Universal Media Server | Forum

Hi,
I'm trying to distinguish my parent and children TV's by ading additional folders via virtual_folders parameter in custom renderer configuration.
I populated virtual_folders parameter with some folders in my custom conf, but this functionality seems to be not working.
Attached my tracing logs and configurations.

NB:
1. Another parameter in custom conf - server_name works properly
2. virtual_folders parameter working properly if I use it in global UMS.conf

The ability to specify global configuration options in renderer configurations is a huge "hack" the way it is implemented, and it will only work for some settings. Virtual folders is typically an example where it won't work. Adding a virtual folder more or less the same as adding a shared folder, the "root folders" (shared and virtual) is shared among all renderers. Alternatively UMS would have to maintain a completely separate "media tree" for each renderer, and that's not how it works. So, in short, I don't think that's a viable way to achieve "parental control".

There is an old implementation that makes it possible to require a "code entry" to enter specific folders, but I'm not so sure it works properly anymore, or if it ever did.

Another possibility is to run two UMS instances (using different "profiles") and configuring one of them with an IP filter, but configuring two profiles can be a bit confusing and requires that the two profiles are assigned different ports and are started and stopped independently.

In general I'd say that there's no "great way" to provide "parental control" that I know of in UMS as it is today.