Try MM 4.1--major changes/improvements have been made in this area.

-Rusty

[quote="FiLou"]
If you want to compare further: I also use slimserver for my squeezebox streaming devices. All music is nicely ordened in a music tree with different levels of hierarchy. Can't be that difficult to implement something similar in MM? Looks a bit like the quick and easy solution now.[/quote]And can you get to tracks with out Album under the Artist node?

I fully agree with Andre.

In MM4 DLNA/UPnP server you get only one level of hierarchy in your music tree. Once you past that one level (e.g. artist) you get a full list of albums and all tracks mixed up.
I understand that this is what MM does on a PC, but it makes MM unusable on streaming devices with a simpler UI. And it's a strange behaviour...

If you want to compare further: I also use slimserver for my squeezebox streaming devices. All music is nicely ordened in a music tree with different levels of hierarchy. Can't be that difficult to implement something similar in MM? Looks a bit like the quick and easy solution now.

Will need to be changed before I use MM as UPnP/DLNA server. Disappointing: I upgraded to MM4 for the server feature.

Regards,

Filip.

[quote="Andre Gosselin"]I am experimenting with the MM 4 DLNA server, comparing it with 2 others I have used so far, namely those of Foobar 2000 and TwonkyMedia. With MM4 DLNA server, once you navigate to the next to last level of objects, the client is sent both the list of albums AND the list of tracks.

For ex., let say that on the DLNA client you navigate as follows :
[b]Music[/b] > [b]Artist[/b] > [i]someartist[/i]
and [i]someartist [/i]has the following albums and tracks:
album1
a1-trk1
a1-trk2
...
album2
a2-trk1
a2-trk2
...

The DLNA client is then presented with the following list:
album1
album2
a1-trk1
a1-trk2
...
a2-trk1
a2-trk2
...

The list presented after selecting [i]someartist[/i] mixes both albums and tracks. Selecting "album1" or "album2" will resut in a list of the respective album tracks, as expected. But those tracks should NOT be listed alongside the albums once the artist is selected. This behavior is counterintuitive and no other DLNA server I have tried does that. Also, mixing tracks and albums like the MM4 server does results in huge and possibly unmanageable lists for artists with lots of albums. Think for ex. of J.S. Bach for whom one like me could have > 200 albums with an average of 20 tracks each.

Would there be a way to avoid mixing albums and tracks ?

Except for that, the MM4 DLNA server does a good job. It would however be very interesting to be able to configure the server output in a way similar to what "magicnodes" allows with the tree node. TwonkyMedia and Foobar2000 servers permit such customization of their output.

Thanks for your help.[/quote]

http://www.ventismedia.com/mantis/view.php?id=9867

[quote="Guest"]plus a list of > 2000 tracks[/quote]Sounds unmanageable anyway.

[quote="Guest"]The list of tracks presented at the previous browsing level cannot be used in practice[/quote]It first of all includes tracks that don't have an Album or are on an Album by a different Artist. Thus the list has its use. Sorting is supposed to be the same as shown in MediaMonkey.

[quote="Guest"]Allowing some customization (ala MagicNodes) would, I think, be a solution.[/quote]See: http://www.ventismedia.com/mantis/view.php?id=8740 and http://www.ventismedia.com/mantis/view.php?id=9264

Previous message by "Guest" was sent by myself. Forgot to login to the forum first.

It may be consistent with MM behavior, but it unfortunately makes the DLNA server unusable for artists with a lot of albums with a lot of tracks per album. To go back to my J.S. Bach example, imagine having to deal with a list of >100 albums, plus a list of > 2000 tracks, all presented on a ipod-sized screen !

Another issue is that, in the resulting combined list of all tracks of all albums of the artist, the tracks are NOT ordered by album/track number, but alphabetically by title irrespective of the album. For classical music where it is imperative to keep tracks in the original album order, this means that the list is effectively useless. Mixing album tracks is a nonsense. To correctly listen to Beethoven Symphony #9 by Karajan, you have no choice but select the album entry, for which the MM DLNA server will this time present the tracks in their correct (and only useful) album order. The list of tracks presented at the previous browsing level cannot be used in practice, and took time to process by the DLNA client. Why waste time and resources on the DLNA client.

I know of no other DLNA server thats behaves like that. I suggest that MM rethinks the way the DLNA server presents its output. Allowing some customization (ala MagicNodes) would, I think, be a solution.

Cheers

That behavior is consistent with MediaMonkey's behavior as it does the same in MediaMonkey itself (ie. all tracks belonging to Artist are shown on any selected Artist).

I am experimenting with the MM 4 DLNA server, comparing it with 2 others I have used so far, namely those of Foobar 2000 and TwonkyMedia. With MM4 DLNA server, once you navigate to the next to last level of objects, the client is sent both the list of albums AND the list of tracks.

For ex., let say that on the DLNA client you navigate as follows :
[b]Music[/b] > [b]Artist[/b] > [i]someartist[/i]
and [i]someartist [/i]has the following albums and tracks:
album1
a1-trk1
a1-trk2
...
album2
a2-trk1
a2-trk2
...

The DLNA client is then presented with the following list:
album1
album2
a1-trk1
a1-trk2
...
a2-trk1
a2-trk2
...

The list presented after selecting [i]someartist[/i] mixes both albums and tracks. Selecting "album1" or "album2" will resut in a list of the respective album tracks, as expected. But those tracks should NOT be listed alongside the albums once the artist is selected. This behavior is counterintuitive and no other DLNA server I have tried does that. Also, mixing tracks and albums like the MM4 server does results in huge and possibly unmanageable lists for artists with lots of albums. Think for ex. of J.S. Bach for whom one like me could have > 200 albums with an average of 20 tracks each.

Would there be a way to avoid mixing albums and tracks ?

Except for that, the MM4 DLNA server does a good job. It would however be very interesting to be able to configure the server output in a way similar to what "magicnodes" allows with the tree node. TwonkyMedia and Foobar2000 servers permit such customization of their output.

Thanks for your help.