Amahi Forums

Up to now, I have had no issues playing mp4 via DLNA (TV).

I downloaded a bunch of files (80 or so) from a single location (a Coursera course), so the fact that none of them play via DLNA is not surprising, since they're all coming from the same place.

***ACTUALLY, I should say that they're not even VISIBLE when I try and point to them on my TV. So I'm not getting an error; I just don't see anything.

Some additional facts:
The files all play fine from the server on my laptops; this appears to be just a DLNA TV issue.

Ownerships are set fine. Similar to most of my existing files I've got the user:group setting on "my account name:users", again just like the rest of working files. All are sitting in a subdirectory of a movies share.

I've done some checking. Perhaps this particular group of mp4s, is different - perhaps a codec issue.

Is there any way to check the kind of mp4 file that I'm using ? Or, a way to convert the .mp4 file to a different codec (while letting it remain .mp4), in order to be able to play it on the DLNA server ?

Any ideas what the issue is likely to be. Again, I'm thinking the type of file format, codec, or something along those lines.

Thanks

Anyone with any ideas on this.

Is it possible that not all .mp4 files are playable via DLNA ?

One thought I had was to upload to youtube and then download. Seems a bit inefficient, but what comes out the other end may be a playable version of .mp4.

Thanks for any advice here.

Is there perhaps a way of modifying the miniDLNA player such that it can recognize a wider variety of mp4 codecs ? I notice that both miniDLNA and my Roku Media Player do not see this particular set of .mp4 files. I am certain this issue is related to the particular type of .mp4 file. This particular set is from a coursera course, so they're all produced by the same source.

Recommend you search the internet. It may be a codec issue or something else. There is probably someone who has had this issue somewhere in the world.

In the process of doing that. Thanks.

But it's got to be possible to install or configure capabilities within the miniDLNA software to play additional formats, no ? The software is set to play what it plays, so perhaps there's a way to extend that.

I have something like 80+ files, 1.2 Gb, so on logical grounds its smarter to at least explore the possibility of doing something on the server side, first. Hence my Q to the forum. I presume you'r indicating that the server-side route is easier said than done, so go ahead and pursue changing file properties, codecs, etc.

Best regards.

But it's got to be possible to install or configure capabilities within the miniDLNA software to play additional formats, no ?.

Thre probably is a way to do so, but you most likely will not find the answer here. There may be software limitation with minidlna. Probably would want to check out their site, maybe a forums area to pose the question.

I would assume there are tutorials for installing codecs in linux all over the internet. It's just a matter of whether minidlna supports it or not. Here's a link that might help.
http://sourceforge.net/projects/minidlna/

Thanks very much. I'll let you know if I end up with any positive result.

Simpler issue than I'd imagined: the joker here was whitespace.

The 80+ or so file names (all .mp4s), where padded with spaces and/or whitespace. This is not desirable.

I removed the spaces in a couple of file names and that did the trick.

The problem was, how to remove multiple spaces in each of the 80+ files without going crazy. I found plenty of scripts, but completely avoided these via the following command, which is issued directly from the command line (bash only), from within the directory of interest.

Works like a charm.

for name in *\ *; do mv -v "$name" "${name// /}"; done

that's it.

LOL Figures it was something so simple that neither of us could see it. Guess file names are crucial here. Alwayes best to not use spaces anyway. I try to always use a dash or underscore.