XBMC is “Xbox media center”, originally developed for XBox 360 and was ported to all other platforms. It supports all common streaming and SMB.
I bought a NAS a month ago, and realized it supports media server as DLNA server, which is actually on uPNP protocol for streaming. While accessing NAS for media browsing via SMB is a pain via wireless, uPNP is ideal for accessing all the pictures, media files on NAS at home network.
The FAQ is here and installation guid here are from XBMC website. A few useful control on iDevices and it does take me quite some time to figure it out, though it is available on FAQ.
- context menu: two finger single tap on the icon (i.e. remove a media source)
- return to parent menu: two finger swipe left
Some other tips
- To display Chinese interface (for my parents), use default theme and set font as Arial
- The default installed version has bug to display picture where only black frame is shown, it can be fixed by installing the nightly version following the install guide.
- The hardware acceleration for video needs to be on, otherwise it is very choppy
- There’s no thumbnail for home-shot video clips.