Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[apostos]

The Media Center DLNA server keeps dropping off the list of available servers on my Yamaha RX-A3000 Receiver. I typically have to enter the Yamaha’s setup menu to refresh the DLNA list before I can access the server and playback an audio stream. All other servers remain available/persist between sessions.

The entire system is wired. All addresses are reserved. Connection when achieved is excellent. No issues with playback. The receiver is always in standby mode. The PC that Media Center runs on is allowed to sleep between sessions.

Has anyone else experienced this?

[csimon]

Stab in the dark - have you got DLNA Renderer turned on in MC?  i.e. to allow other DLNA devices to control MC.  If so, turn it off and see what happens.

Does it only drop off after it has slept or will it disappear while both devices are still on?

What settings have you got for Advanced DLNA?  For example, if you've got DLNA Extra enabled, try turning it off.

[JimH]

If you're not using 18.0.129, please try it.  It's at the top of the MC18 board.

[apostos]

Thanks for the suggestions.

DLNA & DLNA Extra are both enabled.
DLNA Server - enabled
DLNA Renderer - enabled
DLNA Controller  - enabled

Seems to disappear between sessions. It's never failed while playing but I only use it in that mode for an hour or two at a time.

I remember enabling those when I set up MC to work with my receiver and my Nexus 7. I had success and I didn’t fiddle with the settings any more. Would I not need the DLNA Renderer option checked if I was using Gizmo? In hindsight I suppose unchecking the DLNA controller option would make sense for my setup.

As per your suggestions I’ll mess with these settings. If nothing changes I’ll upgrade to the latest version and see if that helps.

Jim, do you have a specific reason for suggesting the upgrade?

[csimon]

Gizmo communicates with the MC server via the web service protocol, which is basically MC's API.  Gizmo isn't a DLNA controller at all, it's simply a remote control for MC.  Therefore you don't need MC to be a DLNA Renderer.  You would only need that on if you wanted MC to receive and render commands from another DLNA device.

It's bizarre, but turning DLNA Renderer off seemed to fix issues that I and others have had with DLNA devices dropping inexplicably from MC Zones, so it's worth a shot in your case.  I think you would want to keep DLNA Controller turned on.  This allows you to push media from Gizmo to your Yamaha, for example.  If you want to pull media from MC to the Yamaha, then you need DLNA Server.

[doulos]

I have seen DLNA traffic getting eaten by specific routers. This concerns the low-level parts of the protocol, which rely on UDP bradcast (device discovery). Devices from DLink were particularily nasty - I finally replaced them (2 routers used as access points only) with Buffalo Linkstations, and now all is well. Note that I did check through all configuration options on the devices, to no avail

[apostos]

Thanks for taking the time to explain this. As you can tell I’m struggling with MC’s concepts/language around this subject. I’ve disabled the DLNA Renderer option as you’ve suggested. I’ll see if this improves the situation over the next few days.

MC appears to see the Yamaha without fail. Insomuch as I’ve never not had it available under the Playing Now listing since I enabled those settings and enabled network standby on the receiver. The MC server just disappears from the Yamaha’s DLNA server list of available media servers.

doulos’ post got me thinking (not necessarily a good thing). The router is a Netgear WNDR3700 which has been trouble free. But the Media Center PC and the Yamaha (along with 2 other devices) are in a sub-group connected via a 5 port networking switch. Do you folks think this configuration could have any bearing on this?

Thanks again.

[JimH]

Jim, do you have a specific reason for suggesting the upgrade?

Always try the latest build before reporting a bug.

[csimon]

I have seen DLNA traffic getting eaten by specific routers. This concerns the low-level parts of the protocol, which rely on UDP bradcast (device discovery). Devices from DLink were particularily nasty - I finally replaced them (2 routers used as access points only) with Buffalo Linkstations, and now all is well. Note that I did check through all configuration options on the devices, to no avail

Yeah - I originally had a problem with my router not broadcasting UPnP (SSDP?) over the wireless network, so my IPad DLNA controller couldn't see the MC server. But MC itself and the DLNA renderers were fine.  T then bought a new router (Netgear) and am happy!

doulos’ post got me thinking (not necessarily a good thing). The router is a Netgear WNDR3700 which has been trouble free. But the Media Center PC and the Yamaha (along with 2 other devices) are in a sub-group connected via a 5 port networking switch. Do you folks think this configuration could have any bearing on this?

Only if it's a different sub-net I guess, i.e. different 192.168.n ? If it's just a cascaded switch then that will be no problem.  But if it was a network addressing issue like that, it wouldn't work at all.

Wonder if it could be an IP clash?  Clutching at straws here!  Perhaps there's something appearing on the network that is using the same IP as the server. Do you have static addresses throughout your network or do you have DHCP-assigned ones?

[apostos]

Do you have static addresses throughout your network or do you have DHCP-assigned ones?

Same sub-net, all addresses reserved.

I’m going to troubleshoot this a little more aggressively over the next few days to see if I can come up with a cause and hopefully a solution. If I'm fortunate enough to find that 'solution', I'll post the results here.

Thanks to all for your help in this matter.

[MrC]

A while back, bob (and AndrewFG) fixed some problems with MC losing DLNA devices from the list periodically and MC taking a long time in discovery.  For me, there is no longer an issue.  But it could be that your device is behaving similarly, and it might require some network tracing to pinpoint the problem.

[bob]

We have a WNDR4500 at work and it doesn't have trouble with the multicast. We have lots of devices so there is a pretty constant chatter...

[apostos]

I Thought I would update this thread with what I've experienced so far.

As per csimon’s suggestion I disabled the DLNA Renderer on the 7th. That seemed to remedy the situation for the most part as I only had one more MIA experience over the next two days. After that one re-occurrence I decided to ‘tinker’ with two settings on the WNDR-3700. I changed the ‘Advertisement Period’ from 30 min. to 15 min. and changed the ‘Advertisement To Live’ from 4 hops to 8 hops. I also cleared the cache on the Yamaha Receiver hoping that might help.

I've not had a MIA incident since. The router adjustment is just a poke in the dark. I've no expertise with those devices and will likely move those settings closer to their default. Although, as far as I can tell, I've experienced no adverse effects from the changes I made to those settings.

Thanks again for your suggestions.

[csimon]

I've got a Netgear DGN3500, I'll try changing those Advertisement parameters too to see if it has any effect, good or bad, on my DLNA!