How do I connect VLC to a known DLNA server?

Question

I have VLC on my Mac and would like to connect to a DLNA server on my LAN but the server isn't showing up in VLC's UPnP auto-discovery UI. Given the IP address of the server how can I point VLC to it explicitly so it can be 'discovered'?

Solution 1

Read this thread.

What worked for me was to go to Tools → Preferences → All → Playlist → Services and Discovery, and enable Universal Plug and Play (UPnP).

Then go to VLC main menu and click View → Playlist and scroll down to Local Network. Locate Universal Plug and Play and click on it.

A few moments later your media service should be shown on the main window to the right. If you click on it (or double click) then it will start showing you all the folders/files being served. Give it time as it took mine almost 30 seconds to show everything.

Since VLC 2.x you can skip the Tools process and directly go to View -> Playlist -> Local Network -> Universal Plug'n'Play to get the DLNA devices on your network listed and stream from them.

Solution 2

It is planned that VLC 1.2.0 get's back UPNP (DLNA) support. Since 2011-08-04 the nightly builds of VLC should include it again in a more or less working state. In the menu bar select "View" and then "Playlist". In the new window click on the "triangle" before the text "Local Network" on the left. The menu is expanded and there you should see the entry "Universal Plug'n'Play". Now select "Universal Plug'n'Play" and wait...it takes at least 20 seconds (but may also take some minutes until the server shows up).

So far there doesn't seem to be an option to manually add the server ip including the port. I would like that too because I don't want to announce to the whole world via port 1900 that my server offers music/pictures/videos.

Here the link to one Windows build known to work (more or less). You can always try newer builds but keep in mind that those are all "unstable" and might have some issues. http://nightlies.videolan.org/build/win32/trunk-20110804-1935/

Comments

[Andrew]

VLC may have changed a bit since you asked, but I'd make sure you were on the same ethernet segment and use wireshark to check your client is receiving the announcements. I also found it took a minute or two for all the music to propagate.

[andyczerwonka]

There is no "Universal Plug and Play" option in VLC 1.1.11 that I can find.

[Jude rozelaar]

In VLC 2.x you can skip the Tools process and directly go to View -> Playlist -> Local Network -> Universal Plug'n'Play to get the DLNA devices on your network listed and stream from them.

[tftd]

Unfortunately in the current 2.1.3 windows version, the UPnP doesn't work well.

[Frank Nocke]

@KoenZomers, does that cover "play to" as well (i.e. to a 'dumb' DNLA renderer (black box, network in, audio out as all there is)?

[Pawel]

After getting to the playlist and choosing local network a device appears. Then VLC gets epilepsy fit and stops responding.

[Frank Nocke]

As of VLC 2.2.5 under Ubuntu 12.04, VLC will NOT detect an (active) twonky media server... (checked under my WD MyBook preferences (Browser UI→Settings → Media Tab), that it is enabled, has more than enough sonds actively listed...

[numbermaniac]

Note that VLC 3 does not have a "Playlist" option under "View" - there's a "Playlist Table Columns" but nothing about Local Network in there

[wilsotc]

If you have more than one network interface active because you have a multi port NIC or VirtualBox, VLC will randomly not use the correct interface. It will then fail to locate server(s). I don't know if this is fixable via the VideoLAN group. It might be limitations of libupnp.

[bradbury9]

@numbermaniac Actually that is not exactly true, it only looks like it does not have the "Local network", because it is collapsed and no visual indication of that panel being collapsed. I have submited an edit, hope it gets thru.