Need Help Using NAS as a Media Server

[DJG]

I recently modernized my 20 year old home theater system which now includes a network attached Blu-ray player and a network attached AV receiver. Both devices are DLNA compliant, so I can use them to access my Win7 PC to play music files and to view photos. I can also use the Play To feature from Windows Media Player to play music from my PC through either device.


However, my PC is a laptop which goes to sleep when not in use. Since I have the same music and photo files backed up on a Network Attached Storage, I would prefer to stream music and photos from the NAS to the Blu-ray player and the AV receiver. In spite of all my efforts, something isn't allowing me to do that.

Following the instructions for the NAS (a Seagate BlackArmor 1TB), I first placed my music files and my photo files in folders named Our Music and Our Pictures in the Public Share. I then enabled Media Service on the NAS. Windows Explorer immediately showed a new Media Device on my Network. I double clicked on the icon, and Windows found and downloaded the driver. A new Media Server immediately showed up in Devices and Printers, and Windows Media Player also showed a new remote media library.



Unfortunately, that's as far as I've been able to get. WMP, the Blu-ray player and the AV receiver will all show the NAS as a media server. They will all show a menu listing Music, Pictures and Videos folders. But when I try to open any of those folders, I get a message that the folder is empty or there are no playable files.



Seagate tech support has been very helpful. We've updated the firmware in the NAS, we've removed and reinstalled the media files on the NAS, but nothing has helped. So I'm thinking the problem might be a network setting in my router or a router firewall issue. Why the NAS itself shows up as a media server, but not the files themselves, remains a mystery.



I would really appreciate some suggestions on what to try next before I give up on using the NAS and just turn on the PC when needed.

[Paul T]

Seems you're not alone. A search for "seagate blackarmor dlna server" returns a few problems.

cheers, Paul

[DJG]

Thanks again for putting me on the right path, Paul. After considerable searching through the various Seagate forum posts, I learned the single step I missed. I had assumed that enabling the NAS as a Media Server was sufficient and by so doing it automatically selected the media in the Public Share. It was a reasonable assumption because the Our Music, Our Pictures, and Our Videos folders were located there by default. That may have in fact been the case in earlier firmware versions, but now it is also necessary to designate which Share is the Media Service Share. That's accomplished by editting the Share's features. Simple!!

As soon as I enable Media Service on the Public Share, all of the media files were found and displayed in WMP, on my AV receiver and on my BD player. The music files in albums are sorted alphabetically vs. order on the album, but I can live with that. Now I'm finally getting the service from my NAS that I had intended.