How can I make my Mac a DLNA server and/or client?

Question

How can I make my Mac be a DLNA server and/or client?

Answer 1

There are several choices based on the fact that any UPnP server should also be DLNA compliant :

• Free ones :
  1. XBMC
  2. MythTV
  3. TvMobili
  4. Kinsky
  5. Plex
  6. uShare (easier to install with MacPorts)
• Paid ones :
  1. EyeConnect
  2. PlayBack
  3. SongBook

The bold ones are directly mentioned to be DLNA servers.

Answer 2

I've had this same frustrating hunt for ages, tried and found all of them to have serious issues either with usability or actual functionality. Most sadly arent even worth trying. But then last week I found a poster who recommended Plex media server and its so good I'm trying to find the post and poster to thank him.

Plex server is totally free but you can pay for mobile clients. I have an iMac and MacBook Pro both running Mountain Lion, and the iMac now serves my xbox, wdtv live and archos 7 faultlessly. This may sound set up but save yourself the pain and effort and try Plex first.

Plex takes a while to run through a big, say 3tb collection but it genuinely has been the most painless and reliable of all I've tried and the searchable options are far more varied and sensible than those for others. Don't want to name names but I've pretty much tried them all. The only thing I can't comment on is transcoding; I assume their clients manage this. From my perspective, I needed something to access my library, rather than rely on hardware specific transcoding. If you need this its a mixed bag regarding codec support, and I found the issues with other servers made the solution less viable. Connect360 was not bad for xbox, they also do a PS version, but for straight media serving, Plex no question.

Answer 3

Serviio is a free DLNA server, with a Mac version.

http://www.serviio.org/

Answer 4

I've been using the PS3 media server.

Answer 5

There are some free as well as pay for options:

http://mediatomb.cc/ (FREE)

http://www.wildmediaserver.com/ ($40)

Answer 6

I've been using Plex for a few months and its awesome - found it far superior to PS3MS. Get SABnzbD and SickBeard running as well.

Answer 7

Rivet

Answer 8

Plex has recently added DNLA support, and is an excellent option.

Answer 9

Specify Machine...

eMac PPC 10.5.8 -

Serving :

TvMobili-Leopard-universal.dmg works as does Twonky 5.1.x for serving. XBMC seems to work but not thoroughly tested

Client :

Plex-0.9.5.3-PowerPC - This operates but I've not had any luck getting it to see my servers.... Apparently there is a way to get plex to see twonky but I cant figure it

Probably the best bet on a PPC is to get a distro of Ubuntu and go from there.... then all we need is a decent client on our $200 Tablet with HDMI to flatscreen.

Otherwise you can get DAAP clients for cross platform music streaming from OSX boxes....

Really it depends on what you mean by makeing a "Mac" into a media server/client.... If you have multiple apple machines, then far and away the best thing is iTunes (I stick to version 9), get vine server and chicken of the vnc.... and bVNC for your android... job done, no brainer

Answer 10

TVMOBiLi (free) works with Macs really well. I have Macbook Pro Retina and I use it every other day mostly with my PS3 and Samsung Smart TV.

Due to my Smart TV not having a qwerty keyboard (and really rubbish remote). I tend to stream movies directly to the PS3 (which connects each time I switch it on).

I will rarely use it with my iPad but have the PlugPlayer app when I do.

Answer 11

Vuze is a free torrent client that includes DMS and transcoding. It's okay — to be fair, the DMS is still in beta, but works very well (though I can't pause video with it)

Answer 12

Playback is my favorite DLNA Server for MAC OS X, but I just found out that they closed business and are no longer supporting any of their software as of March 2014. I'm using Plex right now as the best of the two others that I've tried; Plex and XBMC (KODI). I just have problems with Plex not understanding my naming convention for TV show episodes. They get out of order and the program reads 4,14,114 as the number 4 for episode numbers. I previously spent a lot of time naming them how they make sense to me. I do enjoy the artwork that Plex brings up for certain titles.

Playback didn't try to re-order or rename anything. It just reflected exactly what the folder contents were in alphabetical order. It also had it's own security settings such as only allowing certain devices to connect to the server by ip address. When viewed through the PS3 it displayed album art or a snapshot from that episode.

Answer 13

MediaLink from NullRiver is a relatively inexpensive option ($20). It was extremely easy to setup -- it installs as a preference pane plug-in, there are four things to configure and a 'Start' button. Best of all, you can try it for free for 30 minutes; I purchased it after about 4.5 minutes. There's also an App-store version that is a straight-up application.

Caveats: I don't know if the pref-pane option will still work if/when I upgrade to El Capitan with its new security enhancements (no reason to think it won't, but you never know). Also, the last software was two years ago (2013), as of this writing. But it works and was easy to setup.