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Author Topic: DLNA Profile Selection  (Read 4007 times)

doug.ca

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DLNA Profile Selection
« on: January 11, 2012, 11:40:28 am »

A question:

I have a couple of DLNA renderers on my home network: a Denon AVR and a AverMedia mediaplayer. I have different DLNA profiles set up for each of these devices, plus an additional profile specific to my PS3. These profiles are used to handle differences in the supported features of each device. For example, the Denon supports unconverted FLAC audio, the AM does not.

Everything works fine if I use the device itself as the controller and access the specific profile. However, I'm having problems sending from my main server, which is a WHS to the AM. Interestingly, it works fine sending from the MC installed on my office computer. The only difference I can see is the order of the profiles configured on each machine. I haven't had a chance to try changing the order of these profiles yet, but this did get me thinking. When you use the Send to/Play to feature from within MC (17.0.62 in my case) to a particular DLNA device when there are multiple profiles, how do you ensure that the correct profile is being used for that device or otherwise tie a specific profile to a specific type of renderer?
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MrC

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Re: DLNA Profile Selection
« Reply #1 on: January 11, 2012, 12:45:46 pm »

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doug.ca

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Re: DLNA Profile Selection
« Reply #2 on: January 11, 2012, 04:21:46 pm »

Thanks MrC. That answers my question.

Given this, does it make sense to ask for this as a new feature to give MC the ability to push to a device using a specific profile?

I assume this could be done by either tying a configuration to a discovered device, which I think would be the best method. Or, by using a Sent to <device> using <DLNA profile> command. The problem with the former is that DLNA devices are discovered devices and may come and go. The problem with the latter is how does this get implemented when using a controller to initiate the push? Nevertheless, this would be useful for people that have a range of DLNA devices on their network.

Cheers
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MrC

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Re: DLNA Profile Selection
« Reply #3 on: January 11, 2012, 04:33:19 pm »

I think devices should be tied to a configuration / server profile.  Once a device is seen, it can be associated with a chosen profile.  Since users may want to push various formats to different devices, a configuration list attached to each profile seems like a good idea.

I ran into this problem once, and had to remove and reconfigure the DNLA servers list to get the order correct so that I could push lossless audio to some devices, but pull using a different server.  And figuring this out was just trial and error and some packet tracing.  As an aside, it would be helpful if the servers could be reordered.

This said, I have little knowledge regarding the technical issues this may present.
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doug.ca

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Re: DLNA Profile Selection
« Reply #4 on: January 11, 2012, 04:37:12 pm »

That's certainly the way I'd like to see this implemented. Also, I agree, that as a bear minimum, it would be nice to be able to reorder the profiles without having to delete them and start all over again.
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Mediahome

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Re: DLNA Profile Selection
« Reply #5 on: January 12, 2012, 01:14:10 pm »

Yes, given the variety of DLNA devices out there, and the quirks that they have, you really need to be able to assign a DLNA profile to each discovered device.  Having the ability to re-arrange the list would be nice.  I would also like to be able to hide a discovered device.  I don't think that my "Roku Streaming Player" is ever going to be a full fledged DLNA renderer even though it gets discovered as a DLNA device. 

Mediahome
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doug.ca

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Re: DLNA Profile Selection
« Reply #6 on: January 16, 2012, 02:41:07 pm »

Under a DLNA device's advanced options there are a number of options that can be selected. Some seem self explanatory others are not as seemingly obvious. Is there any documentation as to specially what each of these options does? Other than the built in profiles, is there any documentation that lists the attributes that should be used in conjunction with specific hardware?
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mbagge

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Re: DLNA Profile Selection
« Reply #7 on: January 17, 2012, 10:39:29 am »

Actually MC should create a profile itself when it discovers a new dlna device. Then we could make the necessary adjustments to it. If we then plays to a specific zone, MC would know which dlna profile to use.
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bob

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Re: DLNA Profile Selection
« Reply #8 on: January 19, 2012, 10:11:14 pm »

Yes, given the variety of DLNA devices out there, and the quirks that they have, you really need to be able to assign a DLNA profile to each discovered device.  Having the ability to re-arrange the list would be nice.  I would also like to be able to hide a discovered device.  I don't think that my "Roku Streaming Player" is ever going to be a full fledged DLNA renderer even though it gets discovered as a DLNA device. 

Mediahome
Association is currently in beta.
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bob

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Re: DLNA Profile Selection
« Reply #9 on: January 19, 2012, 10:15:07 pm »

Under a DLNA device's advanced options there are a number of options that can be selected. Some seem self explanatory others are not as seemingly obvious. Is there any documentation as to specially what each of these options does? Other than the built in profiles, is there any documentation that lists the attributes that should be used in conjunction with specific hardware?
Other than DLNAExtra, logging and the video mimetype/DLNA flag overrides you should leave the options alone. They are mainly for supporting older uPnP devices.
The PS3 and WMC compat settings are done by the template selection. They fine tune the conditions under which transcode when necessary invokes transcoding.
Also WMC compat makes the server act as a Windows Media Connect server which makes it xbox 360 compatible (and not compatible with everything else).

 
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DWAnderson

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Re: DLNA Profile Selection
« Reply #10 on: April 25, 2014, 09:53:13 pm »

Association is currently in beta.
I just came across this topic in trying to play to my Roku Soundbridges. I was pleased to discover that this feature was implemented and all I needed to do to get this to work was to right click on the Soundbridges in the Playing Now list of devices and select Associate with DLNA Server (choosing the DLNA server that I had been using for years when using the Soundbridges' menu system to select tracks to play).

Thanks for creating a great DLNA server!
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