Home media sharing

[EuroNiceguy]

Hi everyone,
Happy belated Christmas and happy 2026.

I have the desktop perfected, and getting ready for the major expansion as discussed in previous topics.

The only thing I need to do on this desktop is to set up file sharing so Movies and Music can be streamed to the Android TV, which is in the same network as the computer.
Can you recommend the best way to do this, which includes Autostart after booting/resetting and can you provide instructions please.

Thank you in advance,
Michael

[kasi042]

Hi Michael,
That’s best done with a DLNA server. I’m sorry, I can’t give clear instructions. “Decades” ago I purchased a Twonky licence. I’m quite happy with it and it seems to take the “life time” serious. But it’s not free nor open source nor is there much active maintenance. The current version is still the same I updated 2023.
In the repos there’s MiniDLNA. zypper in minidlna should do the job to install it. But I have no clue how to set up or what to take in consideration. Maybe others can jump in or you do some research.
Edit:
Ah, and Happy Christmas. Here in Germany we have two days - so, not yet belated here.

[R7XF]

You could use VLC to stream media filest.
Quite straight forward, although you would likely have to configure your firewall.

Other options are Kodi or Plex.

[kasi042]

@R7XF

You could use VLC to stream media filest.

AFAIK VLC is just a client. The question is about the server. Or can VLC send the stream to other devices? Never tried.
Kodi should be the same. At least I never managed to use it as media server. Maybe it’s a PEBKAC. Plex may be an alternative. But I can’t tell how to get it.

[deano_ferrari]

@kasi042

AFAIK VLC is just a client. The question is about the server. Or can VLC send the stream to other devices? Never tried.

Yes, it can act as a media server. However, I think Kodi is a better option for home media sharing. Samba or NFS filesharing will also be required.

[hendersj]

Personally, I use UMS, running in a docker container. Then I use a media tool on my Android devices (BubbleUPnP, I think it’s called), which works with both local renderers and has the ability to cast to my Chromecast devices.

[shundhammer]

If you happen to have a FritzBox internet router, you can simply activate the DLNA server there and plug a big USB stick or USB disk into it, and you won’t need to do anything on your PC. I just read that it supports 4 TiB drives and ext4 besides FAT32 / exFAT. Try it. You can do everything from the FritzBox web interface.

Also make sure to check what USB media you can plug directly into the TV. It might be smarter than you think.

[karlmistelberger]

@EuroNiceguy

The only thing I need to do on this desktop is to set up file sharing so Movies and Music can be streamed to the Android TV, which is in the same network as the computer.
Can you recommend the best way to do this, which includes Autostart after booting/resetting and can you provide instructions please.

Enable minidlna:

5700g:~ # systemctl status minidlna.service 
● minidlna.service - MiniDLNA is a DLNA/UPnP-AV server software
     Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/minidlna.service; enabled; preset: disabled)
    Drop-In: /etc/systemd/system/service.d
             └─failure-notification.conf
             /etc/systemd/system/minidlna.service.d
             └─override.conf
     Active: active (running) since Fri 2025-12-26 07:13:20 CET; 24h ago
 Invocation: df30c02b80394469918818a326821a47
   Main PID: 1173 (minidlnad)
      Tasks: 2 (limit: 37675)
        CPU: 289ms
     CGroup: /system.slice/minidlna.service
             └─1173 /usr/sbin/minidlnad -S

Dec 26 07:13:20 5700g systemd[1]: Started MiniDLNA is a DLNA/UPnP-AV server software.
Dec 26 07:13:20 5700g minidlnad[1173]: minidlna.c:1161: warn: Starting MiniDLNA version 1.3.3.
Dec 26 07:13:20 5700g minidlnad[1173]: minidlna.c:1209: warn: HTTP listening on port 8200
5700g:~ # 

Minimal tinkering needed (override.conf):

5700g:~ # systemctl cat minidlna.service 
# /usr/lib/systemd/system/minidlna.service
[Unit]
Description=MiniDLNA is a DLNA/UPnP-AV server software
After=network-online.target syslog.target local-fs.target
Wants=network-online.target

[Service]
# added automatically, for details please see
# https://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE:Security_Features#Systemd_hardening_effort
ProtectSystem=full
ProtectHome=true
PrivateDevices=true
ProtectHostname=true
ProtectClock=true
ProtectKernelTunables=true
ProtectKernelModules=true
ProtectKernelLogs=true
ProtectControlGroups=true
RestrictRealtime=true
# end of automatic additions 
User=minidlna
Group=minidlna
PIDFile=/run/minidlna/minidlna.pid
Type=simple
ExecStart=/usr/sbin/minidlnad -S
ExecReload=/usr/bin/kill -HUP $MAINPID

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

# /etc/systemd/system/service.d/failure-notification.conf
[Unit]
OnFailure=failure-notification@%n

# /etc/systemd/system/minidlna.service.d/override.conf
[Service]
ProtectHome=read-only
5700g:~ #

[Bird]

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