UPnP Renderer

[KalleS]

As far as I know, VLC can act as a UPnP client in the way of pulling media content of a UPnP media server by browsing within the VLC interface. Today, there are quite a few UPnP servers out there, and a whole bunch of devices bought today act as a UPnP server, for example a NAS or even windows 7. Also there are a whole bunch of UPnP control points out there, like great apps such as BubbleUPnP, PlugPlayer and so on. Unfortunately, the range of UPnP renderers are very limited. Most new smart TVs has the feature of a UPnP renderer, but when it comes to desktop renderers the only once available that I know of are XBMC and WMP.

Since VLC is a great software for playing movies and media, already has the ability to browse content of a UPnP server, wouldn´t it be great if VLC could act as a UPnP renderer, remotely controlled by a UPnP control point like BubbleUPnP on an Androide device? That way, it would be possible to bring up BubbleUPnP, browse my UPnP server on my NAS, pick a movie and select VLC on my HTPC as the renderer. Easy to use, and no need to use the keyboard what so ever. I can even get rid of software like XBMC, because the interface is now in my smartphone or tablet.

Could it be a feature in coming versions of VLC?

Thanks anyway for a great software!

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

What is the difference between UPnP Client and UPnP renderer?

[KalleS]

A client can only browse the content of a upnp server by It's own interface, as vlc allows us to do today. A upnp Dlna renderer announces it self on the network as a renderer and allows other software to control it. For example using bubbleUpnp on an android device would allow me to browse the content of a upnp server, selecting vlc as the renderer and play the media. A lot of smart TVs and other Dlna products works this way, but few software.

Do you see the difference, a quite important difference in user experience.

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

OK.

[KalleS]

Is it only me that see the point in such a feature? Since it is basically only XBMC that has this features today, adding it to VLC could make VLC have an advantage over other similar software... At least in my opinion.

Today I use UPnP to control a network connected Radio, similar to WMP function "Play to", but controlled from my android device. But since if I want video to work this way, I am stuck with WMP or XBMC, none of which I like. VLC has everything that I need except UPnP renderer support.

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

No, but it might be a lot of work, to be honest.

[Ludrax]

Today, there are quite a few UPnP servers out there, and a whole bunch of devices bought today act as a UPnP server, for example a NAS or even windows 7.

so why not vlc too?
viewtopic.php?f=4&t=94505

now i've found this

Contains sample code for a UPnP AV Media Server, Media Renderer & Control Point.

http://sourceforge.net/projects/platinum/

[mesb]

Is it only me that see the point in such a feature?

No, you are not alone.
I use it alot, have media player like wdtv live anf bubbleupnp on tablet. Simple streaming of photo or video from my smartphone to this devices works awesome, as win7 feature "play to".

But when trying search something about support upnp in vlc, usual point of view of developers is:
Do it yourself or pay someone to do it (just need info i suppose: implement feature xxx for $$$).
After that still on 2.0.8 with broken xvid avi >2,1 gb files, because upnp support of 2.1.0 broken completely.

[magowiz]

I agree that implementing VLC as a DLNA renderer would be a most useful improvement, and I guess it would also be quite a simple one.

In fact, VLC already can be loaded as a Windows service, and already DOES play UPnP streams. So, it's really just about developing the DLNA protocol interface (no GUI, no controls).

As other comments have pointed out, there's a dramatic lack of media renderer software (I still can't find a satisfactory solution that does not come wiht a huge suite), so a feature like this within VLC would be greatly appreciated.

[magowiz]

Is it only me that see the point in such a feature? Since it is basically only XBMC that has this features today, adding it to VLC could make VLC have an advantage over other similar software... At least in my opinion.

Today I use UPnP to control a network connected Radio, similar to WMP function "Play to", but controlled from my android device. But since if I want video to work this way, I am stuck with WMP or XBMC, none of which I like. VLC has everything that I need except UPnP renderer support.

You are right: VLC lack of a UPNP DLNA renderer function is really a pity, even more if you consider that VLC has already the ability to access a DLNA server (so, adding the renderer feature would be an obvious completion).

I agree with you that WMP and XBMC are far too heavy to be loaded just to act as a renderer. You are wrong in guessing that they are the only solutions: there's also MediaMonkey, which actually seems to me the best solution among the three.
MediaMonkey is itself a huge software package, but when you look deep into the configuration options you find out that above the possibility to let it act as a fully functional DLNA network renderer, if you tweak with a few switches you can get the program to load with a very light interface, no popups, no playlists, no logging onto dozens of servers: you can get MediaMonkey to load as a service in Windows' system tray, and let it just serve the DLNA rendering, and nothing else (which is exactly whato you want from an application that must be invoked and controlled from remote).

Bye

[Teleksterling]

Do you have more details on the media monkey setup?

[DGMurdockIII]

check out this http://gmrender.nongnu.org/