WHS EX485 + Twonky = Unusable Server

[dorpond]

I am seriously frustrated.

I buy this cool, well marketed Home Server from HP and I install it. It installs easily. It goes through and updates itself automatically. Life is good.

Then I copy my 66,000+ media files to the server and place them in the 3 designated media folders shares. It takes a long while but they eventually get there.

Then my server is so unresponsive, it is a joke. Everything from loading up the Console to clicking on anything on my website (tried the website both inside and outside to verify it wasn't my router causing the issues). None of the web-related stuff seemed to work well.

When I would try to stream music through a web page (again, trying both inside and outside), Twonky would gag about the server not responding fast enough, or there was no media, or it would sometimes show media but only a small portion of it - definitely not all my media files.

So I figured it was cataloging or indexing the media - who knows, maybe taking thumbnails of the pictures, album artwork, whatever. So I waited for 3 days, frustrated.

Didn't matter. No change.

So then yesterday I got fed up - very discouraged with this purchase, and I tried a roll back.

After the roll back, performace went through the roof. Old Twonky was now working, not as feature filled as version 5 but it was working. Web stuff was flying. Life was good. I noticed Twonky was reindexing my media so I went to bed.

I wake up excited in hopes to see all my media but everything is dead slow again. I finally get into Twonky and only see part of my media available. I eat breakfast and come back 15 minutes later - indexing hasn't changed - no new media available - indexing obviously stopped or Twonky is in a state of chaos..

Now I am mad and feel like returning this HP and getting an Acer instead.

I turn off Twonky - performance works great again.

OK, I reinstall HP 2.5 software and get all the latest twonky again, still no better - actually just as worse as originally.

I move most of my media to non-media folders thinking that maybe Twonky cannot handle 66,000 media files. I tell Twonky to create a new database but notice that I no longer have folders avaialbe in the Twonky console - no green lights there. Ahhhhh!!!! I am starting to lose my mind.

So I say the hell with Twonky and uninstall it altogether. Guess what? Server works like a champ. I can remote my server now (I couldn't before when Twonky was installed), all my web links work well (but there is no more media streaming option because it is greyed out). Life is grand.

Or is it?

No, it isn't. I bought the HP over Acer because of the media streaming capabilites bundled with the HP - Twonky to be specific. Now I have nothing! No Twonky and no Media Streaming over the web.

So now I want to contact Twonky support - I leave them another e-mail (sent 4 now over a week and have not gotten a return). I look on HP.com for some sort of chat tech support - nothing. I see they have a telephone number so I guess I'll have to call them after work. I was hoping for a place to just tell them that Twonky doesn't work when everything is updated. It doesn't work for me, anyway. I want someone to ask if there is a media limit or is it a bad media file that is causing Twonky to go into a downward spiral. I feel so alone right now. I am not all that happy about my purchase.

I am done venting.

If anyone can offer help; a contact or an e-mail to let Hp know about my issue -- anything. Please let me know. If you are in the same boat as me, please voice it. Hopefully Hp is listening here.

Thanks.

[dorpond]

Well, I am making progress,

I remove all my music and started adding it one folder at a time. I found that MP3's were working blistering fast in Twonky. Once I added WMA files, performance dropped dramatically again.

When I click on an MP3, it instantly plays, when I click on a WMA file, it take arounf 15-20 seconds for it to finally start playing -- this is while sitiing in my house locally.

I removed the WMA files and Twonky works like a champ again.

I looked at the file formats supported, and WMA are in fact supported so I am uncertain what is going on at this point. Good luck trying to get any help form anyone though. I think I may have to convert all my WMA files; see you in 16 months.

[dorpond]

Man, what a flakey application and/or server.

I have been adding my MP3 music folders one at a time. Was working relatively well at first. Then I started noticing that the artwork was getting messed up. The album cover for this band was over on this other bands album. Some song within a different folder were showing other album covers..

Twonky would in fact scan the new folders as I was adding them in and they were playing - just scrambled artwork.

So then I would unshare my music folder from within Twonky and then reshare it again. Then the artwork would be OK. For a while anyway.

I keep adding more MP3 folders, testing after each drop, and then stuff starts getting scrambled again.

I have to hold this servers hand when it comes to Twonky Media Sharing. It is really starting to upset me. I feel like I paid for a product that just_doesn't_work as marketed. Twonky wrote me back and said they don't make a products for Windows Home Server. What??!! Thank you Mr. Twonky for being such a great help!

So HP, please listen out there - your product is not happy with Twonky. We need it fixed. We need a patched. Something.

**** for those who are technically interested ****

My MP3 music has the artwork imbedded into the files themselves and also have the FOLDER.JPG artwork file in the designated music folders.

[jnc2000]

Wow, and I thought I was alone. I also have the EX485 and have given up all hope using Twonky to stream. I have well over 15k mp3s and 5k various FLAC based audio files. I know Twonky will not work for the FLAC audio, but I can't even get any type of response out of it with the mp3's. I've removed it from the server, and awaiting something better... hopefully something with a bit more stability. For now, since most of my streaming is LAN based I'm using iTunes

[dorpond]

I am glad you posted, JNC2000, because now I know that I am not alone out here! *wipes brow*

For those of you who are having the same issues, please post to this thread - hopefully we can make a big enough stink so that HP/Twonky fixes it!

Let's unite!

[DrRosenRosen]

I am having very similar issues.  39GB of files, mostly .m4a or .mp3.  I'm using a PS3 as a DMR.  It sees a few files *sometimes*, but I can't discern rhyme or reason to which files it sees and when.  I've tried letting the server copy everything over.  Took days.  Tried manually copying all files over.  Took a little over an hour.  Still nothing.

I too thought, "Maybe Twonky needs time to aggregate metadata and 'see' the files."  Nope.

How are you using iTunes?  If that's working for you, I will do the same thing.  I'm relatively new to the WHS community, but a fast learner.  (already installed PlayOn and configured successfully).

[BeechV35Pilot]

Count me as another disgruntled HP MediaSmart EX490 owner having problems getting Twonky to update its database in a timely fashion.  I have about 30,000 photos (25 GB) and 10,000 MP3a (40GB).   I used Windows Explorer to transfer the media to the server. 

Twonky seemed to get stuck at 4,900 music files and it would actually count backwards for 20 or so file and then start counting up again.  After two hours of that, I went to the settings and clicked the rebuild database.  Now it is adding about 1,000 files every three minutes.  

Being a noob at Windows Home Server I am not yet sure what the supposed advantages are of using Twonky to stream.  Are there any other tools that can do this more efficiently?

Better still, can't I just share the folders where the media files are?  Do they actually have to be streamed to a digital media player (I have two Netgear EVA8000s and a PS3)?  

Next to my EX490 is an older HP MediaVault MV2020 running some flavor of Linux.  Forgot now what it uses to share the media files but there is none of this "database building" nonsense needed.  Just plug it into the network, copy the media files to it, and away it goes.

[ghSea]

Add me to the list of frustrated Twonky users - for me, Twonky Live means Console Dead - I log in, and am stuck with a blue window that never populates further. If I uninstall Twonky, life is good again.

Haven't found others with any similar experience, until this forum, but my search is still young. 

However, on a clear autumn day, there's other things I'd rather do than google/bing "twonky console hang". 

There must be a better package than Twonky, right? 

[networkguy]

add me to this list too.

I've hand built about 6 WHS machines from various computers lying around.

Even installed the Beta 3 of MS powerpack with no issues.

I have two Win 7 machines (one 32bit and one 64bit), and an XP SP3 machine. All have worked flawlessly with the WHS boxes. I was looking for a better box that could take multiple drives and be used to backup a Mac with Leopard so I got an EX495. The HP box worked great until I loaded it up with 80GB of pictures and 130GB of music. Now, I cannot get to the console or web page. Just installed the recently released HP patch and still no improvement.

I sure hope HP jumps on this one as it's VERY FRUSTRATING.

Love to hear if anyone has come up with a list of services that can be stopped to make this box work as well as a normal WHS box and still retain the Mac backup capabilities as I really don't need all the fancy streaming and media collection if it's going to bring this machine to its knees. 

[dorpond]

Welcome to our club, Networkguy.

I can help you however.. If you want the server to run just fine, turn off Twonky Media Streaming (stop sharing). Your server will work like a charm them. You might even want to remove the shared folders in Twonky too but it probably isn't important if you have it shut off.

For the rest of the group, I no longer share my music or video folders in Twonky. I do in fact put all my many gigs of stuff in those folder shares -- I just don't share them within Twonky. What I did do is create another network share that I put just my most recent music favorites (10-20 CD's) and I share that in Twonky. Keep in mind however, that they should only be MP3 format. Like I said in previous posts, other music formats can throw Twonky into a downward spiral. 

I no longer try to Twonky my videos. I no longer try to Twonky all my music. I do Twonky my pictures - all of them. That seems to work decently.

Am I happy overall with the server? Yeah, I am. It does a lot, however, Twonky is a terrible let down and the fact that HP makes it sound so cool in their sales material bothers me. If you walk into this purchase looking to stream music, you will be seriously let down. 

Twonky was no help. I never tried to contact HP. Perhaps one of you can since I have given up and moved on. Please report back if you do.

Actually, before I sign off, I am curious if the Acer WHS is a better deal? Does anyone know if they have a bundled streamer? Just curious is all..