Playing Ampache on a Samsung smart TV

[Chris Nicoll]

I have latest Ampache on a new Ubuntu server installation using a Letsencrypt certificate. I use it from my LAN as well as accessing it from the Internet when I am away from home. Of course, access from the LAN is not supported by a Letsencrypt certificate. This means I must go through the additional step on my Firefox browser of accepting the risk of using what may be an insecure server. This is all fine and I was given some great advice on the configuration details of this in another conversation in the group.

However, something odd happens when I try to access Ampache from my LAN using the 'built in' browser on the Samsung smart TV's. I go through the same 'additional step' of accepting the risk and I am taken to Ampache which in all respects seems perfectly functional except that when I play a song nothing happens. It comes up on the screen but the progress cursor does not move from the beginning and there is no sound.

I mention this because it appears similar to something covered in another discussion some time ago and that problem appeared to be solved. I thought my problem was worth mentioning because (a) it only occurs on the Samsung TV browser and not with Firefox and (b) it only happens with access from within the LAN

[Cowboy Bob]

It could be that the browser can't handle it. Your situation is exactly the same as what I get when I try to open my Name.com hosted Ampache on an old iPhone-4 that I use like a music player. I can surf my music just fine, as soon as I press play it just sits there, not frozen. When I get the chance I'll try to open my site in a DVD player that has a browser.

[Cowboy Bob]

Another thing you might want to try is the official demo server at Ampache dot org - My example holds up to that test, dagnabbit.

https://ampache.org/demo.html

[Chris Nicoll]

Sorry for the long silence on this. I think the problem is that my ampache server at home cannot be accessed via the Samsung TV at home unless I use a 'reserved' IP in the TV's browser e.g. https://192.168.1.45. When I do that I get the question whether I want to 'risk' access because there is no recognised certificate. And then, as I've already said, it gets up the web page but just doesn't play. Of course, there is a certificate if I use my domain name but, perhaps because of my router setup, I can only do this away from home. As I said before, Firefox works fine. I don't think the problem is the TV's lack of 'power' because it will happily play from ampache's demo server.  My ampache server works well in all respects as long as I am not at home! I've tried to set up UPNP on the server so it can go direct to the renderer (an AV receiver) but that's a nightmare I haven't escaped.