I noticed that some of our users have problems with the DLNA feature of Windows Media Player to stream to our players. So here's a short how-to on this subject.

First, you should of course be connected to the network and have an IP. In addition, DLNA DMR feature has to be enabled in the SETUP -> SYSTEM -> DLNA DMR. You can also change the 'device name' - important for 1).

1.) In your Windows network environment, you see now an extra device called Realtek embedded UPnP Render () - among other devices (usually at the bottom)

2.) Double click on this device - Windows will install the correct drivers automatically for the device.

3.) Start Windows Media Player and choose one of your media files. Click with the right mouse button on it and choose 'play to' and then your player (Realtek embedded UPnP Render ())

4.) the media file will now be played to (pushed to) your AC Ryan media player.

For more information on how-to activate this feature in windows media player please refer to:
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/wind ... ream-media

NOTE: in some cases it's needed to first deactivate DLNA DMR and re-enable it in SETUP -> SYSTEM -> DLNA DMR


best regards,

Does it work on WInXP and notebook w/o DLNA certificate?

Windows XP doesn't have this 'play to' feature unfortunately. This is a Windows 7 only feature.

br,

Hi, just followed these steps and alas, no luck. I use a Win7 laptop (wireless) and playon-mini player (wired), both connected to a Fritz Box 7390. Media is stored on a Synology DS212j NAS.

If I connect FROM the player via the network to the music on the NAS, playback is without problems. Streaming TO the player from Media player or android device does not work unfortunately. Any advice?

What kind of apps have you tried on your mobile devices? You might want to check aMediacontrol for Android which should be able to detect the player.

br,

Hi Arne,

I tried aMedia Control, which detects my NAS but not the AC Ryan player. Same goes for DS audio (synology app) and 2player. AMedia and 2player did work with my other LaCie mediaplayer (which is pretty unreliable, and therefore I bought the AC Ryan).

It's not only the android however, also Windows Media Player doesn't detect it - which is the bigger problem from my point of view (but probably related).

Update: re-installing the driver (realtek embedded upnp render) on my Win7 laptop solved the problem of not being able to stream from Windows Media Player. However, it only streams music located on the laptop's hard drive. Streaming from the NAS (via laptop) still doesn't work.

Also, I noticed that the Playon Mini doesn't 'find' the music on the NAS by itself. I always need to connect manually via network or unpnp - which works but is quite a hassle). Is there a way to have the mini make a library of its own, also incorporating media from network sources?

This is a Windows 7 limitation. Networked sources are not supported. You can use the DS Audio app available for both iPhone and Android. It is a Synology made music player which can be used as a controller to stream music from your Synology NAS to your renderer.

I have this setup as well. Detection of the Playon works and I can start music playback from DS Audio on mobile devices, from the Audio Station application accessed via the NAS web interface, and from third party DLNA/UPNP applications on my PC. In all cases my Mini reboots after playing a few songs which pretty much destroys this approach. This may be due to the fact that I'm streaming flac music but I have not tested this.


This is a limitation of the Mini. I find the easiest way to work around it is to make playlists to minimize the folder navigation hassle. By 'easiest' I do not mean easy. There is no way to manage a playlist on runtime similar to how you maintain a playlist, a queue of songs, in winamp.

Imho the Mini is unfit to be used as a music playback device due to these limitations. If your music is mp3 encoded you may be able to use the first approach. I do not know if this is the case though.

Thx for the useful comments. I found DS audio already, works well except for the fact it doesn't find the mini (anymore). Also Win7 machines have lost it - can't find the upnp renderer anymore in my network. Basically the mini itself can find my network and play media from it, while network (android, Win7 etc) can't find the mini, or at least not use it as a player. Quite frustrating really.

I do have FLAC but most of my music still MP3. Bought the thing principally for music playback somewhat more than a year ago. It didn't work then so I kept using my old LaCie player which now became too unreliable (HDD issues). So now in the painful process of getting the mini to work.

Does anyone have experience with custom firmware? Found a few things on the internet but not too sure yet - would like to get it working with the original firmware first. I'm about to test AC Ryan's tech support next week.

Hi!

I have also problems playing to Mini.

I tried to play from my QNap NAS with WMPlayer (Win7 x64) to the Mini, and it starts correctly, but if I want to seek, I got an error message (upnp error 710) and the Mini stops playing or reboots. Same happens with video and audio.

So I tried to play to Mini from an Android tablet with BubbleUPnP program, and the same happens. Playing between other devices works correct.

I have the fw 7.4.6.r7317 on the Mini.

One more question: playing flac to Mini is allowed only after "tweeking" and disabling the mime-type check, why? Mini can play flac, but it does not accept the type?

Thx.