[Cialug] Odds 'n ends in harmony?

[jrnosee]

I'm reaching out to the group to see if anyone can give me some advice on
this.  It's not strictly linux but since I've got a mix of Windows, Android,
and Ubuntu I'd throw it out to everyone.

Where I want to be:
I went to visit a friend who has an Apple TV, iPad, and iTunes (on
Windows).  He had super slick control of the media being displayed on his TV
from his iPad and could show anything from the content on his AppleTV, PC,
or iPad from the iPad.

Problems:
1.) Money - Apple $#17 costs too much.
2.) Apple - really, I despise them.  I own an iPod 5.5G (video) and that's
almost too much for me.
3.) Tech I have - is an odd assortment
4.) UPnP server I have on Ubuntu doesn't seem to play nice with Windows.

Where I'm starting at:
-Playback:
To get content on my TV's I've got Win7 MCE on a laptop and and Xbox360 as a
media center extender.  Please don't ask me to change this part of the setup
as it's just not going to happen.  The laptop is actually half a laptop.  I
got it from a friend who busted the screen off.  From what I can tell the
external video connectors (HDMI & VGA) don't come online until AFTER
windows/drivers load.  At this point I have basically no way to reload this
machine.  Also, I need MCE to interface with my xbox for my other TV.
Also, other devices listed below.

-Media:
Ubuntu 10.04 LTS.  It hosts my VMWare server, file shares (including my
media), CrashPlan backups, and currently the Serviio DLNA/UPnP server.

Other devices:
An android tablet and phones, and a Samsung Blu-Ray player with DLNA
capabilities.

Problems/info/stuffs...:
1.) (slightly off the rest of the topic) The MCE laptop has a problem where
when playing back recorded TV stored locally (possibly other media) it will
stop playing.  Pausing for a bit usually helps.  Almost feels like a youtube
video that played up to the end of the buffer....
2.) Windows Media Player's "play to" feature is nearly PERFECT for
controlling DLNA players and providing media from my Win7 PC (not the MCE)
however "Play To" is not available on files stored on a network, so all my
media files on my ubuntu server can't be "play to"'d my media center.
3.) Windows Media Player does not see any files on serviio (seems to be a
known/nobody cares to fix issue)
4.) So far, any attempts I have made to use a upnp player/controller from my
android tablet have been met with failure.  If I pick a file on my Win7 PC
and try to tell it to play either on the tablet or on my MCE I get a file
not playable type message.
5.) So far I have not had the chance to attempt to connect my tablet to
Serviio...will try tonight.

Questions:
1.) Can anyone recommend a DLNA/uPnP server that would run on my ubuntu and
play nice with all my windows equipment & software?
2.) any other suggestions for truly having a Digital Living Room Network
setup like DLNA is SUPPOSED to work?


Thanks in advance for any advice.
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