I'm a typical WHS user looking to upgrade (non-business use) for a simple storage area and being able to back up the laptops and PCs in the house.

Problem not solved:

Perhaps not a Server 2012 r2 Essential problem but my WDTV Live can't access the shared folders. After installing the media server add-on for Server R2 Essentials the WDTV Live is able to see the server via the media server but its messy and cluttered and also reports no media found within folders.

With WHS I was able to view the shared folders easily. Have not been able to enable the shared folders with the WDTV Live...

Big thanks for any help, Microsoft Server 2012 R2 Essentials seems like overkill for home use but I'm really liking it.

media functions were strange even in WHS and not much improvement since.

Try this:

Open media player on the server and do organize, and add the server folder shares to the library

As well checkout serviio

Thank you very much for the reply.

I have installed Serviio and things seem somewhat better, just getting Serviio's preferences setup. Dont' need artists/date/etc. info and I'm setting it in preferences.

Just need a simple media folder structure:

Video folder/Videofile + Videofile.jpg

Picture Folder/JPGs

Music Folder/MP3s

Was hoping share folders would be the simple way to go but WDTV still can't access shared folders from server.

Don't really need transcoding because WDTV handles the x264 and VLC handles it on the family PCs.

So close to finish now, I'll bug in another thread about anywhere access as it's just a bonus and not really needed.

Again, thank you for help, just need to figure out how to un-install the microsoft media server now...

• Edited by Raycaster 13 hours 43 minutes ago

Hey, did you in the dashboard >settings>media

tell it to serve the folders you want?  If so and it's not doing it, you can turn off media stuff there