nimbles
03-18-2004, 05:38 PM
This is a guide to using samba share which is one of the streaming protocols used for several Apps and Emulators. This is not a diss at Relax or XNS, but I find that if one does the job and doesn't require any additional software to be installed on the PC side, then others aren't required- so please no flames
Samba requires that the stuff you want to stream has to be in shareable folders so before I start I'll set out the PC requirements and settings.
To share a folder on your PC (I'm going to explain it for XP- I'm not sure if it is any different for 98 or ME/2000) right click a folder containing stuff you want to share/stream and select "Properties". Choose Sharing and then tick the "Share this Folder on the Network". You are then given the option of changing the share name from what it's called on the PC- that bit's up to you. Either way, you will need to note what that name is (the one that appears in the "Shared Name" box).
The other things you will need to know are your pc's "Name" and the "WorkGroup" it belongs to (to find both of these out, right click "My Computer", choose properties and select the "Computer Name" Tab- The "Name" is the what xp calls the "full computer name" (without the . at the end), the Workgroup should be fairly evident).
Some apps will also require the "Username"- easiest way to find this out is to get up the task manager and check the users tab and see which one is active
For these examples I'm going to use the following Values
Workgroup- Home
Computer- My-Computer
Username- User
You may also need to know the IP address- I'll use 192.168.0.1 for the pc's ip: Haven't come across an app that handles IP's only- and because I'm using DHCP I use the computer name rather than IP because the computer name is far less likely to change whereas the IP may change
The share names for the folders I'm going to share and a brief description of them are:
Movies- Movies on My-Computer
Pics- Pictures on My-Computer
Music- Music on My-Computer
Games- Games (that I have the originals for) on My-Computer- which contains different rom directories and an Xbox folder
DVD- DVD-Rom Drive on My-Computer (XP will give you a warning when you try and share a Root Directory- Just Ignore it-you can't delete things on a rom drive anyway)
These folders can have further subdirectories- unless you actively prevent subdirectories being shared.
If you decide for whatever reason to password protect these shared folders then also note the Usernames and passwords
for the different folders- I personally don't bother, no xbox apps actually ask you for the password- they are in the samba path and therefore don't prevent anyone using your xbox accessing those folders- there is currently no way that I know of, for asking for the pass word when you try to connect.
There are several Apps and Emus that support this but not all of them use exactly the same syntax. I'll do them one by one.
XBMC
In this example I'll use a music share so scroll down the xboxmediacenter.xml and find the " <!-- my music shares !-->" line and below that look for the bit in the xml that looks like this:
Find this excerpt
<bookmark>
<name>SMB</name>
<!-- you can use the following formats: !-->
<!-- smb://domain;user: password@ip/share/directory/ !-->
<!-- smb://user: password@ip/share/ !-->
<!-- if guest/public access is enabled: !-->
<!-- smb://ip/ !-->
<path>smb://DOMAIN;username: pwd@MyWindowsServer/movies/</path>
</bookmark>
With no username & password you can use the following:
<bookmark>
<name>Music on My computer</name>
<path>smb://My-Computer/Music</path>
</bookmark>
It's that simple :eek: Other ways to enable the share can be done as listed in the example above- but this is the simplest and works for me
Now some people are having problems with playing cd's cos they haven't got a Samsung drive- well remember how I made the DVD-Rom drive shared? Well this is why:
<bookmark>
<name>DVD-Rom Drive on PC</name>
<path>smb://My-Computer/DVD</path>
</bookmark>
IT will give you access to the pc's DVD drive. So now you can play all those avi's you burned on cd and vcd and svcd's from your pc drive. The only draw back is that xbmc can be made to autolaunch vcd's svcd's and audio cd's when inserted in the xbox drive- but as XBMC treats the PC drive over samba as a "folder" you will manually have to open up the dat files in a vcd-find the MPEGAV folder in the vcd and select the one or more dat files- if there are more than one dat files you can use the "stack" option on the left hand side of the file browser to make them play sequentially without stopping.
I would paste the DVD-ROM samba share in all of the different media menus (e.g. My videos, My music) because XBMC has preset cache levels that are different for Pics (low), Music (medium) and Video (high)- if you only do it in My pictures and then try and open avi, the video may not playback or may be very jerky.
Note that the name of the bookmark doesn't have to be SMB, it can be what ever you want- probably best to mention the fact its on the PC somewhere in the name- but the icon for a streamed folder is different to an xbox hd folder.
You can have as many samba shares as you want. I have 3 for videos, 3 for music and 2 for pics- one of each is a PC-
DVD-Rom drive
XBMP
The samba protocol is slightly different in XBMP (XBMC has since update to a later version of samba). Make the required edits in the config.xml file.
This is what a samba share of the Movie folder on my pc would look like:
<share>
<name>Movies on My Computer</name>
<url>smb://Home/My-Computer/Movies</url>
<cachesize>8192</cachesize>
</share>
Notice in this you have to also use the Workgroup you are using, and you specify the cachesize used as well (defaults are 8192 for movies, 256 for pictures and music). This what the default XBMP set up for a Video share looks like
<share>
<name>Network (SMB)</name>
<url>smb://username: password@workgroup/computer/share</url>
<cachesize>8192</cachesize>
</share>
Again you can add your PC DVD-rom using
smb://Home/My-Computer/DVD
Like XBMC you can have as many samba shares as you want.
Emulators
The following emulators have samba support- Xboy Advance, Neo Genesis, and PSX (that I know of). Although PSX does support it I wouldn't recommend it unless playing very small or basic games- as it can't seem to stream fast enough. But I haven't tried many games to back that statement up.
The samba entires need to be made in the .ini file in the emulator's folder
They all only have provision for one samba share- so it's up to you whether you want that to be the PC-DVD-rom drive or a folder on the pc to share from
find the line in the .ini file that begins with "smbshare" and replace it with:
smbshare=SMB://My-Computer/Games
As you can see they all use the XBMC samba address style
Complex Tools
This is the whole of the ComplexTools.xml
<ComplexTools>
<main>
<nameserver>192.168.2.1</nameserver>
<eripdir>E:\HDDLoader\</eripdir> // E partition to rip/launch/uninstall
<fripdir>F:\HDDLoader\</fripdir> // F partition to rip/launch/uninstall
<gripdir>G:\HDDLoader\</gripdir> // G partition to rip/launch/uninstall
// Samba Share for Unrar/Uniso releases over your network
<smbdir1>smb://My-Compute/Games/</smbdir1>
// Path where your MP3/MOD/XM/IT/S3M/OGG media lives
<MediaDir>F:\Music\Transformers</MediaDir>
// 1 = Media patch xbe's 0 = Don't patch
<PatchXBE>0</PatchXBE>
</main>
</ComplexTools>
As you can see it uses the same samba address system as XBMC. I thought I could be a smart-arse and fool complex tools into having the eripdir and fripdir to point to other directories in the F drive, and to use a smbdir2 for say where I have my xbox apps saved on my PC but it would have none of that.
Complex tools can unrar files- so say you have a rarred up iso (it can be multiple rar's too) in the GAME folder on your pc- you can open and unrar it straight to your xbox game drive- in this case any of the valid ripdir's (If you don't have a g drive then you won't be able to select it).
If you have a rar (not zip unfortunately- use Unleash or Avalaunch for zip files) on the xbox hd you can also use complex tools to unrar it but it will always unrar to one of the three ripdir's unfortunately
There's also provision for background music but unlike Avalaunch it only can play from the one folder- no provision for sub directories.
DVD2Xbox
This also has samba support supposedly, but I can't for the life of me get it to work.
The only feature samba share is used for is to rip an xbox game straight from the xbox dvd rom to the shared folder on your pc, although I guess it'd be quicker to do it through qwix and avalaunch anyway.
PC Tweaks
I mentioned in Complex tools and in the Emulators you were only ever able to use single samba shares- well you can if you really want you can create "special folders which serve as links to the contents of another folder" using the this program (http://www.pearlmagik.com/winbolic/).
You basically create a virtual folder that houses two or more separate folders- e.g. for the Emulators maybe a C:\Roms and D: (DVD-rom drive). It's your call, I personally don't bother- but would be interested to hear how well it works
And the final thing:
Some people especially in XBMC may find that when they try to stream video (in particular) from their PC, they are having problems reading the file, the video is jerky, or doesn't load at all. Now that could be a codec issue or it could be due to the fact that XP's Network buffer size on your pc is low so check out this link (http://www.tweakxp.com/tweak1557.aspx) to see how you can fix it.
Hope you guys find this helpful :D
Sorry If its a bit wordy
Samba requires that the stuff you want to stream has to be in shareable folders so before I start I'll set out the PC requirements and settings.
To share a folder on your PC (I'm going to explain it for XP- I'm not sure if it is any different for 98 or ME/2000) right click a folder containing stuff you want to share/stream and select "Properties". Choose Sharing and then tick the "Share this Folder on the Network". You are then given the option of changing the share name from what it's called on the PC- that bit's up to you. Either way, you will need to note what that name is (the one that appears in the "Shared Name" box).
The other things you will need to know are your pc's "Name" and the "WorkGroup" it belongs to (to find both of these out, right click "My Computer", choose properties and select the "Computer Name" Tab- The "Name" is the what xp calls the "full computer name" (without the . at the end), the Workgroup should be fairly evident).
Some apps will also require the "Username"- easiest way to find this out is to get up the task manager and check the users tab and see which one is active
For these examples I'm going to use the following Values
Workgroup- Home
Computer- My-Computer
Username- User
You may also need to know the IP address- I'll use 192.168.0.1 for the pc's ip: Haven't come across an app that handles IP's only- and because I'm using DHCP I use the computer name rather than IP because the computer name is far less likely to change whereas the IP may change
The share names for the folders I'm going to share and a brief description of them are:
Movies- Movies on My-Computer
Pics- Pictures on My-Computer
Music- Music on My-Computer
Games- Games (that I have the originals for) on My-Computer- which contains different rom directories and an Xbox folder
DVD- DVD-Rom Drive on My-Computer (XP will give you a warning when you try and share a Root Directory- Just Ignore it-you can't delete things on a rom drive anyway)
These folders can have further subdirectories- unless you actively prevent subdirectories being shared.
If you decide for whatever reason to password protect these shared folders then also note the Usernames and passwords
for the different folders- I personally don't bother, no xbox apps actually ask you for the password- they are in the samba path and therefore don't prevent anyone using your xbox accessing those folders- there is currently no way that I know of, for asking for the pass word when you try to connect.
There are several Apps and Emus that support this but not all of them use exactly the same syntax. I'll do them one by one.
XBMC
In this example I'll use a music share so scroll down the xboxmediacenter.xml and find the " <!-- my music shares !-->" line and below that look for the bit in the xml that looks like this:
Find this excerpt
<bookmark>
<name>SMB</name>
<!-- you can use the following formats: !-->
<!-- smb://domain;user: password@ip/share/directory/ !-->
<!-- smb://user: password@ip/share/ !-->
<!-- if guest/public access is enabled: !-->
<!-- smb://ip/ !-->
<path>smb://DOMAIN;username: pwd@MyWindowsServer/movies/</path>
</bookmark>
With no username & password you can use the following:
<bookmark>
<name>Music on My computer</name>
<path>smb://My-Computer/Music</path>
</bookmark>
It's that simple :eek: Other ways to enable the share can be done as listed in the example above- but this is the simplest and works for me
Now some people are having problems with playing cd's cos they haven't got a Samsung drive- well remember how I made the DVD-Rom drive shared? Well this is why:
<bookmark>
<name>DVD-Rom Drive on PC</name>
<path>smb://My-Computer/DVD</path>
</bookmark>
IT will give you access to the pc's DVD drive. So now you can play all those avi's you burned on cd and vcd and svcd's from your pc drive. The only draw back is that xbmc can be made to autolaunch vcd's svcd's and audio cd's when inserted in the xbox drive- but as XBMC treats the PC drive over samba as a "folder" you will manually have to open up the dat files in a vcd-find the MPEGAV folder in the vcd and select the one or more dat files- if there are more than one dat files you can use the "stack" option on the left hand side of the file browser to make them play sequentially without stopping.
I would paste the DVD-ROM samba share in all of the different media menus (e.g. My videos, My music) because XBMC has preset cache levels that are different for Pics (low), Music (medium) and Video (high)- if you only do it in My pictures and then try and open avi, the video may not playback or may be very jerky.
Note that the name of the bookmark doesn't have to be SMB, it can be what ever you want- probably best to mention the fact its on the PC somewhere in the name- but the icon for a streamed folder is different to an xbox hd folder.
You can have as many samba shares as you want. I have 3 for videos, 3 for music and 2 for pics- one of each is a PC-
DVD-Rom drive
XBMP
The samba protocol is slightly different in XBMP (XBMC has since update to a later version of samba). Make the required edits in the config.xml file.
This is what a samba share of the Movie folder on my pc would look like:
<share>
<name>Movies on My Computer</name>
<url>smb://Home/My-Computer/Movies</url>
<cachesize>8192</cachesize>
</share>
Notice in this you have to also use the Workgroup you are using, and you specify the cachesize used as well (defaults are 8192 for movies, 256 for pictures and music). This what the default XBMP set up for a Video share looks like
<share>
<name>Network (SMB)</name>
<url>smb://username: password@workgroup/computer/share</url>
<cachesize>8192</cachesize>
</share>
Again you can add your PC DVD-rom using
smb://Home/My-Computer/DVD
Like XBMC you can have as many samba shares as you want.
Emulators
The following emulators have samba support- Xboy Advance, Neo Genesis, and PSX (that I know of). Although PSX does support it I wouldn't recommend it unless playing very small or basic games- as it can't seem to stream fast enough. But I haven't tried many games to back that statement up.
The samba entires need to be made in the .ini file in the emulator's folder
They all only have provision for one samba share- so it's up to you whether you want that to be the PC-DVD-rom drive or a folder on the pc to share from
find the line in the .ini file that begins with "smbshare" and replace it with:
smbshare=SMB://My-Computer/Games
As you can see they all use the XBMC samba address style
Complex Tools
This is the whole of the ComplexTools.xml
<ComplexTools>
<main>
<nameserver>192.168.2.1</nameserver>
<eripdir>E:\HDDLoader\</eripdir> // E partition to rip/launch/uninstall
<fripdir>F:\HDDLoader\</fripdir> // F partition to rip/launch/uninstall
<gripdir>G:\HDDLoader\</gripdir> // G partition to rip/launch/uninstall
// Samba Share for Unrar/Uniso releases over your network
<smbdir1>smb://My-Compute/Games/</smbdir1>
// Path where your MP3/MOD/XM/IT/S3M/OGG media lives
<MediaDir>F:\Music\Transformers</MediaDir>
// 1 = Media patch xbe's 0 = Don't patch
<PatchXBE>0</PatchXBE>
</main>
</ComplexTools>
As you can see it uses the same samba address system as XBMC. I thought I could be a smart-arse and fool complex tools into having the eripdir and fripdir to point to other directories in the F drive, and to use a smbdir2 for say where I have my xbox apps saved on my PC but it would have none of that.
Complex tools can unrar files- so say you have a rarred up iso (it can be multiple rar's too) in the GAME folder on your pc- you can open and unrar it straight to your xbox game drive- in this case any of the valid ripdir's (If you don't have a g drive then you won't be able to select it).
If you have a rar (not zip unfortunately- use Unleash or Avalaunch for zip files) on the xbox hd you can also use complex tools to unrar it but it will always unrar to one of the three ripdir's unfortunately
There's also provision for background music but unlike Avalaunch it only can play from the one folder- no provision for sub directories.
DVD2Xbox
This also has samba support supposedly, but I can't for the life of me get it to work.
The only feature samba share is used for is to rip an xbox game straight from the xbox dvd rom to the shared folder on your pc, although I guess it'd be quicker to do it through qwix and avalaunch anyway.
PC Tweaks
I mentioned in Complex tools and in the Emulators you were only ever able to use single samba shares- well you can if you really want you can create "special folders which serve as links to the contents of another folder" using the this program (http://www.pearlmagik.com/winbolic/).
You basically create a virtual folder that houses two or more separate folders- e.g. for the Emulators maybe a C:\Roms and D: (DVD-rom drive). It's your call, I personally don't bother- but would be interested to hear how well it works
And the final thing:
Some people especially in XBMC may find that when they try to stream video (in particular) from their PC, they are having problems reading the file, the video is jerky, or doesn't load at all. Now that could be a codec issue or it could be due to the fact that XP's Network buffer size on your pc is low so check out this link (http://www.tweakxp.com/tweak1557.aspx) to see how you can fix it.
Hope you guys find this helpful :D
Sorry If its a bit wordy