Hey, i just picked up a WDLive unit. I"m not using wireless, but am going through a powerline kit (D-Link DHP-302). What’s the best way to share content to the unit; DLNA or Samba shares? I have it working right now with shares to my PC but i notice sometimes i go to access it and it tells me “could not access share” then i just back out, and go back in and it works. Is DLNA much better? I know there’s dozens of DLNA options… what’s the better ones? Tversity?
Net shares, IMHO, are the only way to go.
I use a powerline kit, myself, and it works fine except when I’m running anything drawing a lot of power on the same circuit. Then you can get drop offs, or not accessible files. I’m samba as well.
I run both network shares and TVersity, essentially sharing the same content twice.
Even when network shares are down (for whatever reason), TVersity can still be accessed no problem.
The difference between the two is that SMB relies on the UDP protocol for network discovery, while DLNA uses TCP.
UDP is unreliable. If packets get lost, they’re never seen again until the application figures it out some time later. In TCP protocols, if a packet gets lost, they are re-transmitted and the application is never even aware it happened.
So, in a LOSSY network, UDP will fail miserably. TCP will muddle through at the cost of performance, but will remain reliable.
There are 2 major differences: subtitles and DVD backups.
If you want external subtitles to a movie: SMB.
If you want to play iso files: SMB.
If you don’t care about those two: it makes no big difference between SMB and DLNA.
The only strong point for DLNA is support from more devices.
