[mrjacobrussell]

I had another user name but the name was spelled wrong so i just created a new one

I have been working on a way to get transcoding to work with mediashare in my home for sometime. For me the challange was this is a windows free house. unix linux only and although I use linux it still has been a leaning curve.

Recently some updates to nas4free extrentions have made this simple.
I use nas 4 free as a data/virtual machine server in my garage.

This allows me to run some windows only software that i have to have like Mitchells on demand, Vida for my volvo etc.

Nas4Free is BSD unix NOT linux
http://nas4free.org
http://forums.nas4free.org

Step One
Install nas4free I used 573 but 724 is out now.

http://www.nas4free.org/downloads.html

Step Two
Install TheBrig

Step Three
Create a Jail for the Serviio install

Step Four
Share your media by mounting a folder form the main nas drive to the Jail.

See links below.

TheBrig
http://forums.nas4free.org/viewtopic.php?f=79&t=1654

TheBrig allows you to create and manage jails with little to no terminal work.

Jails allow you to run a second distro on the same machine keeping main files like the ffmpeg from interfering with other peices of software.

Serviio
http://forums.nas4free.org/viewtopic.php?f=79&t=1796

My server runs:
Multiple vitual box machines. (windows, mac)
Serviio for media share,
SubSonic to share to my phone when im not home all of my mp3s.

 

[BLWedge09]

I've been running Serviio on my home server (Ubuntu 12.04.2 LTS) for quite some time now. For me, its ability to recognize the D* boxes and transcode accordingly has been unmatched. Does a great job streaming HD movies from the server with only the occasional hiccup. Really, it only seems to have trouble keeping the bitrate low enough when it's streaming certain 1080P content.

 

[bobnielsen]

I've been running Serviio on my home server (Ubuntu 12.04.2 LTS) for quite some time now. For me, its ability to recognize the D* boxes and transcode accordingly has been unmatched. Does a great job streaming HD movies from the server with only the occasional hiccup. Really, it only seems to have trouble keeping the bitrate low enough when it's streaming certain 1080P content.

Yeah, the bitrate limitation can be a real pain. When recoding video I typically keep it to no greater than 1 Mb/sec. I use iSedora as a media server on my Mac and wish it had the ability to limit the rate.

 

[BLWedge09]

Yeah, the bitrate limitation can be a real pain. When recoding video I typically keep it to no greater than 1 Mb/sec. I use iSedora as a media server on my Mac and wish it had the ability to limit the rate.

Serviio's profile for the DirecTV receivers actually has a max bitrate built in that is passed to ffmpeg when doing the transcoding, but I found that with movies that were encoded in certain ways, it that particular bitrate was still a tad high. I just updated it to be a little lower in the profile.

 

[mrjacobrussell]

For me the issue is I dont have a desktop that is always powered up, Just my server.

This is more of a realistic solution for someone like me wanting to setup serviio in a home to serv smart tvs and D* HDDVRS with Media share enabled receivers.


Maybe D* will bring mediashare out of Beta and increase the supported bit rate?

it also works with my Samsung smart TV.

MINI DLNA on my DDWRT router also works but doesnt support transcoding

 

[BLWedge09]

For me the issue is I dont have a desktop that is always powered up, Just my server.

This is more of a realistic solution for someone like me wanting to setup serviio in a home to serv smart tvs and D* HDDVRS with Media share enabled receivers.

Neither do I. I'm running Serviio on my headless Ubuntu Server. A special NAS distro and the convoluted setup you have gone through isn't necessary...although it will technically work. You can setup Samba, NFS, or even AFP shares directly on the Ubuntu Server to achieve the same thing a specialized NAS distro does.

 

[mrjacobrussell]

I appreciate your candor,

My Nas4Free gives me ZFS and many other options I USE that are not always available.
My 2 x dual core Opteron server is never over taxed. It allows me to connect to my virtual machines anytime I want, even from my smart phone.

The server runs on only 400 watts much less than most new home computers.

Not over kill, I am a power user.

 

[BLWedge09]

I appreciate your candor,

My Nas4Free gives me ZFS and many other options I USE that are not always available.
My 2 x dual core Opteron server is never over taxed. It allows me to connect to my virtual machines anytime I want, even from my smart phone.

The server runs on only 400 watts much less than most new home computers.

Not over kill, I am a power user.

Still haven't mentioned a single thing that can't be accomplished easily on an Ubuntu, or pretty much any Linux server. If you just prefer a BSD distro to Linux, that's one thing. But claiming to be a "power user" and not being able to accomplish those things on a Linux server distro just isn't true.

 

[mrjacobrussell]

Still haven't mentioned a single thing that can't be accomplished easily on an Ubuntu, or pretty much any Linux server. If you just prefer a BSD distro to Linux, that's one thing. But claiming to be a "power user" and not being able to accomplish those things on a Linux server distro just isn't true.

All of my systems run Ubuntu except the server.

The server acts as a HTTP server / mail server, Servio, subsonic (subsonic for streaming to my phone),
NAS4Free is very easy to manage from the built in webpage managment tool.
I run several virtual machines.

1st I run one machine with virtual shared folders Auto Repair data (housing my Mitchells onDemand / VADIS) so it can be shared to any computer anywhere without compromising my networks security.
2nd For windows Testing and my wifes windows based Coupon printing.
3rd machine mac OSX testing.

Nothing I am doing is harder to do in NAS4Free than Ubuntu, In fact it is much easier.

I would suggest you get a spare 64x box and try it out your self.

 

[bobnielsen]

Yeah, the bitrate limitation can be a real pain. When recoding video I typically keep it to no greater than 1 Mb/sec. I use iSedora as a media server on my Mac and wish it had the ability to limit the rate.

Serviio's profile for the DirecTV receivers actually has a max bitrate built in that is passed to ffmpeg when doing the transcoding, but I found that with movies that were encoded in certain ways, it that particular bitrate was still a tad high. I just updated it to be a little lower in the profile.

I found there was a new update to iSedora and installed it. The video bitrate can now be limited when transcoding.