R-Pi 5 NAS Drive

[Chris Savage]

Can't wait.

Yeah, as more Raspberry Pi projects started stacking up, I figured I would just do the software all at once, that way it's all fresh in my head, instead of a month+ down the road having to figure it out again.

[granz]

Spock seems to do well for viewing some video files, but whenever we try to watch The Rifleman (https://www.therifleman.net/,) it gets the video and sound badly out of sync. For some reason, Lucas McCain (the Rifleman) must not like Spock, and refuses to work with him.

I'm going to try setting up the Pi 4, or 5 to see if that does it.

[Chris Savage]

Spock seems to do well for viewing some video files, but whenever we try to watch The Rifleman it gets the video and sound badly out of sync. For some reason, Lucas McCain (the Rifleman) must not like Spock, and refuses to work with him.

If I had to guess, I would say that movie is either using a different form of compression or the bit-rate is significantly higher. Whatever the reason, I would verify it works on another machine (PC?) before changing hardware.

Are you using Ethernet or Wi-Fi to stream? Even my laptop stutters a bit on some movies when using Wi-Fi.

[granz]

If I had to guess, I would say that movie is either using a different form of compression or the bit-rate is significantly higher. Whatever the reason, I would verify it works on another machine (PC?) before changing hardware.

Yeah, I have been running the entire series up to now on my old Acer - she finally bought the farm. So, it should work. Now that you mentioned it, I took my netbook and hooked it up to Spock's 8TB drive and was able to play the file just fine; sound and video in sync, even through the HDMI and playing on our television.

Are you using Ethernet or Wi-Fi to stream? Even my laptop stutters a bit on some movies when using Wi-Fi.

Neither; the Pi 3 is hooked up to the HDMI cable to the television, and the TV acts as the (huge) monitor to the computer. I have a Rii handheld keyboard/trackpad and placed the wireless (not Bluetooth) nub into the Pi so that we can launch programs from our recliner. The hard drive is connected directly through the USB cable to the Pi (although the Pi 3 doesn't have USB 3.0, it should still be fast enough.)

[granz]

Well, Spock is now running on the Pi 5, and doing so splendidly. Every video is working great.

At first, I was having trouble figuring out how to have Spock get a static IP address. The old way of editing the /etc/dhcp/dhcp.conf file doesn't work any more, now that RPi OS uses nmcli (network manager command line interface) to manage the network. Then I was able to find https://circuitdigest.com/tutorial/how-to-set-static-ip-on-raspberry-pi and got him to keep a static address. Now I can add, or delete, videos from anywhere on my network.

Next, the large-screen (65") television was treated by Spock as a monstrously huge screen, and the fonts for the icons were so small that we could not read them from across the living room (about 10-15 feet. ) So, after a bit of searching, I found https://forums.raspberrypi.com/viewtopic.php?t=394793, which lead me to getting the display set up.

Sorry about hijacking your project thread, but this seems kind-a related.

These URLs are included as a breadcrumb in case I need to find this stuff again.

[Chris Savage]

At first, I was having trouble figuring out how to have Spock get a static IP address. The old way of editing the /etc/dhcp/dhcp.conf file doesn't work any more, now that RPi OS uses nmcli (network manager command line interface) to manage the network. Sorry about hijacking your project thread, but this seems kind-a related.

It is related. For my purposes, all three R-Pi devices need to have a static IP address. You've saved me running down that tutorial.

[granz]

It is related. For my purposes, all three R-Pi devices need to have a static IP address. You've saved me running down that tutorial.

Glad that I could help.

[MicroNut]

@granz I had about the same experience with the raspberry pi but I made my Pi 3 a DLNA server so I could stream videos on my computer using VLC and also stream to my smart TV. It has a 1TB usb3 mechanical drive with movies I copied from my collection using MakeMKV. I found out that blu-ray quality could not stream fast enough due to the large amount of bytes required for each frame. DVD quality worked fine.

I got a Raspberry Pi 5 with 8GB for Christmas and set that up as my DLNA server. I haven't tried a blu-ray quality video yet but I'm going to give it a try to see how it handles it, With the Pi 3 I had to use a powered USB hub for the hard drive but with the 5 and the recommended power supply I don't need it. I also do not have to set up a static ip for it.

[granz]

@granz I had about the same experience with the raspberry pi but I made my Pi 3 a DLNA server so I could stream videos on my computer using VLC and also stream to my smart TV. It has a 1TB usb3 mechanical drive with movies I copied from my collection using MakeMKV. I found out that blu-ray quality could not stream fast enough due to the large amount of bytes required for each frame. DVD quality worked fine.

I don't use DLNA, and so do not have any troubles with that.

I got a Raspberry Pi 5 with 8GB for Christmas and set that up as my DLNA server. I haven't tried a blu-ray quality video yet but I'm going to give it a try to see how it handles it,

I have never owned a blu-ray player (nor drive on any PC) and thus don't have to worry about the extra data rate needed for that.

With the Pi 3 I had to use a powered USB hub for the hard drive but with the 5 and the recommended power supply I don't need it.

My eight terabyte drive has its own power cord - no troubles with needing extra power on the Pi. Although, my Pi 5 does have the official three amp supply, so that is good, too.

I also do not have to set up a static ip for it.

My need for the static IP address is so that I can copy videos from my main laptop (or any other computer) to Spock. Also, several years ago, we were on a family vacation and I was able to remote in to my network and get several movies from my server so that the kids could watch movies.

[Chris Savage]

I got a Raspberry Pi 5 with 8GB for Christmas and set that up as my DLNA server. I haven't tried a blu-ray quality video yet but I'm going to give it a try to see how it handles it, With the Pi 3 I had to use a powered USB hub for the hard drive but with the 5 and the recommended power supply I don't need it. I also do not have to set up a static ip for it.

This is similar to where I'm at. Most of my DVDs / Blu Rays have been converted to MKV files and are streamed to my Smart TV via a media server on the NAS drive (Twonky). Twonky is a DNLA-compliant streaming media server.

[granz]

What are the advantages of running DLNA over my setup of just using the server as if it were a regular computer, and watching videos on that?

[Chris Savage]

What are the advantages of running DLNA over my setup of just using the server as if it were a regular computer, and watching videos on that?

Well, for you, I'm not sure. It seems like your system just works. My Smart TV is from 2017 and is a Samsung. Even though the TV is on the same network as the NAS, and the videos are in a public folder, with no password, my TV does not see the NAS drive at all. With the Twonky server, I just specify what path things are in on the NAS and not only does my TV see the NAS, but it can break things down into Photos, Videos or Music. Your mileage may vary. 

[granz]

I guess...

I did not want a "smart TV" (too many security risks,) but did not have any choice. So, my television has never (and never will be) connected to the network, let alone the Internet.

[MicroNut]

I do have a Samba server on my Raspi 5 as well so it doubles as a NAS.

[granz]

I do have a Samba server on my Raspi 5 as well so it doubles as a NAS.

I was considering Samba, but with my switching over to Linux I don't have anything which needs SMB. So Samba would be a bit of a waste.

Although I did use to have a book on how to replace a Windows NT Small Office Server with Linux. That did use Samba because the Linux server was replacing the NT Domain Controller, and they were setting it up for Win 9X, and NT Workstation systems to connect. I really liked that book but do not have it any more - it probably got lost in our moves.