More > Media Center 14 (Development Ended)
DLNA/Remote Access Help Needed
dtc:
My goal is to just use the remote PC as a remote to control another PC, which also stores the library and files,. I want to use the library and files storied on the player, without moving them to my remote system. That is, I want a true remote, not something that sends the files from the player to the remote and back. I am not sure if I am set up correctly to do that or not.
I am using one PC (XP running 14.155) as a remote for a PC (Windows 7 running 14.155) acting as the player. The remote system sees the player system under Playing Now and the menu on the left. I select it, but do not see any ablums or tracks in the playing now display. I can play files (by going to Audio, for example), but get an error (see below). I can also go to File/Libray on the remote system and load the library from the player and play those tracks. Again, I get the same error.
When I play a track on the remote, the track shows up on the player display. However, it says Opening for a while then gives the error message -"Media Center encountered erros while trying to play the last several files. Please make sure the path in your media library points to the right location". On the remote system, the timer loops from 1 to 5 seconds then repeats, as if it looping waiting for the player systrem. This happens whether I am using the library on remote or the library on the player (by selecting the DLNA library).
I am not sure if the error comes from a DLNA setup issue or possible a system issue. Maybe a port issue? Any help would be greatly appreciated. I am new to DLNA.
Both systems play fine as stand along systems. I typically play from memory, but disabled that on both systems and still get the error message.
Player Specifics - Netbook running Windows 7 Starter. Controller, Renderer and Server set under DLNA options. There is a local library and the actuals tracks are on the netbook.
Remote Specifics - Laptop running XP Media Center. Controller, Renderer and Server set under DLNA options. There is a local library on the laptop, but the actual audio tracks are on a seperate server, accessed wirelessly by the laptop.
Other interesting issues:
If I try to flip the systems, that is, use the Netbook as the remote and the laptop as the player, the Netbook does not show the laptop under Playing Now. So, the laptop sees the Netbook under playing now, but the reverse it not true. I think I have the same options set on both system.
On both systems, under File/Library I can see the DLNA library server on the other system.
Any help is appreciated.
Thanks.
Tom
JimH:
Maybe try starting over, and using MC14.0.158 from the top of this board.
The instructions are here:
http://wiki.jrmediacenter.com/index.php/DLNA
A firewall could be a problem.
JimH:
--- Quote from: dtc on March 25, 2010, 12:59:29 pm ---...There is a local library on the laptop, but the actual audio tracks are on a seperate server, accessed wirelessly by the laptop.
--- End quote ---
Try eliminating that complexity, so that the files are local to the machine.
bob:
Also if you are playing MC to MC you might as well set the audio conversion option to "never convert" in DLNA options for the servers you've setup.
dtc:
Thanks Jim. You are partially correct. I did upgrade to 14.158 and that made no difference, but networked files are an issue, although not my main problem.
The first problem seems to be that the mp3 conversion option was on and this was causing problems. So, I changed the option to never convert and now I can play remotely. Except, the audio files have to be on the same system I am using as a remote. If they are on a remote file server, the player cannot find them. The DLNA player does not seem to deal with networked files. [EDIT: Upon furthur checking, the DLNA player is now finding the audio files on the networked server. Not sure what changed, but it is working now.]
I found a similar problem when sharing a library via DLNA. If I load up a DLNA library (that resides on the player) on the remote, then I can play it on the remote but I cannot redirect it back to the player for playing. [EDIT: This is still an issue - see post below.]
In DLNA terms, it seems that Server and Controller need to be one one computer and the Renderer and Player need to be on another computer and the files must reside on the Server.
I had hoped that, in DLNA terms, the Player, Renderer, and Server could all be on one system and the Remote could be a separate system and that the Remote could control the others without actually transferring files to the Remote. I do not see now to do that, but if it is possible I would like to know now to do it.
It seems like the architecture should support what I want to do, but the common implementation (for example, PC with files sending them to a TV for viewing or receiver for playing) don't need to separate all four functions.
DLNA certainly is a great feature. I am just not sure it was defined for exactly what I want to do. And it would be nice if it dealt with networked files.
I could use Windows Remote Terminal Services for what I want to do, except my Player does not have Windows 7 Professional, so it cannot be controlled by a remote system.
Sorry if this has been discussed before. I am new to DLNA. If I missed something, please let me know.
Tom
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