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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.

Drobo FS Internal Problem

I recently came across the Drobo FS Internal Problem/Mount Failed error. This happened to me twice about 2 weeks apart but I was the one that did cause the error. The first time I was able to fix it fast and easily but the second time, not so much and not without Drobo’s great support.

Now this error is well documented now over at the Drobo Support site and with very few search results. However, at the same time that article might not help you if say you were in my situation. There are more than a few ways to get this error from my understanding, the reason I received this error however was due to me using 100% disk space.

If you receive this error, first and foremost make sure you contact Drobo Support so they can help you.

With that said, I was able to get rid of the DroboFS Internal Problem/Mount Failed error by gaining a custom firmware from Drobo Tier 3 Support that enabled SSH again (I had it disabled). With SSH enabled again, I moved a few files off the Drobo to clean up space. After that I restarted the DroboFS and once again was able to access my data easily and without any Internal Problem/Mount Failed error.

If you already have SSH enabled then you do not need to gain a custom firmware and you can simply just run the following command in PuTTY:

mount -O rw /dev/sda1/ /mnt/DroboFS

Then close PuTTY and use WinSCP to connect via SCH to move or delete files from your Shares. WinSCP just makes things easier with an interface to look at and what not else. This typicall goes without saying but by including “-O rw” to mount, we make sure everything is Read/Write, otherwise it will be Read-Only File System and you will not be able to do anything (move/delete/etc). Once completed, restart the DroboFS and your error should be gone as mine was. If you do get a custom firmware, it is safe to go back to the latest DroboFS firmware when you are finished.

What would you do with 100 Drobos?

I know what I would be able to do, and that is backup my raw captures in 720p uncompressed from video games in for location and achievement guides and walkthroughs. Ideally, 100 drobos, with at least 1TB each would allow me to to be able to back that up as well as the compressed footage, for quite a long time.

So what would you end up doing with 100 Drobos?

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