MrSinatra;573693 Wrote: > can you guys explain a bit? > what is it that WMP12 and XMBC have, DLNA-wise, that allow them to be > able to control and play tunes via slim hardware? what is the features > proper name?
Actually WMP12 and XMBC have NOTHING that allows them to play tunes via Slim hardware!! What they DO have is the ability to talk to two things called respectively Digital Media Servers (DMS) and Digital Media Renderers (DMR). A piece of software (like WMP12 and XMBC) that has this capability to talk to a DMS and/or a DMR, is itself called a Digital Media Controller (DMC) or Control Point (CP). The "language" (protocol) that allows communication between DMC/CP/DMS/DMR, is called Universal Plug & Play (UPnP). The basic specifications of the UPnP protocol for DMC/DMS/DMR is slightly unclear in some respects, so the home electronics companies (like Sony) established a group called Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA) that adds more precision to the UPnP protocol specification. Software (like WMP12, XMBC etc.) and hardware (like TVs, Blu-Ray players etc.) are tested and certified to be UPnP/DLNA compliant. This means that their respective DMC/CP/DMS/DMR can (in principle) talk to ANY other tested and certified DMC/CP/DMS/DMR in a reliable and predictable manner. The DMS and the DMR have different functions. A DMS is something that provides a "Content Directory" of audio visual media. The Content Directory is usually structured in some way like Albums/Artists/Folder/Genres etc. The DMC/CP talks to the DMS in order to browse Content Directory structure or to search for specific media items. The DMS also informs the DMC/CP about the media content tag data and its supported encoding format(s) and it also provides a URL where the actual media can be downloaded from. And a DMR is something that can play audio visual media. It is an interface to a physical or software based media player of some sort. The DMR supports commands like play/stop/next/back/volume/mute etc. So if you have a DMC (like WMP12 or XMBC), then it is able to browse and find music via the Content Directory on any DMS that it can find on the network, and it is able to play that music to any other DMR that it can find on the network. The clever thing is that you can have any combination of DMC/DMS/DMR from many different suppliers, and the whole thing should just work together. Obviously this requires DMC/DMS/DMR to strictly adhere to the UPnP/DLNA specifications. On a side note, you may be interested to know that WMP12 actually implements the DMC functionality and the DMS functionality and the DMR functionality. So WMP12 can talk to other instances of itself on other computers on the network, in order to browse (share), control and play music across any combination of PCs. It's rather cool... Now you might ask where does Squeezebox fit into this picture? Well, to be blunt, it does NOT. The Squeezebox server software does NOT support either DMC or DMS functionality. And the Squeezebox players do NOT support DMR functionality. Slim Devices / Logitech chose (for whatever reason) to go for a proprietary system that is not based on UPnP/DLNA. However, to their credit, even though it is a proprietary system, it is at least an open one, and it is well documented too... Now your final question might be: How to bridge the gap between the world of UPnP/DLNA DMC/DMS/DMR on one side, and the Squeezebox world on the other? And the answer is - ta-da - WHITEBEAR!! Indeed Whitebear implements two bridges: 1) UPnP/DLNA DMS <=> Squeezebox Server, and 2) UPnP/DLNA DMS <=> Squeezebox Players (I am bending the truth for simplicity here, since it actually commands the players via the server CLI...) MrSinatra;573693 Wrote: > i am asking b/c i VERY MUCH want to use winamp to be able to > play/control my music over slim hardware, (i don't like SBS). the > problem is i don't know if winamp has what dlna features it needs, (or > if it does DLNA at all). I know nothing about WinAmp. In particular I don't know it implements DMC/CP functionality. But -- if it did -- then it would be able to: 1) talk with the Whitebear DMS and thus browse your Squeezebox server library, and 2) talk with the Whitebear DMR and thus play the music to your Squeeze players. (But please note that there is one big "but" in the middle of this paragraph...) -- AndrewFG Regards, AndrewFG http://www.whitebear.ch/mediaserver ------------------------------------------------------------------------ AndrewFG's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=15838 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=80632 _______________________________________________ plugins mailing list [email protected] http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/plugins
