eeextra.com

How to transform the EeeBox into a multimedia server

November 20, 2008 – 8:24 am

The tiny Eeebox has a lot of hidden talents. We will view how to use the EeeBox as a multimedia server for your entire home network.

Mediatomb on the EeeBox

With the Eeebox as a multimedia server, you will be able to share your audio and video collection, as well as pictures, between all of your computers, consoles, or UPnP enabled devices.
We chose Mediatomb, a Free opensource solution, to act as the UPnP server software. It can perform under any Linux OS. I have Ubuntu installed on my EeeBox, and mediatomb is available from the Add/Remove Applications menu.
Once mediatomb is installed, you can start it with the command
sudo mediatomb
You will be provided with the server’s local address on the console. In my case,  INFO: http://192.168.1.3:49152/
Right click on the address and open it. You will get a clear web interface to manage your multimedia database.
I have created the following video about how to start the server.


Mediatomb works really great, the only downside being the configuration. It is fine out of the box, but if you want to modify the settings, you will have to edit the config.xml and associated js files by hand.

UPnP client devices

My Eeebox is connected to a wifi router, wirelessly.
You can connect many different devices to the mediatomb server, such as:

• Modern Video game consoles. Mediatomb can be tweaked to work with the Sony PlayStation 3. The Microsoft Xbox 360 has also extensive multimedia capabilities via the XBox Multimedia Center.

• Some mobile phones, like the Nokia N95, can connect to your network via Wifi and access the files. There are also UPnP solutions for the iPhone/iTouch.

I have tried a few client programs on my laptop. VLC can stream the videos without problems and will support UPnP fully in the future 1.0 version.
However, the most elegant solution I found is definitely XBMC.

This multimedia center can run in full screen mode with a beautiful interface on Windows, Linux, Mac or the Xbox console. It features an additional RSS reader, a weather service, and you can download it from the official page.
Under XBMC, you have to go to Setting/Network/UPnP Settings and check the options Autostart UPnP client and Enable UPnP renderer.

To access your videos, music and pictures, you just have to choose Add source, Browse, UPnP devices. XBMC will detect your mediatomb server and retrieve the list of files.
We will conclude with a video of XBMC on a laptop, showing the settings and streaming from the eeebox.

I’d like to add some clarifications.

The slow video loading on the youtube video is due to my wireless connection. The EeeBox was 3 walls and a floor away from the router. I have moved the computer and loading a 700MB video took 2s.

There are also obvious security implications, be aware that your folders on the EeeBox will be browsable, and you might not want all of your files to be visible. Use this solution on a trusted network network, and be sure to use encryption if you use a wifi router.