Does MB3 act as a DLNA Server?

[Sammy 738]

That is the question.. I am awaiting delivery of a new Panasonic TC-P60VT60 and am wondering if the DLNA client on that TV will "see" the MB3 Server and if it does, if I can utilize it for playback of slide shows or music and the like.

 

I don't know if this should be here or in the "Client" sections so if the mods feel this is the wrong place go ahead and move it (of course you don't need my permission to do that).

[Luke 37184]

no. we have a dlna server plugin in progress but the developer was not able to complete it. we're hoping to find someone else to pick it up.

[CBers 6780]

No, not yet.

 

Awaiting a developer, who has time, to work on it.

[Sammy 738]

I would but I am not a developer. I'm thinking that I will have to contribute to this because what is happening with MB is the best thing I've seen for the server/client.

[Luke 37184]

All contributors are welcome 

 

This is one of the harder ones though. It's going to take someone who is resilient about finding and solving issues through trial and error because very few dlna clients actually follow the protocol according to spec. They make whatever changes they see fit, and then you have developers who are following the spec scratching their heads trying to figure out why their content won't show or play on certain clients.

[ginjaninja 539]

I have written profiles for numerous DLNA clients and Servers and used protocol analysers to try and understands whats going on and used intels upnp tools to help troubleshoot. Would be happy to help test but cant code.

 

From a non developer/user point of view some the challenges/opportunities are

1. A platform and profile interface per clientidentifier - which understands media containers, media streams (video codec, audio codec, encoding profile, channels, resolution, bitrate, fps) so as to control what gets presented as what, stream copied direct played and transcoded. This would allow a library to be built up of workable profiles.

2. A flexible mapping control between library tags/metadata and upnp fields - per clientid, so as to be able to allow user control for badly behaving clients eg. clients which dont support order album by track number  eg. present title as %track%. %title%. e.g A way of presenting a library image as a required upnp field in a required resolution.

3. A way of fine tuning the service responses on a protocol level to enable specific responses to specific requests, eg make a samsung tv think its talking to samsung allshare propriety software rather than a generic dlna server.

 

In my experience Plex had a very strong platform / profile environment, serviio had a very good library of pre-cooked profiles, and ps3media server was very light footed/quick to build library and serve esp. for clients that required no transcoding.

 

That said given the broad range of MB3 clients DLNA is hardly needed? - is it worth it?

And if it is needed there would be very few dlna client profiles to develop (as most have a full ciient) - maybe just the Tvs Samsung and LG and the PS4? possibly XBOXONE if it wont be wmc compatable.

[silverscout 7]

For Samsung I did some research, Developing for Samsung TV is like creating a webpage.  You are allowed JSon and JAVA mixed in with HTML.  My Java Skills are lacking (more of a .net beginner).  However, MB3 Dev team created a Java Plugin to MB3 that people with JSON and JAVA can utilize. 

 

Another option would be a bandaid and ductape application for samsung.  Meaning, load the MB3 page up in a frame and interpret the remote controls to the controls the site is expecting.

 

SilverScout. 

Edited October 25, 2013 by silverscout