NMT for Mac Users

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Image:Greenvsmall.jpg Easy and suitable for everyone.

Contents

Connecting to the NMT

Direct Connection via USB

Some NMT devices have a slave USB port, which allows for a direct USB connection between your NMT and your Computer. This allows for transfers as fast as common external USB enclosures.

Unfortunately OS X has no native support for the Ext3 file system used by NMT devices. Several projects exist to implement Ext2/3 support on OS X, including ext2fsx. These file system drivers are notoriously unstable for OS X Leopard users and can cause kernel panics, freezing your system in the process.

Connecting via FTP

An alternative to connecting directly is to connect via FTP. This can be done using OSX's built in functionality or with a 3rd-party FTP client. Transfer rates using this method are around 6300KB/s using a laptop with 802.11n (about half as fast as the USB direct connect).

The OS X Finder lets you connect to FTP servers with read-only access, but not write access. This means that you cannot copy files to your NMT device using this method:

  1. In the Finder menu, select "Go" and choose "Connect to Server" (Command + K)
  2. In the "Connect to Server" window, connect the IP address of your NMT device under the SMB protocol:
    ftp://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
  3. The default username and password are ftpuser(A100/110) and nmt(C200) and 1234
  4. The default HDD share of the NMT HDD will appear on your desktop, giving you easy read access to the NMT.


Since this method doesn't allow you to write files, a 3rd-party FTP client will be far more practical. A recommended client is Cyberduck. It's free, open-source and comes with a wide range of features. To connect to the NMT device with Cyberduck, follow these steps:

  1. Click the "Open Connection" button. A dialog will appear
  2. Server: Fill out the IP address of your NMT device (e.g.: 192.168.0.100)
  3. Username: The default username is ftpuser. If the field is greyed out, deselect the "Anonymous Login" checkbox below.
  4. Password: Enter the password of your NMT device (the default password is 1234)
  5. Click "Connect". You should see the contents of your of your NMT device's HDD in the Cyberduck application window.

For easy access to your NMT device, you can choose to bookmark this connection. For more information, please consult Cyberduck's Help or the Cyberduck wiki

Connecting via SMB

Both your Mac and NMT device are capable of browsing Windows shares using the SMB protocol. While this is not exactly the fastest way to transfer files, it does the job without causing headaches or requiring the installation of software.

  1. In the Finder menu, select "Go" and choose "Connect to Server" (Command + K)
  2. In the "Connect to Server" window, connect the IP address of your NMT device under the SMB protocol:
    smb://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
  3. The default username and password are nmt and 1234
  4. The default HDD share of the NMT HDD will appear on your desktop, giving you easy read & write access to the NMT.

Connecting to your Mac

While Apple's own Apple Filing Protocol (AFP) is not supported by the NMT, it is possible to access network shares on your Mac from the NMT using the aforementioned SMB protocol and NFS. Additionally, it is possible to run MyiHome on your Mac to facilitate easy access.

Connecting to your Mac using SMB

Via trial and error I managed to "mount" the External USB drive connected to my iMac to the NMT

  1. In the setup of the PCH go to Network share
  2. Press Add
  3. In the share name give a name for your share (Mine is IMac)
  4. In the URL you type smb://IPofyourmac/nameofyourdevice (In my case my External drive is called Terabyte)
  5. In User name you give the name of your Macintosh
  6. In Password type your password.

For me this looks like:
Imac
SMB://192.168.1.28/Terabyte
MyImac
Password

Connecting to your Mac using NFS

Setting up an NFS share in Leopard is easy. You can do it manually via the Terminal or with the use of a GUI tool.
Note: At least for the A400 NFS shares with spaces in their names are not supported. Please ensure that those folders or volumes you wish to export as a share contain no spaces in their name. This restriction doesn't appear to apply to sub-folders within your share.

Using Terminal

  1. Open up the Terminal and type:
    #sudo vi /etc/exports
  2. Add your share location and the network allowed to browse it.
    Example:
    /Volumes/Media/Movies -network 192.168.1.0 -mask 255.255.255.0
  3. Save the file and close Vi by entering :wq!
  4. Start NFSD:
    #sudo nfsd enable
  5. Verify that the mounts was configured correctly:
    #showmount -e

You can now browse the NFS Network from your NMT and see your shared folder.

Using a GUI tool

There is a tool called NFS Manager and can be found here: http://www.bresink.de/osx/NFSManager.html

With this application you can very easily create "Share Definitions" under the NFS Server Section. Once you've defined what you want to share go to the NMT and add the network shares.

As an example, you can add a Share Definition like this: /Volumes/Media/Videos or /Users/<your username>/Movies

Then in the PCH, add the following NFS network share: 

 nfs://<your Mac's IP address, e.g. 192.168.1.10>:/Volumes/Media/Videos

Note the mandatory colon between the IP address and the shared volume.


Connecting to your Mac using MyiHome

You can view all the media contents from your Mac just installing and running MyiHome.

The Mac version is just a silent server (no window at all, but keep it running), and you will see in your NMT all the media stored in your /home/Music, /home/Movies... don't need to configure anything.

Other options include the llink and Swisscenter streamers.

Connecting to your Mac's DVD Drive

You may want to use your Mac's DVD drive to play movies on your PCH (as it doesn't have a drive) across the network. This method is only for playing video files (such as MKV, TS etc) stored on a DVD data disc. For playing original DVD Video disks you must have some additional software on your Mac (see below). The problem with the Mac is that it always mounts a DVD with the DVD's title, i.e. /Volumes/Gladiator, so the mount point always changes. This is easy on Windows, you simply share your DVD with a name and it always uses the same share (i.e. //computer/dvdrom), but that method isn't possible on the Mac!

The trick on the Mac is to simply share the "/Volumes" folder (where all drives are mounted), and then you'll be able to access the mounted DVD from there.

First share the folder on your Mac:

  1. In System Preferences > Sharing
  2. In File Sharing, click on '+' and the folder selector will open
  3. The trick here is that the "/Volumes" folder is invisible so, press Command+Shift+G and type in "/Volumes" and Click "Add"
  4. Change the Users: Administrator & Everyone to "Read Only"
  5. If SMB sharing isn't already enabled, go into "Options" and enable "Share files and folders using SMB", also enable your username.

Now on the PCH:

  1. In the setup of the PCH go to Network share
  2. Press Add
  3. In the share name give a name for your share, e.g. "Mac DVD Drive"
  4. In the URL you type smb://IPofyourmac/Volumes (It must be "/Volumes" as that is the name of the share)
  5. In User name, password use your Mac's username and password

To try it out put a DVD data disc in your Mac. On the Popcorn select the source "Mac DVD Drive" and you will then be able to browse to your DVD data disc, which will be under a subdirectory that has the title of the DVD disc.

Play DVD Video disks

The PCH does not support CSS protected DVDs. However, CSS protected discs can be played when you use your Mac's DVD drive. Setup your Mac and PCH as described above and insert a DVD Video disk in you Mac. Before you select "Mac DVD Drive" on your PCH you must have VLC Media Player installed and Fairmount running on your Mac.

  1. Install VLC Media Player
  2. Download Fairmount
  3. Run Fairmount and your DVD Video Disk will be mounted as a non-CSS encrypted disk

On the Popcorn select the source "Mac DVD Drive" and you will then be able to browse to your DVD Video disk, which will be under a subdirectory that has the title of the DVD disk. You should now be able to play the DVD Video disk.

Connecting your USB devices to the NMT

A common problem for Mac users is that most multimedia players and Windows PCs will not be able to read their Mac-formatted storage devices. The NMT has no trouble reading HFS partitions, but writing is not possible. In practice this means that you can connect your USB hard disk to play media and/or copy files from.

Macintosh workflow for Getting Movies onto NMT

Currently there are only a few options for backing your movies up into a format suitable for the NMT. As of this date, the best format appears to be .ISO since functionality is missing and the implementation is buggy for VIDEO_TS playback. Thus, for most the workflow will be either:

1. c or RipIt to rip
2. Toast to save as disc image
3. Manually change .toast to .iso
4. Transfer file to the NMT internal HDD, or network share.

or

1. MacTheRipper or RipIt to rip
2. Handbrake to encode to avi/mkv/mp4

Note, not all file containers have the same functionality, so if you are looking for the most DVD like experience, stick with .ISO and have a lot of storage space available. Also note that .iso is currently not supported with MyiHome, it is with llink, though on a basic level. Note that .iso, .img and VIDEO_TS should play fine over SMB and NFS shares.

Software links

Multimedia encoding and transcoding

  • Handbrake, an MPEG-4 transcoder available for Windows, Linux and Mac OS X. While ideal for transcoding DVDs for easy NMT playback, it can handle other video formats as well.
  • MacTheRipper is one of the most well-known free DVD ripping tools on the Mac, enabling you to create backup copies of your DVD collection, notably without region- or copy-protection that would prevent you from playing them on your NMT. MacTheRipper has no official support for Leopard and is known to crash. Your mileage may vary!
  • MediaInfo for Mac provides information about multimedia files, giving you detailed information about audio and video codecs, encoding features, container information and much, much more. This useful program will be a real help for obtaining information in case you wish to discuss a specific playback problem on the forums.
  • RipIt is another DVD ripping tool. Unlike MacTheRipper, it is actively developed, compatible with Leopard, but requires purchasing. A free trial is available.


Connectivity

  • Cyberduck, a free FTP client with plenty of useful features.
  • Ext2fsx, a driver for Ext2/3 file systems, enabling you to access the NMT harddisk directly. Use at your own risk! This driver is very unstable on Leopard, usage of this driver is risky and not recommended without some knowledge of what you're doing.
  • Playback from Yazsoft allows you to share your media with any UPnP compatible device (like the PCH). It automatically integrates with iTunes, iPhoto, Aperture, Photobooth, Adobe Lightroom 2 and more. You can share all content from these applications or choose specific playlists and albums.
  • MyiHome, a Java-based server which enables browsing of files on your Mac without having use NFS or SMB sharing.
  • NFSManager, a GUI tool for creating NFS shares on your Mac.
  • llink, a free http streamer with loads of possibilities.

Other pages concerning NMT and Mac

Retrieved from "http://www.networkedmediatank.com/wiki/index.php/NMT_for_Mac_Users"
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