Twonky Server v8.5.1 no longer generating video thumbnails after QTS v4.5.1 update

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czrobert
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Twonky Server v8.5.1 no longer generating video thumbnails after QTS v4.5.1 update

Post by czrobert »

I have been struggling with this for a couple of days but have finally found a solution to the issue.
It appears that with the QTS v4.5.1 upgrade, QNAP have disabled a large majority of the video decoders in the default /usr/bin/ffmpeg which is used by Twonky for generating thumbnails.

I have managed to workaround the issue by performing the following actions:
NOTE: this is only applicable to the manually installed Twonky v8.5.1 and not the QNAP provided version in AppCenter. These are the steps I followed, if you choose to do so yourself then it is at your own risk.
  • Open Multimedia Console and enable Multimedia Services if not already enabled
  • Install CAYIN MediaSign Player (no need to activate this with a licence)
  • Once installation is complete, return to Multimedia Console and disable Multimedia Services if this was your previous state, otherwise leave running. (a notification will advise that CAYIN MediaSign Player has been stopped)
  • Inside AppCenter, stop Twonky Server EU 8.5.1
  • Login to an SSH console as admin and change to the appdata directory discovered above, then go up one directory and into a directory called cgi-bin (in my example this folder is '/share/CE_CACHEDEV1_DATA/.qpkg/TwonkyServerEU/cgi-bin')
  • Edit the file ffmpeg.location using your preferred editor (in my case vi) and change '/usr/bin' to read '/usr/local/cayin/bin'
  • Return to AppCenter and start Twonky Server EU 8.5.1
This should hopefully resolve the issue.

NOTE: I determined the location of the CAYIN replacement ffmpeg by running 'find / -name "ffmpeg"' from the SSH console. This might be useful if it is installed in a different location on your machine.
Scrat96
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Re: Twonky Server v8.5.1 no longer generating video thumbnails after QTS v4.5.1 update

Post by Scrat96 »

I just registered here for the sole purpose of hopefully finding a solution to this issue (apparently forum searches aren't possible without logging in). Talk about timing! Your instructions were very clear, and solved the issue perfectly.

Thank you so much! :DD
czrobert
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Re: Twonky Server v8.5.1 no longer generating video thumbnails after QTS v4.5.1 update

Post by czrobert »

Quick update as it appears that the latest QTS update has stopped this workaround and I have found a neater solution to the problem. The steps in the first post are replaced with:
NOTE: I have not verified the contents of the downloaded ffmpeg package below and you use it at your own risk.
  • Open AppCenter and manually install the newly downloaded .qpkg file
  • Inside AppCenter, stop Twonky Server EU 8.5.1
  • Login to an SSH console as admin and change to the appdata directory discovered above, then go up one directory and into a directory called cgi-bin (in my example this folder is '/share/CE_CACHEDEV1_DATA/.qpkg/TwonkyServerEU/cgi-bin')
  • Edit the file ffmpeg.location using your preferred editor (in my case vi) and change '/usr/bin' to read '/opt/ffmpeg'
  • Return to AppCenter and start Twonky Server EU 8.5.1
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dolbyman
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Re: Twonky Server v8.5.1 no longer generating video thumbnails after QTS v4.5.1 update

Post by dolbyman »

seems that ffmpeg was deliberately crippled in 4.5.1

viewtopic.php?f=50&t=157602&p=770776#p770704
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Toxic17
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Re: Twonky Server v8.5.1 no longer generating video thumbnails after QTS v4.5.1 update

Post by Toxic17 »

dolbyman wrote: Wed Dec 09, 2020 2:43 am seems that ffmpeg was deliberately crippled in 4.5.1

viewtopic.php?f=50&t=157602&p=770776#p770704
glad I read that now. I found my webcam image was not working a few weeks back and ended up changing to the ffmpeg that comes with Apache74 qpkg. I'll now get tweaking on Twonky config too.
Regards Simon

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Re: Twonky Server v8.5.1 no longer generating video thumbnails after QTS v4.5.1 update

Post by VVet69 »

@zcrobert, thanks for the info! I just applied this to my TS-251+ with 4.5.1.1540 and TwonkyServer 8.5.1 (licensed) and it works perfectly. My ffmpeg.location file was at '/share/CE_CACHEDEV1_DATA/.qpkg/TwonkyServer/cgi-bin'
davydee
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Re: Twonky Server v8.5.1 no longer generating video thumbnails after QTS v4.5.1 update

Post by davydee »

@czrobert: Perfect - this worked for me exactly as described on a TS-253A x86-64 with TwonkyServerEU 8.5.2.

:D

Thank you so much!
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