My Windows computer holds all of my AVI Files. If I want to play them on Linhes Computer, I'll copy them to a memory stick and copy them from there to the LinHes machine. (please don't laugh).
Surely there must be a better way. I can see 2 possibilities, copy them via the network or play them directly from the Windows computer via the wired network. The Windows computer runs Windows 7 32 bit. LinHes is 6.03.
Any help will be highly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

you need to enable samba support in the LinHES configuration menu (advanced or Misc I think) there are two checkboxes to allow Windows to see and then one to allow windows to write.
Then you go to your Windows box Open My Computer> Tools> Map Network Drive. Put in the IP of the Mythbox and be sure to check the box "connect using different credentials" then Enter your mythtv username and password.
Hope that Helps I'm sure I skiped a step or ten.

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My System

I finally succeeded in finding the Advanced Menu under LinHes Configuration.
Why don't they put a Down Arrow on the screen so we know there are more menu entries?? Maybe in the next version??
After that frustration of finding the right menu all the rest went allright, I was able to copy movies to the myth/video directory and play them succesfully.
So far so good, BUT:

On my dedicated FrontEnd when I want to play the same file it says:

Failed to open:
xxx.avi in /myth/video
Check if the video exists.

Opening the same file from the combined Frontend/Backend works fine, but from the FrontEnd only, I get this Error.

Any Ideas please cause I am very close now to what I wanted to achieve.

Thanks in advance.

This is happening because your database knows about the file from the combined machine but the front end doesn't see it.

If you are using the internal player only then you should look at using Storage Groups. mythtv wiki has all the info for this. I don't use it yet as I have some files that require mplayer. However do note that mythtv is quickly moving to storage groups as the preferred method.

Other than that you will need to link your dedicated frontend's /myth/video directory to the one in the master backend so they see exactly the same files. Of course you could also copy the file to the front end too but I think that starts to get out of hand. Lots of people here use NFS (Network File System) to do this cross machine linking. If you do a search you should find some recipes here. I think LinHES will also do some of this for you automatically but I have not used it. You may find something in the service menu.

I happen to use CIFS (the same mechanism you used to access your windows PC). I use CIFS because I have all of my media on central storage that all my other machines (various mythtv machine, various desktop machines, other apps and servers) and my windows machines are somewhat unilingual (only speak CIFS).

If you are not feeling too linux capable then I would strongly suggest going to Storage groups as a long term solution.

Thanks a lot christ, I will certainly look at storage groups then. I will read up on the Wiki and take it from there. If I succeed or have some remaining problems I will report back.
Thanks in advance,
Dick

There are several ways to deal with this. I use NFS to mount the directory containing my movies from my backend server to each of my frontend machines. The only trick not readily documented is to make sure the directory names on the front end machines are the same as the directory names on the server (backend) machine (for example, I use /mnt/video on all machines). Otherwise you will have to "rediscover" your files for each machine everytime something changes. If you use the same names, you don't have to do that (other than the first time you mount it).

Are you using NFS anywhere on you machines or just Samba?

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Backend server - 4.0 TB 3.0ghz dual core 6 gig RAM, nVidia 9400, Gigabyte GA-870A-UD3 MB, 2 HD-5500, 2 HD Homerun dual tuners, 3 frontend machines - LinHES 8.6.1

I've been away for a few days, hence my late response.
Thanks nb for your answer as well, I only use Samba to copy files to my combined FE/BE.
Christ, I now use the Storage Groups as you suggested and everything is working well, I can now watch videos from the Frontend.

I have one other problem on the Frontend, I can't shut it down.
When I hit escape the menu comes up which asks:

Do you realy want to exit MythTV?

I select: Yes, Exit and Shutdown

and it brings me back to the "Watch TV" screen.

The only way to shut it down is to hit the power button on the front.

Any help appreciated of course, thanks in advance

Excellent!


I have had this happen before and I had to change the shutdown command. From memory there is a setting under the Service Menu -> Mythtv Settings -> Setup -> General Settings called "program exit"

Look at the menu option and ensure "shutdown" is an option along with any other options you want. I suspect the halt command is not working for you. Try "sudo halt -p" and if that doesn't work try "sudo shutdown -h now"



Oh God! don't do that! Any files with two or more dependent transactions pending could get trashed. Though this is pretty limited exposure on the frontend it will likely cause fsck to be invoked on your next reboot to clean things up and slow down your boot cycle.

sudo poweroff also shuts down the frontend.

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My System

Thanks again, this works like a charm. I don't think I have any outstanding problems at the moment ...but who knows what crops up tomorrow!
Thanks again.