feature request

[simoncn]

(10-02-2012 02:25)psme Wrote:  I see, so there goes my dream! I fully understand the ideal way to is define a industry standard for all parties to agree. But in reality, that is hopeless! Linn has been pushing it's UPnP extension for years, and it seems simply won't happen.

Thanks for all the comment. I guess I better start by making me a server first...

PS: on a second thought, maybe this can be done on the smart Controller side too. A generic UPnP server browse (or search) should get all the URL for each song. Then the Controller can brute force all tag info by reading the actual song header section to find real tag info...

I think your dream can happen, but it might take a bit more time. I think there's a very good chance of creating new standards. Linn has set up OpenHome as a place to create new standards (see this link), and this might be an idea that Linn would consider adding to OpenHome if they get support for it from makers of popular servers and control points.

For any successful standard, it's not just a question of having a specification. The standard needs to be supported and implemented by a number of different vendors and products so that it becomes widely used. This gives it critical mass and a good chance of being adopted by the whole industry.

It's very early days with MinimServer, and at the moment I'm doing my best to make MinimServer work with existing standards rather than trying to invent new standards or extensions to standards. When MinimServer becomes more established and widely used, that will be the right time to start discussions with other people about things that could be done to extend and improve the standards.

For now, your suggestion would work. By reading the URL and parsing the data returned, the controller can get any tag information. The main problem with this approach would be performance issues because of the large amount of data sent across the network.

The other thing you could do is use the existing industry standard information that MinimServer sends to the controller. This includes quite a lot of information (album, artist, composer, date, conductor, genre, artwork, audio properties) and this should be enough to try out your ideas on the controller side.

Simon