# Genie and Media Serving



## stmckin (Jun 21, 2007)

I got Genie installed today.... I've got content on some drives.... a lot of the threads I saw were aged ... so:

1-can I simply plug a usb dlna drive in? (longshot)

2- can I serve it using win7 Media Player?

3- does it still have to be mpg or does mp4 work yet?

4- is there some better way to serve it and does that way get around an mp4 limitation if it still exists?

TIA!


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## Stuart Sweet (Jun 19, 2006)

Honestly, the Genie does not do DLNA serving at all and is a fairly poor DLNA client. Nothing has changed with Media Share in about 5 years, leading one to presume that nothing will change. 

If you're looking for a DLNA client, there are several excellent ones under $100 that will satisfy you far more.


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## RunnerFL (Jan 5, 2006)

I agree with Stuart, don't even waste your time on Media Share. 

Go with an AppleTV, you'll be glad you did.


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## KyL416 (Nov 11, 2005)

stmckin said:


> 1-can I simply plug a usb dlna drive in? (longshot)


Nope, it has to be e-SATA. The USB port is only for the AM21 ATSC tuner. It's only for recordings though, not bringing external files to your DVR.


> 2- can I serve it using win7 Media Player?


Yes as long as the file is supported since it doesn't do transcoding.


> 3- does it still have to be mpg or does mp4 work yet?


Yeah, still limited to mpeg2 video.


> 4- is there some better way to serve it and does that way get around an mp4 limitation if it still exists?


Try TVersity it can transcode the content on the fly and has plugins to bring in extra things like live online streams and YouTube videos in HD. If you have a linux setup you can use Mediatomb. I use it all the time to watch live sports streams of events that US networks rather air tape delayed, some music video channels and world news channels not carried by DirecTV.


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## RunnerFL (Jan 5, 2006)

Better yet... Get a Rasberry Pi and install XBMC on it. Works great.


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## stmckin (Jun 21, 2007)

Thanks for the quick replies!

thanks.... ill just buy a boxee or something

kyl416... thanks for the tversity idea.... but they killed support for ALL directv devices on or before 8.10.2012... bumma
http://forums.tversity.com/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=72311


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## rahlquist (Jul 24, 2007)

stmckin said:


> Thanks for the quick replies!
> 
> thanks.... ill just buy a boxee or something
> 
> ...


You could also try Serviio or PlayOn. Both work fairly well with PlayOn being more polished with the exception it sends the video in the original aspect ratio which means if your on hd and the video wasnt 16:9 then the D* receiver will stretch to fit, no matter what. Serviio is preset to send 16:9 but it transcodes with FFMpeg on the fly and needs a high end PC and even then I get audio stumbles(core i5 2500k, 8gb ram etc). Currently though my HR34 shows an X next to almost all video content in media share even if my HR20 can play it.


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## carillon (Nov 15, 2007)

I use Plex to serve all of my media throughout my local home network and remote too. It is really an amazing, FREE, product! It handles most any format you can throw its' way and transcodes too when needed.

Plex


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## smitbret (Mar 27, 2011)

stmckin said:


> Thanks for the quick replies!
> 
> thanks.... ill just buy a boxee or something
> 
> ...


Just use a version prior to v1.8 and you'll be fine.

Mezzmo, while not free, is a better piece of software and currently supports DirecTV boxes.


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