ralphpnj;613580 Wrote: > Apparently there seems to be lots of confusion about what UPnP means and > I count myself among those who are confused. > > From what I can gather a UPnP device is either a client or a server. In > the case of the Squeezebox devices, the Squeezebox is a client and the > computer running SBS is the server. The main difference between the > Squeezebox devices and many other UPnP devices is that while the > Squeezebox device is a client because it's ability to communicate with > SBS one has the ability to control the device using a remote. I've > never seen a clear explanation of exactly how other UPnP are > controlled. Again my understanding is that many of these devices are > controlled via software on the server and in the case of music the most > common software used to control the device is iTunes and that must be > controlled at the server. > > If I have anything wrong please feel free to correct and educate me > since I'm often puzzled as to why these very "dumb" UPnP clients are > being so highly touted. > > For point of reference I have a WD Live Plus box connected to my HDTV > which I use to stream movies. While the device can play music files it > does not have a good way to find what music is on the server and > whatever method it uses is nowhere near as good or as useful as SBS. > And one does need the TV to be on to select music.
UPnP is neither a client nor a server, but a technology. It is used to enable the discovery of services and devices without the need for user configuration. Unfortuately - a probably the cause of the confusion - the term UPnP seems to becoming heavily associated with media servers that employ the technology as the name of the product. DLNA employs UPnP to advertise services as does the Microsoft equivalent (forget the name cos they keep changing it - used to be Windows Media Connect). Those servers could provide similar functionality as SBS, but in practice tend to be quite dumb - simply advertising the media available and then relying on the client to do the "work" - kind of the opposite to SBS. Therein lies the biggest drawback with such servers as the clients are not always compatible with the media and/or server, despite any claimed certification. -- snottmonster ------------------------------------------------------------------------ snottmonster's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=45063 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=85844 _______________________________________________ audiophiles mailing list [email protected] http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/audiophiles
