Has anyone here successfully connected an Oppo 203 to a network SMB mount?

[AYanguas]

The particularities of using SMB with an Oppo 203 are the following:

- It uses only SMB V1
- At the Server Side, obviously, SMB V1 has to be enabled.
- The Oppo has to make everytime "SMB Network Discovery". There is no functionality to "define" previously SMB shares (like \\server\share)
- When a Shared Resource is connected from the Oppo, its Username/password are saved in the Oppo for future connections.

This normally works on every custom LAN, but there may be a problem:

*** If the Server is Windows 10 (with SMB1 enabled) and there is no other machine with SMB server in the LAN, Then IT DOES NOT WORK ***

Why? Because Microsoft has deprecated SMB1 in Windows 10. It continues to work but there is a component in it that it does Not Work: SMB Master Browser

One single node in the network has to be SMB Master Browser, which detect and stores All Shares in the network. If there is only a Windows 10, then that server is the SMB Master Browser.
When a SMB client does a "Network Discovery" it asks to the SMB Master Browser about the available Shares. In Windows 10 (beeing the SMB Master Browser) that list is empty, so it cannot "provide" the list of the available SMB shares.

The solution is to have another System in the Network that implements SMB Master Browser.
Systems with SMB Master Browser are, for instance:

- Windows version lower than 10
- Linux with some SMB activated (I could guess, but I don't have experience with that)
- NAS with SMB
- Some Routers
- Some Media Players
- Home Assistant with SMB Add-on

If you have any of those systems, your "discovery" of SMB resources from the Oppo will work.

I have been using Oppo 203 with SMB to access content without any problem since the beginning.

 

[mandrix]

The particularities of using SMB with an Oppo 203 are the following:

- It uses only SMB V1
- At the Server Side, obviously, SMB V1 has to be enabled.
- The Oppo has to make everytime "SMB Network Discovery". There is no functionality to "define" previously SMB shares (like \\server\share)
- When a Shared Resource is connected from the Oppo, its Username/password are saved in the Oppo for future connections.

This normally works on every custom LAN, but there may be a problem:

*** If the Server is Windows 10 (with SMB1 enabled) and there is no other machine with SMB server in the LAN, Then IT DOES NOT WORK ***

Why? Because Microsoft has deprecated SMB1 in Windows 10. It continues to work but there is a component in it that it does Not Work: SMB Master Browser

One single node in the network has to be SMB Master Browser, which detect and stores All Shares in the network. If there is only a Windows 10, then that server is the SMB Master Browser.
When a SMB client does a "Network Discovery" it asks to the SMB Master Browser about the available Shares. In Windows 10 (beeing the SMB Master Browser) that list is empty, so it cannot "provide" the list of the available SMB shares.

The solution is to have another System in the Network that implements SMB Master Browser.
Systems with SMB Master Browser are, for instance:

- NAS with SMB
- Some Routers
- Some Media Players
- Home Assistant with SMB Add-on

If you have any of those systems, your "discovery" of SMB resources from the Oppo will work.

I have been using Oppo 203 with SMB to access content without any problem since the beginning.

That's a pretty nice rundown, although I was unaware of "Home Assistant". I certainly had my struggles with SMB1 and at first was baffled until I did some research.
Windows 10 was thwarting me big time. (Way to go, MS)

I don't have any of that, no NAS or such. It was easier for me to buy a low priced NFS Server program for Windows. I just input a list of drives and/or folders and the Oppo finds them. Now I'm on Windows 11 and still use the same server program.
But, I always say whatever works for you is good and glad people found other solutions.

EDIT: My main rig has 11HDD's, 4 SSD's and an NVME drive and is also my playback machine. I use an LSI SAS/SATA card and a Lenovo Expander card to access all the drives.

 

[stereoptic]

/etc/samba/smb.conf, in the [global] section, add
client min protocol = NT1
server min protocol = NT1

For easier read-only access as the "guest" user (so no password needed), at the end of smb.conf I added a section to configure SMB access to a particular path:

Thanks, but neither of those worked.

 

[AYanguas]

That's a pretty nice rundown, although I was unaware of "Home Assistant". ...

It was on my second house, with just an old 10Mb Synology NAS, that I was keeping not for the disk content, but to have the SMB Master Browser.

To avoid that I did installed a VM (VMware) with Windows 7 (that has full working SMB1), in the Windows 10 server, just to avoid the use of the old NAS.

But then, one day, without having the VM Windows 7 started, the Oppo could discover the SMB shares. What was happening? It was days until I discovered that it was the VM Home Assistant. I shutted down the Home Assistant and the Oppo couldn't connect SMB. Then I saw in the boot log of the SAMBA add-on of Home Assistant, that it was starting a "SMB Master browser".

Then I do not need anymore either the VM Windows 7 nor the old NAS.

 

[SeeMoreDigital]

Hmmm...

Given the security issues with SMB1 and that our OPPO players only support SMB1 it sounds sensible to move over to NFS. I think my Synology NAS offers this functionality but I've not looked in detail.

With regard to audio files, do NFS network shares support cue sheet file navigation. And navigation/playback of Blu-ray disc back-ups stored within AVCHD folders?

 

[AYanguas]

Hmmm...

Given the security issues with SMB1 and that our OPPO players only support SMB1 it sounds sensible to move over to NFS. I think my Synology NAS offers this functionality but I've not looked in detail.

With regard to audio files, do NFS network shares support cue sheet file navigation. And navigation/playback of Blu-ray disc back-ups stored within AVCHD folders?

NFS shares or SMB shares "DO NOT SUPPORT" the media playing funcionalities such as Cue sheet or DVD/Blu-ray menu navigation. Those features are supported by the player applications.

NFS/SMB are only "file systems" (network) that provide "files" in a very similar way a local attached Disk provide files.

Disclaimer: This is just an architectural explanation. I do not have experience with NFS, only with SMB. If anyone knows about any failure of any player application that is accessing network files via NFS (but it works via SMB), I would be very interested in hearing it.

 

[mandrix]

I don't know for a fact but I'd only say what ever the Oppo supports natively, like was said NFS is only a file system... I use the Oppo to play .iso files mainly over the network. (it's jailbroke).
It will play AVCHD as the player will do that anyway. Beyond that it's whatever the Oppo supports.

 

[zdjh22]

Thanks, but neither of those worked.

I played some more with my setups just now.

For the Oppo, the only SMB shares that I can access are those that I setup with the “guest” permissions in a stanza at the bottom of smb.conf. Sorry, I should have checked before posting. The “NT1” lines are indeed needed, but for the Oppo on my setup if I don’t enable guest access it doesn’t work. On one particular SMB server I have my stereo FLAC rips setup that way, and the Oppo happily plays them. But other shares from the same server, such as my iTunes library, aren’t setup for guest access and when I try to access them I get the Username/Password dialog. The samba log indicates permission denied (“stat of /var/lib/usershares/tank_for_itunes failed. Permission denied”). Note with a “guest” setup you still need to login once as “guest” for a given share, no password. Afterwards my Oppo remembers the login.

I can attempt to replicate your setup if you’d like. RPI, correct? Which version of Raspbian or which OS?

My only other worry is that I’m using an Oppo 203 with the jailbreak firmware. I can revert to the stock configuration if adding the “guest” business doesn’t work to see if it’s the jailbreak.

 

[SeeMoreDigital]

NFS shares or SMB shares "DO NOT SUPPORT" the media playing funcionalities such as Cue sheet or DVD/Blu-ray menu navigation. Those features are supported by the player applications.

NFS/SMB are only "file systems" (network) that provide "files" in a very similar way a local attached Disk provide files.

Disclaimer: This is just an architectural explanation. I do not have experience with NFS, only with SMB. If anyone knows about any failure of any player application that is accessing network files via NFS (but it works via SMB), I would be very interested in hearing it.

Hmmm... I might not have explained things correctly.

All I do know is that UPnP/DLNA file servers do not support .cue sheet file navigation neither does it support Blu-ray AVCHD folder menu navigation, where-as SMB files servers work perfectly fine.

 

[AYanguas]

Hmmm... I might not have explained things correctly.

All I do know is that UPnP/DLNA file servers do not support .cue sheet file navigation neither does it support Blu-ray AVCHD folder menu navigation, where-as SMB files servers work perfectly fine.

That's because UPnP/DLNA servers include "some more part" of application over basic File System Servers.

NFS Network File Server is "as basic" as SMB Network File Server. As basic as local attached Disk File System, so to say. Where the "whole" audio application is within the player application.

 

[SeeMoreDigital]

So can NFS file servers do what I need?

 

[AYanguas]

So can NFS file servers do what I need?

If the Network access work, NFS should work the same as SMB, and the same as with local attached disks.

 

[stereoptic]

I played some more with my setups just now.

For the Oppo, the only SMB shares that I can access are those that I setup with the “guest” permissions in a stanza at the bottom of smb.conf. Sorry, I should have checked before posting. The “NT1” lines are indeed needed, but for the Oppo on my setup if I don’t enable guest access it doesn’t work. On one particular SMB server I have my stereo FLAC rips setup that way, and the Oppo happily plays them. But other shares from the same server, such as my iTunes library, aren’t setup for guest access and when I try to access them I get the Username/Password dialog. The samba log indicates permission denied (“stat of /var/lib/usershares/tank_for_itunes failed. Permission denied”). Note with a “guest” setup you still need to login once as “guest” for a given share, no password. Afterwards my Oppo remembers the login.

I can attempt to replicate your setup if you’d like. RPI, correct? Which version of Raspbian or which OS?

My only other worry is that I’m using an Oppo 203 with the jailbreak firmware. I can revert to the stock configuration if adding the “guest” business doesn’t work to see if it’s the jailbreak.

I'll try again adding the Guest section to smb.conf

The rPi is running a distro called "picoreplayer", which is a special version of Tiny Core Linux for the Raspberry Pi and runs the Lyrion Music Server (LMS - previously named Logitech Media Server) . There is an option for SMB connection, but not NFS.
I have a few spare rPis (3Bs) which I can use, though, and load raspian or other. I also have pi-hole and piVpn running on a pi, so I could most likely use that one.
I have 2 drives mounted on the piCore and can access the drives through SMB on my Macbook Pro to update, add new folders, and frequently tweak tags. piCoreplayer has a UPNP/DLNA bridge which finds the Oppo and I can use the LMS software to select the FLAC files, both stereo and Surround. However the software does not process .mka or .mkv files, so I have these files on a drive attached to the Oppo 203 USB input.
It would be much easier for me to update these files if the drive was on a network drive instead of 'hard wired' to the Oppo.

 

[mandrix]

So can NFS file servers do what I need?

Works for my 103. Whatever capability your Oppo has, including playing .iso files if it's jailbroke, should still function the same.
Note I do not use a NAS so that's getting over my head a bit. But the NFS server software I use in Windows works fine, it's not free except for tryout, but it's not expensive.

 

[atrocity]

The only difference I've ever noticed comparing SMB to NFS is that my 103 and 203 both take longer to find NFS shares. I don't know if that's an NFS issue, Oppo issue or something specific to my TrueNAS file server.

Also, be aware that standard NFS security is very different from SMB. It's generally wide open by default and the two easiest ways to lock it down a bit are to make the shares read-only and/or to limit access via IP address, which in turn means that any clients will need to have predictable IPs.

I've also found that for some reason, either Oppo can eventually find the NFS shares just fine, but Kodi never can. I have to manually type in the whole connection string ("nfs://192.168.6.6/mnt/whatever/media/stuff"). But this again may be something specific to my server or something I'm doing wrong.

 

[mandrix]

For sure. I use a dedicated IP for the Oppo, and set the shares as "read only", though I doubt that's strictly necessary. Again this through a software server in Windows. I generally just share whole drives, as they are all but two basically music.
"E:\" -i32 -alldirs -readonly 192.168.254.75 is how I list my shared drives with the IP of the Oppo being the last entry. I'm not a Unix guy in many many years so don't know what the software does in way of translation, if anything.

 

[atrocity]

For sure. I use a dedicated IP for the Oppo, and set the shares as "read only", though I doubt that's strictly necessary.

You just reminded me why I initially set "read only": I need to have the shares accessible via both SMB and NFS. The server documentation says (or so I remember it now) that due to differences in file locking methods only one of those should be writable.

But, as you say, it probably doesn't even really matter since neither the Oppos or any of my Kodi installations ever need to write anyway.

 

[SeeMoreDigital]

For anyone who's interested...

I quite like the look of this Raspberry Pi based NAS.

Cheers

 

[zdjh22]

For anyone who's interested...

I quite like the look of this Raspberry Pi based NAS.

View attachment 105778

Cheers

I just completed my 5th DIY NAS using the Penta SATA Hat shown in the post above, this time with a Rock Pi 5a. A Raspberry Pi 5 would work as well (but not earlier RPIs for that particular hat). I wanted a lot of space, so went with a 5-bay hot swap disk enclosure that holds 3.5” disks, and I used 4 x 14 TB + 1 x 16 TB CMR Seagates. The 5th disk plugs into the eSATA port visible on the lower right of the hat in the photo above, and one 14 TB partition joins the other 4 discs in a ZFS RAIDZ1 set, with 2 TB left over for the system disk and miscellaneous buffer space. This yields 50 TiB (power-of-2 TBytes) with redundancy, with data corruption detected and fixed automatically on reads.

Unless you use SSDs in the configuration in the picture (as the author of the YouTube video did), it’s a very good idea to have a small enclosure with fan(s) or at least a fan attached to the block of 4 disks.

 

[zdjh22]

I'll try again adding the Guest section to smb.conf

The rPi is running a distro called "picoreplayer", which is a special version of Tiny Core Linux for the Raspberry Pi and runs the Lyrion Music Server (LMS - previously named Logitech Media Server) . There is an option for SMB connection, but not NFS.
I have a few spare rPis (3Bs) which I can use, though, and load raspian or other. I also have pi-hole and piVpn running on a pi, so I could most likely use that one.
I have 2 drives mounted on the piCore and can access the drives through SMB on my Macbook Pro to update, add new folders, and frequently tweak tags. piCoreplayer has a UPNP/DLNA bridge which finds the Oppo and I can use the LMS software to select the FLAC files, both stereo and Surround. However the software does not process .mka or .mkv files, so I have these files on a drive attached to the Oppo 203 USB input.
It would be much easier for me to update these files if the drive was on a network drive instead of 'hard wired' to the Oppo.

OK, found it. I installed picoreplayer on a RPI 3B+.

At the top of smb.conf (/usr/local/etc/samba/smb.conf) you need an additional 2 lines after workgroup:

workgroup = WORKGROUP
lanman auth = yes
ntlm auth = yes
client min protocol = NT1
server min protocol = NT1

I found on a Raspbian install you also need those two additional lines.