UPnP AV MediaRenderer / CP client for Rio Receiver???

Posted by: florca

UPnP AV MediaRenderer / CP client for Rio Receiver??? - 07/10/2004 20:04

Has anyone out there considered developing a new client for the Rio Receiver which would work with UPnP AV Media Servers? I'm very happy running my Receiver with tRio, but looking at the market most of the newer streaming devices seem to support this standard, and there are some interesting-looking third party servers - in particular TwonkyVision , which has just released a version running on the Linksys NSLU2 (a tiny, very cheap, hackable Linux-based File Server using USB disks).

The real attraction of this is that the Rio could co-exist with other devices with differing feature sets - integrated DVD / streaming receivers for the main TV, Netgear MP101 where you need integrated wireless, Rio where you need a built-in amp, all from the same library & server daemon (plus a standalone RioBoot to load the client in the first place).

There are at least two free SDKs which give a start to the heavy work - one from Intel (which may have some nasty licence implications) and one on SourceForge. Integrating this with the RioPlay or derived xplRionet code would produce a device which co-existed cleanly with other similar products whilst retaining the unique Rio advantages.

I recognise that UPnP AV is grossly over-engineered for something which is fundamentally simple, but it does look like the future....

Any interest?

Phil
Posted by: peter

Re: UPnP AV MediaRenderer / CP client for Rio Receiver??? - 13/10/2004 08:02

Quote:
Has anyone out there considered developing a new client for the Rio Receiver which would work with UPnP AV Media Servers?

Considered, yes. Got anywhere, no. The licence of the non-libupnp Intel stuff is indeed horrific, but some dude in Japan appears to have implemented the whole lot, up to and including MediaServer, under a BSD licence.

The only fly in that ointment is that I can't get MP101 to talk to his server. I haven't subjected the problem to Ethereal yet though; it might be something dead simple.

Peter
Posted by: pauln

Re: UPnP AV MediaRenderer / CP client for Rio Receiver??? - 13/10/2004 09:42

Hmmm, this does look interesting. I'll try to find some time over the weekend to see how difficult it'll be to get tRio to work with this.
Posted by: peter

Re: UPnP AV MediaRenderer / CP client for Rio Receiver??? - 13/10/2004 17:42

I use XP now at work (don't ask) and today Windows Update offered me the chance to download Windows Media Connect -- which is Microsoft's UPnP MediaServer server for Windows. Unfortunately it won't serve content from network drives, and the MP101 won't talk to it (though it gets further than it does with Cybergarage).

Peter
Posted by: tfabris

Re: UPnP AV MediaRenderer / CP client for Rio Receiver??? - 13/10/2004 17:55

Quote:
Unfortunately it won't serve content from network drives

Even if mapped to a driver letter?
Posted by: elperepat

Re: UPnP AV MediaRenderer / CP client for Rio Receiver??? - 13/10/2004 20:59

Quote:
Unfortunately it won't serve content from network drives


I had a similar problem with another app a while back. I couldn't confirm anywhere but, by any chance, does it runs as a service? If so, to access the network drives, you need to use a valid username/password for these in the Administration tools / Services / (Select service) / Properties / Login (I'm doing this by memory...)

Otherwise, service is run without username, well before you log in, so drives are not mapped.
Posted by: number6

Re: UPnP AV MediaRenderer / CP client for Rio Receiver??? - 14/10/2004 06:02

Quote:
Quote:
Unfortunately it won't serve content from network drives


... If so, to access the network drives, you need to use a valid username/password for these in the Administration tools / Services / (Select service) / Properties / Login (I'm doing this by memory...)

Otherwise, service is run without username, well before you log in, so drives are not mapped.


Its not that it starts before you login, the problem is that by design Windows Services that run in the "Local System" account have no Network access privileges.

To make a service be able to access network resources [be they network drives or anything else on another server], you have to run the service under a regular windows account.
Posted by: peter

Re: UPnP AV MediaRenderer / CP client for Rio Receiver??? - 14/10/2004 12:28

Quote:
Even if mapped to a driver letter?

Yes. It's a deliberate restriction, not a lack of doing anything. I guess they want you running XP on your server too. Unfortunately for them, it's likely to have an entirely anti-monopolistic effect, as whatever open-source server gets written for Linux is likely to end up getting run on Windows too.

Edit: It runs as Network Service, not Local System. And if I tick the box saying "only share this directory while I'm logged in", it still won't let me pick network drives.

Peter
Posted by: florca

Re: UPnP AV MediaRenderer / CP client for Rio Receiver??? - 14/10/2004 19:33

For a bit more information about how Windows Media Connect is supposed to work this link is a guide for building compatible devices.

Phil
Posted by: pauln

Re: UPnP AV MediaRenderer / CP client for Rio Receiver??? - 18/10/2004 10:37

I found some time to play around with this on the weekend. Using a stand alone java program, I was able to browse my TwonkyVision (see http://www.twonkyvision.com/UPnP/index.html ) music server. This was using Satoshi's CyberLink library - it's so nice when software does what it says on the tin .

And so it shouldn't be too difficult to set up tRio as a Control Point (and Media Render) that'll play music from Media Servers on the local network. It'd take more effort to expose the induvidual receivers as Media Renderers so that they can be controlled by other (non tRio) Control Points.

The next step is to integrate that I did into tRio and try get it to play a tune off the server.

Cheers
Paul
Posted by: ioliver

Re: UPnP AV MediaRenderer / CP client for Rio Receiver??? - 28/11/2004 06:41

I'd just pretty much made the decision to sell my Rio/Dell as I've now started acquiring UPnP devices. It must be said that installing TwonkyVision takes about 1% of the time taken to install jreceiver.

UPnP capabilities for the Rio would be really great. It really is the way that everything is going.

But won't the Rio need some other sevices running besides UPnP? The UPnP server should handle the SSDP but I guess you'll still need NFS. No problem for Linux but I'm not sure how to handle this bit on windows. (Not that I'm anything close to an expert!)

Regards

Ian