Browse & play from Network Share - issues

[TwistedMelon]

This is a follow-on from my reply to the Invalid Directory thread. I had to make sure to set the numerical input window to lowercase when entering login name/password. If you're also entering credentials, make sure you're not using the incorrect case.

Anyway...

Now I'm just sitting waiting for it to play a video from one of the PCs on my network (not the machine I'm using as a Sage server)... It's been over two minutes with the "preparing to watch..." window up and no action yet. There doesn't seem to be any way to abort that spinning/waiting state either. Ugh. Had to power (standby) on/off.

Just tried the same thing by browsing over to a folder on my SageTV server and playing a file that I know plays properly in Extender mode. Took about 45 seconds before it started playing, but it did finally start.

Next tried changing the sort method. Takes a long time. Reversing sort direction takes less time, but still quite a while. Seems like some need for caching the listing because it's hitting the network for each operation. Even so it still seems rather slow for a 100mbit connection. Scrolling down through a list of files is painfully slow even while paging down.

Tested another file that works in Extender mode after restarting and received a playback exception (-12) error - null object. Tested a few more files and those seem to work properly.

Changed the sort direction again and that same file now plays. Seems like the error was probably caused by a filepointer that got trashed when the list resorted. Weird.

Back to testing the original PC I was trying a moment ago... Sorting by DATE.

Some files play, others give that same exception error. Reversing the sort allows some of the files to start loading instead of showing the error. But now I'm stuck again with a ton of network activity (just looking at the green light) and the progress spinner/throbber on the screen isn't rotating any more. Over 1 minute.

The stand-alone mode doesn't seem ready for prime time with regards to network browsing.