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Monthly Archives February 2013

Streaming Media from a Drobo FS to Xbox 360, PS3, Android or other devices

There are not a lot of solutions in streaming your content straight from your Drobo FS using DroboApps.

I find this to be the best, easiest and most up-to-date solution to stream your content straight from the Drobo FS including support for Xbox 360 consoles (and possibly other devices) which MediaTomb (another solution) does not offer and it being a dead project for over 3 years now.

If you come across FUPPES or are already using it, drop it now as it is a dead project and not just myself but others recommend moving to MiniDLNA.

You can skip this all together if you prefer to use other ways to stream content such as using TVersity, Serviio, Mezzmo, Plex and many more other programs out there which rely on having to use your desktop (or laptop) to stream content which would of course require it be always on and running in order to do so. Unless this is not a problem and/or only yourself to watch or view the content.

Downloading and Installing:

You can download the latest MiniDLNA 1.0.25 (July 13th 2012) from DroboPorts.com

There are many ways to install DroboApps, below is the easiest and least technical. You first need to make sure you have DroboApps enabled which you can do by opening Drobo Dashboard then select your Drobo and go to Drobo Settings > Admin > Enabled DroboApps under DroboApps.

Then once that is taken care of, you will drag and drop the minidlna.tgz file into the DroboApps folder and then restart the Drobo FS from Drobo Dashboard. Once the Drobo FS restarts, you will notice the minidlna.tgz gone and a new folder “minidlna.” Everything should now be installed and working properly, now you just need to barely edit the config file.

Configuring and Adding Folders to MiniDLNA:

The configuration file; minidlna.conf, will be found in the DroboApps\minidlna\etc folder.

You can add folders by editing the media_dir line, this is how I have mine.

media_dir=V,/mnt/DroboFS/Shares/Public/Media

You can simply do the same to make it extremely easy and organized, and just add sub-folders to the Media folder such as “Movies”, “Shows”, “Music” and so forth to your needs. This makes getting and viewing content much easier on the Xbox 360 and other devices.

As noted in the configuration file, you can have multiple media_dir= lines, and restrict content to Video, Audio and Images if you wish.

You can rename what the device shows as on your Xbox 360, PS3 or any other compatible device by changing the following line:

friendly_name=DroboFS DLNA Server

The rest of the configuration file can normally remain unchanged and are all self explanatory too.

Can I play MKV files on Xbox 360 with MiniDLNA?

MiniDLNA will NOT play or transcode MKV files to play on Xbox 360 until they decide to support it. You can still play MKV files on other devices though that support it. I suggest using TVersity in this case to play MKV files on your Xbox 360.

That being said, there is a new project started in late 2012 called MiniDLNA-transcode and here is the original announcement thread. I have not given this a try yet or seen if it can be done, which I think it can be. I hopefully will be trying soon though.

Are there any problems using MiniDLNA on Xbox 360?

The only on-going problem I ever run into frequently is while streaming video content to an Xbox 360 when the video is Xvid and encoded differently than other Xvid files. What happens is after a short period of time, normally between every 5 and 15 minutes, the video will basically halt requiring you to back out of the video (on Xbox 360) and resume play again till the next time it happens again (randomly).

It can be quite a nuisance but from what I have found out, from viewing the files in GSpot, I still think it has to be with Xvid encoded videos and how it was encoded. I have not had a problem with that I can recall of this happening with any x264/mp4 files. It is also 100% not related to a networking problem either.

How can stream my media to Android Phones?

First install BubbleUPnP on your Android Phone and on your Desktop as well. Then install either VPlayer (the best imho) or any alternative video player software such as MX Player on your Android to play the content.

You would then select the source of the files to be from your Drobo FS and either to play the files locally (on the phone) or control and send them to a specific device if listed and supported.

You also have the option to stream the content over the internet with this, so if you wanted to watch media on your Android on the go, you can. You can also use your Android Phone as a controller and send content to play and pause on support devices, the Xbox 360 does work with this.

Terrible T-Mobile Support

For the first time for me, I have had one of the worst T-Mobile Support experiences. Which is actually quite bad coming from someone such as myself, since I have always stuck by T-Mobile and supported or recommend them as a customer, even after 11 years or more now. What makes this even more sad, is that it is over the littlest thing you could possibly imagine, a broken charger.

It all started with their Twitter support, which many companies have now a days and it is really just the same as phone or FAQ/online support for most companies too. It is pretty much automated and they actually do not want to help you more than they do when you call them. It use to be different in the past, for example Comcast use to have great Twitter support, but the last few years that is non-existent.

It does not seem that T-Mobile wants to strive for customer service anymore. Why do I think this? Well aside from my experience, take a look at these results:

That’s not a good sign at all, and things do not look to be getting better. Especially when you have issues like mine come up, or far much worse issues for people that will up and leave T-Mobile and are not loyal. And speaking of loyalty, I am even questioning mine after this experience which I will be explaining now. Then there are just more, older articles like this one, Has T-Mobile Customer Service Taken A Turn For The Worse? or others that have continue to get written more of late.

What happened with me?

I used the option to upgrade a line of mine with a free and refurbished phone, nothing special either, just a Samsung T159 flip phone. The phone works just fine, but found out the charger actually is broken, closer look at it reveals that 1 of the copper pieces inside of the connector piece is missing.

So I decided to contact T-Mobile via Twitter and they are very much unwilling to help without wasting time and money. They want me to claim buyers remorse, which requires you to send the entire phone back and then order a new one. I am not sure how this would work with my upgrade option and so forth free (I am sure something bad would have happened), then again I do not want to pay shipping either and of course, waste more time without the phone in use, which I am sure would take up to 2 weeks. Maybe if T-Mobile would give me a free month I would actually consider doing this.

The other option would be to use buyers remorse and replace the entire kit by sending that one back and we send another. ^KM

That is it, there is nothing else they can do and have said twice now the following:

I wish we had a more efficient way but currently we do not ^KM.

Yes, thanks for really nothing. Honestly, their Twitter support might as well be automated. When I asked them if I would be able to trade one at a store, this was their response:

They should sell the cables in store too :) ^LG.

Are you serious? That was their response when I asked that and to have you spend more money because they could not even ship you a working charger. You would think that refurbished phones go through additional checks, and that would include the charger as well but I guess not.

That all having been said…

I more than understand this was not the worst support anyone has ever received and that it could have been worse. But at the same time, there is no reason why even people unlike me should have to deal with this lack of support, being told to use “buyer’s remorse” and be without a phone or have to purchase a new charger when you should not have to.

UPDATE: Samsung being awesome reached out to me and already in the process of getting a new charger replacement. I should have just contacted them to begin with. :)

Fast & Furious 6 Trailer

I am sure you all saw it during the Super Bowl 47 after the first quarter, but here is the extended trailer.

I surely cannot wait for it and I am a huge fan of the series. They did a great job with Fast Five, I do not expect any less this time either.

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