Serviio

I have a satellite receiver connected to my HD TV (HDMI) which plays media files (X-9200HD PVR). I have many family cam corder files of one type (AVI) which does not play properly because I think must be inferior Linux codec (xvid) in the satellite receiver media player system.
Same files play OK on my pc windows codec (divx). My family can use the satellite receiver with big screen but not so convenient to use the pc.
So the problem is how to view the files on tv by using the satellite receiver controls.
Someone told me to install a DLNA server on my PC and then I could use the DLNA client feature on my satellite receiver to play the files using my PC windows codec and it would play on my tv screen.

I installed Serviio and by using the DLNA client on my receiver I can navigate to all my videos on my PC network. But i have still the same problem on playback.

I think maybe i do not understand what Serviio can do for me?
Is it just a navigation tool to find other files on my home network so the DLNA client can play them using the inferior linux codec?
Is it possible to play the files on the pc using the windows codec in this way?

Can someone explain it to me please. I have searched and read FAQ but I do not find the answers.

In simple terms Serviio does four things:

1. It allows you to stream media (music, videos and photos) from your PC to your device (your X-9200HD PVR). Sounds like you have this part up and running;
2. If your device does not support a particular media type, Serviio will TRANSCODE (convert) that media to a type supported by your device. In your case, it can convert the Xvid AVI files on your PC to something your device can support. It does this all on-the-fly, which means that with a powerful enough PC you won't even notice it doing this. This is the part you haven't yet done yet and need to do to fix your XVid problem
3. It allows you to stream media from the web direct to your device, even if your device is not web enabled. This is more advanced and outside of the scope of your question.
4. It allows you to stream your media to your devices on the internet, for when you're out and about. Also outside of the scope of your question.

So, you need to set up Serviio to transcode your XVid files. We need to tell Serviio what to do for your device (which in DLNA terms is a Renderer) - this is easily done by using Renderer Profiles. Have a read of http://www.serviio.org/index.php?option ... icle&id=16 and http://www.serviio.org/index.php?option ... icle&id=24. It may look complex but it's not hard to set up a basic one.

Serviio comes with some pre-set Renderer Profiles. While there isn't one specific for your device, for starters try setting your renderer profile (see http://www.serviio.org/component/conten ... ng-started) to the "DirecTV HD-DVR" profile - this profile transcodes just about everything. Use it to test whether your XVids then play. If they do, you can give writing a custom profile for your device a go. Have a read of all the material, and write your custom profile - the hardest part is often working out exactly what your device supports and what it doesn't. If you get stuck come back and people here can help you.

I have been discussing a number of possible alternative solutions on Geekzone and we have reached the situation where we don't know if the device codec is a hardware chip or a software program in linux and the next idea is to bypass it. So this leads on to the Serviio Renderer in order to play a number of unsupported formats through my device. They told me it is very difficult to do this and I find i am already swamped by the instructions just from reading the links you have kindly provided. I am not a computer language programmer.

Getting started:

I open the Serviio consoles 1.3
In the Transcoding tab I see that Enable Transcoding is ticked by default
Transcoded files Location = C:\windows\temp
Number of CPU cores to use = Optimal
Video Settings = Produce the best quality video = Ticked
Audio channels = Downmix to stereo.

Where are the renderer presets you show listed so i can select the default you recommend?

You need to read http://www.serviio.org/component/conten ... ng-started. The Renderer Profiles are in Serviio Console, Status tab.

In there you will find a list of devices that Serviio has detected (you need to have your PVR turned on and connected to your network). As your PVR is not a known device it will appear (if all is connected properly) as an "Unrecognised Device" against its IP address. Click on the device on the "Profile" column and select your profile. As I stated, select the "DirecTV HD-DVR" profile first and try your AVI file (you must press Save after changing profiles). Let us know how it goes.

It all worked first time. Now the files sync sound/video perfectly!
Do I need to tweak something to ensure best video quality or does it default to best?

My PVR has a large HDD which stores media files etc. Serviio Console will navigate to folders on its hdd and I can see all the folders in DLNA but not any of the files so they can not be played. Otherwise I can navigate to them just using my PC and play them OK.

Do I need to tweak something else?

To ensure best video quality when transcoding, just ensure that the Video Settings. Produce the best quality video is ticked on the transcoding tab.

The "DirecTV HD-DVR" profile transcodes everything. What you can do over time is find those types of media that don't need transcoding (easiest way is to set the transcoding profile to "Generic DLNA Profile" - this profile is the opposite - it doesn't transcode anything), and see if a file type plays. If a media file then plays in this profile, you can then create a new profile, based on the Direct TV one, to accommodate it.

So Serviio will see the files on the PVR's HDD but not play them? Firstly try the "Generic DLNA Profile" and see if the files then play. Secondly we need to know what container, video and audio type is used by the PVR files. Use MediaInfo (see here) to post this information for one of the files back to the forum and we should be able to assist.

I wasn't clear renough...

The troublesome files will play OK on a local hdd on the host PC.

Within Serviio
In I am not able to navigate to the files on the PVR hdd or any other hdd over our lan.
I can see all the folders on each pc but they do not display any files in them.

It's probably some sort of security issue.
Can Serviio use mapped folders on the host PC (eg Y drive and Z drive etc) or does it look for My Network Places?

Serviio can used mapped drives, but better to use the devices URL (eg. its IP address or server name) - use the Add Path button to add.
Yes, its likely to be security - see http://www.serviio.org/component/conten ... e?id=21#q5 and this viewtopic.php?f=5&t=8233&p=57586&hilit=+remote+security#p57840

I can't get it to scan files on remote drives. All my video files are on remote drives so its a problem.

Yes, i have read the forum solutions and tried the recommended remedies but it hasn't worked for me.

My PC is running XP SP3
It starts without needing a password.

I don't understand the difference in the Console between Add Local and Add path. If i use add local I can get the same results as add path but its much easier to just click the paths manually or through my network places.

I have full shared access to all files on the remote drives from my PC but Serviio displays the folders but not the files that they contain.

Any ideas what i should try next?

Add path allows you to enter the URL eg: \\server\home\. Add local can only be used for local drives (or mapped drives but it is sometimes better to use the URL for these - it doesn't matter here, you seem to be getting to the drive).
In order of likelihood, check:

• Where are you looking in Serviio, under Titles, or Movies, or under Folders. These will likely appear under Folders only at this stage (Titles, Movies, Series all require metadata to be collected for the files, which won't occur for your PVR files unless you start renaming files).
  
• Still on security:
  
  1. In Windows, start Services.msc
  2. Navigate to the Serviio service, right click and select properties, Log On tab
  3. Look at how the service is logging on - it is likely logging onto the Local System account
  You must ensure either that:
  
  • Your drive, and all folders and files on the PVR allows access for the System user (or whatever user you find in step 3 above); OR
  • You can change the Log on user for the service in step 3 to your user name or a user name that has access to the PVR (I believe this may only work if you use a password, plus you will need to do this everytime you upgrade Serviio I believe - so above option is preferred), OR
  • If your not fussed about security on the PVR allow access to its drive, and all folders and files for the Everyone user - even if you only do this for a test, it will rule out security issues.
• What type of file is your PVR files (if possible, provide MediaInfo details for one of the files).

In Folders I can navigate freely down a hierarchy on a remote pc on our local network. just do not see any files. It's OK on the host PC (where Serviio is running). All the files show up there but not on the remote harddrives.

Security 1, 2, 3 - I have done all this and it is local system account + allow service to interract with desktop (don't know what that means)

Under You must ensure etc...
I don't understand the first two items. My PC just starts up and goes straight to desktop. In MY Computer I can freely navigate to all the shared folders on any of the PC's on our network (mapped as x, y, z drives etc). I ca also navigate to them through MY Network Places.

The third item (not fussed) seems like me - but what is an Everyone user? I don't care about security on the pvr and have not activated anything to do with security (if you mean protecting kids from adult content sources?) . Its a family thing and only stuff suitable for the whole family is kept. There is nothing to hide if that's what you are getting at so if there is a setting which overrides all security issues that might be blocking something then lets override it permanently.

Type of files is just about anything (all files). There are a lot of FLV files, MP4, MOV, TS, MKV, AVI, and so on of various resolutions. About a terabyte of files at this time holding family records going back decades.

Assuming your PVR uses an NTFS drive, then it have a security framework applied. To edit this: right click on the PVR's drive in Windows and select Properties, then Security. Press Edit, then Add. Type in System and press Check Names. Press OK. Then assign full control (bottom bit) and press Apply.

From memory you'll get a prompt asking to do it for this folder only; or all folders, subfolders and files. Choose all folders, subfolders and files. This should be all you need to do to give Serviio access, however if you need to go further you can also do this for Everyone group (the Everyone group is all users, system, network users... basically everyone). Follow the same instructions as above but type in Everyone in lieu of System.

If you do it correctly you should see something like:

The reason you can see it from your PC is that you log in as your user name, which you will see in the security tab as being allowed access. Serviio logs on as the System user... you need to allow this "user" access as well.

If i access any of the remote folders anywhere on our local network from my pc and click on Properties like you suggest, I do not see what you describe.
For example on the pvr hdd I only see two tabs (General and Customize)
Of these, General tells me how full it is plus its attributes and Customize lets me select the type of content is can contain and what picture to apply to the icon.
Is there a conflict between my PC (Windows XP SP3) and the PVR (Linux) OS?

I can try to access videos on our server (Windows) if the PVR is the problem just to try to get Serviio to read files in a remote folder? But I get the same thing no matter which remote folder i go to (anywhere).

Is this going to come down to my ignorance about computers?

On the General tab, what file system does it show?

I have shown what you get in Windows 7. Security under XP was a little different, and I can't remember how to get there, but try this article: http://compnetworking.about.com/od/wind ... pfiles.htm.

According to Sherlock I have 44 video codecs installed so I must have that many different video file types all mixed up together in these folders? Do you think that Serviio is not reading folders if it finds one incompatible file type?

I read the article on sharing in XP. I do not have any issues with file sharing on my pc across our network.
We have had our network running for 10 years and there's never been an issue with file sharing.
It's exclusively something related to Serviio which doesn't like my setup !!!.

Maybe it's time to change the set up (ie dump XP?)
I have an unused Windows 7 install on this PC in another partition. My boys told me I should upgrade and one of them put this W7 on. I am supposed to select a second option during pc boot up but I never do and it defaults to XP. I stayed with XP because it does everything I want from it and i didn't want the hassle of changes.

I can try and reinstall serviio on that partition and see if the results are any different.
i may just drown in my own pool of ignorance. Watch this space...!

I installed it in a pristine Windows 7 Pro partition but I could not get it to list files on any remote drives exactly the same as in XP Pro sp3. Also in Win 7 it loses audio on a lot of files. Some Play but a lot do not. I turned off transcoding but this did not change the situation. In xp it plays the same files OK .

To summarise, Serviio works OK on the host PC files but i have been unable to access any files on remote hdds over my local network.

I finally had to accept that Serviio with transcoding (although a great feature ) is not going to work for me because for whatever reason I am unable to access remote files. I lack the expertise to know how to solve complex problems. So I adopted a new approach which was to use a free program and convert all the difficult files to the mkv container which my pvr plays OK. This solved the original problem which started all this off (my pvr not syncing audio and video on avi files)

I can see the potential in Serviio and it obviously works for other people. I would like to be able to use it and I am disappointed that I could not get it to work for me.

Thanks to everyone who offered ideas and advice.

Jiranz, sorry it didn't work for you. Am curious, on Win7 did you check/set the security on the PVR drive as per my post above viewtopic.php?f=5&t=12138&p=75968#p76009?

Am pretty sure this is related to security/access rights to the drive. Pity we couldn't work it out.

Windows 7 doesn't even recognise my pvr so I was not able to try your security tip. I wish I knew how to force Win7 to see my pvr so I could try it.
By this I mean that Win7 does not show that it even exists so I am not able to find or navigate its several hdd.
I don't know why because xp can see my pvr.
Serviio sees it in both xp and win7 but does not show any content in the remote folders.

I found a little program called oShare.exe which finds and navigates everything in XP with no network issues but in Win7 it does not see my pvr although it shows all other remote files. It doesn't support transcoding so it is not suitable for my purposes but i mention it here to show that the security problem must be something to do with Serviio.

It shouldn't be this complicated should it?

Better news... one of my boys visited and showed me how to use the local ip address to get windows 7 to see my pvr.

Now oShare works perfectly and sees all the remote drives.

Next i will play with Serviio a bit more and see if I can get it to work also.

I am told after the experts tried to figure out the problem that Serviio will never work with this pvr.
I don't understand it but for example there is no System entry so I could not implement your suggestions.
Maybe it is related to how Windows relates to a Linux OS.

I tried another transcoding server but the technical terms were beyond me and I did not know how to set it up.

I would really like something as simple as oShare to install which just works first time with no configuration required apart from navigating to the drives and folders I want to share but which also does transcoding.

We tried