# Windows Media Player to Hopper 3 problem - fix or alternative?



## rootazoid (Feb 21, 2016)

Long story short, can anyone recommend a Win7 compatible media server program that will pipe my *media saved on a different partition* over to the Hopper 3. Windows Media Player can itself be pointed to my media folders on that other partition and they show on the PC, but for some odd reason when it pipes to the Hopper it only sees/displays stuff in C:\Users\Rob\Pictures or C:\Users\Rob\Videos etc. I don't want to use up my C by copying over all those files onto C. I haven't tried copying any shortcuts yet, even if it worked it would be too tedious with thousands of files. Is there a fix for this 'different partition' problem? Or a different media server program that's workable?

BTW I've already tried Mezzmo and TVersity. Both fail in different ways.


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## rootazoid (Feb 21, 2016)

just testing whether i'll get an email alert for any reply


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## FarmerBob (Nov 28, 2002)

PLEX.


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## TheGrove (Jan 10, 2007)

Windows Media Player will work. After opening Player right-click on Videos in the navigation panel and add your locations. If locations on your C drive are listed and you don't want to use them you can remove them.

Having said that, I like PlayOn. It streams more types of media and will also support other streaming services as well.


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## rootazoid (Feb 21, 2016)

FarmerBob said:


> PLEX.


A man of few words! Just got it, installed (with 3 annoying items installed into my startups), and was then further annoyed that on running it started up my default web browser for its UI (it has none of its own like a proper program), then wanted Cookies and a Login for features. Then I tried pointing it to my local Music folder, first. It didn't mind selecting a folder on my media partition. *Yay*. Then after working a bit, now on the PC screen I see 2 Music folders and no movies/videos folder in the UI but my videos are indexed in one of the 2 Music folders, and NO mp3 files. On the Hopper Home Media screen PLEX came right up but of course no Video folder and inside either music folder there are none of my mp3s and a very abbreviated selection of my videos. This is probably a good bit of PEBKAC but it's just not the program I wanted. I'll leave it installed for now.


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## Wilf (Oct 15, 2008)

What you ask is hard to answer, because there are so many options. But starting with a dedicated computer would a good start. Depending on the size of your media collection, you might want to add a NAS. As to software, probably the best known is Kodi, and is free and open source. I believe it is available for Windows. There are a number of others, including Plex. You will need to do a some reading and Google searches. Good Luck.


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## rootazoid (Feb 21, 2016)

TheGrove said:


> >Windows Media Player will work. After opening Player right-click on Videos in the navigation panel and add your locations.
> 
> Thanks for that, which all worked fine. EXCEPT WMP just brought in all my media as long inclusive lists - Music, all files, Photos, all files, Videos, all files. NO sub-folders at all. Can't have that! Is there any way to set WMP to avoid that and display the real folder hierarchy?


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## rootazoid (Feb 21, 2016)

Wilf said:


> What you ask is hard to answer, because there are so many options. But starting with a dedicated computer would a good start. Depending on the size of your media collection, you might want to add a NAS. As to software, probably the best known is Kodi, and is free and open source. I believe it is available for Windows. There are a number of others, including Plex. You will need to do a some reading and Google searches. Good Luck.
> 
> Thanks for that, I already have Kodi installed and love it 99%. I didn't know it could _serve_ files over to any separate device and looking through its settings I find nothing. Just running it and then looking at Hopper3/HomeMedia after a hard reboot and Refresh, it doesn't see Kodi as connected. Is there some Kodi toggle? I looked for a plug-in to install into Kodi and didn't find anything.
> 
> PS - If you're a Kodi user maybe you know how to make it not cover the Windows Start-Task bar until requested to go fullfull screen? Then it would be 100%


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## TheGrove (Jan 10, 2007)

rootazoid said:


> > >Windows Media Player will work. After opening Player right-click on Videos in the navigation panel and add your locations.
> >
> > Thanks for that, which all worked fine. EXCEPT WMP just brought in all my media as long inclusive lists - Music, all files, Photos, all files, Videos, all files. NO sub-folders at all. Can't have that! Is there any way to set WMP to avoid that and display the real folder hierarchy?


Inside WMP I don't see folders either. But thru the Hopper I do see the folders inside the folder I loaded into WMP.

I honestly don't use my PC for watching media much at all. I use it to stream the media to my Hopper and watch it there when I want to.


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## rootazoid (Feb 21, 2016)

TheGrove said:


> Inside WMP I don't see folders either. But thru the Hopper I do see the folders inside the folder I loaded into WMP.
> 
> I honestly don't use my PC for watching media much at all. I use it to stream the media to my Hopper and watch it there when I want to.


Based on that I gave the WMP another chance. This time the Hopper couldn't see WMP at all even after a hard Hopper reboot, then a quit/restart on WMP. _'bout to give up_.

For media videos I want to _share_ yes I want the LR 51" TV with soft furniture and not the cramped office with 23" and one chair, and yes for longer stuff the same applies when I'm alone.

p.s. for thread followers I tried PlayOn. Hard long install, then the run produced a hanging process window. After a total pc reboot it wasn't too... hard to UNinstall. :bang


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## FarmerBob (Nov 28, 2002)

rootazoid said:


> A man of few words! Just got it, installed (with 3 annoying items installed into my startups), and was then further annoyed that on running it started up my default web browser for its UI (it has none of its own like a proper program), then wanted Cookies and a Login for features. Then I tried pointing it to my local Music folder, first. It didn't mind selecting a folder on my media partition. *Yay*. Then after working a bit, now on the PC screen I see 2 Music folders and no movies/videos folder in the UI but my videos are indexed in one of the 2 Music folders, and NO mp3 files. On the Hopper Home Media screen PLEX came right up but of course no Video folder and inside either music folder there are none of my mp3s and a very abbreviated selection of my videos. This is probably a good bit of PEBKAC but it's just not the program I wanted. I'll leave it installed for now.


I'm sorry that you are encountering issues with this. I didn't. If I had, I would not have suggested it. I love it and have friends that are less that "patient" with things in general that are using it with out their usual complaining. Hmm, it may be a newer version. Well there's XBMC. It's real pretty also.

I did a quick search and PLEX came up in all searches and in comparison articles at or towards the top with fewest "issues" than the others.

Back to "few words": Sorry.


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## rootazoid (Feb 21, 2016)

Maybe a second install of Plex after a total uninstall and then a careful non-pebkac folder selection process will produce happy results. I'll report back.


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## rootazoid (Feb 21, 2016)

I re-tried Plex, with mixed results. First I made a new folder just for Plex files and put only 5 videos inside. Just as an easy start.

Results:


I can play the videos through the Hopper/TV, video and audio both work, with Volume working on the remote

getting at the videos requires many steps:
first the annoying Hopper process, find the Home Media button through Menu, then select Plex, about 6 presses; did the old Hopper remote have a Home Media button?
second, an inexplicable number of subfolders to navigate in Plex. Yes, I had set that one new folder as my videos folder, but inside it Plex sees/displays 3 levels of sub-folder screens (not present on the PC end) before I can find the right All Videos screen
2. while playing a video with Plex* I have no Pause, Stop, Rewind or Fast Forward* via the Hopper remote, does this require an active TV-room keyboard?

3. in the original Plex setup I figured I could go back later and set up 2 folders for Music and Photos, but no, nothing I can see or do allows this, Plex is fixated on that Videos folder

All told, I'll keep looking for a solution. I'd still prefer Kodi if I could get it to work. I've have a question over at the forum: http://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=291394

Today I'll probably try Wild Media Server 2.74


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## FarmerBob (Nov 28, 2002)

I've had no problems creating new folders and directing media to it. When you cursor over the "Libraries" column on the left this should popup: "+ ..." . Just click on the + and create a new folder. Then when importing select the folder you created.

Have you looked at XMBC yet?


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## rootazoid (Feb 21, 2016)

I installed Serviilo from Servillo.org and it was able to pipe my desired folders over to the Hopper/TV just fine. No weird extra folders or spurious media files from outside those folders. Even though I was looking to get XBMC/Kodi to be the route via the Plex server, the latter was just too glitchy on my pc. No developer can account for every single PC, especially one as tweaked out as mine. Yet Serviio worked.


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## Blowgun (May 23, 2008)

Given the choice between using DLNA or a HTPC, I chose the latter.


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## rootazoid (Feb 21, 2016)

Blowgun said:


> Given the choice between using DLNA or a HTPC, I chose the latter.


Thanks, Yah, back on my last PC I used to have an HDMI cable through the wall to my Onkyo HTR and was able to have my Win7 desktop and everything else on the TV. I even bought a wireless keyboard and mouse to use in the LR. It was always a bit tricky on the PC end, requiring annoying revisits to Catalyst control. But it was still better than this DLNA. Then I built a new PC and got Dish. I couldn't make the HTPC work any more. Then, click, I'm getting Netflix over ethernet from the router, why not other things?


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## Blowgun (May 23, 2008)

I can't speak to Windows 8 or 10, right now I wouldn't touch them with someone else's fingers. However, on Windows 7 you can press the Windows+P key-combo to switch the desktop between "Disconnect projector", "Duplicate", "Extend" or "Projector only". You shouldn't have to repeatedly visit the Catalyst Control Center to change the display. Unless there is a driver issue, as long as your new computer has a HDMI out on the GFX card, I don't see why the new computer doesn't work similarly to your previous computer. Usually the limitation is the location of the HTPC and in your case you already have a HDMI cable going through the wall.

At the moment I have one of my two HwS receivers and the HTPC connected to a Denon AVR. The Denon AVR is connected to a Samsung TV. All A/V connections are HDMI. The HTPC, as well as the HwS and the Denon AVR, are hardwired to a router which I configured to act like a switch, which is then hardwired back to the main router and ultimately the Internet. With this setup I can stream any shared video from any device connected to the LAN or stream online videos or play online games or manage another computer in a different room via remote access. At the moment I'm writing this reply with a wireless keyboard sitting on a comfy couch in the home theater room. 

Maybe DLNA is better now then when I tried using it a couple of years ago. At that time I tried different software and they all had various weaknesses. Fix one issue using different software, only to have a different issue happen. The core issues for me was the laggy or missing playback controls, transcoding and video streaming glitches. In comparison to a HTPC, controls are immediate, no transcoding and no glitchy playback. If DLNA is all you have, that's fine, use what ya have, but if you have the means to avoid DLNA, I would. If you still have your old computer, have you considered resurrecting it as a dedicated HTPC?


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## rootazoid (Feb 21, 2016)

Blowgun said:


> I can't speak to Windows 8 or 10, right now I wouldn't touch them with someone else's fingers. However, on Windows 7 you can press the Windows+P key-combo to switch the desktop between "Disconnect projector", "Duplicate", "Extend" or "Projector only". You shouldn't have to repeatedly visit the Catalyst Control Center to change the display. Unless there is a driver issue, as long as your new computer has a HDMI out on the GFX card, I don't see why the new computer doesn't work similarly to your previous computer. Usually the limitation is the location of the HTPC and in your case you already have a HDMI cable going through the wall.
> 
> At the moment I have one of my two HwS receivers and the HTPC connected to a Denon AVR. The Denon AVR is connected to a Samsung TV. All A/V connections are HDMI. The HTPC, as well as the HwS and the Denon AVR, are hardwired to a router which I configured to act like a switch, which is then hardwired back to the main router and ultimately the Internet. With this setup I can stream any shared video from any device connected to the LAN or stream online videos or play online games or manage another computer in a different room via remote access. At the moment I'm writing this reply with a wireless keyboard sitting on a comfy couch in the home theater room.
> 
> Maybe DLNA is better now then when I tried using it a couple of years ago. At that time I tried different software and they all had various weaknesses. Fix one issue using different software, only to have a different issue happen. The core issues for me was the laggy or missing playback controls, transcoding and video streaming glitches. In comparison to a HTPC, controls are immediate, no transcoding and no glitchy playback. If DLNA is all you have, that's fine, use what ya have, but if you have the means to avoid DLNA, I would. If you still have your old computer, have you considered resurrecting it as a dedicated HTPC?


Yes I upgraded to 8 after a comfortable pause after its release, immediately back to 7. I never knew about this Windows+P key-combo, just tried it and yes a chooser panel comes up. But, I backed out, because... a little more info, when I had this HTPC via HDMI working it was before I fractured my spine and I could get in behind my HT rack to fiddle with everything. Since then it's been a painful hassle and since it had stopped working (with lots of remedial effort over Years) I had the Hopper installer disconnect the HDMI. Now that I know about this Windows+P key-combo and your other advice I may try hooking it up again. I envy your setup! For now I'm decently happy with Serviio EXCEPT for one thing, missing playback controls. When I choose a video to play, the expected REW/PAUSE/FFWD bottom controls appear momentarily and then DISappear when the video starts playing. With videos all I can do is use the Hopper Back button to return to my list. I do have the expected controls, which work ok, on Music and Images. I believe this disappearing act is an artefact of the Hopper and not Serviio. Right now I'm looking at your Hopper pet peeves and may reply there. Does this forum support PMs? It must. We have the Hopper and this HT in common, and if I get more ambitious and get a little physical help here _Some Day_ it could be good for me to be speaking with you. Like, on a phone you know. :bowdown:


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