The difficulty of using Airplay/DNLA

Get answers about sharing MediaMonkey for Windows 4 with different devices.

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gah789
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Joined: Sat Dec 29, 2018 4:31 pm

The difficulty of using Airplay/DNLA

Post by gah789 »

There are times when I think that software developers have a death wish because they resolutely ignore trends that affect the usability and future demand for their software.
I have a lifetime licence for Media Monkey which I use intermittently when other music managers cause problems or become too annoying. Recently I have acquired a number of AirPlay/DNLA speakers and interfaces to hi-fi equipment. With iTunes it is simply a matter of click and connect to play music through these devices. Unfortunately iTunes is a huge and clumsy program which can't be configured, but at least it works with a minimum of fuss.
Now compare that with Media Monkey. It may offer a huge range of options and features but try to get to play through an AirPlay speaker. Having wasted a day on trying to do this - following the guidance on this forum, etc - I have given up. That is your future gone!
I have spent decades as a software developer and now design, build & operate broadband networks. I don't deal with audio/video software but I do understand the basics of networking audio equipment. Media Monkey recognises that there are AirPlay/DNLA devices on the network but then it has entirely stupid defaults for the server - where does the IP address 192.168.56.1 for the server come from? None of my broadband customers have any interest in configuring the DLNA/UPnP options offered - that is the whole point of plug and play. If Apple can do it, why can't you?
Instead what you offer is a plug-in that is 5 years old and has not, apparently, been maintained or developed in that period. Of course, I know that there are alternatives such as Airfoil or Tuneblade that might solve the problem but expecting users to struggle with interfacing to one of them is just a recipe for turning them away.
Airplay and DNLA are not niche products. They are the future of music players for the majority of the population who rely primarily on streaming services controlled from mobile devices. The failure to find an easy way of connecting Media Monkey to them is, as I said at the outset, simply a route to irrelevance. I may find iTunes annoying but it does 90% of what I - and billions of others - want. When are you going to wake up and respond to the way in which the expectations of your potential customers changing?
Peke
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Re: The difficulty of using Airplay/DNLA

Post by Peke »

Hi,
Thank you for lengthy post, bit hard to read, but I get your point of not having PnP from start (I remember when it first was introduces 1995(?) was called "Plug aNd Pray!").

If you were working as Software Developer for decades then you should already know that with Apple nothing is simple and working (sorry, unless you use Apple products and software).

Also as like you say you design and operate broadband networks, then you should know how easy is to probe/ping LAN/WLAN IPs to get both ip, MAC and even services ports that can be simply added to MMW or its plugins, how to pass and distribute Multicast/Unicast/IGMP/MLD packets thru network in order to get to devices you want and also how to correctly set and manage VLAN/NAT/DMZ/SUA/Port forwarding and IP isolation without even going into Routing (MikroTik including), L2/L2+/L3 MIBs along with advanced QoS, ...

On the other side MMW do support DLNA renderers (MM5 even support Device Grouping and Chromecast) which setting should be a piece of cake for your expertise.

MediaMonkey never natively supported AirPlay and http://emilles.dyndns.org/software/out_apx.html that is now 3 YEARS OLD based on user feedback done more than good job and thus listed in our addons page and suggested for AirPlay solution (as we do not natively support AirPlay) that many found working.

Now that is cleared, what can I/we do to not officially help you regarding Apple system on non Apple OS and in third party application like MediaMonkey to support AirPlay thru third party Plugin we do not support officially?
Best regards,
Peke
MediaMonkey Team lead QA/Tech Support guru
Admin of Free MediaMonkey addon Site HappyMonkeying
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Lowlander
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Joined: Sat Sep 06, 2003 5:53 pm
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Re: The difficulty of using Airplay/DNLA

Post by Lowlander »

AirPlay is an Apple technology. DLNA on the other hand is used by a lot of the industry and should work across devices and software from any manufacturer. Generally right click on the Player, Choose Player would allow you to select your DLNA capable client.
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