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[battlescarze]

Please forgive me if the answer is somewhere else, I have tried searching and cannot find the specific topic...end up down the rabbit hole.

I have a smart LG TV with a dedicated PC running headless for JRiver 24 upstairs, I stream my content to smart TV's via hardline LAN.

First, I cannot see what is playing in JRiver on the TV within JRiver Media Centre...doesn't show the zone?  If I click on Playing Now nothing is there...but obviously I am watching a concert.

Secondly, I am streaming a MKV file that has multiple encoded audio such as 2 channel LPCM and 5.1 DTS. I cannot figure out how to get the DTS to play unless I remove the 2 channel portion from the file so there is only one audio version..it will play whatever is there with no issues...how do I switch if I cannot see what is even playing?-lol

[RoderickGI]

So the LG TV is running as a DLNA Client to the headless MC24 PC DLNA Server?

You are selecting what to play using the Media/DLNA/Server/whatever App on the LG TV, and not any version of MC or JRemote or anything?

So where and on what are you clicking Playing Now? Do you have a MC Client in the mix somewhere?

The TV isn't going to know anything about MC Zones, so it isn't ever going to display that to you. But you must do maintenance on the MC24 Server somehow. However you do that, via RDP or whatever, if you can see the MC UI then that is where you will see what Zone is selected, and what is playing in each Zone.

Please explain more about your setup.


As for selecting between 2 Channel and 5.1 Channel DTS audio in an MKV file, if you were playing on the MC Server you would just right-click on the playing video and select the Stream you want to play. When you do that the selected stream is saved to the [Playback Info] field, and playing it elsewhere will use that information to play the selected audio Stream. At least, that is how it works between MC Servers and Clients. DLNA to a TV should work the same, once the Stream has been selected via MC. But I'm not sure if you can select the audio Stream from the DLNA Client, and that would depend on the DLNA Client App anyway.

[battlescarze]

Exactly right on how I am using the LG TV App...I use RDP to remote into the Media Server, and I do not see the zones...I used to have the hardware connected directly to the TV and I did exactly what you stated.  I used to right click and select the stream, but now I cannot see anything playing...the zones do not show up?

I am thinking this is possibly a sharing or permissions thing with my Windows box...

[RoderickGI]

The LG TV should show up in Playing Now as a Dynamic (DLNA) Zone on the MC24 PC when you have the TV turned on for a few minutes. It can take a while for Dynamic Zones to show up.

If it doesn't show up, even when you are playing something to the TV, initiated in the LG App, then the firewall on the PC must be blocking some network packets, or something like that. This area of DLNA is a bit smoke and mirrors to me. I can't seem to force Dynamic DLNA Zones to appear in MC if they don't want to.

My Sony TV doesn't appear as a Dynamic Zones any more, as I stopped some app on it from running automatically. It used to show all the time, but I didn't want it to. Now I can't get it back, even when I use the TV to pull video from my MC Server. It sounds like you are in the same situation. I suspect that you may need to scour the LG forums to find out how to get the TV  to advertise itself. I know that is what I shall have to do for my Sony.

You might get a better result using a remote such as JRemote or "MO 4Media" as a DLNA Controller to connect to the MC24 Server and push media to the TV. Of course, they would also need to be able to see the TV as a Zone, which they also may not be able to. I suspect both those apps only show the Zones that MC shows. I know MO 4Media doesn't show my TV either.

Sorry I can't be more help.

[battlescarze]

Thanks for your help, there was a time that I did see other zones...and now that you mention it I remember removing them, because I didn't need them for anything...burn.

Also, I have tightened down the security on my server...if I figure it out I will post back.

[RoderickGI]

Your thread prompted me to try to get my TV back as a Zone. I found all the TV settings, and using Sony Apps on my phone, found that I could see the TV as a target DLNA device, and also as a Chromecast device. But Windows Media Player didn't see it. But then, I have never used Windows Media Player as a DLNA Controller, so that may not be a good test.

I also saw some strange results with the target DLNA Renderer names changing or being incorrect. So I played to my PC, and it played on my TV, for example.

Regardless, I'm leaning toward the conclusion that if you delete a DLNA Renderer as a Zone from MC, you can't get it back. At least not using the software as is. I still haven't completely eliminated a firewall issue as the cause though. I also need to turn off Chromecast on the phone and TV, as it is confusing the issue. Ironically it seems more reliable than DLNA!

I shall try some more stuff, but I think I will have to do some Registry diving to see if I can find an exclusion to delete, unless a JRiver developer speaks up with an idea.

[swiv3d]

You have tried refreshing dynamic zones  by right clicking on the playing now heading in the tree?

[RoderickGI]

Well, I have. Plus from the menu. No joy.

[swiv3d]

How about go to windows network in explorer view and find the name of the missing zone item and adding it as a zone in MC

[RoderickGI]

I thought of that, and I'm going to try it after a good look in the Registry.

But first I am cleaning up a bunch of Media Devices that exist on my network, to simplify the process. What with Chromecast, Miracast, Wi-Fi Direct, and DLNA, I had a few too many devices to sort through.

[RoderickGI]

Okay, nothing obvious in the Registry.

Also, as I expected really, creating a Zone with the same name as the DLNA Renderer shown in Windows Explorer, or its UUID, only created a normal Zone.

I can't see anything relevant in the "Service & Plug-ins > Media Network" item either, although there are lots of DLNA Searches and Notifies. Unless I actually use the TV as a Controller (and Renderer) to pull media from the MC DLNA Server, in which case I see activity using port 52100 against the DLNA Media Server, which is I believe the port the TV uses for DLNA. This was mostly Getting Content Directory and Device Description, and then thumbnail images, and finally video pieces as the TV played a movie. On the Library Server I saw lots of activity on port 52199, but it was just Gets for the DeviceDescription.xml and Service_LibraryService.xml files.

The Dynamic DLNA Zone still doesn't show up under Playing Now, even though the TV is playing the movie.

Nothing other than PCs show up under the "Drive & Devices > Explorer > Network" item, which is a shame as that might be an easy way to add a deleted Renderer back into MC.

I had a couple of virtual ethernet connections created by Hyper-V when I installed that. So I disabled those to see if they were interfering. But no change. I also had a "TAP-Windows Adapter V9" network connection. Disabled. No change.

But the TV, based on the IP Address, is querying the MC DLNA Server. See the attached image. The TV is 192.168.0.3. The MC Server is 192.168.0.10. Maybe using port 52100 is an issue? But then my Android phone is also using port 52100, as is the Controller on the MC Server. Hmmm, maybe the TV thinks it is only a Controller. But then acts as a Renderer when it pulls media to itself.



So this one goes back to JRiver. If a Dynamic Zone can be deleted from MC, it should be possible to add it back in. Windows seems fully aware of my Sony TV as a DLNA Renderer. It shows up in the Registry many times, when I search for the UUID.

Although I still intend to run AndrewFG's software against the TV to see if I can learn something fro that.

[RoderickGI]

Well, AndrewFG's Digital Media Renderer Analyser by Whitebear software found and tested my Sony 2015 Sony 4K TV Model KD-65X9300D without any trouble at all.

Unfortunately the first test failed with "Play failed => Command "SetAVTransportURI" failed", then many failed with "Play failed => Command "SetAVTransportURI" failed", and the rest failed with "Play failed => Time out". The first test did open the Music App on the TV though. It just didn't play it. This is despite the TV supporting everything reported except "synchronous play", including "GetMediaInfo" and "SetNextAVTransportURI". Tests of single 2 & 6 channel flac files, and mp4 files, mostly worked though. Basically, I'm confused by the output of the tests.


Regardless, the DMRA shows that the TV is visible as a DLNA Renderer, and can render media. So it should be possible to make it reappear in MC. Suggestions anyone?

[swiv3d]

How did you delete a dynamic zone? the right-click menu for those zone types has delete greyed out. Have you tried looking in the show/hide zones section of the player>zones menu.

[RoderickGI]

I don't recall how I removed the Dynamic Zone for the TV. It would have been a couple of years ago when I got the TV I currently have. I thought I just deleted it. That might have been possible back then.

Nothing shows up in the Show menu. Never has, or we wouldn't be discussing this. While this is Battlescarze thread I've actually tried to get my TV Zone back in the past, which is why I'm pursuing it now.

[swiv3d]

Just found the place to delete dynamic zones under player> zones - it is an item near the bottom of the menu but I can't find any way of restoring a deleted zone if refresh dynamic zones doesn't work!

[RoderickGI]

That will be it. I didn't look very hard before my last post.

I think this requires a programmatic solution, as I could find a Registry edit that would fix it.

[thecrow]

Secondly, I am streaming a MKV file that has multiple encoded audio such as 2 channel LPCM and 5.1 DTS. I cannot figure out how to get the DTS to play unless I remove the 2 channel portion from the file so there is only one audio version..it will play whatever is there with no issues...how do I switch if I cannot see what is even playing?-lol

This will be different for each make and model of TV.
But on my LG OLED while playing the movie you click the down arrow key to bring up the transport controls then select the three dots on the right to bring up additional options then select the headphones symbol and you can choose the audio track from here.