Samba question

Tolkem

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Hi everyone! Hope you're all having a nice life! :)

I'm failry new using samba. I'm sharing a usb drive with a Windows pc from Debian and it works fine. However, I do have a few questions:
The drive is used to share content; music, videos, documents...if someone's watching a video in the windows pc from the usb drive and I try to do the same (watch another video from the drive too) then the video stops playing in Windows. Is this normal? I just don't know, been searching for this on the web but can't find anything that tells me whether it is or not. If it is normal, is there a way to prevent that from happening?
Well, that's pretty much it. Thanks in advance for your answers.
 


If you use two computers, one is Windows, another Linux, share folder to watch video via Samba from USB, then better install this folder in Windows computer, then in Linux computer, and watch video from hdd. Or if you prefer USB, then use USB 3.0 or 3.1. in Windows.
 
If you use two computers, one is Windows, another Linux, share folder to watch video via Samba from USB, then better install this folder in Windows computer, then in Linux computer, and watch video from hdd. Or if you prefer USB, then use USB 3.0 or 3.1. in Windows.
Thanks for your answer, however, I'm not sure I understand what you mean with "install this folder in Windows". Can you elaborate a bit more on this, please? Thanks.
 
Thanks for your answer, however, I'm not sure I understand what you mean with "install this folder in Windows". Can you elaborate a bit more on this, please? Thanks.
Just copy folder to Windows pc, then copy also to Linux machine and enjoy video.
 
Just copy folder to Windows pc, then copy also to Linux machine and enjoy video.
Ah, I see. Well, we've been doing that as a workaorund actually but I still wonder is there's another way.
 
Hello @Tolkem, @Palzaj Maybe I do not understand the OP's question. I think he is asking if he can use the USB to serve two masters at the same time. The answer is no!!! You can only access one video on the USB at a time. You can not use two different computers at the same time to access one video and definitely not two different videos on the single USB. Now if he uploads the video to the computer that is a different story.
 
The drive is used to share content; music, videos, documents...if someone's watching a video in the windows pc from the usb drive and I try to do the same (watch another video from the drive too) then the video stops playing in Windows. Is this normal?
Samba is okay for transferring files, but I don't know if media streaming is a good use for it. I'd look at DLNA server software, such as Kodi, Plex, MediaTomb, or others. There are a lot of articles and YouTube videos of people using low-cost, low-energy Raspberry Pi's as a home media server. DLNA seems like the right tool for the job.
 
Hello @Tolkem, @Palzaj Maybe I do not understand the OP's question. I think he is asking if he can use the USB to serve two masters at the same time. The answer is no!!! You can only access one video on the USB at a time. You can not use two different computers at the same time to access one video and definitely not two different videos on the single USB. Now if he uploads the video to the computer that is a different story.
Thank you! This is exactly what I was asking cause I'd really no idea since nothing I find on the web tells me so. I suspected as much but like I said, I'm just starting using samba and wasn't sure whether or not I needed to do something else to achive that but now I know it's just not possible.

Samba is okay for transferring files, but I don't know if media streaming is a good use for it. I'd look at DLNA server software, such as Kodi, Plex, MediaTomb, or others. There are a lot of articles and YouTube videos of people using low-cost, low-energy Raspberry Pi's as a home media server. DLNA seems like the right tool for the job.
Yeah, I've been looking into that too and in fact tried a couple; plex and streama https://github.com/streamaserver/streama I think maybe in creating some "netflix" like stream service in the local network but I need to read a bit more about it cause there are a few things I'm not quite sure how to do. For instance, I tried streama, it works without problems as far as I can tell; the app works and by that I mean the streaming service is started sucesfully; I can access the stream in the computer it is running from, however, I've no idea how to access that stream from another pc and either streama's docs are not clear about that or I just don't know what I should be looking for, and yeah I don't :D Again, I'm totally new to this kind of procedures, I'm a desktop user who's never setup a server before. Thank you all for your anwers.
 
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I'm a desktop user who's never setup a server before.
It's always good to learn new things. I'm trying to migrate to FreeBSD as a desktop OS, and it has been challenging for me. I used MediaTomb very briefly many years ago for the same reason as you... to learn how, and to see if it would be useful. I remember that transcoding ability was an issue with a wide variety of media formats. FInding the right media server software that suits your needs for capabilities and ease of use may take some trial and error. Googling around, I just stumbled onto Universal Media Server and it looks promising in it's own comparison to Plex. Good luck!
 
Googling around, I just stumbled onto Universal Media Server and it looks promising in it's own comparison to Plex. Good luck!
Thanks! I'll look into it and see what it has to offer.

It's always good to learn new things. I'm trying to migrate to FreeBSD as a desktop OS, and it has been challenging for me
I've tried FreeBSD on and off a few times and I've never been able to get used to it; it's a whole different thing with a quite steep learning curve. Good luck to you too! :)
 

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