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[Mediahome]

I just got a new LaCie MiniHD to use as a DLNA audio renderer.  If I use the MiniHD GUI to select a playlist served up by the MC DLNA it plays music just fine.  However, if I send a song to the MiniHD zone from within the MC GUI I get an error "There was a problem controlling the selected DLNA device."  Then the MiniHD drops out of the Playing Now list and then comes back on about 30 seconds later.

I thought that it might be a music file format issue but I created a new DLNA server, set it to never convert, and played a specific MP3 file.  That works OK but when I send that same file to the MiniHD it fails

Is there any way to control the MiniHD remotely using MC?  I am running MC 15.0.167.

Thanks,
Matt

[bob]

When you push to a device with DLNA (using the playing now zones), the server used for the push is the first server in your list of DLNA servers so make sure that one has the parameters you want. Also, make sure you are using the current build (at least 165 or newer). If it still doesn't work, let us know. We are going to add logging to the DLNA disconnect...

[Mediahome]

OK, there is definitely something wrong with pushing to the LaCie boxes.  The same DLNA server was being used for both push and pull and I am running build 167.

I would really like to see this work so let me know what I can do to help debug the problem.

Matt

[Mediahome]

I think that the problem has something to do with MC's detection of the MiniHD.  When the MiniHD is listed in Playing Now list if you click on it to see what is in its queue then the MiniHD falls off the list.  After about 30 seconds it reappears.  It seems like anytime that you touch the MiniHD it gets disconnected.  ??

[Mediahome]

I am able to use WMP to push music to the MiniHD using Windows 7 "Play To" feature.  It sure appears as though the problem is that MC is unable to "lock on" to the MinHD.

[bob]

If you were interested in doing a wireshark dump that could help things along, the process is outlined here:
http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=57668.msg402391#msg402391

You'd want to start the capture just before you try to drop something on the minihd zone then stop a few seconds after it vanishes.

[Mediahome]

Problem resolved.  The MiniHD works fine with Media Center.  It is a nice little $90 DLNA renderer like the Western Digital boxes.  I am using it as a headless DLNA audio renderer to push music playlists to it.  Best thing that I have found to replace the old SoundBridge units.

The problem appears to trace back to interaction with Windows Media Player used while testing the unit.  I was in the process of converting my WMA lossless library to FLAC so I wanted to test to make sure everything was going to work OK.  With the FLAC codec installed in WMP I could push to the MiniHD but pulling FLAC files from WMP would put the MiniHD in some unknown state.  When I went to repeat the tests with MC the tests would fail because the MiniHD had been clobbered by WMP.

I updated the MiniHD to the latest firmware, updated MC to the 169 release, and focused on MC with my newly converted FLAC libary and it works fine.  The MiniHD zone is rock solid now.

I hooked the MiniHD up to a little 20 watt TriPath amp to make a low cost audio zone in MC.  It's great!

Matt

[bob]

Yea!
I always forget that these devices can get into unknown states and then need to be power cycled to work properly.

[sfroach]

Glad you got it working!

Are you able to control it using Gizmo? ei. is the LaCie MiniHD a controllable DLNA renderer?

[Mediahome]

I am not running Gizmo but yes, it shows up as a controllable zone in MC.  I have been controlling it from NetRemote.