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Topic: DLNA server batlle: Ushare vs miniDLNA

The content of this topic has been archived on 4 May 2018. There are no obvious gaps in this topic, but there may still be some posts missing at the end.

Environment:
OpenWrt version: 10.03.01
Router: Asus WL-500gp (v1)
USB stick:  Generic  USB Flash Drive  1.00 MB (may be a Verbatim GO)
USB HD: WD   My Book 1110     2018 MB
Media Player: a TV DLNA client that support MKV format (Wow!)

Goal:
Connecte th USB HD with mkv movie to wl-500gp and share them via  a DLNA server (because TV media player DON’T support samba share)

Results.
1) Ushare is light and fast but don’t permit playing mkv because it seems that it don’t “remux” mkv properly (DLNA is a completely mess and a full waste of time)
2) MiniDLNA  permit client to play mkv over DLNA but is very fat (need to be installed on external usb-stick and a large swap) and ofter crash with large number of files.

Help request: someone was able to start Ushare over 10.03.x  and play mkv with dlna client?

In my case minidlna on 10.03.1 with roughly 3000 files has never crashed. Also, as long as its cache is on external hd it doesn't use that much space (less than 3 MB). The only annoyance is the lack of inotify on backfire.

I've "only" 822 files but minidlna has spent more and more to index everithing.

Where do you run 10.03.1?, I've observed that with Full HD "Battle for Los Angeles" mkv that the  heavy cpu load of my wl500gp cause intermittent lag during play.

wbtit wrote:

Environment:
OpenWrt version: 10.03.01
Router: Asus WL-500gp (v1)
USB stick:  Generic  USB Flash Drive  1.00 MB (may be a Verbatim GO)
USB HD: WD   My Book 1110     2018 MB
Media Player: a TV DLNA client that support MKV format (Wow!)

Goal:
Connecte th USB HD with mkv movie to wl-500gp and share them via  a DLNA server (because TV media player DON’T support samba share)

Results.
1) Ushare is light and fast but don’t permit playing mkv because it seems that it don’t “remux” mkv properly (DLNA is a completely mess and a full waste of time)
2) MiniDLNA  permit client to play mkv over DLNA but is very fat (need to be installed on external usb-stick and a large swap) and ofter crash with large number of files.

Help request: someone was able to start Ushare over 10.03.x  and play mkv with dlna client?

ushare works on backfire. mkvs containing dvd rips are playable but mkvs containing bd rips would stop playing at some particular places in a movie and ushare is not developed any further. That's why I dumped it. Minidlna on backfire is almost unusable because it takes an hour to scan through my library. And it happens every time after router restart. In the trunk on the other hand minidlna work wery well.

wbtit wrote:

I've "only" 822 files but minidlna has spent more and more to index everithing.

Where do you run 10.03.1?, I've observed that with Full HD "Battle for Los Angeles" mkv that the  heavy cpu load of my wl500gp cause intermittent lag during play.

It's on a Buffalo WZR-HP-G300NH with a WD Elements 2 TB external hard drive. Building the database of those 3000 files (about half of it is flac music, the other half mkv files) takes roughly 15 minutes. My blu-ray player is connected wirelessly, and the bandwidth (130 Mbps) is enough for streaming 1080p. In my case the CPU usage during play is negligible, since minidlna just streams the files without any transcoding.

(Last edited by snk on 8 Jun 2012, 22:15)

snk wrote:

It's on a Buffalo WZR-HP-G300NH with a WD Elements 2 TB external hard drive. Building the database of those 3000 files (about half of it is flac music, the other half mkv files) takes roughly 15 minutes. My blu-ray player is connected wirelessly, and the bandwidth (130 Mbps) is enough for streaming 1080p. In my case the CPU usage during play is negligible, since minidlna just streams the files without any transcoding.

It seems that your atheros system is a bit more powerfull that wl-500gp broadcom cpu, enougth to perform well with minidlna.
At this I hope that soon the openwrt will be avilable for Raspberry Pi smile

Hi all,
I've further "deep" investigate about performances of minidlnaserver   on my router. I've tried to test some differente device to find the minimum power/feature needed to stream 1080p "heavy" movies without problem.

An older Celeron 1,3Ghz with 256MB eth 100MBit  has failed test, as too an eeebox B202 (atom 1,6Ghz, eth 1GBit) both with with debian+minidlna 1.24.
Only my Intel Core Duo 2 at 2,5Ghz notebook has successfully done its job...

I’m wonder about how well my tiny ARM wl-500gp with openwrt is able to heavy work! So I googled about mini PC ARM based and..., “they live”!,
there are a big flow of new devices with RISC like processor.
And openwrt is so perfect to fit in...:easy, small, efficient, software rich.
I’m wrong?

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