Re: Smart Media Player Network Access in Fedora 20
On Sun, 2014-09-14 at 11:09 +1000, Stephen Morris wrote:
> Note that my comments were on using DLNA. Miracast is different
(and
> pretty much as you describe it) since it's focussed on screen
mirroring
> which is not the same concept. My TV supports Miracast and I can
mirror
> my phone or tablet to the big screen, something I haven't attempted
to
> do in Linux. If that's what you really want to do then ignore what I
> said earlier, but you should consider if it is in fact what you want
to
> do. If you just want to watch videos it may not be.
Miracast is not what I really wanted to use but under windows that
was
the only process that seemed to work, as when I configure mediaplayer
for streaming it doesn't get to the player, plus everybody I talk to
here are telling me that if I am using windows I should be using
Miracast. I figured Linux was similar, but I using wireless for
streaming and didn't want dlna streaming to be picked up by dlna
receivers by next door neighbors if that was at all possible.
Well, they're wrong. Use Miracast if you want to throw your Windows
screen onto a TV, say for a presentation. If you want to use your
computer to serve videos (or audio for that matter) to one or more
clients then you need to run a server package. I'm absolutely 100%
certain you can do this in Windows as well, in fact some of the most
popular solutions are cross-platform. There's a list of them on
Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_streaming_media_systems
A popular one is Plex, which runs on Win, Mac and Linux and has a whole
bunch of other features. I didn't need anything so full-featured, so I
opted for minidlna which is simple to set up.
Keeping the neighbours out is just standard network practice: use a
decent WPA password on the router, and keep a tight control on incoming
connections via the server firewall. IIRC the server config can also
restrict clients to certain IPs though I haven't bothered with that.
>> Some of my issues may be my modem/router not being good
enough for
>> streaming as well. When I try to get the device to play a video
>> directly
>> of my NAS device over wireless the playback stops every thirty
>> seconds
>> and buffers, but if I put the flash disk that the video came from
>> into
>> the device and play the video from there it plays fine without any
>> buffering.
> I have my NAS device and TV connected via Gigabit Ethernet to
Gigabit
> ports on my router. I would only use Wifi for video streaming if I
had
> no other option.
From my perspective I don't necessarily have any other option. I
have
my NAS connected to my modem/router/voip phone device, but not by
gigabit even though the NAS ethernet is gigabit, because the router
doesn't have a gigabit port (I can upgrade the router from my isp
which
now have a device that has gigabit ports). As the device is also my
home
phone, the device is situated next to the phone socket which is in a
remote room, hence I have to use wireless unless I run cables along
the
ceiling or floor between rooms. I potentially could put a range
extender
next to the Smartmedia Player and connect the player to the extender
by
ethernet, but is that really any different to having the player
accessing the NAS over wireless?
Giga Ethernet is nice but not really necessary, however real Wifi
end-to-end bandwidth is so vulnerable to factors such as other users,
signal reflections, attentuation etc. that it's always going to be the
least desirable option. And Wifi range extenders are a waste of money
unless you're very lucky (I haven't had good results from them), not to
mention halving your bandwidth.
For fixed stations a much better alternative is Powerline Ethernet (the
standard spec is called HomePlug). They can be had for around $100-$150
for a pair, and use the house wiring to distribute the signal from your
router. They work quite well (YMMV of course). The better ones include a
Wifi access point on the remote side so they effectively act as a local
hotspot.
poc