How to setup Raspberry Pi as media server using ReadyMedia

Raspberry Pi can be setup as a media server to simultaneously stream videos, music and pictures to multiple devices on the home wireless network. ReadyMedia (formerly known as MiniDLNA) is a simple media server that can be used to achieve this.

• Install Raspbian to the Pi, as described here.

• Connect and mount the hard disk containing the content to the USB port of the Pi. Let us assume the partition with the content is mounted at /media/usb0.

• SSH into the Pi and install the ReadyMedia server:

$ sudo apt-get install minidlna

• Open the file /etc/minidlna.conf and edit the following entries.

• Set the video, music and pictures directories. For example:

media_dir=V,/media/usb0/videos
media_dir=A,/media/usb0/music
media_dir=P,/media/usb0/pictures

• If you want ReadyMedia to automatically index new media files as they are added to your media directories:

inotify=yes

• Restart the ReadyMedia server. This will index media files in your media directories and build the media database of the server:

$ sudo service minidlna force-reload

• Open a browser on any other device on the network and open http://192.168.0.99:8200. Assuming 192.168.0.99 is the IP address of the Pi. 8200 is the default port of the ReadyMedia server. The webpage should show the number of content files in the server database.

• You are now ready to enjoy your content on any device on the network! On Android smartphone or tablet, I like to use MediaHouse UPnP/DLNA Browser. Once open, it shows my Pi and I can browse video, audio and image content.

• Videos can be played using any video player on your Android device. I like to use MX Player for this. Audio is played by the browser itself.

Tried with: ReadyMedia 1.0.24 and Raspbian 7