EVA91X0 and Twonky

[FrankL]

Hi,

I have been using TwonkyMediaServer for my audio streaming needs for some time now, and it works great.

However, I also have a Netgear EVA9100 and I'd like to use Twonky to get around one big issue with this media player: it does not support DTS downmixing (only passthrough). My intention is to use TMS to do realtime downmixing of DTS to PCM or another format supported by my player, such as an stereo MPEG audio stream.

One major problem is: how do I get the Netgear to see TMS? It supports both PlayOn and WMP as UPNP server, but I haven't been able to make it see TMS. In the TMS clients configuration, I've tried presenting itself using the different Netgear options, as well as WMP, but to no avail.

If the EVA can see PlayOn and WMP, there surely is a way for TMS to show up too on the Netgear?

[Twonky_Rick]

Thanks for reporting this.

Sounds to me like Netgear might be filtering Twonky for some reason. I'll ask our engineers to look into this. We advertise ourselves as a UPnP server and and UPnP or DLNA client should see us.

- Rick

[FrankL]

thanks for the reply.

Netgear removed support for third-party UPNP media servers in one of their firmware updates for the EVA 9100 and 9150. It was their way of 'solving support' for DLNA issues in their client.

However, since WMP and PlayOn still are recognized and supported by the EVA91x0... might it be possible for Twonky to mask itself as one of those, fooling the Netgear network media player?

[Twonky_Rick]

It could be possible to do that but in order to do that we'd need to get an EVA91X0. I suggested that we purchase one of those, but I don't have any control over if or when this might happen.

- Rick

[Twonky_Rick]

In the meantime, could you go to the Media Receivers page in the Server Settings on your browser and try changing your client profile to Xbox? I think that workaround might help.

- Rick

[FrankL]

thanks! That seems to have done the trick.

I also needed to reboot the EVA9100 after changing the client profile type to XBOX360 in the TMS settings, before TMS would show up as media source on the Netgear.

However, it doesn't seem to pick up any video files served by TMS though. Only music so far. I'll try to serve some video using WMP11 as UPNP media server and see if it picks that up, as a comparison.

[FrankL]

hmm only audio and pictures are picked up by the EVA9100 from a WMP12 server too.

I've been under the impression that PlayOn can make video appear on the EVA9100&9150. I'll try to confirm and do some packet sniffing to find out if it uses UPNP for this. Maybe the video needs to be DRM protected before the EVA picks it up.

[FrankL]

After further testing I've concluded that only PlayOn is allowed to serve video to the EVA91x0 devices. Is there a way to force masking TMS as a PlayOn server?

[FrankL]

After further testing I've concluded that only PlayOn is allowed to serve video to the EVA91x0 devices. Is there a way to force masking TMS as a PlayOn server?

To answer my own question: yes there is. I've created a file named devicedescription-playon.xml in the resources subdirectory of TMS (this is on TMS v5.1.4), based on devicedescription-dlna-1-0.xml with the following contents:

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<?xml version="1.0"?>
<root xmlns="urn:schemas-upnp-org:device-1-0">
        <specVersion>
                <major>1</major>
                <minor>0</minor>
        </specVersion>
        <device>
                <dlna:X_DLNADOC xmlns:dlna="urn:schemas-dlna-org:device-1-0">DMS-1.00</dlna:X_DLNADOC>
                <deviceType>urn:schemas-upnp-org:device:MediaServer:1</deviceType>
                <UDN>#UDN#</UDN>
                <friendlyName>PlayOn (machinehostname)</friendlyName>
                <manufacturer>MediaMall Technologies, Inc.</manufacturer>
                <modelName>Windows MediaMall Server</modelName>
                <modelDescription>PlayOn UPnP Media Server</modelDescription>
                <modelNumber>3.0</modelNumber>
                <UPC></UPC>
                <presentationURL>#BASE-URL#</presentationURL>
                <iconList>
                        <icon>
                                <mimetype>image/jpeg</mimetype>
                                <height>48</height>
                                <width>48</width>
                                <depth>24</depth>
                                <url>/images/twonkyicon-48x48.jpg</url>
                        </icon>
                        <icon>
                                <mimetype>image/jpeg</mimetype>
                                <height>120</height>
                                <width>120</width>
                                <depth>24</depth>
                                <url>/images/twonkyicon-120x120.jpg</url>
                        </icon>
                        <icon>
                                <mimetype>image/png</mimetype>
                                <height>48</height>
                                <width>48</width>
                                <depth>24</depth>
                                <url>/images/twonkyicon-48x48.png</url>
                        </icon>
                        <icon>
                                <mimetype>image/png</mimetype>
                                <height>120</height>
                                <width>120</width>
                                <depth>24</depth>
                                <url>/images/twonkyicon-120x120.png</url>
                        </icon>
                </iconList>
                <serviceList>
                        <service>
                                <serviceType>urn:schemas-upnp-org:service:ConnectionManager:1</serviceType>
                                <serviceId>urn:upnp-org:serviceId:ConnectionManager</serviceId>
                                <SCPDURL>/ConnectionManager.xml</SCPDURL>
                                <eventSubURL>/ConnectionManager/Event</eventSubURL>
                                <controlURL>/ConnectionManager/Control</controlURL>
                        </service>
                        <service>
                                <serviceType>urn:schemas-upnp-org:service:ContentDirectory:1</serviceType>
                                <serviceId>urn:upnp-org:serviceId:ContentDirectory</serviceId>
                                <SCPDURL>/ContentDirectory.xml</SCPDURL>
                                <eventSubURL>/ContentDirectory/Event</eventSubURL>
                                <controlURL>/ContentDirectory/Control</controlURL>
                        </service>
                </serviceList>
        </device>
</root>
[EOF]

In the clients.db file in the same resources subdirectory, I've added the following entry to the 'NA:Netgear Digital Entertainer' section:

Code: Select all

DF:devicedescription-playon.xml

After restarting TMS and selecting the Netgear Digital Entertainer profile for the EVA91x0, you can now see the complete contents (audio, video and images) served by TMS to the EVA91x0. To do this, you need to go to the 'internet media/PlayOn (BETA)' menu entry on the EVA (this is because PlayOn is handled differently than media on WMP UPNP or network shares on the EVA91x0).

There's quite a bit of work remaining for proper support though. For example, not all videos play (videos with H264 fail to play completely, MPEG2 in VOB produce 'insufficient network performance' errors). More on that later perhaps...

[Twonky_Rick]

Wow you've done a lot of work on this. I think our Berlin office is going to try and get a hold of one of these devices. If they do that, they might be able to create a device profile for it and that could help.

I've copied them on all of your findings. Thanks for your help on this.

- Rick

[FrankL]

Here's an update on my progress:

To make the EVA detect TMS, the only thing it looks at in the devicedescription is the presence of 'PlayOn' in the friendlyName. Anything else can be left at TMS' defaults. I've now set it to the following:

Code: Select all

<friendlyName>PlayOn (#FRIENDLYNAME#)</friendlyName>

To make the EVA see ts, mp4 and mkv files served by TMS, add the following to its entry in client.db:

Code: Select all

MT:mp4 video/mpeg
MT:mkv video/mpeg
MT:ts video/mpeg


However, I get the following error on the EVA9100 when trying to play back 'big' .mp4 files:
Unable to play this media directly from the Internet. Download the media into one of your shares or enable hard disk buffering. Press OK to continue.

Small mp4 files (e.g. music videos or video trailers) work fine though. Maybe it's not related to file size / time but a muxing problem, but I haven't looked too much into that yet. All .ts and .mkv files play back fine regardless of the size.

I intend to do further fiddling with this. Would it help if I am in direct contact with the Berlin people?

[Twonky_Rick]

I appreciate the offer. They will let me know if they have questions. I think what is really needed is for them to get a hold of this product.

- Rick

[Twonky_Rick]

Good news! We plan to create a device profile for this product in our next update (currently planned for 7.0.3). To check status on this work, ask me about DLNA-6690.

- Rick

[FrankL]

That's great news!

meanwhile I've been fiddling a bit more with TMS 6.0.3.8 and the EVA 9000 series (i.e. both the Netgear Digital Entertainer Elite EVA9100 and EVA9150 from Netgear); I made the following progress:

To allow (HE-)AAC playback on the EVA9000 series, add to the client profile in clients.db

Code: Select all

MT:m4a,mp4.a,3gp.a,m4b audio/mpeg

To add automatic detection of the right client profile in clients.db

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DD:<modelDescription>NETGEAR Digital Entertainer Elite</modelDescription>

With a question for the tech support of TMS:
This is is a narrower selection than the DD:Digital Entertainer in the NA:Netgear Digital Entertainer section, to which the EVA9000 series also match. How can I exclude the 9000 series from matching the existing NA:Netgear Digital Entertainer section? I suppose there are a few devices (EVA700, EVA2000, EVA8000) for which maybe the existing profile is better suited.

Question number 2:
I'd like to prevent .ogg and .mov files from being presented to the EVA9000 series. It doesn't support the VORBIS audio codec, and .mov files often contain old video codecs such as ones by Sorensen, and also are not supported by the EVA9000 series (with AVC/AAC ones easily being renamed to .mp4). I've added the following code to clients.db (as per its header)

Code: Select all

MT:ogg,mov not-supported

However, .mov and .ogg files keep showing up on my EVA9100. Am I making a mistake in my syntax ?

[Twonky_Rick]

I'm not sure, but I'll pass on this info as well. And let you know if anyone answers your question.

Thanks again, for providing us with some much useful info.

- Rick

[FrankL]

I figured out if you put the client profile for 'Digital Entertainer Elite' before the existing one for 'Digital Entertainer', it will cause TMS to apply the proper client profile.

I've also been playing with YouTube support in the mediafusion plugin, and resultantly have a new question number 1 for the TMS developers. Basically the following situation describes my question
- I need (and therefore use) "MT:mp4 video/mpeg" in clients.db to get the EVA9000 series to play back mp4 containers
- playback of indexed .mp4 files works fine this way, with a client request like this

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GET /disk/DLNA-PNAVC_MP4_BL_L3L_SD_AAC-OP01-FLAGS01700000/O0$3$28I130827.mp4 HTTP/1.1

results in the expected repy by TMS

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Content-Type: video/mpeg

- When I try to play back a youtube video, I can see the following request by the client in a packet capture

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GET /httpproxy/mediafusion/O0I60676.mp4 HTTP/1.1

but now the response by TMS is not what I expected or need for the client to play it back! It now is

Code: Select all

Content-Type: video/mp4

So basically the question boils down to: how do I specify the mime type of the content provided by the mediafusion plugin? it seems to ignore the 'MT:mp4 video/mpeg' rule.

P.S. I hope you don't mind me posting questions here on what I'm seeing and don't know the answer to. There might be more to come in future.

[Twonky_Rick]

Thanks Frank. I forwarded this info on to our developers earlier today. I'll let you know if they have an answer for you. They might need to get one of these devices in order to answer this.

- Rick

[Twonky_Rick]

Sorry it took so long, but I finally was given some answers to your questions:

Q1.This is is a narrower selection than the DD:Digital Entertainer in the NA:Netgear Digital Entertainer section, to which the EVA9000 series also match. How can I exclude the 9000 series from matching the existing NA:Netgear Digital Entertainer section? I suppose there are a few devices (EVA700, EVA2000, EVA8000) for which maybe the existing profile is better suited.

The entry for Netgear EVA91x0 devices needs to be before the entry for other Netgear devices

>>
NA:Netgear EVA91x0
DD:Digital Entertainer Elite
MT:aif,aiff audio/aiff
…
…

>>
NA:Netgear Digital Entertainer
DD:Digital Entertainer
MT:aif,aiff audio/aiff
…
…

Q2. I'd like to prevent .ogg and .mov files from being presented to the EVA9000 series. It doesn't support the VORBIS audio codec, and .mov files often contain old video codecs such as ones by Sorensen, and also are not supported by the EVA9000 series (with AVC/AAC ones easily being renamed to .mp4). I've added the following code to clients.db (as per its header)
MT:ogg,mov not-supported

However, .mov and .ogg files keep showing up on my EVA9100. Am I making a mistake in my syntax ?

This is the correct setting but even setting this the content item will still be shared. Only the corresponding resource element is suppressed (you can think of it like the URL corresponding to the ogg content is hidden.)

Regarding incorporating these discoveries into Twonky... Most changes like this are only going into Twonky 7.0. We're going to be releasing a special version of Twonky 7 to forum users which doesn't require any log-in. I don't have a date for that however.

- Rick

[Thanks to Giles for responding to these questions]

[Twonky_Rick]

I received another answer for question number 2 as well. Posting it here in case it helps anyone.

I think the MT option to set a mime type to "not-supported" will not remove the item from the tree for that client. It is just replacing the mime type with something that does not indicate a media item.

As far as I know we do not have an option to suppress items on a per client basis.

- Rick

[Thanks to Burkhard for answering this]

[FrankL]

Thanks for the answers, they're much appreciated!

If the reported mime type for media-fusion handled files is a bug (my third question), would this be fixed in a future 6.x release?

I'm asking this, because I (currently) don't see any Linux ARM builds for the Twonky7 releases (only one for x86).

[Twonky_Rick]

We're hoping to only fix major bugs in TwonkyServer 6.0 going forward. Most other changes will probably appear in Twonky 7. There are plans to upload a Twonky 7.0 server to the forum for NAS users.

- Rick

[Twonky_Rick]

Update:

We decided it would be good to have a solution for the new Digital Entertainers from Netgear. One of our engineers did the following:

1. Added the " Netgear Digital Entertainer 9000 Series" profile to TwonkyServer 6.0 and 7.0 as a new client, with all the changes suggested by Frank. He used our Mapping Update Policy (used to be DB:FIX) to make sure the correct device is matched and selected.

2. He also improved and added the devicedescription-playon.xml to the resources folder for 6.0 and 7.0.

This fix will appear in TwonkyServer 7.1. It MAY also appear in TwonkyServer 6.0.40 or 7.0.5.

Although the work on this has not been finished, I've attached a new clients.db file and the updated devicedescription-play-on.xml file, that might help some of you until TwonkyServer 7.1 is released.

- Rick

Special thanks to FT and GP for working on this! To check status on this issue, ask me about TMCORE-5075.

[irakly]

Thank you for looking into this! I am sure, a lot of people are very excited.
However, as I understand, all the above pertains to TMS installed on a computer. I have a WD MyBookWorld NAS with TMS pre-installed. How do I do the upgrade, or update the clients.db file?

[Twonky_Rick]

Sadly, some NAS manufacturers do not display the server settings pages which make things like this possible. I think there could be a way to do this manually, but I do not have instructions. If no one comes forward, the only option is to wait for your manufacturer to make an update available for you. We normally share updates like this after they are fully tested, but sometimes it takes manufacturers a while to release these to the public.

- Rick

[irakly]

Thanks Rick,

I found a way. It is the same manual update as for Maxtor NAS devices.
Seems to be working fine, but now I lost my license key

[Twonky_Rick]

You should be able to get your key back from the support section of Twonky.com. If that doesn't work, send me mail at tmm-beta@pv.com and I will assist you. Thanks.

If you can include some tips here how you got this to work, others might appreciate it.

- Rick

[irakly]

[quote="TMM_Product_Manager"]

If you can include some tips here how you got this to work, others might appreciate it.

- Rick[/quote]

Certainly. In order to upgrade the Twonky Server to 6.0.39, do this:

1. download www.twonkyforum.com/downloads/6.0.39/tw ... 6.0.39.zip

2. ssh into the device (login:root, password:welcome), trash, or rename the Twonky folder, create a new one and unzip content of the downloaded file in there.

3. Restart the server.