Linux + ISO + FLAC ==> Sony Blu-ray & iPad

[scsibluesmaster]

I have a Suse file server hosting ~500GB of FLAC audio and ~2TB of ISO video. I want to be able to access these on a Sony Blu-Ray player and an iPad. I've been spoiled by how perfectly well my WD TV Live Plus can effortlessly browse a Samba share and simply play everything I have, DVD menus included, no questions asked. I'm also resigned to the fact that the Sony Blu-ray and the iPad will only support DLNA instead of direct consumption like the WD. So I've exhausted all of the free DLNA servers that run in linux (native or wine) and am now trying Twonky. Twonky so far seems to have the most potential to do what I need it to do.

With Twonky, I'm stuck on 3 points:

1) Twonky will not detect ANY media on the Suse file server (not FLAC, nor ISO). I was about to give up on Twonky when I decided to install the demo on another Suse machine and create symlinks to the first Suse machine. Oddly enough, it worked! Why? I'm guessing permissions but I'm hoping someone here would know for certain. But why would symlinks over smb be more successful than direct access on the same files that still have the same permissions?

2) Transcoding. The Sony is very picky and I'm starting to think the iPad is, too. I can't seem to find examples of how to properly ask Twonky to transcode a FLAC file to LPCM. I've read the clients.db but nothing strikes me as obvious on how to accomplish the task. I see hints that it's possible, like the flac-wav.desc and flac.location files but no luck. Likewise, I see even less info on how to play directly or transcode an ISO as something the clients could understand. Switching the Media Receiver settings around on the config page doesn't seem to help, either. Is there a HOWTO document with more detail available, or does anyone have example files they can share?

3) Ports. What's required to be open? Can the default required protocols/ports be added to the FAQ? And then if they're configurable, which ports for which functionalities are configurable and where can they be configured? In other words, it's obvious that port 9000 is the default port for browser config. If that's a port I can change, where can I change it? If streaming video occurs on some other port or protocol, which is it, and if it can be changed, where is the setting?

I was able to get the iPad to play an MP3 I had laying around, and I was also able to get Twonky to "see" one of the ISO files by renaming it to .MPG but I don't have any clients able to play it yet due to the transcoding issue. On the surface it looks like Twonky should be able to do everything I'm asking...I'm just struggling to get the configuration right.

Thanks!

Phil

[scsibluesmaster]

OK. I reinstalled TwonkyServer and mimicked the workaround of the two linux boxes down to just one. Twonky won't recognize /library as a source but will recognize /home/phil/Music/library->(symlink)->/library as one.

I still can't get the transcoding to work. As far as I can tell, I've had FLAC->WAVE setup correctly on separate tries for /usr/bin/flac and /usr/bin/ffmpeg. Clients still list x-flac as the type and of course won't play them.

What's the difference between the TR and MT lines in clients.db? Does order matter? How can I be sure Twonky picks up my changes after a restart? (The log doesn't appear to say much about config info for connected clients)

Thanks