Media Center as a DLNA Client?

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stairmand

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Media Center as a DLNA Client?

#1

Post by stairmand » Mon Nov 28, 2011 12:38 pm

Not sure if it's possible with a 3rd part pluin etc but I cant find one.

Is there a way to get Windows Media Center to act as a DLNA Client for playback? I know it works as a server just fine and i know Media player works as both a server and client but I cant find a way of getting Media Center to work.

The reason being, my Windows Phone has DLNA Client/Server so not only can you stream from your home network you can also send Music/Photos/Video to other devices. Using Windows media player it works perfectly, I can take a picture on my phone and send it over the network to my HTPC so it comes up on the TV great for showing pictures i've taken with it.

However I need to close Media Center and use Media player for it to work. It would be much nicer (and seamless) if there was a MC Plugin. Anyone know if there is one or it's possible?

richard1980

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#2

Post by richard1980 » Mon Nov 28, 2011 12:52 pm

Windows Media Center will automatically discover all shared media on a DLNA compliant server. The content will be listed in the "shared" view. See http://blogs.msdn.com/b/e7/archive/2009 ... ows-7.aspx

stairmand

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#3

Post by stairmand » Mon Nov 28, 2011 3:09 pm

Hmm, but it doesn't get detected on the phone so you cant see it in shares. The phone works kinda like a remote control, when i select a song track for example on my phone it then asks for the device to output it too. It only lists my PC if it's running Media Player if I exit Media player and leave Media center running I get "No Playback Devices Found" message.

In your link i'm using it as in

Scenario 3: You have a cell phone that not only takes pictures but can push the pictures to a Windows 7 PC. You can show the pictures to your friends using the large-screen display of the PC without the need to physically transfer the files to the PC with a USB thumb drive, for example. Figure 3 illustrates this scenario. In this case, the cell phone acts as a DMS and a DMC and the Windows 7 PC behaves as a DMR.

Does this mean you need the DMR part of the DLNA spec in Media Center????

richard1980

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#4

Post by richard1980 » Mon Nov 28, 2011 7:52 pm

Pushing content requires a DLNA certified DMR, and a DMP can only pull content. It sounds like WMC may only contain DMP functionality, which means you'll have to use WMC to pull the content from the phone instead of using the phone to push the content to WMC.

I'm betting this is a technical limitation because if both WMC and WMP were running at the same time, both could act as a DMR at the same time, which wouldn't work well when you push content to the PC. Of course that doesn't mean there wouldn't be a way around that, given the proper software to give the user the option of picking.

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