linux media streamer VM? small and lightweight

DJMK4

DJMK4

DJMK4

Soldato
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S.Wales
Hi all, I am looking at building a small Linux based media streamer for use over the internet, this is to allow me to utilise my server at my old place where I live and my kit is, running VMware esxi 5.1

I was thinking of a lightweight based server VM that I could use to set up a media portal I could access from the web, so it needs to be reliable, secure and authentication type stuff, have plenty of features.

Anything about Linux based that would fit the bill?
 
Something like Open Media Vault? I've never opened it up to the web to access remotely though, so I can't comment on security and authentication but I can say that locally it's about as reliable and stable as you can get since it's Debian based (which I guess should also be good for security).

You can access a live demo of OMV here
 
I run a HP Microserver with an Arch Linux VM that has Plex running on it. Works fine. The transcoding thrashes the CPU but as long as your only needing to transcode one stream it will be fine. With better hardware I guess you can easily stream more.
I use Arch as it's very very lightweight which suits this role perfectly.
 
I tried plex on a windows server 2008 install, I do like it, however running in to buffering issues (see my last post here)

Im trying to find out how services like Netflix can stream to me in really good quality, but plex I have to lower the quality right down to stop it buffering.....

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18592070

What do you think it could be? Im pointing at the download bandwidth in this place, however most streaming works fine (BBC iplayer, TV Catchup etc) and netflix doesnt buffer really at all, however that raises the question, how does people like Netflix get away with streaming decent quality over low bandwidth circuits? is there LOTS of pre-processing before send over the internet?

Is there anything in Plex I can do to help? or is it just the quality settings?

When I am streaming at 720p over the internet, the server its on, CPU load flickers between 25-50%, maybe 60% sometimes, enough RAM, the upload there is 17mb/s

Would trying this on Linux make any difference?

One thing Plex seems to lack is a pre-buffering feature, this would allow me to open the stream and let it sit for a while whilst it buffers enough to make it playable (if it is indeed that)


EDIT: Just had a look online, and they suggested turning off Direct Play & Direct Stream, seems a little better yet, slowely upping the stream quality and it loads quicker, yet to buffer.

Given this, is it preferred to run something like this on a Linux OS?
 
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It could be that Plex is having to transcode the video and the CPU can't cope leading to stuttering. I also found that I needed to turn DLNA off to avoid stuttering.
 
Bluecube said:
It could be that Plex is having to transcode the video and the CPU can't cope leading to stuttering. I also found that I needed to turn DLNA off to avoid stuttering.
Click to expand...


The CPU load was fine, although I turned off direct play and direct stream

This seems to have fixed the issue :) looking at the CPU on the VM, now I have upped the quality, you get bursts to about 60-70% for a few seconds, then it drops back down to 10% for a bit, then after a bit goes back up to about 60-70%, goes down again etc etc


It was the direct play and direct stream that was causing it, I can up the quality fine now without it buffering.
 
Just been trying out Tretflix on my Microserver running ESXi. Thanks for that link! It seems to be very good though complex and seems to require a good newsgroup server.
 
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