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[streamon]

I am a long time user of Media Jukebox/Media Center and was very exited to discover it has a build in upnp server when I bought a Philips streamium SL4000. However I quickly discovered some major drawbacks that made me use (and buy) Twonky Media instead.
Since I would still love to use the Media Center I decided to post my feature requests here.

This is what I would need to start using MC instead of Twonky with my streamium:
- SMS style input while browsing (e.g. pressing ‘7’ on remote control three times = ‘P’)
- Although performance isn’t bad MC should be as responsive as Twonky

These features would be great but I would use MC without them or haven’t found them in other servers either:
- MC as upnp control point. It would be great if the streamium could be used as output (act as soundcard) for anything played in MC. An option like ‘send to streaming device’ would also be great.
- Queuing. A possibility to add tracks to the playing queue from the Streamium.
- Transcoding video
- Resizing of pictures before sending them to streaming device. Target resolution should be configurable.

Cheers

[Foz]

I'd like to see CUE file support completed for the UPnP server so tracks are played correctly from single CD images.  It's partly there already, just needs a final nudge 

[511PF]

I'm going to bump this and ask for a few more features.  There may actually even be a way to do what I want now.  I just bought a DLink-520 that I'm using via UPNP with MC.  For the record, I'm having a few problems:

• The device disconnects from MC's UPNP server after being idle for a while.  I haven't yet determined the exact amount of time, but let's say it's 15 minutes.  Once it disconnects, the DSM-520 sends me to the "Server connect" page and reconnects pretty quickly.  My undertsanding is that DLink fixed a similar problem in one of the DSM-320 firmware upgrades, so this is probably a DLink thing and not a MC thing.  I thought I would mention it.
• * The DSM-520 will not connect to MC's UPNP unless another UPNP server (either Twonky or DLink) is also running.  This may be because I'm running MC on my Windows 2000 file/media server, which doesn't have an SSDP Discovery (UPNP) service.  It would be nice if someone more in the know could confirm this.

Now, on to my request, which may even be possible now.  The DSM-520 APPEARS to want a certain UPNP naming scheme so that the "Music," "Videos" and "Pictures" remote buttons work.  Having the correct naming scheme also makes the UI on the device nicer (with screen titles and so on).  Right now, when I browse my MC UPNP server, I just get a folder list (Audio, Video, etc).  There are no page titles in the UI and the remote buttons for the various functions don't work.  Twonky supports the "right" DSM-520 naming scheme, but MC doesn't.  Twonky's organizational/menu structure is goofy, so I want to stick with MC for UPNP.

Is it possible to change the names of the root UPNP items so that the DSM-520 will recognize them?  Is the problem something else altogether?  If not, would it be possible to add this functionality?  It would be REALLY nice if MC would automatically use the right naming scheme when you selected it in the UPNP devices list. 

Note that the DSM-320 and DSM-520 use the same server software, so a fix for one should work for both.  Has anyone solved the remote/UI problem with MC, or are you just living with it the way it is?

[John Gateley]

If you are only using the DLink for audio playback, there is a way to do this. Check this thread for details:

http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=29710.0

I'm confused by the SSDP part: Our UPnP server does include both SSDP discovery and advertising, and the Twonky or DLink server wouldn't know anything about us. Can you double check your info here?

j

[511PF]

I can confirm that the DSM-520 will not see MC's UPNP server unless another UPNP server is running.  My process is:
* Confirm that the DSM-520 works with MC UPNP by playing a file.
* Shut down the DLink UPNP software. 
* Turn the DSM-520 off and back on
* DSM-520 doesn't find any media servers. 
* Turn DLink Mediaq Server on, I see activity in the MC UPNP log and the DSM-520 immediately finds both servers.  I know zip about the UPNP protocol, but it seems like MC either isn't broadcasting or isn't broadcasting in a way that the DSM-520 can understand.
* If both UPNP servers are running, the DSM-520 finds them on startup.

System info:
Media Center Registered 11.1.141 -- C:\Program Files\J River\Media Center 11\

Microsoft Windows 2000 5.0 Service Pack 4 (Build 2195)
AMD Duron 944 MHz MMX / Memory: Total - 523 MB, Free - 303 MB

Internet Explorer: 6.0.2800.1106 / ComCtl32.dll: 5.81.4916 / Shlwapi.dll: 6.0.2800 / Shell32.dll: 5.0.3900 / wnaspi32.dll: N/A
Ripping /   Drive Z:   Mode:Normal  Type:Auto  Speed:Max
  Digital playback: Yes /  Use YADB: Yes /  Get cover art: No /  Calc replay gain: Yes /  Copy volume: 32767
  Eject after ripping: Yes /  Play sound after ripping: No 

Burning /  No burners found.
  Test mode: No /  Eject after writing: Yes /  Direct decoding: No /  Write CD-Text: Yes
  Use playback settings: No /

[CampbellR66]

Just wanted to add my voice to the request for enhancement to the UPnP server functions of MC.

What MC does well on the UPnP side is expose the meta data catalogs/index to the UPnP renderer, currently I have tested it with SC200, DSM-320, SL50i and SL300i. This functionality is superb as there are no in file tags available for video files. None of the main competitors support thiss type of function only the freebe stuff from Phillips and Pinnacle does.

What is not good is...
Performance, not a patch on Twonky or Nero

Only supports one UPnP Device profile if UPnP goes the way it should then a lot of houses will have several music only devices and 1 or 2 video display devices, they wont all be the same type.

Only have a UPnP server
There is a market for a good PC based UPnP client... the nero Showtime is a joke. MC could use UPnP as the under pinning technology to replace the existing network media server.
A UPnP control point to alloow users to control and initiate streaming remotley round the house would be cool.

Inclusion / Improvement to transcoding of formats.

Remote indexing/tagging of content via the UPnP client would be superb for sorting photos... appreciate this may be difficult.

Improve content security with the introduction of user profiles and content classification.

[511PF]

Bump for MC not being seen by DSM-520 - see above.

[511PF]

Update: I upgraded my server to Windows 2003 and reinstalled MC and my DSM-520 can now find MC without another UPnP server running.  I don't know if it was a problem with my setup or with Windows 2000 Server, but it appears to be fixed now.