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[RoderickGI]

EDIT: I'm adding in some quotes to clarify the background to this thread, for other readers. First, I was doing some testing of JRiver for Android.

I can connect to the MC server on my phone from MC on my PC, which is acting as a Controller+Renderer. Playback works on the PC. The phone is visible and selectable as a Zone in the Client PC as well.

I can connect to the MC server on my phone from MC on my PC, which is acting as a Controller. Playback works on the phone. The phone is visible and selectable as the Zone "There" on the PC.

I can select music on my phone and push it to the MC installation on my PC acting as a Renderer. The PC is selectable as a "Play To" location in the phone settings, in JRiver for Android 25.0.15.

But I can't play to the MC installation on the phone from the PC, pushing audio to the phone, using a local library on the PC. In this case the PC is acting as a MC Server and Controller, while the phone is acting as a Renderer. Playback tries to start as shown on the PC, showing the progress bar up to five seconds, and then gives up. All that happens on the phone is that Playing Now is cleared when I hit Play on the PC, with the phone Zone selected.

Specicically, I couldn't get the bolded bit to work.

It was working for Jim.

I just tested from Windows, MC 25.0.15.  I dragged a file to my phone (under the top section of Playing Now).  That worked.

A suggestion to fix this.

Make sure your phone is allowing Notifications for JRiver.  It's under Apps.  We're wrestling with this issue right now and it will probably change again.

Yep, the phone is allowing JRiver Notifications. As I said, the new notification looks good.

Dragging a track to the phone's Zone and selection either Play or "Add to Playing Now" works the same way as discussed above. With Play the track appears to start playing in MC on the PC, but stops after about five seconds, and the Playing Now list on the phone is cleared. With "Add to Playing Now" it just clears the phone's Playing Now.

As the Audio Device selection isn't sticking, I even tried the above while local tracks were being played on the phone. That stopped playback on the phone and cleared Playing Now as well.


My phone is a Sony Xperia XZ Premium, model G8141, running Android 9.

[JimH]

Dragging a track to the phone's Zone and selection either Play or "Add to Playing Now" works the same way as discussed above. With Play the track appears to start playing in MC on the PC, but stops after about five seconds, and the Playing Now list on the phone is cleared. With "Add to Playing Now" it just clears the phone's Playing Now.

I'll move this to a new thread.  File types?  Maybe the phone won't play what you're sending?

[RoderickGI]

I'll move this to a new thread.  File types?  Maybe the phone won't play what you're sending?

I tested with only FLAC files ripped from CD, so 44.1/16. I have some of those files on the phone and they play fine. But now I look at the DLNA settings, they weren't right. The was no DLNA Server specifically associated with my phone Zone for a start. So I made some quick changes and tried again.

I tried some mp3 files, and then tried the FLAC again with DLNA set to Original format, PCM L16, PCM 16bit, and High Bandwidth MP3. None of them worked, but the result was a little different, as Playing Now on the Android did show one track at a time, but didn't play it, just worked it's way down the list of files without ever starting playback. So associating a DLNA Server with the phone Zone made a bit of a difference.

Then again, does JRiver for Android use the DLNA settings in a server that is sending tracks to it? In a Windows MC installation, it would be the Client Options on the target device that define what conversion, if any, was required. I'm assuming that the connection from a Windows MC installation to an Android MC installation would work the same. But there are no such settings in JRiver for Android.

Anyway, it's late now, so I'm quitting. Any suggestions welcome. I might look at it again tomorrow.

EDIT: While I think of it, the Output Device on my Sony is "Android Oboe". Is that right? Is it different on different phones?

[RoderickGI]

I have the "push tracks to phone" capability working now.

I tried again today testing with the BubbleUPnP App on the phone which worked every time, showing up in as a DLNA Renderer in MC to be able to push tracks. I also tested using the mConnectLite App, which wouldn't show up as a DLNA Renderer in MC to be able to push tracks. It would only connect to a MC Server and then play tracks locally or to a MC Renderer, using the App on the phone. It also always played to the default "Player" Zone at that, regardless of the current Zone of the Server/Renderer.

First lesson:
The BubbleUPnP App on the phone is still running in the background once you close it, as evidenced by the notification with controls on the phone. This seems to work in a similar way to the new JRiver for Android notification. This still running part of BubbleUPnP may have been preventing JRiver for Android from running in my initial tests pushing tracks to the phone. You need to close that part of BubbleUPnP via the notification before switching to JRiver for Android.

Second lesson:
JRiver for Android uses a pure DLNA connection, I think, and doesn't use the additional magic of a MC Client/Server connection and settings that, say, a Windows installation uses. I guess that is self-evident in that there are no Client settings in JRiver for Android. I just expected JRiver for Android or the MC Server installation to query the capabilities of the phone, and send tracks in a format that would work. Nope. So, you need to associate a MC DLNA Server with the JRiver for Android Dynamic Zone that appears in the installation of MC you are using to push tracks to your Android device, and make sure all the conversions are set correctly so that the phone can actually play the tracks. For me, that was Original format for FLAC 44.1/16 and MP3 tracks.

This could be a trap for other users, as JRiver for Android acts more like any DLNA Server/Controller/Renderer, rather than another MC installation.

I don't know what the issue actually was yesterday. It could have been that BubbleUPnP was still running in the background on the phone, and interfering with JRiver for Android playback. It could have been the DLNA settings. More likely it was a combination of things, and the need to restart MC on the PC and the App on the phone after making DLNA changes. I restarted the applications a lot to get it working.

It is interesting to note that once I had it working, closing the App and closing the notification, then pushing audio to the phone still worked, and re-instituted the notification with audio controls. So I guess the JRiver for Android service keeps running in the background, at least for a while. It seems that the notification gets reinstated after a while with nothing being played as well. Perhaps because the phone is still connected to a MC Server on my PC?

Now that I have that working, JRiver for Android will become a little bit more useful for me, so I'll have to start reading the Release Notes and other stuff to work out what functionality is supposed to work now, and what is still coming.