unRAID no longer tech friendly

[icedragonslair]

Have been using unRAID up until now as a home media server, but it has lost the capability to deal with new technology and I an now looking elsewhere for products that are DLNA compatible for all of the devices I have in my home. It seems a shame that this software cannot emobody the future that is DLNA.

 

No matter how much we hate DLNA it is indeed the way things are moving and will continue to do so. My old LG570 (BR Player) access the server with great ease, but it finally died the other day and having to replace it the new ones do not. My HT has an HTOC, but I have to use WDTV (crap) for the rest of the house, and my wife will not use them because "it is too much of a hassle".

 

So I am stuck keeping my server (12TB) for the theater only, or moving on to softwware that is more capable, 'future proof' as it were. It pains me to do this after all the work I put into this system, but oh well, such is life I guess. I will let you folks know if I find anything out at all

[dirtysanchez]

Not sure I understand exactly what you are saying, but there are DLNA options for unRAID.  You can load the Plex Media Server plugin and use its built-in DLNA server.  A quick search also revealed that the PS3 media server and media tomb can also be used on unRAID as DLNA servers.  True, unRAID doesn't have the stock capability to run a DLNA server, but the functionality can easily be added.

 

Here are just a few of the plugins that can be run on unRAID.  http://lime-technology.com/wiki/index.php/UnRAID_Plugins

 

Honestly, the best method IMHO is to run Plex Media Server and have Plex clients around the house (HTPC's, Smart TV's, Rokus, etc.).  The interface for Plex clients is vastly superior to DLNA.

[Automatic]

Not sure I understand exactly what you are saying

 

This. You literally just gave us a statement telling us that you're not going to use unRAID anymore and if you do, it'll only be for theater. My statement to you is:-

Give us a question, or, my reply will be "So?".

 

Although, for a DLNA server I know plex supports it, never tried it myself, although, I do see the process "plex DNLA" all the time running on my unraid server.

[dirtysanchez]

Although, for a DLNA server I know plex supports it, never tried it myself, although, I do see the process "plex DNLA" all the time running on my unraid server.

 

I do use it on one of my Smart TV's that doesn't have a native Plex client (Vizio) and it gets the job done, but it blows compared to a native Plex client.  It's typical DLNA where you see the folder structure and can navigate it with NONE of the visual beauty and awesomeness a Plex client has.

 

I'll be getting a Roku for that TV if a Plex client isn't authored soon.  I personally hate DLNA, but in regards to the OP, if that's what works for you it can be done on unRAID.

[Automatic]

Although, for a DLNA server I know plex supports it, never tried it myself, although, I do see the process "plex DNLA" all the time running on my unraid server.

I do use it on one of my Smart TV's that doesn't have a native Plex client (Vizio)

 

I have a smart TV and I've yet to use the plex addon that is supported naively supported. I prefer my HTPC, although, I can't compare it since I'm not downloading a plex addon.

[dirtysanchez]

Although, for a DLNA server I know plex supports it, never tried it myself, although, I do see the process "plex DNLA" all the time running on my unraid server.

I do use it on one of my Smart TV's that doesn't have a native Plex client (Vizio)

 

I have a smart TV and I've yet to use the plex addon that is supported naively supported. I prefer my HTPC, although, I can't compare it since I'm not downloading a plex addon.

 

I have a Samsung Smart TV that I use the native Plex client on and it's almost as good as the Plex HT client that I'm assuming you run on your HTPC.  Same look and feel, but a bit less functionality.  If I had an HTPC, I'd probably go that route since there's a bit more functionality, but since I don't the free Plex client for Samsung Smart TV's (through SmartHub) fits the bill.  I don't have any HTPC clients, mine are all either Smart TV's, Rokus, or iPads.

[kgregg]

buy/build small box that runs XBMC.  I use XBMC on Ubuntu pc to stream movies from unRAID 4.7 server.  Works like a charm.

[speeding_ant]

Have been using unRAID up until now as a home media server, but it has lost the capability to deal with new technology and I an now looking elsewhere for products that are DLNA compatible for all of the devices I have in my home. It seems a shame that this software cannot emobody the future that is DLNA.

 

No matter how much we hate DLNA it is indeed the way things are moving and will continue to do so. My old LG570 (BR Player) access the server with great ease, but it finally died the other day and having to replace it the new ones do not. My HT has an HTOC, but I have to use WDTV (crap) for the rest of the house, and my wife will not use them because "it is too much of a hassle".

 

So I am stuck keeping my server (12TB) for the theater only, or moving on to softwware that is more capable, 'future proof' as it were. It pains me to do this after all the work I put into this system, but oh well, such is life I guess. I will let you folks know if I find anything out at all

 

Bit of a wild statement...  The latest version of unRAID is running a very recent version of the linux kernel. There are a multitude of plugins that will do what you want. There are really no limits as to what software you could install on unRAID if you were that way inclined.

 

I'd recommend looking at Plex. It rocks, transcodes well, and supports many open standards for interfacing with its powerful backend. And, it's wife friendly.

 

Troll much?

[Automatic]

buy/build small box that runs XBMC.  I use XBMC on Ubuntu pc to stream movies from unRAID 4.7 server.  Works like a charm.

 

I much prefer plex over XBMC.

[icedragonslair]

Actually I have installed plex and serviio, as well as trying to get minidlna to run on 5.11.

 

I have gotten Plex to work but not to draw anything but one stream from the server, because anything more than one stream and everything becomes so sluggish it is unwatchable. (And trust me, my wife hated it). Even though plex ran okay, it still ran with errors to the point of not allowing a parity check to complete (documented in these forums), which kind of defeats the purpose of unRAID. Honestly I wish this had been able to work out, since my wife is in love with her apple tv2 ?

 

Serviio worked so-so from the start, but ended up more of a mess and much slower than Plex.

 

MiniDLNA just doesn't work like it should at all, as it can drop/stop at any time.

 

And in unRAID's favor I even tried flexraid and it is far behind unRAID...lol, even though it runs on windows so it is automatically dlna compatible.

 

All of the solutions are horrible in comparison to XBMC (frodo) or even MB2 (win natve), for an htpc. I do however have high hopes for XBMC v13 and MB3 as far as servers are concerned, or maybe even building a small form factor netop to serve everything separately, but I can bet I would have to listen to my wife and kids bit***ng constantly so it would become a full time job just to keep them happy...lol.

 

@ Automatic, I love the gui and capabilities of plex, but way too sluggish if more than one room is watching anything off the server, it is seriously a hog...lol.

 

And finally @speeding_ant, yes I did troll and have tried just about everything mentioned in here, I am just hoping this would become a matured server system and that it would actually evolve into a whole home entertainment server solution. Guess I'll have to wait, as I said.

 

Thanks for all of your responses & suggestions,

 

Ice

 

[dirtysanchez]

If you can't run more than a single stream from Plex without it stuttering or becoming sluggish, then you have issues either with your server or your Plex install. I have an i3-3220T in my server which benchmarks out slower than your CPU and I can run multiple concurrent non-transcoded streams (7 is the most I've ever tried) without issue. As for concurrent transcoded streams I can get 2 - 3 before I run into issues.  This is all via Plex clients though, not DLNA, but I don't see DLNA making much, if any, difference.

[PeterB]

I needed a dlna server for the sole purpose of serving photos to my digital photo frame.

 

Serviio worked so-so from the start, but ended up more of a mess and much slower than Plex.

 

Serviio and my photo frame simply wouldn't play together, although I could get serviio to work with my TV and an Android client.  The manufacturer of the photo frame couldn't get Serviio to work, either, and believed that it didn't implement a fully compliant dlna server.

 

MiniDLNA just doesn't work like it should at all, as it can drop/stop at any time.

 

This isn't my experience at all - My photo frame is in my lounge and, believe me, it would be very obvious if MiniDLNA stopped serving.  For me, MiniDLNA has been 100% reliable.  It also works with my TV and an Android client on my phone.  Having said that, I did convert MiniDLNA from an unRaid package to a plugin.  When I get around to completing the web interface, I will release the plugin for public consumption.

 

 

.... All of the solutions are horrible in comparison to XBMC (frodo) or even MB2 (win natve), for an htpc. I do however have high hopes for XBMC v13 and MB3 as far as servers are concerned, or maybe even building a small form factor netop to serve everything separately, but I can bet I would have to listen to my wife and kids bit***ng constantly so it would become a full time job just to keep them happy...lol.

 

I did some research when considering replacements for my two popcorn hour devices.  I settled on OpenELEC and couldn't be happier.  The whole family are confident to use OpenELEC - even my 4 y/o daughter can use it fluently.

 

My OpenELEC hardware consists of Mobo with embedded AMD 450 cpu/gpu, a 2 GB ram stick (originally had 4GB installed, but it simply wasn't being fully utilised), and a psu, all taking up very little of the real estate provided by the Silverstone case.  There is no disk or flash memory on the players - everything is held on the unRAID server.

[marcusone]

I'm sorry but I just laughed and needed to share why. My 4 year old can use my WD TV accessing unraid to play all his videos. So not sure what more needs to be done with unraid or how this topic has anything to do with unraid being "future" proof.

 

Sent from my SGH-I727R using Tapatalk 2

 

 

[icedragonslair]

PeterB: This isn't my experience at all - My photo frame is in my lounge and, believe me, it would be very obvious if MiniDLNA stopped serving.  For me, MiniDLNA has been 100% reliable.  It also works with my TV and an Android client on my phone.  Having said that, I did convert MiniDLNA from an unRaid package to a plugin.  When I get around to completing the web interface, I will release the plugin for public consumption.

Please do that, I would be very interested in trying it out, even though I have had no luck with plugins so far, I am game for anything. Oh and if it could load on server startup/boot/reboot that would be amazing since I really hate having to separately start plugins after a clean shutdown & reboot.

 

I did some research when considering replacements for my two popcorn hour devices.  I settled on OpenELEC and couldn't be happier.  The whole family are confident to use OpenELEC - even my 4 y/o daughter can use it fluently.

 

I will look into that since I have seen that mentioned with XBMC as well and my wife loves the GUI for XBMC. Which I forgot to mention she will only settle for something as pollished as XBMC (minimum) to even attempt to use it (her opinion of a complete solution, I just wish I could get unraid and XBMC to play together on the same system).

 

marcusone: I'm sorry but I just laughed and needed to share why. My 4 year old can use my WD TV accessing unraid to play all his videos. So not sure what more needs to be done with unraid or how this topic has anything to do with unraid being "future" proof.

Please post a video of your four-year old doing this; from changing source to finding the video and playing them please...that should include turning everything on, if you truly want to make that comparison...

 

I am just pointing out that being futureproof meant being a complete solution and though I have a 'WDTV Live Plus', I did indeed just return a 'WDTV Live' unit because of the lack ease and no Amazon Prime, which I feel is essential. I also tried to get iTunes and WDTV to play well together and although I have heard there was some success on the 'WDTV Live Hub', I will not be paying $200 for another device that only does a few things. In my opinion the way things are going, everything will be dlna in the next gen and even WD will end up succumbing to the demand or risk being left behind.

 

I am indeed looking into other alternative devices to link to my server, but I may end up just building a nettop for it to be accessed via win7 or win8 to serve off of that, right now my unRAID server is little more than a NAS, for which it is very well suited, but I was hoping for much more.

 

Thanks for all,

 

Ice

[Tophicles]

I did some research when considering replacements for my two popcorn hour devices.  I settled on OpenELEC and couldn't be happier.  The whole family are confident to use OpenELEC - even my 4 y/o daughter can use it fluently.

 

I will look into that since I have seen that mentioned with XBMC as well and my wife loves the GUI for XBMC. Which I forgot to mention she will only settle for something as pollished as XBMC (minimum) to even attempt to use it (her opinion of a complete solution, I just wish I could get unraid and XBMC to play together on the same system).

 

Ice

 

OpenELEC is simply a stripped down linux for XBMC. It *is* XBMC. I have OpenELEC on three devices here, plus two OSX and five Win32/64 installs of XBMC. They all access the media from my unRAID box (along with several iPads using AirVideo).

[Necrotic]

I am just pointing out that being futureproof meant being a complete solution...

 

I don't believe this is correct, to be a complete solution would be to create both the server and client sides. So should limetech set up competition to XBMC? Companies build on their core competencies, in the case of unRaid its the server side and they do a great job in my view. It seems to be that what you're looking for is a one point click solution, I'm sorry but it doesn't exist. You chose how to configure your system to best suit your needs. If you want everything on one box, go ahead, if you want a separate server box with frontends? Do you want to share the XBMC library through MySQL? Do you want the server to have redundancy?

 

I will not be paying $200 for another device that only does a few things. In my opinion the way things are going, everything will be dlna in the next gen and even WD will end up succumbing to the demand or risk being left behind.

 

Good luck trying to find a device that does everything. WD, Roku and others always seem to be missing something (netflix, hulu, amazon video, metadata scrapping, clean UI, etc) or they charge extra for access to content that is already available for free online (hulu plus, xbox live gold, etc). Even XBMC has very limited plugins for Hulu, netflix and amazon prime, but you have the opportunity to tab out and pull it up on a browser (they are limited by the API provided by those companies, and in some cases those companies actively pursue to prevent access by XBMC and boxee). Again, no one click solution for everything.

 

With regard to DLNA, I highly doubt it will become the end all be all. DNLA development has been slow, its entire structure is built as an industry coordination which makes it very bureaucratic and complicated to get any movement going, its been around for years and at most all it does is just list files and stream files as long as its in a compatible format (note, client also has to accept this format, not all clients support all DLNA accepted formats). There is very little benefit in DLNA, only reason why it continues to exist is because its a quick way for electronics manufacturers can quickly insert some extra functionality to their equipment (Smart TV's, crappy set top boxes as you indicated, etc). In any case, if it does become imperative, then it can easily be added as a default unraid feature with ease.

 

I am indeed looking into other alternative devices to link to my server, but I may end up just building a nettop for it to be accessed via win7 or win8 to serve off of that, right now my unRAID server is little more than a NAS, for which it is very well suited, but I was hoping for much more.

unRaids purpose is to be a NAS, and its alot more with the extra plugin's around. What else do you want on it? With some effort I am sure you can even get XBMC to run on it probably using some VM. But then its just backend and frontend together, easier to build a cheap nettop and hide the NAS away in a closet or something.

It seems like you're just frustrated that there is no simple frontend solution that does everything and it seems you expect unRaid to build this part to satisfy your need, so really were not talking about unRaid are we?

[kizer]

XBMC in my Living room to my plasma

WD Live in my Guest Room

WD Live in my Game Room

XBMC in my Office

 

My wife would like to get rid of the WD Lives because she wants GUI so my boys can find things easier. I personally call it being a Parent and picking what I think my kids should watch, but hey that's just me. =)

[bman]

I am just pointing out that being futureproof meant being a complete solution...

 

unRaids purpose is to be a NAS,

 

Yup, and while I empathize (somewhat) with your plight around DLNA, it is a NAS that I need to safely store and centralize my movies collection (so my four young kids don't destroy my Blu-ray and DVD discs).

 

Said NAS has to be large enough, quick enough, but most importantly stable and safe enough that I don't have to worry about it, and that's what UnRAID is first and foremost.

 

My WDTV Live works well enough playing straight from my two UnRAID boxes that none of us in the family is crying for any upgrades, wife included.

 

(My personal feelings on DLNA are that it's kludgy and glitch-prone; I haven't had great successes with it yet.  I therefore feel it is NOT necessarily the best thing since sliced bread, and I have doubts about it  becoming the de facto standard for home theatre appliances the world over.)

[lionelhutz]

Ever try the custom firmware and style sheets on the WDTV units?

[switchman]

I use the Pivos DS with the Linux based XBMC player.  Works fine with my unraid server.

 

Info:

http://www.pivosgroup.com/xios.html

 

Support Thread

http://www.pivosforums.com/viewforum.php?f=25

[mrow]

I use the Pivos DS with the Linux based XBMC player.  Works fine with my unraid server.

 

Info:

http://www.pivosgroup.com/xios.html

 

Support Thread

http://www.pivosforums.com/viewforum.php?f=25

 

Raspberry Pi would be cheaper and smaller. Throw OpenELEC on an SD card and you're set.

[dalben]

I use the Pivos DS with the Linux based XBMC player.  Works fine with my unraid server.

 

Info:

http://www.pivosgroup.com/xios.html

 

Support Thread

http://www.pivosforums.com/viewforum.php?f=25

 

Raspberry Pi would be cheaper and smaller. Throw OpenELEC on an SD card and you're set.

 

Not that much cheaper when you add the bits and pieces.  Not that much smaller.  Choice of Linux or android.

 

I have two of them and they work great.

[mrow]

I use the Pivos DS with the Linux based XBMC player.  Works fine with my unraid server.

 

Info:

http://www.pivosgroup.com/xios.html

 

Support Thread

http://www.pivosforums.com/viewforum.php?f=25

 

Raspberry Pi would be cheaper and smaller. Throw OpenELEC on an SD card and you're set.

 

Not that much cheaper when you add the bits and pieces.  Not that much smaller.  Choice of Linux or android.

 

I have two of them and they work great.

 

$42 for the RPi, $4 for a micro USB phone charger as a power source if you don't have one lying around, $4 for a 4GB SD card or USB thumb drive if you don't have one, $6-8 for a case.

 

That's 40-50% less. I'd call that a lot cheaper, personally. You can nearly buy two full RPi setups for the price of one Pivos.

[jamerson9]

I have two of them and they work great.

 

Quick question. How well does the remote work? Such as range, size, interference between remotes and WAF factor.

Would be interested in AIO solution for parents and guest room.

 

Thanks.

[dalben]

I have two of them and they work great.

 

Quick question. How well does the remote work? Such as range, size, interference between remotes and WAF factor.

Would be interested in AIO solution for parents and guest room.

 

Thanks.

 

I never really used the Xios remote.  First thing I did was add the Xios to my Logitech harmony.

I use the Pivos DS with the Linux based XBMC player.  Works fine with my unraid server.

 

Info:

http://www.pivosgroup.com/xios.html

 

Support Thread

http://www.pivosforums.com/viewforum.php?f=25

 

Raspberry Pi would be cheaper and smaller. Throw OpenELEC on an SD card and you're set.

 

Not that much cheaper when you add the bits and pieces.  Not that much smaller.  Choice of Linux or android.

 

I have two of them and they work great.

 

$42 for the RPi, $4 for a micro USB phone charger as a power source if you don't have one lying around, $4 for a 4GB SD card or USB thumb drive if you don't have one, $6-8 for a case.

 

That's 40-50% less. I'd call that a lot cheaper, personally. You can nearly buy two full RPi setups for the price of one Pivos.

 

In % terms it sounds like a massive difference.  For $50 more you get something that works out of he box without the need to build anything.  I guess it depends on how much you value your spare time.