SageTV UPnP Client as a tuner?

[SilentBob]

As I am working on building out my digital media solution, I am a bit surprised to find that there isn't much UPnP integration with SageTV.

I understand why the Sage developers might not want SageTV Server serving up a UPnP feed as that would likely cut into Placeshifter and Extender sales since people could use more devices to access the media served by SageTV without having to license it.

However, as I see it, with the number of cheap, free, and embedded UPnP servers, if someone is *really* interested in serving their SageTV content via UPnP there 95% solutions to get around that problem.

But what about supporting UPnP streams as virtual "tuners" into SageTV?

Cidero, TVersity, PlayOn, Rhapsody, MythTV, iTunes (via Allegro), and more all stream their content via UPnP.

Integrating a UPnP client into SageTV as a tuner could accomplish several things at once.
1) it could make SageServer *the* central aggregation point for all home media.
2) It would simplify the basic integration of other features that are already built in to other products that support UPnP
3) It would provide an easy way to have near-synced playback of media in every room of the house.
4) Extend UPnP functionality to HD100 extenders as well.

Imagine the scenario:
A friend brings over a laptop with a music collection organized in iTunes with Allegro Server running.
Connect the laptop to the network, add a UPnP tuner for the iTunes Allegro server, start streaming a song/playlist and tune every SageTV extender to that UPnP tuner and each room with an extender should now be streaming the iTunes playlist.

Am I missing or overlooking something here? It doesn't seem like this would be a difficult feature to add and I think it would add a great deal of functionality.

[Tikker]

I don't see the benefit, personally.

[jpaddock3000]

I like the idea. I think it makes a lot of sense.

[sbherculano]

This really make a lot of sense, the UPnP and DLNA could really improve the use of Media Center because it allow a seamless integration in a easy way. All level of people can use it.

Regards

[MrFusion]

Hi,

I like the idea of SageTV server acting as a upnp client as well (especially if this becomes available to extenders). Could also possibly help with transcoding (eg WMA Lossless -- TVersity or Windows Media Player can transcode to eg PCM).

Cheers.

[mistergq]

SageTV allows playon now, including to the extenders.

http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/showthread.php?t=44446

[MrFusion]

Originally Posted by mistergq

SageTV allows playon now, including to the extenders.

http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/showthread.php?t=44446

Great, thanks.

Will that allow me to stream audio off any upnp server I have on my network?

Does it support SageMC?


Cheers!

[Fuzzy]

Check into the WebFeedEncoder. I believe it will take pretty much anything that can be played by VNC, and put it on it's own channel in sage's guide. Seems to be what you are looking for.

[stuckless]

The HD200 is a upnp client (in stand alone mode only - unless i'm missing something in their documentation) so it's likely that sage may include upnp client support at some time. But, upnp client support and "upnp has a tuner" are 2 very different things.

upnp is a complex beast (I know because I've tried to implement the mediaserver part of the spec, but then I found other libraries that did it for me). There are provisions for TV in the spec, but it was added as an afterthought, and it's not well thought out, which is why my media renders don't actually implement that part of the spec. Even on the renderer side, it's a complex task to be compliant with the various servers. When I testing out things, I could get the xbox media center to view a list, but then the ps3 would not show anything. That is currently the problem with ps3/xbox clients, the servers have to be "tweaked" for both to see content.

The problem with wanting the upnp client to see servers as tuners, is that the model doesn't fit very well. Tuners are related to the epg for recordings. So trying to make a upnp server behave like a tuner would be really hard, and I'm not sure you'd gain much over just having a standard upnp client (much like online videos, except upnp)

[mistergq]

Originally Posted by MrFusion

Great, thanks.

Will that allow me to stream audio off any upnp server I have on my network?

Does it support SageMC?


Cheers!

Yes, it works with SageMC. The latest edition of SageMC reverts to default Sage for Online Video. When you are done, you just go back to SageMC.

I am not sure about the streaming audio.