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leighton buzzard · 24-10-2014, 15:59

Hi

I'm hoping somebody can help as I'm completely confused by all of this. I've just purchased a QNAP 221 and want to use minimserve as the version of Twonky being run on the device no longer allows you to customise music trees.

I've installed Minimserve on the NAS and installed Minimwatch & Java on my MAC (Yosemite).

If I open Kinsky I can select Minimserve but then I only get 'Folder' view.
How do I set up Minimserve so that I can browse my Library by Artist, Album, Song Title, etc, etc?

Is there anywhere where I can see some images of the set up process to guide me through???

Peter@57m · 24-10-2014, 17:35

For MinimServer to work best, you need to have your music tagged. I notice in your post you seem to have been using Twonky with music tress(Briain's??). So my first question would be is your music tagged?

Then are you pointing at the folder on the QNAP where your music is stored, I am guessing you are given that you can find it through folder view. The default location for MinimServer on QNAP is /share/Multimedia, is this where you have your music files

Then, do you get any error messages in the log file - go to Show Log in MinimWatch

I have also replied to your Linn forum entry to say I have responded here as this is a MinimServer question

DavidHB · (This post was last modified: 24-10-2014 18:02 by DavidHB.)

Firstly, MinimServer is not a 'version' of Twonky; it is an entirely different server, and operates in a very different way. You can have it running on the same device at the same time if you have another use for Twonky, or you can disable or uninstall Twonky from your NAS if it has been installed there. It's your choice.

I know that advice to read the manual is typically unwelcome, but the MinimServer User Guide is clear and well-written, and taken in bite-size chunks it should enable you to do all you want. At least it is clear from your post that you have all the components you need already installed, and they are all working.

The key things are

make sure that the data tags (aka fields) that you want to use are populated in your music files; the data may already be there, but may also need to be entered or changed on some albums; you will need a suitable tag editor that runs on the Mac for this;
use MinimWatch to specify which tags/fields you wish to index.

To do 2., make sure MinimWatch is running on your Mac, right-click or whatever on its icon and select 'Properties' from the menu. Select the Server tag in the dialog and list the tags you want indexed, separated by commas (and only commas) in the indexTags text box. Start off with a fairly simple list, such as "Artist,AlbumArtist,Album,Title"; you can add to it later. Then close the Properties dialog and right click on the MinimWatch icon again to select 'rescan'. This should create the indexes you require, and, once you close and reopen Kinsky, it should 'see' those indexes and offer you lists of the kind you want.

This is only the most basic guidance to get you going. Once the basics are working, its RTM time... Smile

David

P.S. Peter's advice (which crossed with this post) to check the MinimServer log is also sensible, but only if you have already set the indexTags property as advised.

leighton buzzard · 24-10-2014, 18:07

Thanks Peter & David. :-)

Yes, all music is tagged. I've been using Twonky for approximately 5 years so have got to grips with that. I'm aware that Minimserve is not a version of Twonky. I want to switch to using Minimserve as Twonky 7 doesn't have the ability to customise music trees and pretty much everybody on the Linn forum rates it over Twonky.
I've followed the Minimserve instructions and done exactly what you've suggested, David, but it still only shows a folder view in Kinsky. Oh, and that's when I can get Minimwatch to open. Most of the time I get a message saying that it isn't responding.

simoncn · 24-10-2014, 19:16

(24-10-2014 18:07)leighton buzzard Wrote: Thanks Peter & David. :-)

Yes, all music is tagged. I've been using Twonky for approximately 5 years so have got to grips with that. I'm aware that Minimserve is not a version of Twonky. I want to switch to using Minimserve as Twonky 7 doesn't have the ability to customise music trees and pretty much everybody on the Linn forum rates it over Twonky.
I've followed the Minimserve instructions and done exactly what you've suggested, David, but it still only shows a folder view in Kinsky. Oh, and that's when I can get Minimwatch to open. Most of the time I get a message saying that it isn't responding.

Please note that the name of this software is MinimServer, not Minimserve.

When you open "folder view", is it empty? If so, you haven't set the content directory correctly. There are screenshots showing how to do this on this page.

leighton buzzard · 24-10-2014, 20:43

Sorry, Simon. A spelling mistake.

Folder view displayed everything. However, no matter what setting I changed in minimwatch, nothing changed in Kinsky. Yes, I did rescan before checking.
Minimwatch won't even open now. I've even uninstalled and re-installed and still get the same message 'You can't open the application "minimwatch" because it is not responding.

simoncn · 24-10-2014, 20:55

(24-10-2014 20:43)leighton buzzard Wrote: Sorry, Simon. A spelling mistake.

Folder view displayed everything. However, no matter what setting I changed in minimwatch, nothing changed in Kinsky. Yes, I did rescan before checking.

Can you post a screenshot of the top-level menu that Kinsky is showing?

Quote:Minimwatch won't even open now. I've even uninstalled and re-installed and still get the same message 'You can't open the application "minimwatch" because it is not responding.

I think you will need to power the Mac off and on to clear this problem. When you have done this and got MinimWatch running again, please post a screenshot of the MinimWatch Properties window.

leighton buzzard · (This post was last modified: 25-10-2014 00:06 by leighton buzzard.)

Thanks for all the advice. I uninstalled everything, including minimserver on the QNAP and started from scratch. Hey presto, it seems to be working. :-D

Lots more questions so maybe some of you will be able to help?

simoncn · 31-10-2014, 19:29

(24-10-2014 20:43)leighton buzzard Wrote: Minimwatch won't even open now. I've even uninstalled and re-installed and still get the same message 'You can't open the application "minimwatch" because it is not responding.

I have seen this a few times on Yosemite. Logging out and logging in again seems to clear the problem.