[ChristianRiedl]

I am using XBMC on Apple TV with a self made DLNA server (based on Platinum SDK). Thumbnails are not even not working (at minimum on IOS version) there is also a bug :
A DLNA server can supply several resource elements for 1 media item. For example for a picture you can have a resource element for the thumbnail, one for low, medium and high resolution.
The resource elements have a protocolInfo attribute which contains the DLNA profile id JPEG_TN, JPEG_SM, JPEG_MED, JPEG_LRG. I verified that XBMC does not handle this multiple resources correctly. I guess it uses simply the first one. If it is the thumbnail XBMC displays a photo with 160 * 160 resolution. If a thumbnail is defined for a video it tries to play a jpeg thumbnail instead of the mp4 movie.

After modifying my DLNA server to deliver only one resource it works, but of course did not make use of the thumbnails. During this test I found another problem. During uPNP Browse operation the XBMC identifies itself as "Platinum/0.5.3.0, DLNADOC/1.50" when it accessed the media file the identification is “XBMC/….”. this is also not correct.

Beside thumbnail a “noble” DLNA server delivers a lot of additional metadata which makes it needless to browse movie databases and all that stuff. This information should also be used from XBMC.

I know the idea behind XBMC is to be more than a media player. But on the other hand we have now a different situation. Every new TV implements a DLNA player, Audio devices support DLNA servers. On Apples app store approx. 10 different DLNA players are offered. So the only possible place for all that metadata stuff is the server containing the media. And hopefully the DLNA server is able to provide it to the players.

Quite often I get the advice to use a SMB share. Quite simple : DLNA / uPNP is the standard and defines the only standardized, platform independent technology to provide media and metadata to many, many media player products.

Christian

[Memphiz]

It seems that you have enough knowledge for coming up with a patch for XBMC for fixing these issues. This would be highly appreciated of course

[ChristianRiedl]

To solve my uPNP problems with XBMC I jumped into the cold water and built XBMC. After debugging and studying the sources I found out some things which maybe are useful for other uPNP guys too.

XBMC uses platinum SDK 5.3.0, current version is 6.7.0. Some kinds of metadata like movie actors, directors, ... are not supported because of the old version.

XBMC uses always the first resource element in the media item description.
So the "main" resource should be at the first position.

XBMC uses upnp:albumArtURI not only for audio items but also for movies and picture thumbnails. JPEG_TN resources which are normally used for this purpose are not supported.

I was able to implement work arrounds in my uPNP server and XBMC on Apple TV 2 is now working really great as uPNP player. So for me it is not really necessary to produce a patch. Improving XBMC uPNP integration is a job which requires more time than I can spend.

Christian

[gregger2k]

I also have the problem in Eden with JPG's in the movie folders on the DLNA server.
XBMC shows the thumbnails correctly, but, it also tries to play the JPEG as the movie. If the movie folder has no thumbnails it plays correctly.

The movies and thumbnails display correctly on a Samsung blue-ray player.

I do not want to strip out all the artwork to get the movies to play but providing a patch to XBMC is above my head

Thanks, Greg

[cc2099]

*** UPDATE ***
After I observed similar behavior on a WDTV Live I decided to install a different upnp server, Serviio and found that this bizarre behavior went away and therefore had nothing to do with XBMC after all. The fault was being caused by PS3 Media Server.

*** ORIGINAL POST ***
I'm also using XBMC Eden 11.0 on an Apple TV 2 and have seen the problem you've mentioned. On my upnp server, PS3 Media Server 1.5.0 , I have the option to specify that xbmc should not be provided with image files. This has mostly fixed the problem but there is now a new problem where XBMC displays the same file twice. This is what I've observed so far:

Behavior Mode 0: If there are any number of video files in a directory and no thumbnails:
- everything works as expected

Behavior Mode 1: If there are 15 or fewer video files plus an equal number of thumbnails in a directory:
- everything works as expected
- only the video files are listed
- thumbnails are used for each video file in the list

Behavior Mode 2: If there are 16 or more video files plus an equal number of thumbnails in a directory:
- the first few video files are listed without duplicates
- depending on the number of video files, 1 to 4 of the last video files are listed without duplicates
- the video files in the middle of the list are displayed twice.
- thumbnails are used for each video file in the list (including video files displayed twice)

Here is an example of a file listing:
Episode_01
Episode_02
Episode_03
Episode_04
Episode_05
Episode_06
Episode_07
Episode_08 } Files in the middle
Episode_08 } of the list
Episode_09 } are displayed twice
Episode_09 }
Episode_10 }
Episode_10 }
Episode_11 }
Episode_11 }
Episode_12 }
Episode_12 }
Episode_13 }
Episode_13 }
Episode_14 }
Episode_14 }
Episode_15 }
Episode_15 }
Episode_16


Behavior Mode 2 can be observed easily by using a directory with 15 video files and then adding a 16th to the directory. Go up one level in the directory hierarchy and then back into the directory. Behavior Mode 1 can be observed by removing the 16th video file, going up one level in the directory hierarchy and then back into the directory.

If I had to guess what the root cause of the problem is, I would say that a bitmask is being applied incorrectly somewhere in the XBMC code or maybe a variable type that can't hold a value larger than 0F hex.

[elupus]

ChristianRiedl do you happen to have some dlna spec on JPEG_TN in res elements. It's not part of standard UPnP specs sadly.