DLNA commands

[TrevorG]

Has anyone had any experience or success passing DLNA commands? I'd like to play with sending commands to a WD TV Live Hub to tell it to play a cpecific song or video. Perhaps there are other ways to do it. Same idea as controlling a remote media player that doesn't exist on the HomeSeer.

Thanks in advance!!

Happy holidays

[dcorsus]

TrevorG,

I'm the author of the Sonos controller plugin which uses DLNA extensively. Over the xmas break I began writing a new plug-in called DLNA Manager. It finds content devices (like Windows Media player library or other DLNA servers) on your network and allow you to select items which then get routed to a renderer device, like Samsung smart TV (in my case), AV receivers, WD TV (I have one sitting on my desk but haven't tried it).

If you want to become a beta tester, email me privately at dirk_at_famcorsus_dot_com and I can mail you a beta. It is still in very rough form without documentation, triggers/actions .... so your call....

Dirk

[Eman]

Hi, dcorsus
Tried this plugin and it finds everything but wont play on XBMC as the renderer. Everytihing turns out crushing then you have to uninstall or else Homeseer wont exit and the server is rebooted. Ok, that's the way I set up the server to reboot if Homeseer hangs.

All I would like to see in HSTouch is a LastFM plugin. I think that will be smashing!

Eman.

[dcorsus]

Hi Eman,

what was the last did you did before it hung? Just adding the devices or they were added and nothing actually was happening?

In order to select LastFm via HSTouch, you will need a server who has the capability to serve up these radiostations and I don't know of any. Asset UPnP ( a for very low fow fee UPNP Server) has a capability to let you select radiostations, but it doesn't appear to support LastFm, only "regular" (think local) radiostations.

The closest I've gotten is actually on my Sonos player and the Sonos plug-in. The prior can play the LastFm stations and the latter can "learn" them. Translated, if you have played the LastFm station once on the Sonos, you can select them via HSTouch screens using the sonos plugin. Mind you, only play whatever you have created, not manage.

Does XBMC function as a server as well as a renderer? I'm perplexed that the plugin makes HS hang. You were using the latest beta version, were you? I can see the plugin having a need for more CPU cycles to navigate through linked lists on a server, with a renderer, the plugin actually does hardly anything except to say, play/stop etc.

So any further insight would be greatly appreciated. I unfortunately don't have an XBMC, play with things like WDTV-Life, Samsung TV ..

Thanks for helping debug this

Dirk

[Eman]

Originally Posted by dcorsus

Hi Eman,

what was the last did you did before it hung? Just adding the devices or they were added and nothing actually was happening?

In order to select LastFm via HSTouch, you will need a server who has the capability to serve up these radiostations and I don't know of any. Asset UPnP ( a for very low fow fee UPNP Server) has a capability to let you select radiostations, but it doesn't appear to support LastFm, only "regular" (think local) radiostations.

The closest I've gotten is actually on my Sonos player and the Sonos plug-in. The prior can play the LastFm stations and the latter can "learn" them. Translated, if you have played the LastFm station once on the Sonos, you can select them via HSTouch screens using the sonos plugin. Mind you, only play whatever you have created, not manage.

Does XBMC function as a server as well as a renderer? I'm perplexed that the plugin makes HS hang. You were using the latest beta version, were you? I can see the plugin having a need for more CPU cycles to navigate through linked lists on a server, with a renderer, the plugin actually does hardly anything except to say, play/stop etc.

So any further insight would be greatly appreciated. I unfortunately don't have an XBMC, play with things like WDTV-Life, Samsung TV ..

Thanks for helping debug this

Dirk

Hi dcorsus,

I used MediaMonkey as server and XBMC as a renderer. But the fault could have been mine for trying to use the plugin for Video instead of music. I was trying to see the plugin can do what colemanscott did here: http://board.homeseer.com/showthread.php?t=144904

It seems he dropped the project. To me it was complicated so I tried to use yours.
For LastFM, I run an event to launch application: C:\Program Files (x86)\Last.fm\LastFM with parameter: -load LastFM.exe
And to stop it with an event: KillProcess-KillProcess Action :
LastFM.exe

Anyway I will keep watching your thread to see what you come up with.

Regards.

Eman.

[dcorsus]

Originally Posted by Eman

Hi, dcorsus
Tried this plugin and it finds everything but wont play on XBMC as the renderer. Everytihing turns out crushing then you have to uninstall or else Homeseer wont exit and the server is rebooted. Ok, that's the way I set up the server to reboot if Homeseer hangs.

All I would like to see in HSTouch is a LastFM plugin. I think that will be smashing!

Eman.

Hi Eman,

I installed XBMC today and stumbled on the same problem where HS hangs for a long while (it eventually comes out after 10~20 minutes). This problem will be solved in the next beta of the DLNA manager plugin (posted here http://board.homeseer.com/showpost.p...34&postcount=1).

I'm currently doing some testing with playing Pandora on the XBMC. The good news is that the XBMC sends UPNP events to the plug-in, the bad news is that the "media server" part of the XBMC doesn't seem to publish the Pandora radiostation information.

However, we might be able to work around that by "learning" these radiostations.

Stay tuned and post comments/questions in the DLNA Manager thread, I don't monitor this thread.

Dirk