Questions about transfer protocols, specifically DNLA & SMB per Jailbroke Oppo 103 + Now some tips added on configuring windows media streaming

[mandrix]

OK so I just Jailbroke my Oppo 103. I was able to do some limited testing Friday, and was able to use a USB stick in the front port to successfully play DVDA & SACD .iso files and using the video, or Movies interface.
I have not tested this way with any BD, or Blu-Ray if you prefer, .iso's due to time constraints, and no testing this weekend in deference to my wife who has a capacity for cooking shows that's unreal.
I ain't messing with that.....

So I don't plan on any attached storage for the Oppo, and would rather keep everything on the network or specifically my main pc rig. I was told that for windows the Oppo that DNLA would not work for .iso files since they are not recognized as music.
OK I get that. They are a disc format.

It was recommended for Windows to use the SMB protocol. But I'm not real clear on exactly what that is, and a search at MS went down a rabbit hole of servers and the infinite troubleshooting problems of...well you get it.
I'm thinking, cluelessly perhaps, that SMB has more to do with simply Sharing a file on my pc. Could it be that simple, or is Casey Jones running this train here?

Anyway I'm just trying to prevent a lot of trial and error and I've got better ways to spend time. Like goofing off here. So any thoughts on the SMB thing?

 

[mandrix]

SMB stands for Server Message Block but on a basic level it's sharing files and folders.

Since I posted the above message I have spent many hours in que at Microsoft help on the same ticket, and at least 7 or 8 different techs. to try and fix network file sharing on my home network.
I figured, fix the network first.

In between I sought out everything I could find about SMB protocol, unfortunately most of the stuff on MS is server related, but still I learned a little from them and from some folks here as well.
For example, in Windows 10 and 11 at least, SMB 2 & 3 appears to be enabled by default. But you can also enable the earlier SMB v1 which is likely more sympatico with older Oppo's. Unfortunately it ultimately did me no good but I'm told from one person using a NAS that he uses this protocol enabled to share files with his Oppo.

So I've had some limited success with file sharing on the network but it hasn't helped the Oppo to see any files on it's network interface.
I tried something different.

Windows actually has provisions to enable NFS which is I take it is more of a Unix file system thing. Anyway I enabled it in Windows and downloaded a trial program called NFS Server.
Lo and Behold, after some back and forth with the developer in Germany, and getting my firewall setup to pass the proper ports, my Oppo was seeing folders I made available with the software! including .iso files!

So I bought the program and now am happily playing DVDA, DVD, SACD, and Blu Ray .iso files through my Oppo via the network from my pc!
Of course any other files the Oppo is capable of playing as well.

That's where it's at now, and while it sucks that I can't get the Oppo to see files/folders with simple file sharing in Windows, at least now I have a solution that works for me.

 

[mandrix]

As long as I started this, for completeness I wanted to add that setting up a streaming media library on Windows did work to allow the Oppo to see media files. I emphasize media files, because windows will not make available .iso files, which is of course a disc format. Since that is half what I was trying to do, the Windows media streaming library was not working for me.
All of this should have been doable by simple file sharing anyway, and the Oppo should be able to see the shared files a la SMB.

If you want to go the route of setting up the Windows media streaming library on your compatible network capable device, and you can see it on the network, right click on it and configure the media library. I made a few jumps in the process by using the built in Music and Video folders in Windows and populated them with appropriate media files ahead of time, however I moved them off the C drive to keep from cluttering it up. There's another reason for using these folders as well. Windows media library tends to look all over your pc and randomly pick media files to add to itself. For me this is not good since I have 11 drives! Using the built in folders seemed to mitigate the random adding of files, just be sure to move them (if you do) through the properties dialogue and populate with appropriate media files before configuring the library and hopefully it will content itself to the content of the two folders and not go searching...it did for me, anyway. (this was my second time setting it up so I knew what was coming).

Invariably the Windows Media Player will pop up during the process. Just close it and ignore it!! You don't need it.
Another tip is, while configuring the library, select "All Ratings". Unless you really want to exclude some videos/music. But if you use my "two folder" method above you may not need to as you will place exactly what you want to stream in those two folders.

Here's a caveat; once you configure the library, if you decide you no longer want it for whatever reason, it's not obvious how to get rid of it. Simply deleting or moving the files or folders will not work in my experience. The streaming media library runs as a service, so you will have to go into the services, find the proper one and stop it. I don't remember the proper name but it will be media something or other. In Windows 10 or 11 you can search for services or type the Windows key + R (run) and type in services.msc and that will bring up the list of services.

Since I have a notoriously bad short term memory in my old age, I wanted to get all this down in hopes it may help someone, or maybe even myself in the future, who knows?

 

[furui_suterioo]

Good work. I once jailbroke an old linksys router to use as a wireless receiver for a client bridge to an ethernet-only bluray player. It was a nightmare to set up, I probably couldn't replicate that now if I tried.

 

[par4ken]

At some point I'll get back to trying this network thing yet again.

In my last post in the "Holy Cow" thread I had stated that I had everything working perfectly. Well the next day it didn't work at all, I could see all my folders with nothing in them. It would seem that with WMP enabled you can see all the music files and folders on the computers various hard drives, but it adds hidden image files even replacing my own image file "Folder" with a hidden file and sometimes even with different artwork! That is totally unacceptable to me! I was determined to stop it and so I tried using JRiver instead of WMP. The next day after making that change I was no longer able to see any of my files just the folders. I was however able to set up a new DNLA network via JRiver. That allowed me to see my files via the Oppo BDP-103 and the BDP-95. I was also able to "push" files from the computer to the 103 but not to the 95. Sadly the artwork didn't show up at all via the new DNLA network. Oddly audio files showed up as mp3 on the BDP-95!??

It would be fantastic if anyone has the secret to getting things working properly with the following goals, no adding of hidden files to my library, no changing artwork. Display of artwork via the Oppo's, especially the artwork embedded in the file itself. Until that time I'll just have to plug a USB drive in even if that's a bit inconvenient. Using an attached hard drive allows me to play .dsf files as well, they don't work over the network. Sadly the BDP-95 does work with a USB flash drive but won't work with my USB hard drives, and .dsf won't work on it either!

 

[mandrix]

Yeah I don't know why simple shared folders won't work. I figured it was just my network problems.
You could try enabling SMB v1 in Programs and Features/Turn Windows Features on or off and see if that helps any. The thinking being that the 103 is old enough now that SMB 1 may be more appropriate for it.
But those other problems with hidden files and such I never had a problem with. I pretty much had everything working as I laid out above except Windows media library will not serve up iso files even as video.
Now that I switched to the NFS Server software I can load most any iso or video format into the video area from the network and no problem for the jailbroke Oppo.

 

[AYanguas]

The Oppo has to ‘browse’ by itself for the available SMB resources on the network (shares). The shares cannot be declared in the Oppo settings as it is possible on other media players.

Oppo is only able to use SMB V1, so it must be enabled in the Windows server.

BUT… there is a component of the SMB V1 server that Microsoft has not updated in Windows 10 and it is not operative. That is the ‘SMB Master Browser’

Only a single node can be automatically elected as the SMB Master Browser, that collects all available SMB shares in the network and answer the clients browse requests with the available shares.

If the Windows 10 is elected as “Master Browser” it does not populate the list of shares because that component does not work.

An additional network node (not Windows 10) is needed to run the SMB Master Browser to be able for the Oppo to discover the SMB shares from all nodes that offer them using SMB V1.

Those additional nodes are usually NAS, router with SMB, other old Windows (not 10), or other media players such as some DUNE that implement it. There must be, at least, a node in the network with SMB1 configured that implement the component SMB Master Browser.

It you have only a single Windows 10 in the network, and no other additional node such as the mentioned before, the Oppo will not discover any SMB1 enabled Windows 10 SMB shares.

I have studied and confirmed all this from technical articles on the Internet and have proved this with my jailbroked Oppo 203. I assume it would be the same for an Oppo 103.

I run all my multimedia collection (CD, DVD, Blu-ray rips, etc.) from a Windows 10 server, with an addtional WD NAS, via SMB1 to my Oppo 203

 

[mandrix]

The Oppo has to ‘browse’ by itself for the available SMB resources on the network (shares). The shares cannot be declared in the Oppo settings as it is possible on other media players.

Oppo is only able to use SMB V1, so it must be enabled in the Windows server.

BUT… there is a component of the SMB V1 server that Microsoft has not updated in Windows 10 and it is not operative. That is the ‘SMB Master Browser’

Only a single node can be automatically elected as the SMB Master Browser, that collects all available SMB shares in the network and answer the clients browse requests with the available shares.

If the Windows 10 is elected as “Master Browser” it does not populate the list of shares because that component does not work.

An additional network node (not Windows 10) is needed to run the SMB Master Browser to be able for the Oppo to discover the SMB shares from all nodes that offer them using SMB V1.

Those additional nodes are usually NAS, router with SMB, other old Windows (not 10), or other media players such as some DUNE that implement it. There must be, at least, a node in the network with SMB1 configured that implement the component SMB Master Browser.

It you have only a single Windows 10 in the network, and no other additional node such as the mentioned before, the Oppo will not discover any SMB1 enabled Windows 10 SMB shares.

I have studied and confirmed all this from technical articles on the Internet and have proved this with my jailbroked Oppo 203. I assume it would be the same for an Oppo 103.

I run all my multimedia collection (CD, DVD, Blu-ray rips, etc.) from a Windows 10 server, with an addtional WD NAS, via SMB1 to my Oppo 203

That you needed something outside Windows 10 or 11 I recently surmised because of the people running a NAS yet using the SMB v1 protocol to provide files to their Oppo's.
I was not aware of the detail you provided, and I thank you for that and your investigations.
Now I know for sure that moving to the NFS Server software was the best, cheapest solution for me.

 

[DuncanS]

Beware of Windows turning off SMBv1 by default if (a) you haven't used it in around 2 weeks or (b) some update or other decides to do it! But it is easy to re-apply.
Restoring Windows 10 connections to NAS Drives following an update | QuadraphonicQuad Home Audio Forum

 

[atrocity]

Now I know for sure that moving to the NFS Server software was the best, cheapest solution for me.

I can't tell you how much I appreciate you mentioning this. I've got an Oppo BDP-103 and a UDP-203 and a ton of multichannel PCM and DSD that I'd been serving up over SMB/CIFS from cheap consumer NASes.

A while back I was handed a perfectly good old computer and set it up for TrueNAS, at which point I found out the hard way about how neither Oppo will work with the newer SMB versions. I back up the new TrueNAS shares to those old cheap consumer NASes, so I was still able to play from those backups, but I knew I was living on borrowed time, so to speak. I really didn't want to have to put all that stuff on additional individual hard drives for the sake of the players, but had begun to believe that was going to be my only option.

At the time I set up TrueNAS, I ran into lots of warnings about not sharing the same data via both SMB and NFS *and* I had it in my head that the older Oppo wouldn't work with NFS anyway. But after you planted the idea, I looked a little further and found that sharing via both protocols is fine as long as at least one of them is set up as read-only.

So yesterday, after battling my intellectual deficiencies, I finally got the relevant share configured to serve via read-only NFS and found that it worked perfectly with the UDP-203. Even better, thinking it was hopeless, I figured it couldn't hurt to double-check the BDP-103 and found that it's perfectly happy with NFS as well!

This is my long-winded way of saying thank you!

 

[gene_stl]

@AYanguas You better watch it, or I will come and bother you, when I get stuck in the weeds, setting up my NAS.

Thank you, and everyone on this thread (and others), for getting solutions to problems, out there where we can all find them. Sometimes beating these things into submission is very time consuming, and aggravating, and when someone points the exact way (which happens here frequently) it is wunnerful wunnerful.

What is jailbreaking your Oppo? What do you gain? is it safe? is it difficult? spensive? reversible?

 

[mandrix]

I can't tell you how much I appreciate you mentioning this. I've got an Oppo BDP-103 and a UDP-203 and a ton of multichannel PCM and DSD that I'd been serving up over SMB/CIFS from cheap consumer NASes.

A while back I was handed a perfectly good old computer and set it up for TrueNAS, at which point I found out the hard way about how neither Oppo will work with the newer SMB versions. I back up the new TrueNAS shares to those old cheap consumer NASes, so I was still able to play from those backups, but I knew I was living on borrowed time, so to speak. I really didn't want to have to put all that stuff on additional individual hard drives for the sake of the players, but had begun to believe that was going to be my only option.

At the time I set up TrueNAS, I ran into lots of warnings about not sharing the same data via both SMB and NFS *and* I had it in my head that the older Oppo wouldn't work with NFS anyway. But after you planted the idea, I looked a little further and found that sharing via both protocols is fine as long as at least one of them is set up as read-only.

So yesterday, after battling my intellectual deficiencies, I finally got the relevant share configured to serve via read-only NFS and found that it worked perfectly with the UDP-203. Even better, thinking it was hopeless, I figured it couldn't hurt to double-check the BDP-103 and found that it's perfectly happy with NFS as well!

This is my long-winded way of saying thank you!

Wow! I'm very glad to hear that! I know someone who is also serving up files to his Oppo 103 from his NAS, but I believe he is only using SMB 1 as he's made no mention of NFS while trying to help me. I mean it's supposed to be less secure but he said he was not worried about it.
In my case, although I have NFS enabled in Windows, I'm not sure it's strictly necessary as I'm using some software called haneWin NFS Server I purchased from a gent in Germany.
https://www.hanewin.net/It took me some time to figure out the port mappings and get them through the firewall but once I did it's functioned flawlessly ever since.

 

[mandrix]

@AYanguas You better watch it or I will come and bother you when I get stuck in the weeds setting up my NAS.

Thank you and everyone on this thread (and others) for getting solutions to problems out there where we can all find them. Sometimes beating these things into submission is very time consuming and aggravating and when someone points the exact way (which happens here frequently) it is wunnerful wunnerful.

What is jailbreaking your Oppo? What do you gain? is it safe? is it difficult? spensive?

Jailbreaking often allows for the Oppo to play .iso files. Basically you are hacking the firmware and replacing all/part of it with firmware special written to accomplish this. This lets the Oppo "see" and play the .iso files of SACD/DVD/DVDA/BDA/BDV/MKA etc and play them sort of like you were sitting at your pc and using PowerDVD. All of this will go in a folder that you will designate for "video" files. All other files like flac or wav you would put in another folder or "music" folder. You enable your Oppo to see your pc so basically the files are playing from your pc; no need to plug a HDD into the Oppo's USB port (all though you can, or a USB stick as well).
For the hack....I purchased it online at Oppo-jb.com. The cost was .002 Bitcoin or about 99EU at the time.
In my case (Oppo 103) I had to purchase a few cables from Amazon and open up the Oppo and find the firmware flash port. So you have a cable, or cables, attached from your pc to the Oppo's firmware flash port, at least in the case of the Oppo 103(b) or 105. The exact procedure for the 203/205 I don't remember off hand as I wasn't very interested. But Full instructions were given with the purchased hack and they were quick to answer my emails when I had questions. Once you successfully complete the hack, which is tied to the Oppo's MAC address, you get back in touch via email and shortly he sends the "key" that unlocks the hack.
Once I had the USB to TTL cable setup and was plugged into my pc and the Oppo, it went pretty quickly, about 1/2 hour. would have been quicker except I kept missing a detail but finally picked up on it and the firmware installed successfully.

I would say anyone that has pc hardware experience would have no problems, or nothing he couldn't figure out. If I was a person totally lacking experience with the inner workings of the pc I would still buy the hack and get a buddy with more confidence to do it for me.

Pretty much my entire surround collection is ripped to .iso and/or flac, and although I was holding out for a solution to allow the unit to play SACD-R discs, I realized that I was just introducing and extra step when I have literally 35TB of rips on my pc plust more archived on HDD's sitting on the shelf (the bulk of which are BD's).

I hope that explains it but if you have more questions, fire away.

 

[gene_stl]

what do you gain by having that German network software? Where does it go? what if anything does it substitute for? NAS software? Media Center software?

Also what are SACD-R disks? SACDs copied onto DVD Rs??

 

[mandrix]

NFS is Network File System. My understanding is it was developed as a means to transfer files between Windows and non-Windows OS's.
The person I bought the software from has developed a simplified (at least to the user) version of the NFS to use in Windows, but it may be available in the Unix based OS's for all I know.
All I can do is suggest google and do some research as I can't give you very much detail.

If you need the nuts and bolts of it you're talking to the wrong person.

For me it provides a simplified method to provide files from my pc to my Oppo when everything else failed. I do not run a server; I do not have a NAS.
There is no Media Center in Windows anymore I'm aware of, at least in 10 and 11, and it is not related to the media streaming library in Windows.

Yes, SACD-R is basically an .iso of an SACD burned to a DVD disc. All SACD's are glass mastered or pressed/stamped is my understanding, so the terminology for a "burned" SACD became SACD-R in the internet vernacular.

I did not answer one of your questions; is the jailbreak reversible? Yes. The firmware can be overwritten at any time, supposedly, just as in a normal firmware upgrade, or so it's claimed.

Is there something specific you are wanting to do?

 

[gene_stl]

"Is there something specific you are wanting to do?"
I am trying to set up a NAS, with Jriver and get a long network connection from one end of the house so the other (the internet entry and listening room are on opposite ends of a long house.) I know I won't have much trouble running wires and setting up hardware. But there is always some software switch you never heard of that prevents the whole damn project from running.

So I always try to read threads like this one hoping I will have better preparation and luck when I try to get these things working. Usually they do if you bang your head against them long enough.
That JailBreak Software looks very interesting. A little pricey.

Thank you for your posts.

 

[mandrix]

"Is there something specific you are wanting to do?"
I am trying to set up a NAS, with Jriver and get a long network connection from one end of the house so the other (the internet entry and listening room are on opposite ends of a long house.) I know I won't have much trouble running wires and setting up hardware. But there is always some software switch you never heard of that prevents the whole damn project from running.

So I always try to read threads like this one hoping I will have better preparation and luck when I try to get these things working. Usually they do if you bang your head against them long enough.
That JailBreak Software looks very interesting. A little pricey.

Thank you for your posts.

Evil minds think alike, perhaps! I'm wanting to set up a NAS on a spare pc myself. I've looked at a lot of software -I can't afford to buy a NAS- so much that I forget what all I've looked at. Most of it seems too damned complicated. I've sort of settled on openmediavault. The developer worked on TrueNAS, and they have a bunch of youtube videos that make at least the initial setup look not so bad. I'm just waiting until I can afford a few HDD's to try it out. Eventually I would like to move my whole ripped surround collection over to it, but if I'm going to mirror drives it's going to take several. I probably have in excess of 35 TB of surround on my pc,
At least the other pc has 8 SATA ports so I won't have to worry about an add in SATA board for a while.

Any idea which NAS software you'll go with?

 

[AYanguas]

@AYanguas You better watch it, or I will come and bother you, when I get stuck in the weeds, setting up my NAS.

Thank you, and everyone on this thread (and others), for getting solutions to problems, out there where we can all find them. Sometimes beating these things into submission is very time consuming, and aggravating, and when someone points the exact way (which happens here frequently) it is wunnerful wunnerful.

What is jailbreaking your Oppo? What do you gain? is it safe? is it difficult? spensive? reversible?

OK, most if not all questions have already been answered.
There are other alternative options to jailbreak an Oppo, but I will not talk anymore about this.
In other forum, similar to this, my posts were deleted and I was admonished by the staff for talking about these things.

 

[mandrix]

OK, most if not all questions have already been answered.
There are other alternative options to jailbreak an Oppo, but I will not talk anymore about this.
In other forum, similar to this, my posts were deleted and I was admonished by the staff for talking about these things.

Well I do not know what "official" forum policy is but I would hope that what one does with his own equipment should not be cause for problems.
There is nothing illegal in the USA about doing this as far as I know, in Spain I have no idea.

The forum owners of course have the right to set some rules and standards they consider reasonable, and if told to cease I would.

Probably in other forum they did not want to piss off sponsors is my guess, or industry people.

Yes there are other options for jailbreaking Oppo's but they come and go. There was a guy whose solution apparently worked entirely from the USB port. But I talked with him and it was not presently available.
The people I dealt with have a site on the net with loads of positive customer testimonials so I went with them.

Even if all the hack stuff was deleted, and I'm OK with that I guess, the whole point of this was to enable the Oppo to see and play files over my home network. During the course of this I've learned a little bit and that's always a good thing, and it may also help someone else.
That I found a solution that works I'm very happy about, although I had hoped to be able to do it for free. Still the NFS server software was reasonably priced and does the job.

 

[AYanguas]

Well I do not know what "official" forum policy is but I would hope that what one does with his own equipment should not be cause for problems.
There is nothing illegal in the USA about doing this as far as I know, in Spain I have no idea.

The forum owners of course have the right to set some rules and standards they consider reasonable, and if told to cease I would.

Probably in other forum they did not want to piss off sponsors is my guess, or industry people.

Exactly. It was an american forum owned by a canadian firm.

Yes there are other options for jailbreaking Oppo's but they come and go.

I actually wanted to say, “other alternatives besides jailbreaking an Oppo” instead of “other alternatives to jailbreak an Oppo”.

That I found a solution that works I'm very happy about, although I had hoped to be able to do it for free. Still the NFS server software was reasonably priced and does the job.

Perfect. Hope you will enjoy of all this, our hobby and entertainment.