Universal DLNA Client for Roku
 

I bought a couple of Roku boxes about a year ago because I was hoping they'd be perfect streaming boxes since they can stream from Netflix and YouTube and can play files from external drives. However, I've discovered that the Roku Media Player app isn't so great for playing media from networked drives. I'd like to run a DLNA server on a SBC (i.e. Raspberry Pi, NanoPi). I've done some digging, and all of the DLNA clients I can find require that you use "their" DLNA server ; i.e. to use MediaBrowser you have to run the MediaBrowser server or to use Emby you have to run the Emby server program, plus pay a yearly fee for some features.



Are there any DLNA clients for Roku that will work with any DLNA server program?

I've never played with the Roku Media Player yet but according to the following article it should be compatible with Plex or readyDLNA.

https://support.roku.com/article/208...sic-and-photos

I can confirm this works as advertised. I ONLY have Roku's, and have no problems with Plex or Twonky, and I can't imagine that anything that obeys the DLNA standard wouldn't work. The interface is a bit plain, but have had no problems.

Caveats, though: be sure you encode/rip your media, or have something that can transcode it before streaming. Most of my stuff is in .MP4 or .MKV, h264 encoded, with surround sound. But I've had some files that would play...with no audio. Or play audio with no sound. I don't transcode, but just have all of my stuff on a WD MyCloud (built in Twonky on one, Plex on the other).

Oh, okay. I just wasn't sure because it doesn't work well with my router's UpnUp server program and supposedly DLNA is a more refined version of UpnUp, so I wasn't sure how well it would work.