Can JRiver be used to transcode on the fly, then feed 16 bit tracks to Sonos as a UPnP share?

[wappinghigh]

Can JRiver be used to transcode on the fly then feed 16 bit tracks to Sonos as a UPnP share?

 

Topic says it all really.

 

Yes or no?

 

If yes... Can it convert DSD>16 bit

Can it convert 24 bit AIFF >16 bit?

Can a JRiver library appear as a UPnP share of tracks within the Sonos GUI?

Can these tracks then be converted "on the fly", therefore streamed effectively simply by selecting them within Sonos?

 

Thanks

[Skeptic]

Yes, enable the Media Network and configure a DLNA server for your Sonos equipment.

[wappinghigh]

Ok. The various Sonos Renderer zone players appear in the JRiver GUI...

 

How do I get the JRiver UPnP library (In this case the one shared by MinimServer) to appear in the Sonos GUI?

[TimU]

Guys, I would like to do this also, but I am having trouble getting the Sonos devices to appear in JRiver. I enabled Media Network and configured a "Generic DLNA" server, but I don't see them. Any thoughts as to what I'm doing wrong?

 

I am running MC 17 on Windows 7. The Sonos equipment is brand new and works fine otherwise.

 

Thanks.

[DaQi]

It is possible but don't know how to make them appear. I just fiddled with things and then one day all my Sonos devices appeared and since then they have always been there.

 

I use it in an opposite sort of way in that I use my JRiver library and JRemote to play through my Sonos devices. JRiver transcodes everything. I haven't done a systematic test but I don't recall anything not playing and my library has a mix of just about every format out there.

 

I have six Sonos devices throughout the house and except for setting alarms rarely use the Sonos interface any more and mostly use JRiver/JRemote instead.

[Jabs1542]

I use Sonos the same as DaQi, as a device to stream JRMC through. I started with Sonos many years ago and when I recently installed JR 19 it found the devices and turned them into zones (after enabling DLNA). I then tested files and was shocked to discover that I could stream 24 bit and DSD to the Sonos zones! Apparently JRMC automatically knew to do this and down converted the files to 16 bit on the fly (maybe that's how it sends everything out on the network - don't know, don't care).

 

BTW - It doesn't work as well the other direction because the Sonos app (when using it to control the players) can see the high res files but won't play them - very frustrating. I ended up segregating everything above 16:44 to a folder named "Hi" and everything else into a folder named "Lo", then pointed Sonos to Lo. Now it can only see what it can play - less frustrating. JRMC didn't mind this at all and automatically picked all the changed pointers and fixed everything in it's database - very impressive.

 

You may wonder why I even bothered keeping the Sonos control app? Because JRMC does a very poor job of synchronizing the same music throughout the house (grouping all of the zones for a large party - I currently have 6 zones).

 

At the end of it all I have a single music library on the network that allows me to stream synchronized with Sonos, high res plus easy GUI for visitors with JRMC, and critical listening with HQPlayer.

[Paul R]

Can JRiver be used to transcode on the fly then feed 16 bit tracks to Sonos as a UPnP share?

 

Topic says it all really.

 

Yes or no?

 

If yes... Can it convert DSD>16 bit

Can it convert 24 bit AIFF >16 bit?

Can a JRiver library appear as a UPnP share of tracks within the Sonos GUI?

Can these tracks then be converted "on the fly", therefore streamed effectively simply by selecting them within Sonos?

 

Thanks

 

Lets see - Yes, Yes, and two I don't knows. I use JRemote to control the Sonos devices as remote zones.

[Cebolla]

I thought this thread died months ago due to loss of interest, presumably because the Sonos system can't actually access the majority of media servers via UPnP/DLNA, including JRiver's. So no real chance of getting JRMC's actual media library appearing on a Sonos GUI. Can Wap (the OP) confirm this?

 

 

 

I use Sonos the same as DaQi, as a device to stream JRMC through. I started with Sonos many years ago and when I recently installed JR 19 it found the devices and turned them into zones (after enabling DLNA). I then tested files and was shocked to discover that I could stream 24 bit and DSD to the Sonos zones!

 

BTW - It doesn't work as well the other direction because the Sonos app (when using it to control the players) can see the high res files but won't play them - very frustrating. I ended up segregating everything above 16:44 to a folder named "Hi" and everything else into a folder named "Lo", then pointed Sonos to Lo. Now it can only see what it can play - less frustrating. JRMC didn't mind this at all and automatically picked all the changed pointers and fixed everything in it's database - very impressive.

Jabs

 

The Sonos system 'seeing' the same music files that are being maintained by JRMC does not imply that it uses the JRiver's media library (via UPnP/DLNA) to do so. The only way it should be able to access them is via network file sharing (eg SMB/CIFS) and then you have to incorporate (ie the 'indexing' process) them into Sonos's own music media library in order to 'see' them within the Sonos system (ie using Sonos controllers / control apps). You have actually confirmed this when you mentioned that you 'pointed' Sonos to the "Lo" storage drive folder you created.

 

So the Sonos control app is using Sonos's own music library for playback of the music files and not JRiver's media library. Sonos does not support resolutions higher than 16/44.1, so its no surprise it couldn't play back those files. What is surprising is that its music library displays files that it can't play - certainly not the most useful of features!

 

John

[Jabs1542]

Can JRiver be used to transcode on the fly then feed 16 bit tracks to Sonos as a UPnP share?

 

Topic says it all really.

 

Yes or no?

 

If yes... Can it convert DSD>16 bit

 

yes

 

Can it convert 24 bit AIFF >16 bit?

 

yes

 

Can a JRiver library appear as a UPnP share of tracks within the Sonos GUI?

 

Yes but be careful, the Sonos app can see the library but Sonos itself cannot play the high res files - this is very frustrating. I ended up placing everything above 16:44 into a folder named "Hi" and everything else in a folder named "low". Then I pointed the Sonos app to Low. So when using JRMC as the player and JRemote for control I can see and play Hi and Low throughout the house but when using Sonos as the player and Sonos for control I can see and play Low only.

 

Can these tracks then be converted "on the fly", therefore streamed effectively simply by selecting them within Sonos?

 

No - at least I haven't found a way to get Sonos to command JRMC to play a file. Think of it as completely separate players having shared access to the same file storage of music (typically a NAS). In fact, I have JRMC, Sonos, and HQPlayer all providing their own special purpose when playing files off of the same NAS.

[Cebolla]

Can a JRiver library appear as a UPnP share of tracks within the Sonos GUI?

Yes but be careful, the Sonos app can see the library but Sonos itself cannot play the high res files - this is very frustrating. I ended up placing everything above 16:44 into a folder named "Hi" and everything else in a folder named "low". Then I pointed the Sonos app to Low. So when using JRMC as the player and JRemote for control I can see and play Hi and Low throughout the house but when using Sonos as the player and Sonos for control I can see and play Low only.

Jabs, are you certain that Sonos is actually using JRiver's library and not a bog standard networked shared folder? It would explain why transcoding via JRiver doesn't work, if Sonos is not actually using JRiver's media library.

 

How did you get Sonos to use the JRiver UPnP media server? Did you use a similar method as for connecting Sonos to a Windows UPnP media server or a Rhapsody UPnP server (which are the only two types of UPnP/DLNA media server that Sonos can use, AFAIK)? For example, the Sonos instructions for showing music from Windows & Rhapsody UPnP Servers:

http://www.sonos.com/support/onlineuserguide/en/sonosuserguide/dcr/Chap07_new/Music_from_UPnP_servers_-_Controller_for_Mac_or_PC.htm

[Jabs1542]

Jabs, are you certain that Sonos is actually using JRiver's library and not a bog standard networked shared folder? It would explain why transcoding via JRiver doesn't work, if Sonos is not actually using JRiver's media library.

 

How did you get Sonos to use the JRiver UPnP media server? Did you use a similar method as for connecting Sonos to a Windows UPnP media server or a Rhapsody UPnP server (which are the only two types of UPnP/DLNA media server that Sonos can use, AFAIK)? For example, the Sonos instructions for showing music from Windows & Rhapsody UPnP Servers:

Music from UPnP servers - Controller for Mac or PC

 

Try again: When using JRiver as the engine, and JRemote for control, you can push any file type (24 bit, DSD, etc.) out to your Sonos devices and they will play the music in the appropriate zone. I don't know the technicalities regarding how this works because I didn't have to do anything special. I added JRMC after I had an already running Sonos system, JRMC detected the devices as soon as I enabled DLNA so I tried to send music to a Sonos zone and it worked! That was cool, so I tried sending high res and it also worked! Then I decided to push the envelope a little further and tried DSD - and it worked! I can only assume that JRiver is down sampling the music because that last album only exists on my SAN as DSD and Sonos will not play DSD.

 

Note that Sonos, as an application, is not in this picture at all. I could not figure out a way to use the Sonos control app to make JRMC do anything (I didn't try very hard but then Sonos doesn't give you a whole lot of options).

 

"Did you use a similar method as for connecting Sonos to a Windows UPnP media server or a Rhapsody UPnP server..." No - This is exactly why I still have Sonos in my system as an active controller. I essentially have 3 separate music controllers (JRMC, Sonos, HQPlayer) all talking to the same network shared library of music files, each controller has it's own virtues.

[njetty]

Has anyone noticed the sound quality is poor when using JRemote to playback music from JRiver library directly to Sonos UPnP renderer? I can take the same 16 bit, 44.1 khz file and play it 1) From the Sonos app, connected to files directly, out to the Sonos renderer/dac. and 2) from JRemote, to JRiver and out to Sonos Rendere via UPnP. The sound quality for option 2 is much lower than option 1. This does not make any sense as there would be no need for the original FLAC file to be transcoded or worse downsampled in Option 2.

[udis]

Try again: When using JRiver as the engine, and JRemote for control, you can push any file type (24 bit, DSD, etc.) out to your Sonos devices and they will play the music in the appropriate zone. I don't know the technicalities regarding how this works because I didn't have to do anything special. I added JRMC after I had an already running Sonos system, JRMC detected the devices as soon as I enabled DLNA so I tried to send music to a Sonos zone and it worked! That was cool, so I tried sending high res and it also worked! Then I decided to push the envelope a little further and tried DSD - and it worked! I can only assume that JRiver is down sampling the music because that last album only exists on my SAN as DSD and Sonos will not play DSD.

 

Note that Sonos, as an application, is not in this picture at all. I could not figure out a way to use the Sonos control app to make JRMC do anything (I didn't try very hard but then Sonos doesn't give you a whole lot of options).

 

"Did you use a similar method as for connecting Sonos to a Windows UPnP media server or a Rhapsody UPnP server..." No - This is exactly why I still have Sonos in my system as an active controller. I essentially have 3 separate music controllers (JRMC, Sonos, HQPlayer) all talking to the same network shared library of music files, each controller has it's own virtues.

 

Any chance you can post your DLNA settings? I am trying to get this to work... no luck.