Minidlna and HEVC ?

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JLC17
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Minidlna and HEVC ?

Post by JLC17 »

Managed to acquire (without realising it) an HEVC .mkv file.

Tried to play it on my smart TV (which isn't 4K) and got a file not supported error.

Fair enough.

I then tried to stream it via Minidlna, and even though my ffmpeg supports HEVC, got the same error.

Maybe my understanding is a bit off (happy to learn) but shouldn't Minidlna transcode ? Or do i need to set something ?
Last edited by LockBot on Wed Dec 28, 2022 7:16 am, edited 1 time in total.
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rene
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Re: Minidlna and HEVC ?

Post by rene »

The standard version of minidlna (new name, readymedia) doesn't transcode; there's a transcoding version available as source from https://bitbucket.org/stativ/readymedia-transcode but you need to be the type to want to install that.

The most used transcoding DLNA server is the Plex Media Server, https://www.plex.tv/media-server-downlo ... dia-server but if you'd like a more minimal solution for what from your description appears incidental use I'd personally suggest UMS, http://www.universalmediaserver.com/. The latter I just now tested by playing HEVC to an older Panasonic TV's "media player" (i.e., DLNA renderer). You need to on the TV navigate into the "TRANSCODE" folder and pick from a list of what appear to be different transcoder solutions, but, works well.

[EDIT] Oh, and note, the on Mint 18.3 standard installed JRE works fine; you don't need to install anything else: just unpack the downloaded tgz and run UMS.sh
JLC17
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Re: Minidlna and HEVC ?

Post by JLC17 »

Thanks ! I will have a dig ... no problem building from source.

Of course the other solution would be to get a 4K TV :)
scottyo

Re: Minidlna and HEVC ?

Post by scottyo »

I have tried to install minidlna and I feel I am so close to get this working. When I run the ./configure it makes it through but there seems to be pieces missing and I get this at the end. A lot of "no". I did install all of the pre-reqs too using "sudo apt-get install libexif* libid3tag*"

Any suggestions to go from here?

Code: Select all

checking libavutil/avutil.h usability... no
checking libavutil/avutil.h presence... no
checking for libavutil/avutil.h... no
checking ffmpeg/libavutil/avutil.h usability... no
checking ffmpeg/libavutil/avutil.h presence... no
checking for ffmpeg/libavutil/avutil.h... no
checking libav/libavutil/avutil.h usability... no
checking libav/libavutil/avutil.h presence... no
checking for libav/libavutil/avutil.h... no
checking avutil.h usability... no
checking avutil.h presence... no
checking for avutil.h... no
checking ffmpeg/avutil.h usability... no
checking ffmpeg/avutil.h presence... no
checking for ffmpeg/avutil.h... no
checking libav/avutil.h usability... no
checking libav/avutil.h presence... no
checking for libav/avutil.h... no
checking libavutil/avutil.h usability... no
checking libavutil/avutil.h presence... no
checking for libavutil/avutil.h... no
checking ffmpeg/libavutil/avutil.h usability... no
checking ffmpeg/libavutil/avutil.h presence... no
checking for ffmpeg/libavutil/avutil.h... no
checking libav/libavutil/avutil.h usability... no
checking libav/libavutil/avutil.h presence... no
checking for libav/libavutil/avutil.h... no
checking avutil.h usability... no
checking avutil.h presence... no
checking for avutil.h... no
checking ffmpeg/avutil.h usability... no
checking ffmpeg/avutil.h presence... no
checking for ffmpeg/avutil.h... no
checking libav/avutil.h usability... no
checking libav/avutil.h presence... no
checking for libav/avutil.h... no
configure: error: libavutil headers not found or not usable
rene
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Re: Minidlna and HEVC ?

Post by rene »

I am not sure what you are doing. Considering that you posted into this specific thread I would expect trying to get the version from bitbucket.org going, but that one in fact calls itself readymedia(-transcode) and lists more dependencies than you are doing.

If you just want to install minidlna itself, do so from the repositories rather than from source: sudo apt-get install minidlna. Otherwise please specify; the generic thing for me would be to mention that you need the -dev versions of the dependent packages for compilation from source, but I'm really unsure as to circumstances, environment, wants.
scottyo

Re: Minidlna and HEVC ?

Post by scottyo »

Thank you for the reply. I have tried to install DLNA from these instructions. I am just stuck at this time and my TV can see my Synology NAS media server, but cannot recognize my Laptop as one as well.
https://www.smarthomebeginner.com/insta ... ate-guide/
rene
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Re: Minidlna and HEVC ?

Post by rene »

That's old information and I specifically wouldn't know why you'd not just use the repository version. And in any case understand your query is not related to this thread; shall hence leave it at that.
phd21
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Re: Minidlna and HEVC ?

Post by phd21 »

HI JLC17,

I just read your post and the good replies to it. Here are my thoughts on this as well.

I happened across your post.

+1 for "rene" suggestion, I have been using the "Ultimate Media Server (UMS)" for years now and it works great and is easy to install. In Linux Mint 19.x install the Java 8 runtime and make it the default, see link below.

Media Server - What to use? - Linux Mint Forums
viewtopic.php?f=48&t=273165&hilit=ultimate+media+server

I just played a "hevc" video using UMS and my TV only has 720 resolution.

You can always convert videos from one format to another format that is more compatible with whatever device(s) you want to play them on like from "hevc" format to regular .mp4, .mkv, etc... using WinFF-GTK in the "Synaptic Package Manager (SPM)" or another of the many multimedia converters available.

Hope this helps ...
Phd21: Mint 20 Cinnamon & xKDE (Mint Xfce + Kubuntu KDE) & KDE Neon 64-bit (new based on Ubuntu 20.04) Awesome OS's, Dell Inspiron I5 7000 (7573) 2 in 1 touch screen, Dell OptiPlex 780 Core2Duo E8400 3GHz,4gb Ram, Intel 4 Graphics.
Hoser Rob
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Re: Minidlna and HEVC ?

Post by Hoser Rob »

In the 2nd to last post here by the developer of minidlna ...

https://sourceforge.net/p/minidlna/bugs/272/

... he says he's not going to add any new features in the future, just do bug fixing. That was in 2015. As far as I'm concerned that program is abandonware.

There's simply NO excuse for any video player for Mint 19 not being able to handle HEVC video. Look for something else IMO.
For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong - H. L. Mencken
rene
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Re: Minidlna and HEVC ?

Post by rene »

Hoser Rob wrote: Tue Oct 23, 2018 7:53 am There's simply NO excuse for any video player for Mint 19 not being able to handle HEVC video. Look for something else IMO.
MiniDLNA is not a video player; it's a DLNA server. It only makes available content, any content, to digital media players that use DLNA to retrieve it; that is, a DLNA server does not by design "handle" any sort of media beyond the "ship it over the network" stage: it's the players that need to understand what they're actually attempting to play.

Players such as TV's, of which there are a huge number new enough to be considered far from obsolete, yet too told to understand HEVC. Therefore the desire for server-side transcoding to, say, AVC, but this is far beyond the scope of DLNA, and certainly of MiniDLNA: note the name. DLNA just serves up files, and certainly including files that have been transcoded from HEVC to whichever other format; for on-the-fly transcoding you need something essentially different from DLNA itself.

[EDIT] Hah. While the above used to be correct and could still be considered essentially so, it appears that described issue of older TV's not playing newer formats (read, HEVC) was considered universal enough to have the 2016 DLNA 4.0 standard in fact mandate transcoding: https://www.dlna.org/news/2016/6/28/dln ... perience-1. So "far beyond the scope of DLNA", no, not since 2016..
Last edited by rene on Wed Oct 24, 2018 6:05 am, edited 1 time in total.
Hoser Rob
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Re: Minidlna and HEVC ?

Post by Hoser Rob »

What's the difference? You still can't play (or stream or whatever) HEVC using this program in Mint 19. It should have been able to in Mint 18, every other media program I know of would do so. HEVC is rapidly becoming the standard, esp with streaming because it's much better optimized for lower video bitrates than AVC. That program isn't being updated or maintained properly. It's useless. Find something else.
For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong - H. L. Mencken
rene
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Re: Minidlna and HEVC ?

Post by rene »

Hoser Rob wrote: Wed Oct 24, 2018 8:15 am What's the difference? You still can't play (or stream or whatever) HEVC using this program in Mint 19.
As explained, the difference is that you can; that MiniDLNA serves up files, essentially without regards to type or codec. Now, that's not completely true in a more detailed sense but certainly is in that of the on Mint 19 from the repositories available version of minidlna being able to serve up HEVC fine to a DLNA-aware HEVC-capable video player on your network.

Well, UPnP-aware (DLNA is a subset of UPnP) and I do not have a DLNA-only HEVC capable player to test with but even if there's an issue at that level it's still only the player that is incapable of something, not MiniDLNA. I otherwise due to your reply just now checked to see if something unexpected was going on but there isn't. Install minidlna, give it access to some HEVC content and play it back with for example VLC (Tools -> View Playlist -> Universal Plug'n'Play) from same or other system on your LAN. Works fine.
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