User:Mjb/Serviio

Serviio is a streaming media server. I use it to allow DLNA-capable devices to access video, audio and image files on my computer. For example, I can use my TV, through my Blu-Ray Disc (BD) player, to watch videos that are on a network drive accessible to the computer that runs Serviio.

After replacing my WiFi router with an AirPort Time Capsule, Serviio on my Win7 PC was no longer seen by my BD player. Serviio running on a Mac on the same network had no problem. Both computers are using a wired connection to the router. Disabling firewalls on the PC didn't make a difference. I never did figure out the problem. I just switched to using the Mac for now.

Transcoding

DLNA devices are supposed to be able to tell Serviio what formats they can handle, but my BD player does not really do a good job of this. If the bitrate is too high or the format is unrecognized, the file won't play. Serviio can transcode these files, though.

The transcoding configuration is in Serviio's profiles.xml file. Edit it with a text editor and always save a backup copy of the old and new version, because it might get overwritten when you upgrade Serviio.

Here's what I had to add to the Transcoding section of the profile matching Samsung C/D series players:

			<!-- begin mjb-->
			<Video targetContainer="mpeg" targetACodec="ac3" aBitrate="384">
				<Matches container="mpeg" aCodec="lpcm"/>
				<Matches container="flv"/>
			</Video>
			<!-- end mjb -->

This means that when the input is an MPEG file with LPCM audio, or any FLV file, the output will be MPEG with 384 kbps AC-3 audio, which my player should be able to handle.

Of course, the comments are optional. I just like to put my initials ("mjb") in there so I can easily jump to the right spot when editing.

Java updates

Completely shut down Serviio before updating Java. See my notes on Java updates for more info.