DLNA via MiniDLNA

Thu, Jul 29, 2010 2-minute read

I had some issues with Mediatomb:

  • I had to tweek the configuration to make it work with my Samsung TV
  • Adding Truecrypt devices was very laborious
  • My media folders weren’t updated on new files
  • Fast-forward and wind back did not work on most of the videos

So I decided to search for an alternative.

After a little search, I found MiniDLNA. The only thing I had to configure to make it work, was to set the path for the media files. Unlike Mediatomb, there was no extra configuration needed to make it work with my TV.

I found the following init-script, it works well:

    #!/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

Source: http://www.hifi-forum.de/viewthread-151-11576.html

In summary:

  • Works with Samsung TV without any additional tweaks
  • Adding devices is very easy, just enter a line in the configuration file
  • The media folders are updated on the fly, as soon as there is a new file, you can watch it
  • Fast-forward and wind back works on most of the videos

The only thing I could complain about is the missing web UI, but I don’t really need it.

This software is really great, especially if you want to use it with a Samsung TV.