RELEASE Generic Media Renderer (DLNA Speakers). Cheap Sonos Alternative (Update V2)

hi @plantucha, it depends on each device, some devices like jongo and sonos suport grouping to syncronize the sounnd in different speakers, sonos have a good documentation for that but I dont known how jongo works, each brand use a custom sync way. If you dont want a sync audio, you can send the same file or streaming to several speakers , but they dont going to be in sync, most dlna speakers do not support in sync.

is there a way or app on Android that would make a spare tablet an endpoint? prior to coming to ST, I had Vera Alerts do this. looking for similar.

Hi Ule

I have a v2 hub installed.
I have a smarttiles panel installed on a wall. I have installed both media renderer and player. Everything ok I can see the media player under things. Now I added app Speaker Notify with Sound. I can hear messages when motion and so on. It seems that I am not able to play music. On my smart tiles tablet on the wall I have several music albums and I would like to play them (and stream to DLNA) without leaving smart tiles, is there a way to do it?
thanks

Hi @sballoz , You can play music in background, just use a control point and expose your music with a dlna server (UPnP Monkey or Bubble UPnP)

If you’re wanting it for speech notifications, my LANdroid will do that. The Android portion should be live (free) on Google Play soon, the rest free here.

Hi Ule and thanks for the tip.
I can now press play and stop and it works, is it correct that it does not allow me to move to next and previous song of my playlist?
thanks again
fab

I’m thinking about trying to repurpose an old bose sounddock to use with this app. Can anyone recommend a moderately priced hardware device that could be plugged into the aux port of the sounddock?

Hi @dc1515 try this

Thanks @ule I will roll the dice with the least device.

I have this working well with Kodi running on a Windows machine and my Onkyo TX-NR609… thanks for that! Should it also work with a Chromecast Audio? I could only find one post via a search.

Thanks

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Unfortunately, Chromecast Audio does not support DLNA…

I’m struggling with this as well, as I have several quality Bluetooth speakers and would like to populate them with Chromecasts.

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Forget it, remembering what i did wrong, haha :slight_smile:

try this:

Not sure what I’m doing wrong, but whenever I try to use this it just crashes my SmartThings App. I’m trying to use it w/a Logitech Media Server setup and I’ve added the Connector SmartApp, run that, then add a device (or even just try to click on the player shown as a ‘thing’) and it immediately crashes the actual app on my phone.

Really not certain what’s going on - DLNA from the software works fine via Windows Media Player on my PC.

Edit: Just realized I also have a Plex and WHS DLNA server on the same machine as LMS. All show up fine on WMP, but might be the issue? No idea.

Hi @necromancyr

  1. Have you installed the device type ?

when a new dlna player is installed, the default name is “(your device name) speaker” , if you have a device named “thing” is not a speaker, “thing” its a common name to devices who has not recognized by smartthings, maybe other device you have.

My suggestion its to uninstall the MediaRenderer Connect and the Player device type, and start again the process, its easy just follow the instructions

Please read the instructions in github page

I did actually do that (uninstall/delete and reinstall) - both the connector and the device type. Tried a few times to make sure I wasn’t screwing something up. The names of DLNA items have come up after running the connector, and then I’ve configured (named, selected, etc.) Once I select that item, it crashes the app.

In the IDE/web interface, the DLNA speaker device does come up correctly, the simulation displays correctly, etc., but not in the app.

Just to run through my process (v2 Hub/app):

  • Start MediaRenderer (Connect) App, run discovery process. Select device one it appears. Only one appears even though there are at least 3 DLNA devices on my network and 3 ‘outputs’ for the Logitech Squeezebox (2 Radio’s and a Boom)
  • Check the one that appears in connector, press done.
  • Press done again.
  • Press done again (exits MediaRenderer Connect App)
  • Under ‘Things’, ‘Squeezebox Radio…’ now appears. Selecting it crashes the app immediately. Nothing in the IDE log when it happens.
  • In Marketplace, Things, select ‘Not Yet configured (1)’ and there is a DLNA Player. Select it.
  • Rename to something else just to shorten name.
  • Select a room.
  • Click Next.
  • App asks about smart apps to control/automate, I just click done.
  • When I select the new item/device I added (now with the new name) under things or the room, app immediately crashes. (again, no logging of anything in live logging)

It appears the device is sending a message to the app when the app sends a refresh in the device events list. It’s an unknown message type, value of “08557fb6a74822f2e0b5a8faead415a8”.

What am I missing?

I installed renderer connect and DLNA player.
I was able to successfully locate my receiver (Sony STR-DN1050) I was able to control the receiver.
how do I setup voice notification now? I’m using this receiver as a test until I pick up a DLNA speaker.

Picked up a WD TV - took a long while for ST to find it (hub v2). Works as described. Having issues with the TTS functions, but Internet radio and dogs barking works well. Beyond excited to see what I can do with this - big thank you to @ule for all the work. I am noticing that in some of the apps - I need it play with the code since it isnt sonos but in other apps I see it is setup for both. Keep up the good work, I can see the changes.

  • Wish I could shorten the lag time. Is this since it is pulling audio from the web? With the WDTV can I use a USB stick and store media files on it to play from? example dogs barking? It doesnt seem very realistic if the dogs start barking 8 seconds after a button is pressed… LOL

I am also having this problem, any progress?