Media Systems: Incorporating the TV and the HiFi - Smart Home Automation with Linux and Raspberry Pi - page 101

N The MediaMVP device itself only has hardware to output a standard-definition image. If you've been ripping
your Blu-ray discs as HD files, then you will need to use VLC to transcode them into SD.

Note

It is also recommended that you use the --use-mplayer command-line switch, which will switch to mplayer
transcoding if VLC doesn't understand the file format properly.
The biggest caveat about using a transcoding server is that the filename being played by the MVPMC client
software must be exactly the same as it appears to VLC running on the server. This can be arranged by the careful use
of symlinks, as my media is mounted elsewhere on the disk and I have no desire to change it. I have therefore created
a special folder in the root of my server with suitable links:

mkdir /mvpmc_media
ln -s /media/mp3 /mvpmc_media/mp3
ln -s /media/movies /mvpmc_media/movies
ln -s /media/videos /mvpmc_media/videos

I then replicated these on the MediaMVPMC by creating its own mvpmc_media directory and mounting the folders
across the network:

mkdir /mediamount
mkdir /mvpmc_media
mount.cifs "//192.168.1.110/media" /mediamount -o user=mvp,pass=mvppass,rsize=34000;
ln -s /mediamount/videos /mvpmc_media/mp3
ln -s /mediamount/videos /mvpmc_media/movies
ln -s /mediamount/videos /mvpmc_media/videos

If you like, you can test your mount instructions by applying them dynamically while the MVPMC is running, as
you can telnet into the MediaMVP hardware (username: root, no password) and issue commands directly.
This process has another benefit as the filesystem browser on the MVPMC is very literal; whereas a directory
entitled vids might be good enough for the geek who created it, a more descriptive title such as Music Videos ,
replete with capitalization and spaces, would be appreciated by other home dwellers. Consequently, you can repeat
the previous process using full names to achieve that goal without offending the sensibilities of your Linux naming
conventions.

N Note Although DVD VOB files can be played on this system, the DVD menus are not supported.

Other Functionality
Other features available in MVPMC include the following:

u Access of data from MythTV or ReplayTV

u VNC Viewer

u Streaming live web radio

Their setup requirements are straightforward enough and covered in the online documentation and so I won't
cover them here.