Is there a way to browse a media server (MediaTomb) with a media player (VLC)?

Question

I currently have an EEE PC set up with LinuxMint as my media server using MediaTomb.

I use VLC as my media player on another Windows computer to watch videos off the media server. It works fine, but the current process is:

1. Open up browser and navigate to folder
2. Find the file I want to play and copy URL
3. Paste URL into VLC and watch.

This is fine for me on the PC, but it is a little troublesome for my parents to grasp (or for me to use on the phone).

Ideally I'd like to:

1. Open up VLC
2. Browse to the file (using VLC)
3. Click/select to play

If there is any solution which is similar to this, please let me know. I'm willing to change the software on both server and client to accommodate (although it somewhat depends on which formats are supported on the server)

Side note:
I've tried searching online for this but I find a lot of jargon such as "media server/centre", media streaming, DLNA, UPNP and feel that some people are either using them interchangeably or incorrectly.

Solution

To use VLC to browse UPnP servers like MediaTomb, you must turn on the Universal Plug n Play Services Discovery module. To do so, open VLC, go to Tools and Preferences, select All under Show settings, open Playlist, select Services discovery, and check Universal Plug'n'Play. Then, click Save and exit VLC.

Now you can reopen VLC. To browse UPnP servers, click the Playlist button, open Local Network in the left pane, and choose Universal Plug'n'Play.

Comments

[Patches]

some people are either using them interchangeably or incorrectly - Correct on both counts. :-)

[Linker3000]

+1 That'll do it. Also check out XBMC xbmc.org

[twig]

Bad news. I've only got 3 options under that "Services" item. Network Streams (SAP), Podcasts and My Videos.

[Patches]

@twig: I looked into it and VLC currently only supports UPnP on Mac and Linux in their stable versions. They did get it ported in the future 1.2 series, which is currently under development. You can test it out in one of their nightly builds but since that's still under development, it will be prone to bugs and crashing, so Linker3000's solution will probably be better for your parents.

[twig]

Thanks for that Patches. I also discovered that after posting a suggested UPnP C++ library on the VLC forums.