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[lOth]

I'm considering getting myself a linktheater and I'm completely new to this uPnP stuff, so forgive me in advance for asking a very basic question.

As far as I can tell, these devices come with their own server app you install on your PC. Now, the obvious question for me is 'why would I want to use MC rather than this server app?'
I can definitely see the point if it allows you to use MC's mighty db and smartlists from your device interface but I'm not sure it's the case. Is it?

[Myron]

I'm not that familiar with the Linktheater, but UPnP media players usually allow you to use smartlists and playlists in MC, which is just one big advantage to using MC.

For me, MC is a must since all my music is in WAV format and MC is the ONLY application I know of that gives me the ability to use tags.

Some searching here and on the Avsforum should tell you what you all you need to know to decide it the Linktheater is what you want.

[John Gateley]

Using MC's organization and smartlists is a big factor, but only part of the picture. We also do transcoding on the fly, so you can store your music as APE and playback to the UPnP device as MP3 (because none of them support APE).

j

[lOth]

thanks for the answer. I can see now how it's definitely worthwhile using MC.

Two further questions:

1) can anyone using a theaterlink with MC confirm that this player indeed manages to get MC's smartlists?

2) just a small thing: when you play a tune from your device, are the playcount and last played info updated? Seeing how the library server works with an MC client over a network, I'd answer no, but if anyone can confirm this...

[John Gateley]

1) If you mean Buffalo Link Theater, yes they work.

2) Yes, the playcount and last played date are updated, both in the UPnP Server and the Library Server.

j

[lOth]

wow.

these are really two good news.

Now, more good news? Would third-party plug-ins work as well when you're playing from the device. I think in particular of the Playing Now plug-in: would it pop-up, FTP, send to last.fm when you play a song from the device? I have this feeling you won't answer yes this time...

[John Gateley]

No, 3rd party plugins won't work with the UPnP Server...

j

[lOth]

aha! got you, finally.

No seriously, this was good news enough. Now that I know I could access my MC library and smartlists with one of these devices, I'm going to look a lot more seriously into it.

I just read in a review that navigation on the linktheater was a nightmare, so I guess I'll be looking into other solutions. D-link players don't seem to play divx so that's a no go. Any recommendation from a satisfied user?