2013/05/11

A DLNA server in Debian GNU/Linux Wheezy for your Samsung Smart TV

Your home server may be configured to be a DLNA server so you can enjoy your own videos, pictures and music in a smart tv.

Of course, it is assumed you have a LAN with a linux server and a smart tv networked.

There are several open source proyects, here I use minidlna that is already available in Debian Wheezy! the new stable version.

Here it is the procedure as described here and here, and it took very little.

apt-get install minidlna

Then, you need to setup the server in /etc/minidlna.conf, my current configuration as example:

root@gatux:~# grep -o "^[a-z].*" /etc/minidlna.conf
media_dir=/srv/shared
log_level=info
port=8200
friendly_name=DLNA Server
serial=12345678
model_number=1
inotify=yes
album_art_names=Cover.jpg/cover.jpg/AlbumArtSmall.jpg/albumartsmall.jpg/AlbumArt.jpg/albumart.jpg/Album.jpg/album.jpg/Folder.jpg/folder.jpg/Thumb.jpg/thumb.jpg
notify_interval=15


(Re)build your database, I will use a cron task every day :-)

/etc/init.d/minidlna stop
minidlna -f /etc/minidlna.conf -R -d
/etc/init.d/minidlna start 


Open the tcp port 8200 in the firewall of your home linux server if it is necessary (sure it is), I use webmin but this may just do the the trick temporarily:

iptables -I INPUT -p tcp --dport 8200 -j ACCEPT

Finally, with your dlna server running, in your smart tv choose the source, a Samsung UN55ES7100 in my case:



















Nice, the Debian icon is diplayed!

Descending into the directories I found my collection... well just one video in my case:















Enjoy!