MiniDLNA - A lightweight, simple media server

If you’d like to set up a home media server, but you’re limited by memory and processing power, then MiniDLNA might be just what you’re looking for. It doesn’t have the bells-and-whistles of something like Plex Media Server, but it gets the job done, and all you need is a DLNA-compliant media client to access it.

The Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA) was founded by a group of PC and consumer electronics companies in June 2003 to develop and promote a set of interoperability guidelines for sharing digital media among multimedia devices under the auspices of a certification standard.

from Wikipedia.

These instructions are for the Raspberry Pi 4, but MiniDLNA can be installed on just about any flavor of Linux, and it should be easy to adapt these instructions accordingly.

Requirements

A Raspberry Pi 4, running Rasbian. That’s it!

Setup

Ensure that your Raspberry Pi is up-to-date:

sudo apt update

sudo apt upgrade

Then, install MiniDLNA:

sudo apt install minidlna

The MiniDLNA daemon starts automatically after installation. It reads configuration information from /etc/minidlna.conf.

Edit the configuration file:

sudo vi /etc/minidlna.conf

Then, look for the section specifying the location(s) to scan for media files:

# * "A" for audio (eg. media_dir=A,/var/lib/minidlna/music)
# * "P" for pictures (eg. media_dir=P,/var/lib/minidlna/pictures)
# * "V" for video (eg. media_dir=V,/var/lib/minidlna/videos)

I created my media folders in my home directory, and my entries look like this:

media_dir=A,/home/pi/minidlna/music
media_dir=P,/home/pi/minidlna/pictures
media_dir=V,/home/pi/minidlna/video

The only other required setting is a friendly DLNA host name for your server. Look for this entry:

#friendly_name=

Uncomment it, and add a friendly name of your choosing, e.g.:

friendly_name=MyMediaServer

Your MiniDLNA installation is now ready to use.

Adding Media Files

Copy media files to the MiniDLNA folders appropriate for their type, e.g.:

  • .mp3 files in /home/pi/minidlna/music
  • .jpg files in /home/pi/minidlna/pictures
  • .mp4 files in /home/pi/minidlna/video

The MiniDLNA daemon is sensitive to read permissions, so make your media readable by everyone:

chmod -R a+r /home/pi/minidlna

After adding media files, the MiniDLNA daemon must be restarted:

sudo systemctl restart minidlna

Client Access

The MiniDLNA server should be accessible by any DLNA-compliant media client on your network. Examples:

  • Roku Media Player
  • Universal Plug-n-Play in the VLC media player

Monitoring

You can check the status of your media server from a browser anywhere on your network by going to http://192.168.0.140:8200. (Change the IP address to match the address of your server.)