Topic: PlugPlayer ipod touch/iphone UPnP App (Read 18130 times)

bob · « **on:** January 15, 2010, 04:23:49 pm »

I've been messing with a iPod touch app called PlugPlayer. It's a pretty nifty program that acts as a UPnP control point and renderer. What this means is that you can play MediaCenter 14 content on the iPod and also use the iPod to control a Media renderer if it supports a control point.

At one point today, I had the iPod touch start some music playing on my MediaCenter that was from Matt's MC Library. It shows coverart and everything. It supports rendering of music, images (most without conversion) and video (iPod native formats without conversion).

Pretty nifty piece of software for $4.99. It doesn't get really high ratings but this seems to be more that the renderers and servers people are trying it with are causing trouble, MC just seems to work. The rendering function in MC is beta. It should move into stable soon.

bob · « **Reply #1 on:** January 15, 2010, 08:45:12 pm »

I tried this at home with MC running in a virtualbox 3.x container in linux. It worked GREAT! I could play stuff from the touch on either the touch or my MC virtualbox install on linux!

)p( · « **Reply #2 on:** January 16, 2010, 11:43:04 am »

Yes it works really well. Browsing large lists is also much much faster with 127.

I am now also able to use mc as the control point to control plugplayer as the renderer. That did work with 121.

I think the main criticism people have of plugplayer is its gui...which is pretty basic an not very intuitive.

peter

sunfire7 · « **Reply #3 on:** January 19, 2010, 12:10:35 am »

bob, can you post some pictures? of how the app UI is?

RhinoBanga · « **Reply #4 on:** January 30, 2010, 06:35:00 am »

I've just got my iPhone 3GS and am going to download this app to play with it.

I've played with OrbMedia (which has a big bug in that it stops playing after a few minutes), Streamer (an XBMC audio streamer) which works OK but I want something that allows video. Hopefully this will do it.

bob · « **Reply #5 on:** February 11, 2010, 04:46:15 pm »

Sorry, I ended up out of commission before I could upload some pics. I'll give it a try with my home setup and a digital camera. They also just updated it to 3.0 and said there were UI improvements. Haven't had a chance to check them out yet.

Robo983 · « **Reply #6 on:** February 13, 2010, 07:05:01 pm »

I agree, I do not know why people bash PP it is awesome. I need to go leave some feedback to the contrary.

The new PP release last week made the interface more like the IPod. I loaded the latest MC today and was pleased also to see further enhancement from 136 to 144. It now alows me to scroll through the song. Before all I could do was prev/next track.

I am using the Generic DLNA setting. It works perfectly playing music from MC on the 3GS. I noticed that now not only do I see the plug player I see MC on my PC and can play music on the PC like a remote control....very cool. My only issue with the latter is it only plays one song at a time. I see the entire list on the 3G but at the computer Playing Now only shows the current track. If I do next track or when the track ends the next track loads but does not proceed to play unless I push the play button on the 3G.

Is there a setting that can cause MC to load all the files that are cued in the playlist on PP?

jmone · « **Reply #7 on:** February 13, 2010, 08:39:36 pm »

Wow iTouch/Phone and MC talking again! Tried it with my sons iTouch and it works really well with a couple of things:
1) Conversion - The iTouch Does not seem to like MC converting to WAV or High Bit rate MP3 ("normal" MP3 settings works fine) - you get an unsupported error
2) Control of MC as the Renderer - The playback is converted according the the DLNA Server settings even though it has access to the "real" file. I wonder if we need the same setting as with Library Server of "play local file if one that matches...."

park · « **Reply #8 on:** February 15, 2010, 11:12:44 am »

I am playing with this at the moment too.

1. Clicking on Music takes me to all my views including images and video. Seems that MC isnt telling PP which views are which media type.

2. I'm not seeing seeking behavior on songs. I have MC 14.144 and the latest PP from the app store. Is there an option that needs to e set somewhere, or does the DLNA server on MC need to be set up a specific way?

3. The lists are always alphabetical. That not very good for my "Recent Albums" view. Can the sorting be changed in PP, or forced by MC?

Robo983 · « **Reply #9 on:** February 15, 2010, 12:49:47 pm »

Not sure if these threads should be hear or on the "Other Hardware" formum.

JimH started one here:

http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=55984.0

I posted over at that one not realizing it was not under the IPOD forum. Since it is an IPOD app seems it should be hear but it is really cool how you can play/control your MC server music on other devices like I did on my XBOX XBMC and also looks like Jim is doing it on some other renderer too. I just can't get control point to work properly with MC as the render or get the PP to show as a Zone in MC. That is primarly what I want to control since my PC is what is connected to my sound system.

I did not get scroll bars on rendering either. I do get them when using it as a control point to a renderer making me think it is protocal thing from MC. But you never know. I haven't spent any time on the PP developer site to see what is going on over there.

bob · « **Reply #10 on:** February 16, 2010, 03:16:59 pm »

My touch upgraded to the 3.0.0 version of PlugPlayer.

I like the new layout better. On the negative side it bombs out to the main menu a lot. I'm not sure what's up with that. It didn't seem to do that with the 2.4 version. I tried it with MediaCenter, the latest version 14, as well as mediatomb, twonky and the buffalo linkstation ls-ch500l. On none of these was I able to find a way to seek using the iTouch as a renderer.

It seems a little more stable with MediaCenter if you check "omit host portion of URL" in the advanced options. I get coverart inconsistently. When I don't get the artwork it doesn't seem as if plugplayer is requesting it from the MC logging.

I don't think PlugPlayer supports being "controlled", it supports being a "controller" and a "renderer".

bob · « **Reply #11 on:** February 16, 2010, 03:43:23 pm »

I see now when you can get a slider for position in a song. It's when you are using a server and a renderer that both support seeking. When I used MC as both a server and renderer, I got a slider for position (and it worked). When I used PlugPlayer itself as a renderer I couldn't get any server to give me a position slider in PP. So I assume PP itself doesn't support seeking as a renderer.

park · « **Reply #12 on:** February 16, 2010, 07:19:52 pm »

Thanks for the info Bob. How about the sorting? Can MC force that?

Robo983 · « **Reply #13 on:** February 17, 2010, 01:58:39 pm »

Thanks for the info Bob that explains why I got seek when using it as a control point with some other render than PP.

Are you able to get MC to play the entire playlist when using PP as the Control point and MC as the Renderer? I could get the next song to load but it would not automatically play. I always have to manually select play.

bob · « **Reply #14 on:** February 19, 2010, 09:59:48 am »

Quote from: Robo983 on February 17, 2010, 01:58:39 pm

Thanks for the info Bob that explains why I got seek when using it as a control point with some other render than PP.

Are you able to get MC to play the entire playlist when using PP as the Control point and MC as the Renderer? I could get the next song to load but it would not automatically play. I always have to manually select play.

When I use PP and MC as a server and a different MC as a renderer when I play the playlist it just goes on to the next song. I'm not sure how you are getting that behavior. What are you using as a server? (above you said you use PP as the controller and MC as the renderer).

bob · « **Reply #15 on:** February 19, 2010, 10:13:40 am »

Quote from: park on February 16, 2010, 07:19:52 pm

Thanks for the info Bob. How about the sorting? Can MC force that?

It appears PP is doing it's own alpha sort on each container. I'm not sure we can force it to back off. When I tested this using the WDTV as the renderer I got the proper sorting for Recent Albums which is the order in which they were imported (which you can change of course).

Robo983 · « **Reply #16 on:** February 19, 2010, 01:33:45 pm »

Quote from: bob on February 19, 2010, 09:59:48 am

When I use PP and MC as a server and a different MC as a renderer when I play the playlist it just goes on to the next song. I'm not sure how you are getting that behavior. What are you using as a server? (above you said you use PP as the controller and MC as the renderer).

Ok, I may not know my terminology. How I have PP set up is on the top half of settings under Renderes I select my Office MC as the Renderer. On the bottom half of settings under Serverss I select my Office MC as the server. I assume at this point since I am not selecting PP as the renderer it is the control point. I do not see a selection for PP as the server which would be cool in some respects but I really am not loading music on the iPhone anyway to avoid using iTunes but I do have some test music on it but I still do not see PP as a Server in the server list. When I have it set up this way is when I can play only one song at a time. I can advance to the next song in the playlist when the song ends or by selecting next track but I have to manually initiate it to play.

This is the same way I set it up with my XBMC on my XBOX but I select it as the Renderer and my Office MC as the server. I can try to not use the same instance of MC for both the Server and Render. I never really thought of that. I have 4 other PCs running it so I will try that tonight and see if this is just related to using the same instance of MC as both the Render and Server.

bob · « **Reply #17 on:** February 19, 2010, 02:42:33 pm »

Quote from: Robo983 on February 19, 2010, 01:33:45 pm

Ok, I may not know my terminology. How I have PP set up is on the top half of settings under Renderes I select my Office MC as the Renderer. On the bottom half of settings under Serverss I select my Office MC as the server. I assume at this point since I am not selecting PP as the renderer it is the control point. I do not see a selection for PP as the server which would be cool in some respects but I really am not loading music on the iPhone anyway to avoid using iTunes but I do have some test music on it but I still do not see PP as a Server in the server list. When I have it set up this way is when I can play only one song at a time. I can advance to the next song in the playlist when the song ends or by selecting next track but I have to manually initiate it to play.

Ok, you are using MC as the renderer AND the server. In that way you are using PP as a fancy remote (I use it that way too).

PP isn't a server, it would be more complete if it could do that but it might be a hassle for the developers to get at the itunes DB (just to find the music) or perhaps they could do it differently and it's not a priority for them yet.

I don't get why yours is stopping at the end of each song. I can't get mine to do that. On the playlist screen in PP, do you have an arrow going from left to right near the bottom between playlists and edit?? That's the thing that tells it to go on to the next song. You can tap it and cycle through the choices.

Quote

This is the same way I set it up with my XBMC on my XBOX but I select it as the Renderer and my Office MC as the server. I can try to not use the same instance of MC for both the Server and Render. I never really thought of that. I have 4 other PCs running it so I will try that tonight and see if this is just related to using the same instance of MC as both the Render and Server.

It absolutely should work with MC in one instance, that's how I use it at home!
What version are you using??

Robo983 · « **Reply #18 on:** February 19, 2010, 04:55:21 pm »

I tried all the different PP settings to repeat, loop, straight and it always stops at the beginning of each new song. I had this problem on both MC 144 and the 147. I am using the latest PP version also on XP SP3 Pro. I onlyu have Generic DNLA checked in Advanced Options.

It could be a FW issue so I am going to try tonight on my HTPC which is as wide open as a PC can be, no virus, no FW, no malware protection what so ever. It is on XP home though but I would not think that would matter.

Robo983 · « **Reply #19 on:** February 20, 2010, 03:01:10 pm »

Finished my testing using PP as a control point. What I discovered is that while PP seems solid as a Render it is spotty at control point or at least with the renders and servers I have available.

With Win XP home and pro I can consistently reproduce failures using PP as a control point to MC as the renderer. MC will play the one song but it will not automatically play the next song and must be manually started if a next or previous track command is given. This is with and without McAfee malware protection running.

With Windows Vista using PP as the control point and MC as the render it inconsistently plays a few songs automatically without manually having to start them. MC inconsistently plays them after a next or prevoius track command. This is with McAfee malware protection running.

After further testing with my XBOX I noticed the same behavior as on Windows Vista.

My conclusion is as it always seems to be with UPnP that the standards are just not well defined enough or implemented consistently to consider this really a "Universal" plug and play. Every time I try to use UPnP I am disappointed from my expectation.

I am mixed about using the Rivermote but since it is designed to specifically work with MC I may give it a try. As for PP it does what I expected it to do as a render w/MC as the server but now that I see the potential for controling my music to my sound system from my iPhone I feel I can't do with out it.

bob · « **Reply #20 on:** February 23, 2010, 09:10:28 am »

I'm having a bit of difficulty with this one as I have a very similar setup to yours and PP works well controlling MC as a server and renderer both at work and at home (I'm using it now). What are your audio options? Are you transcoding any audio?

Oh, what do you know, I got it to mess up just now at work (it was into the 4th consecutive song). I think the touch momentarily lost the wifi connection. PP is constantly doing getposition calls. It seems to be a bad thing when that is interrupted. There probably needs to be some more robust error handling in PP and MC when the connection is lost.

BTW, I'm curious as to what you were doing with the xbox 360.

Robo983 · « **Reply #21 on:** February 23, 2010, 02:01:53 pm »

Sorry, but misery loves company glad to know it is not just me because I really like the interface on PP. I am trying xpTunes though but not as nice of an interface and only does control.

I posted the same message just now on the PP board under problems to see if he has any suggestions.

I forgot to mention I also shut off the screen saver on the iPhone and the PC and XBMC. I discovered that sometimes the screen saver also interuted the play especially on XBMC.

I should have stated it was XBMC on original XBOX. I have not tried to do anything with the 360, I just assume it won't work. I could try XBMC on the PC as I have an older version loaded on my HTPC windows version

Robo983 · « **Reply #22 on:** February 28, 2010, 10:23:14 pm »

Hi Bob, the response I got on the PP forum was to try another control point like Cidero. I have tried several times to get it to work with MC and it locks up every time I try to select a MC server: DNLA, XBOX 360, or the one I have for the XBMC.

Of coarse this kind of defeats the purpose of what I am trying to do anyway by getting PP to work directly with MC and minimize the Apps I have running.

Is MC interested in pursing getting this to work? I have been messing around with xpTunes and the Rivermote but neither of these really equal PP UPnP access to all the Playlists, Smartlists, and Artist/Album/Genre searching not to mention the View Schemes. And neither of these are Renders at the same time as being a control point. PP does both.

I have not hit up the PP developer to see how willing he is to work with JR or me to get it working properly. But that wouldn't matter much if the MC team has a different direction and does not have the resouce bandwidth to work on it too.

I find it fairly odd I have the problem with MC on XP and not Vista. I spent more time using it with XBMC and played probably 15 songs without a lockup this weekend. My Vista is a laptop and is not hooked up to a sound system so that PC/OS will not really help me much to have working.

bob · « **Reply #23 on:** March 01, 2010, 09:29:12 am »

We don't think cidero is particularly bug free. I'm going to do some testing using windows 7 as the controller. Will keep you updated on what's happening. If the trouble is in MC we want to solve it.

lOth · « **Reply #24 on:** March 09, 2010, 10:37:02 pm »

wow, just came across this. I can now ditch SimplifyMedia (not sure if PlugPlay is more reliable in terms of streaming but it is way faster to load the library). If only MC could convert videos on-the-fly to .mov or .m4v, I could get rid of Air Video Server as well...

park · « **Reply #25 on:** March 10, 2010, 07:39:43 am »

anybody had any luck setting up a vpn so that plugplayer can be used outside the house?

bob · « **Reply #26 on:** March 11, 2010, 02:17:51 pm »

Quote from: park on March 10, 2010, 07:39:43 am

anybody had any luck setting up a vpn so that plugplayer can be used outside the house?

Once you have your iTouch vpn working you would need to port 52100 (if you only have one UPnP server) to go through to the MC box then enter the url manually in PP since it probably won't see the multicast broadcasts (they won't go through a router). It would be something like:
http://you.mc.pcs.ipaddress:52100/DeviceDescription.xml

rossp · « **Reply #27 on:** March 15, 2010, 06:08:26 am »

Quote

Ok, I may not know my terminology. How I have PP set up is on the top half of settings under Renderes I select my Office MC as the Renderer. On the bottom half of settings under Serverss I select my Office MC as the server. I assume at this point since I am not selecting PP as the renderer it is the control point. I do not see a selection for PP as the server which would be cool in some respects but I really am not loading music on the iPhone anyway to avoid using iTunes but I do have some test music on it but I still do not see PP as a Server in the server list. When I have it set up this way is when I can play only one song at a time. I can advance to the next song in the playlist when the song ends or by selecting next track but I have to manually initiate it to play.

This is what I get also...

Quote

PP is constantly doing getposition calls

Also this...

Any idea how to solve this, PP makes a great remote for MC...

Ross

bob · « **Reply #28 on:** March 15, 2010, 03:21:19 pm »

Quote from: rossp on March 15, 2010, 06:08:26 am

This is what I get also...

Also this...

Any idea how to solve this, PP makes a great remote for MC...

Ross

Try waiting 20 seconds or so and see if it does advance to the next song. Checking into it...

riverfan · « **Reply #29 on:** March 31, 2010, 11:32:46 am »

Hi Robo983, rossp, and anyone else;
I just found this thread now; don't know why I didn't see it before ?. I too am a big fan of PP as a remote control for MC. I started a thread here
http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=56587.0
and on the PP forum
http://www.plugplayer.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=350&sid=c4a2a0a68d47921807aad2529e3abab3
apparently not long after the last post on this thread.
Anyway, you've probably already seen the above two threads but, if not, check 'em out. I'm determined to see PP and MC working smoothly together (no reason why they shouldn't).
If anyone has automatic track advance working successfully with PP as controller and MC as server/renderer, please chime in and let us know how you did it.
Thanks. Riv

Robo983 · « **Reply #30 on:** March 31, 2010, 12:42:44 pm »

Hi Riverfan, appreciate your persistence with this one. I have been patiently waiting on the sidelines while you and Tunz and Rossp push.

I am supprised JR hasn't moved all of these threads to one link. I started one, Bob started one, JimH started one, and now there is yours. I make a habit of checking them all to see if there are updates and the one on PP forum. I have them set on the Home screen of my iPhone so I can check quickly if it is resolved.

I haven't tried anything else beyond what I have above. I could try XBMC for WinXP as the server but just do not see the point since I need MC to work.

I have found a work around not using MC to play/control audio using the apple remote and a competitors product (not as robust as MC) until this is working so I didn't want to press MC too much. I think the right direction for MC is the web remote. As I understand it should work with any phone that has a web browser. I may not always have an iPhone so I want something that I can use and get comfortable with on any phone/web enabled device I use. It needs to be functionally equivalent/configurable as PP though before I am going to try it and I am confident it will get there.

rossp · « **Reply #31 on:** April 06, 2010, 06:50:58 am »

Quote from: bob on March 15, 2010, 03:21:19 pm

Try waiting 20 seconds or so and see if it does advance to the next song. Checking into it...

It just sits there waiting....

Robo983 · « **Reply #32 on:** April 08, 2010, 01:42:08 pm »

I am going to bump all these post for Plug Player for any that find these posts.

Now that this is fixed in 15.20 will this be fixed in MC14?

http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=56965.0

INTERACT FORUM

Author Topic: PlugPlayer ipod touch/iphone UPnP App (Read 18130 times)