Home media server does not see files. Home media server: setup and application aspects

Probably each of us has a lot of digital media devices at home that communicate via WiFi or are connected to the network using a regular twisted pair cable. For example, I have a PDA, a netbook, a couple of laptops, a couple of computers and a couple more smartphones. The latter (a pair of Nokia 5800 Xpress Music), due to the fact that they are always at hand even in the bathroom or in bed, turned out to be the most frequently used devices. Fortunately, surfing, communication via GTalk/Skype, and simple time-killer toys are all available. But the devices only have 8 GB of memory, so you can’t put a lot of movies in there, and converting and then uploading each movie to your smartphone takes time, and there’s also such a thing as laziness! In a word, I wanted to be able to somehow view media content (and primarily video) from my home server at any time, without converting or making unnecessary movements.

Fable

In principle, if it weren’t for the fact that I came across the Nokia 5800XM, I would have solved this problem long ago - the ASUS WL-500g router supports UPnP, so all I had to do was plug in a USB flash drive. The trouble is that, despite the specifications sometimes found in online stores, the Nokia 5800XM does not support UPnP/DLNA and there is no third-party client implementation either. So what on earth should we do? Put an end to the idea of viewing deleted content?

The first attempt to break the impasse was video streaming. Judging by the RTSP protocol specification (RFC 2326), it must support broadcast playback control: PLAY, PAUSE, and TEARDOWN. Unfortunately, after VLC was configured to stream, it turned out that the pause request was either not processed by this server and only worked on the server side, or was not sent by the smartphone client. Moreover, in any case, in this way only the video file selected on the server for broadcasting was available, and not the entire media library.

But the first disappointment did not dampen the ardor; the search continued.

Next in line was Home Media Server, better known as Home Media Server - a program that provides media resources (photos, audio and video files) of your computer to other UPnP (DLNA) devices on your home network. After installation, it pleased me with the wealth of options and ease of configuration, but... I was completely disappointed due to the fact that the Nokia 5800 did not support UPnP/DLNA, as mentioned above, and the video completely refused to play via HTTP...
A working alternative was needed. This is where the media server caught my eye TVersity- the name came up in someone’s comment while discussing DLNA media servers.

So...

TVersity Media Server (free edition) is an even easier to learn media server, again offering us UPnP, DLNA and HTTP. If everything is clear with the first two protocols, then HTTP, as it turned out, is not so simple - access to the media library was implemented in two ways: classic and via flash. But first things first.

For starters, the interface. Friendly, and I would even say quite simplified. First of all, I immediately went into the settings. Hints for each option (even if in English) simplify configuring the server “for yourself.”

The most important thing for me, of course, was video transcoding. The server settings, unfortunately, are aimed at the average user, so you won’t be able to play around with fine-tuning codecs, but something is better than nothing at all, right?

Setting up the media library is also quite simple (and, unlike the aforementioned Home Media Server, does not require a long restart when updating); when adding a source, you can use special checkboxes to specify the type of its content: audio, video, and/or images. I say “source” and not “folder” because this way you can add external content: for example Video RSS or Internet Radio, as well as some services like Youtube and Flickr. By the way, please note that when you select a folder using the “Browse...” button, you will get crappy names instead of Cyrillic names, so it’s better to enter the name manually or copy-paste it from the file manager.

Well, we figured out how to set up the library. Now let's talk about how to work with it. And let's start with what all this was started for: watching videos from a smartphone. Happy owners of the Nokia 5800 know that the smartphone fundamentally cannot open the AVI container, and initially this was a big problem, because... local viewing of a movie required converting the video to MP4, but then third-party players appeared that supported this container. In this case, it doesn't matter - you just need FLV support, which is not a problem for him. So, as mentioned earlier, access to the media library is implemented in two ways. To view HTML pages in the address bar you need to specify http : //server-address:port/lib, and to download an interactive flash application - http : //server-address:port/flashlib. In this case, the last option is exactly what you need, so a bookmark with the address is created in the smartphone browser

http : //192.168.1.33:41952/flashlib. Well, now you can check what happens.

And this is the picture that turns out: after a short download of the flash application, the library directory appears on the screen with quite convenient navigation:

For smooth video playback, I had to play around with the transcoder settings, but in the end I managed to achieve an acceptable picture. True, the positioning slows down significantly, but this is not such a significant problem - you can put up with it.

In the media server itself, you can view the broadcast status, the list of addresses of devices connected to it, the status of video transcoding, as well as a log of operation and connections.

DLNA/UPNP

It would seem that's it. Not yet: after all, a media server is a convenient thing, and, of course, you want to use it to its fullest, which means not only via HTTP. In addition to smartphones, we also have a laptop with Windows 7 and a netbook with lubuntu installed. With the first one, everything turned out to be as simple as shelling pears - when I launched Windows Media Player 12, it immediately discovered the DLNA media server library and started viewing it without any problems.

With Linux everything turned out to be a little more complicated. From the list of cross-platform UPnP/DLNA media clients, I simply could not install XBMC - it did not have binaries for Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal in the repository, and the installed VLC - under Linux it does support UPnP - did not always find the server, although at the same time I It was great to access it through a browser. As a result, it was decided to look for another way.

As a result, one wonderful thing was found called a utility based on mounting UPnP server resources. Since the program was already in the repository, installation did not take much time. Now all that remained was to create a mount point and register auto-mounting. After some research and stepping on the rake, this was finally accomplished. All of the following commands can only be executed as root, so be sure to run:

Sudo-s

First you need to create a folder that will be the mount point:

Cd/media
mkdir upnp
chmod 777 upnp

Now, actually, launching FUSE and mounting itself:

Modprobe fuse

After this, you can already enter the library as a regular folder and open its contents in any convenient programs as regular files.

By the way, I have not found any mention anywhere about the most unpleasant rake I found in working with djmount, expressed in incorrect file encoding. According to the DLNA specification, file names must be exclusively in UTF-8 format, therefore TVersity Media Server does not even have a file name encoding setting. Judging by the message, when mounting, djmount also uses this encoding by default - UTF-8. But the file manager, as well as the console, stubbornly refused to display the usual letters in file names, replacing them everywhere with question marks. Attempts to specify the CP1251 or IBM-866 encoding did not lead to complete success, although now it was possible to at least look into the Cyrillic folders. To my complete surprise, the solution to the situation was to directly indicate the use of UTF-8 encoding - I don’t know why I decided to try it, but it worked!

Autostart also turned out to be not an easy task, but then Google came to the rescue, and as it turned out, the problem with the impossibility of automounting from fstab had already been solved. As a result, mounting occurs every time the network is brought up. This is done as follows. Let's create a script:

Cd /etc/network/if-up.d
nano djmount

Script contents:

# Not for loopback!
[ "$IFACE" != "lo" ] || exit 0

Modprobe fuse
fusermount -u /media/upnp
djmount -o iocharset=UTF-8,allow_other /media/upnp

We set the attributes for it:

Chmod 755 djmount
chown root djmount
chgrp root djmount

That's all it really is now. The media library is accessible from any device in any possible/convenient way.

This is possible when connecting the TV and computer to the same network, or when connecting directly. After that, all that remains is to launch DLNA and watch the desired movie or photo. This is quite convenient, because it is much more pleasant to show a large company photos, videos, or make a presentation on the big screen.

There are many different programs that allow you to do this. Among them, it is often recommended. And indeed this application has shown itself well in practice. Therefore, in today's article, we will show an example using this particular program.

This home media server is quite versatile and is capable of running a DLNA server that is compatible with any TV (and indeed with many devices, for example, game consoles) that can work using this technology. If the TV is capable of connecting wirelessly, or has a connector for connecting a network cable, then there is a high probability that it supports DLNA. In general, the program itself has many different settings, so standard applications for TVs are very inferior to it.

Today’s article itself will be useful to owners of TVs from almost any manufacturer. After all, as already noted, a home media server is a third-party program that has great functionality and broad capabilities, which allows it to work with any equipment. And it's also free.

Today we will look in detail only at ways to give TV access to the necessary folders on a computer, instructions on how to create a server and watch movies using it.

For reference, this example used an LG 32LN575U TV, an ASUS RT-N13U router, and an ASUS R56CM laptop.

Establishing a connection between the TV and computer

As you already understood, in order to be able to watch video from a computer through a TV, you need to establish a connection between these two devices. If you have them already connected to each other, then you can skip this step and proceed to the next one.

Well, if your TV is not yet connected to your PC, then you can do this through a router. Thus, without unnecessary hassles, you can connect the TV itself to your computer via Wi-Fi. Another TV can be connected using a router. The most important thing is that both devices work with the same router.

In case there is no home Wi-Fi

When you don’t have a router, and therefore don’t have a wireless network at home, you can connect your TV to your laptop using a network cable directly.

It will look like this:

This connection method is quite reliable, so there should not be any problems here. The downside is the presence of a cable that connects these two devices. Even if the TV does not see such a connection, you can still play multimedia files through the Home Media Server program.

It is quite possible that it is possible to actually connect a TV to a computer. But we have not yet begun to check this and look for ways to implement such an idea. Most likely, you can do this using your laptop as a router.

Having connected the computer to the TV, we proceed to the settings for the DLNA server.

Setting up “Home Media Server”

Of course, first of all, we need the program itself. You can download it from the official resource https://www.homemediaserver.ru/index.htm and then install it. On the developers website, click on the download button.

After this, save the archive with the program to your PC. After which, it must be unpacked. There will be a “setup” file, run it and follow the instructions to install the application. When the program is installed, a shortcut will appear on your desktop. Start Home Media Server.

Now we will specify in the settings all types of multimedia files and folders that will be available for viewing on the TV. We go into settings, at the top of the program window there is a corresponding button.

In the settings window, go to the media resources tab. Several standard folders with music, pictures and videos will already be indicated there. Here we can add our own and edit the type of files that will be displayed on the TV.

In order not to rummage through folders too much in search of the desired video or photo, it is better to open access to local drives. Check the box next to the appropriate item (or make sure it is there).

Activating this option will provide the ability to access from the TV any files that are on all local drives.

In order to add individual directories with files or, for example, an external HDD, click on the “Add” button on the right. Then find the desired folder or external device and select it.

The plate in the center displays all the folders that are accessible to the TV. This shows the type of files that can be viewed in these directories. In general, this is the main setting necessary for us, but the program has many other useful parameters that can be configured.

After you're done, you'll need to save these settings. Click on the “OK” button and agree to scan the directories.

The program will scan the selected directories for some time. After this, you can start starting the DLNA server. On the top menu, click on the start button. A message indicating that the server started successfully should appear.

We turn on our TV and open, on the computer, in the program, the tab with playback devices. In the right corner, click on the “Update” button. After this, the TV should appear in the list.

If this does not happen and the Home Media Server does not find anything and the connected devices are not shown on the TV itself, then you need to check the connection itself. Make sure your TV and PC are connected.

In some cases, the operation of the media server may be blocked by antivirus programs and firewalls. In this case, add this application to the exceptions and try again.

If everything is successfully detected, you can start viewing media files. We'll start with photos. In the top menu, select the desired file type, in this case it is a photo.

Next, in the central part of the window, you can select the desired directory and find suitable files in it. When the desired photo is selected, simply right-click on it and move the cursor to the “Play to” line and then select your TV.

This photo will instantly appear on the TV screen.

In the same way, you can launch and play videos and music. This is just one way to play files by running them from a media server. But this method is not very comfortable. In many cases, it is much more convenient to search for the necessary files on the TV itself and then launch them.

By the way, if you close the window of a running program, it will be hidden in the notification panel.

But the server itself will not stop and will continue to work.

Opening files via TV

After the server is started, we return to our TV.

Typically, TVs have a special program that allows you to work with a DLNA server. In our case, this is Smart Share. But perhaps, in other examples, it could be a completely different program.

If you have a TV like in our case (LG), then you need to go to the Smart TV menu (press the blue button on the remote control) and then find and launch Smart Share. True, if it supports DLNA technology, then everything may be completely different.

Open the tab for connected devices. The server running on the computer should be displayed there.

Fable

But the first disappointment did not dampen the ardor; the search continued.

So...

http : //192.168.1.33:41952/flashlib. Well, now you can check what happens.

And this is the picture that turns out: after a short download of the flash application, the library directory appears on the screen with quite convenient navigation:

In the media server itself, you can view the broadcast status, the list of addresses of devices connected to it, the status of video transcoding, as well as a log of operation and connections.

DLNA/UPNP

Sudo-s

First you need to create a folder that will be the mount point:

Cd/media
mkdir upnp
chmod 777 upnp

Now, actually, launching FUSE and mounting itself:

Modprobe fuse

After this, you can already enter the library as a regular folder and open its contents in any convenient programs as regular files.

Cd /etc/network/if-up.d
nano djmount

Script contents:

# Not for loopback!
[ "$IFACE" != "lo" ] || exit 0

Modprobe fuse
fusermount -u /media/upnp
djmount -o iocharset=UTF-8,allow_other /media/upnp

We set the attributes for it:

Chmod 755 djmount
chown root djmount
chgrp root djmount

That's all it really is now. The media library is accessible from any device in any possible/convenient way.

If you want to create a home entertainment network based on your TV and computer, which will provide all the capabilities for playing content of various formats, then you should be interested in learning how to set up a home media server. Let's learn how to install the server creation software and then see what features it provides to users.

Connecting a computer and TV

Before you start installing a home media server, you need to resolve the issue of connecting your computer to your TV. It is better to make a wired connection between devices using a LAN cable and a router. Of course, you can use a wireless connection, but then you become dependent on the antenna power and the presence/absence of obstacles.

To avoid possible problems with playing movies in Full HD format, it is better to use a LAN cable, carefully laying it between the computer, router and TV.

The router, of course, must be configured to access the network, otherwise no media server will work. If you have figured out the question of how to set up the Internet on Windows 7, then you can proceed directly to installing and configuring the program.

Installing the program

Download the program distribution package to begin installing it. It is better to download from the official website, since the current and verified version of the utility is located here. You can choose two types of download - as a *.exe file or in an archive format. There is no difference between them, so choose according to your taste.

The installation process itself is extremely simple: you only need to specify the directory in which the application's executable files will be stored and decide whether to create a program shortcut on the desktop.

After assigning installation parameters, click the “Install” button. Wait until the installation is complete to begin setting up the program.

Setting up the program

When you first launch the program, it should appear with initial settings where you need to select your media device.
Depending on the type of hardware you specify, the Native Support field will display a comma-separated list of supported formats.

If your TV can play some formats that are not in the “Built-in support” field, then check the “Custom device” checkbox. Manually write the formats supported by your equipment and click “Next” to move to the next settings window.

In the “Media resource directories” window, you need to make directories or local and network drives visible to your device (“share”). By default, standard folders are open, but to avoid confusion with them, it is better to allow access to local drives. To perform this procedure, check the boxes of the drives that you want to make available through the media server and click the “Scan” button.

You can also manually add directories or external media. To do this, click the “Add” button, select the directory you need and start the scanning process.

After scanning local and removable drives, in the program interface you can see a complete list of audio, video and photos stored on your computer.

Remember that the more multimedia information the program has to check, the longer it will take to launch, so do not overdo it with the number of “shared” directories.

The next setting item is backup settings. You can specify your path to store the backup used to restore program data, or leave everything as is.

After clicking the “Run” button, the backup process will begin. You can specify which parameters you want to save in the backup file by checking them. After completing the data backup procedure, click the “Close” button.

Starting the server

After setting up all the important parameters, you can proceed directly to enabling the DLNA server on your computer. To do this, click on the “Launch” button - a message will appear on the screen that the start was successful.

After starting the server, you need to turn on the TV. If the connection is established correctly, it will appear on the “Playback Devices” tab in the program. If the list is empty, update it using the special button on the right panel.

Test the server by running files from your computer on your TV screen:

If the Home Media Server program is configured correctly, the file you launched from your computer will appear on the TV screen. But opening media files from a computer is not always convenient, so you need to learn how to additionally launch them directly on the TV.

To prevent the program from disturbing you on your computer, close it by clicking on the red cross. The work of the home server will not be completed, since the application will not turn off completely, but will only be minimized to the system tray.

Viewing files on TV

After setting up the server on your computer, you can go to the TV and try to open “shared” folders through it. Different TV models connect to the created server in their own way. For example, LG devices have a built-in Smart Share app.

Select the created home server as the signal source. If this item is not on the list, update the list of sources.

Don't forget to configure your firewall by temporarily disabling it; otherwise, the firewall will block the TV's attempts to connect to the home server.

After selecting the signal source, you will see a directory of folders, among which there will be directories “shared” on the computer. You can launch available files and watch them on your TV screen.

Possible applications

The Home Media Server program provides users with several interesting features that allow them to expand the functionality of a regular TV into a true home entertainment center.

Interactive television

To enjoy all the benefits of interactive broadcasting, you can set up Rostelecom television. But there is another option that allows you to do without concluding an additional agreement with the provider - download an interactive television playlist and launch it through your home media server.

For IPTV to work, you need to install the VLC Player program. Installing this application will not be difficult even for a novice user, since the convenient installation wizard does everything automatically - all you have to do is click the “Next” button.

The next step is to restart the home media server, which is done by clicking a special button on the top panel of the program.

After this, you can go to the TV and select the “Internet Television” folder in the media server directory. If you downloaded the working playlist and installed it correctly, you will see a list of channels presented in it.

Of course, this is not the most convenient option for playing interactive television, especially if the user has a Smart TV or has configured the IPTV function from the provider. However, if you have nothing but a home server, then using the “Home Media Server” program can be called the most adequate solution.

If your TV does not support Smart TV, but you want to be able to watch online broadcasts, then you can delegate some smart TV functions to the Home Media Server program using installed podcasts.

Podcasts in this case are files that allow you to directly launch online cinemas on your TV. For example, on the forum of the official website of the Home Media Server application, it is possible to download a podcast for playing and managing video files from the VKontakte social network.

Download the desired podcast to your computer and drop it into the main program window, as you did with the interactive television playlist file.

Expand the “Podcasts” section and select the application you downloaded for online broadcasting. Right-click on it and select “Update”.

Wait for the update process to complete and go to your TV. Find the “Podcasts” folder and select the application downloaded through the media server inside it.

After that, unpack the downloaded archive and run the “setup.exe” file.

The installation process will start. You will be prompted to select a directory to install the application. You can leave it as default:

In the next step, you will be asked to select the type of device with which our media server will work.

In principle, if the “Auto-detection” option is checked, the program itself will determine everything and set the necessary parameters for your media device.

Now you need to select the folders, or entire local drives, that you want to make public:

The program will then ask you to make backup copies of your settings. We won’t do this, since we haven’t yet set up everything we wanted. Therefore, click the “Close” button:

This step will open the main program window. You can study a little to get the hang of it. Then click the “Settings” button:

In the window that opens, select the “Scanning” tab at the bottom:

This will give us the opportunity to control the server and computer from the TV.

For example, after watching a movie you won’t need to go to the computer to turn it off. Everything can be done from the telly. Cool, don't you agree?

Now select the "Devices" tab and click the "Search" button:

Here again click the “Search” button at the bottom of the window. When asked to start the server, answer “Yes”:

The program will launch and its icon will appear in the system tray:

After this, a window will appear with a list of found devices. Find the TV and click on the red icon on the left in the form of a “No Entry” road sign:

It should now look like a green checkmark. This means that the TV and the server understand each other and are ready to work over the network.

After this, all found devices should be displayed on the “Devices” tab. Select the TV again and press the “Settings” button:

If you want to access the server from any device on your home network via a web browser, select the “Advanced” tab and check the “Web navigation” checkbox:

I recommend disabling the “Creating playlists of media resources in Web navigation mode” option.

You can now access the program via a web browser:

Let's check if this is true:

As you can see, everything works.

To view media resources on your computer, you need VLC player.

If the program interface does not open, go to “Settings - Server” and check whether the port number is specified correctly:

Also disable the firewall on your computer and try again.

Therefore, blog so as not to miss interesting material.

Now I’ll briefly talk about the “Transcoder” tab:

For example, you downloaded a movie in a format that your TV cannot play.

In this case, you can select a transcoding profile that will transcode the video into the desired format. Moreover, the entire process occurs during startup, without any preliminary user actions.

It is worth noting that in the program you can set transcoding settings according to three basic principles:

First: for all movies (example in the screenshot above).
Second: For certain types of video file extensions.

To do this, follow the path “Settings - Media Resources - File Types - Change”:

Third: for a specific movie.

In the main server window, select the desired video file, right-click on it and select “Transcoding Profile”:

At first glance, all these profiles, encodings, and so on may be completely incomprehensible to a beginner. It's very easy to get confused. To be honest, the author of the article also did not immediately get to the bottom of the matter. But in fact, everything is quite simple.

Look, at the very beginning of setting up the Home Media Server program, we indicated the type of our media device, in our case a Samsung TV:

After this, the application itself determines which audio-video file formats your TV supports.

And if, for example, you launch a movie with a resolution that is not in the above list, transcoding will start for it in order to convert it into a TV-readable format. I hope the point has become clear to you.

As a rule, you don’t need to change anything for Samsung TVs, so leave all the settings here as they are. We will solve all problems as they arise, since the topic of setting up transcoding in HMS is very extensive.

Now we move on to the final stage. Go to the “Advanced” tab and set the settings as in the screenshot below:

Now the program will automatically load and quietly hang peacefully in Windows system services.

Let's return to the main program window once again. Let's describe the main control buttons:

The “Movies - Music - Photos” buttons are used to select folders with corresponding resources.

The “Start - Stop - Restart” buttons control the server. In operation, the start button must be pressed (inactive).

That's all. The question of how to download, install and configure the Home Media Server program can be closed.