OK, I'm on the the r7317 firmware, I've got the POHD Mini 2 networked to a desktop PC with ethernet cable; the movies are on an external 2tb Hitachi USB HDD plugged into the POHD mini 2. I have 1300 movies (a mix of mp4, mkv and avi files) on the HDD, which I've already run through YANFOE, so they all have nfos and cover art in the individual movie folders. I've checked them all for unusual characters in the folder and filenames.

I've had a few goes at getting YAMJ to work in the past, and the general consensus has been that I've got too many movies, so I thought this time I would start with just a few, and then gradually increase the number, so I separated 20 files off into a folder (Movies 1) and put the rest in another folder on the same drive (Movies 2).

I mapped the 'Movies 1' folder to drive J on the desktop, and ran YAMJ, using the 20 sample files, in the format 'J:\Movie folder\movie filename (year).ext', where the movie filename and the folder name are the same e.g. J:\A Beautiful Mind (2001)\A Beautiful Mind (2001).mp4

I Started by following the bart82 'Playon!HD and YetanotherMovieJukebox getting started' guide on the YAMJ forum. Dumb of me, as I didn't notice it hadn't been updated since 2010, and points to the wrong installer, so obviously it didn't work.

I Uninstalled and started again.

I Eventually found the latest installer (v2.0 64-bit), and the latest version of YAMJ (2.6.1 r3000).

I ran the installer, then upgraded to 2.6.1, by deleting the lib, properties and skins folders, then overwriting with the new files.

I ran YAMJ, and it produced an index.htm which ran on the POHD without any errors, although the movie poster on each individual movie page was only a quarter of the size of the frame it sits in for some reason, so I spent a happy hour trying to find out how to change its size. Eventually cracked it, and I now had a functioning jukebox of 20 movies.

Tip top, I thought - I'll add some more movies - so now I had 100 in the 'Movies 1' folder. Again, it all worked fine, so I added another 100. Each time, I kept the original database, and just updated it.

YAMJ again ran without any errors, but when I tried to launch the index.htm in the POHD, it hung. I unplugged it from the mains (that's got to be good for my £120 HDD, hasn't it?), and tried again. It hung again. I deleted the jukebox and index.htm, and ran it again. This time, it hung, rebooted itself, and returned me to the main screen. I launched the index.htm again, and this time it worked.

Tried again with 300 movies, this time deleting the jukebox and index.htm - same as last time, hung, rebooted, then launched OK the second time.

Tried with 400 as an update - it hung again, I pulled the plug, tried again, it hung, rebooted itself, but this time hung again the third time. Deleted the jukebox and index.htm, and tried again, with the same result.

Please, can anyone help? I got up at about 8.30 this morning, and apart from an hour or two down at the shops, this has been my day off work today. When I bought that sexy little piano black POHD, with it's glitzy GUI I really didn't sign up for this...

Hi Zimrick....

I have a similar setup to yours, a Mini 2 with 2 x 1Tb Seagate GoFlex drives attached as I have split my jukeboxes, one drive for movies, one drive for TV shows and it is all working for me so I'll outline the differences.

I am currently using firmware 7137. I tried the new beta 7716 but found that it was way too buggy.
I also do the same as you. ALL files have the NFO and cover art already scraped but using Thumbgen to do the job. I do this as I am anal retentive on the correctnes of my library and I have found that Thumbgen allows me more control at capture time and also afterwards. Th NFO files are saved in XBMC format and the cover art as original size JPG's.

I DO NOT use the current version of YAMJ yet as I have a working solution but may try in the near future. I obtainet the version that I am using (Yet Another Movie Jukebox Build Date: 2011-03-30 21:39:21 Version: 2.4 Revision: r2251) by downloading from the AC Ryan support pages.

Basic comment: "If it works, why fix it?"

I do not use the GUI config tool but manually edit my CMD and Library files to reflect what I want to achieve. Here a couple of examples:-

The CMD file:-
@Echo OFF
REM Modified by GDK

C:
CD "\A.C.Ryan MovieJukebox"
CALL MovieJukebox TV_Library.xml -o "R:/"
pause
exit

The Library file:-
<!-- Modified GregiBoy 09/01/2012 -->

<libraries>
<library>
<path>R:\Television\Television HD</path>
<playerpath>file://../Television/Television HD/</playerpath>
<exclude name="sample,tmp/,temp/,RECYCLE.BIN/"/>
<description>HD Television</description>
<prebuf></prebuf>
<scrapeLibrary>False</scrapeLibrary> You already have the info
</library>
<library>
<path>R:\Television\Television SD</path>
<playerpath>file://../Television/Television SD/</playerpath>
<exclude name="sample,tmp/,temp/,RECYCLE.BIN/"/>
<description>SD Television</description>
<prebuf></prebuf>
<scrapeLibrary>false</scrapeLibrary>
</library>
</libraries>

I have split the libraries as I think the Mini 2 has a practical limit around the 500 individual titles and above this involves implementing swap files on the device which I will not do.

This limit is caused by the memory usage of the Mini 2, not YAMJ. Quite often we do not realise that the MIni 2 is NOT an i7 with 16Gb of memory and 6Tb of disk space.

This 500 limit does not apply to TV series as there are a lesser number of entries. eg: 9 seasons of NCIS = approx 200 files but only 10 entries in the YAMJ Jukebox, 1 x set, 9 x seasons.

If you really get stuck, an option is for me to zip up my fully working version and email it to you but have a go at what I have talked about first.

Regards
GB

Good post by Gregiboy
A couple of additional points though
YAMJ V2.4 has been superseded for very good reasons: -

• Bugs which can cause the firmware to hang
• Updates to cope with changes to the internet sites such as IMDB and TheTVDB
• Updates to cope with issues in the later SDK4 firmwares

If you want to use the internet sites such as IMDB / The TVDB etc as a source of data for YAMJ, then you should upgrade YAMJ to V2.6.1. Gregiboy uses Thumbgen instead of the YAMJ functions and so does not see the issues in his version YAMJ relating to the internet sites.
Also if you want to look at increasing the swap file size to cope with larger jukeboxes, and have some experience of linux then I'm happy to help. My Mini 1 using v7317 has not hung when loading YAMJ since I added more swap space
Andy

Hi Andy,

The user indicated that he/she is using YANFOE to obtain all the data prior to YAMJ processing otherwise I would not have chipped in. Gotta help out us A/R old buggers!!

I have had no hangs whatsoever with firmware 7317 and ALL features work perfectly including RATING and SETS,

What I would like to do shortly is set the latest version up (2.7 now?) in a separate directory and see the results. Last time I did this with 2.6, I had no end of errors and incompatibilities.

I'll most probably do this over the coming week and report back.

Regards
GB

OK thanks Gregiboy
I'm now using 2.6.1 successfully.
Ratings dropdown is still problematic - while there is no problem with the format of the XML in the YAMJ output, the code in the Jukebox firmware is not always able to cope with minor changes even though they fall within the XML standards.
Andy

Thanks for your offers of help, guys.

It seems compulsory in every thread to remind newbies such as myself that the POHD is not an I7. Of course it's not. It is however advertised as accommodating a 2tb drive. AC Ryan surely didn't think that a customer might only want to fill one third of this drive with movies. There is no mention of a 'practical limit' anywhere in the advertising or user manuals for either the POHD or YAMJ, and it is not reasonable to expect a customer to be able to make the judgement whether 1300 movies is an excessive number for it to deal with, prior to purchasing it.

Rant over. As I said, I am genuinely grateful for any help I can get to get this thing going.

Just to clarify then, so I know what road to go down - I presume I am right in thinking that 'multiple jukeboxes' means splitting the movies into two (or more) jukeboxes - for example movies beginning A-K and L-Z, so that If I loaded A-K, and wanted to look at a film in the L-Z jukebox, I'd have to load the other jukebox first in order to see it? i.e. I couldn't have a single list of all movies A-Z?

If that's so, then I would prefer to look at options which would increase the number of movies the POHD can handle in a single list. I'm not sure, however, what swap file AndyA is referring to; not the windows swap file, presumably. Is there a swap file in the POHD, then? I have no Linux experience whatsoever, though. Perhaps you could explain what this method involves, at least.

One thing does puzzle me after reading both your posts - if there is a practical limit of about 500 movies, why am I getting hangs on 2, 3, & 400 movies? There is obviously something wrong with my setup already.

Thanks

Rick

Hi Rick
The limit on 300 - 500 movies is a bit variable - depends on the player model for instance
Sorting out an additional linux swap partition does need some linux familiarity - vi to edit the login script, basic file system commands and fdisk to create a swap partition on a USB drive.
Even once this is done, there is a hard limit of 1000 movies - not in YAMJ but in the firmware. This limit was there in the previous SDK3 jukebox as well, and has been reported, but we are waiting for information from, AC Ryan as to when this will be resolved.
For over 1000 movies you will need ot look at how to split into multiple jukeboxes. You could split movies / tv shows, for example, or by year, genre etc. Not ideal, but there is no way around it at the moment.
Hope this helps clear a few things up
Andy

So to accommodate 1350 movies without hacking the POHD, I'm going to need FIVE jukeboxes? Seriously?

I think that the practical limit depends on the number of entries in the YAMJ database.and the memory available in the player model.

My experience is with a Mini2.

I have a few scenarios that I am testing at the moment, and one drive that I have has over 2700 TV show episodes on it and it works fine.

An example NICS has 9 Seasons, around 200 individual files but there are only 10 entries in the YAMJ dB.

On the other hand I have a drive with 400 movies on it which seems to be approaching the limit because when I add another 50, it will not work. There is an entry for each individual movie and some sets which creates a further entry.

Also, each jukebox will only load after a clean boot, not after each other which makes me suspect that the memory management needs a little work.

There are so many indeterminates & variables that I think it is difficult to lay down hard and fast specifications, especially in the advertising scenario.

Let me say this though:-

I have been developing, testing and using Media Players for over 8 years and still have some of the later models. My AC Ryan is steets ahead of all of the others that I have and have used.

I got this player last September. Since then, I've spent months gradually encoding my DVD collection to .M4v, so I could get them all on HDD. Boy, do I look like a mug now. I've been completely wasting my time, as I might as well have copied the full DVDs, because a few hundred is all the POHD/YAMJ GUI can cope with.

I now have 1350 individual .m4v movies - not TV shows, not box sets - 1350 movies in 1350 folders, presumably requiring 1350 entries in the YAMJ database. So to add insult to injury, not only do I need at least five jukeboxes, but I would need to reboot the player to move from one jukebox to another? That's the final straw, I've had enough. I haven't even got started on my TV shows yet, for goodness' sake, and I would obviously want to add more movies in the future.


Let's be clear, when the POHD mini 2 gets round to actually playing a movie, I can't fault it - it's absolutely fantastic; flawless. The playback is superb; I haven't had so much as a hiccup out of it. The range of formats and filetypes it can cope with is unparalleled. There however my praise ends. It is otherwise a beta product. It is ludicrous to suggest that that somehow, a complete novice should understand, prior to purchase, that the POHD mini 2 is inherently limited by its chip/operating system/software, and that it can only cope with 1000+ movies.

Imagine buying a Sony TV, getting it home and finding that it only gets 3 channels? So you go on the Sony website to find out why, and it turns out that no-one from Sony has ever bothered to research a definitive answer, so you're reduced to going

through hundreds of posts on the Sony forums, by a bunch of extremely helpful, enthusiastic and well-meaning amateurs with wildly differing opinions, only to find that the consensus is that the chipset is probably maybe (but not definitely) limited to only three channels, and that it's unreasonable of you to expect that it can do more than that, because of course, it's only running on the SDK4 chipset after all, so what do you expect? Everyone knows about that SDK4 chipset right? What, you don't? Oh well, er what it means, er, obviously, is that it's not an I7 with 16gb of ram etc etc etc...

Bollocks. No reputable manufacturer would release such a half-assed product to market, because customers would have it back to the store in 5 minutes for a refund. No retail customer should be expected to have to go to these lengths to get a product to perform in a way that they might reasonably expect it to when they bought it.

I'm absolutely gutted; I was so excited about this thing when I got it, but it's been nothing but a struggle and a

disappointment for six months, as each progressively lower expectation I had of it has been blown out of the water. Fuck this

for a game of soldiers...