UPnP media

If you want a complete newbie how-to on making a spare linux box your mediaserver, this link may be helpful.

I, on the other hand, am utilizing Slackware Linux ("The Swiss army knife of Linux") to suit my serving needs. I won't touch Ubuntu with a ten-foot pole, mostly because they focus on bleeding edge technology, which doesn't necessarily mean "stable".

And, I use "FUPPES" (Free UPnP Entertainment Service) instead of mediatomb. In my opinion, FUPPES is better equipped to transcode untraditional coded video- and music-formats. And when I tried to use mediatomb, I had trouble recognizing the service on my PlayStation3, no matter how much I tweaked the config.

To put it quite simple, I compiled FUPPES with only traditional Slackware stock-packages and libraries (where mediatomb demanded I compile a plethora of non-standard Slack-packs), added the device-IPs to the whitelist of FUPPES and opened FUPPES-designated ports to my local LAN subnet.

Thus, limiting access to the service from anything other than my internal LAN hosts.

Things FUPPES does that mediatomb does not (or at least not on my Slackware-machines anyway):

• Converts untraditional coded video to standard-formats
• Plays DivX and XviD off-the-bat without hassles what-so-ever
• Plays almost ALL audio-formats with standard libs
• Displays every image-format I have on-disk