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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.

Sony still says 2008 release for Home

Are you kidding me? 2008 is over and they still think they are going to push out Home this month? Give me a break. PlayStation Home is a joke now, I am sure Sony already realizes this too though. Who really is going to use this? I know I will install it and try it out once but I know I will not be going back to it any time soon after that. Xbox 360 is has already taken off even more, especially this season already selling out PS3 3 to 1 on Black Friday 2008.

Check out any of these links to read a full article on this news rather than what I have to say. Neowin

MGS4 Review

I bought Metal Gear Solid 4 last Thursday night and ended up finishing it around 4AM (6AM if you count the hours of footage after the final boss) on Saturday morning. I just could not put it down and was drawn into it. Without checking the stats, I ended up with around 20 hours? of game time. Remember this includes watching the 8+ hours? of just movie footage. Hours of footage could totally be wrong as I just threw this out there, never counted or checked anywhere online.

Now I have never played the MGS series before, I have known about it and seen my brother play some levels here and there on some of the previous installments but just never got into it. I wasn’t much a PS/console gamer back than either.

If there was a possible score higher than a 10/10, this game would get it. I have never played such a game where not only am I drawn into the game but everything they did to make the game, gameplay or actual movie footage and so much more. I have just never experience what I have experienced in this game before. I’m no way comparing GTA4 to MGS4 but I do not think after playing this that GTA4 really deserves a 10/10 at all.

My brother keeps telling me to try some previous games of the series. I doubt I’ll do it, there are too many other games to play, those that I have not finished yet, have yet to play or have not come out yet. Plus, I love how MGS4 is, I doubt I’d dislike how the game is in the previous title or two but I’m not sure if I’d have a lot of fun (but I doubt it, I probably would still) because I love the little things that I don’t think previous installments have like how you can just buy weapons and customizations on the fly and everything else.

Anyways, In conclusion, this game exceeds 10/10 (if were possible). Now as any game out there, it has its flaws so it’s not absolutely perfect. But I still think it would deserve a score of 10/10 or higher if that were possible. Rarely do I ever find a game like this. Though I didn’t know the entire backstory behind MGS, only knew a little going into it. In the end I understood a lot, maybe not everything but I think you can definitely just jump in this game without playing previous. It helps you out, they could of done a LOT better with the story line, explaining it to you, cutting down the movies so they are not so long but it’s alright in the end. I also learned more by searching the net and/or using wikipedia.

I would not consider it awesome enough to resort to going out and buying a PS3 just to play this game unless you have other games you plan on playing on the PS3. Which are not many at all, still better off with an Xbox 360. Yet, this game is definitely worth having a look at if you do own a PS3. Yes, you may have to update your PS3’s firmware before you can play the game. You will have to install a few files before you can start playing the game (took like 8 minutes to start with) and then every so often, little installs of a few minutes or less will take place. I am not going to say it was fine and not annoying but it’s also was not a problem to me to walk away for a minute, you will probably not like being taken from the gameplay to watch movies that most of the time, last around 15 minutes or even longer as you get into the game. You will not want to skip them though unless your on your second or more play through. It’s still a good game to buy or at least, rent. Definitely beatable in most rental time periods if you have the time or get GameFly.

2015 Mistical.com
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