Linkstation LS-CHL and Roku Soundbridge

[soxfan1966]

   

I recently purchased a Buffalo Linkstation LS-CHL, and use it as my media storage with a central ITunes database for all my home network pc's to access.  It works pretty good.

It also has an Itunes server built into it so I can stream directly to my two Roku units (M500 and an M1001).  Both work great with it and the major upside is that I do not have to run down to my office in the basement and start up a pc each time I want to listen to music on the Rokus.  The Linkstation has a nice way of setting wake up / shutdown times so I have it set up when we are home and awake as opposed to having it run 24/7.

Only downside I have is that the Linkstation appears twice on each of the Rokus.  The first appears to be the Shared database (and has nothing in it) and the second listing is the library which has all my songs, etc and is the one I use to play.

 

Is there a setting or something on the Linkstation that I can set so only one entry appears on the Roku units?

[valley_nomad]

   My setup is similar to yours: one Buffalo LS-CHL1.0, one Roku M1001 and one Roku R1000. But I see only one entry point under "Change Library or Configuration" on both Rokus. My audio files is under the audio directory which is a subdirectory of origianl shared folder "share" that is also the media folder under Media Server setting.

[soxfan1966]

   

I just have a folder called Media (at the same level as share) and it is set as the folder on the Media Server page.

 

Anyone else have a similar setup and getting one or two listings for their Linkstation on the Roku?

[soxfan1966]

   

another update...  It seems on my Roku Soundbridge M1001 the Linkstation appears only once, but on my Roku Soundbridge M500 it appears twice. 

 

I think it may have to do with some difference in the Itunes version / support each of the different units has.  Have posted a similar question / comment on the Roku boards and not gotten much info there either as to what the problem may be...

[photojon]

   

Soxfan,  were you able to ever figure this out?

 

I have two NAS boxes (dlink) and (buffalo) and two Roku boxes (1 SB500 and 1 Roku Radio).  Both of them show two entries for each NAS box.  I was able to get the dlink down to 1 entry by turning off iTunes server within the dlink setup.  I have looked at the Linkstation configuration page and don't seem to see any entries that would lead me to believe I have two servers running on the box.  The interesting thing is that all other clients only see 1 server (PS-3, etc).

 

I too posted to Roku and the reply from their tech support said that Roku stores nothing so there must be multiple servers running on the Linkstation.

 

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

Thanks

 

[soxfan1966]

   I never figured this out.  Still have two entries on each Roku.  My suspiscion is that one is from the Itunes Sharing and the other is from the itunes server.  If I go onto one of the networked computers they see the Linkstation as a Shared Library.

[YoDaddy]

   

I had the same issue and was able to resolve it in following way. This setup might not work for you, but it works for me where I only use my Linkstation Mini NAS for music server (no iTunes sharing).

 

Somehow the problem is the Roku SB creates a phantom (?) server ID that points to iTunes servers. Even after I turned off iTunes sharing on my PCs, the SB maintains a link to them through the Linkstation. Only way I could remove it was to do a factory restore of SB and Linkstation...I followed the steps below.

 

0. Turn off/unplug the Roku SB during first 4 steps, disconnect it from network

1. Turn off/disable iTunes "sharing" on all connected PC's

2. Turn off all Windows Media Player sharing on all connected PC's

3. Reboot PC's

4. Did factory restore of Linkstation Mini, Reboot Linkstation Mini NAS, then set up again with my settings
 (Not a re-format just restore the settings)

5. Turn on Roku SB (but not connected to network), immediately do a reset to default factory conditions

6. Plug in and set up your SB, it should now only have one pointer to your servers. Good to go!

7. FYI I DID NOT set up remote control on the SB, don't know if this affects it or not.

 

You might try some variation of above, but this worked for me.I just don't have iTunes sharing. My NAS has all the music on it now so don't really need iTunes sharing.

[soxfan1966]

   

I never tried the exact suggested fix but I did have to reboot my network recently after getting a new router.  After I did all that, the Roku M-1001 shows only one Linkstation entry but the older M-500 still shows two.

 

I just entered another post asking about getting playlists from the LS-CHL's Media Server appearing on the Roku.  There is an option for them on the menu but I do not see how you can create them os store them so they would be available on the Roku (or other media rendering devices)...

[soxfan1966]

   

two updates:

 

1) Playlists - finally found out how to get them to work (at least with my setup). 

    NOTE: I had posted a separate topic just for this but for some reason the evil moderator decided to simply lock it down with some strange, rude message about posting a topic twice ...  I was not trying to post the topic twice but was trying to find a solution to the problem and I did not find anything in any existing topic that covered it (again, at least in my setup).  So, I apologize for that but perhaps those looking for an answer will find this post and get the solution that may work for them.

 

The problem, as other may have discovered but perhaps not worded this way, is that the playlists you create in Itunes are stored in the Itunes Library files, not as external files in some folder.  So, when your Linkstation Media Server database is refreshed it never finds them as it is not looking in the Itunes library files.

 

So, to get them as files so your Linkstation Media Server will find them, you need to find a way to Export the playlists, and them store them somewhere on the linkstation where they will be found.  Here is what I did.

    a) I used a free software program called ITunesExport which will allow you to open to an Itunes database, select which Playlists you want to export, and then same them as .m3u files.

    b) I then created a folder called Playlists under my Linkstation\Media\ItunesMaster folder (where my library is stored).

    c) then I copied the exported .m3u files into the Playlists folder created above

    d) logged onto my Linkstation Admin page, went to the Media Server page and refreshed the database (I chose to recreate it too).

 

Gave it a few minutes, then went to my Roku Soundbridge, connected to Linkstation (the second entry - see below) and there were my playlists.  Clicked the one I wanted and whamo!  Success!!

 

Hope this helps others...

 

2) Soundbridge appearing twice on Roku - still happening, no idea why or how to fix.  The previous suggestion did not work in my setup.  One thing to note though, the first entry appears and the Playlists option is empty and I cannot find anything with the Browse features - looks like an empty database.  The second entry is the one that has my Linkstation media, etc in it and the one that works.

[scott]

   

I have a similar problem.  On my soundbridge M1001 running software version 3.0.44, I see 2 libraries from the LS-CHL with the same name.

 

On the first, I appear to see see everything except for playlists

 

On the second, I see everything including the playlists.

 

Still looking for someway to turn off the first library, or at least name the libraries differently to distinguish them.

 

[soxfan1966]

   

I never figured this out, not found/heard of a solution....  Anyone???

[photojon]

   

I have not found a solution either.  It appears a number of people are affected by it.  Sure would be nice if Buffalo posted a solution.

 

best wishes.