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Author Topic: JRemote as a zone  (Read 6154 times)

newbluesman

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JRemote as a zone
« on: May 02, 2016, 02:54:16 pm »

I love JRemote and use it on my iPhone 6 as both remote control for my MC network and as a renderer / player in my car and on our patio.  And I've had no difficulty setting up my Beaglebone and my Raspberry Pi as zones.  But even while actively playing main library files through the iPhone, it's never showed up as an active player in MC so I can't seem to use it as a zone. Similarly, I access MC via webgizmo from an Asus Chromebox in our master bedroom - and that also fails to appear as an active player, so I can't create a bedroom zone either.   I'd love to be able to synch playback on my iPhone and Chromebox with other devices / zones throughout the apartment. 

I searched multiple boards but cannot find an answer to this question: is there a way to make my iPhone running JRemote and/or my Chromebox with Webgizmo on Chrome into zones when playing on "this device"?
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Arindelle

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Re: JRemote as a zone
« Reply #1 on: May 03, 2016, 05:51:29 am »

No, although it behaves in many ways as a client, it really is just a control point with some options to allow some tagging and such.

It can control a server, but not other clients. (clients control served content and local playback, not other clients anyways) You seem to be talking about zones as physical playback areas and not different playback configs. So the only way to cheat this is to run multiple instances of DLNA renderers (network options) which would only work on devices that allow a full install of JRiver (and this has some limitations too^^), not IOS or Android.
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newbluesman

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Re: JRemote as a zone
« Reply #2 on: May 03, 2016, 07:17:31 am »

No, although it behaves in many ways as a client, it really is just a control point with some options to allow some tagging and such.

It can control a server, but not other clients. (clients control served content and local playback, not other clients anyways) You seem to be talking about zones as physical playback areas and not different playback configs. So the only way to cheat this is to run multiple instances of DLNA renderers (network options) which would only work on devices that allow a full install of JRiver (and this has some limitations too^^), not IOS or Android.
Thanks - that was my original conclusion / fear, although I've been wrong before..... :D  I'm using the term "zone" to mean a physical player / renderer controlled by MC and delivering (i.e. playing) content from the main library.  JRemote seems to me to be the client and the controller simultaneously when set to play on "this device". If it's not, what is the client - the iPhone's music player? 

Similarly, if WebGizmo is not also the client on my Chromebox, what is? a default music player installed with the OS package?
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Arindelle

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Re: JRemote as a zone
« Reply #3 on: May 09, 2016, 04:10:35 am »

Thanks - that was my original conclusion / fear, although I've been wrong before..... :D  I'm using the term "zone" to mean a physical player / renderer controlled by MC and delivering (i.e. playing) content from the main library.  JRemote seems to me to be the client and the controller simultaneously when set to play on "this device". If it's not, what is the client - the iPhone's music player? 

Similarly, if WebGizmo is not also the client on my Chromebox, what is? a default music player installed with the OS package?
well semantics, if you use the more or less common terms for digital playback -- you have a media server, a media renderer, and a control point.

Each JRiver install can be all three. Usually you have only one computer on your network acting as the media "server" (do not confuse a NAS a the media server). A "Client" (a machine having a full JRiver install) is, usually, only a renderer and a control point. Each machine, with some exceptions due to the OS, has complete functionality - including the option to see the "server" machine's local zones which can then be controlled. Some things like importing, cover art, file moving etc. can only be done on the server machine)

Then you have "DLNA" devices that can be accessed by your network and used as renderers. Zones are local configurations, clients can see zones on machines acting as media servers. As such they can be seen on control points and music can be sent to them (or pulled). As such, again, these zones can be "physically" separate.

So, unless you have multiple PCs (or mac or Linux machines running JRiver in the network) you don't have any "clients". I'd say JRremote and WebGizmo are just controllers with the ability to be renderers like other DLNA devices.

Now this is just Arindelle's definitions of a JRiver network  ;D ... so if you just take the Wikipedia definition literally, client can mean just about anything accessing a server's data on a network. So once again ... semantics  :D
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Hilton

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Re: JRemote as a zone
« Reply #4 on: May 09, 2016, 04:44:32 am »

 I'd love to be able to synch playback on my iPhone and Chromebox with other devices / zones throughout the apartment. 

I searched multiple boards but cannot find an answer to this question: is there a way to make my iPhone running JRemote and/or my Chromebox with Webgizmo on Chrome into zones when playing on "this device"?

You can achieve the synchronised playback via another couple methods if that's all you require.
1st method:
You can use your iphone as a airplay streaming device to stream the JRemote playback to airplay compatible receivers.
If you dont have native compatible airplay devices you can install TuneAero or their new product TuneRelay installed on Windows PCs to receive the playback from the iPhone and retransmit to other Airplay devices.
http://www.breakfreeaudio.com/#about
There are also Android Airplay compatible receiver Apps that can be installed on Android devices. (AirBubble or AirPlayer are examples)

2nd Method:
Similar to above except you setup an Airplay Zone in MC server and install TuneBlade to stream content to multiple end points.
The difference here is you are playing from a MC zone configured to broadcast the same audio to multiple airplay receivers and can use JRemote as a controller. (BreakFree Audio also have a handy remote app to control end points on/off and volume)
More detail can be found on this here > http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=95760.0
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newbluesman

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Re: JRemote as a zone
« Reply #5 on: May 11, 2016, 11:26:54 am »

You can achieve the synchronised playback via another couple methods if that's all you require.
1st method:
You can use your iphone as a airplay streaming device to stream the JRemote playback to airplay compatible receivers.
If you dont have native compatible airplay devices you can install TuneAero or their new product TuneRelay installed on Windows PCs to receive the playback from the iPhone and retransmit to other Airplay devices.
http://www.breakfreeaudio.com/#about
There are also Android Airplay compatible receiver Apps that can be installed on Android devices. (AirBubble or AirPlayer are examples)

2nd Method:
Similar to above except you setup an Airplay Zone in MC server and install TuneBlade to stream content to multiple end points.
The difference here is you are playing from a MC zone configured to broadcast the same audio to multiple airplay receivers and can use JRemote as a controller. (BreakFree Audio also have a handy remote app to control end points on/off and volume)
More detail can be found on this here > http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=95760.0

Thanks!  I found a simpler option for my network and devices by adding Bubble. I added Bubble UPnP/DLNA as a Windows service on the PC running the main MC instance and put the Bubble app on my Kindle Fire HD and my old Samsung Android phone (I found the most recent APK that will run on its old operating system - once it's off the Verizon network, there's apparently no way to upgrade the Android OS on an orphan phone). Now everything shows up as a zone and I can synch playback throughout the apartment.  I'm going to reinstall Ubuntu and MC on my Asus Chromebox this weekend.
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