Newbie: Sharing library information to Buffalo LinkTheater

[softwarea]

Hi guys,

I just set up XMBC on Ubuntu 8.10 and on Win XP .

The Ubuntu machine should act as my home media server, so I enabled UPnP server. The Win XP is one of my clients on which I would like to watch movies stored on the Ubuntu.

After adding a new source to the Ubuntu via UPnP protocol my WIn XP can play any movies and TV shows on the Ubuntu. This is working awesome.

On the Ubuntu, my library is nicely populated with data from scrapers. However, on the Win XP I can only see folder and file names (no pictures, no descriptions etc.). I was hoping that the client (here: Win XP) would pull these information from the server...no?

So I searched the forum and understand I had to use Samba instead of UPnP. After doing this, I have what I wanted. Win XP is showing a "nice" library.

So what is my problem? In the next days I will receive a Buffalo LinkTheater. I was hoping I could browse the "nice" server library with Buffalo and watch movies on my TV. I'm afraid now that Buffalo will not be able to read the servers library data as it probably does not understand the samba protocol.

Do I misundertand anything or does anybody have experience with the use of XBMC and the Buffalo LinkTheater?

Thanks for any suggestions!

[BLKMGK]

Not used the two together but have used the LinkTheater. The LinkTheater presentation will rely HEAVILY on the UPNP server sending it data, in this case XBMC. It sounds from your description like XBMC's presentation may not be as good as you might like. I know when I used my LinkTheater that was my biggest issue, most servers looked like CRAP except the one on the LinkStation - go figure. Anyway, due to this and the way the LinkTheater really felt mostly like a big clumsy browser of sorts I stopped using it and discovered XBMC. If you do use it much look for the mailing list run by one of the Buffalo engineers that has some unreleased firmware available for some added functionality ;)

[softwarea]

Hi BLKMGK,

and thanks for your reply.

Well, not to be misunderstood: I still don't have my LinkTheater (should be in the mail by next monday). I'm just afraid that the presentation *will* look poor as I can only use UPnP with LinkTheater (Samba is probably not supported).

In the first line I just wanted to know if I could "persuade" XBMC' UPnP-server in any way to send extended library data (not ony filenames) to a client like LinkTheater. Because what I'm trying to avoid is unwrapping my LinkTheater, connect it via UPnP to XBMC, wonder about the poor presentation and now start fiddling for the next hours ;)

So, if anybody knows an answer to the following questions, I would greatly appreciate any suggestions!

1) I there a way to transfer library data (including pictures etc.) via UPnP?
2) Is there a better way/device to connect a regular TV with XBMC than the Buffalo LinkTheater?