Re: Direction, tips, advice on building a multi zone sound server (multi zone DLNA renderer) based on rygel ?

[Andrej Falout <andrej falout org>]

This sounds great.   Would you be willing to share your code ? Would you like to turn it into an open source project ?

One day maybe - I started this with very modest goals and over time it turned into something else completely, plus a kitchen sink ... code is messy, inconsistent, there is a lot of it, and I never anticipated anyone else would ever need to see it or understand it.... just cleaning it up will be a lot of work, and documenting it even more...

And then, OpenSource projects are only meaningful if they can attract reasonable number of developers... as what I did is completely oriented toward end-user that does not want to know what RAOP or A2DP is, this is probably unlikely

However, given the limitations of DLNA streaming architecture (Gappless playback, limited formats support in standard, limited choice of control points, control point must remain running to play next track/playlist, general stability issues depending on particular implementation/product) you may want to consider if you really want to make DLNA a backbone for such setup.

Please explain this further.

 

If I understood correctly, you do not HAVE to use DLNA/UPnP-AV, you want to use it because you believe it will serve you well. I HAVE (well, sort of) to use it, as I have two receivers that can only accept DLNA streams.

Because of the above listed limitations, I would say it may be better for you to consider using RAOP streaming, or even "native" streams that several sources can provide and consume, such as MPD, Pulse, SBS/LMS, SubSonic... etc. as you can choose both your endpoint and your stream server - if I understood you correctly.

 

Also, with 8 zones, you might find it more practical to reverse the streaming direction, and to have the 8 sinks (destinations) in the destination (room) and not on the server itself, and simply stream to them from the server.

I'm implementing a whole house audio system.   All the zones are wired to a central location and connected to large multi zone amplifiers, presently 2 x 6 stereo zones each.    The only way to implement a local sink in each room would be to unwire  the centralized wiring coming from each room and have a single channel "sound server" and amplifier in each room.  This would necessitate tearing into drywall and then putting a server and amplifier in each room.

More or less yes... but not a "server and amplifier in each room" just an device that can receive a network stream (Airport Express, Wallplug PC such as Rasbery, any of number of "network players" from many vendors (Linn, Phillips, Cambridge Audio, Logitech Sqeezebox, Sonos, Xbox, Sony PS3....)  or a receiver with built-in DLNA or AirPlay) and a means of connecting this to speakers (eg. an amplifier unless you use a receiver with built-in network streaming on Sons with amp built-in, etc.)

There is also this thing called "WiFi", but it is tricky, so I dont blame you if you dont want to hear about it :-) But you will probably want to have WiFi in your house anyway, so it may pay to do this right and then use it for this purpose. Nothing a huge antenna and few strategically placed AP or two wont fix ;-) Ethernet over power also seem to work well for most people ...

 

This is what I do, having two Apple Airports Express sinks, two DLNA sinks (Onkyo receivers) and a kitchen SqueezeBox "radio", Bluetooht headphones, plus one Intel Atom based box that runs only players serving as host to a audiophile USB DAC, and as output for an outdoor amp/speakers - all connected to a box that runs full set of servers, stores my music collection, acts as 2 channel TV tuner server/pvr etc etc

 

Interesting.    When you say "connected", I assume you mean network connected.

Yes.

 

I'll be implementing a couple stand alone servers as well for zones that are not wired to the central amplifier.

Hmmm... might be better to spend that money on a good WiFi network rather then on multiple server that will have to have there own copy of your music collection

 

Which Atom are you using ?

Just plain Intel made mini-ATX Atom mobo I think its "510"-something... sub 100$ fanless things in shoebox sized case

 

I am thinking of getting a few Onkyo TX 515s as well.  How do you like yours ?

I like very much, but I dont like I cant get DLNA streaming working on them :(

 

Note that in above description the DLNA "stream-to" functionality based on Rygel is still not working for me - it works with some DLNA devices/applications, but not mine unfortunately (Onkyo, Samsung) but hopefully with help of kind people on this list we might get this working too :-)

Which Onkyo are you using ?

609 & 709
 

 What error message are you getting ?

Search for my previous posts on this list.

 

Can you stream to it from other devices ?

I can open files from other devices on it, and streaming from HTTP sources works fine (eg. "Internet Radio") Only alternative way to create a DLNA stream to Rygel I know of (on end-user level without using UPnP libs directly)  is by using Microsoft Media Player "play to" function, and that does work.

 

 Is this a rygel issue or a Onkyo issue ?

Not really a simple answer.... both Onkyo and Rygel pass the same test according to DLNA certification requirements. Jens implemented recently a patch that was supposed to deal (work around) this issue, but it did not work for me (or I messed it up somehow)

 

Maybe when he has time he'll respond to my feedback :-)

Cheers,
Andrej