Can't Play Media Over Network?

[Oldgeek]

Hi, all!
I hope no one else has already posted this problem, but while I can access all my Linux and Windows shares on three computers, I cannot play a media file over the network from either a Windows or Linux computer.  PCLOS (KDE4 Full Monty, just installed a week ago) insists that I need to have a local copy to play it.  I have tried with Kaffeine as well as my default player, VLC.  I would love to pull media over the network and play rather than copy (in which case I can just get off my butt and move the USB drive), but all else works great.

I've been running Ubuntu 10.04 on my main, but with some of the changes Canonical is making, I am not sure I want to trust Ubuntu any more, so I am looking for a new direction and new distros...PCLOS looks like a solid winner, if I can get this media thing figured :/

I'm not necessarily afraid of the CLI, but I need instruction to use it...if this is what is needed.  Thanks for any help.

Oldgeek
PCLOS Full Monty
IBM NetVista 2.8GHx single core
2GB RAM
128MB nVidia FX5500
(and runs better than my other computers with twice the power)

[Just17]

Before making any suggestions, can you tell us what you used on your previous OS to do this?


Oh yes .......  welcome to PCLOS. 

[muungwana]

best way to access network shares in kde is to use a program called "smb4k" to mount those remote shares to a local file system and then access those remote resources through the mount point.

You are probably trying to access those shares from the dolphin file manager through what is called "smb://" kio slave. They dont work consistently and smb4k is the most consistent and predictable way.

[Oldgeek]

1st reply: On Windows boxes, I use standard file and printer sharing, on Ubuntu, Samba, on PCLOS, it never occurred to me to look, since it found and read all my shares

2nd reply: I was indeed using Dolphin/Konqueror, and if I tried to stream a file, I got some unable to find codec message which made no sense since everything works locally.  I found and opened smb4k and was indeed able to access shares and play directly.  Once.  Then it lost the network (this is a wired network, and Dolphin/Konqueror still access it fine).  Got a prompt for KDE wallet, which, when I canceled it told me "failed to mount blah blah blah".

A little background: I am the only person who has access to my computers.  I have my external access locked down tighter than a--well, you can fill it in.  But I want my internal network transparent.  As in click a share, file opens with default player.  I know it is possible--it works in Ubuntu and Windows

[Oldgeek]

Just noticed that other distro names are filtered.  I use a very popular one meaning humanity to others, but my time with that one grows short since I don't like the recent versions.

[muungwana]

2nd reply: I was indeed using Dolphin/Konqueror, and if I tried to stream a file, I got some unable to find codec message which made no sense since everything works locally.  I found and opened smb4k and was indeed able to access shares and play directly.  Once.  Then it lost the network (this is a wired network, and Dolphin/Konqueror still access it fine).  Got a prompt for KDE wallet, which, when I canceled it told me "failed to mount blah blah blah".

can you expand on the "it lost the network".
when you mount a network share on a local file system,it stays mounted until you unmount it,manually.

click settings on the menubar->configure smb4k->authentication and then until "save login in kwallet" if you dont want to use kwallet for passwords.

[Oldgeek]

Okay, from samba I can open files and play over the network.  If I go to VLC or Kaffeine directly I get the notice that I can access only local files.  I'm not that familiar with Kaffeine, but VLC is something I have used for a couple of years and it was built to stream video...so as fas as what I want, I am calling it 50% there...    Appreciate the help.  I love Tux giving me so many choice but each is different from the last, and this is my first lengthy stay with KDE...

[ThirdOfSix]

Two or three years ago I was having problems watching videos that were stored on other machines on my network.

As I recall, the problem seemed to come and go with different upgrades.

Almost nobody on this forum was using a local network to store multimedia so I did not get much help.

Eventually, I discovered that if I installed a particular plugin, the network access of movies would then work.

I just looked on my older machine  and found two plugins that are installed. One or both of them may be what made my machine start working.

They are:
xine-plugins
xine-smb

I have no idea if this will help you. It seems that some media players worked over the network without them and some did not.

Also, if you try them, please do a power down cold boot after istalling them.

I have found that many packages behave differently depending on whether you do a restart or a cold boot. I always do a cold boot after installing new packages...particularly any having to do with networking.

Good luck.