XBMC vs minidlna

Inxsible · 2013-11-22 18:51:15

I am trying to understand what xbmc gives over minidlna.

BackStory : I have a minidlna server on my desktop that serves up movies/music/pictures from my hard drive. I have a network enabled TV (in a different room) which I use to watch the movies. Music and pictures are useless because, the dlna in the TV doesn't have a good UI to access the music that I want fast (interminable clicks etc) and the photo viewing is extremely slow as the photos are in the 5MB range each.

The movies work great as long as there are no subtitles. .srt are not recognized at all and some other subtitles do show up, but they are not in sync with the audio.

I was thinking of getting xbmc installed and see if it would help with all or at least a few of my issues. I installed xbmc last night and checked it out sparingly. It looks like a fancy video player (at least on my desktop).

What I am trying to understand is that : Is xbmc a replacement for minidlna (or any other dlna software). Googling about it led me to believe that xbmc can work with minidlna too (as client server) but its much faster to simply share the drive as nfs for xbmc to read. Reading more about how xbmc can also be used as PVR/SickBeard/Couchpotato is intriguing too and I might incorporate that if I do go with xbmc. However I do not wish to go through all that just to find out that it is no better than my current setup.

Will xbmc solve any of my issues?
Do I need to have an HTPC (connected directly to the TV) in order to fully use xbmc? If so, I was thinking about getting the Raspberry Pi and get my hands dirty with it.

The fact that I can use my TV remote(with HDMI-CEC) to control the movie would be an added bonus. Currently only pause and play works on movies streamed through minidlna. Rewind and Forward do not

Inxsible · 2013-11-22 18:57:10

I think I just got the answer to my second question about the htpc being directly connected

XBMC Wiki wrote:

1.8 Can I run XBMC from my PC to my TV using DLNA/UPnP?
XBMC has some support for this, and more is planned for the future. Normally XBMC is meant to be ran on a computer/supported-device that is directly connected to the TV by a video cable.
Some files can be shared from XBMC using the built-in UPnP server and files scanned into the Video library. XBMC will not currently transcode any files, so only file formats that your TV/device can natively playback will work. This will only work with video (so you won't see XBMC's GUI) and currently does not work with add-on content.

IncredibleLaser · 2013-11-24 18:07:47

As the FAQ states, XBMC is a media center, not a media server. I use it to watch twitch.tv for example, organize music and movies etc, also with Sickbeard. As you said, using NFS is the better choice (in my setup, the HTPC is actually a computer I used as a fileserver at university back then, so the media is stored there) as you avoid the shortcomings of DLNA.

Awebb · 2013-11-24 18:58:58

I've been using XBMC for two years as my primary source of multimedia entertainment. So, this is how you should do it:

1. Server running XBMC, hosting all the files.
2. Every Screen you want to use gets its own RapberryPi with XBMC.
3. Everything, including the library is shared among all devices, this also works with the Android version of XBMC.
4. The small XBMC clients only recieve the files, not video streams, they decode it themselves, so no subs are lost.

So, if I have to be in the kitchen for an hour or two, I simply take the laptop or the tablet with me (yes, I'm Inspector Gadget), so I won't get bored, just because I have refused to do the dishes two weeks in a row.

Inxsible · 2013-11-25 00:42:58

Ok. So you mean let the desktop xbmc do the heavy work of sickbeard/couchpotato plugins and sort them in a directory. and the client xbmcs' on the rasp-pi's will simply access that folder over nfs and display movies etc on the TV ?

or did you mean something different by "server running xbmc hosting the files" ?

ANOKNUSA · 2013-11-25 01:05:57

Awebb wrote:

I've been using XBMC for two years as my primary source of multimedia entertainment. So, this is how you should do it:
1. Server running XBMC, hosting all the files.
2. Every Screen you want to use gets its own RapberryPi with XBMC.
3. Everything, including the library is shared among all devices, this also works with the Android version of XBMC.
4. The small XBMC clients only recieve the files, not video streams, they decode it themselves, so no subs are lost.
So, if I have to be in the kitchen for an hour or two, I simply take the laptop or the tablet with me (yes, I'm Inspector Gadget), so I won't get bored, just because I have refused to do the dishes two weeks in a row.

Is the server connected to a screen in this case? If not, why is the server running XBMC if XBMC isn't being used? XBMC's main feature is presentation: It doesn't organize, manage or serve files, it just shows a fancy list of available media and plays them on demand. XBMC can access files over NFS, but the remote machine shouldn't need XBMC installed for it to work.

Inxsible · 2013-11-25 01:34:42

Anoknusa, that's the understanding that I had about xbmc, that it was just a player with added advantages like ability to use TV remotes etc.

ANOKNUSA · 2013-11-25 02:35:09

Until I saw your thread, I actually didn't know DLNA was a thing. I have a multi-purpose server with XBMC installed on it, with all my files stored locally; it can receive content via UPnP, and offers network access (I use an Android app to control it), but XBMC itself doesn't really function as a server with remote clients.

EDIT: After having looked into this, it seems XBMC can serve content to other UPnP-enabled devices, though I haven't tried it myself; I just figured it could only recieve content via UPnP. But if XBMC isn't being used to play files on the server machine itself, it still seems like a bit of overkill compared to a plain old UPnP daemon.

Last edited by ANOKNUSA (2013-11-25 23:45:50)

Arch Linux

#1 2013-11-22 18:51:15

XBMC vs minidlna

#2 2013-11-22 18:57:10

Re: XBMC vs minidlna

#3 2013-11-24 18:07:47

Re: XBMC vs minidlna

#4 2013-11-24 18:58:58

Re: XBMC vs minidlna

#5 2013-11-25 00:42:58

Re: XBMC vs minidlna

#6 2013-11-25 01:05:57

Re: XBMC vs minidlna

#7 2013-11-25 01:34:42

Re: XBMC vs minidlna

#8 2013-11-25 02:35:09

Re: XBMC vs minidlna

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