I have a PC I put together for my daughter and I’ve added extra hard drives to hold a lot of movies, music video, photos etc etc ect and I want to share these files with an Xbox running XBMC so I can stream the media to a TV, I have the Xbox connected to the PC via ethernet but I can’t get the Xbox to see the PC, The Xbox is capable of connecting through various protocols but I’ve only tried SMB so far, I have Samba installed on the PC and set up the shares to be visible to everyone but the Xbox isn’t seeing the PC let alone the shares
There must be something I’m not understanding so i hope this is possible
You’ll need to set up a DLNA streaming server on the PC … then an xbox can access the contents of the directories being streamed.
being streamed
I suggest minidlna (in the repos, but not necessarily easy to configure as there’s no GUI … the only issue is that the xbox is only capable of decoding certain filetypes … xvid/mp3 is fine, but h264/ac3 isn’t.
Dunno where XBMC fits into this particular puzzle … but with minidlna running on a PC, my unmodified xbox360’s can access whatever pics/video/music I put into the indexed directories.
What about mediatomb i’m thinking of ease of use because my daughter will be using this and setting up any future shares and there’s no way she’ll use the command line, but if you think minidlna is the best way I’ll go with that
I have been using Mediatomb with soft modded Xbox running XBMC4Xbox for a few years, without a hitch. Would recommend it. Simple web interface to add content. Transcoding might be a bit more involved to set up but never needed it. But your needs might be different.
I’ll get back to this tomorrow while I waiting on a post back I tried out mediatomb to see what it was like but it couldn’t find the directories I wanted so I uninstalled it now the PC is taking an age to boot up and when it does finally get into the desktop something is wrong with the network, it’s saying it’s connected but there’s no internet connection so I can’t install minidlna, I might just need to reboot the router but the wifes is on the internet just now and I’m losing the will to live
Thanks SeZo
it looks like i’ve screwed something up big time with mediatomb although it looked ideal and easy to use, like you I’ve never had any problems with transcoding with XBMC on the Xbox it’s handled everything I’ve threw at it
That is strange, how could the Mediatomb uninstall cause such damage? Unless there was some system package amongst the removed items. ???
Are you saying that when in Mediatomb web interface (localhost:49152) you could not navigate to the desired folders.
Were these locations mounted in fstab if on separate partitions?
[EDIT]
Just to add that recently (while decommissioning my old server) I have uninstalled Mediatomb (Ubuntu 12.04 server) and there were no ill effects.
That is strange, how could the Mediatomb uninstall cause such damage? Unless there was some system package amongst the removed items. ???
It may just be a coincidence but it occurred immediately after I uninstalled mediatomb
Are you saying that when in Mediatomb web interface (localhost:49152) you could not navigate to the desired folders.
yes the folders are located at /media/laura-paul/ …mediatomb navigated as far as that but didn’t show the sub folders which are the folders I want to share
Were these locations mounted in fstab if on separate partitions?
they’re on separate drives installed in the PC so I assume they’re mounted in fstab
Were you under Filesystem or Database?
When you go to the desired folder do not forget to tick full scan and recursive to add the complete folder and subfolders to the database.
I was in filesystem but I think the problem is one of the drives because I’m getting an error message trying to open gparted which says "input/output error during read on /dev/sdd, that could also explain why mediatomb couldn’t find the folders i wanted so it’s probably just a coincidence it happened after I uninstalled mediatomb
I shutdown and unpowered the PC and left it for a minute then rebooted and everything now seems ok except I still have no internet connection but I’ll put this to rest tonight and have another try tomorrow, I’m still undecided about whether to go with minidlna or mediatomb but I’ll sleep on it
OK I’ve installed minidlna & Mediatomb, I opened /etc/minidlna.conf but don’t have a clue where to start.
In mediatomb I can navigate to the folders I want to share in the left hand pane but when I highlight them and click the ADD button it says it’s added but it’s not showing up in the right pane, however if I select a folder in my home directory it will show up in the right hand pane so this might be a permissions problem
Although I can add a folder from my home directory the xbox still cannot connect to it, adding a source in xbmc is is quite simple I select “Add Source” then “Browse” and select upnp it should scan for any upnp devices on the network and list them but when I select upnp nothing is happening, so I can’t even be sure if the xbox and the PC are communicating
The xbox and the PC are connected via ethernet (which is the only way I can connect them) I’m using a usb ethernet adaptor but I don’t know if it’s working but it is listed under usb devices
laura-paul@OurPC ~ $ lsusb
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 007 Device 002: ID 14cd:8168 Super Top
Bus 007 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 006 Device 002: ID 0a46:6688 Davicom Semiconductor, Inc. ZT6688 Fast Ethernet Adapter
Bus 006 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 005 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
laura-paul@OurPC ~ $
I suppose I could connect the PC directly to my router to test the ethernet adaptor but it would be a bit of a pain because my router is in the attic but if you think I should do that I’ll try it later this afternoon
First see if you can ping your router from the PC with Mediatomb
Sorry SeZo but I don’t quite understand the PC with Mediatomb has no route to the router other than through the wireless card, how would that tell me the ethernet adaptor is working ?
Anyway here’s the ping results
laura-paul@OurPC ~ $ ping -c 3 192.168.2.1
PING 192.168.2.1 (192.168.2.1) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from 192.168.2.1: icmp_seq=1 ttl=64 time=1.44 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.2.1: icmp_seq=2 ttl=64 time=1.80 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.2.1: icmp_seq=3 ttl=64 time=1.84 ms
--- 192.168.2.1 ping statistics ---
3 packets transmitted, 3 received, 0% packet loss, time 2003ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 1.442/1.697/1.843/0.180 ms
laura-paul@OurPC ~ $
That confuses me no end. The usb network adaptor is connected to what equipment? PC or XBOX?
Or is the XBOX directly connected to the PC via the Ethernet (bypassing the router)?
If the PC is connecting to the router via wireless and to the XBOX via ethernet (via the usb network adaptor) that would not work.
Even if the adaptor works you still need a crossover network cable like this or a network switch like this.
Sorry for the confusion to be honest I’m confusing myself but I’ll try to clarify the situation
The USB ethernet adaptor is connected to the PC and the Xbox is connected directly to the PC via ethernet cable the PC connects to the router via wireless
I’m trying to figure out a way to do this and to be honest I’m confusing myself, bur here’s what I want to do The PC is to go in my grand-daughters bedroom and she wants an xbox running XBMC to stream media that’s stored on the PC to her TV, the router is in a downstairs room so I have no way of connecting the Xbox directly to the router, so I thought I could connect the Xbox to the PC
However a thought has just occurred to me I have 2 home plugs so I could connect the Xbox to the router with the home plugs (effectively ethernet) but if I did that is there a way for the Xbox to communicate with the PC if it’s connected to the router wirelessly ?
If you have any suggestions how I should go about this it would be appreciated
You would have 3 options (at least)
a) Connect the XBOX to the PC via a crossover cable or network switch
b) Connect the XBOX to a homeplug with the other homeplug connected to the router (PC connects to router with Wireless)
c) Connect the XBOX to a homeplug with the other homeplug connected to the PC (effectively the homeplugs acting like network switch)
