Universal Plug and Play (UPnP)
UPnP is an open protocol that allows networked devices to communicate with each other with zero configuration from user. TVedia is both a UPnP media server and a UPnP media client.
All TVedia's internal metadata description and data model are based on UPnP data schema. And as matter of fact, TVedia's data infrastructure is built on top of an extended UPnP protocol. TVedia's implementation hides all the details about server and client. To users, there is a single media collection to browse, search and access, even though there may be multiple digital media servers (TVedia based or other UPnP servers) on the home network. User settings on media files (e.g. aspect ratio, last stopped time) are also roamed across the network. The network becomes transparent to the users; there is no need to think about where a particular media file is located.
Search results from multiple UPnP servers are merged and presented as a single result list, so you don't need to know where the content is from. All search results are "live", which means updates to media collection on a UPnP server is automatically reflected on all UPnP clients without user refreshing the result. You can also choose to browse a UPnP server from Browse Files. This may be useful if the UPnP server you are connecting to doesn't support search function.
TVedia UPnP server supports both search and browse. Results are streamed to the client while it's generated, so user wait is minimized. The browse tree provides some primitive level of filtering. For example, when browse music, you can select artist first, then album, then songs. This is useful for UPnP clients that don't use search functions.
Playlists created in TVedia can contain content from multiple UPnP servers. Again, you don't need to know where the content is. It's all handled automatically, and the same playlist can be accessed from any TVedia client on the network.
Playlists, bookmarks, media playback states (e.g. last stopped time, picture rotation) can be shared using UPnP. The result is that you can access the content collection from multiple locations in your home, and still get the same experience. There is no need to configure at each client location. This functionality is a TVedia specific extension of UPnP. It's not available to other UPnP clients. And you have to run both TVedia UPnP server and client to use that.
TVedia is known to work with Roku SoundBridge, Terratec Noxon Audio and Maxtor Shared Storage Plus (NAS drive).
Roku SoundBridge M500
Roku SoundBridge M1000
Maxtor Shared Storage Plus