Streaming media on the radio
On your Reciva radio's Main Menu you'll find a Media Player option. This offers two distinct ways of connecting to your other networked storage devices (eg. a PC, a NAS, etc), either by Windows Shares or UPnP. Users have reported problems in activating these services - more often with Windows Shares than UPnP.
Windows Shares
Almost all the User Guides or Manuals provided with the radios give information on how to set up Windows Sharing using either XP or Mac operating systems. Users who have Vista are likely to find that Windows Shares is a hit-or-miss process. It is very much a case or trial-and-error. You can avoid many hours of frustration by switching to UPnP shares. Additionally a further complication of using Windows Shares is that it requires your PCs logged in user account to be password protected. Many home PCs and laptops have blank user passwords which will prevent this from working. The solution would be to create a password for the user account and then to allow the share to accept connections from that user and password. UPnP does not have such restrictions as the creation of the UPnP server allows networked devices (rather than users) to connect.
UPnP Servers
The simplest way to establish UPnP sharing is to install an appropriate UPnP media server on your sharing device. For example, many NAS devices come with UPnP services installed. Modern Windows PCs have Windows Media Player (WMP) installed which offers UPnP sharing - in practice, enabling this seems to be problematical depending on your specific PC network setup. Despite numerous attempts, the author (castalla) has never successfully got WMP working via UPnP although many other users have.
Windows Media Player versions 11 (Ships with Vista) and 12 (Ships with Win 7) is a UPnP server. Just configure streaming in your WMP library (should be a "stream" drop down menu in the upper left hand side on WMP12) and you should be good to go. You must also ensure that you don't have your Windows firewall blocking access.
Once you've configured WMP as your UPnP streaming server, go to your radio select Media Player > UPnP. Scan for devices. Check your PC/Laptop as it will ask you to allow your radio to access, answer yes. Your radio should find your PC/Laptop and provide you with lists of content to play.
A simpler and almost foolproof solution is to install a 3rd-party UPnP server such as ![[WWW]](http://wikispot.org/wiki/eggheadbeta/img/sycamore-www.png){kind=small}
Tversity (for Windows) or EyeConnect (for Macs). A new beta UPnP server for Windows which is extremely easy to use is Jamcast.
Once installed, you can search for the appropriate UPnP server from the radio, connect, and a listing of media files will appear on the radio for playback.
If your UPnP server is installed on a NAS, consider plugging the NAS directly into the router, rather than through a computer on your internal network, otherwise in some cases the UPnP server may not be listed on your radio.
Common Problems:
Essentially to make the system work you require the following:-
1. A PC that is visible to the radio (ie Not firewalled or at least configured to allow media packets in and out)
2. A PC that has media sharing enabled
3. A PC that has a streaming server installed (eg Windows Media Player) and configured
Most issues relate to security and/or permissions. Therefore if you are struggling to get your radio communicating with your PC then you should consider your security settings as the most likely reason. These will be a mixture of Operating System file permissions (media sharing etc) and Firewall security.
You must ensure that the Windows Firewall is not blocking the packets (try switching it off). You must ensure that no other software firewall is blocking the packets (check your Antivirus solution as it may also include a firewall, especially if it calls itself an "internet security suite").
NB Don't confuse your PC firewall with your routers firewall. Do not switch off your routers firewall as that protects your network from the outside World. References to firewalls in this article refers to software firewalls running on the PC or laptop that has the music files you wish to stream. Disabling a PC firewall on a network that sits behind a Router firewall is safe as the routers firewall will be blocking the suspect packets before they access your network. Consider that the front door. If the front door is locked there is no need to lock your internal doors.
Troubleshooting:-
Useful link: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/player/faq/sharing.mspx
Windows Vista
Does your radio show in your Windows Media Player Library ?? If so, does it show as allowed or denied ? If it doesn't show then your settings are most likely stopping the PC from seeing the radio, or you're not allowing the connection on the PC when the radio requests access the first time it tries to connect.
Check your settings in Network and Sharing Centre
You should consider having the following set:-
Network discovery on
File sharing on
Public sharing off
Printer sharing off
Password protected sharing on
Media Sharing on
You should also check whether your network is listed as public or private.
Windows 7
Windows 7 comes with Windows Media Player 12. Within WMP12, Click the "stream" arrow on the left hand side and select "automatically allow devices to play my media".
If you have created a Homegroup, check the following Control Panel > Network & Internet > Homegroup "share media with devices" > "stream my music to all devices on homegroup"