Using Freenas as a media server?

[RichTJ99]

Hi,

I would like to be able to add movies & other files (Mkv, mpg, avi, etc) to my freenas. I am using a WD live & have a samsung TV that has built in software. I am currently using my wireless laptop & PS2 Media server, but its not always on & the freenas has 6tb of storage which would be nicer.

Anyway, is there an easy way to do that?

Thanks,
Rich

 

[interpeix]

It depens on Freenas version. If you have 8.x you could use MiniDLNA, if you have FreeNas 9.x you can use both MiniDLNA or the recently released Plex Media Server.

 

[RichTJ99]

FreeNAS-8.3.1-RELEASE-p2-x64 (r12686+b770da6_dirty)

Is there a guide to setting up MiniDLNA? Does plex work better (IE is it worth the upgrade to Freenas 9)?

 

[interpeix]

The setup of MiniDLNA is very easy. You just need to install the plugin, and in the Freenas GUI setup the media folder to scan the files. Rebember that there is a bug in MiniDLNA with autoscan, so if you add new files you need to restart the service to make available to your devices. There is a fix, you can obtain more info in this thread http://forums.freenas.org/posts/73278/

 

[TomWaller]

I would strongly recommend Plex over MiniDLNA, purely because of the extra features available. The downside is Plex should be installed in a Jail (standard jail type) and installed via port. Well that's the way I did it anyway.

I evaluated a whole bunch of different DLNA/uPNP servers, like Mediatomb, MiniDLNA etc and although I don't need transcoding or any advanced features, I found Plex to be the most straighforward and with the most advanced features available if I ever needed them. The other issue I had with the other products is I couldn't easily get them to re-scan my folders. MiniDLNA straight up won't do it, Mediatomb just screwed my library up everytime - Plex just worked.

http://www.freshports.org/multimedia/plexmediaserver/