I am wanting to switch from Jellyfin to VLC. I cannot find any tutorials or explanations on how to do this. I have a Ubuntu server with media files on it, and on VLC, the server shows up under the “browse” > “local network” Section on the VLC android app.

The icon says “smb” on it, which seems like the protocol used, however when I click on that, it takes me to a “print$” folder which then asks for the login credentials. The username and PW for local account doesn’t work.

How do I get access to the folder of media on VLC? (Call it /mnt/hdd1/my media)

Edit: FTP works with VLC, but a slightly better interface can be had with Kodi

  • smoothbrain coldtakes@lemmy.caEnglish
    22·
    9 months ago

    VLC isn’t equivalent to Jellyfin or Plex in streaming capabilities, and it’s just running on SMB which could be configured with general folder permissions and sharing, allowing access for any media player and not just VLC.

    SMB is a share protocol that’s pretty standard across ecosystems. I am not sure of your use case and why you are wanting to get rid of Jellyfin but VLC doesn’t sound like the tool to do it.

    You can configure the folder permissions with a guide here or by searching “Ubuntu smb sharing” or something similar.

  • e_t_@kbin.pithyphrase.net
    7·
    9 months ago

    SMB is a network protocol developed by Microsoft. It’s the protocol used by Windows computers to share files with each other. But the protocol was reverse-engineered and a program called Samba provides SMB functionality on Linux. You only see print$ because your Samba isn’t configured with any file shares. You’ll have to configure it. You can find guides online about how to configure Samba. Samba also maintains its own user list independent of the system. That’s why your local account password didn’t work.

  • knfrmity@lemmygrad.ml
    2·
    9 months ago

    I’m not familiar with how VLC manages LAN streaming, but smb (samba) is a filesharing server you have to set up. Just search “set up samba share ubuntu”.

  • redcalcium@lemmy.institute
    1·
    9 months ago

    Theoretically, you can use SFTP. VLC for Android seems to support it (browse -> add server favorite menu), but in practice I’ve never been able to connect to my Linux desktop with SFTP from VLC. It’s simply not connecting and doesn’t produce any error message.