DLNA / Xbox success!

[radioz]

Forums like this tend to be filled mostly with discussions of problems, so I thought I would share a small success I had.

I was able to easily setup my hda as a DLNA server so we could play videos on my sons Xbox.

Here is what I did (for anyone else that wants to try it):

1. Install the DLNA application from the dashboard.

2. On the hda, open the file /var/hda/apps/dlna/amahi.conf in a text editor.

Change the last three lines in this section to point to the directories that contain your music, videos, and photos:

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# set this to the directory you want scanned. # * if have multiple directories, you can have multiple media_dir= lines # * if you want to restrict a media_dir to a specific content type, you # can prepend the type, followed by a comma, to the directory: # + "A" for audio (eg. media_dir=A,/home/jmaggard/Music) # + "V" for video (eg. media_dir=V,/home/jmaggard/Videos) # + "P" for images (eg. media_dir=P,/home/jmaggard/Pictures) media_dir=A,/var/hda/files/SharedFiles/Music media_dir=V,/var/hda/files/SharedFiles/Videos media_dir=P,/var/hda/files/SharedFiles/Photos

If you don't have photos for example, just put a '#' in front of the line.

As you can see, I have a share named 'SharedFiles' where my media is stored. Note that I am NOT using Greyhole (yet), so I don't know what paths you would use for that.

Next, change the following line from:

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#db_dir=/var/cache/minidlna

to this:

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db_dir=/var/cache/minidlna

This puts the dlna log file in where it belongs in /var/cache (instead of the /tmp directory).

Save the file and exit the editor.

3. In a terminal window issue the following command to restart DLNA:

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sudo service amahi-dlna restart

Give the system a minute (more) to scan your media directories to build its database.

4. Turn on your Xbox and browse to music, videos, or pictures. You should see 'Amahi' as a media choice for each media type you provided in the config file above. Choose it and you should be able to find the media you want! (I'm don't use the Xbox myself; my son had to show me how to do it!)

We just finished watching Apollo 13. Nice video!

[bigfoot65]

This sounds like something worthy of adding to the wiki. Can you do that for us? It would be greatly appreciated.

[radioz]

Sure!

[rshibley]

My Xbox 360 worked with Amahi DLNA without any fuss without my even doing any of this. It's good instructions on how to change folders, though. Maybe once I move to Greyhole I will need to change the media locations this way. Thanks for pointing it out, though.

BTW: I am very impressed with Amahi so far. Installed it yesterday in frustration with Windows Home Server streaming to Xbox; Amahi just worked perfectly, and I can even fast forward and rewind. Astounding.

[smartstradamus]

Has anybody been able to get thumbs to display on their 360 using this amahi dlna app?
Is it even possible?