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[gmeardi]

I've just setup this equipment:
- Laptop with JR MC18 Server connected to a NAS (holding HD music)
- iPad and iPhone as DLNA Controllers
...all of this to stream music to...
- Oppo BDP105 as DLNA Renderer, connected to...
- Rotel RSP1066 pre-processor
- Rotel RMB1066 multichannel amplifier.
- Dynaudio Audience 122 speakers (5.1 setup)

The Oppo works "perfectly" as a DLNA Renderer, but... why cannot stream HD multichannel music? It seems MC downmixes to stereo (and dunno which quality) instead of sending the original multichannel HD files to the Oppo (such as multichannel FLAC 24/96).  I can only obtain stereo music at lower quality from the Oppo.
If - instead - I use the Oppo as a DLNA Player (eg. directly access from Oppo to the NAS SMB shares/folders), I have full access to top quality multichannel HD music. The same exact file is played perfectly when Oppo acts as a DLNA Player, while at lower stereo quality whenever it acts as a DLNA Renderer.

Any ideas?

[JimH]

Check conversion settings in MC.  Under Media Network.

[gmeardi]

Check conversion settings in MC.  Under Media Network.

Thanks, Jim. I did forget to say... that I already had set in...
Media Network | Advanced | Client Options | Audio Conversion -->
Conversion: don't convert audio
Encoder: Uncompressed 24 bit

Is there any other place where to say not to transcode?

[gmeardi]

I did give a look to other threads, and... here follows a summary that - at the end - still leaves me with a question mark: might or not my JRMC18 push to my Oppo media renderer a FLAC 24/96/6chn?

According to DLNA/UPnP, the RENDERER should publish what formats it can play, the SERVER should publish what formats it can deliver (either natively or through transcoding), and the CONTROL point should choose the best match between the two and initiate the playback. The control point could then delegate that decision to the user... (my Control Point is the JRiver iPad app)

Always according to dlna.org for "home devices" the Required Format for Audio is LPCM (2ch) and optional support includes only MP3, WMA9, AC-3, AAC, and ATRAC3plus... Yet some players (like Oppo) will also eat FLAC, DTS or MPEG Audio... so I have no idea how the three elements work this out (well) if it is beyond the spec.

How are the three parts ever going to work out that FLAC (for example) is supported if there is no way to communicate this value in the spec?  If FLAC (multichannel FLAC, for example) is not part of the specs, how does the Renderer says it can support it or the Server says it can deliver it unless there is some extensible part of the spec that allows custom codecs to be negotiated?

Others say that audio formats are communicated as simple mime-type strings, e.g. "audio/x-flac" for FLAC. All other properties (resolution, sample rate, etc.) are also already catered for. DLNA specifies minimal requirements, but you can extend as you wish. All the means are already there, all that is required is to use them. The dbPowerAmp UPnP server already behaves this way.

So, at the end... if the RENDERER supports (say) multichannel Flac and advertises it in a std way that can interpreted then the MC SERVER, instructed by the CONTROLLER, should deliver it.
But - in the DLNA architecture - the server never "sees" the renderer, nor talks to it. The unit that talks to the renderer - and the server - is called the control point.

And in my case the Control Point is my iPAD with JRiver app.
In the JRiver iPad app there are only two settings:
- Audio stream quality: from Low (64Kbps) to High (320Kbps) // I set High
- Stream aac, m4a and wav files without transcoding: on/off // I set ON.
But it seems this is for iPad acting as a player...

Any ideas how could I render multichannel hidef music to my Oppo105 without transcoding? (that perfectly works if the same Oppo accesses my NAS as a PLAYER via SMB folders)
THANKS (to everybody supporting this mail contents)!

[JimH]

Add or configure DLNA Servers.

[gmeardi]

Add or configure DLNA Servers.

What do you mean? On my laptop PC, which is hosting MC18, in Media Network settings I've already enabled all of the three options: DLNA Server, DLNA Renderer, DLNA Controller. There's only a flag...
The Oppo appears correctly as a Renderer, both in MC18 on laptop and on the iPad... The problem is that the audio reaches the Oppo in transcoded format (dunno which one, but sure is not multichannel).

[csimon]

(my Control Point is the JRiver iPad app)

Do you mean JRemote?

If so, it's not actually a control point.  It's a remote control for MC, therefore when speaking to DLNA devices, it's MC that is the Control Point. I don't think MC as a control point will do the delegating of quality choice to the user and, even if it did, I don't think it would expose that functionality to JRemote.  There would need to be further development of both products - note that JRemote is not a JRiver product, it's a third-party app.

But onto your problem....If DLNA settings are Never Convert then I can't see any reason why the renderer is not receiving the original FLAC file. This is effectively the setting that turns off the format negotiation, basically it actually breaks the DLNA protocol in order to get it to work! As you have worked out, DLNA is a flawed spec and is really awkward.  Therefore I don't understand why it is being downmixed to 2-channel, unless it's a bug somewhere either at the MC end or at the Oppo end.

The setting is in Tools/Media Network/Add or Configure DLNA Servers (NOT Client Options) - and it looks like in the latest upgrades that it has been renamed to "Original" rather than "Never convert".

[gmeardi]

Yes, I meant JRemote: now that's more clear to me who's the Control Point in my chain, thanks!

Moreover... WOW... you've solved my problem... It was really my fault: I didn't notice the server settings combo and I kept focusing on client settings.
In fact my server settings where configured on "convert unsupported": I changed to "never convert" (like I did in client settings) and now it all seems to work perfectly! Multichannel HD FLAC, with excellent quality!
THANKS A LOT! 

[csimon]