Hardware Reference
In-Depth Information
To play UPnP content, you need to select the Local Network branch, which then displays the various services
available on the network that includes the UPnP. After a short while, the discovery messages will have been received
and you can navigate the tree as normal.
To t e m
Totem is the default media for many Linux distributions, and it provides UPnP without configuration on most of
them courtesy of the Coherence plug-in and controller. To ensure that UPnP servers can be found, simply use the
Edit °Plugins menu item, and make sure that Coherence DLNA/UPnP client is enabled. It can then be used from
the same drop-down list that houses “Playlists.”
N
Note
Coherence is also available as a stand-alone application, capable of acting as a media server.
XBMC
When functioning as a media renderer, XBMC is doing as originally intended, playing back music and videos. No
specific configuration is necessary for XBMC, so you can go directly to Video ° Files ° Add Video and browse to the
UPnP server in question.
Real-Life Hardware
With UPnP underpinning the DLNA (see later in this topic), and DLNA supported by many real-life manufacturers,
it is comparatively easy to find UpnP-enabled hardware. This includes TVs from Sony, Samsung, and others, The
Playstation 3, Xbox 360, as well as various smart phones.
Also, most PCs supplied with Windows 7 or Windows 8 will automatically be running a UPnP server, providing
access to the users' media and that of the machine in general.
Control Points
Also known informally as controllers, control points browse the data on the server and command the renderer to
display it. Other than the “one size fits all” approach taken with UPnP controllers, accessing media through control
points has the benefit of automatically parsing the metadata so that you can browse your collection by genre, album,
artist, or playlist automatically.
Control points fall into two main categories:
u
Ones that communication with an existing player or controller
u
Ones that require an intermediate server
In the first category, you have a swathe of iOS and Android control apps, such as XBMC Command, Remote for
VLC, and so on. These sometimes require you to open specific HTTP ports on the server.
Others, such as jfcontrol (
www.digitalsirup.com/jfcontrol/index.html
) and the Minerva app, require an
intermediary server on a wifi-connected machine. The control point then connects to the server, which formats the
message appropriately before passing it on. Although not strictly a UPnP control point, they are often used to control
them and so deserve mention here.
For the command line junkies, XBMC can be controlled with requests such as:
curl -i -X POST -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d '{"jsonrpc": "2.0", "method":
"Player.GetActivePlayers", "id": 1}'
http://xbmc:www@192.168.0.21:8080/jsonrpc
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