[gentoo-user] Off Topic - UPnP servers

[gentoo-user] Off Topic - UPnP servers

[Mark Knecht]

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Hi,
   Please excuse my off topic question. Does anyone here use a UPnP server
for audio files that they recommend as being particularly good?

   I'm a Plex user for video and have also ripped my CD collection. Plex
plays audio fine to TVs that have a Plex app but apparently sometimes
doesn't work well (as of yet untested by me) to network streaming players.

   While I don't know if the above will be a problem I've purchased a
network streaming player and will test it out over the weekend when it
arrives but if Plex doesn't work, or doesn't work well, then I'd like to
find a UPnP server that does. Browsing around on the web I find a number of
names:

1. Kodi – Home Theater Software
2. Universal Media Server
3. Jellyfin – Free Software Media System
4. DMS – UPnP DLNA Digital Media Server
5. Coherence – DLNA/UPnP Media Server
6. SimpleDLNA – Free DLNA Media Server
7. Gerbera – Free Media Server
8. ReadyMedia – MiniDLNA Media Server
9. Rygel – Home Media Solution

   Anyone have any first hand experience?

Thanks,
Mark

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Re: [gentoo-user] Off Topic - UPnP servers

[Michael]

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On Friday, 24 May 2024 01:32:29 BST Mark Knecht wrote:
> Hi,
>    Please excuse my off topic question. Does anyone here use a UPnP server
> for audio files that they recommend as being particularly good?
> 
>    I'm a Plex user for video and have also ripped my CD collection. Plex
> plays audio fine to TVs that have a Plex app but apparently sometimes
> doesn't work well (as of yet untested by me) to network streaming players.
> 
>    While I don't know if the above will be a problem I've purchased a
> network streaming player and will test it out over the weekend when it
> arrives but if Plex doesn't work, or doesn't work well, then I'd like to
> find a UPnP server that does. Browsing around on the web I find a number of
> names:
> 
> 1. Kodi – Home Theater Software
> 2. Universal Media Server
> 3. Jellyfin – Free Software Media System
> 4. DMS – UPnP DLNA Digital Media Server
> 5. Coherence – DLNA/UPnP Media Server
> 6. SimpleDLNA – Free DLNA Media Server
> 7. Gerbera – Free Media Server
> 8. ReadyMedia – MiniDLNA Media Server
> 9. Rygel – Home Media Solution
> 
>    Anyone have any first hand experience?
> 
> Thanks,
> Mark

I have not used a Plex Media Server or any of its client apps.  I have used 
Kodi and also MiniDLNA (now ReadyMedia).

Kodi is a very feature rich HTC and would be my go to system for both audio 
and video.  The only problem I found is it can take some manual configuration 
to sort out your own audio file libraries, with preferred thumbnails, etc.  
Ripped CDs do not have this problem, as they will fetch artwork from online 
databases:

https://kodi.wiki/view/Artwork/Cache

It is worth mentioning you should keep a backup of your configuration 
settings, in case things go sideways at any stage:

https://kodi.wiki/view/Kodi_data_folder

The MiniDLNA is a very simple and reliable server I use to serve video/audio/
photos to TVs.  It has an also simple /etc/minidlna.conf file, it'll take you 
=<2 minutes to edit with the path to your media files. The gotchas here are 
more pertinent to the video/audio codec limitations of the TV DLNA clients, 
rather than the server.  The server will stream whatever file the client asks 
for over the DLNA protocol.

HTH.

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[gentoo-user] Re: Off Topic - UPnP servers

[Grant Edwards]

On 2024-05-24, Mark Knecht <markknecht@gmail.com> wrote:

> I'm a Plex user for video and have also ripped my CD
> collection. Plex plays audio fine to TVs that have a Plex app but
> apparently sometimes doesn't work well (as of yet untested by me) to
> network streaming players.

I never got the Plex app for Roku to work in a usable manner (and I
think it eventually got discontinued?).  The Plex app in Kodi has
always worked fine for me (though I haven't used it for probably about
a year).  Plex also worked with other DLNA clients I've tried (Kodi, VLC).

> While I don't know if the above will be a problem I've purchased a
> network streaming player and will test it out over the weekend when it
> arrives but if Plex doesn't work, or doesn't work well,

I'd be interested to hear what player you got and how it works with Plex.

--
Grant

Re: [gentoo-user] Re: Off Topic - UPnP servers

[Mark Knecht]

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On Fri, May 24, 2024 at 8:26 AM Grant Edwards <grant.b.edwards@gmail.com>
wrote:
>
> On 2024-05-24, Mark Knecht <markknecht@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > I'm a Plex user for video and have also ripped my CD
> > collection. Plex plays audio fine to TVs that have a Plex app but
> > apparently sometimes doesn't work well (as of yet untested by me) to
> > network streaming players.
>
> I never got the Plex app for Roku to work in a usable manner (and I
> think it eventually got discontinued?).  The Plex app in Kodi has
> always worked fine for me (though I haven't used it for probably about
> a year).  Plex also worked with other DLNA clients I've tried (Kodi, VLC).
>
> > While I don't know if the above will be a problem I've purchased a
> > network streaming player and will test it out over the weekend when it
> > arrives but if Plex doesn't work, or doesn't work well,
>
> I'd be interested to hear what player you got and how it works with Plex.
>

The Cambridge Audio MXN10 which is arriving today. Good reviews but I've
never listened to it so that will be interesting. I'll be using an older
NAD pre
and power amp and a pair of Theil 1.2's. I'll start without my old
subwoofer
and see what it's like but the 1.2's aren't the greatest at low-end so I'll
add the SW if necessary.

I'd like to start with my ripped CD content but for about $10/month it will
stream from Tidal and a few other sources so if I have any trouble serving
content then I'll get a Tidal subscription.

I'll report back on the Plex side as it goes as well as any other servers I
try out. I'm sorta leaning toward Gerbera for it's simplicity and clean
looking interface but it comes down to how the server works with the
C.A. StreamMagic app as this streamer has no front panel controls.

Thanks for the info.

Cheers,
Mark

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Re: [gentoo-user] Re: Off Topic - UPnP servers

[Tsukasa Mcp_Reznor]

For what it's worth I've been using gerbera for years, it'll pass-through supported videos/codecs or you can set it up to transcode.   Highly recommend it.  On my roku TV's I just use the roku media player, it'll see UPnP servers just fine.

Re: [gentoo-user] Re: Off Topic - UPnP servers

[Mark Knecht]

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On Fri, May 24, 2024 at 1:25 PM Tsukasa Mcp_Reznor <mcp_reznor@hotmail.com>
wrote:
>
> For what it's worth I've been using gerbera for years, it'll pass-through
supported videos/codecs or you can set it up to transcode.   Highly
recommend it.  On my roku TV's I just use the roku media player, it'll see
UPnP servers just fine.

Thanks. Great info and much appreciated.

The unit showed up today and was a breeze to set up and get running at a
basic level. The device requires an app on my phone. The app is available
for Android and Apple but not available for the Amazon Fire tablet.

I was able to stream Internet Radio immediately. I then transferred
about 20% of my CD collection FLAC files to a flash drive and they play
fine and sound great. I am currently using the audio output on the unit but
will be testing my Schitt Modi DAC over the weekend, along with attempting
to connect to Plex.

One small problem I ran into is the unused flash drive I had in the flash
drive box had a default FAT filesystem on it and the FLAC library, ripped
mostly with k3b but also a little abcde, has characters in names that
aren't supported so I had some complaints getting things copied. I will say
that a big flash drive might be a great solution to not having to turn the
server on and having media available 24/7.

Cheers,
Mark

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[gentoo-user] Re: Off Topic - UPnP servers

[Grant Edwards]

On 2024-05-24, Mark Knecht <markknecht@gmail.com> wrote:

> The unit showed up today and was a breeze to set up and get running
> at a basic level. The device requires an app on my phone.

That sets of an alarm for me.

> The app is available for Android and Apple but not available for the
> Amazon Fire tablet.

Good luck...  I avoid products like that. There have been too many
"smart" things in the past that required an app -- then the app
stopped working two or three years later. The purchaser of the thing
now has a useless lump, and has to start shopping for a replacement.

--
Grant

Re: [gentoo-user] Re: Off Topic - UPnP servers

[Mark Knecht]

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On Sat, May 25, 2024 at 3:14 PM Grant Edwards <grant.b.edwards@gmail.com>
wrote:
>
> On 2024-05-24, Mark Knecht <markknecht@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > The unit showed up today and was a breeze to set up and get running
> > at a basic level. The device requires an app on my phone.
>
> That sets of an alarm for me.
>
> > The app is available for Android and Apple but not available for the
> > Amazon Fire tablet.
>
> Good luck...  I avoid products like that. There have been too many
> "smart" things in the past that required an app -- then the app
> stopped working two or three years later. The purchaser of the thing
> now has a useless lump, and has to start shopping for a replacement.

Yeah, that's a reasonable point of view and one I hadn't considered.

Cheers.
Mark

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