MediaTomb media server, how to configure properly?

[Cubytus]

Hello there,

as a way to get access to my media files when outside, I want to have a media server that would show a player in the browser (no transcoding). I selected MediaTomb, but each time I click on a file, it wants me to download it, precisely what I want to avoid.

What is the proper configuration for MediaTomb to stream a given file?

[Jocko]

Hi cubytus,

do not use mediatomb but twonky which allow to play video with a browser.

You need to enable the proxy gateway (main setup menu and read his help page)

[Cubytus]

Hm, it seems to require a paid-for license key. I find it rather weird to find that kind of software on a Linux-based NAS, as I expected free software.

What is the use for the other media servers, if only one can stream files? In other words, how are media servers different from the regular Web explorer interface, in terms of functionality?

[Jocko]

No if you install our last embedded version.

[Cubytus]

The help file is confusing in that regard:

Upgrade to latest version included in the firmware If you have version 6.0.34 installed then you need to re-install twonky 6 to upgrade to 6.0.39

Last free version is a download from a different source, it seems to have a license. Use at own risk by installing and using it you accept all liabilities.

It doesn't say which version will be used, nor what is the last free version, nor what is the source for this free version.

And:

To switch from one version to the other just use the button for the version you want to install. Before installation the previous installed version will be deleted

But there's no such button?

Captura de pantalla 2016-03-29 a las 04.36.13.png

With Twonky version 8 (Latest), it doesn't seem to ask for a key, but displayed interface is severely lacking:

Captura de pantalla 2016-03-29 a las 11.54.20.png

No full screen, no audio, no subtitles. With an AVI file, it asked for outdated QuickTime components.

Still vastly inferior to Synology's Videostation, which works without requiring any plugin on most files. Is it some sort of transcoding performed by the relatively weak Synology CPU, and not by fvdw?

[fvdw]

There is no transcoding done by our firmware. The cpu and ram size of your cloudbox is not suitable for that. Possibly a synology does some if has faster cpu and more ram.


What you experience may possibly be caused by a not correct configurayion file used for the device playing this movie in that format. On an old Philips TV i had to modify the configuration files to be able to view photos in full size instead of tiles

The use of a mediaserver is that on the device connected to the server you can browse and select audio or video files to play. Of course if that device is a pc then you could also use a file server. A TV is not able to do that and uses the media server. Every type of server has a certain protocol your device must be compatible with that to be able to communicate with it. Twonky is a dlna server most TV's support that but still need a configuration file.

[Cubytus]

The DS215+ from Synology isn't that powerful. It has a dual-core ARM CPU, and 1GB RAM. This is more than LaCie cloudbox, but still no powerhouse by any means, and even them don't recommend this model for multimedia use. They have two servers, one is called Multimedia server and is based upon DLNA, the other is VideoStation, but I couldn't find technical details about it. I know however that transcoding is only done offline because of the low power CPU.

For the record, the player in both Synology and fvdw cases is a regular Firefox. Of course I could tweak it, but that would defeat the purpose of a one-size-fits-all approach to playing in different browsers / platforms. I was also thinking about using OSMC as a player, but in this case the fvdw-based media server is useless, as only an NFS share would be required.