Test Plugin of MiniDLNA - Almost works perfectly now.

Status
Not open for further replies.

Yatti420

Wizard
Joined
Aug 12, 2012
Messages
1,437
That is correct.. It's not avail yet via freshports..
 

BrianDMG

Explorer
Joined
Jan 19, 2013
Messages
70
You need to leave Rescan on restart checked. I'm curious why your plugin was not longer present.


I'm curious as to why that happened, as well. I was able to (accidentally) reproduce it:

I have MiniDLNA 1.1.0_1 installed (but disabled) alongside the version from your FTP. The FreeNAS 9.2.1.4 GUI offers an 'Update' button next to the newer version from your FTP, which (out of curiosity) I clicked. When I rebooted, the GUI reported that the 'newer' version had been changed to 1.1.0_1, and essentially wiped the config info for both. Once I deleted the 'updated' new version, all went back to normal. The confusing part is that the first time this happened, I had not clicked the update button.

In any case, I haven't had much of a chance to test it again since reinstalling it, because since I got a new router (running dd-wrt) I'm getting constant "connection lost" errors from the XBOX 360 that I'm using as the DLNA client (despite testing out uPnP and port forwarding). This happens with both versions of MiniDLNA. It wasn't an issue before I got this new router, so I'm going to assume it's a routing issue, despite the fact that uPnP should've taken care of it.
 

joeschmuck

Old Man
Moderator
Joined
May 28, 2011
Messages
10,974
You can install the Plex plugin and configure the DLNA portion of it. Your devices should be able to see that and there is no transcoding involved there as far as I know. I don't use Plex in that way but I understand it should work. That would be to test if it's MiniDLNA or your router (likely your router).

As for DD-WRT, I am very familiar with this firmware, been using it for over a decade and if you think this is the issue, you should be using the latest "Stable" version, not the latest version. Sometimes the stable version could be a year old. On my main router I ended up restoring the factory firmware because DD-WRT just didn't work well. But I have two WRT 54G routers which is what DD-WRT was originally designed for and those work great. I'm still using one and I have the second one configured to replace my main router should it die.

The best solution for you (assuming you are running hard lines) is to install a network switch to connect your house wiring together and then connect your router to the switch. This would take the router out of the picture and is how I have my home configured. I only have three connections on my router (WAN, LAN1 to Network Switch, and LAN2 to laser printer). My eight port network switch feeds to other points in my house where I have 5 port network switches to connect up other items. For instance in my living room I have the TV, Blu-ray player, DirecTv, and Roku3 plugged in. The DirecTv has a pass-thru which feeds my audio receiver. I also use static IPs whenever possible for these devices.
 

BrianDMG

Explorer
Joined
Jan 19, 2013
Messages
70
I actually have Plex installed and running as well. I previously only used it to watch my media when I was out of town/away from home, but I just bought a Roku 3 a few days ago, and the Plex experience on it has been pretty solid so far, so I may just purchase another one and cut my XBOX 360's out of the equation (and thus DLNA, since the only reason I was using DLNA in the first place was because that's what they support). Plex's DLNA menus are a bloated mess, though, when compared to MiniDLNA's default "folder" view (which you can get with Plex DLNA, you just have to scroll through like 10 options first).

As far as I know, I'm using the latest stable release for my router (Netgear R7000). I don't believe this router has 'official' support over at dd-wrt, but Kong owns one and is actively developing for it. It works perfectly in every other respect, so I guess I can't complain (plus Netgear's OEM firmware is usually pretty clunky). I don't necessarily need all of the features of dd-wrt, but I'm a hopeless dork I guess. :)

Interestingly enough, that is almost my exact networking setup. I wired my entire house with Cat6 ethernet (3 drops and a coax per room, keystone jacks) which all terminates into a patch panel then an (unmanaged) switch, which my modem and router are plugged into in a spare bedroom closet. I don't use static IPs anymore, but I do use DHCP reservations for literally every device I own, which is for all intents and purposes the same thing. I like DHCP reservations because I can change my entire network setup on a whim from the router GUI instead of taking a grand tour of machines in my house, plus it can handle mobile devices that static IPs are impractical for.

In any case, I appreciate your response, and I'll probably continue to follow MiniDLNA's progress if for no other reason than I appreciate its no-nonsense "less is more" approach.
 

joeschmuck

Old Man
Moderator
Joined
May 28, 2011
Messages
10,974
Yea, I use Plex now more and more but there are people out there who can't run Plex due to poor CPU performance. I think it's a good idea to continue to support those folks as well. The only thing Plex is missing in my opinion is the ability to detect a change and update the database, so it needs some tweaking to use kqueue. I have no idea if anyone is working that issue, I doubt it.
 

BrianDMG

Explorer
Joined
Jan 19, 2013
Messages
70
So, I just thought I would provide an update. I can confirm that, after having not messed with the beta MiniDLNA plugin for a few days (I've mainly been using Plex on my new Roku 3), I jumped in on my living room XBOX 360 and noticed that it has been updating itself. For whatever reason, I'm not having the "connection lost" issue anymore, either (probably because I've been digging around in my router setting up OpenVPN, etc and changed a bunch of settings). So, good job to whoever is developing this plugin, keep up the good work!
 

Yatti420

Wizard
Joined
Aug 12, 2012
Messages
1,437
Who is running with vimage? I noticed changes to how and when clients are found by using vimage..

Sent from my SGH-I257M using Tapatalk 2
 

joeschmuck

Old Man
Moderator
Joined
May 28, 2011
Messages
10,974
My MiniDLNA plugin has VIMAGE checked.
 

joeschmuck

Old Man
Moderator
Joined
May 28, 2011
Messages
10,974
@BrianDMG,
Glad it's working again. I hope your router firmware works well for you.
 

jeremyjo

Dabbler
Joined
Nov 5, 2012
Messages
12
I'm following this thread, having gotten MiniDLNA to work with my WDTV Live and Sharp Aquos TVs. I still don't understand the folder structure, but I started at the beginning as recommended elsewhere and the images I needed shared, showed up and I can use them.

I tried downloading the test plugin from the above FTP site and cannot get it. I'm working off a Macbook pro and clicking the link opened a username and password dialog which I typed in exactly as posted and no luck.

In any case, Since I'm NOT a FreeBSD veteran and have been pulling my hair out on FreeNAS for almost a year now - trying to do what seems like simple tasks, I guess I'll just wait for an official plug in release and start and stop the service manually for now...

Thanks JoeSchmuck for the help in the several threads I've waded through.

J
 

jeremyjo

Dabbler
Joined
Nov 5, 2012
Messages
12
I SEE that you say that, but whenever I look at the TV or WDTV DLNA connection, there are folders listed in there that have no correlation in FreeNAS. It would be best to organize media "natively" to what the TV sees so an operator isn't blown out of the water, but we can manage as it is for now. The refresh thing would be handy though.

Thanks
 

solarisguy

Guru
Joined
Apr 4, 2014
Messages
1,125
The lack of refresh is a showstopper. Although one can enable database generation at each plugin restart, it takes hours to complete. I cannot imagine people with large or very dynamic collections. Especially nowadays, when over a weekend a family can easily generate one thousand megapixel pictures and record in HD tens of gigabytes...
 

joeschmuck

Old Man
Moderator
Joined
May 28, 2011
Messages
10,974
There is a DLNA structure but that has to do with any DLNA server. There is a way to organize these by media type but that is all. You have to make some changes in the setup, they are not difficult but MiniDLNA already does the sorting by default.

As for how long it takes to rescan your library, well that depends on how large your library is. Mine was just over 200 movies and a few thousand songs, took a few minutes. My library is not down to no music and about 12 movies so rescanning is rather quick.

I just tested the FTP site using Firefox for the web browser and it worked fine. I can't speak to Apple products, never had any. You can also use any FTP client as well, just ensure you use port 1025, not port 21 or 22.
 

Yatti420

Wizard
Joined
Aug 12, 2012
Messages
1,437
I'm curious if anybody has ran into the problems I have with large libraries and being unable to keep 1.1.1 running..
 

joeschmuck

Old Man
Moderator
Joined
May 28, 2011
Messages
10,974
I have not heard of any. The last complaint I saw had to do with how long it takes to scan a large library but that was with the current supported plugin, not this non-supported version.
 

Yatti420

Wizard
Joined
Aug 12, 2012
Messages
1,437
I just noticed MiniDLNA 1.1.3_1.1 is now avail via Freshports.. I'll give this a go shortly.. I'm hoping it will cleanly scan and load up my library now.. This is the only issue preventing me from running 1.1.x vs 1.1.0 (stable plugin in the freenas repo)...

Date By Description
27 Jun 2014 17:21:07
1.1.3_1,1
miwi
- Chase database/sqlite3 slib bump

Approved by: portmgr (myself)
18 Jun 2014 16:51:31
1.1.3,1
wg
net/minidlna: update to 1.1.3

- Update to 1.1.3 [1]
- Update kqueue patch

PR: 191078 [1]
Submitted by: spil.oss gmail com
29 May 2014 18:19:56
1.1.2_1,1
wg
net/minidlna: fix multicast and clang build

Submitted by: se (via email)
24 May 2014 13:35:34
1.1.2,1
wg
net/minidlna: update to 1.1.2

PR: ports/189713
Submitted by: Bartek Rutkowski <ports at robakdesign com>
 

joeschmuck

Old Man
Moderator
Joined
May 28, 2011
Messages
10,974
Wow, it does look like there has been some advancements. Please do let me know how this turns out.
 

Yatti420

Wizard
Joined
Aug 12, 2012
Messages
1,437
I noticed that bug.. Haven't loaded it up yet might wait for more feedback.

Sent from my SGH-I257M using Tapatalk 2
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top