No compatible streams are available

That title is an error message from Emby, the music, movies, and more, server that I use on my systems, so all our music is available. It’s really very, very good. But sometimes it stops working. And you get that error message.

All over the internet, you can find people searching for that message, asking what it means, and how to fix it. What you won’t find is anyone giving a simple, direct answer, not even the people who wrote it.

I don’t claim to know the answer in every case. But I can tell you what caused it on my system, and how I fixed it. It is worth seeing if you have the same problem…

When I set up Linux Mint on my big PC, the hard disc the music is on appeared to be in the /mnt directory. I didn’t decide that, it’s just how it set itself up.

I had a look at the directory structure, and found that the hard disc now appeared in the /media directory. I hadn’t moved it.

So, I told Emby to forget its libraries, and then added them in again with the right path.

It worked.

My favourite bouzouki player

If you know me, you probably thought that would be Markos Vamvakaris. But you would be wrong. He was great, but Halikias played some instrumentals that made a huge difference to Greek music, and he played them in America.

Music by Ki & Ki – very enjoyable

I can’t remember who lead me to look at Ki & Ki on YouTube. Sorry, whoever you were! They play some rather astounding pieces of music on the traditional shamisen, which is a fascinating instrument to any really bad bouzouki player, such as myself.

They were so interesting that I ordered a couple of CDs from their web site, and the CDs arrived today. With them was a signed photograph, and it had a personal message on the back. The only other band I’ve had anything like that happen with was the wonderful Rembetika Hipsters (http://rembetika.com/) who are based in Canada. Anyway…

I‘ve always liked it when bands include posters and such like with their CDs, so this one was a pleasant surprise. It’s a bit on the psychedelic side, don’t you think? The message on the back of the photograph says they would like to play in the UK some day. Musical event arrangers, please note.