XBMC UPNP client

[Luke 37095]

if marcjero can go over the changes required in detail then i'll add it

[marcjero 8]

Well it's not so simple as basically path substitutions rules can be different for DLNA devices. For instance for Kodi it would be nice to provide nfs:// or smb:// style urls. I guess the best option is to provide path substitution rules at DLNA profile level ?

 

Another point I found is that Kodi UPNP server can provide both HTTP and direct URLs for clients. I think it's a good idea because the client can then choice the protocol to use. For testing I just replaced the HTTP url with NFS url.

 

So this is what I suggest to do :

-add the substition rules form for DLNA profiles (optional) to enable direct play

-If substition rules are set in the DLNA profile then return both DIRECT and HTTP URLs to client.

 

Steve I guess you mean using XMBC on IOS ?

[steve1977 67]

Well it's not so simple as basically path substitutions rules can be different for DLNA devices. For instance for Kodi it would be nice to provide nfs:// or smb:// style urls. I guess the best option is to provide path substitution rules at DLNA profile level ?

 

Another point I found is that Kodi UPNP server can provide both HTTP and direct URLs for clients. I think it's a good idea because the client can then choice the protocol to use. For testing I just replaced the HTTP url with NFS url.

 

So this is what I suggest to do :

-add the substition rules form for DLNA profiles (optional) to enable direct play

-If substition rules are set in the DLNA profile then return both DIRECT and HTTP URLs to client.

 

Steve I guess you mean using XMBC on IOS ?

 

Thanks! @@Luke, any chance to make the two changes requested by marcjero or do you need anything more from him?

 

Marcjero, I was actually referring to the MBS IOS apps. They can play-to an upnp device, isn't it? This way the stream would come directly from MBS to XBMC (via SMB share), but triggered by the MB IOS app?

[Luke 37095]

i guess the question is what is the benefit of it over direct stream from MBS, because they both offer the same playback quality. is it just a warm fuzzy feeling in your stomach? i think you are expecting some major benefit that isn't going to be there. that's not to say i wouldn't do it, but i need to see more benefits in order to prioritize it.

[steve1977 67]

I'll wait for marcjero to reply as I have no clue what the benefit would be. I am still hoping to find the functionality that we can pause and resume over MBS. If this can be achieved by the above, I would find it a major benefit. Anyhow, let's wait for marcjero.

[marcjero 8]

Well from my experience fast forward and rewind are smoother using direct play. My suggestion is just... a suggestion. I'm not sure that this proposal is the best way to support direct play for DLNA.

[steve1977 67]

Thanks both of you. Now, I am somewhat lost. I was under the impression that we were solving for some more material issues from your first post?\

 

## remote control of XBMC renderer from MB

## -you can't pause, stop, rewind, etc : all the buttons are grayed in the MB UI

 

## browsing MB library from XBMC

## -but movie playback doesn't start when initiated from XBMC UI (XBMC is starting an infinite query loop with server because I guess MB is not returning exactly what was

## expected)

 

Has this been otherwise solved and/or do suggested changes address this?

[Luke 37095]

for pretty much any video player direct stream through http and direct play through the file system are the same thing. both are seekable. so unless there's some limitation within xbmc which i doubt then i'm not sure what this is going to do.

 

maybe what you're really after is avoiding transcoding, which you should be able to do via profile adjustment.

[steve1977 67]

Avoiding transcoding has been "solved" and works like charm. What the marcjero was describing in his opening post was two separate issues, which at least one of the two I have experienced as well and is quite annoying. I was hoping that his proposed changes address these as it was actually marcjero's opening post and he appears to have the capabilities to solve for it? Let me comment on the two:

 

## remote control of XBMC renderer from MB

## -you can't pause, stop, rewind, etc : all the buttons are grayed in the MB UI

 

That is an old issue and I understand that it is a bit unclear why it actually happens. There are several threads on this, but take http://mediabrowser.tv/community/index.php?/topic/10416-xbmc-as-receiver/page-4 as one example.

 

## browsing MB library from XBMC

## -but movie playback doesn't start when initiated from XBMC UI (XBMC is starting an infinite query loop with server because I guess MB is not returning exactly what was

## expected)

 

I will try when I get back, but would assume this comes to the same root cause?

[marcjero 8]

Hello,

 

the issues are not related. second issue (browsing MB library from XBMC but movie playback doesn't start when initiated from XBMC UI) is solved from my point of view.

 

There is another issue :  playback resume doesn't work.

 

The "problem" about HTTP happens because of various limitations :

-I'm running a low end server so serving large HTTP content from MB3 is probably slower in my case

-I think there are HTTP buffering issues with Kodi for HD content

-I'm running PI for Kodi

 

So in short with my hardware there is a lot of difference in user experience. NFS is very responsive and HTTP does lag

[steve1977 67]

Thanks.

 

@@marcjero, any idea what could help to allow MBS to pause, etc? (i.e., the first issue above) Probably same with the playback resume? For me, this is the most annoying issue as it prevents me from using play-to from MBS to Kodi via DLNA.

 

Let me in parallel look into unrelated topic on directplay vs directstream.

[Happy2Play 8296]

@@Luke - just a guess but could this be protocolinfo related?  Kodi's getprotocolinfo doesn't contain any <additionalinfo> (DLNA.ORG_OP=11;DLNA.ORG_FLAGS=01500000000000000000000000000000).

 

edit Probably not since it is a wildcard (*)

http-get:*:*:*,xbmc-get:*:*:*,http-get:*:audio/mkv:*,http-get:*:audio/mpegurl:*,http-get:*:audio/mpeg:*,http-get:*:audio/mpeg3:*,http-get:*:audio/mp3:*,http-get:*:audio/mp4:*,http-get:*:audio/basic:*,http-get:*:audio/midi:*,http-get:*:audio/ulaw:*,http-get:*:audio/ogg:*,http-get:*:audio/DVI4:*,http-get:*:audio/G722:*,http-get:*:audio/G723:*,http-get:*:audio/G726-16:*,http-get:*:audio/G726-24:*,http-get:*:audio/G726-32:*,http-get:*:audio/G726-40:*,http-get:*:audio/G728:*,http-get:*:audio/G729:*,http-get:*:audio/G729D:*,http-get:*:audio/G729E:*,http-get:*:audio/GSM:*,http-get:*:audio/GSM-EFR:*,http-get:*:audio/L8:*,http-get:*:audio/L16:*,http-get:*:audio/LPC:*,http-get:*:audio/MPA:*,http-get:*:audio/PCMA:*,http-get:*:audio/PCMU:*,http-get:*:audio/QCELP:*,http-get:*:audio/RED:*,http-get:*:audio/VDVI:*,http-get:*:audio/ac3:*,http-get:*:audio/vorbis:*,http-get:*:audio/speex:*,http-get:*:audio/flac:*,http-get:*:audio/x-flac:*,http-get:*:audio/x-aiff:*,http-get:*:audio/x-pn-realaudio:*,http-get:*:audio/x-realaudio:*,http-get:*:audio/x-wav:*,http-get:*:audio/x-matroska:*,http-get:*:audio/x-ms-wma:*,http-get:*:audio/x-mpegurl:*,http-get:*:application/x-shockwave-flash:*,http-get:*:application/ogg:*,http-get:*:application/sdp:*,http-get:*:image/gif:*,http-get:*:image/jpeg:*,http-get:*:image/ief:*,http-get:*:image/png:*,http-get:*:image/tiff:*,http-get:*:video/avi:*,http-get:*:video/divx:*,http-get:*:video/mpeg:*,http-get:*:video/fli:*,http-get:*:video/flv:*,http-get:*:video/quicktime:*,http-get:*:video/vnd.vivo:*,http-get:*:video/vc1:*,http-get:*:video/ogg:*,http-get:*:video/mp4:*,http-get:*:video/mkv:*,http-get:*:video/BT656:*,http-get:*:video/CelB:*,http-get:*:video/JPEG:*,http-get:*:video/H261:*,http-get:*:video/H263:*,http-get:*:video/H263-1998:*,http-get:*:video/H263-2000:*,http-get:*:video/MPV:*,http-get:*:video/MP2T:*,http-get:*:video/MP1S:*,http-get:*:video/MP2P:*,http-get:*:video/BMPEG:*,http-get:*:video/xvid:*,http-get:*:video/x-divx:*,http-get:*:video/x-matroska:*,http-get:*:video/x-mkv:*,http-get:*:video/x-ms-wmv:*,http-get:*:video/x-ms-avi:*,http-get:*:video/x-flv:*,http-get:*:video/x-fli:*,http-get:*:video/x-ms-asf:*,http-get:*:video/x-ms-asx:*,http-get:*:video/x-ms-wmx:*,http-get:*:video/x-ms-wvx:*,http-get:*:video/x-msvideo:*,http-get:*:video/x-xvid:*

steve1977  as a temporary workaround have you used Kodi's remote control you have to enable?

 

Edited January 4, 2015 by Happy2Play

[marcjero 8]

Hello,

 

What is the highest priority feature to have ?

-playback resume ?

-enable remote control ?

 

I can look at these. When these will be sorted out we will try to implement direct play maybe !

[Luke 37095]

both

[steve1977 67]

Remote would be my priority, but obviously both would be really nice ;-)

[steve1977 67]

marcjero, did you have a chance to look into this? This would be really be the #1 feature that I am missing by now. Thanks in advance for looking into this!

[steve1977 67]

Wow, this now working in beta. Not sure who of you guys fixed it, but really appreciate and thanks a lot!!!

[mprassel 19]

Would someone be able to help me with a profile that works best with Kodi? Right now when I select a movie it goes a level deeper and I have to select another file to start the movie. 

 

Thanks in advance.

[Luke 37095]

Would someone be able to help me with a profile that works best with Kodi? Right now when I select a movie it goes a level deeper and I have to select another file to start the movie. 

 

Thanks in advance.

 

that is not profile related. that is showing the movie as a folder to allow you to access the trailer, extras, cast & Crew, etc. the next server release will have an option to disable it.

[mprassel 19]

that is not profile related. that is showing the movie as a folder to allow you to access the trailer, extras, cast & Crew, etc. the next server release will have an option to disable it.

Sounds good. Thanks for the quick response.

[MSattler 387]

Will there be an announcement on this, as well as some instructions on how to get this working?

 

I'm assuming we just add the MB3 server as a UPNP source?  After spending hours yesterday fighting with kodi and xbm3c, this sounds like an interesting alternative.