Since John Gately is due back, I thought I would bump this thread.
MY wish list for the UPnP server includes:
1). Parental Controls. If the system provided a variable for either the IP address, MAC address or some other means of distinguishing different media players, we could script security for different media players. Example: IF ip=192.168.0.23 and [Access Rating] is {G, PG, PG-13} then. . .
That would allow virtually any kind of control the user wanted to set up.
2). Resume. When you STOP playback from a UPnP media player, have MC remember two things for each media player: the last 10 media files played and the last position of the playback. This information would be kept in the MC database, permanently. The next time you hit the PLAY on the same media file, from the same media player, MC gives you the option of either "resuming" or starting over. As to the actual coding for this, I can try to find out more about the DSM-520, because that feature is fully supported if you use the D-Link server. A wrinkle on this would be as follows:
3). Follow-me resume: This feature exists on the EVA8000 player from Netgear. Here's my idea on a possible way of implementing it in MC, without being player-specific. Every time a media file is played, MC automatically creates a playlist by media player (again, IP or MAC, possibly with a way of "aliasing" that to a simple English name). This list contains the name of LAST media file played on each media player, and contains the last played position. If you're watching I Am Legend in the living room and hit STOP on the living room player, go to the bedroom, select Playlists--> Follow-me, you would get a list that looks something like this:
Living Room: I Am Legend
Kid Room 1: Hunchback of Notre Dame
Kid Room 2: Independence Day
Master Bedroom: Whatever
If you then selected the Living Room: I Am Legend, and hit PLAY, the player would "resume" by getting the "last played position" information from the Living Room and starting the playback, in the Master Bedroom, from there.
4). Descriptions. It would be really nice if you could scroll through lists of media files and, when you get to one you are interested in, have a way of viewing a description. Again, because this may require something in the media player which the player doesn't support, I had a thought on a way to do it that would be generic. IF the feature is enabled, then whenever you select a title and hit PLAY, MC would not start playing right away. Instead, it would first run a "preview" page. This page would stay on the screen until you hit ENTER again, at which point the media file would start playing. One thought is if the "Description" field is blank, go straight to the media. If it is not blank, then generate a displayable page as though you were viewing a JPG file (fake out the media player, for maximum flexibility). This approach would make the feature independent of the particular media player device being used.
5). Artwork. I store all my music as WAV files, because I'm really picky and don't like the sound of compressed audio. I understand that MC will display the artwork via UPnP if the metadata is contained within the file. It would be nice if the artwork could be displayed when the file does not support internal metadata, like a WAV file.
D-Link has a little applet as part of its server which displays the attached media players, their current state (stopped, paused, playing). the filename currently being played or paused, and the position within the file expressed as time. If the resume and follow-me resume were implemented, all of that information would (I believe) necessarily be available. Some means of viewing that information on the MC computer would be useful as well.
I realize that I'm asking for a bunch of things that are not "critical" to the utility of MC, but I believe they are all features that would greatly enhance the utility and are general enough to function with any media player.
I would love to hear thoughts and ideas from other people who, like myself, use the MC server entirely (or primarily) as a UPnP server and have "wish-list" ideas as well.
Again, I think MC is the best server program out there and I am very happy with it. The addition of the above suggestions would take MC from great to incredible!
