Share media with other tvboxes

jlazkano · 22 May 2020 21:09

Hello,

I have 4 tvboxes with CE at home. I want to share all the media (photos and videos) I have on a USB disk attached in one box with other tvboxes.

What will be the best method? NFS?

One tvbox is going to stay powered in all the time.

I will appreciate your help.

Regards.

Shoog · 22 May 2020 21:14

NFS server is not enabled by default in CE so you have to use entware to setup the kernel module and then perform a manual setup. I have never got this to work.
Its a lot easier if your media is on a NAS and your boxes are just clients as this in a standard client type in CE.

I use SMB but I wish I didn’t have to as it can be very glitchy at times.

Shoog

jlazkano · 23 May 2020 09:37

Thanks for the reply.

But I don’t want to buy a NAS, I want to use one of the tvbox as NAS and have my media files in all devices.

Regards.

Tim_Taylor · 23 May 2020 09:42

If You want a NAS, You have to pay a NAS.
TV boxes are not made to be used as a NAS

Shoog · 23 May 2020 09:43

Samba is the easiest way to do this and as I said that’s how I have mine setup with a vim2 as the central server.

Shoog

edragon · 24 May 2020 07:25

I use one of my computer (actively use daily) with NFS server duty and it works very well serving to all media boxes and all other clients.Software is currently ‘haneWIN NFS Server Version 1.2.45’

bubblegum57 · 24 May 2020 07:48

I’ll just throw this out there, no idea how to set it up.

Use docker, with either Plex or Jellyfin server.

Shoog · 24 May 2020 08:20

For me leaving a power hungry PC on all day is not an option and why I use SBC as my server.

Shoog

edragon · 24 May 2020 13:47

Another power saving option is to use the usb port of the router as per photo.

kostaman · 24 May 2020 14:16

I waited to see when someone would post this method

I’ve used router’s USB to share Media on my Network for years.

edragon · 24 May 2020 14:35

For years! You must have save enough money to buy another media player!

cubimol · 24 May 2020 14:55

Perhaps my solution will be useful to you.

All sharing services are unified into a single CoreELEC server device.
This server device mounts all disk drives (local and remote) in read-only directories in the /storage directory.
The mounting of the disk drives is done in NFS protocol.
This server device shares the /storage directory in FTP protocol, through the ProFTPD Server Addon service, in read-only mode.
This server device uses the xupnpd entware service to publish the list of TV channels on the home network to all DLNA and UPNP receivers (SmartTVs, VLCs, …).
Every time the server device starts up, the list of TV channels published by xupnpd is updated.
I don’t use samba.

jlazkano · 24 May 2020 20:21

Thanks cubimol,

Once you share the /storage/ directory with FTP, how do you mount this in other CoreELEC devices?

Your setup looks very well.

Regards.

cubimol · 24 May 2020 20:51

In my case the only device that knows where all the shared disk drives are (including names and passwords) is the CoreELEC primary server. These shared disk drives have been read-only mounted to

/storage/disk1
/storage/disk2
/storage/disk3
…

and shared with read-only FTP protocol like

ftp://primary-server:21/disk1
ftp://primary-server:21/disk2
ftp://primary-server:21/disk3
…

for any other remote device (SmartPhone, PC, TV Box, …) with a unique and easy name and password without risk of the content being modified or deleted.

Although I say disks I should say directories because I never fully share a disk drive, there are always hidden and never shared parts, and I use strong SSH/SFTP access passwords for administration of the primary server. Also hidden directories, which start with ‘.’, are also inaccessible via FTP on the main server.

Does this answer your question?

jlazkano · 24 May 2020 21:42

Hello,

Where do you configure this lines on the CoreELEC clients?

ftp://primary-server:21/disk1
ftp://primary-server:21/disk2
ftp://primary-server:21/disk3

In which files?

Regards.

cubimol · 24 May 2020 22:06

To access ftp://primary-server:21/disk1 from another CoreELEC device you can do it in two ways:

without mounting:
from the Kodi file search tree (>>> I USE THIS <<<)
with mounting in a directory:
with the commands (in /storage/.config/autostart.sh):

mkdir /storage/disk1
curlftpfs primary-server/disk1 /storage/disk1 -o user=xxxx:yyyy

(study the syntax of the curlftpfs command in https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/CurlFtpFS - you may have to install entware curlftpfs)