Announce: Whitebear Media Server v2.2 Released

[Gblenn]

Actually it does, if you use Wine. You have to do some fiddling with the codecs folder and point Whitebear in the right direction there. I think what I did was to create a copy of the codecs folder from a windows version of SBS for wine.
Have not tested enough to know if transcoding works though, couldn't get it to play on Plugplayer (iPad) although I can browse my music... Will try the new version when I get a chance.

Just tested to install 2.2.1, does not work...
Wine installer gives me message "Access violation at address 00409876. Write of address 00400000"

Tried a long shot; installed on a Windows machine and copied/replaced files of 2.1 version in Wine...
It starts but hangs; Whitebear ... status: "changing......" and SSDP Listener/notification, M-SEARCH and Server are all inactive.

[AndrewFG]

Just out of interest, what's the main difference between Whitebear Media Server and the built-in UPnP server that's now bundled with LMS ?

Hi Erland, dare I say it, but the only main difference is that Whitebear actually works... ;-)

Does Whitebear also support video and photos when used with LMS 7.7 or is it focused at music ?

Music only.

[AndrewFG]

Have not tested enough to know if transcoding works though, couldnt get it to play on Plugplayer (iPad) although I can browse my music... Will try the new version when I get a chance.

Yeah, Plugplayer is quite non- compliant to the UPnP standard...

I wrote to the Plugplayer author a few weeks ago about this, and perhaps he will take on board my suggestions in newer releases.

In the meantime, you can make Plugplayer work with the current version of Whitebear, but you need to make two changes in your iPad | Plugplayer settings:

1) In iPad Settings | Plugplayer, turn off "Browser Art". It will still show the artwork when playing tracks, but it does not try to show artwork when browsing the library.

2) In iPad Settings | Plugplayer, increase the "SOAP Timeout" to (say) 60 seconds.

Please let me know if that helps you to get it working.

[Wigster]

Hi,

Running the latest (2.2.1.2126) Whitebear with SBS 7.6.2 on WHS.

In my WMP client on my Win 7 laptop, the Whitebear library that appears seems outdated. I had a problem in the past, where Windows overwrote a whole bunch of my tags corrupting the Album Artist tags, such that they appear as "Radiohead / LBUMARTIST" or some such.

I finally have got around to fixing all of them, and when I perform a search for such artists in the SBS web interface, no more such tracks appear (I wiped and rescanned the library).

However, the library that appears in Win 7's WMP still has all these old tags. I'm not sure if this is a WMP issue or a Whitebear issue, but either way, how do I get the cache cleared?

Thanks!

[Wigster]

Hi,

So I have completely wiped the WMP-12 library cache on my client, and indeed it now downloads the new library being served by Whitebear.

However, now I have a strange thing: I have about 500 tracks which seems to have various HTML markup commands as titles instead of what should be there. I've attached a screenshot. Clearly they don't play. All the fields for these tracks are unknown and the file path is empty.

Some tracks do seem to be missing from the library proper, so something unkosher is going on.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/15242944/WB.PNG

What should I investigate?

[vagskal]

I cannot get any music to play on my Squeezeboxes from JRiver Media Center using Send to or playing on a SB player zone. My Squeexboxes show up under Playing Now as [SB player name] (by Whitebear) but MC reports a problem controlling the selected DLNA device.

I am using SBS latest 7.6.2 and the latest Whitebear version with MC 17, latest beta. MC runs on a Win 7 64 bit PC and SBS runs on a Win XP PC on the same wired local network. Only Windows firewall on both PCs and on the XP PC Whitebear is among the exceptions and on the Win 7 PC MC is among the exceptions; this must have been set automatically by the programs. MC is using files on a usb disc connected to the Win 7 PC and SBS is using an exact copy of the files from another usb disc connected to the Win XP PC. I could make MC see the same files as SBS with the exact same paths if necessary.

None of the settings in Whitebear for "J. River Internet Reader" is selected. In MC I have only one DLNA server, the stock "Generic DLNA" and I have set MC to never convert audio (an set the encoder to uncompressed).

Any ideas?

[AndrewFG]

So I have completely wiped the WMP-12 library cache on my client, and indeed it now downloads the new library being served by Whitebear.

Hi Wigster,

You are correct that one way to reset WMP is to delete its cache. Another way is to right click on the "Your Library (by Whitebear)" and select Refresh..

However, now I have a strange thing: I have about 500 tracks which seems to have various HTML markup commands as titles instead of what should be there. I've attached a screenshot. Clearly they don't play. All the fields for these tracks are unknown and the file path is empty.

Some tracks do seem to be missing from the library proper, so something unkosher is going on.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/15242944/WB.PNG

What should I investigate?

Yes indeed that does look very odd; basically Whitebear just acts as an intermediary between the client (in your case WMP) and Squeezebox Server. So I think the first thing you should check is whether the same "track" also appears in the Squeezebox web UI. This might give some hint about whate the track is, and why it appears in the library.

[AndrewFG]

My Squeexboxes show up under Playing Now as [SB player name] (by Whitebear) but MC reports a problem controlling the selected DLNA device.

What exactly does the problem report say?

I could make MC see the same files as SBS with the exact same paths if necessary.

It is not necessary to make MC see the same files. Indeed if you do that, it is a recipe for total confusion since JRMC will then show two libraries containg the exact same files, and you will not be able to determine what is trying to be played from where to what... (see my question 3) below...) Personally I recommend to test things first with a few completely separate and uniquely named and tagged files on each machine so that you can work out what is going on.

None of the settings in Whitebear for "J. River Internet Reader" is selected. In MC I have only one DLNA server, the stock "Generic DLNA" and I have set MC to never convert audio (an set the encoder to uncompressed).

I don't think any of this is relevant to your case.

Any ideas?

Four things:

1) Try restarting both computers.

2) Try pressing the JRMC Play/Pause/Volume/Mute controls...

3) Please tell me exactly what you are trying to do: Are you a) trying to play a track from J. R. Media Center's own media library (the files local to the JRMC machine), or are you b) trying to play a track from SBS library (the files local to the SBS machine) that Whitebear is causing to show up in J. R. Media Center?

4) Turn on logging for HTTP Server in Whitebear, and capture the what happens when you do the Play To command. Open the log file and look for commands containing the string #SetAVTransportUri and #Play -- if you don't see such commands, then you have a firewall problem. Whereas if you do see such commands, please send me the log file.

[vagskal]

Thanks for the reply!

What exactly does the problem report say?

In MC: "There was a problem controlling the selected DLNA device. Double-check your device, server, and network settings." and then another message: "Something went wrong with plavback."

1) Try restarting both computers.

2) Try pressing the JRMC Play/Pause/Volume/Mute controls...

3) Please tell me exactly what you are trying to do: Are you a) trying to play a track from J. R. Media Center's own media library (the files local to the JRMC machine), or are you b) trying to play a track from SBS library (the files local to the SBS machine) that Whitebear is causing to show up in J. R. Media Center?

4) Turn on logging for HTTP Server in Whitebear, and capture the what happens when you do the Play To command. Open the log file and look for commands containing the string #SetAVTransportUri and #Play -- if you don't see such commands, then you have a firewall problem. Whereas if you do see such commands, please send me the log file.

I have tried 1 and 2 with no luck and will do 4 a little later when I have some more time.

As regards 3, it is option a) I am after. I want to play flac files from my MC library, residing on the MC PC, with no transcoding on my Squeezeboxes, preferably with all the "normal" info available on the Squeezeboxes. I was told this was possible.

[AndrewFG]

I want to play flac files from my MC library, residing on the MC PC, with no transcoding on my Squeezeboxes, preferably with all the "normal" info available on the Squeezeboxes. I was told this was possible.

Yes, this is indeed possible. So please send me the log whenever convenient.