' pair for TV and router for some other software app.

Sorry I could not find a solution for anyone. There was no point in looking at NAS as the TV needs some software installed to access the NAS (SAMBA) and I do not need the NAS as the Router does a pretty good job.

If you have read all the previous stuff, with thanks to MrSilver for prompting me to continue, the architecture has the HG533 attached to the network with DHCP turned off so it is basically a NAS box with DLNA and SAMBA.

If I do ever find a solution e.g some app that runs on the Samsung TV as a SAMBA client, or equivalent to EMBY with both client on TV and Server on HG533, I'll post a message.

Rambling on but I hope it saves others wasting time and perhaps money avoiding buying a NAS that will not work either.

If you do not have a HG533, have a look at your own router to see what SAMBA and DLNA options may be available.

[#5]

Ok so obviously DLNA isn't that straightforward.

I deleted the .db file to make sure that it was created from scratch as it seemed to update rows when I changed the DLNA directory in the HG533.

I then gave it a sub-directory containing 1200 files.

The .db was created in the directory that I had named, rather than the root directory, which makes sense.

BUT

only 414 files were created. Some of the files in the directory were pictures (I was creating videos) but some sub directories on the original disk were missing completely.

There is an entry for sub directories as well the the actual files. Again this makes sense.

I thought it might be the file extension but there are .vob .mkv .avi .mp4  (the .jpg are there and  go into the DLNA Pictures folders)

So why there are some directories missing containing, for example, other .avi and .mp4 files I do not know.

Based on my thoughts on the table size, that cannot be all that prevents the files as this time there are fewer rows.

I am going to try and select separate file types and see if they are all caught, and avoid non video files.

[#6]

Selected a small directory this time. 25 mixed video extensions.

it created an extra row in the data base for the root directory /mnt /directory on  the disk so I would expect 26 rows in total.

There are only 24 meaning that 23 videos are on the list an 2 are missing.

Both .mp4 are missing !