Does the UPnP plugin work for you?

[hiccup]

The UPnP addon is in principle a great plugin, and I am aware that some serious work and effort went into creating, testing and improving it.

But...
I myself have not been able to get it working in a stable manner. Tried it some year(s) ago, and gave up.
This week I gave it another shot, having MusicBee and the plugin on my local PC, and foobar2000 and a UPnP component for it on another PC in my network.
(MB's UPnP plugin even has a specific profile for foobar2000)
It's kind of working, but it's unstable, songs suddenly skip to another etc.
So I'll have to abandon the plugin again.

That's a pity, but it's known by now that the plugin will work well for some setups/users, and it doesn't for others.
(read the bottom of this post for some more info on that)


The reason for this post is twofold:

1.
Getting responses from other users that are using the plugin.

- Are you using it without any issues?
Please state what device you are using as the UPnP renderer?

- Did you try it, but didn't get it working at all, or not getting it working in a reliable manner?
Please state what UPnP device you were trying to get it to work with.

This could be helpful to give anyone wanting to use the plugin an idea of the chances of success.
And perhaps be helpful in preventing users wasting time and effort for known problematic setups/devices.

2.
More for my personal interest:
Is anybody successfully using foobar2000 as a UPnP renderer on a PC in his network?
If so, I'll know I'll have to dig even deeper in my own setup/network to see if the culprit is with me, and not so much with the plugin.
(f.w.i.w., when instead of MusicBee I use foobar2000 as the controller on my local pc, it's working great. So I don't actually think my network/firewall etc. is the issue here)

 
Thanks for any input!


Edit:

READ THIS

Just to make it very clear:
The creator of the plugin (Steven) is not able to give further support or invest more time and effort in further development of this plugin.

So DO NOT use this thread to ask for things related to that.

This thread is only intended to:

- find out what setups and devices could/should currently work.
- share tips and suggestions to make it possibly work for your setup.
- bring to the surface if there are specific limitations, or devices and setups that won't work for certain.
- perhaps accumulate and provide some useful information in case somebody picks up the challenge on further developing this plugin.

As has been stated a couple of times in the original plugin thread, any talented and interested coder is offered and welcome to take over development of the plugin.

Further information and and a link to the source code is also available in the original plugin thread.

If any member uses this thread for other purposes than I specifically stated, and chooses to ignore or complain about the fact that there currently is and will be be no further development on the plugin, I will ask a moderator to delete such posts from this thread.

[clatix]

Hi hiccup!

- Are you using it without any issues?
Please state what device you are using as the UPnP renderer?

- Did you try it, but didn't get it working at all, or not getting it working in a reliable manner?
Please state what UPnP device you were trying to get it to work with.

Yes, I use it and I'm completely satisfied. My device: Avox Indio Internet Radio (quite old). From it I can see and play all the music in MusicBee by Artist, Album, Genre, etc.

Is anybody successfully using foobar2000 as a UPnP renderer on a PC in his network?

Yes, I use Foobar as well with same satisfying results.
The additional benefit with Foobar is the possibility to play Spotify songs through VB-Audio Virtual Cable, foo_record and Record://

I will be happy to share with you further details, if you wish.

[TateB]

Yes, I am using it and it works great.

I use it with Bubble UPnP server.  I use VLC media player on my Android.  I connect my android to my receiver via bluetooth.


I once had an issue with the plugin consuming a lot of memory - it took me a while, but I discovered that I had the plugin in two different plugin folders.  Once I deleted both versions and reinstalled, it resolved the problem.  During the course of my frustration as I searched for the solution, I tried out a lot of other media server options, but, frankly, nothing worked as smoothly and intuitively as the above arrangement.  Plus, all software/apps involved in the above configuration are completely free without the usual freemium limitations!  Although I am planning a donation to MusicBee due to my use and enjoyment of it over the years, it is richly deserved!

[hiccup]

Is anybody successfully using foobar2000 as a UPnP renderer on a PC in his network?

Yes, I use Foobar as well with same satisfying results.
I will be happy to share with you further details, if you wish.

Thanks, absolutely!

Can you recall if you had to make any specific changes to any settings, either at the side of the plugin, foobar2000, your network/firewall etc.?
Are you using the same foobar2000 component as me? (UPnP/DLNA Renderer, Server, Control Point 0.99.49)
How much memory do both your local MusicBee PC, and the remote foobar2000 PC have?
(I am asking since memory seems to be a recurring matter in relation to the plugin)

[hiccup]

Yes, I am using it and it works great.

I use it with Bubble UPnP server.

Thanks for the feedback!

I briefly tried Bubble UPnP in the past, but failed. Perhaps because I didn't understand it very well and didn't give it enough effort.
I thought it was mainly intended for making your library available from outside your local network. (hotel, 'work' place, etc.)
But so you are using it successfully as some mediator between players and renderers in your local network?

[clatix]

Can you recall if you had to make any specific changes to any settings, either at the side of the plugin, foobar2000, your network/firewall etc.?
Are you using the same foobar2000 component as me? (UPnP/DLNA Renderer, Server, Control Point 0.99.49)

I didn't make any specific changes: I used it with default configuration.
Yes I use foo_upnp 0.99.49

How much memory do both your local MusicBee PC, and the remote foobar2000 PC have?

My PC has 32GB of RAM and Win10 PRO.
I don't know how much memory my Avox device has. It is connected via Wi-Fi and is able to receive Flac files but not always with good results: sometimes it stutters. Good results with the other lower bitrates. Yes, I think memory has an important role.

[hiccup]

I didn't make any specific changes: I used it with default configuration.
Yes I use foo_upnp 0.99.49

I don't know how much memory my Avox device has. It is connected via Wi-Fi and is able to receive Flac files but not always with good results: sometimes it stutters. Good results with the other lower bitrates. Yes, I think memory has an important role.

That makes me think.
I have foobar2000 running as renderer on a very stable Windows 10 server PC, but it is quite under-powered (very energy efficient though), and it needs to share it's 4GB with on-board video, and it's running as a guest account on that server.

I'll probably try and see what happens if I use a pc in my network with some more muscle.

[TateB]

Yes, I am using it and it works great.

I use it with Bubble UPnP server.

Thanks for the feedback!

I briefly tried Bubble UPnP in the past, but failed. Perhaps because I didn't understand it very well and didn't give it enough effort.
I thought it was mainly intended for making your library available from outside your local network. (hotel, 'work' place, etc.)
But so you are using it successfully as some mediator between players and renderers in your local network?

Correct - I use it on my LAN (I've yet to get Bubble UPnP to work beyond that, but that's another topic).  It was easy to set up, just add Bubble, put in the port number, and away you go.

[hiccup]

Correct - I use it on my LAN (I've yet to get Bubble UPnP to work beyond that, but that's another topic).  It was easy to set up, just add Bubble, put in the port number, and away you go.

Thanks.
Note to self: configure spare PC with enough memory, install and configure foobar2000 and Bubble UPnP, attach it to the local network, and start testing...

[hiccup]

Note to self: configure spare PC with enough memory, install and configure foobar2000 and Bubble UPnP, attach it to the local network, and start testing...

Done that.
Using foobar2000 as renderer on the remote PC seems to play more reliable now, so the amount of memory does seem to make a difference.
But I still get the same error messages popping up somewhere at the end of every playing track though.
Something like "Decoding failure at 5:46.093 (Socket not open)"
The numbers are the playing time, the socket (port number) it says is closed, I am pretty sure is open. (it's the same port that is set and used for playing the audio)
So that's a bit weird.

Anyway, play will continue, and for the brief time I have been testing it on this new setup, I haven't noticed any skipping to a new song in the middle of a current song playing, so that's some improvement for sure.

Next, in trying if I could get rid of these error messages (and perhaps also solve the problems I have with trying to have MusicBee playing to my Squeezeboxes) I am trying to use BubbleUPnP as some 'mediator':

I installed it on the remote PC in my local network that has foobar2000 installed as a UPnP renderer.
For as far as I am able to tell, the installation seemed to have gone well.

I can reach it's configuration web-page using my main PC. (which has MusicBee installed)
I don't see anything out-of-order there.
But, whatever I try, in MusicBee's Preferences > Player > Output, there is no entry available that refers to BubbleUPnP.
And I am guessing it should?
Either some general 'BubbleUPnP player', or a specific 'Open home player' I have configured in BubbleUPnP should probably show?
It's all still a bit confusing to me.


Looking at my Windows network, I do see some entries for BubbleUPnP, but they are under 'Other Devices', and not under 'Media Devices'.
Could that be (part of) the problem?



Anyone?

[TateB]

This works for me (and I'm no expert, so I can't explain why or if there is a better way to do it):

Don't bother setting up foobar as a media renderer.  With the Musicbee UPnP plugin and Bubble UPnP as a server, I can pick it up just fine on my LAN using VLC Media Player on my Android - it plays perfectly.  The only issue is that I can't update play statistics in Musicbee based on what I play through Bubble, but that's not a big concern for me.

[hiccup]

With the Musicbee UPnP plugin and Bubble UPnP as a server, I can pick it up just fine on my LAN using VLC Media Player on my Android - it plays perfectly.

Thanks, but I think you are using it in another way than what I want it to?
If I understand correctly, you are using a player on an Android device as the active player and controller, that uses MusicBee's library through BubbleUPnP's mediation?

What I am trying to do (and what now works reasonably will without BubbleUPnP), is using MusicBee on my local PC as the 'master' controller/player, and foobar2000 on the remote PC as the slave player that outputs the sound of whatever MusicBee is playing.

If you open MusicBee's 'Player' configuration, do you see BubbleUPnP as an output option?

[hiccup]

Both in my current router and in my previous routers I have always had UPnP set to 'off'.
Mainly because it is a known security risk to have it enabled.
But while testing all this and trying out stuff, enabling UPnP in my router seems to have gotten rid of the error messages.
This raises a request to other members that experience problems with the plugin and have reported on it, could you check your router settings for this, and see if making changes there improves things for you?

Scratch that, must have been some strange coincidence. Errors have returned.
(it would have been strange anyway, since I think that setting should only affect communications and ports outside your local network)

[zigzag10]

I’m a long-standing user of the plugin and have had very few issues with it, though have only enabled it to play content to a pi (with an attached DAC running Moode Audio) acting as an UPnP renderer.  I need to caveat that as the plugin has never been good if ‘output as continuous stream’ is selected, meaning no gapless playback.  Having said that only an exceptionally small number of audio players can actually perform credible gapless playback to a UPnP renderer, and I simply like MB for so many other reasons.  Yup, there’s a couple of components in Foobar2000 which enable it to feature gapless playback using the OpenHome protocol.  One day I’m hoping a developer will step forward and do a similar OpenHome plugin for MB, enabling it to act as an OpenHome UPnP client / control point.   I keep my fingers crossed…

Incidentally, if you want to get a machine to act as an UPnP renderer, I suggest you try OpenHome Player, which is free, easy to setup and IMHO very stable. I’ve only tried the PC version of the player, but there are versions for Mac, Linux and Pi as well: http://openhome.org/pages/use/index.html

[hiccup]

I suggest you try OpenHome Player, which is free, easy to setup and IMHO very stable.

Thanks for the input zigzag10!
I did notice BubbleUPnP being able to create some 'OpenHome' renderer, but I didn't give it much thought. (nor was I able to get an obvious clue about what it meant)
So thanks for enlightening me on something I should probably investigate.


Damn, the concept of stereo audio dates back to 1881.
10/100 lan dates back some 30 years now.

And at this very day, it is still a b***h to get audio playing reliably over a network cable.

I'm impressed by technology almost every single day.
I'm also disappointed by technology almost every single day.