Yesterday I reported on the availability of the 3.0 Patch 2 software we discovered on the HP web site, and gave instructions on how to install it. Since performing the initial install I’ve spent some more time with my EX495 running the update and have encountered a couple of issues.
The first was a problem where I experienced the high CPU utilization caused by Twonky. I eventually narrowed this down to a single video file in my library and have worked around the problem, however this is very frustrating since I did not experience this issue prior to installing Patch 2, and the updated 5.1.1 version of Twonky was specifically supposed to contain the resolution for this issue.
I don’t have a magic fix for this, unfortunately, but I can tell you how I investigated the problem. I watched the Twonky status in the “Media Server” tab of the server console, and noticed that it had indexed a lot of my content but the Last Database Update status showed that it was “In progress” and appeared to be stuck indexing a specific directory.
I started moving files out of that directory and into the Public share, telling Twonky to rebuild the database each time. This didn’t resolve the issue, so I moved up a directory and continued. Eventually the indexing completed and I was able to determine which file was problematic.
First, download the free “handle” utility from SysInternals here. Copy the zip file to your server Software share, and then log onto your server via Remote Desktop. Copy the zip file from the Software share to your server Desktop, unblock it, and then extract it.
Start a command prompt (Start->Run and type “cmd” with no quotes then hit Enter). Type the following into the command prompt window.
cd desktop\handle handle -p twonky
You should see output similar to the below, including the name of the media file that has Twonky “stuck” while indexing. I’ve highlighted the offending file on my system below in red. You’ll need to stop Twonky (the Stop Sharing button the Media Server tab works for me), then move this file out of the Twonky indexed folders (I moved mine to the Public share). Start Twonky again and hope that it doesn’t get stuck on another file. You may have to perform this multiple times if there are more than one file causing issues for Twonky.
I do not know why this file caused a problem, it plays fine on my computer and its metadata can be read by MediaInfo. A reader of this site named marco also experienced this same issue and was able to resolve the problem the same way I did.
The second problem had to do with the Remote Media Streaming feature. I experienced very poor performance while using the Music streaming feature, with the system exhibiting the following symptoms.
- Songs would take tens of seconds or longer to begin playing
- When a song completed, playback would not continue to the next track in the album
- Terrible, low resolution sound quality for some songs
Basically, one of the features that I use the most had just become unusable.
In the course of investigating the issue, I uncovered some interesting details. Twonky was now transcoding and caching versions of my music library when I would attempt to play them via Remote Media Streaming. Most files were converted to 96kbit bitrate, which was acceptable but not great quality. Files that were encoded at a high bitrate (320kbit, for example), were converted to 32kbit which sounds worse to me than AM radio. This was a new behavior, so I started comparing the new system with my recently upgraded EX487 that is running the 3.0 software update, and discovered an important difference in the Audio Transcoding configuration file.
If you experience this problem, here is how you can fix it.
First, access your server via Remote Desktop, and navigate to C:\TwonkyMedia\cgi-bin.
Make a backup copy of the audtranscode-mp3.desc file, and then open the original with notepad. The configuration file contains the following entries which cause the poor streaming performance for me.
# Audtranscode: Transcode/transrate audio (aac, mp4, wav, wma etc. to mp3) #(c) 2009 by PacketVideo exec: audtranscode $infile $outfile -br $outbitrate # capabilities from=audio/all bitrate>96000 defaultbitrate=96000 to=audio/mpeg asynchronous priority=idle
You will want to entirely replace the contents of the file with the settings that were originally in place prior to the upgrade to Patch 2.
# transcode audio (mp4, wav, wma to mp3) #(c) 2008 by PacketVideo exec: audtranscode $infile $outfile -br 128000 -sps 44100 # capabilities from=audio/all to=audio/mpeg asynchronous priority=idle
Save the modified config file, restart Twonky via the Server Console “Media Server” tab of the Server Console, and your Remote Media Streaming for music should be back to the way it was before the Patch 2 upgrade. Basically this sets the transcoder to stream your music at 128kbit, whereas the “bad” configuration allows some other logic (which is obviously incorrect) to encode at whatever bitrate it wants. Though it is supposed to default to 96kbit, as I experienced some files are handled improperly.
I’ve worked with long-time forum member and co-host of The Home Server Show “Diehard” to verify this behavior, and we confirmed both the problem and the solution on his system as well.
Nigel “Cougar” Wilks helped me investigate the Twonky installer package included in the Patch 2 update, and found that the offending configuration file is included in their package. The 3.0 Patch 2 installer contains logic to only install this new version of Twonky if it does not yet exist on the server, which explains why my upgraded EX487 was working correctly. So there’s no need to worry about the Patch 2 update once you have upgraded your EX47x or EX48x to the 3.0 software update. There is still an open question about why this issue doesn’t exist in the 3.0 Software Update systems since they are supposed to be running this same version of Twonky.
I’ve passed both of these issues along to the Twonky and HP support teams with the intent of helping them improve their products. However, given the slow timeframe that we see updates from these companies, I wanted to share the fix with you for any users that are currently impacted by the problem.
Article by Alex Kuretz
I'm Alex Kuretz, and I'm the founder of MediaSmartServer.net. I was the Lead Test and Integration Engineer at HP for the MediaSmart Server until April 2008 when I moved on to other opportunities outside HP. I've kept active in the Windows Home Server community, creating several add-ins and helping users make the most of their Home Servers.
{ 136 comments }
Thanks for this post. I have not login to remote streamer since this morning when i update to the patch 2. i just did and i have the same problems, music quality is bad, and it does not continue playing. Thanks for the fixes, it works like a charm now.
HP & Twonky are disappointing me more and more everyday.
Where is the QA team?
Here’s the best review of the ex495 I’ve seen yet. It accurately documents the software problems it has.
http://computershopper.com/networking/reviews/hp-mediasmart-server-ex495
Nice job on finding the update and this follow up. Hopefully this will all get straightened out soon. Also, good work Diehard!
Gary – I wouldn’t go as far as saying it accurately documents software problems, but I would say it documents the experience of one particular case and a setup that was not very clearly explained. In addition, a stall during setup was claimed and the reviewer did a factory reset in the middle of the process as an attempt at resolution. In my experience, as soon as I deviate from the “normal” install path, I should expect the unexpected. To be fair, the reviewer should have acknowledged that their deviation may have contributed to other troubles that they encountered.
I have first hand experience with a 1st and 2nd generation MSS and they’ve been terrific. Easy setup, easy use. I’d love the software to be more robust (more control over iTunes aggregation and media) but it served me well when one of my PCs was knocked out and a restore was needed.
From your comments, it’s clear that your experience is less than stellar and it’s unfortunate you haven’t had the type of positive experience others have had. I hope you find a product that meets your needs.
In my case, I’m eagerly waiting for my update to arrive.
Alex this patch also appeared in the EX470′s list of available downloads. I noticed you mention the EX47x does not require it if you upgrade to the 3.0 but why would they list this patch there?
Here is the link => http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/softwareList?os=1005&lc=en&dlc=en&cc=us&product=3548165&lang=en
Comp1962, note that the new version of Twonky included in Patch 2 is not installed on the EX47x and EX48x, however the updated Mac client software is installed.
My hero! Thank you for this post. My HP MediaSmart Server EX495 updated itself to this latest version and my music streaming got hosed. It would play a song or two, then stop. Or sometimes it’d stop, but resume after maybe 10 to 20 seconds. I was pretty upset about it, and thanks to this post, it’s all fixed and back to the way it was.
My Datavault x510 installed this update today and now I cant play any video files as twonky is only showing the music folder, I wish HP had actually bothered to test this patch before rolling it out to us lol, will try this fix now, thx for the info
Alex – How can I tell if I’m actually using Twonky? I don’t do any media streaming except using Subsonic which is standalone and does not use Twonky. What features would I be missing by just disabling the service all together? I have a EX495 and I’m having a hard time figuring out what features within my WHS actually use Twonky and which are using the Firefly feature?
@Holty – Twonky is responsible for the local DLNA streaming (to a device such as a PopCornHour, WD TV Live, Asus O!Play, XStreamer, Xbox360, etc), Remote Web Streaming (Subsonic does this for you), and the iStream application. If you use none of those, you can save some memory and CPU cycles by stopping the service on the Media Server tab.
I just notice the same problem James has. I have videos converted and they don’t show. I see the folder but they are empty. Any fix for this?
I didn’t know I had this problem until I read this article. I pulled out my iPhone & sure enough, no music would play when I clicked a song.
Preformed this fix and, tried to click a song, SHAZAM! A song starts playing.
Alice Cooper’s Poison to be exact!
Alice Cooper RULES!!!!!!!!!!!!
James and Cubanblood – Are you trying to stream media on your local network, or is this behavior occurring in the Remote Web Streaming or iStream app? Make sure Twonky has finished indexing, if it shows it is “In progress” for a long time it is probably stuck indexing your media as I mention in the first part of this article.
I can stream to my PS3, but i can stream in the remote wesite. istream works fine.
My EX495 updated automatically and now the streaming feature is completely broken! The MediaStreamer page says that there is nothing to stream and have several THOUSANDS of errors in the event log for HPAdminConsole, mostly exceptions from TwonkyMedia.
I am extremely disappointed. This patch has made a nearly useless feature EVEN WORSE!
I thought that the Orb media streaming software was quirky, but the level of incompetence that HP & Twonky put on display is simply unbelievable.
The Twonky software still crashes on scanning certain image and video types and shuts down the streaming server.
I can’t disable the media collector anymore, because every time I click the ‘disable’ radio button for any of the file types, the application just crashes and I have to restart the home server in order to see the HP tab again.
Every time I click something in the server console, a whole bunch of exceptions are being logged in the event log. Objects missing here, DLLs not found there, access violations, files not found, scripting errors, services unavailable… this is just plain ridiculous and pathetic!
I’ll see if I can successfully downgrade to the previous version. At least that one worked half of the time.
My EX490 was auto-updated also. Twonky was unusable after. The software would not allow my to rebuild database or anything. After 2 hrs of tech support we could not fix it. Had to do a server recovery and now im back to update 1 and twonky is fine. Have turned off auto-update and am afraid to use it again.
I will have to update again at some point…
Ok i dont know how but i got ir working almost normal. The only problem is that out of the 545 movies converted only 33 show and the rest cannot be played because there are not supported for remote streamimg. They were converted by the Hp converter and worked fine prior to the update. This is F… Up.
My Twonky has totally disappeared from the console. Under Media Server it says “Server is Disabled” and it does not show up at all in the settings screen. I have rebooted the server several times. Still no luck. I have an EX495 by the way. This patch seems to have really hosed Twonky.
TwonkyMediaServer.exe has been on 100% CPU utilization for three full days now! Also, the ‘Folders’ tab seems to have disappeared on the web interface. This thing is seriously hosed. What a piece of crap software.
Are there any alternatives for Twonky that integrate nicely with the user management of WHS?
I have looked at Subsonic, but it doesn’t do pictures and videos. Orb is not a solution either, as I have just removed it after using it for month due to continuous stability issues, particularly with the iPhone app, and the user management sucks.
I’m looking for something standalone that doesn’t require me to sign up anywhere, and that supports music, video, photos and possibly documents. I’d be happy to pay for it, just to make the ongoing pain with all this buggy junk go away.
I use subsonic for music and its awesome. For pics i use the photo viewer from Hp. Videos i dont really use a lot so i have no solution for that yet.
I use Subsonic for my music streaming online, it works great. I use Gallery Server Pro for my photos and video (fantastic program!). I use the built in WHS/HP software for files.
Alex I am a first timer here and have a ex495. How do I do this fix? I can’t find C:\TwonkyMedia\cgi-bin. Is in my MSS or my pc. Can use some help.
THANKS
@Mandovero – The files to edit are on the server, you can access it via Remote Desktop.
I got remote desktop, but I can’t log in. Where do I go to grant access to server?
The Wiki link I gave you shows how to authenticate.
Thank you for your help. Got it done!!!
Does subsonic work on anything other than
pc…ie iPhone/ps3?
Hi Alex, thank you for the info relertive to patch 2, I’m in the UK and have a EX495 inport. I had the same problem with i-stream your info worked.
Thank you again for your time and effort.
Regards Harry Calland
Well guys I really hope they come out with a FIXED patch. Alex I really appreciate the work you’ve done to help correct this. I feel like I spent a great deal of money on the sever and at this point i am not doing the amount of work that Alex did. I will stick without the update for the time being and hope HP does the work to correct the issue. Up until that update I have really enjoyed the server and would consider recommending it to others. Come on HP…don’t lose me now!!!!
If you are having trouble installing Twonky Media Server 5.1.1 via the HP way, try the steps I outlined in Extract and Install Twonky from MediaSmart 3.0 Patch 2 (http://www.mediasmartserver.net/forums/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=7385) post.
THANK YOU! I had no idea what was going on with media streaming…..it was driving me nuts. Music streaming is back to normal (in fact, it seems to work better now than it did before the errors)
I still can’t seem to get videos to work (but I’ve never had any luck with that). Your audio patch worked like a charm…..
Do you know anything about “Video Preview Failed” errors?
This is terrible. My EX495 was more useful the day i got it out of the box than it is today.
So far mine has been crashing with DVD TS file folders holding the VOB files. Unfortunately to fix it you have to shut twonky down to move them as it will give a file in use error.
thank you so much. i was getting ready to put my x510 up on ebay. MP3 streaming was one of the only reasons i bought a new mediasmart server…
i am happily listening to my music collection again at work this morning. thanks again.
Hi,
Has anyone managed to stream video, I get the foulders etc but then 0 videos.
Regards Harry Calland
I did something that fixed the problem at least for me. Follow the link and try it.
http://www.mediasmartserver.net/forums/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=7445
Thank you Alex! I was experiencing the “tens of seconds” pause when streaming audio, and your config file change fixed this. What a relief, and what an sad “patch”! (I have also had many files pending in the collector now for months (not consuming CPU at least), so I will investigate them with your tool tip.) What about the poor Home Server user who doesn’t know about this forum and wants it to “just work”? I suppose Windows Home Server isn’t to that place yet…
Well, i used the patch but still have the problem of delayed streaming and having to stop and start the playback to get it to work. Most of files are M4a. It is quite disappointing.
Experimenting a little, I have changed asynchronous to synchronous in Alex’s solution above and it seems to work. There is still a short (2-3 sec) delay as I wait for the next track but nothing unacceptable. Not really sure what I have done but it seemed logical and so far, fingers crossed………
I’ve now changed Priority to from idle to high; seems to use more cpu but no obvious improvements. Still will leave as is since it is all working so much better than in my post 2 above.
Thank you for this update I got my upgrade a week ago and the cpu has been at 100% till I read this today.. Found the offending file,deleted it and the problem went away.
Another bug I noticed with this upgrade is in the twonky tab of the WHS console.
The line that has “last update”.
To the right when the database update is in progress it now shows raw html code of the path to the file.
I can’t seem to find the file that formats that message though.
WOW, I just bought a server on Monday and NOW I find this.
I have been able to stream music with the server straight out of the box. I have not been able to get video on my XBox or my TiVo. The file shows but nothing is in it.
I don’t know enough about HP’s WHS to make changes yet. In fact I came here tonight to ask whether Twonky Media Manager was a program I could add to my HPEX495 to make Twonky more “user friendly”.
You’ll need to check the file types to make sure they are supported by both Twonky and your player.
So i am about to do the 3.0 patch .. anyway to kill Twonky before it starts ? I Stream everything to a Popcorn hour C-200 .. so i am not worried about Converting
Just RDP onto the server and stop the Twonky service, then just disable it.
Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. Can’t get in rdp to stop the Twonky because of the CPU at 100% and remote access is not yet enabled. Got the 3.3 patch installed via HP update but still have the problem on my 470. REALLY frustrated after the upgrade to 3.0 seemed to go smoothly (except that ALL of my backups got hosed somehow). Console response is non-responsive because of the CPU%. At one time I was able to Stop Sharing but then an add-in rebooted the server and stuck yet again. Turns a previously wonderful server into a frustrating pig.
OK. Started over with a new recovery. As soon as I get to the console, I clicked the media tab and a couple of minutes later the screen appeared. Then immediately clicked stop sharing. Waited a few more minutes and it was stopped.
RDP to the server and disabled the Twonky service. Then cut and pasted Alex’s fix.
Then continued the original 45 minute recovery. Only I’m two days into it because of the Twonky glitch. PHEW. Now I get a Twonkymediaservice.dll tab error on console start up but at least now I can now GET to the console.
BTW- I disconnected my USB backup drive and mounted to Win7 and to my delight my server backups are there and readable. Phew-2.
Ok this is getting annoying…
Maybe annoying but this site and Alex’s patch saved my butt. Now after much activity yesterday and overnight CPU is idling nicely at 8-12% . So I am ready to unleash the beast and start the Twonky service and re-enable media sharing. Thank you to everyone for their posts and suggestions. The pig has moved out and my server is back (with 3.3.1.35433).
The pig indeed has left the building!
My issues with Twonky were the result of BeyondTV videos edited with VideoReDo. I had my connector up and an RDP window with Services and Handle going simultaneously. Whenever I noticed Media Server “stuck” on the db update, I would switch into the RDP, stop the Twonky service, run the HANDLE cmd and delete the offending TV recording. I would then start the service again (via RDP) and rebuild the database, thereby repeating the process.
Righteous!
Dear Alex Kuretz,
Just wanted to give you my gratitude!
I recently bought a (to me) new HP ex 490, and i could not figure out why the twonkymediaserver process kept hogging the CPU.
I narrowed it down to the indexing/building of its db, but i could not figure out why it never completed and would stay at 98-100% for days.
Initially i saw a few forum threads/posts saying that this was the expected behavior when adding a large amount of media (i did add a few TBs), and that it would finish its indexing after a few hours/days depending on the amount of data added.
So i waited a few days, just about a week i would say, but twonky would just keep on staying at 100%.
With the help of this post and the “handle” tool, i was able to find 3 files that for some strange reason couldn’t be indexed, and after stopping/starting the twonkymedia service a few times, removing the files the db was re-built in just an hour or so.
Again thanks.
Regards,
Odd
Bloody brilliant…fixed it for me…..was stuck on only one file. Thanks so much !!
Glen.
I had a total of 9 files (all .mpg) that would cause twonky to go wonky. They range in size from 3.5mb to about 500mb. The posts seem sketchy if twonkyvision is working on or has a fix for this; does anyone know for sure? I could upload my smallest mpg for testing if needed….
@Steve – Thanks for sharing your story. According to Twonky, they have supplied HP with 5.1.3 which fixes the high CPU load issue, however HP continues to ship 5.1.1 so from my understanding HP needs to deliver us an updated version. I gave Twonky my test file and they confirmed it is not a problem in the newer version.
Hey there Alex,
Do you know if HP will release the Twonky update anytime soon? This issue is causing my server console to lock-up real bad. I’ve tried fixing the issue remotely with zero success. Thanks!
Sorry, I don’t have any further info from HP.
Dear Alex Kuretz
A question for you if you dont mind.
I am looking over the internet for a solution for my ex470,it wil not update i have tryed the update 3.0 patch 2 but it wants the previous version so i tryed 3.0 patch 1 then HPMSS 2.5 this one wants the 2.1 so on.
My server still holds the 10.16.2007 date on update.
thank’s
@Marcel – these patches are only for systems that are already upgraded to 3.0. See here for more info on ordering the 3.0 update for your EX470.
http://www.mediasmartserver.net/2010/02/22/hp-mediasmart-server-3-0-software-update-available-this-week/
My issue with Twonky is that when I play a song, it takes more than 20 seconds to play. The 3.0 patch 2 fixed my problem with mp3 files but not with AAC.
All AAc files are transcoded to mp3 and cached (it take a lot of space for nothing, my twonky cache is more than 7Go and still grows).
When AAC files are cached : they are played instantly.
My server is a Datavault x510.
Thank’s
@Christophe – As Tim mentions, the server must transcode your AAC file, and this takes some time. The bug in this article was that the server was transcoding MP3 files that it shouldn’t be transcoding, causing delays and low encoding rates for some files.
Cristophe
My system does the same, perhaps a bit less than 20 secs ( I have upgraded my processor) and depending on the size of the aac file. Interestingly the iPhone app looks ahead so that this only occurs on the first track. I am not sure there is much we can do about this.
Ok but I have also a Twonkymedia 5.1.3 installed on my PC and when I stream music from this PC to my NP2900 it is immediate, AAC files are not transcoded and not cached.
Ok, could be a difference in 5.1.3 or a difference in the Config files. I describe them above, you could compare them and see.
Thank you for your time Alex Kuretz ,i will try it out.
Folks,
Can’t help but add that i’ve also got these issues and it as really bugging me. Being a new owner I inevitably had the added concern of wondering what I had just put my money down for.
Relieved that I’ve found this page and that it’s a known issue. Can’t wait to try the fixes and have a proper read of this site!
Thanks Brad, definitely let us know how it works out and post in the forums if you need further assistance than what is covered in the article here.
Alex,
Thanks for the pointer to “handle” and for the instructions for how to fix that issue. My EX-490 had been experiencing 100% CPU utilization from Twonky whenever it rebooted, leading to slow responsiveness on the UI, constant fan noise, and excessive heat. I had to manually log in and kill Twonky from the Task Manager, but deleting the file has fixed it.
Much appreciated!
-alan
I’m glad the article helped, thanks for sharing your story!
By the way, the file Twonky was having trouble with was an ancient .mpeg file (dated 2002). According to the get-info on my mac, it’s “MPEG Layer 2, MPEG-1 Video.” Plays fine in Quicktime X from local space.
Oh, and I’m on Patch 3, so the bug hasn’t been eliminated in all cases.
Yeah, Patch 3 resolved the streaming transcode/transrate issue but had no fixes for the high CPU load issue, unfortunately.
I have tried to follow all of the various threads to fix my Twonky issue. I am not very sophisticated around computers and it has taken several days but I can say that the Patch 3 has not fixed the streaming transcode.transrate issue for me. I have confirmed that I have the most up to date version of the software and I still have issues with streaming my music remotely. It will only play a single song, and stop and will not continue to the next song on the album. I was really hoping that your fix would allow me to just let the server run and I would have the performance the HP advertised.
You’re sure you’ve got the latest HP patches? Have you checked your versions against the Wiki? Have you tried resetting the Twonky database? Sometimes it gets out of whack and a reset helps. Otherwise you can contact HP support if you’ve not tried that yet.
I am pretty sure, the unit says I have version 3.3.1.35433.
I went into Twonky and under Maintenence I selected the rebuild database. Is this what you mean?
If so, I will then call HP but I do not have high hopes, their support has been non-existent to date.
I had this problem, called tech support and they acknowledged the problem, and said they just don’t have a solution for it yet. What they had me do is download the toolkit and use a “handle” program from windows to identify what the hang up was. I then pulled that file into a folder on the server NOT being scanned by twonky. My CPU usage dropped like a rock and the computer was able to process the files correctly…it created the media stream database for songs and photos, which it had not done to date.
There were two ripped movies causing the problem. Jumper and Die Harder. The tech acknowledged this wasn’t the perfect solution, but admitted they didn’t have a perfect slution yet. I’d recommend trying it if your stucks. I was able to find Die Harder was a problem by just going to the Media Collector screen and reading what Twonky was processing. It was stuck on it for quite a while, moving it over worked without going into Toolkit.
I’m going to start converting again and hopefully this won’t happen again.
Don.
Don, that is the same process I describe above, in fact I suspect HP support got their solution from reading this site.
I’m glad they were able to help get your server working better.
Hey Alex, I cant seem to figure out my issue. Do you mind looking at the pictures from my handle results. Thanks!
http://i209.photobucket.com/albums/bb191/vvgallegos/Untitled2.jpg
http://i209.photobucket.com/albums/bb191/vvgallegos/Untitled-1.jpg
Hi Alex,
Back again..just cant to say I’ve gotten a bit lazy, just disabled Twonky and stuck with the basic dlna sharing. I did this when I realised I only need MP4 support so I can just wait for the patch. But I have noticed another way of identifying troublesome files…which is moving the folder in question to a temp location. The transfer get stuck on the file in question and reported as being ‘in use’. Perhaps an option for some out there.
Sorry that’s me 2yahoo above, typo in the name field.
Alex,
Wish HP would put you on consulting status so that this could get fully resolved and we wouldn’t have to resolve to these type of temporary fixes.
I should have noted the emphasis of the post was that they acknowledge the problem… which I was pleased to hear… When I bought the HP mediastream I thought it would be an “out of box” experience. It has been anything but. People like you are the only reason I havn’t sent it back.
Thanks for the feedback, Don, sorry to hear you’ve had struggles with your server but glad this site could help, it’s why I started it.
Hi Alex,
Just to add to the many comments here; I ran through the ‘handle’ solution on an HP EX490 and identified a .VOB file causing Twonky to consume all available CPU. It took a matter of minutes to resolve and your help is again much appreciated! Looking forward to an update from HP on this…
Thanks,
Gordon
Alex,
Thanks for the help once again. Was able to find the offending files pretty on my server easily with your guide. Has anyone narrowed down on what makes certain files throw Twonky for a loop?
Also, I have been having some audio stuttering problems lately when streaming music. Have you seen that? I don’t know if you read the wegotserved forums (because I hate to double post), but I have a thread started there.
-JesterEE
JesterEE, the only audio stuttering issues I had were caused by the bad transcoding config I mention in this article that were correct in Patch 3. I’ve also not heard what it is about certain files that freak out Twonky, I’ve not investigated closely but from others comments there doesn’t seem to be a consistent cause. I’m glad the guide helped you!
Ya, I tried mucking around with them a little a few months ago to no avail.
Thanks for the idea though!
-JesterEE
He Alex,
i have found a partial solution for mpeg-2 files.
On my MSS (EX490) i’ve had experienced the 100% CPU usage through twonky .
I got an info from a fellow about a application “mpeg corrector”; after i found the files with your “handle”-trick i run the mpeg-corrector.exe against these files and it seems the issue is solved.
The corrector convert the mpeg-2 file to a VCD file so i was not to be able to compare the 2 headers ( e.g. with “MPEG2 Program Test 4″ from http://www.fr-an.de/home/about.htm )
Thank you – you totally fixed this for me. I searched through my Twonky log file to find one video that caused the problem, moved it to the public share, and rebuilt the database. Everything is now good again!
This site is really helpfull, great job Alex.
I is very sad that HP supports its own product like a banana.
The MSS ex495/ DV x510 is a really good solution.
I like my x510
I wonder if it is possible to update Twonky with normal update, since they released 514/515 as WHS.msi
Did anyone tried to update the MSS/DV ?
regards
DK
DataKill, there’s some info on that here: http://www.mediasmartserver.net/forums/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=8226
Thanks for the bullet – I was ready to chunk the box out or recover as this is by no means easy to catch. Muchas Gracias, amigo!
Alex, thanks for your tireless efforts here. Has HP just dropped this or are they still working it? I can’t believe they got the fix from Twonky in November and still haven’t gotten it out… the reason I paid more for a MediaSmart server was for the out-of-the-box experience… set it up and it works! If I wanted to a “project”, I’d go the homebuild route. I’ve got through the drill of identifying all the “bad” media and removing it, but that’s crazy to have to do. I don’t, but heaven help those who have media collector running, constantly dumping new media into the media shares on WHS.
Question – I assume I can turn off Twonky and run the built in WHS media streaming to support xBox’s as extender’s, right?
Thanks, again! Rich
I’ve heard nothing new from HP, and with Twonky stopping support I don’t expect any fix.
You can turn off Twonky and use the built-in Windows Media Connect for streaming, it’s not quite as feature rich but doesn’t have the performance issues that Twonky can have. Note that WMC won’t allow your Xbox to act as an Extender, it’ll just be able to stream. Also note that by disabling Twonky you’ll lose the ability to stream remotely.
Has anyone tried removing the stock Twonky install on a HP MSS and updating to the new non-WHS version Twonky has been pushing?
There are a few posts in the forums from people that have tried this. As I understand it you have to buy a license for the new version and it doesn’t include everything that the HP version does. I believe it’s not the same integration.
JesterEE: I just gone through the process of trying to fix TwonkyMedia’s streaming issues and for me in particular streaming of music. The first recourse to see if there was an update to TwonkyMedia server. I attempted to update two 5.1.6 and bungled it all up. So by way of remote desktop connection I went into control panel, add delete programs and remove TwonkyMedia server and then rebooted the server. I then stripped out whatever remaining directories (and I don’t think there are any left) of TwonkyMedia remained.
Then I went into HP media Smart servers console, after having added TwonkyMedia server 5.1.2 to the software/add-ins directory and installed this program through the consoles add-in. It worked without any difficulty and inasmuch as I have purchased a license for the 5.X versions of TwonkyMedia server, it did not prompt me for the license and in fact indicated that, the server is registered. Backspace, under the new tab in TwonkyMedia/server status.
I can’t vouch for the installation of more recent updates such as 5.1.6 as I do believe it will require a license key. This I will attempt to do now.
I hope this is been helpful.
Hey that’s great! I’m eager to hear how that goes! I have all but given up on Twonky as Vail will have it all built in … I figure I can get by till then. But, if you get something promising working, I would probably want to give it a shot too ;).
Also, sorta OT, what problems have you been seeing with your media streaming? I have had issues where my music would either not play, stutter, skip, or just flat out kill all IIS functionality. I have posted on a few forums in the past, but when no one responded I figured I was alone on this one … and probabaly did it to myself :).
Keep us updated!
-JesterEE
Alex:
I wanted to thank you for your commendable work in resolving this problem which I was also experiencing. I’m so pleased to come across your fix and it worked like a charm. Initially I was convinced that the problem was result of trying to stream WMA files in lossless, which are quite large files. So with the help of iTunes I transferred all my WMA music files into MP3 files thinking that TwonkyMedia trans-codes them to this format anyway, which may be the case regardless. However I continue to have the problem streaming the MP3 files just the same TwonkyMedia server would spit, hack and cough, although not in that particular order.
In any case, many thanks your fix in my mind is unprecedented. Keep up the excellent work, I love this site.
TechBari, thank you very much for your comments, and I’m glad the guide was able to help you!
I’ve used this guide in the past to resolve the Twonky hangups on my 485EX upgraded to 3.0 and have long since given up. I decided to use Subsonic as my streaming app for remote audio playback, no issues with that, and there are 2 dedicated apps for it on the iPhone (iSub, $4.99, but iOS4 compatible and supports background music playback). Subsonic + AirSharing handle all my remote streaming for video and audio. No UPNP playback for PS3, XBox360, or my Popcorn Hour (WMC works fine for that.
My only remaining hang-up has been to get PlayOn wokring on it, none of the guides I have followed for installing WMP11 and PlayOn seem to work, unless I am missing something.
Thanks for your service to the WHS community! /salute
Statement from Twonky not sure if you have seen this yet..
http://www.twonkyforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=8430#p31192
Hi, I have an HP MediaSmart 470ex that I upgraded the memory to 2GB. I installed the HP update (the $25 DVD’s that came mislabeled) and my server has turned into a paperweight. It is so slow that I can’t do anything from the console. I was never runnint twonky or media sharing or anything, as far as I know. I do know that the CPU utilization is at 100% all of the time. I did read somewhere that it could have something to do with media collector, twonky or something, but since I never turned these things on, I don’t know why they would be the problem now. Anyways, I decided to see if this was just a performance issue and eventually it would go away once it was done indexing, or whatever it was doing. I had completely backed up all my data to my Drobo connected to my Mac so I decided to let it run for a while. More than 2 months later I check in on it and the console is still unusable. Any thoughts on what I should do? Like I said, I was never running any of the media stuff, so I don’t know if my problem is similar to others. Maybe the update turned it on without askign me? Please help. Thanks.
Lyle, this guide has all the instructions on how to investigate and probably resolve the issue, please follow it and then do as Comp1962 suggests and post in the forums for additional help.
@ Lyle ~ If you do not use nor require Twonky then I recommend you RDP to your server and disable the service from automatically starting. Also you can at that point view the task manager and see exactly whats pegging your CPU. If you would kindly post a request for help in the forums I will be more then happy to assist you. I believe 2 months is way too long to have put up with this issue so lets see if we can help you with a solution. When you post your message just PM me to bring it to my attention.
Thanks. I am traveling for work right now but when I get home later this week I will try this. I’m pretty sure I don’t have remote desktop configured on the server so it’ll probably take me a few days to get that turned on. Seriously, my console is probably THAT slow. I’ve even considered wiping the whole thing and starting from scratch. I noticed that some of my data also appears to be missing. I did back everything up when I did the upgrade but it looked like it went smoothly and I didn’t lose anythign. However, when I was recently looking at it, some seasons of some TV shows were missing.
It’s really easy to access the server via Remote Desktop.
http://www.mediasmartserver.net/wiki/index.php/Remote_Desktop
Let us know how it goes when you get a chance to work on it.
I was able to RDP into the server and see that Twonky was the offending process. I killed the process and went to services and changed it from automatic to manual. The CPU utilization immediately went down. This caused me to have a numnber of errors on the console side, but I was still able to go through and make sure none of the file streaming, conversion, etc stuff was running or turned on. I then restarted the server and things seem much better.
I would like to apply the fix if any so that I do have the option of streaming this stuff at some later date. I’m not sure what the latest link or instructions are. I still need to go back and see exactly what updates from HP are installed.
I also need to find out what happened to some of my data. I do have it backed up, but I’m a little bit concerned. Thanks for all the help.
I installed a 495 in December. I have not had time to work with it much. So I am just getting around to try and use the steaming music. I experience the long delay, the single song and sometimes no play as described at the beginning of this stream. I have automatic updates on. Has an update been issued that fixed this issue? or do I need to perform the Fix noted in your article? And can this fix be done remotely?
No. The playlists will not play in sucession. Each song must be selected to play. I will have to call back to HP support. I have sent a note to Twonky and have not recieved a reply on this.
The files are WMA mostly. I don’t know how to find the bitrate.
I also narrowed it down to MPEG-1 files. I had to manually start/stop the service and check for the handles open when it locked up. I just moved all of them elsewhere, converted to MP4 with VideoRedo4, and Twonky 5.1.1 that came on my EX495 was happy; me not so much, because it seemed fixed in 5.1.6, which you are expected to purchase.
Awesome solution suggested here – great contribution. My EX490 was useless until i applied the fixed suggested here. my CPU went from 100% all the time to a reasonable utilization which made teh console useable. I’m able to stream all my music and photos with reasonable performance on wifi network. Slower on 3G, however, decent performance. I have not tried video streaming yet but will soon. thanks again for great contribution.
I’ve been following up this thread. I had a 470 and definitely something changed with the 490. I was very frustrated with Twonky hanging up between song. I followed some of the comments here and here’s what I did to resolve the problem…
A user reported changing the c:\TwonkiMedia\cgi-bin\audtranscode-mp3.desc to synchronous from asynchronous.
Lookig a little further, I found a file, c:\Programfiles\Arcsoft\Transcode Engine\Atxscheme.xml that describes the possible options for priorities…
They are:
TranscodingPriority code=”1″>Idle
Below Normal
Normal
Above Normal
High
Realtime
I experimented with the mp3.desc file until I found that the combination of synchronous with realtime transcoding seems to work well… I have seen CPU usage in the order of 75 to 80% for a few moments.
This is what it looks like (# are comments):
# transcode audio (mp4, wav, wma to mp3)
#(c) 2008 by PacketVideo
exec: audtranscode $infile $outfile -br 128000 -sps 44100
# capabilities
from=audio/all
to=audio/mpeg
#asynchronous
synchronous
#priority=idle
#priority=below normal
#priority=normal
#priority=above normal
#priority=high
priority=realtime
I am able to listen to my music collection form work as I used to on the 470. I was not able to do that until I made the changes I described here. Try it and see if it works for you… Lou
I have exactly this problem as described with constant 100% CPU utilisation but I have never ever configured the twonky server on my ex470 so I just cant see how it can be that… If you remote to your server then task manager just shows the processes from your parent desktop not your remote desktop so not sure how I can easily investigate what process could be causing this… Does anyone have any ideas how best to investigate or have you fixed this problem?
scratch my last post it does seem to be twonky! I will read this thread properly when its not so late and I’m not tired. In meantime I will stop the twonky server !!! Then look to see how to fix…
Alex, sorry to be stupid but when I went to your patch link you kindly provided there were four different patches listed… do i need to do all of them? My ex470 is supposedly up-to-date at version 3 and I double checked and ran HP update manually and it didn’t come up with anything. Can you help a non techy and just confirm which patches i do or dont have to download to fix this 100% cpu utilisation problem when twonky gets stuck!!!
many thanks for any help you can provide to clarify
Ian.
We have a list of the latest patch versions here: http://www.mediasmartserver.net/wiki/index.php/What_is_the_current_version_of_the_HP_Software%3F
You’ll likely have to perform the steps I outline to stop the 100% cpu load.
Sorry Alex I just dont follow
Firstly I dont have a hardware status under settings as is shown in your link you kindly provided (is this an extra addin you have added to your server and if so which one?).
Secondly I still cant understand from this thread what steps or patches I’m actually supposed to apply. I thought HP media smart servers were automatically updated thats certainly what mine has been doing for the last 2-3 years. Have these stopped? Its all very ambiguous. And I dont want to install the wrong patch and then add to my problems…
Ian.
The screenshot is from the 1.3 software, in 3.0 go to the HP Settings tab then Software Update. You want to make sure you have the latest updates, it’s quite likely you do.
HP never released a software update to resolve the 100% cpu issue, you’ll need to follow my guide about using the handle.exe utility to determine what is causing the problem. Or, turn off Twonky if you’re not using it.
Alex there is no “software update” tab under settings either? I have a tab called “resources” that shows some software versions but not anything to do with 3.0, 3.1, 3.2 or any patch info etc… Mine are all 6.0 something or other as follows and they are displayed within a box called “version information” as far as I know this is standard WHS so I’m afraid I dont have a clue what software update could be under settings:
Windows Home Server Console: 6.0.2423.0
Windows Home Server Backup & Restore: 6.0.2423.0
Windows Home Server Drive Extender: 6.0.2423.0
Windows Home Server Remote Access: 6.0.3436.0
Windows Home Server Storage Manager: 6.0.3039.0
still very confused
You need to look under the HP MediaSmart Server Settings tab. From the Home Server Console, click “Settings”, then click the HP MediaSmart Server tab (should be at the top), then click “Software Update”.
Alex I just dont have that option and never have as far as I can remember on my Ex470. When you click settings off the home server console the first option is “general”, then “backup” then “passwords” etc as you go down the list on the left. The only “HP MediaSmart Server tab is off the main screen and NOT under settings but that only offers options such as overview, tour, system staus, mac overview, media etc etc..
ok I understand your point that apparently HP have not provided a fix. (not sure why as my media smart server is under warranty so unless HP want to refund me what I paid for the warranty I expect them to support and fix the software – but I guess thats another issue i need to find time to take up with them) but it does really worry me that I’m potentially missing updates and as i said I have gone and run HP update from the start menu on my whs box and and also windows update from the home console under settings. I cant seem to find a way other than previously provided to know what version of the HP console I’m running but at 6.0xxxxxx that makes know sense to what you talk about as version 3 patch 1,2 or 3…
That and the fact that twonky is going into infinite spins of CPU cycles isn’t making me feel good about reliability and trusting WHS to be my data backup etc etc all very critical roles I need a stable system for.
I went to look for HP support and that seems to have been taken off the HP site for mediasmart severs!!!
@ Bob Zimmerman I suggest you try SubSonic and see if your find it more appealing for streaming your music. I have been using it for quite sometime and like it very much. I even stream it to my Android phone which is cool. SubSonic also does video but so far I find ORB better for that then SubSonic. While the MSS can do all this there are alternatives and those alternatives do not require you to be running Twonky. There may be some issues when demigrator is active but you can temporarily shut that down to improve the streaming performance but thats upto you.
The HP Stuff is cool and looks great and serves many well but its not a streaming solution for everyone. I am not out to knock the HP MSS Software in any means but just pointing out if its not working well for you to try other things and see how they work out for you.
comp1962, pathetic as it may be, I don’t know how to do what you are suggesting, and would have to impose on my computer savy freinds to accomplish it. I enjoy listening to music and have wound up with a large collection and used the default .wma format when I put them on my computer (default being the key word). I wanted greater access to the music, and needed storage space. So when I saw this product, I thought I was set. Plug and play as they say. It is a nice system to back up files, but HP hyped it as a Media Center, not just an expandable home server. My x-box does a better job of streaming the media to my home stereo system. Sooner or later, an easy way to get to the music from a remote computer will work that is simple enough for me to use
try this desc file with two drives installed it only works with toolkit installed
# transcode audio (mp4, wav, wma to mp3)
#(c) 2008 by PacketVideo
exec: audtranscode $infile $outfile -br 128000 -sps 44100
# capabilities
from=audio/all
to=audio/mpeg
#asynchronous
synchronous
#priority=idle
#priority=below normal
#priority=normal
#priority=above normal
#priority=high
priority=realtime
then put the first desc back the before you save it change the idle to low like this view sourceprint?
# transcode audio (mp4, wav, wma to mp3)
#(c) 2008 by PacketVideo
exec: audtranscode $infile $outfile -br 128000 -sps 44100
# capabilities
from=audio/all
to=audio/mpeg
asynchronous
priority=low
play one album with then ten line code the go to the 8 line
Bob Zimmerman
Yup, that’s the right version, and yes, Rebuild the the Twonky database. HP support for this product is generally regarded as quite good, have you interacted with them about yet about this or other issues with your MediaSmart Server?
Alex, thank you for your help and the work you do on this board. I did call HP last night. They believed that the issue was a hung file. so they led me through the process of deleting the database and starting the data collection again. They stated that the Twonky streaming is only set up to play one song after another if it is on a playlist. It does not have that capability for albums. (The developers must have never listened to an album in entirety) They put a bug report into the system concerning the fact that when looking at an album, the first song does not have the number tag(#1) and cannot play. I have to wait to see if the playlists work now after the rebuild.
I play albums all the time and have zero playlists, they are mistaken about that. Is it working any better after purging the database?
You won’t hear anything from Twonky, and won’t be getting any patches from HP since they discontinued the server.
What type of audio files? Bitrate?
Then just try my guide on how to resolve the actual issue rather than getting stuck on what version of HP software you are running since there is no update from HP that actually resolves the issue.
try this code install the home server 1.1 toolkit from microsoft
then open settings then toolkit 1.1 then open command promot
then type notepad press enter then click c sys on the file then open
then go to twonkymedia then go to cgi-bin then select all files from the text format full down window then open audiotranscode desc only word to change from default is idle to low all formats will play that way
John, I was finally able to follow your suggestion. It was quite a tricky path for a bumbler like myself. I was excited because I have also recently upgraded my internet service with a 35Mbps upload rating. But alas, only mp3 format songs will stream. WMA format songs with a higher quality level will not stream. HP over promised on this system, without question and makes me doubt I will get any more of their products.
try platry this desc file with two drives installed it only works with toolkit installed
# transcode audio (mp4, wav, wma to mp3)
#(c) 2008 by PacketVideo
exec: audtranscode $infile $outfile -br 128000 -sps 44100
# capabilities
from=audio/all
to=audio/mpeg
#asynchronous
synchronous
#priority=idle
#priority=below normal
#priority=normal
#priority=above normal
#priority=high
priority=realtime
plyaing with 10 line code im going to give u then reset data base
then 8 code reset data base
# transcode audio (mp4, wav, wma to mp3)
#(c) 2008 by PacketVideo
exec: audtranscode $infile $outfile -br 128000 -sps 44100
# capabilities
from=audio/all
to=audio/mpeg
asynchronous
priority=low
to install this code first check twonky by deleting all music from music folder then unistall twonky by microsoft toolkit 1.1 command prompt by typing explorer in command prompt then click start go to control panel then add/ remove programs unistall twonky from there by double click twonky for hp mediasmart then close control panel go to my computer then go to C sys then program files then hewelett packard then double click pvconnect.msi that will reinstall twonky media then readd the music but check to make sure its not looses wma it wont play only the default wma by media player I also have good luck with this code to
# transcode audio (mp4, wav, wma to mp3)
#(c) 2008 by PacketVideo
exec: audtranscode $infile $outfile -br 128000 -sps 44100
# capabilities
from=audio/all
to=audio/mpeg
#asynchronous
#priority=low
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