Connecting with MEDIA CENTER




Add a UPnP device

UPnP stands for “Universal Plug and Play”. It is an architecture for devices to interact with other Universal Plug and Play devices or software. The most common type of device used with MEDIA CENTER is a Media Receiver.

   What are Media Receivers? Media Receivers are devices that sit next to your stereo or TV and play music/photos from your computer on the stereo/TV. They serve as a connection hub between your home theater or TV, and computer via your home network With a Media Receiver next to your home stereo or TV, you can access the digital music or photos stored on your computer and play them on your stereo or TV, even when the computer is somewhere else in the house. The media receiver connects to your computer via an internet connection (Ethernet or wireless), and it connects to your TV or stereo the old-fashioned way—with cables.

   To set up a UPnP device

1.   Go to the Organization Tree and select Services & Plug-ins> UPnP Server

2.   Set your UPnP Server Options by clicking the Options button in the Content pane (to the right). See below for what the options mean.

3.   Exit Options, and then click on the Start Server button (you only need to do this once; it will restart automatically every time MEDIA CENTER opens, until you manually select Stop Server).

If a media receiver is already on the network, and the server is started, the receiver should pick up the server right away. When a media receiver is first turned on, if the server is already started, the receiver should pick up the server. Some receivers may not do both correctly, so try both.

   To View your Schemes

~      In the Organization Tree select the View Scheme you want to make available to the device. Make sure that the View Scheme is a child of "Audio", "Images" or "Video".

~      Right-click and select Edit View Scheme

~      Check “Show in Theater View”.

   Options

To access Options, select Services & Plug-ins in the Organization Tree, then UPnP Server. Select the Options button in the Content pane to the right. 

File Conversion. You can convert files to other formats (such as MP3 or WMA) as they are streamed. All devices are limited in the types of files they can play. If your content is stored in a different format (such as APE or WAV) or if the bitrate needed to transfer the file is too great with your network, then you need to convert the file (either to a format that is handled or to a lower bitrate). 

There are three choices: "Don't convert audio", "Always convert audio", and "Convert audio if necessary". The first will never convert, the second will always convert, and the third will convert unless the content is in the correct format (though possibly at a different bitrate). If the second or third is chosen, the Encoder box is used to select the format to encode to. Click the Advanced button to choose the desired bitrate.

If your content is mostly high bitrate MP3s and you want to convert them to lower bitrate to save bandwidth, choose "Always convert audio", choose MP3 as the encoder, and under advanced, choose a lower bitrate option such as: Target Bitrate 64Kbps under Bitrate (ABR Encoding). If your content is mostly APE choose "Convert if necessary" and set up the MP3 configuration as desired.

IP Address (MC 11.0 only). If you have multiple network interfaces on your computer, such as an Ethernet and a Bluetooth interface, you may need to specify the IP address the UPnP server uses (it will only listen on a single interface, and may choose the one the device is not on).

Specify TCP port to use (MC 11.1 only). Leave unchecked. This lets you specify which TCP port is used for the UPnP device, and should not be used unless you are familiar with allocating ports on your PC.

Warn on unrecognized NOTIFY. Leave unchecked. This is for recording logging error  warnings that may occur when there are other UPnP devices on the local network. Logged reports may be requested to help troubleshoot your setup if it fails.

Receiver. This should be set to Automatic Detection by default, but if your device is not recognized, you can set it manually by selecting your device from the drop-down menu. Important Note: Check the status messages to make sure your device was correctly identified.

When the Advanced option is chosen under Receiver you are presented with the following checkboxes for several special cases:

Replace Empty Genre Some devices are unable to play tracks with blank genres. If you can see your music, but are unable to play it, check to see if the genre field is blank, and if so, trying checking this option.

Use Flat URLs, Include SessionID and No Server Header. You may need to try different combinations of these until you get a combination that works for your specific device.

Allow Visual Content should be selected for devices that can display pictures or movies.

Filter International Characters should be selected if the device cannot detect or play content with international characters either in the filename or the tags.

Skip Child Count may be selected if the device seems to take too long to browse media in the Tree. Deselect if this causes problems with browsing.

 

For more info see the MC Wiki - UPnP Devices

 

 

 


 

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