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Raspberry Pi DLNA Client

Hi,

Apologies if this has been reported already (couldn't find any references via a search) but I thought it might help someone in future.

After many months of reliable operation, I've recently had trouble getting my HDR to come out of standby - it would start up (showing the custom firmware version on the VFD etc., but never getting as far as displaying a picture) but then immediately go back into standby. This has been happening intermittently, but the Hummy would usually start up after a few attempts.

However I had a failed recording the other day, and despite several attempts the HDR then flatly refused to boot. Fearing a failed HDD I searched the forums and found a reference to twonky, which made me suspect my Raspberry Pi (running Raspbmc), which is on the same network as the Hummy.

I usually leave Pi's powerline adapter switched off, but it has been left on for a few weeks (coinciding with the recent problems). So I switched off the adapter which magically solved the problem.

I'm not sure which service on the Pi might have been causing the issue, has anyone else experienced this?
 
Twonky Ver 7 is known to cause problems for the Humax when Content Share = ON, Twonky Version 5 and 6 are reported as O.K.
 
Twonky Ver 7 is known to cause problems for the Humax
Click to expand...

Yep, I had seen that. But Raspbmc doesn't include Twonky as far as I'm aware, so presumably there was an issue with something else running on the Pi. I'd be interested to know whether anybody else has come across this.

(It was just that the reference to Twonky in previous reports prompted me to think the issue might be related to other devices on my network.)
 
Just got my new RPi online today, the first one was duff, and noticed a very similar thing. Can't remember the exact sequence but I was trying to get the Pi to find a DLNA source via browsing and realised the humax was not online. When I tried to bring it online, it stuck at 'startup' on the LCD. After a power cycle on the humax and taking the Pi offline all was well again. That's the first time I reacall my Humax not starting.
 
I've not experienced this but my pi hasn't been on (or updated raspbmc) for some time.

Xbmc does have an option in settings to stream from itself via upnp / dlna, check this isn't enabled as it the behaviour is similar to what twonky causes then that could be it - I know my guide didn't switch it on but maybe its now on by default

Regards

Damian
 
BenB said:
The Pi has a really nice interface in Raspmc the only gripe I have is fast-forward and rewind are useless, so instead I've remapped the remote so instead of fast-scanning through the video, the FF buttons skip 20 seconds. I find it works pretty good now.
I won't go into great lengths, but if anyone would like some Pi advice I'll try and help, but take a look at http://forum.stmlabs.com/forumdisplay.php?fid=7

My tweaks have been to remote.xml, (to remap remote buttons to do what I want) advancedsettings.xml (To change how far FF skips) and little overclock tweaks to config.txt (Though I havent noticed any difference! - just saw them online and thought it wouldn't hurt to add a few lines of code!) These changes can be made using SSH connection, (Using 'PuTTy') I'll try and advise on the syntax (with my limited knowledge) if anyone needs!
Click to expand...

Hi, Can you help with settings up the remote.xml and advancedsettings.xml. I'm can find my way around the file system OK but I can't find the remote.xml file anywhere on raspmc, I know you have to create the adavncedsettings.xml.

Would it be possible for you to send me yours and tell me where to put the files, I could then have a go of tweaking them to meet my needs.

Thanks

Adam
 
Could anyone with a Pi with XMBC on it share their experience on it performance? I would be looking to get one solely to stream hummy content to a tv in another room. So the scenario would be main telly busy decide to watch something recorded in another room, what is the elapsed time from switching on the already setup Pi to being at the point of selecting what to play on the media list? Is it more like one minute than ten minutes?

Really hoping its more like one minute as I like the idea of having a Pi :)
 
I have an original Pi (i.e. low mem) with raspbmc. I was initially a bit frustrated with the responsiveness of XBMC since I have quite a low tolerance for that sort of thing. But I found that after one of the release candidates it became very usable in the menus - picking what to play was no problem. It takes a couple of seconds to start playing but nothing too bad.

However I am not accessing files from the HDR via DLNA, but from my server via NFS. DLNA may well be slower. I'm not sure how XBMC handles DLNA sources, e.g. if it indexes them periodically like it does with NFS and local files then it will make no difference to the performance of selecting what to watch.
 
Oh just to add, you will easily go over 10 seconds if you include turning the Pi on (hell, the HDR itself probably does too). But bear in mind that the Pi has no on/off switch or standby mode since the power usage is so negligible. If it's plugged in, then it's on and permanently accessible.
 
Kyrt I have two Pi's doing this. My sony TV which has a built in client struggled to play anything from the Hummy. If I use the built in DLNA server from the Hummy I get no fast forward rewind etc but when using MediaTomb although I dont get true fast forward/rewind I can get either 30 secs or 10 mins either way.
From turning on the Hummy I'm able to select a program to watch within a minute, if the Pi is off because, it boots so quickly I'm still able to start viewing within a minute.
The only problem I get is HD material, sometimes freezes but generally I only record in HD if I want to keep something.
You will need the video plugin for the Pi which I think was about £2.40 to purchase, also if using MediaTomb you will need to decrypt the recordings for them to show in MediaTomb. I set up auto decrypt to do every recording.
 
Hi SimpleSim,

I've got an original Model B Pi running OpenELEC 3.0.0 (i.e. a build of XBMC 12.0), playing files off the Hummy's default DLNA server and also off my router's in-built DLNA server.

Startup performance: About 20 seconds from power-up to being responsive. That includes the XBMC boot waiting for the wireless to be powered up and get connected.

Playing performance: Perfect HD and SD. No glitches, buffering or drop-outs while playing, even on high-bitrate BBC1 HD. HD takes about 10 seconds to buffer before playing; SD about 3. Can't FF or RW though - doesn't really bother me as most of our recordings are BBC.

Software config: Just the basic OpenELEC 3.0.0 RPi build. Added the SD license codec, bought from www.raspberrypi.org. Some non-essential tweaks I did included changing the CPU/GPU memory split in the Pi bootloader config (can't remember exactly but I can look it up if you're interested).

Control method: Pi is running without keyboard/mouse; TV too old for CEC control via remote; so using Android phone with UPnPlay (free) to queue the videos up. This is great because I can use the phone to browse videos rather than the XBMC front end - it just seems easier to me. If I need to control XBMC in finer detail, e.g. for config settings, then I use Yatse on Android as a remote control. There's no lag on the controller at all.

Network config: Pi is on ethernet cable into an 802.11n access point, which is running in "client" mode. That has a directional antenna pointed at my wireless router, which then relays to another 802.11n AP in client mode, which is then ethernet cabled into the Hummy. The directional high-gain antennae are absolutely crucial - performance was abysmal without them, albeit over about 12 metres through several walls a a floor...
Please excuse the crudity of this diagram... network.png

Power config: Pi and client AP are automatically powered up when the TV turns on - regardless of whether it's needed - by being in one of those smart extensions leads. Likewise when the TV goes off, the Pi's power just gets cut abruptly... Seems to work OK, no corrupted file system so far (!)

Hope that helps.
 
Thanks everyone for your responses - all so helpful. I think that has me convinced that I need a Pi now!

I must say that I never expected so much out of the hummy! I am so grateful to be able to benefit from the collective skills and experiences of others.
Thanks!
 
I gave up on the pi after various goes with it, worked OK to the Humax but was too slow, and frankly unreliable for connecting and too complicated to explain you can't fast forward, or skip through programs etc. so ended up with a HD-FOX-T2 instead and perfect, easy access through custom firmware directly to disc on the HDR, proper FF and Rw, skip, delete after watching, flagged as watched etc.... all at the same time it is being used / watched / recorded to. Only thing I can't do is watch in chase-play until it has recorded and been auto-unencrypted.

I like the pi to play and fiddle with much easier ways!
 
Some good responses on here, been away for a while! AndrewB's detailed post is very good.

To clarify on my original posts the pi will only play sd content if you have the licenses for mpeg2, hd recordings played via dlna will work with or without license so long as you have a hdr foxt2 and the autounprotect package running to remove the flag.

For hdfoxt2 users I believe you also have to decrypt hd recordings and install mediatomb as they do not have inbuilt dlna - the details listed above aren't pi specific, I believe any dlna playing of hd content to a non humax device needs the same actions.

I messed up my pi raspbmc last week then found the new version but cec is no longer working with my sony bravia - its a cec library version problem and a newer one is out (and I think in use on openelec) so ill be trying openelec when I have time as well :-)

All my tests were on a 256mb Model B

Regards

Damian
 
There has been little mention of playing Humax (decrypted) material using network sharing rather than DLNA (which is the best way when using a HD-FOX as a client, to get full transport control). Is there a reason not to?
 
Has anyone tried running XBMC off a USB stick? I've read in my meanderings that you get much better performance? My challenge at the moment is that I first installed Raspbian which worked perfectly - no need for a wired connection at all it just used my wifi dongle from the off and worked great. It powered up off a USB on my laptop and even got the remote desktop onto my laptop so no need to plug any input peripherals in at all :)

However then I started on the journey of getting XBMC on there and it turns out that they've really not made that very easy for duffers like me at all! Lots of commands to enter and config files to mess about with http://www.raspbian.org/RaspbianXBMC as the standard app store type thing doesn't appear to have XBMC in it. BTW does anyone know why they made it so effing difficult to install programs? What's wrong with a file that you download and click and it does it for you?? Windows does it, mobile phones do it so why is Linux so scary looking? Am I missing something bloody obvious here (probably!!)

So then I tried RaspBMC - slightly trickier setup because it has to have a wired connection on first run to update itself but it did do it without any probs although I couldn't get my wireless dongle working before I ran out of playing time - gotta get back to that at some point. Anyway the trouble with RaspBMC is that it wont support a remote desktop and as far as I can tell neither will OpenELEC so there's no chance for me to do anything else with the PI without dragging it out from behind the telly and connecting input devices (plus of course being 'tied' to a telly to interact with it).

I presume the codec issue is moot now that RaspBMC appears to be including them with their image http://www.raspbmc.com/2013/04/crack-for-mpeg2-vc1-dts-hardware-decoding/

What was good though was the iphone app to remote control xbmc - no need to use another USB slot and no line of sight required as it sends it all thru the network.

I'm treating this as a sort of hobbyist journey of discovery so I'm learning more through it not working straightaway and hopefully when the kids get a bit older I can get them interested (which of course was the original purpose of the Pi!) so if I haven't got it working by the time they're 6 or 7 years old they'll probably write me a complete media player program from scratch anyway!!:rolleyes:
 
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