Germany
Hi.
The (Any) UPnP/DLNA Renderer did not allow you to watch anything on your Smart TV. For this you would need an UPnP/DLNA Server. Such a plugin for our MP2 Server is under heavy development atm. Also I don't know exactly, I'm pretty sure that we will at least try to support LiveTV over DLNA too. Running recordings you guaranteed can watch on your DLNA capable Smart- TV once this plugin is ready.
The Renderer Plugin allows you to "throw" videos, music or pictures from your Smartphone (or similar) directly to be shown with MP2 on the "Big Screen".
Here is an excerpt of another posting I've done somewhere else:
UPnP is a set of networking protocols. This is similar to TCP (used on most of your your Internet activities). But UPnP is meant for local usage. With UPnP you can do a lot of things. One thing is that the MP2 Client is communicating with the MP2 Server over UPnP. Another thing is the possibility for a program to automatically configure your router if this program needs special ports to be open, etc...
And you also can stream media over UPnP. This later case is handled by a special sub-set of the UPnP protocols, called DLNA. With DLNA there is a standard that all devices, no matter if it is a PC, a MAC, a Smartphone, a Tablet, a Smart-TV or whatever should be able to use all together even in a completely mixed environment.
A DLNA environment did have three global components, that can be on the same device or on different ones. It did not matter, as long as all devices are part of the same network neighbourhood. First there is the DLNA server. The server is delivering the media for DLNA. And it needs to transcode the media, if this is needed for the renderer. Then there is the renderer. This is the "player" who finally is playing your music or video on the screen. Between both of them, there is the controller. This can be stand alone, combined with the server or, more often with the renderer. The controller is handling the playlists, is browsing the server for media and it controls the renderer to play, pause, rewind,... The controller is the command- bridge in your DLNA environment.
So imagine you have a Smart-TV somewhere in your home, that did not have a PC connected to it. But it is DLNA enabled. Now you can use the MP2 server as DLNA server (with the new developed plugin) and play all your media from the MP2 MediaLibrary directly on your TV without the need to add an PC with MP2 Client software to it. Depending on the software of your Smart-TV you can use the TV remote to browse the MP2 server and/or you can use a smartphone that has a controller software installed and use it as remote.
Another scenario. You are in the garden but want to watch some media (or even TV) on your tablet. This is possible by DLNA too, no matter if there is a MP2 client running on the tablet. And for this it also can be a iPad or an Android Tablet,...
And a third scenario where the MP2 Renderer Plugin is useful... You have an AVR with Ethernet connection. It can play a lot of music files over network. For this it is a DLNA renderer and most likely a controller (limited to its own renderer, similar to WMP). Most often you need to turn on your TV to navigate (browse for media). This also can be done without the big TV if you are using a smartphone or tablet with a controller software (like Bubble, that is available for Windows too). So far so good. But what if you want to play some hi-res music files. Most likely those hi-res music can not be played by an AVR over Ethernet. You need to play it over HDMI. Now here is the hour of the MP2 Renderer plugin. You can choose MP2-Client as renderer, switch your AVR to the HDMI port where your HTPC is connected and you still can play your hi-res music controlled by the tablet and without the big TV turned on.
Hope this helps understanding the DLNA/UPnP world a bit...
The (Any) UPnP/DLNA Renderer did not allow you to watch anything on your Smart TV. For this you would need an UPnP/DLNA Server. Such a plugin for our MP2 Server is under heavy development atm. Also I don't know exactly, I'm pretty sure that we will at least try to support LiveTV over DLNA too. Running recordings you guaranteed can watch on your DLNA capable Smart- TV once this plugin is ready.
The Renderer Plugin allows you to "throw" videos, music or pictures from your Smartphone (or similar) directly to be shown with MP2 on the "Big Screen".
Here is an excerpt of another posting I've done somewhere else:
UPnP is a set of networking protocols. This is similar to TCP (used on most of your your Internet activities). But UPnP is meant for local usage. With UPnP you can do a lot of things. One thing is that the MP2 Client is communicating with the MP2 Server over UPnP. Another thing is the possibility for a program to automatically configure your router if this program needs special ports to be open, etc...
And you also can stream media over UPnP. This later case is handled by a special sub-set of the UPnP protocols, called DLNA. With DLNA there is a standard that all devices, no matter if it is a PC, a MAC, a Smartphone, a Tablet, a Smart-TV or whatever should be able to use all together even in a completely mixed environment.
A DLNA environment did have three global components, that can be on the same device or on different ones. It did not matter, as long as all devices are part of the same network neighbourhood. First there is the DLNA server. The server is delivering the media for DLNA. And it needs to transcode the media, if this is needed for the renderer. Then there is the renderer. This is the "player" who finally is playing your music or video on the screen. Between both of them, there is the controller. This can be stand alone, combined with the server or, more often with the renderer. The controller is handling the playlists, is browsing the server for media and it controls the renderer to play, pause, rewind,... The controller is the command- bridge in your DLNA environment.
So imagine you have a Smart-TV somewhere in your home, that did not have a PC connected to it. But it is DLNA enabled. Now you can use the MP2 server as DLNA server (with the new developed plugin) and play all your media from the MP2 MediaLibrary directly on your TV without the need to add an PC with MP2 Client software to it. Depending on the software of your Smart-TV you can use the TV remote to browse the MP2 server and/or you can use a smartphone that has a controller software installed and use it as remote.
Another scenario. You are in the garden but want to watch some media (or even TV) on your tablet. This is possible by DLNA too, no matter if there is a MP2 client running on the tablet. And for this it also can be a iPad or an Android Tablet,...
And a third scenario where the MP2 Renderer Plugin is useful... You have an AVR with Ethernet connection. It can play a lot of music files over network. For this it is a DLNA renderer and most likely a controller (limited to its own renderer, similar to WMP). Most often you need to turn on your TV to navigate (browse for media). This also can be done without the big TV if you are using a smartphone or tablet with a controller software (like Bubble, that is available for Windows too). So far so good. But what if you want to play some hi-res music files. Most likely those hi-res music can not be played by an AVR over Ethernet. You need to play it over HDMI. Now here is the hour of the MP2 Renderer plugin. You can choose MP2-Client as renderer, switch your AVR to the HDMI port where your HTPC is connected and you still can play your hi-res music controlled by the tablet and without the big TV turned on.
Hope this helps understanding the DLNA/UPnP world a bit...
