Il blog di Gas

Finally i got it….at first it was a mess, some explanations on what does what:

• Media Server: it serves the content on the network
• Media Renderer: it renders the content served by a media server

So I actually needed both on my gentoo linux.

Probably the easiest way to browse content served by upnp servers is djmount , it works as a FUSE file system ( that can be mounted by a normal user) and it looks for all the upnp devices in a network. It works very well even with content provided by Windows Vista (or better from the Media Player that comes with windows vista). You create a directory and simply “djmount it”, in that directory there will be other subdirectories , one for each media server you have in your network.

Easy and working but not that cool, I mean…all this new stuff and , in the end, I still have to browse directories. I’m not using these new things just because I don’t want to plug in an usb cable, I’m not that lazy. So I went searching in various forums another solution.

My first choice as media server was ushare, somehow connected to the geexbox project but it had its limitation, one above all that it doesn’t read tags, so when you copy a music file to another device you must retag it manually. Another problem was the init script that didn’t work that well and I didn’t have time/will to fix it. Mediatomb seems the definitive choice to me, it seems a nice project, it reads metadata and has a built in sqlite backend. (you can use mysql too but i don’t have the server on my box). Mediatomb has a webserver you can connect to and you can add/delete content to your share and chose how to rescan your library , you can chose inotify on that ( if you are using beagle you should already have inotify in your kernel).

When it goes to the Media Renderer it seems that there is not much choice yet, but there is some and in particular there is gmediarenderer from the GNU guys. GmediaRender , as the names says, it’s able to render content served from a MediaServer, it needs gstreamer as a backend for all the codecs (it actually uses gstreamer to render the stream ). If you have gmediarender running you can simply go to your nokia N95 media player , chose a song and in options chose “execute on personal network” ( or something like that) and your computer (not the phone) will sound. You can do the same for videos or pictures.

What about coherence? I have it installed and the rhythmbox plugins actually works , I can see my N95 and browse its contents but you can’t (yet) make rhythmbox work as a MediaRenderer. Coherence is supposed to be a full UPNP solution with its server, renderer and controller but the people who develop it are very good in making Youtube videos but not that good to explain the world “how the hell that damn thing works”.

What is missing? On my nokia I can chose to copy or move stuff to my personal network, I can’t do it and don’t know what part of this upnp mess should provide this feature.

I need to sync many applications on different devices so the best idea for me was using a central server where I can sync too. ScheduleWolrd is a funambol based service that regardless of its ugly interface does what I want .This small howto covers my Nokia N95 , thunderbird + lightning and Google Calendar but it should work with many other devices or applications. Syncing between ScheduleWorld and Google Calendar works mostly out of the box.
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Ho un nokia N95 inglese dell’azienda “O2″ che funziona con qualsiasi sim , come si dice “liberato”..
In questo momento ho il firmware 11.0.26 e non posso aggiornarlo all’ultima versione ,cioè la 12.0.013.Non posso aggiornarlo perchè il telefono ha un codice prodotto per il quale l’ultimo firmware è l’11.0.26 ovvero un telefono della 02, quello che voglio ottenere è un telefono della Nokia con un codice prodotto che corrisponde appunto ad un Nokia senza brand / marca.I passi sono semplici ma da seguire con attenzione,la guida funziona anche per quelli Italiani.

1. Installare Nokia software Updater ed installare PcSuite dal sito ufficiale Nokia, collegare il telefono con Sim e batteria carica ,testare che sia riconosciuto e fare il backup da PcSuite
2. Andare a questa pagina ed installare Nemesis Server Suite (in fondo , il primo file dopo “Nemesis Service Suite Download”),durante l’installazione scegliere USB Virtual Device
3. Aprire il programma e premere il bottone in alto a destra “Scan for new Devices” dopo un po si riempiranno i campi vuoti, passare a “Phone Info” , cliccare a destra su “read” ,sempre nella parte destra dovrebbero esserci dei campi , uno dei quali intitolato “Product Code” con un numero, cambiare il numero in 0534841,mettere l’apice su Enable e cliccare su Write. Ora come test togliere l’apice da “Enable”, cliccare su Read e controllare se il codice prodotto corrisponde al nuovo numero impostato. Chiudere l’appicazione
4. ( Fatto il Backup???) Lanciare Nokia Software Updater, e seguire i passi.Il telefono verrà “riflashato” in un Nokia generico e non di un particolare fornitore di servizio (Tim, Vodafone ,Tre ).