I have often wondered what the pros and cons are of viewing video using DLNA or using network shares. Any views anyone?
thanks
BGB
Just a couple of things i can think of … about DLNA
Cons
* One major one … Dvd / Bd *.iso Most DLNA do not support it > Network Shares do support it
* No metadata display ie. movie/tv show info … DLNA doesent serve *.xml files > Network Shares do
* Duration display of video files looks weird using DLNA eg. HH:MM:ЅЅ:FF “02:00:58:058” in all views
Network shares > Display “120 Minutes” in browsing views and HH:MM:ЅЅ “02:00:00” in video playback views.
* Thumbnails ? i can’t get them to display using DLNA (Network Shares … they work fine)
Pros about DLNA ? Easy to setup / Compatible with any DLNA device eg. Smart TV / Bluray Player/ PS3 etc.
many thanks Joey, so network shares seem to be a lot more flexible. Thats the way to go then .
Cons: subtitle files usually have to be embedded into the file.
another thing about DLNA that I don’t like
It may not support lossless FLAC music files. I play FLAC as opposed to lossy and lower quality mp3 files.
As said before, playing ISO’s of DVDs is also a problem with DLNA
Sometimes I have seen problems with FFing and RWing with DLNA as well
cons - poorly designed DNLA apps take control of your WD, displaying pictures, etc …
that you have not necessarily wanted to display (wink: anybody remember those post, there’s been more than one compaint about this)
cons - if the DNLA server does not send proper metadata, then WD does not know what it is playing, causes audio to be heard, but can’t see video
pros - can use any 3rd party dnla control point to start playback on WD
I like the meta-data that DLNA servers provide. For instance, assume I want to watch a movie with Sean Connery. I can have the server show the movies that I have with him. It can also provide selections on Year of release, Director, and other selections. I use both Plex and Serviio.
Just a note. The reason I use both serviio and plex is that serviio keeps track of the last episode of a tv show I’ve watched, and plex is able to serve up FLAC files that, for some reason, serviio isn’t able to do.
when you say, metadata I think we’re clearly talking about 2 different things
I’m talking about metadata as discussed here
like this
# upnp-meta /usr/share/videoscreensaver/sample-screensaver.avi
<DIDL-Lite xmlns="urn:schemas-upnp-org:metadata-1-0/DIDL-Lite" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:upnp="urn:schemas-upnp-org:metadata-1-0/upnp/"><item id="3/usr/share/videoscreensaver/sample-screensaver.avi" parentID="3/usr/share/videoscreensaver\/" restricted="0"><dc:title>sample-screensaver.avi</dc:title><dc:date></dc:date><upnp:class>object.item.imageItem</upnp:class><dc:creator></dc:creator><upnp:genre></upnp:genre><upnp:artist></upnp:artist><upnp:album></upnp:album><res protocolInfo="file-get:*:video/avi::DLNA.ORG_OP=01;DLNA.ORG_CI=0;DLNA.ORG_FLAGS=00000000001000000000000000000000" protection="" tokenType="0" bitrate="0" duration="" size="11094054" colorDepth="0" ifoFileURI="" resolution="">file:///usr/share/videoscreensaver/sample-screensaver.avi</res></item></DIDL-Lite>
#
what you’re talking about is a database that serviio or plex create based on movie information
both are important in there own way
