Xbox Media Server

I recently installed the Amahi Home Server mainly to check out the media stream capability, it turns out to be a great solution and a great DLNA server. Here is what you need to know to get it up and running. After you install and configure your Amahi Home server simply go to the Control Panel of the server then the Apps page and install the Amahi DLNA server. It will install the server and start the service. Now here is what I found after setting the server started, you still need to do some customization to get it to work with your media center. Here is what I did:

Handbrake is a great DVD ripper. Unfortunately the version on the Handbrake website is not working. Here is a ubuntu how to  for installing Handbrake on Ubuntu 10.04.

First we need to get DVD playback enabled:

Then do and update of the Apt repos lists:

sudo apt-get update

Next you need to install the software. Use the Ubuntu Software Center to install Handbrake. Do a search for Handbrake and install the GTK GUI.

After it installs you should have Handbrake working in Ubuntu 10.04.

Now Start Ripping media for your Xbox!

Like most people I have a couple TVs in my house. One of the TVs has the MythBox on it and the other has the Xbox 360. Now I keep all my movies on the MythBox (all legal backups of course). I wanted to play these on my Xbox on the other TV. I noticed that after the Xbox 360 dashboard update the Xbox saw my shared drive and I could browse to my media directories. When I tried to Play one of these I got some cryptic Microsoft error code. So I did a little research and found out that Xbox media streaming uses the DLNA protocol to receive content from a peer on a network. Great, does Linux have a DLNA protocol server, YES, it is called uShare.

Here are the easy steps to set it up.

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install ushare
Configuration

Once finished, you’ll have uShare installed and ready for configuration. Out of the box, it won’t work for our purpose. You’ll need to edit /etc /ushare.conf to enable Xbox compatibility as well as define the standard port – 49200. Open /etc /ushare.conf as root and change the following lines:

USHARE_PORT=49200
USHARE_DIR=/path/to/your/media
ENABLE_XBOX=YES

Before these changes will take effect, you’ll need to restart ushare using its init script. However, an issue I’ve noticed is that the last line (’ENABLE_XBOX=YES’) does not always work. So before we restart uShare, we’ll need to make a small change to the init script that resides under /etc /init.d/ to force Xbox compatibility:

sudo vi /etc /init.d/ushare

and add the following line at the beginning of the script:

USHARE_OPTIONS=-x

This tells uShare to start with Xbox compatibility. Now restart uShare using the init script:

invoke-rc.d ushare restart

Now you are finished. You may need to restart the Xbox. Now navigate to ‘My Xbox’ and then select ‘Videos’ and finally you should see ‘uShare’ at the bottom (computer icon). Selecting that will connect to your Linux box and you’ll be able to browse your media just as you would on your PC.

When I tried to play a xvid file it said I needed a download to play this file. I sure it was the codec, but it was free and worked great. Now I have another TV with a HD feed that can Play all the movies on my MythBox .