In several previous posts I wrote about my quest for the right source format to stream video to my Sony BRAVIA TV (build in 2009). The last week-end I finally found something which satisfies me.
What I found was serviio, a free UPnP-AV (DLNA) server. It is written in java and runs on Windows, Linux and FreeBSD (it is not listed on the website, but we have an not-so-up-to-date version in the ports tree). If necessary it transcodes the input to an appropriate format for the DLNA renderer (in my case the TV).
I tested it with my slow Netbook, so that I was able to see with which input format it will just remux the input container to a MPEG transport stream, and which input format would be really re-encoded to a format the TV understands.
The bottom line of the tests is, that I just need to use a supported container (like MKV or MP4 or AVI) with H.264-encoded video (e.g. encoded by x264) and AC3 audio.
The TV is able to chose between several audio streams, but I have not tested if serviio is able to serve files with multiple audio streams (my wife has a different mother language than me, so it is interesting for us to have multiple audio streams for a movie), and I do not know if DLNA supports something like this.
Now I just have to replace minidlna (which only works good with my TV for MP3s and Pictures) with serviio on my FreeBSD file server and we can forget about the disk-juggling.
After having juggled with many media servers I found this one as the best in terms of capabilities:
http://code.google.com/p/ps3mediaserver/
Out of the box cbz/cbr support for Pictures really impressed me as now I just lay back and enjoy comics on the big screen.
Haven’t tested it with FreeBSD yet but I don’t remember any Linux-only dependencies.
Last time I tried the PS3 Mediaserver it didn’t suit my needs. In the serviio forum I’ve seen some postings which told that they switched from PS3 Mediaserver. Well… as long as it suits your needs, everything should be fine. serviio suits mine now.
Are you able to transcode AAC for something that works with the Sony DVD players? minidlna worked well enough, except for that one detail…
They list Sony Blueray players on their compatibility list, but I do not see DVD players listed.
It is not an exhaustive list, my TV is not listed but works, and you can modify the device-profile to suit your needs. You can use the Intel UPnP tools (Device Spy) to determine what kind of formats the device supports (needs a Windows machine). With this it should be easy to let it transcode AAC to LPCM or MP3. I think the DVD player should at least be able to understand LPCM.
Thanks @ltsampros
PS3MediaServer is the best DLNA server out there.
It does what it should best. Play video well without stutters.
http://code.google.com/p/ps3mediaserver/
No fancy video and picture listing.
Just a simple folder list. Go around and find your file.
I haven’t tried PS3 Media Server, to be honest, but Serviio is a huge step up in functionality and performance from minidlna. That step up comes at the cost of flexibility (like how do set the metadata for files it has guessed wrong on?), but it works with all my media playing devices in the house from my phones, to my iPad to my Sony DVD player and DirecTV DVR.