[Tip] Using Android Honeycomb/Icecream to browse and control an X2 remotely.

[jer1956]

Using the Med500x2 DMR with Android Honeycomb/Icecream as a Remote Browser/Controller.

(Tested using 2.0.7 Firmware)

The X2 comes with a DLNA DMR function. That stands for Digital Living Network Alliance Digital Media Renderer. That means another DLNA device can use the Med500x2 to process media without you having to do anything else with the Med500x2 other than turning it on. Music can be played without having to turn on the TV, or you can display photo's on your TV directly from your phone.

A Device which  controls this process is called a DLNA DMC - Digital Media Controller. You can get DMC apps for many devices - Android phones/tabs -  Iphone/Ipad.

Android Honeycomb dosn't come with a DMC installed. Android Market has a lot of them, but not all are able to  detect both the X2's DMR, and the X2's Upnp server successfully. One that does is Bubbleupnp.  

Setting Up

To use the DMR you have to first set up a reliable Network connection between the Med500x2 and a PC/Mac. This will show that the X2 is able to work correctly as a Networked device.

It's crucial to make sure UPNP mode is working. Try using Media Library - Upnp and make sure you connect. If you can't, UPNP is probably disabled in your router, so change your router setup to enable it.

Make sure the X2 is powered up, and both the DMR and the Upnp server is enabled (See Addendum 1). Now go to Android Market and install BubbleUpnp Trial.  Then open bubbleupnp.  The first thing that happens is that you get a message saying "scanning for devices", displayed on top of what is the "Now Playing" page. At the bottom of the page are 4 big buttons. When the device scan is complete, press the Devices button.  You will see two columns  of devices. On the left are the Renderers, and you should see the Realtek DMR in that column. Select it.  On the right are the Upnp Servers.  Select the Mediatomb server with the X2's Network Name.

Next press the big Library button. You will see a page with the X2's Network Name, and underneath A folder marked PC Directory. Select that and keep going down through the levels unit you reach HDD:. Now hold your finger on it, you will first get a blue line, keep holding until a list of options appears. Select Bookmark. Now go to main options list, top right, and select exit.  

 
Use


When you start BubbleUpnp select the Library option, followed by Bookmarks. Select Folders, followed by HDD. You can now browse HDD:.  When you have a file to play, the Now Playing screen will appear, the top Left showing that you are using the Realtek DMR. By now the X2 will have engaged the Screen saver, and be too unresponsive for Bubble.  An "Action Late" message will appear. So  you have to press Play a number of times to wake up the X2 (See Issues).  When you have finished using the DMR you need to press and hold the BubbleUpnp Play button for 4 or 5 seconds and the normal X2 screen will return.


Although this process is often called "pushing" the DLNA implementaion is more subtle. The DMC actually tells the DMR the location of a file it wants it to play, and the DMR instigates the transfer itself using Upnp, so the DMR is "pulling" the files in.  So the X2's DMR is getting the files directly from the Mediatomb Server, not via Bubbleupnp. Try turning off your Tab whilst a file is playing and see whats happens!

Issues

1)The DMR function appears to bypass the unwrapping code used by the main code to unwrap .iso and mkv. So only packages native to the codec chip will play.

2) An error message saying "Action Timeout" appears often, accompanied by no response from the DMR. I am in contact with Bubbleguuum, the developers about this.

Extra

If you select Local Renderer in Bubbleupnp Devices, the files will play on the Android Device. BubbleUpnp is not limited to the supplied Android mediaplyer for this. It can detect other installed mediaplayers, but not all makes. In this way you can add streaming sources to those Mediaplayers normally limited to playing off SD card. I have Dice Player installed , as most other players wouldn't work in hardware mode. So I am able to stream DVD sourced MKV's on the X2 to my Android Tab, and play them using the Dice Player using Hardware Acceleration.


Addendum 1


Servers which respond to WOL are not powered down. They are powered up, and in Sleep mode. It would seem that Mediatomb is not actually Off when disabled, but in Sleep mode instead. So Bubbleupnp is able to both detect the Mediatomb server, and use WOL to wake it up. This bypasses the issue of setup not being able to keep Mediatomb On after reboots.

[Skylinc]

I will definitely give this a try this weekend! 

[jer1956]

Bump....the latest version is more reliable...but not without timeout issues. It does now get the x2 to play mkv off it's own upnp server.

[DannyBiker]

Will this only help me to play files from the mede8er on my Tablet or will I be able to browse my collection and control the mede8er from the Tablet ?

[Maasbommel]

Danny - see the post title - so the last you say.

[maxx]

Thanks for this jer1956. Setup and working without a problem on my S2   

[skn]

Is there better that say using an android app remote control app that uses the web remote functionality of mede8er?

I guess the main difference is that with the DMC/DMR functionality you don't need to switch the TV on, which is useful when you want to play audio that is piped through an external sound system. Am I right?

[Maasbommel]

I guess the main difference is that with the DMC/DMR functionality you don't need to switch the TV on, which is useful when you want to play audio that is piped through an external sound system. Am I right?

Exact, that is the wish from some and this is the way to be able to do that.

[jer1956]

Is there better that say using an android app remote control app that uses the web remote functionality of mede8er?

I guess the main difference is that with the DMC/DMR functionality you don't need to switch the TV on, which is useful when you want to play audio that is piped through an external sound system. Am I right?

Some people may find browsing their phone photo's on the phone..and then pushing them to the TV for display is more convinient. That way you can filter them..avoids others seeing embarising  ones.

[skn]

Thanks for the clarification. That makes sense. I just installed the Android app (nice btw) and was wondering which was better for normal TV playing purpose.

[Unreal]

I have Serviio (v1.0.1) running on my PC acting as DMS.
I have BubbleUPNP (v1.5.1) running on my Droid phone (Razr Maxx with ICS) acting as DMC.
I have the MED450X2 (v2.0.7) setup with UPNP to act as DMR.

I can successfully play MP3 files this way, but I notice there is no album art displayed on the Mede8er, though the basic player controls do show.  If I play the same MP3 file attached via USB in the normal way, the album art does show, so there is no issue with the embedded art...it is only an issue when trying to display it when playing the MP3 file via DMR.

Am I doing something wrong, or is it not possible to display embedded album art in MP3 files when played on the Mede8er as a DMR?

[Maasbommel]

It is not capable showing embedded art on the screen when running in Upnp / DMR mode.
I see exactly the same.

[Unreal]

That is too bad, but thank you for the reply.

I can play some video using the DMR on the Mede8er, like WMV files, but when I try to play MKV or MP4 video files, the DMC (BubbleUPNP) generates an error of "no compatible decoder found".  How do I resolve this?  Does it need a decoder on the DMC, the DMS, or the DMR (Mede8er)?

[Unreal]

Nevermind.  I resolved this in the advanced settings for the DMC by unchecking the box for mime-type check.

[Unreal]

I discovered I can also use this configuration to play video playlists (which the X2 cannot do on its own).  Unfortunately, it only works if the video files are accessible by the DMS, and the Mede8er does not have a DMS (only DMR).  So looks like all of my media will be on USB drives attached to the Mede8er, except for music videos which I will put on my PC running Serviio (DMS) with multiple "random" playlists on my phone (DMC), and use the DMR on the Mede8er to render the music videos in what will appear to be a random order (but actually just one of several playlists).