DLNA Support?

[Zaerc]

obviously you are not a golfer.

And obviously you have nothing useful to contribute, as usual.

[teedge77]

no. just watching everyone bitch and whine, like you. as usual.

[Matthew]

I just tested a PS3 with firmware v1.80, and its GameOS shows the LMCE as"dcerouter: MythTV AV Media Server" on the network (automatically, on PS3 startup), like a DLNA server (or maybe a UPnP server, which MythTV supports since v0.20). But the Pictures/Music/Video sections under the LMCE server icon are empty ("There are no images/titles/tracks.") I upgraded the PS3 to firmware v2.01 and still the same status.

I can't get the media files on LMCE to show up, or any other indication that the PS3 sees the LMCE server except its icon under each GameOS media type and an empty folder tree under those LMCE icons. I have the LMCE MythTV configured as the default, which puts video files in /home/public/data/videos/tv_shows_1 , and I put some MPG video, some AVI video and some WMV video files in there, but I can't find them in the GameOS. However, when I run the ushare that's part of LMCE (ushare -i eth0 -c /home/public/data/videos/tv_shows_1) , ushare reports

Code:

1# ushare -i eth0 -c /home/public/data/videos/tv_shows_1
uShare (version 0.9.6), a lightweight UPnP Media Server.
Benjamin Zores (C) 2005-2006, for GeeXboX Team.
See http://ushare.geexbox.org/ for updates.
Initializing UPnP subsystem ...
UPnP MediaServer listening on 192.168.0.10:49153
Sending UPnP advertisement for device ...
Listening for control point connections ...
Building Metadata List ...
Looking for files in content directory : /home/public/data
Looking for files in content directory : /home/public/data/videos/tv_shows_1
Found 2808 files and subdirectories.

A new Media Server (in addition to the default one) shows up in GameOS called "LinuxMCE". In it are "data" and "tv_shows_1" folders. And now the MPG video files actually show up inside the PS3 GameOS Video:LinuxMCE:tv_shows_1 folder, which the PS3 can then play. The video quality is kinda jerky, even though I reencoded with (ffmpeg -i test.mpg -acodec copy -vcodec copy test.fixed.mpg) . Other files in the other formats (AVI/WMV/MP3) show in their appropriate GameOS Music/Video folder, but as "Unsupported Data" which won't play (they don't show at all in the wrong media type's GameOS folder).

But this shows that PS3 can play content stored on an LMCE core, probably using the DLNA protocol out of the box. If we can get the MythTV server to be fully recognized by the PS3 GameOS, the way the ushare server is, then all we have to do is point that server at the media stored on the core, and PS3s can be rudimentary "MDs", even using GameOS. Which is pretty snazzy, considering PS3 is a $500 HDMI HD videoplayer with a BluRay drive (etc). If LMCE could control the PS3 with Bluetooth the way the PS3 BT remote works, then it might be a more than rudimentary MD. And if Ubuntu on PS3 with its new RSX-accelerated X and SPU-accelerated MPlayer can run a real LMCE MD, then this might be an excellent MD.

[ddamron]

Mythtv SVN has support already for DLNA.  I've used it on my PS3.
The playback has some issues, ffwd, rew, etc... but there are patches available for it.

My suggestion:  Mythtv is NOT the answer.. as you will only get mythtv recordings, etc... I don't think you'll get linuxmce's media lib..

the current SVN of mythtv has support for audio/video files..

we could always wait until myth's 0.21 release.. when all the svn commits are in...

Just adding my $.00002

Dan

[Matthew]

Mythtv SVN has support already for DLNA.  I've used it on my PS3.
The playback has some issues, ffwd, rew, etc... but there are patches available for it.

My suggestion:  Mythtv is NOT the answer.. as you will only get mythtv recordings, etc... I don't think you'll get linuxmce's media lib..

the current SVN of mythtv has support for audio/video files..

we could always wait until myth's 0.21 release.. when all the svn commits are in...

Probably the way to go is to target using MythTV v0.21. In the meantime, we can work on getting MythTV to serve all of LMCE's media, as a DLNA gateway. DLNA uses a GUI paradigm somewhat different from LMCE's Orbiter, but which could use the Orbiter, called Web4CE. Maybe by the time MythTV 0.21 is ready, Web4CE could also be stable (its CEA 2014-A errata might be complete already) - the default DLNA mediatype/folders GUI is unusable for any reasonable amount of content. LMCE might just deliver content to MythTV as its DLNA gateway. And if patches make MythTV ready, even before its formal v0.21 release, then we can bundle it with the patches in the .deb .

Or maybe use the ushare server that's already installed with LMCE, but not running by default (GeeXBox uses ushare for UPnP, too). ushare seems to find local content in directories and serve it a lot better than current MythTV support, and serves a web interface. Maybe that Web interface could be hacked to be the Web Orbiter. And maybe ushare can be pointed at a virtual directory that is really all the LMCE content, with that directory as the interface between LMCE and ushare.

FILE TYPES
       The following file formats (extensions) are supported :

       Video  asf, avi, dv, divx, wmv, mjpg, mjpeg, mpeg, mpg, mpe, mp2p, vob,
              mp2t, m1v, m2v, m4v, m4p, mp4ps, ts, ogm, mkv, rmvb, mov, qt

       Audio  aac, ac3, aif, aiff, at3p, au, snd, dts,  rmi,  mp1,  mp2,  mp3,
              mp4, mpa, ogg, wav, pcm, lpcm, l16, wma, mka, ra, rm, ram

       Images bmp,  ico,  gif,  jpeg,  jpg, jpe, pcd, png, pnm, ppm, qti, qtf,
              qtif, tif, tiff

       Playlist
              pls, m3u, asx

       Subtitles
              dks, idx, mpl, pjs, psb, scr, srt, ssa, stl, sub, tts, vsf, zeg

       Miscellaneous files
              bup, ifo

I'll be looking into these interfaces and updates. Anyone who actually knows what they're doing with these subsystems is heartily invited to comment.

[1audio]

Out of curiosity I fired up Ushare (ushare -c /home/public/data) and it started and found 2600 files to share. My Vista laptop doesn't know how to play them yet. PowerDVD seems to find the content. Playing HD over wireless is still troublesome (no surprise). Perhaps the fast fix is to figure out how to optimize Ushare to work in the system, and disable MythTV's server. Two servers may just make for confusion.

[hari]

i would vote for mediatomb. Supports transcoding in the svn version. Works fine with my PS3, too.
http://mediatomb.cc/news

Matthew: the bluetooth remote control would only work for the ps3. A generic UPnP AV-Control implementation would allow us to controll all Media Renderers.

best regards,
Hari

[dopey]

Honestly, I had some stability issues with MediaTomb (it would crash often after playing a few mp3's, or running for a day straight), when I tested it with my PS3... but to be fair that was about 6 months ago and those issues could have been resolved since then...

[Matthew]

Matthew: the bluetooth remote control would only work for the ps3. A generic UPnP AV-Control implementation would allow us to controll all Media Renderers.

The PS3 remote is pretty featureful, in terms of buttons. It does lack motion-sense and display. But it also has the advantage of being included with the PS3. Mine works (through several brick/etc walls) across about 70' from the PS3. If it could connect to multiple BT hosts, each MD could have a BT dongle, and control the entire LMCE network.

Wii remotes are also Bluetooth, and of course many mobile phones, as well as probably webpads and dedicated remotes. The DLNA GUI paradigm is to display a control GUI, like an Orbiter, on whichever display is best, determined by proximity to the control input device (eg. the PS3 remote) and size/quality of display area (eg. a TV in the room, or a BT phone in your pocket, etc). Implementing that function in LMCE would probably require more than the DLNA layer itself, but LMCE's GUI is flexible enough to probably map closely.

As of right now, it looks like "DLNA Support" is actually 3 DLNA tiers to support: data, protocol and GUI.

• The data is just the mediatypes and actual stored content accessible to the DLNA subsystem. MythTV exposes its own data. ushare can expose more data as a separate server.
• The protocol is served by MythTV and ushare as separate servers.
• The GUI defaults to a folder tree (with some virtual/views by metadata, like "By Title" / "By Artist") over DLNA in clients like PS3 GameOS. ushare also exposes a Web interface.

As of now, I see no missing features from the DLNA protocol support in either MythTV or ushare. ushare seems to find and deliver more data than MythTV does, but maybe MythTV's configs can be changed to support it all. Neither seems to support LMCE mediatypes like streaming audio or video (though that support might just be more obscure, but present), or "unconventional" types like messaging (eg. IM, email), web pages, videogames, etc (maybe somehow - no idea). I haven't explored either MythTV or ushare web interfaces for controlling media accessed over DLNA. Both MythTV and ushare default DLNA GUI, at least as it shows on the PS3 GameOS client, are barely adequate, especially for navigating media collections of any real size (nested folders don't cut it).

The main DLNA feature to ensure is supported is a unified collection of all media content, a single data collection, regardless of how it's presented in the GUI. Right now it's barely adequate, probably requiring two separate servers (MythTV and ushare). The question is whether to turn off MythTV DLNA and let ushare do it all, or get MythTV to do it all instead of ushare. I'll be looking into MythTV's configs for improving current function, and its improvement in v0.21 (which looks like it could be released sometime soon). Perhaps the LMCE v0710 bundled MythTV will support DLNA better.

After that I'll be looking at making the LMCE Orbiter GUIs work integrated with DLNA, if someone else doesn't beat me to that .

[hari]

As of now, I see no missing features from the DLNA protocol support in either MythTV or ushare.

you know what upnp av control is? I really suggest to try the free java software cideo.com.

best regards,
Hari

[rsreign]

But this shows that PS3 can play agreeable stored on an LinuxMCE core, apparently application the DLNA agreement out of the box. If we can get the MythTV server to be absolutely accustomed by the PS3 GameOS, the way the ushare server is, again all we accept to do is point that server at the media stored on the core, and PS3s can be abecedarian "MDs", even application GameOS. Which is appealing snazzy, because PS3 is a $500 HDMI HD videoplayer with a BluRay drive (etc). If LinuxMCE could ascendancy the PS3 with Bluetooth the way the PS3 BT limited works, again it ability be a added than abecedarian MD. And if Ubuntu on PS3 with its new RSX-accelerated X and SPU-accelerated MPlayer can run a absolute LinuxMCE MD, again this ability be an accomplished MD, ip pbx!!!