DLNA problems with Samsung TV and Ubuntu

[paparozoumis]

I have a Samsung TV that can be and is connected via DLNA with my XP machines wirelessly.

There is NO WAY I can make it see my Ubuntu machine though.
I have the 10.04 and I have tried almost all the available programs for this OS.
Name it and I have tried it: Mediatomb, ushare, PS3MediaServer and others that I cannot recall right now.
These programs are installed with no errors and they look like they run correctly, their web interfaces work fine but that's all.

None of them has been ever found by the TV, -but it can see the native Samsung program PC Share runnning on the XPs.-

What's the problem with my Ubuntu system and it cannot be recognised by the TV?
It's not that it won't play this or that file. It's that it won't see the server AT ALL.

Any ideas?

[bilbo1234]

I have had trouble getting my Sony BD player to see DLNA servers in ubuntu. The one that has worked the best for me is rygel -- maybe you should give it a try. It appears to be quite DLNA compliant.

[Bone Down]

I am using miniDLNA zero issues, easy to setup and works with my Samsung BDC6500 wirelessly. running on a headless Maverick server, with the miniDLNA plugin for webmin.

miniDLNA : http://sourceforge.net/projects/minidlna/

miniDLNA Webmin : http://minidlnawebmin.sourceforge.net/

my file looks like this:

# port for HTTP (descriptions, SOAP, media transfer) traffic
port=8200

# network interface to bind to (this is the only interface that will serve files)
#network_interface=eth0

# set this to the directory you want scanned.
# * if have multiple directories, you can have multiple media_dir= lines
# * if you want to restrict a media_dir to a specific content type, you
#   can prepend the type, followed by a comma, to the directory:
#   + "A" for audio  (eg. media_dir=A,/home/jmaggard/Music)
#   + "V" for video  (eg. media_dir=V,/home/jmaggard/Videos)
#   + "P" for images (eg. media_dir=P,/home/jmaggard/Pictures)
# media_dir=/opt
media_dir=/media/FDrive/Series
media_dir=V,/media/Ext2TBXL/television
media_dir=V,/media/Ext2TBXL/theater
media_dir=A,/media/Ext2TBXL/jukebox

# set this if you want to customize the name that shows up on your clients
friendly_name=Maverick

# set this if you would like to specify the directory where you want MiniDLNA to store its database and album art cache
db_dir=/var/cache/minidlna

# this should be a list of file names to check for when searching for album art
# note: names should be delimited with a forward slash ("/")
album_art_names=Cover.jpg/cover.jpg/AlbumArtSmall.jpg/albumartsmall.jpg/AlbumArt.jpg/albumart.jpg/Album.jpg/album.jpg/Folder.jpg/folder.jpg/Thumb.jpg/thumb.jpg

# set this to no to disable inotify monitoring to automatically discover new files
# note: the default is yes
inotify=yes

# set this to yes to enable support for streaming .jpg and .mp3 files to a TiVo supporting HMO
enable_tivo=no

# set this to strictly adhere to DLNA standards.
# This will allow server-side downscaling of very large JPEG images which may hurt JPEG serving performance on (at least) Sony DLNA products.
strict_dlna=no

# default presentation url is http address on port 80
# presentation_url=http://www.mylan/index.php

# notify interval in seconds. default is 895 seconds.
notify_interval=1800

# serial and model number the daemon will report to clients
# in its XML description
serial=12345678
model_number=1

I tried others and found that this one has been the simplest, consistent, straight forward DLNA.
Mediatomb was inconsistant, and well the samsung setup simply sucked! miniDLNA updates newly added files automatically without interruption.

[Jonners59]

HELLO!!! IS ANYONE GOING TO HELP? NO REPLIES IN 5 DAYS!!!!


I have been trying to make this work on my new LG Tv for 2 weeks now. I even have my own thread, listed as solved.

I did get it going but then lost the share capabilities with my other PCs and Laptops.

I now have that working and the DNLA has stopped. I go round in circles. Tried re installing the miniDNLA and recreated the script, and the DNS which is what made it work last time... But it does not want to know. The Tv sees the PC (we call it server) as

server:root

but it can not access the media.

The folders where the media I want to view are stored in Partitions on a separate hard drive, so have created mount points, so I have added to the script these mount points as the location to search for the content. I.e.

media/shared

[Bone Down]

Sorry, I may not be much help, but I am certainly willing to give it a try. post up your current miniDLNA with in the tags and let's see what you have going on. I will make sure to check this and my PM's more often.

[Jonners59]

This is the config, though I believe that the issue is one of access to the directories, as the friendly name appears on the Tv as available DNLA servers and it DID work before I fixed SAMBA, which broke when I installed miniDNLA, see my Thread too at http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1630547...:

# port for HTTP (descriptions, SOAP, media transfer) traffic
port=8200

# network interface to bind to (this is the only interface that will serve files)
# network_interface=eth0

# set this to the directory you want scanned.
# * if have multiple directories, you can have multiple media_dir= lines
# * if you want to restrict a media_dir to a specific content type, you
#   can prepend the type, followed by a comma, to the directory:
#   + "A" for audio  (eg. media_dir=A,/home/jmaggard/Music)
#   + "V" for video  (eg. media_dir=V,/home/jmaggard/Videos)
#   + "P" for images (eg. media_dir=P,/home/jmaggard/Pictures)
media_dir=/opt
media_dir=/Media/Baroni
media_dir=/Media/Chiara
media_dir=/Media/Configs 
media_dir=/Media/Monsters
media_dir=/Media/Resource
media_dir=/Media/Shared
media_dir=/Media/Teaching

# set this if you want to customize the name that shows up on your clients
friendly_name=Shared_Media

# set this if you would like to specify the directory where you want MiniDLNA to store its database and album art cache
db_dir=/var/cache/minidlna


# this should be a list of file names to check for when searching for album art
# note: names should be delimited with a forward slash ("/")
album_art_names=Cover.jpg/cover.jpg/AlbumArtSmall.jpg/albumartsmall.jpg/AlbumArt.jpg/albumart.jpg/Album.jpg/album.jpg/Folder.jpg/folder.jpg/Thumb.jpg/thumb.jpg

# set this to no to disable inotify monitoring to automatically discover new files
# note: the default is yes
inotify=yes

# set this to yes to enable support for streaming .jpg and .mp3 files to a TiVo supporting HMO
enable_tivo=no

# set this to strictly adhere to DLNA standards.
# This will allow server-side downscaling of very large JPEG images which may hurt JPEG serving performance on (at least) Sony DLNA products.
strict_dlna=no


# default presentation url is http address on port 80
# presentation_url=http://www.mylan/index.php

# notify interval in seconds. default is 895 seconds.
notify_interval=1800

# serial and model number the daemon will report to clients
# in its XML description
serial=12345678
model_number=1

[Bone Down]

This is the config, though I believe that the issue is one of access to the directories, as the friendly name appears on the Tv as available DNLA servers and it DID work before I fixed SAMBA, which broke when I installed miniDNLA, see my Thread too at http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1630547...:

# port for HTTP (descriptions, SOAP, media transfer) traffic
port=8200

# network interface to bind to (this is the only interface that will serve files)
# network_interface=eth0

# set this to the directory you want scanned.
# * if have multiple directories, you can have multiple media_dir= lines
# * if you want to restrict a media_dir to a specific content type, you
#   can prepend the type, followed by a comma, to the directory:
#   + "A" for audio  (eg. media_dir=A,/home/jmaggard/Music)
#   + "V" for video  (eg. media_dir=V,/home/jmaggard/Videos)
#   + "P" for images (eg. media_dir=P,/home/jmaggard/Pictures)
media_dir=/opt
media_dir=/Media/Baroni
media_dir=/Media/Chiara
media_dir=/Media/Configs 
media_dir=/Media/Monsters
media_dir=/Media/Resource
media_dir=/Media/Shared
media_dir=/Media/Teaching

# set this if you want to customize the name that shows up on your clients
friendly_name=Shared_Media

# set this if you would like to specify the directory where you want MiniDLNA to store its database and album art cache
db_dir=/var/cache/minidlna


# this should be a list of file names to check for when searching for album art
# note: names should be delimited with a forward slash ("/")
album_art_names=Cover.jpg/cover.jpg/AlbumArtSmall.jpg/albumartsmall.jpg/AlbumArt.jpg/albumart.jpg/Album.jpg/album.jpg/Folder.jpg/folder.jpg/Thumb.jpg/thumb.jpg

# set this to no to disable inotify monitoring to automatically discover new files
# note: the default is yes
inotify=yes

# set this to yes to enable support for streaming .jpg and .mp3 files to a TiVo supporting HMO
enable_tivo=no

# set this to strictly adhere to DLNA standards.
# This will allow server-side downscaling of very large JPEG images which may hurt JPEG serving performance on (at least) Sony DLNA products.
strict_dlna=no


# default presentation url is http address on port 80
# presentation_url=http://www.mylan/index.php

# notify interval in seconds. default is 895 seconds.
notify_interval=1800

# serial and model number the daemon will report to clients
# in its XML description
serial=12345678
model_number=1

Your miniDLNA config appears to be in order, aside from sorting them via:
# + "A" for audio (eg. media_dir=A,/home/jmaggard/Music)
# + "V" for video (eg. media_dir=V,/home/jmaggard/Videos)
# + "P" for images (eg. media_dir=P,/home/jmaggard/Pictures)
which I believe is purely optional.
I would also check your samba settings and make sure all the directories listed above have the proper share settings.

[Bone Down]

do you have this file setup properly so that miniDLNA will start and stop?

#!/bin/sh

# chkconfig: 345 99 10
# description: Startup/shutdown script for MiniDLNA daemon
#
# $Id: minidlna.init.d.script,v 1.2 2009/07/02 00:33:15 jmaggard Exp $
# MiniUPnP project
# author: Thomas Bernard
# website: http://miniupnp.free.fr/ or http://miniupnp.tuxfamily.org/

MINIDLNA=/usr/sbin/minidlna
ARGS='-f /etc/minidlna.conf'

test -f $MINIDLNA || exit 0

. /lib/lsb/init-functions

case "$1" in
start)  log_daemon_msg "Starting minidlna" "minidlna"
        start-stop-daemon --start --quiet --pidfile /var/run/minidlna.pid --startas $MINIDLNA -- $ARGS $LSBNAMES
        log_end_msg $?
        ;;
stop)   log_daemon_msg "Stopping minidlna" "minidlna"
        start-stop-daemon --stop --quiet --pidfile /var/run/minidlna.pid
        log_end_msg $?
        ;;
restart|reload|force-reload)
        log_daemon_msg "Restarting minidlna" "minidlna"
        start-stop-daemon --stop --retry 5 --quiet --pidfile /var/run/minidlna.pid
        start-stop-daemon --start --quiet --pidfile /var/run/minidlna.pid --startas $MINIDLNA -- $ARGS $LSBNAMES
        log_end_msg $?
        ;;
*)      log_action_msg "Usage: /etc/init.d/minidlna {start|stop|restart|reload|force-reload}"
        exit 2
        ;;
esac
exit 0

[Bone Down]

here is a step by step guide that I found helpful, I am running Maverick and it worked out just fine for me. I am running a headless server utilizing Webmin; which happens to have a plugin for miniDLNA.

My suspicion is something changed when you fixed samba.

[Jonners59]

Your miniDLNA config appears to be in order, aside from sorting them via:
# + "A" for audio (eg. media_dir=A,/home/jmaggard/Music)
# + "V" for video (eg. media_dir=V,/home/jmaggard/Videos)
# + "P" for images (eg. media_dir=P,/home/jmaggard/Pictures)
which I believe is purely optional.
I would also check your samba settings and make sure all the directories listed above have the proper share settings.

My understanding is it should be optional, according to the file itself and some of the set up threads...


SAMBA is set as the following for all the directories:

[Shared]
        comment = Folder for sharing
        create mode = 660
        path = /media/Shared
        guest ok = yes
        directory mode = 770
        read only = no
available = yes
browsable = yes
public = yes
writable = yes

I can not recall how, but when I started it on an occasion it stated something like I did not have permission to access the directories, yet I can via SAMBA.