Using DLNA Music

[PaulV]

I recently updated my Synology NAS software where my iTunes (now Music) files are located. That broke my connection with my Control4 (running 2.10.21.295) using My Music.  My installer and I fiddled with it for a while (enabling old SMB protocols on the NAS, etc.) with no joy.  Instead he installed the DLNA driver.  Good, I can see all my music as albums, tracks, artists and genre. But my Control4 playlists are not visible. Composer 2.9.1 has the playlists, but cannot see the music.

My iTunes library has playlists. DLNA cannot see those.  Is there a way to:

• Get Control4 DLNA to see my iTunes playlists
• Get Control4 to use its playlists to play DLNA music
• Other work arounds?

Thanks for any help.  I should mention that a new controller is in the upgrade list and then moving to OS3.  But the switching costs are high as I have 6 navigators that need to be replaced to make the upgrade.  It will not happen for another 6 months or so.

[ekohn00]

2 hours ago, PaulV said:

I recently updated my Synology NAS software where my iTunes (now Music) files are located. That broke my connection with my Control4 (running 2.10.21.295) using My Music.  My installer and I fiddled with it for a while (enabling old SMB protocols on the NAS, etc.) with no joy.  Instead he installed the DLNA driver.  Good, I can see all my music as albums, tracks, artists and genre. But my Control4 playlists are not visible. Composer 2.9.1 has the playlists, but cannot see the music.

My iTunes library has playlists. DLNA cannot see those.  Is there a way to:

• Get Control4 DLNA to see my iTunes playlists
• Get Control4 to use its playlists to play DLNA music
• Other work arounds?

Thanks for any help.  I should mention that a new controller is in the upgrade list and then moving to OS3.  But the switching costs are high as I have 6 navigators that need to be replaced to make the upgrade.  It will not happen for another 6 months or so.

You could try Plex. I used to use it, and know there's an option for iTunes (which i didn't use). For me Plex worked great with C4. 

I moved to Roon (also great with C4) and you should be able to import your iTunes playlists.

 

[PaulV]

Gave Plex a try.  Server side installed fine. The C4 installer has not installed the driver. He is researching ways to connect music.  I installed the Plex client on my iPad.  It lets me play one minute of my own music before it wants to be fed some money. Doesn’t look promising. But haven’t ruled it out completely.

Meanwhile, I have attached a hard drive to my C4 Hc800. No driver installed for that either.  But it is there if that becomes a workable path forward.

Bottom line: no joy yet.

I am perplexed that this is hard to do.

[msgreenf]

Because you have to pay for software it's not promising? 

[PaulV]

Correct. I don’t want to start a recurring charge to play my own music. I’ve been able to play my music for 8 years until  something changed that I cannot seem to reverse. If I wanted to pay to play music I have owned for decades I would just use the new Apple Music and stream it using C4 Airplay. 

[msgreenf]

You aren’t paying for the music…you own the music like you said, you are paying for the software to play the music.  While the financial impact may be the same, it’s not the same thing…

[msgreenf]

And technically you don’t own the music….you have rights to play it for personal use..not the same as owning.

[ekohn00]

14 hours ago, PaulV said:

Gave Plex a try.  Server side installed fine. The C4 installer has not installed the driver. He is researching ways to connect music.  I installed the Plex client on my iPad.  It lets me play one minute of my own music before it wants to be fed some money. Doesn’t look promising. But haven’t ruled it out completely.

Meanwhile, I have attached a hard drive to my C4 Hc800. No driver installed for that either.  But it is there if that becomes a workable path forward.

Bottom line: no joy yet.

I am perplexed that this is hard to do.

Plex isn't free. If Free is the only way something is promising then you're not going to have many good choices.

Plex becomes your DLNA server for C4, you will need him to install the DLNA driver - this should be obviously simple for any C4 installer.

Some possibly good news, Plex Server is free (with some limitations), if you use it as a DLNA server for C4 you may not have to pay for it. You do have to pay if you want to use your plex on the devices as you're currently doing.

 

 

 

[ekohn00]

33 minutes ago, PaulV said:

Correct. I don’t want to start a recurring charge to play my own music. I’ve been able to play my music for 8 years until  something changed that I cannot seem to reverse. If I wanted to pay to play music I have owned for decades I would just use the new Apple Music and stream it using C4 Airplay. 

You pay for Control4, you pay for your PC, you may pay for Plex or Roon..... you're paying for the applications and hardware licenses, you're not paying for your music again.

[PaulV]

What our dialogue here has shown me, unless more information comes up, is that C4 no longer supports the ability to stream my music library. This is apparently because it connects to NAS systems using an obsolete and security-vulnerable SMB protocol.

I still hold out hope for a direct connected hard drive with a copy of my library.  Or I may continue to experiment using the helpful suggestions offered here to cobble up something that can substitute for a proper C4 capability.

The good news is that TunedIn streaming WQXR is a workable alternative.  It’s just occasionally that I want to select the playlist rather than have them do it for me.

[PaulV]

1 hour ago, msgreenf said:

And technically you don’t own the music….you have rights to play it for personal use..not the same as owning.

A distinction without a difference.

[msgreenf]

Just now, PaulV said:

A distinction without a difference.

It’s a major legal difference.

[PaulV]

3 minutes ago, msgreenf said:

It’s a major legal difference.

Ok I’m listening. Please further advise how it relates to what I am trying to do.

[lippavisual]

Have you tried creating a new user on the Synology for just C4 use?  SMB1 protocol also needs to be enabled.

This should work no problem as I do the same at home without using Plex.

Also double check your music files are shared.

As for playlists, most likely will not be added, but can be re-created within C4.

[Matt Lowe]

The DNLA driver also gives some suggest for the more compatible DLNA servers that work. I personally use plex, not the paid version, and I can access all of my music through DLNA just fine. I do wish that the paid Plex control4 driver still work as having access to my move library through the app was awesome. 

[PaulV]

2 hours ago, lippavisual said:

Have you tried creating a new user on the Synology for just C4 use?  SMB1 protocol also needs to be enabled.

This should work no problem as I do the same at home without using Plex.

Also double check your music files are shared.

As for playlists, most likely will not be added, but can be re-created within C4.

This is what we tried the last time the dealer was here.  I control the Diskstation.  He controls C4.  I created an account and a password and enabled SMB1 on the Diskstation.  He updated the music driver to use the new userid for the Diskstation.  Restarted both devices. No joy.  Could one of us have made a mistake? Yes we could. I didn't look over his shoulder and he didn't look over mine.

Re playlists, yes I have all the old playlists visible on both the Composer and on the Music view in the navigators.  They just cannot get at the actual music. Over on the DLNA app on the navigator, I have all the music available but none of the playlists.

This music configuration activity was an end-of-the-day activity after he installed a new 4K TV and updated the Binary MoIP system to pass through the right formats (audio and video) to the right TVs and AVRs. I am a bit on the bleeding edge for MoIP so this took quite a while. 4K projector is next up, so he will be back and we can try some more music work arounds.

[PaulV]

1 hour ago, Matt Lowe said:

The DNLA driver also gives some suggest for the more compatible DLNA servers that work. I personally use plex, not the paid version, and I can access all of my music through DLNA just fine. I do wish that the paid Plex control4 driver still work as having access to my move library through the app was awesome. 

I can access the music through DLNA just not the playlists. This is using the C4 DLNA driver.  But no access to playlists.  I understand that there is a C4 Plex driver.  That is not installed (yet) as the dealer ran out of time the last time he was here.

I installed the iPad plex apps to see if it was worth prodding the dealer to install the C4 Plex driver when I ran into the paywall problem.

[Matt Lowe]

I am pretty sure the C4 plex driver is no longer avalaible due to API changes. I missed the part about playlists. Have you tried using the Shairbridge and using you ios device to play the playlists?

 

[PaulV]

40 minutes ago, Matt Lowe said:

I am pretty sure the C4 plex driver is no longer avalaible due to API changes. I missed the part about playlists. Have you tried using the Shairbridge and using you ios device to play the playlists?

 

Not sure I have Shairbridge. I can use the C4 Airplay and play music from my phone.  Earlier I had a "Wireless Music Bridge". But that changed a few years ago. 

C4 playlists and Apple playlists are different.  I have duplicated a few of them from C4 to iOS and use them with Airplay.  But it's a bit beyond my wife's capabilities. Selecting "Music" and a playlist from the navigator is about as deep into the tech as she is comfortable.

I will look into Shairbridge further.  Thanks for the lead.

[Matt Lowe]

yea shairbridge is c4 airplay so sounds like you have it.

 

[ekohn00]

18 hours ago, PaulV said:

I can access the music through DLNA just not the playlists. This is using the C4 DLNA driver.  But no access to playlists.  I understand that there is a C4 Plex driver.  That is not installed (yet) as the dealer ran out of time the last time he was here.

I installed the iPad plex apps to see if it was worth prodding the dealer to install the C4 Plex driver when I ran into the paywall problem.

I don't think you will see playlists or search with the Plex DLNA, otherwise, it has been a rock solid solution for me.

I moved to Roon, mostly because of its features to handle my library and not because of C4. However, with C4 I found there was a number of benefits including search, and playlists and I think it's a lot faster. Yes there's a fee (monthly or yearly), but it has been fantastic

[UlrikeRoss]

On 11/2/2022 at 6:34 PM, PaulV said:

I recently updated my Synology NAS software where my iTunes (now Music) files are located. That broke my connection with my Control4 (running 2.10.21.295) using My Music.  My installer and I fiddled with it for a while (enabling old SMB protocols on the NAS, etc.) with no joy.  Instead he installed the DLNA driver.  Good, I can see all my music as albums, tracks, artists and genre. But my Control4 playlists are not visible. Composer 2.9.1 has the playlists, but cannot see the music.

My iTunes library has playlists. DLNA cannot see those.  Is there a way to:

• Get Control4 DLNA to see my iTunes playlists
• Get Control4 to use its playlists to play DLNA music
• Other work arounds?

Thanks for any help, more info here https://artistpush.me/blogs/news/what-is-audiomack-and-how-can-musicians-use-it.  I should mention that a new controller is in the upgrade list and then moving to OS3.  But the switching costs are high as I have 6 navigators that need to be replaced to make the upgrade.  It will not happen for another 6 months or so.

This is a certain conflict at the Control4 level. I also failed to implement this option for listening to songs. It needs to be revised by the manufacturer.

[Amr]

Actually the ancient method of scanning and saving your meta data on controller is not advisable any more, not for videos nor music use DLNA driver or the likes of Plex, Roon, BlueSound, Ovation and Townky!