Android Mobile App - DLNA Gateway

[Cerothen 89]

Before fully adopting Emby I used a few different peices of software one of which was BubbleUPNP.

 

One feature that I always quite liked was its remote DLNA features. I was thinking that it would be an interesting thing to add to the android (or any mobile client really) to do the same general thing.

 

Even if its not the full server implementation (eg you cant browse from the renderer) it would be awesome if we could select a DLNA device on the same network then the app would act as a relay for the data between Emby and the Renderer.

 

The envisioned workflow would be:

1. Connect phone/tablet to friend's network
2. Open Emby app (login as required)
3. Hit the devices button and see DLNA devices for the local network of the phone/Tablet
4. Select one of the devices (the server would pick the appropriate profile for transcoding while also honouring the max bitrate settings on the app/server)
5. Browse to content on the phone and play to that device
6. The phone would download the data as available and then create a stream of that data for the renderer to play.

Hopefully others would find this a useful feature. I figured that with more and more people buying smart TVs and consoles that support DLNA if you visited a friend's place then you could play a video/music file without having to bring your own additional hardware (chromecast or something similar). Its inconvenient to have to muck around behind people's TVs or receivers to plug something in that you could then forget since its not directly in sight (anyone miss the days of front mounted RCA ports?).